Introduction
In this month’s editorial, we aim to update you on our activities, discussions, and wider developments. As an editorial board, we have been occupied with organising another in-person event and writing and commissioning articles.
Regarding political developments in Britain, while Reform UK grapples with an internal feud, the Labour government remains deeply unpopular, punitively stumbling from crisis to crisis. Abroad, we witness the old US order being dismantled, with Trump attacking any concessions made by past social movements. In Gaza, Israel has already collapsed any semblance of abiding by the ceasefire and has resumed its genocide, with hundreds already dead. The old world is fading, and it is our responsibility to capitalise on the demand for an alternative to Labourism and raise the red banner of communism and the social republic. Our purpose as Marxists remains unchanged: to merge socialism with the workers’ movement. One positive step towards that goal is the announcement by some like-minded comrades in Ireland to launch their publication, Horizon Magazine.
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Wrapping up the ‘What Is the Party?’ series
We will conclude our What Is The Party? series towards the end of the month. Over the past four months, we have received numerous submissions from individuals and organisations across Britain in response to our call-out: what is the party? We expect some final drafts from a few organisations and contributions that are already ready for publication. Thank you to all who have contributed.
We plan to publish our reflections on the series in the coming months, alongside the release of the series as an edited collection. Lastly, you can follow us on social media or join our mailing list here to stay updated on any future call-outs.
Recent Writings of Prometheus
We published six articles this month, most of them submissions from our What is the Party? series. As always, if you wish to write for us, please email your draft and a 250-word pitch to editors@prometheusjournal.org.
In Greens who organise, Robert Magowan discussed the new network for the left of the Green Party called Greens Organise. Magowan argues that the Greens are the only left party that has broken through the British electoral system. Greens Organise’s purpose would be to ensure the Green Party plays its role in developing a mass left movement from below whilst engaging in elections as part of a class struggle electoral strategy. Magowan argues that any other left electoral project, whatever form it takes, must account sufficiently for the presence and continued growth of the Greens.
In Democracy First, Michael Chessum argued that the organisational problems plaguing Momentum and Enough is Enough were centralisation and suspicion of internal democracy. Chessum argued against this method, which enables a “network left” of trade union bureaucracies and cliques of insiders, in favour of building our organisations so that they have more internal democracy and a multipolar culture that allows multiple internal tendencies and can properly deliberate the project of working-class self-emancipation.
In To build a workers party…you need workers, Vincent David for the Spartacist League argued that current discussion on the party focused solely on organisational questions and not the programme the left in Britain needs. David claims the reason for the fragmentation and weakness of the left is its lack of a programme that acts as a guide to action and offers their programme as an ideal one.
In Towards a new broad party?, Anti*Capitalist Resistance’s Dave Kellaway looked at the history of the Labour Party and how revolutionary Marxists oriented towards it and offered some suggestions of what a new left party should consider as must-haves, such as not being another personality-led cartel, but be accountable to its members, have caucuses for oppressed groups. Kellaway argues that the programme and policies of this new party should reflect a “broad class struggle” party and not a revolutionary Marxist one, and provided Transform’s ten principles as an ideal programme.
In Towards a Mass Communist Party, Editorial Board member Andreas Chari argued against commonly taken political dead-ends such as “going to the class” or building another broad left-labourite coalition. They argued that our only path forward is towards the mass communist party. Chari argued that relating to any non-communist party or organisation is a tactic applied in addition to communists having our party, our publications, and our electoral interventions independent of any broad formation. For Andreas, a dual problem of bureaucratic centralism and movementist liquidationism plagues the existing far-left. If we genuinely want to provide a political alternative to the existing order and combat existing social chauvinism, we need a dual path within the socialist and worker movements to build a mass political body rather than chasing whatever social movement pops up or splintering into irrelevant sects. They ultimately argued that our only way forward is winning Marxists in Britain to unite under a mass communist party and a minimum-maximum programme.
Finally, in Revolution After the End of the World, Editorial Board member Rida Vaquas argued for the continued relevance of Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas. Focusing on Luxemburg’s contributions in the fifth volume of the Complete Works, as she was experiencing nothing other than an apocalypse with the German SPD voting for the war credits and the betrayal of the leadership of the Second International. Vaquas argues that in our current times, we too can learn from Luxemburg’s hope and courage in the most hopeless situations and cultivate these virtues in the daily struggles waged by a political party.
A (Brief) Reflection on the Marxist Unity Day School
We and Talking about Socialism (TAS) hosted a ‘Marxist Unity’ Day School on February 8th in Salford. It was the first regroupment event outside London in many years. It was a success, with 40 communists inside and outside organisations in attendance. Sessions and workshops focused on partyism, barriers to Marxist Unity and exploring areas of joint activity.
Our next steps include supporting comrades across the country who are interested in hosting similar events. We will soon publish a more extended reflection in Prometheus.
Forging Communist Unity
The Forging Communist Unity (FCU) process has continued, with a faction of the Prometheus editorial board participating alongside the CPGB (PCC) and TAS. We agreed the process would begin by following the discussion structure outlined in the six-point proposal from TAS. We are currently at the first and most substantial stage of discussing the contents of a Marxist programme.
Initial discussions suggested differences around the idea of ‘agreement with’ or ‘acceptance of’ the programme, as well as wider differences around what we would want any programme emerging out of this process to look like and what is or isn’t necessary to include in it. Along with summaries from the CPGB and TAS, the faction of Prometheus also produced a brief outline of our thoughts, advancing, in particular, the case for creating a new programme through the FCU process.
The most recent FCU meeting took place in person on the 8th of March. This began with clarification that the process itself would be best served by establishing our areas of agreement/disagreement in the first instance, but that the condition of membership should be the acceptance of the programme. Discussions then proceeded around the 17 points of ‘agreement’ outlined in the TAS document. This process was approached productively with helpful clarification and understanding developed around each other’s perspectives – giving a picture of areas in which we might agree more than we thought (but, for instance, be using terminology differently), but also areas in which we acknowledge agreement may not be reached and we may have to fall back on acceptance. Important differences emerged, in particular, around the transition to communism and the place this should have in the programme, our approach to nationalism and national liberation struggles, and the question of the Soviet Union and similar states in terms of how we understand them as part of the history of the communist movement – these discussions are outlined by the Prometheus faction in more depth here.
The discussion around the Marxist programme will continue with the next FCU meeting focusing on the programme for government/minimum demands.
