Below we publish a letter from a young comrade who had the opportunity to witness revisionism in action, as Rob Griffiths of the Communist Party of Britain was invited to speak at his school.
While it is disappointing that such a rank opportunist and arch revisionist was given the opportunity to speak, it is not surprising given that the decaying husk of the CPB simultaneously presents itself as the revolutionary party of the working class while also being devoid of any revolutionary content, effectively serving the ruling class.
Bob Griffiths misleading the youth of Britain about what communism means
As the terrible events in Brussels unfold, with over 30 dead and hundreds injured, our thoughts and sympathies are with the families of those attacked. The messages shared by tens of thousands marching through London and city-centres across the country on Saturday are as relevant and necessary today as they were then.
No to war.
No to racism.
Refugees welcome here!
ISIS and imperialism use the same tactics to divide and subjugate the working classes, from Iraq and Syria to Paris, Brussels, and London. They are happy to foster ignorance and bigotry when it helps them achieve their goals, spinning events to suit their purposes. Just as ISIS cannot exist without barbarism and terror, imperialism cannot function without near-constant wars to destroy, plunder, and grease the wheels of capitalist economy.
On Sunday thousands massed in the capital to protest the housing bill which threatens secure tenancies and council homes for tens of thousands. Not only will current and future council house tenants be at high risk of becoming homeless or impoverished due to the bill, but thanks to the selling-off of social housing stock with no provision to replace them, it will drive rents and house prices up further for those already struggling to provide a home for themselves and their families.
CPGB-ML and Red Youth members attended to make the point that marches and petitions will not save our homes, that no capitalist ministers will represent the interests of the working class.
The NHS singers are a now well known and popular voice. A choir of NHS workers came together to write, perform and produce this anthem in support of the struggle to defend the NHS from the onslaught of privatisation, with the attack on pay and conditions of its staff – notably the junior doctors and nursing students – as a key component of privatisation.
Enjoy the video, and pass it on. And don’t forget to read WHY AND HOW our ruling class are planning to dismantle the NHS underneath!
Dr Bob Gill gives an excellent summary of the chief problems facing the NHS: it’s not the ‘greedy junior doctors’, or the inefficient ‘Stalinist’ model of free and universal health care.
Red Youth urges everyone to show their support for the striking Junior Doctors and the NHS itself on the 24 hour strike this Wednesday, 10 February from 8am. Map below of official pickets.
Doctors, nurses, medical students, other healthcare professionals, and members of the public took to the streets on Saturday to voice their opposition to the proposed new contracts for junior doctors, the third public demonstration against the changes. The protest started with impassioned speeches, songs, and some comedy from NHS workers and supporters, before a masked march to Downing St for a silent protest.
We send our congratulations and support to those students of Oxford University who have initiated a campaign to topple Cecil Rhodes Statue, which stands outside Oriel College, half-way up the well known university town’s High Street (pictured). Continue reading “Rhodes Must Fall!”→
Ask anybody what name they most associate with the suffragette movement and almost universally the answer will be Sylvia Pankhurst. This film for all its merits only once mentions her in passing, and then only to suggest that she didn’t really approve of what the suffragettes were doing. What explanation can there be for this distracting mystery? The answer lies in the bourgeois falsification of history, as we shall see.Continue reading “Suffragette – Where’s Sylvia Pankhurst?”→
Anti-war demonstrations against British airstrikes in Syria took place across the country on Saturday (12/12/2015), with a march in London, attended by thousands, taking place from BBC Broadcasting House to a rally outside Downing St. The anger was palpable, and rightly so. After a brief stall when Cameron’s previous attempts to openly bomb Syria were frustrated by intense opposition to constant war, a lynchpin of British imperialism, the recent terrorist atrocities in Paris were cynically used to get the green light for airstrikes in the region.
“It is very clear tonight that while the House has not passed a motion it is clear to me that the British Parliament, reflecting the views of the British people, does not want to see British military action.”
David Cameron, July 2015
With recent reports of coalition airstrikes hitting a Syrian Arab Army position in Deir ez-Zor, the real motives are as clear as ever. Despite Western heads of state openly admitting they have no hope of defeating terrorists in the region unless they work with Assad, they refuse to do so. Western airstrikes are still not being coordinated with the Syrian government and they seem to have little effect. The Russian strikes however, which are seriously pushing back ISIL/Daesh, are coordinated fully with the Syrian Arab Army.
Red Youth and CPGB-ML attended the Wigan Diggers festival on Saturday, remembering another aspect of the people’s British history, rather than the bourgeois narratives that seek to erase the rich heritage of workers in this country and abroad.
It is vital to revive the knowledge of our rebellious history and traditions in order to inform and enthuse our current working class struggle. Throughout the ages oppressed peoples have fought valiantly against their oppressors, and in victory or defeat they have left us a legacy we must continue!
The Wigan festival celebrates Gerrard Winstanley, from Wigan, and the True Levellers (known as the Diggers), a radical Protestant movement that sought to utilise common land for the benefit of the poorest elements of society, who could not survive without subsistence farming, at a time when food prices were exceptionally high. They arose during the civil war in the 17th century and presented perhaps the most radical ideology of their time.
Winstanley and the Diggers based their ideology on certain passages in the bible, which is best summarised in one of their most memorable quotes: “the Earth was made a common treasury for all”. While it was not possible for them to have developed a socialist theory on the exploitation of the peasantry and labourers at the time, as neither the material conditions nor the schools of philosophy resulting from them existed at the time, it was a noble and notable proto-socialist movement based on a philosophy of primitive agrarian communism.
Ultimately, the Diggers drew the aggression of landowners and the government, with their communities and communal property coming under violent attack from landlords before being ordered off the land by the courts, with the threat of armed reprisal if they did not comply. While the rest of British society adapted to parliamentarianism and the development of the bourgeoisie, the True Leveller movement dissipated.
The Wigan Diggers festival is a fantastic celebration of working people’s history, and Red Youth and the CPGB-ML are proud to continue to support it.
ruling class are planning to dismantle the NHS underneath!
