Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)

The party's origins were in the Association of Communist Workers (ACW), formed by Harpal Brar in 1969 as a breakaway from the Revolutionary Marxist–Leninist League, itself a split from the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). The ACW joined the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), led by former miners' leader Arthur Scargill,[1] but split from it because of Scargill's refusal to accept support for North Korea and other states.[2] As a result, Scargill chose to expel a number of members of the party's central committee and its entire Yorkshire region.[3] Those expelled, along with others who resigned, founded the CPGB-ML on 3 July 2004 in London.[3][4]

The CPGB-ML adheres to Marxism–Leninism, the political theory adopted by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPGB-ML praises communist leaders such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin,[5] Mao Zedong,[6] Kim Il Sung,[7] Enver Hoxha[8] and Fidel Castro.[9]

The CPGB-ML did not condemn the 2011 England riots, but instead characterised them as a rudimentary form of anti-capitalist resistance that lacked adequate leadership and direction.[10] The CPGB-ML is opposed to immigration controls, which it holds are measures to misdirect workers and blame each other for the crisis rather than the bourgeoisie.[11]

The CPGB-ML opposes Trotskyism, social democracy, democratic socialism and what they term revisionist (including Khruschevite) parties. In 1995 former CPGB-ML chairman Harpal Brar published a book titled Social Democracy: The Enemy Within.[12]

At its 8th congress in September 2018, the party adopted a motion opposing "discrimination on grounds of race, sex or sexual proclivity" but condemning "identity politics, including LGBT ideology" as "reactionary and anti-working class", and declaring members promoting identity politics liable to expulsion.[13] The CPGB-ML have described identity politics as a "reactionary nightmare" imposed by the bourgeoisie.[14] This had led to allegations of transphobia by other organisations belonging to the British left.[15]

Part of a series on
Marxism–Leninism
Concepts Administrative-command system Aggravation of class struggle under socialism Anti-imperialism Anti-fascism Anti-revisionism Central planning Soviet-type economic planning Collective leadership Collectivization Commanding heights of the economy Cult of personality Democratic centralism Dialectical logic Dialectical materialism Foco Labour aristocracy Marxist–Leninist atheism One-party state Partiinost' People's democracy Popular front Proletarian internationalism Self-criticism Social fascism Socialism in one country Socialist patriotism Soviet Yugoslav State Socialist Theory of the productive forces Third Period Vanguardism Wars of national liberation Unified power
Variants Castroism Guevarism Ho Chi Minh Thought Hoxhaism Husakism Juche Kadarism Khrushchevism Maoism Gonzalo Thought Prachanda Path Kaysone Phomvihane Thought National Pol Potism Sankarism Socialism with Chinese characteristics Dengism Three Represents Scientific Outlook on Development Xi Jinping Thought Stalinism Titoism
People Joseph Stalin Mao Zedong Ernst Thälmann Khorloogiin Choibalsan Ehmetjan Qasim José Díaz Maurice Thorez Palmiro Togliatti Ho Chi Minh Võ Nguyên Giáp Earl Browder Nikita Khrushchev Walter Ulbricht Josip Broz Tito Mátyás Rákosi Lazar Kaganovich Georgi Dimitrov Bolesław Bierut Valko Chervenkov Klement Gottwald Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej Enver Hoxha Kaysone Phomvihane Khalid Bakdash Leonid Brezhnev Deng Xiaoping Pol Pot Nikos Zachariadis Che Guevara Fidel Castro Agostinho Neto Mengistu Haile Mariam Kim Il Sung Chin Peng Hardial Bains Sanzō Nosaka Nicolae Ceaușescu Gustáv Husák János Kádár Maurice Bishop Erich Honecker Władysław Gomułka Samora Machel Thomas Sankara Mathieu Kérékou Siad Barre Nur Muhammad Taraki Alfonso Cano Pushpa Kamal Dahal Rohana Wijeweera Abimael Guzmán Gus Hall Harpal Brar Gennady Zyuganov Xi Jinping
Theoretical works Foundations of Leninism Dialectical and Historical Materialism The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR A Critique of Soviet Economics Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism Guerrilla Warfare
History Soviet Union 1927–1953 1953–1964 1964–1982 1982–1991 Great Break Collectivization in the Soviet Union Industrialization in the Soviet Union Great Purge Spanish Civil War Great Patriotic War Greek Civil War Cold War Eastern Bloc Chinese Revolution China 1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present Korean War Cuban Revolution De-Stalinization Warsaw Pact Non-Aligned Movement Vietnam War Sino-Soviet split Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Great Leap Forward Portuguese Colonial War Black Power movement Nicaraguan Revolution Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Naxalite insurgency Communist rebellion in the Philippines Maoist insurgency in Turkey Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War Revolutions of 1989
By country Soviet Union 1927–1953 1953–1964 1964–1982 1982–1991 Great Break Collectivization in the Soviet Union Industrialization in the Soviet Union Great Purge Spanish Civil War Great Patriotic War Greek Civil War Cold War Eastern Bloc Chinese Revolution China 1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present Korean War Cuban Revolution De-Stalinization Warsaw Pact Non-Aligned Movement Vietnam War Sino-Soviet split Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Great Leap Forward Portuguese Colonial War Black Power movement Nicaraguan Revolution Cultural Revolution Prague Spring Naxalite insurgency Communist rebellion in the Philippines Maoist insurgency in Turkey Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War Revolutions of 1989
Organizations Albanian Party of Labour Comecon Comintern Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of Argentina (Extraordinary Congress) Communist Party of Brazil Communist Party of Cuba Communist Party of India Communist Party of India (Marxist) Communist Party of Kampuchea Communist Party of the Philippines Communist Party of the Russian Federation Communist Party of the Soviet Union Communist Party of Vietnam Communist Party of Malaya Indochinese Communist Party Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party Lao People's Revolutionary Party Nepal Communist Party Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Sandinista National Liberation Front Shining Path Militarized Communist Party of Peru Workers' Party of Korea Portuguese Communist Party
Related topics Bolshevism Leninism Trotskyism
See also All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Anti-communism Mass killings Cold War Crimes against humanity under Marxist–Leninist regimes Mass killings Criticism of Marxist–Leninist party rule Marxist schools of thought National Bolshevism New class Post-Marxism–Leninism Red fascism Red Scare Second Second World State capitalism State socialism State ideology of China State ideology of the Soviet Union Third-Worldism Totalitarianism
Communism portal  Politics portal  Socialism portal

Part of a series on
Stalinism
Concepts Aggravation of class struggle under socialism Anti-revisionism Collectivization Cult of personality Five-year plans Great Break Korenizatsiia Marxism–Leninism New Soviet man Popular front Self-criticism Socialism in one country Socialist realism Soviet socialist patriotism Stakhanovite Transformation of nature Vanguardism
People Joseph Stalin Yemelyan Yaroslavsky Kliment Voroshilov William Z. Foster Georgi Dimitrov Ernst Thälmann Sergo Ordzhonikidze Valerian Kuybyshev Vyacheslav Molotov Harry Pollitt Bolesław Bierut Mátyás Rákosi Walter Ulbricht Lazar Kaganovich Khorloogiin Choibalsan Andrei Zhdanov Valko Chervenkov Georgy Malenkov Nikos Zachariadis Edward Ochab Enver Hoxha Kim Il Sung Nicolae Ceauşescu Vladimir Kryuchkov Nina Andreyeva Gennady Zyuganov Aleksandr Dugin
Theoretical works Foundations of Leninism The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) Dialectical and Historical Materialism Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR Fundamentals of Marxism–Leninism
History Soviet Union 1927–1953 First five-year plan Great Break Collectivisation Industrialisation Great Purge Moscow trials Spanish Civil War World War II Soviet atomic bomb project Greek Civil War Cold War Eastern Bloc Cominform Chinese Revolution First Indochina War Korean War Doctors' plot Death and funeral of Stalin De-Stalinization 20th Congress of the Communist Party Khrushchev Thaw
Parties Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) All-Union Communist Party Bolsheviks Albanian Party of Labour Communist Party of Germany Communist Party of Greece Italian Marxist–Leninist Party CARC Party Communist Party of New Zealand Romanian Communist Party Communist Party of the Russian Federation National Bolshevik Party The Other Russia Stalin Bloc — For the USSR
Related topics Anti-Stalinist left De-Stalinization Rise of Joseph Stalin Stalin and antisemitism Stalin era Stalin Society Stalinist architecture Neo-Stalinism Anti-Soviet agitation Authoritarian socialism Comparison to Nazism Great Purge Hoxhaism Juche Maoism National Bolshevism National communism Patriotism Red fascism Sino-Albanian split Sino–Soviet split Soviet–Albanian split Tito–Stalin split Totalitarianism
Communism portal  Socialism portal  Politics portal

The CPGB-ML is involved in a number of British political movements such as Palestinian solidarity,[16] anti-austerity,[17] anti-war,[18] anti-Maidan,[19] and opposed to the use of drone strikes by the US and NATO against civilians.

The CPGB-ML holds three annual events:

• A May Day march to Trafalgar Square every year on 1 May.[20]
• An international barbecue which invites members from friendly parties, unionists, and representatives from countries the party supports, particularly North Korea and Cuba, as the barbecue is held near the anniversary of the Korean War and the storming of the Moncada Barracks.
• An October Revolution celebration of the first successful Marxist–Leninist revolution and the creation of the Soviet Union.[21]

The party was known for being the only party to carry a banner of Joseph Stalin, including a quote from Stalin, every year, until 2019, on 1 May International Workers' Day march in London.[22] The quote is from Foundations of Leninism, a book written by Stalin, saying: "Either place yourself at the mercy of capital, eke out a wretched existence as of old and sink lower and lower, or adopt a new weapon – this is the alternative imperialism puts before the vast masses of the proletariat. Imperialism brings the working class to revolution."[22][23]

The first election fought by party members was the 2018 Birmingham city council election. Three member-candidates stood under the registered label/sub-party "Birmingham Worker". Their best result was in the Balsall Heath West ward with 6.1% of the vote and third place, ahead of local Greens and the Tories. In the Brandwood & King's Heath and Stirchley wards the others gained 0.89% and 1.62%, beating the local TUSC candidate in the former.[24][25]

The CPGB-ML welcomed the founding of the Workers Party of Britain (WPB) by former Labour and Respect party MP George Galloway.[26] Many CPGB-ML members were active in the WPB. The vice-chair of the CPGB-ML Joti Brar, was also the deputy leader of the WPB.[27]

The CPGB-ML supports governments around the world which it considers to be socialist or anti-imperialist, such as those of China,[28] Venezuela,[29] Russia,[30] Cuba,[31] Zimbabwe,[32] Syria,[33] and Iran.[34] Delegations from the Chinese,[35] Cuban,[36] Venezuelan,[37] North Korean,[38] and Laotian[39] embassies have attended meetings of the CPGB-ML.

The party opposes Zionism and has called for the dissolution of the State of Israel, which it labels as an apartheid state.[40][41] It called for a defeat of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and a movement of direct action and non-cooperation among British working people in order to exert political influence.[42] It was one of many anti-war parties which opposed NATO actions in Libya and Syria and supported the governments of Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad.

In 2011, the CPGB-ML party chairman Harpal Brar visited Libya during the war to express solidarity with the Libyan people in their fight against NATO.[43] The CPGB-ML had joined the Stop the War Coalition shortly after the party's formation in 2004, but was ultimately expelled from the coalition. The CPGB-ML said that this was due to its attacks on the STWC leadership's positions on Libya and Syria, which it characterised as "pro-imperialist".[44]

The CPGB-ML's foreign policy stance includes the defence of the legacy of the late ousted President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.[45]

The CPGB-ML also supports the government of North Korea and what it called its anti-imperialist stance in April 2013, as well as its opposition to Western efforts to discourage the state from acquiring nuclear weapons.[46][47]

The party supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum.[48][49] Continuing its commitment to euroscepticism it urged its members during the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom to vote for the Brexit Party.[50]

The CPGB-ML has shown support for the yellow vests movement which it perceives as a grass-roots working-class movement opposed to capitalism and the European Union.[51] In a similar vein the party supported the Canada convoy protest in late 2021.[52]

The CPGB-ML regards the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine as a defensive war against "state-sanctioned neo-Nazis"[53] and the "spread of Western hegemony".[54]

The CPGB-ML has a few members from the early days of the British communist movement and the original CPGB.[60][61] The current Honorary President is Isabel Crook, wife of David Crook, who celebrated her 100th birthday in 2015. Both were communists who were in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and later went to work for Mao Zedong and the Chinese communists.[62][63] Veteran British communist Jack Shapiro, a veteran of the anti-revisionist movement and lifelong communist, was a member of the CPGB-ML until his death.[64]

For fourteen years, from the party's founding in 2004 until 2018, the party chairman was the retired university law lecturer, writer and businessman Harpal Brar. The party's vice-chairman and international secretary was Ella Rule, while the party's general secretary was Zane Carpenter.[65] At the 8th party congress in Birmingham in 2018 Harpal Brar stepped down as party chair and was replaced by Ella Rule. Zane Carpenter and Joti Brar became the party's vice chairs.[66]

Latvian Nazbol Beness Aijo was a member during his time living in London.[67]

Despite not being a member, the socialist politician, writer and broadcaster George Galloway has delivered multiple speeches to CPGB-ML events and conferences.[68]

• Stalin Society
• United Kingdom government austerity programme

• Official website