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What's The Communist party of Great Britain all about then?

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Pete the Greek

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It's strange I post this nearly 4 years on, but when I was at the Feb 2003 anti Iraq war march, I noticed a stall for the above party in the middle of Hyde Park, and I remember thinking, " how odd, never heard of you before." Amongst other things like, "why would anyone support a party that a) died 14 years ago in its motherland, and b) was responsible for the oppression and deaths of millions.

Well I don't want to get into a war about the morals and merits of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but I would like to know more about it and I feel Urban would be a better source than Wikipedia, given the number of random lefty types you get here (no offence)

I'm all ears (eyes?)

:)
 
I gather the KKE is relatively strong in Greece. Can you tell me why as I can't be arsed to research it myself ;-)
 
Pete the Greek said:
It's strange I post this nearly 4 years on, but when I was at the Feb 2003 anti Iraq war march, I noticed a stall for the above party in the middle of Hyde Park, and I remember thinking, " how odd, never heard of you before." Amongst other things like, "why would anyone support a party that a) died 14 years ago in its motherland, and b) was responsible for the oppression and deaths of millions.

Well I don't want to get into a war about the morals and merits of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but I would like to know more about it and I feel Urban would be a better source than Wikipedia, given the number of random lefty types you get here (no offence)

I'm all ears (eyes?)

:)
Click to expand...

http://www.communist-party.org.uk/

How much oppression and how many deaths do you think capitalism is responsible for btw? (hint: being on the anti-Iraq war demo may be a clue here)
 
Pete the Greek said:
It's strange I post this nearly 4 years on, but when I was at the Feb 2003 anti Iraq war march, I noticed a stall for the above party in the middle of Hyde Park, and I remember thinking, " how odd, never heard of you before." Amongst other things like, "why would anyone support a party that a) died 14 years ago in its motherland, and b) was responsible for the oppression and deaths of millions.

Well I don't want to get into a war about the morals and merits of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but I would like to know more about it and I feel Urban would be a better source than Wikipedia, given the number of random lefty types you get here (no offence)

I'm all ears (eyes?)

:)
Click to expand...


Well, the Soviet Union came to an end in August 1991... Ideologically much sooner though. ;)

If you are on about the CPGB, which was a coming together of various socialist sects in 1920, well, that has been reduced to a provisional central committee since 1991 and does not actively recruit, as far as I am aware. Produces a newspaper called the Weekly Worker. I find it a bit silly to suggest that members of the CPGB, past and present should be responsible for the crimes committed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, even if Communist parties across the world, rightly or wrongly, were modelled along the same or similar Bolshevik lines by way of the Third International onwards.

Organisations with initials in brackets at the end of their names are much cooler. Take the Communist Party of Great Britain (M-L) for example. Bonkers admirers of Stalin, members who were either expelled or resigned from Scargill's Socialist Labour Party in 2004. Do lots of wonderful things, like keeping the Stalin Society (I kid you not) alive, and also being active in the Zimbabwe Solidarity Front, in support and defence of Mugabe's Zanu PF and his wonderful undoing of old "imperialist" social relations in Zimbabwe, taking the form of widespread land "reform".




Or do you wanna be a Maoist?
 
militant atheist said:
http://www.communist-party.org.uk/

How much oppression and how many deaths do you think capitalism is responsible for btw? (hint: being on the anti-Iraq war demo may be a clue here)
Click to expand...

The link is for the CPB, although that must have been the party the Greek saw represented on the demo. The CPGB just shit-stirs with their rag.
 
Well, I haven't read it in ages, but RESPECT membership has shrunk, and even though it is still going to be around for some time, it is dead, dragged around as an alternative which in reality has no substance behind it... It was never really there. Shows of protest, no matter how impressive they look, are empty unless there is a solid movement behind it. That demonstration and protest are expressions of a genuine movement for generalised social and political change.
 
They're splitters, but they run a very good gossip column.

They seem to be less glum, though than these splitters, who can't even get right the name of these islands and publish a small newspaper with a big reputation.

Other splitters of their kind include this very glum bunch, and them and them ("Saddam Hussein – martyr of the Iraqi resistance")and them, and I probably haven't even scratched the surface.

Speaking as a worker, I welcome the interest they take in my plight and look forward to the day when they unite and rule my world for me.

The old Communist Party is no more, of course. The inheritors of Moscow gold decided they weren't into watch-towers and fences any more and put their money into think tanks as opposed to Stalin tanks, which I think was a good thing.
 
The leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) did a Radio 4 interview in which he defended the Socialism of North Korea.
 
Pete the Greek said:
Well I don't want to get into a war about the morals and merits of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but I would like to know more about it and I feel Urban would be a better source than Wikipedia, given the number of random lefty types you get here (no offence)
Click to expand...

Assuming you are talking about the small leftist sect that adopted the name CPGB, after the old CPBG ended, I think the Wiki article looks OK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Great_Britain_(Provisional_Central_Committee)

The article mentions correctly that the grouplet was very influenced by a left-wing faction of Turkish Communism. I cannot remember the name of that faction or its (now dead) leader, but the 'Leninists', as the British grouplet was called, were very close to the that faction's Turkish supporters in London and the leader got a glowing obit in the 'CPGB's paper.

Whatever the big Turk's name was, it seems to me that he came quite close to Trotskyism, though he and the 'CPGB' have never been formally Trots. He and they complained that the Soviet Union was 'bureaucratised' and had an insufficiently revolutionary policy abroad. Unsurprisingly, the 'CPGB' ended up working with various Trot and Trottish sects, rather than with Tanky grouplets.

Though other leftists slag off the group's paper, it's a relatively well-produced rag and clearly fills a gap in the lefty paper market: it reports on the doings and sayings - the antics - of the various leftist sects and fronts. That is why members of other groups read it, while insisting that it's not worth reading.
 
Fullyplumped said:
Speaking as a worker, I welcome the interest they take in my plight and look forward to they day when they unite and rule my world for me.
Click to expand...

I don't think all Communists or indeed struggle can be brushed aside with so much generalising.

You also forgot about Reg Birch's lot, who sided with the People's Republic of China, along with Albania in the 1960's, splitting from the CPGB, and forming the Communist Party of Britian (Marxist-Leninist).
 
JHE said:
Assuming you are talking about the small leftist sect that adopted the name CPGB, after the old CPBG ended, I think the Wiki article looks OK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Great_Britain_(Provisional_Central_Committee)

The article mentions correctly that the grouplet was very influenced by a left-wing faction of Turkish Communism. I cannot remember the name of that faction or its (now dead) leader, but the 'Leninists', as the British grouplet was called, were very close to the that faction's Turkish supporters in London and the leader got a glowing obit in the 'CPGB's paper.

Whatever the big Turk's name was, it seems to me that he came quite close to Trotskyism, though he and the 'CPGB' have never been formally Trots. He and they complained that the Soviet Union was 'bureaucratised' and had an insufficiently revolutionary policy abroad. Unsurprisingly, the 'CPGB' ended up working with various Trot and Trottish sects, rather than with Tanky grouplets.

Though other leftists slag off the group's paper, it's a relatively well-produced rag and clearly fills a gap in the lefty paper market: it reports on the doings and sayings - the antics - of the various leftist sects and fronts. That is why members of other groups read it, while insisting that it's not worth reading.
Click to expand...


What is that armed Marxist-Leninist organisation banned in the EU, with Kurdish as well as Turkish members? Some of them did base themselves in London.
 
Ryazan said:
I don't think all Communists or indeed struggle can be brushed aside with so much generalising.
Click to expand...
Of course not. I respect many of them, and I sort of was one of them in the early eighties. But you will surely admit that there is a historic thread of glumness running through their activities, as well as a lot to laugh at. I remember the pomposity of CPGB conferences, and the idiocy of the RCG, for example.
Ryazan said:
You also forgot about Reg Birch's lot, who sided with the People's Republic of China, along with Albania in the 1960's, splitting from the CPGB, and forming the Communist Party of Britian (Marxist-Leninist).
Click to expand...
No I didn't forget - I never knew about them. I presume this is a different CPB M-L from the present one that admires Saddam and the Dear Leader so much. Purely cos I'm a pedant I find it hard to admire anyone who takes the word "Great" from in front of the word "Britain", though. Conversely, I would be tempted to buy the paper occasionally from a party with the courage to call itself the CPUK.

The original poster referred to the present CPGB, though. While looking for the People's Front of Judea sketch, I found this, which demonstrates that they at least have a sense of humour.
 
one interesting thing about the CPGB is they have as a member Michael Bettaney, inept ex-MI5 officer who tried (but failed) to be a Soviet spy...When released from prison, he began writing about 'security matters' without telling punters (readers) who he was to pontificate so. Possibly because he has been reported as receiving a pension from MI5--which raises the distinct possibility (in line with the tendentious articles he writes) that he is still doing a disinformation job for his old employers MI5. Hilarious! What next--Shayler as editor, Machon as National Secretary (oops, sorry that's the 9/11 Truth cult)...The methods of the CPGB currently confirm the adage--once Stalinist scum, always Stalinist scum. Or indeed super-rich Stalinist scum--national chair Anita Halpin recently inherited art works worth £20m, though rumour has it the CPGB have seen little, if any, of the dosh..
 
DrRingDing said:
*whisltes innocently*















it was a joke
Click to expand...

Never. But this thread is interesting neverthless, as it shows just how fragmented, weakened because of that, and isolated Communists are in this country. The Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore, and it's decay and falling apart has seen left poltics (and that is including non-Marxists being lumped in) generally being discredited and not taken seriously in the eyes of many ordinary people. And that isn't just about using the language of a failed ideological current that belongs to another time. Attempts at building Socialism in China have seemed to have only lead to Capitalism.
 
Larry O'Hara said:
Or indeed super-rich Stalinist scum--national chair Anita Halpin recently inherited art works worth £20m, though rumour has it the CPGB have seen little, if any, of the dosh..
Click to expand...
Ain''t that the See Pee Bee as opposed to the See Pee Gee Bee, Larry?
 
Fullyplumped said:
Of course not. I respect many of them, and I sort of was one of them in the early eighties. But you will surely admit that there is a historic thread of glumness running through their activities, as well as a lot to laugh at. I remember the pomposity of CPGB conferences, and the idiocy of the RCG, for example.
No I didn't forget - I never knew about them. I presume this is a different CPB M-L from the present one that admires Saddam and the Dear Leader so much. Purely cos I'm a pedant I find it hard to admire anyone who takes the word "Great" from in front of the word "Britain", though. Conversely, I would be tempted to buy the paper occasionally from a party with the courage to call itself the CPUK.

The original poster referred to the present CPGB, though. While looking for the People's Front of Judea sketch, I found this, which demonstrates that they at least have a sense of humour.
Click to expand...

In regard to the CPB (M-L), aren't you really on about the Communist Party of Great Britain (M-L), that I mentioned earlier? Harpal Brar's lot.

I met some Revolutionary Communist Group members in Manchester city centre this Saturday just gone. They had a small stall, drumming up support for Cuban socialists being imprisoned for long sentences by the Americans for supposed espionage. I met the same people a year previous, and despite the enthusiasm shown by the younger members present, they didn't seem serious or knowledgable. The stall I visited on Saturday had some good DVD's for sale though, among the Free Palestine badges and Mao Tse Tung postcards. I am Cuba by Mikhail Kalatazov was there. He directed one of my favourite Soviet films - The Cranes are Flying.
 
Ryazan said:
In regard to the CPB (M-L), aren't you really on about the Communist Party of Great Britain (M-L), that I mentioned earlier? Harpal Brar's lot.
Click to expand...
God knows.
Ryazan said:
I met some Revolutionary Communist Group members in Manchester city centre this Saturday just gone....
Click to expand...
I was thinking of the RCG in and around the time when General Jaruzelski took over in Poland. Mad as a box of frogs, they were, at anyone who thought that was not a good thing.
 
militant atheist said:
Nope - still pedometers. No doubt a vital tool for communist unity and the emancipation of the working class tho'.
Click to expand...
No, no, no, no, no... yes.

The Socialist Alliance was a recent attempt by lots of mainly English left groups and parties to "unite". They won a Council seat or two. As apparently happens sometimes, Militant and SWP fought each other, and the SWP took over amid "financial irregularities".

The URL I gave and which I've had bookmarked for some time now flogs pedometers which I found hugely ironic ((The British Road to Socialism). I did a Google search and found this though so maybe I just had the wrong link in my Bookmarks.
 
so can anyone tell me what the policies of the CPGB are?

I remember the bloke who stood by the stall....big fella, beard, hairy, looked like he could crush anything that moved.

I wouldn't argue with him with all the Stella in me in the world (not that i ever drink that piss anyway)

What do you people think about Harold Pinter?
 
Fullyplumped said:
No, no, no, no, no... yes.

The Socialist Alliance was a recent attempt by lots of mainly English left groups and parties to "unite". They won a Council seat or two. As apparently happens sometimes, Militant and SWP fought each other, and the SWP took over amid "financial irregularities".

The URL I gave and which I've had bookmarked for some time now flogs pedometers which I found hugely ironic ((The British Road to Socialism). I did a Google search and found this though so maybe I just had the wrong link in my Bookmarks.
Click to expand...
the SP left the SA long before any 'financial irregularities' (which were simply the misuse of signatures for checks on spending everyone agreed was legitimate), at least a year or more before. They didnt like the SWP taking it over and running it (down) according to their latest whims.
 
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