Addressing Some Common Criticisms of The Communist Party

As a general rule, if you traverse the internet often enough you tend to come across certain criticisms over and over again, criticisms that are often left unanswered. Since joining the Communist Party of Britain, I've seen the same criticisms repeated often enough that I think they warrant addressing. The criticisms addressed below are by no means the only criticisms, just ones that I have personally seen. Some of these come from other socialists whilst others are espoused by any and all political creeds.

The Communist Party Isn't Revolutionary!

I think this might be by far the most common criticism from those who tire of parliamentary politics. It is not enough for a party to declare revolutionary intent off the bat or as part of a manifesto. Although this would indicate that the party in question intends on revolutionary means to acquire power, it does not speak to the material conditions that'd make such revolutionary action possible.

Lenin identified three conditions that are essential for revolution:

1. The first condition for revolution is that the ruling class is no longer able to rule in the way it once did. Emerging changes in society make the old means of rule redundant or ineffective, so new means of rule must be devised. The upheaval resulting from this change produces the opportunity for revolutionary conditions to arise.
   
   
2. The second condition for revolution is that the working class is no longer prepared to be ruled in the way it once was. People only begin to fight for change when the old is no longer satisfactory to them.
   
   
3. The third condition for revolution is that the working classes must have the organisation, strategy and leadership required to seize upon the revolutionary potential in society.

Let's answer these in turn, are these conditions matched in the UK?

1. The ruling class is still able to cling to power and rule in the way it always has done. Parliament remains the de facto seat of power in the UK despite the fallout from the Covid pandemic and various scandals. From these crises, however, we see the seeds of revolutionary struggle being sown.
   
   
2. Whilst there exists a general sentiment that politicians are all in it for themselves and from that a gradual decline in voter turnout and a growing anti-establishment attitude, the current system is still favoured by the majority.
   
   
3. In the UK, post-Corbyn, the labour movement is once again split. The Labour Party itself as a vehicle for delivering socialism has become unviable. Many ex-members splintered off to other parties, many into other movements and some even founded their own parties. A splintered labour movement is antithetical to winning power through revolution. The vast majority of left-wing parties remain small and divided from each other. 

So, whilst these three conditions remain unmet, revolution remains off the table, so to speak. The subtext of all three conditions is that the majority of the masses must agree collectively that revolution is the only option. It should rightly be a final, last resort if it means violence and social upheaval.

As it stands, the Communist Party prefers electoralism as a means of attaining power. It remains the most peaceful and acceptable method as far the general population is concerned.

The Communist Party is Too Attached to the Labour Party!

As Marxists, we must recognise the reality of certain material conditions regardless of how we personally feel about them. In the UK, The Labour Party is the largest opposition party although whether it is viable for delivering socialism is contingent upon what political elements the party is composed of. Between 2015 - 2019, the party had a left-wing leadership and, generally, membership, but was still broadly liberal in terms of the party machinery and the majority of the PLP. Today, the left-wing elements have largely been expunged and consigned to the backbenches.

By comparison, the Communist Party is small and has little to no political foothold in the UK, bar a few councillors. Hence, the most viable vehicle for delivering socialism in the UK remains the Labour Party when it is constituted of a left-wing leadership and a mass membership.

As a result of Labour no longer being a vehicle for delivering socialism, the Communist Party has grown considerably in size, as have other socialist parties. This is due in no small part to the class consciousness developed and cultivated by Labour circa 2015-2019. Even when a left-wing party loses, it can cause huge national growth in class consciousness as voters and members look for reasons why the party lost and stumble upon class as the driving contradiction.

The task of the Communist Party today is to build a broad left-wing alliance and spread class consciousness through various campaigns rooted in local communities. As a comrade once said, when people find out that communists are behind the drive for a better world through delivering food parcels, campaigning for the NHS or agitating for better wages, their fears about communism are almost immediately quelled. This is the first step to being able to bring around a new era of class consciousness. In my view, this should be the task of all socialist and communist parties.

But to answer the question in short, we simply recognise that the Labour Party is the largest and most viable potential vehicle for socialism in the UK. But it doesn't have to be the only one.

The Communist Party Doesn't Believe in Communism!

This is the weirdest one I've seen and it is usually a result of not understanding certain material conditions that are illustrated by the first two questions. This seems to be a favoured criticism of Trotskyists who have scant regard for Marxism and materialism.

When this criticism has not arisen as not understanding the two listed above, it tends to arise from an unchecked idealism. This idealism seems to profess communism as a very specific state of affairs that needs to be achieved and that it can be achieved quickly.

As Marx commented in the German Ideology:

"Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence."

Very basically, we have to move step by step and address contradictions if and when they arise. In the era of state-monopoly capitalism, this first means taking state power and subordinating monopoly capital to the power of the worker's state. This ends the fusion of state, finance and capital, and hence imperialism itself, but it does not end it all at once. The process is gradual, we cannot force reality to adjust to our own ideals, we must consider material conditions at every juncture and how to develop from them.

Think about what would happen if we instituted communism at once - would most people know what to do? How would they react without having money as a means of exchange? Would they know how to run their own place of work? Would there be mass panic and rioting as people suddenly realise everything is free? After all, consumerism wouldn't have been curbed, people will still be accustomed to it because there has been no cultural development that would allow curbing of such a thing. Secondly, unless communism was instituted globally and at once, you can look forward to mass counter-revolutions and unyielding war with the bourgeois class.

So, does the Communist Party believe in communism? Yes, of course we do. Be we recognise that it is still potentially hundreds of years away. What is possible now is the earliest stages of socialism - a worker's state, the fullest expansion of democracy possible including proportional representation and member-controlled political parties, better wages, and the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy such as energy, water, healthcare and public transport.

Britain Isn't Ready for Communism!

I agree! But it is ready for socialism, which Marx, Engels, Lenin and so on termed the lower transitional phase of communism. There is a near broad consensus that Britain is ready for socialism - 13 million people voted for a socialist Labour government in 2017. That in itself has resulted in a new era of burgeoning class consciousness.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that socialism in the UK is becoming more and more imperative as the contradictions of capitalism start to produce outright antagonisms.

Conclusion

Hopefully this has answered these criticisms. The long-term program of the Communist Party, Britain's Road to Socialism, can be found here. You may find that in many ways it is similar to the sort of future Labour circa 2015-2019 hoped to build.