The Line of March to
a New Society
Conclusion of presentation given by a representative of
the Central Committee at the release of the Political Report to the Third
Congress of RCPB(ML) on the Work of the Central Committee. Parts
1 and 2 appeared
in Workers’ Daily Internet Edition Nos.6-7, dated January 17-18,
2000.
As we enter the 21st century, there are all sorts of
predictions about how society will develop that come from the politicians and
the media. Many of them are gloomy scenarios about how humans will become the
slaves of machines and the prey of events outside their control. This reflects
a projection of the present-day state of affairs when human beings are made
subordinate to things. Predictions such as that robots will become more
intelligent than human beings and could well control or exterminate them are
little more than a reflection that without an aim, without an overall plan for
society, anarchy and chaos are the result. They are also warnings from the
bourgeoisie that the people should become fatalistic, take no initiative in
their hands, but let the politicians and the experts take charge. There are
warnings to the people that the 21st century will be a "hard
century". In this the youth are being especially targeted, to attempt to
train them as the willing workers of the capitalists, and exist on the margins
of society. The only future that is being offered to them is of doing a job,
having a family and repeating the same for every future generation, and even
this is supposed to be uncertain.
In other words, this coming "hard century" is
supposed to be one of every competition with fellow human beings, of becoming
subordinate to those things which are absolutely out of their control.
Going into the 21st century on the basis of the "Third
Way" is to actually deny that there is an aim in society, despite the
rhetoric of Tony Blair. It is to offer no future. In fact in some ways,
although it takes us further back to 19th century values, and turning back the
clock to medievalism, it is similar to the situation a hundred years ago, at
the time of the transition from capitalism to imperialism, that saw the
reawakening in the working class movement, the demand for the workers to have
their own independent party.
Tony Blair is said to be a student of the early years of
the Labour Representation Committee which was formed in 1900. If so the lessons
he draws are the opposite of the warranted ones, because now in entering the
21st century, he is telling the workers to stay out of politics, that to have a
party of the working class is old dogma. The problem with the Labour Party was
that neither did it adopt socialism as its aim, nor did it work out an ideology
that was partisan to the working class, nor did it become independent of the
bourgeoisie in its programme and tactics. This was the situation one hundred
years ago.
Although in his New Year Message, which was delivered at
Trimdon Colliery Community Centre in County Durham, Tony Blair recalls 19th
century conservatism in his call for one-nation politics, in reality this is
only a call for social partnership, that is, that workers should unite with
their employers. This has more in common with 19th century liberalism, except
that in that case struggle between worker and capitalist, and between
capitalist and capitalist, was a given of society. In actual fact Blair also
emphasises globalisation, which throws the interests of the nation to the winds
in the interests of the international financial oligarchy, and puts all the
material and human resources of the nation at their disposal. Although he
raises the questions: who decides? who enforces? when is it legitimate to act
without unanimity? when should we use force, when not? what are the rules? he
does not answer them, except to say that no solution but a global one works and
that the 21st century must confront those questions early and find answers.
The answers that the working class has is that it has the
necessity itself to constitute the nation, it must attain political supremacy,
place the resources of the country in its hands, the resources of international
and national trade, the human and material resources of society. The
bourgeoisie has proved that today it is not concerned with the national
economy; it is concerned with making and amassing the maximum capitalist
profit. The financial oligarchy utilises the state itself so that the whole of
society is forced to pay the rich. In putting its stamp on the nation, the
working class affirms the individual and collective rights and claims of all.
The Political Report of the Central Committee to the 3rd
Congress pays particular attention to the question of hitting at the illusions
of the "Third Way". It explains that these illusions are designed to
conciliate the class struggle and points out that the essence of the
"Third Way" is to create illusions about capitalism and imperialism
and to reconcile the class struggle. At the base of the illusions is that the
crisis can be overcome within the confines of the capitalist status quo and
that its severity and the havoc that it is causing is merely a passing
phenomenon to be dealt with by some adjustment of government policies. It
points out that the particular issue with Tony Blair is that he was brought to
power as the champion of the bourgeoisie and the form that this took was
opposition to Thatcherism in order to carry Thatcherism forward. So that it is
now more than ever crucial that the working class and people of Britain unite
in a consistent programme against Tony Blair’s "Third Way". At
the same time, all serious groups and individuals should work to strengthen and
consolidate the communist and workers’ movement in Britain.
As the Party advances along its line of march, it is
important to emphasise, as the Report does, that the strengthening and
consolidation of Workers’ Weekly has prepared the conditions for
the task of increasing the tempo of the all-round organising work and of
defining new organisational tasks. The new cutting edge work is being built on
Improving the Content, Extending the Readership of Workers’
Weekly, incorporating it and not moving off in some different direction.
All the demands of the programme of the working class, Stop Paying the Rich,
Increase Investments in Social Programmes, must find and are finding their
place within the newspaper and the Party bears in mind that the newspaper is
the scaffolding for building the Party in every detail. In particular, the
paper is the scaffolding for building the Party in the heart of the working
class, for imbuing the workers with the spirit of taking hold of what belongs
to them and presenting them with the clear theory that they can take up as
their own and use their own experience to organise their peers and set their
agenda.
We are entering the 21st century in confidence that the
line of march to which the 3rd Congress has given rise will, if we do not
deviate from it, give rise to the conditions whereby the working class can lead
the people in establishing a socialist Britain. In this respect, the practical
plan the Party must adopt is outlined in the Report to the 3rd Congress. The
Report itself will become an important instrument in setting out the
perspectives for entering the 21st century, for a socialist Britain, in
organising the working class and people.
It is with this optimism in entering the new millennium,
while recognising the enormous amount of work that lies ahead, that the Central
Committee would like to announce the launching of a Millennium Project. This
project is not to depart from the plan set by the Congress but is to maximise
and accelerate it.
As we said, central to the plan set by the Congress is to
consolidate the Party on the new historical basis, and to build the Party in
the working class, establishing the newspaper as the scaffolding around which
the Party is built. To further concretise this plan, the Central Committee is
putting forward that it is to establish and build a Workers’ Resource
Centre to be centred at the Party’s National Office, John Buckle Books. We
have there a library and research resources, and this will be further developed
to assist the paper and to assist the basic organisations in their work of
building groups of writers and disseminators in the working class and other
sections of the people, but it is primarily directed at the workers. In the
course of their work, the comrades can let the Party know what their needs are
and their views on how such a Centre can be developed.
Secondly, as from this Monday, January 10, the Internet
Edition of Workers’ Weekly will become a Workers’ Daily
on a daily basis. Conditions have already been laid for this with the
daily-updated weekly edition. For a period in December, Workers’
Weekly was updated on a daily basis. This has provided the conditions for
the further advance. This is to fulfil the needs of the comrades, the working
class and people, for news and analysis on a daily basis.
Thirdly, and most importantly, the Central Committee would
like to announce a further development of our Press Project. This is to build a
fully professional publishing house with the most up-to-date digital technology
so that the printed edition of the paper becomes a paragon of excellence and
embodies all that is most modern as we enter the new millennium. Then
Workers’ Weekly will further take on its role of becoming a force
in the workers’ and communist movement and can provide direction for those
who find a converging point in their struggles in the independent programme of
the working class and in taking a step forward in defence of the rights of all.
The Publishing House will provide further facilities for those forces engaged
in these struggles.
This is a very ambitious project and requires the maximum
political mobilisation together with the comrades pledging fully their
commitment to this cause. But, as the Report "The Line of March to a New
Society" says, the Party in particular upholds that the Party members on
the one hand cannot claim to be revolutionary in words while at the same time
withholding their physical, financial and social commitment. To put it another
way, they cannot live their lives with their social culture being detached from
their politics or with political culture which is circumscribed.
So with this, I would like to issue a call to all the
comrades and friends to support this new Millennium Project, as well as to
utilise the Congress Report to the utmost in their work, use it as an
organising tool, and enter the 21st century building on the success in their
work and creating the conditions for the victory of socialism in Britain in the
21st century.
With that, I’d like to end with the slogans that the
Report ends with.
Forward into the 21st Century! For a Socialist
Britain!
Party and Class: Take Hold of What Belongs to You!
Long Live RCPB(ML)!
Workers of All Countries, Unite!
(Applause; standing ovation)
