The central task of the United Communists of Europe is to lay the foundation for the organisation of the communist party. Through our programmatic intervention, we hope to enable revolutionaries to create new communist organisations that express the revolutionary politics of the proletariat. With our politics, which are rooted in revolutionary Marxism, we hope to provide everything that is needed to transform the working class into a politically conscious proletarian subject, with a clear vision of its needs and interests. In this article, we would like to address what constitutes the communist party and how it differs from bourgeois parties.
A bourgeois party is the political unification of the bourgeoisie on a programmatic basis in order to enact policies that advance and protect the system of capitalist property. This is made possible by the bourgeoisie's monopoly on state-power, which it uses to enforce its legislation, repress the proletariat and advance the class interests of capital. Capitalist parties operate within a bourgeois parliament, and bourgeois democracy is the most effective tool of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Parliamentary reforms that make the system more 'democratic' will never succeed in removing the dictatorship of capital, and are therefore a hollow, illusory attempt to reform the capitalist system.
Communists reject the parliamentary road to socialism, as well as participation in bourgeois governments, regardless of how 'progressive' they are. The term 'progressive' is a smokescreen to the reactionary nature of every bourgeois government. Even a left-wing, social democratic government, which passes many pro-worker laws and improves the material conditions of working people, remains bourgeois because it does not abolish the bourgeois state. While communists would not agitate against such progressive measures, we do not wish to have our name associated with them, as it only serves capital by deceiving the masses as to the tasks of the proletariat.
A communist party, therefore, is anti-parliamentary in its very nature, as it recognises the inability of winning proletarian power through participation in parliament. While it might be permissible for communists to use an election campaign to spread communist propaganda, it is impermissible to seek parliamentary power in any form. It will only enforce bourgeois illusions if a communist party wins seats in a bourgeois parliament. Those communist parties that regularly do this, such as the Communist Party of Portugal, are not necessarily bourgeois but clearly mistaken about the tasks of the proletariat. Calling them bourgeois is incorrect, although one might designate their electoralist illusions as bourgeois. These illusions, which are held by the trade union bureaucracy and spread to the workers, only reinforce electoral illusions within the proletariat and hinder the revolutionary struggle for power.
The United Communists of Europe supports leftists inside the communist parties who are agitating against parliamentary illusions. We think these communist parties should continue running in elections, but change their strategy. They should run in elections, but call for the maximal programme of socialist revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the complete abolition of capitalism. Such a programme would never get them many votes, but would be a way for them to use their existing influence to spread ideas within society.
As most communist parties around the world support parliamentary illusions, our task is to agitate for a break with parliamentarism inside them. This requires organising revolutionaries outside of the communist parties through the United Communists of Europe, which seeks to intervene by presenting the revolutionary programme of the proletariat. Our programme, which expresses the most advanced and class-conscious layers of the working class, should intervene by dividing the bourgeois reformists from the true revolutionaries in every organisation. We wish to disrupt and create a crisis for the reformist leaderships of communist parties, thereby generating thoughtful discussions among the rank-and-file membership. We have no respect for the existing 'Left', which is filled with class collaborators, social reformists, and opportunists.
The United Communists of Europe defends genuine communism and not the opportunist degradation of many 'leftists'. We distinguish ourselves from the communist parties, who in addition to being non-revolutionary, support capitalist China and have an uncritical view of countries like Cuba. Our attitude towards Cuba is the following: it is a socialist state, but it is dominated by confused bureaucratic party officials who threaten the very existence of Cuban socialism. These government officials have made Cuba heavily dependent on capitalist China, linked it with Russian capitalism, and aligned themselves with bourgeois governments in Latin America. In some ways, this was a necessity arising out of the dire circumstances that the Cuban people found themselves in as a result of the blockade and the fall of the Soviet Union. Although we think other roads might have been open for it to survive, the Cuban state was under tremendous pressure in the nineties to pass reforms that put the Cuban Revolution at risk.
Despite being a very poor country, Cuba has a progressive system of socialist planning. Working people in Cuba suffer from similar illusions to workers in capitalist countries. Petty-bourgeois small business owners blame the poverty of Cuba on Cuban socialism, while many Cuban workers hold the Communist Party of Cuba in high regard. Their enthusiasm is understandable, given the Communist Party's heroic struggle to defend the Cuban people against imperialist assaults and its unification with revolutionary movements around the world.
Our organisation unites with leftists in the Communist Party of Cuba, as well as critical communist intellectuals in Cuban society. We support those figures in the Communist Party who are agitating against bourgeois reforms, such as the reinstitution of private property, as well as those intellectuals who are encouraging Cuban workers to study Marxism and criticise their leaders. Unlike some left-communist and Trotskyist organisations, which view Cuba as capitalist or a degenerated workers state, we remain optimistic about the continuation of the Cuban revolution. In line with many Trotskyists, we think the fate of Cuban socialism is bound up with revolutionary movements in the region and the wider world. Until a socialist revolution removes the capitalists from power in the advanced capitalist centres, it will be very difficult for Cuba to progress and the Cuban Revolution will perpetually be at risk.
By calling Cuba 'socialist', we do not intend to spread the illusion that Cuba is building socialism or that it is particularly progressive. It is not possible to build socialism in a single country, as the construction of socialism is bound up with the world revolution and international struggle against capital. It is possible, however, for a country like Cuba or the former Soviet Union to enact socialist measures, which directly strengthen the proletariat and enable it to confront capital. The designation of 'socialism' here stands for 'transitional workers states', which indicates a revolutionary working class party holds power and that the potential for its expansion remains a possibility. This potential will only be fully unleashed when the international proletariat intervenes by making revolution in a number of states and eventually abolished capitalism everywhere. Unlike Stalinist organisations, which publish booklets of the wonders of socialist Cuba, we have no illusions about the conditions that Cuba faces. It is materially underdeveloped, its people do not have a high standard of living, and it is led by bureaucratic leaders who have somewhat given up on the world revolution. Despite this, Cuban socialism will be regenerated when a revolutionary movement breaks out anywhere in the respective regions.
The United Communists of Europe distinguishes itself from the opportunists who lead many Trotskyist and Stalinist organizations, as we stand for the revolutionary seizure of power by the proletariat through the programmatic intervention of the communist party. Our attitude towards the 'Left'--Trotskyist, Stalinist and others calling themselves communist–is to unite with those elements who are unhappy with the opportunist degeneration of their organisations and to provide them with the tools to wage a struggle against their bureaucratic leaders. We do not wish to split these organisations, but to equip its genuine communist militants to combat the opportunist direction taken by their leadership. Whether this is the Mandelite Fourth International, the Stalinist parties such as the Communist Party of Portugal, or the Scottish Socialist Party, we think there are communists everywhere desperate for a revolutionary programme. Furthermore, the United Communists of Europe stands with leftists in socialist Cuba and joins their struggle to put their organisations back on a revolutionary road. Wherever there are genuine communists, we welcome them and hope that they will take up our programme.
We think that there is no parliamentary road to socialism, and that a revolutionary intervention by the communist party is necessary to put the working class in power. Only through the party does the working class become a political subject and can it go beyond reforms to the capitalist system. The party is the highest expression of class consciousness, without which it is nothing more than an objective social class within capitalist society. A working class without a communist party is incapable of advancing as a class. It might fight for some reforms through its unions, but it will never succeed in putting an end to capitalism. This is why the United Communists of Europe think it is a central task of communists everywhere to lay the foundation for a revolutionary communist party. We can only do this through the production of a communist programme, which expresses the class independence of the proletariat and shows the road forward to communism. Forward to communism!
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