The rhetoric utilised by many members of the NCP Is indeed leftist. Some of their contributions in Comment before they left the CPGB contain attacks on the New Draft of the British Road to Socialism for being "social-democratic" for being *too short on coercion and too free with liberalism' and so on. Sid French stands up public meetings and defends the "dictatorship of the proletariat".
However if we examine the positions of NCPleaders and contrast them with The 1977 draft preserves a certain clementary continuity from its 1951 parent on most questions including the possibility of a gradual, son-violent transfer of power. Where there is a shift of emphasis, naturally unstated, is in what actually lay behind the 1951 draft - the USSR and the Red Army.
It was the veteran CP historian, James Klugman, who gave the game away in a discussion text in Comment when be explained that the model for BRIAN GROGAN examines the politics of the NCP and the extent of its differences with its parent those of the present CPB leadership, we do not find that wide a gulf on fundamental questions of principle, Where there are important differences liberation democratic rights in the USSR and Eastern Europe - the NCP is to the right of the CPGB.
The NCP defends the 'revolutionary' draft of 1951 against the 'reformist" draft of 1973. But the difference 1951 and 1977 drafts cannot be counterposed as being between reform and revolution.
THE BRITISH ROAD TO SOCIALISM -[1951 versus 1977] the 1951 programme was the "people's democracies' of Eastern Europe. In other words the model was a bureaucratic seizure of power hacked ultimarely by the military strength of the Soviet Union. Naturally this could not be stated in so many words, but was generally understood within the party (after all the take-over in Czechoslovakia in 1948 was not preceded by a civil war!).
For French and the NCP of tr by the people revolution Thas there exists development of the growing attacks on the USSR and the explicit reformism in the pro grammes of the "Euro' CPs implies that they have rejected the Czech model.
For the CPCB the implicit abandonment of that model impeis them to move closer and closer to left socialand democratic positions thus bringing into question the independent existence of a small communist party.
What both French and the CPGB ignore is the struggle for soviets -popular councils of workers and other layers of the population whose very existence challenges the structures of bourgeois domination. For the CPGB the struggle for soviet-type institutions implies an 'insurrectional" approach modelled on October 1917 since it assumes not merely a show of strength, but a test of strength at some stage. They reject such an approach and in so doing embrace a new spocies of reformism.
French's alternative remains the model of the 'people's democracies', a bureaucratic monolithic model which sees soviets as supertious because they impinge on the role of the party. For French, socialism equals the party plus Soviet military power. That is why the link with Moscow is vital for the the NCP. It is not merely a question of without af the proletariat .... toda lities of advance fo Socialism in Britaia also, sew ways in which power can be removed from the hands of the capitalist class .... HARRY POLLIT Looking Abend, 1947, (pp88-89)
ideology or nostalgin.
On Violence The critique of the CPB's "pacifism' gives the NCP its most left-sounding phraseology. They say: !... a penceful road is infinitely more prejerable to a violent road and must be striven for, bur cap road should project the concept of coercion to force through the chonge ...' Bur this misses the basic POJEE The real question is the following: how can we create the most favourable conditions to minimise the amount of bloodshed and loss of life? It is primarily by arming the masses politicall so that they are capable of resisting by force when the need arises. This necessitates the struggle lor с wine are seen py c was i their organs of power.
In other words the NCP constantly underestimates the independent political capacity of the working class. From this flows the bureaucratic and semiputchist logic of its positions. The idea that the 1951 draft bad intrinsically better positions than the 1977 drail is a nonsense as can be seen in the quotations from it winch we reproduce elsewhere on these pages, On Immediate and Transitional Demands On the immediate tasks facing the working class in Britain, the supporters of the NCP are, at least so far. silent. Despite all their talk of interconnecting of the struggle for democracy with the struggle for socialism' they fail to provide any explanation of how the struggle for immediate demands con be linked to the strugale for socialism and workers power. Thus they will find it difficult to discinguish porats retical. the article expintand the socialist forces new possibilities those followed to see bow the further 3293 soviet-type Peopl people The of ain parlia polic well themselves fr bines general r day basis On Internati The NCP mak ing the ideal nationalism'. providing just and turns of They will Jig wherever ана The July 10th Or Sunday 10 July, the ceptrol ersan of the Communis Port of the Sivier Disco, Proda, citied a taior article, on Humo coutnitina. The arise mode no enbon whatsoever af the racegy of Frich malias or Sparish Content Parie bobatied of the united nupones of ties co the New Tirls puse ou Surdase.
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Rhodesian Prime Minister lan Smith last week called a general election to give himself a mandate to redraw the compensation sliding scale of bribery.
The Lund 3 aso known De an it were, R SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 29 July 1977 p.10
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Britain (CPGB]. organisation.
THE NEW COMMUNIST PARTY [NCP] led by Sid French has sought to present itself as a left wing breakaway from the Communist Party of Great
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