This statement of principles expresses the primary points of unity of the United Communists of Europe. Membership in our organisation is based on agreement with this document. We are currently drafting a much longer, programmatic document that will be published soon.
Class Struggle in Contemporary Capitalism
Around the world, the imperialists wage wars and oppress the working class everywhere. Capitalism has created a nightmare for 95% of the global population, who live in continual suffering and misery. They destroy the environment and have caused catastrophic climate change. As a result of capitalism, national minorities face racist oppression everywhere, which can take the forms of police harassment and violence, verbal abuse, exclusion from certain jobs, a lack of access to resources, homelessness, and terror. Women–both cis and trans–continue to face misogyny, sexual violence, and feminised poverty. Entire nations, such as the Palestinian and the Kurdish people, have been deprived of political rights and lack the ability to control the future of their people.
Working people everywhere struggle to get by, working long hours for low pay and sometimes having to work multiple jobs.In today's world, working class people face many difficulties that can be attributed to capitalism. Unemployment, low-wages, long working hours, inadequate housing, but also racism, sexism, transphobia, and xenophobia are all symptoms of capitalist society. Capitalist society is divided primarily by classes. The dominant class in capitalism is the capitalist class, which owns the means of production and uses the labour of working people to get a profit. What motivates the capitalist class is the limitless search for profit, which governs all their economic and political activities.
In today's capitalism, the capitalist class has a monopoly character, which means that it operates through large multinational corporations rather than small isolated firms. These large multinational corporations control most of the world's production centres (i.e. factories and workshops) and distribution centres (i.e. warehouses, transportation, etc.). They are financed by the large banks, which play a powerful role in the exploitation of labour and expansion of capitalist production. Historically, the present stage of capitalism has been referred to as monopoly capitalism.
The other major class in capitalist society is the working class, which consists of the majority of people. The working class does not own the means of production and lives through the sale of its ability to work. Working people do not have any autonomy in the workplace or individual control of the conditions of their production. They must sell their abilities, skills, and services to a capitalist in exchange for a wage in order to survive. They produce the wealth of capitalist society, yet themselves get only a small portion of this wealth. Working people produce more value in goods and services than they are compensated for, which is called surplus value. Their wage only compensates them so that they can pay their bills and get necessary goods in order to reproduce their ability to work. Historically, working class people have only improved their material conditions through a political struggle. The working class and the capitalist class share nothing in common, and exist in a perpetual state of struggle.
As the masses of people worldwide suffer from capitalism's violence, the capitalist class rakes in huge profits. They profit from imperialist wars, which provide a huge stimulus to the military industrial complex and enable the bourgeoisie to expand its domination over the world. With the "flexibilisation'' of work under the neoliberal system of accumulation, the bourgeoisie has found ways to increase the amount of value they can expropriate from working people. Working people work more so that they can get richer. Racism and national oppression creates sentiments of national hostility and racist prejudice. By using racism, the capitalist class divides the working class in order to weaken them. By putting one section of workers against another, the capitalists paralyse working people's efforts to fight back and improve the conditions of their entire class.
Imperialism and the United Front
Today's capitalism is in its imperialist stage, which means that production is heavily concentrated in the imperialist centres, capital is exported to the peripheral nations, and the world is divided into oppressor and oppressed nations. The imperialist countries are dominant in global capitalism, while the developing nations of the global South are oppressed by imperialism. In the peripheral nations, there is an internal contradiction between the comprador bourgeoisie, which is aligned with imperialism, and a domestic bourgeoisie, which seeks to become free of imperialism so that it can gain a larger piece of the surplus value. The working people of the developing world often face super-exploitation as a result of imperialist domination of their economy. They work for ultra-low wages, face a repressive state, and live in poverty. Every defeat of imperialism, even when it is lead by the domestic bourgeoisie, puts the working people of the developing world in a better position to fight for socialism. While we do not support the domestic bourgeoisie any more than the comrador bourgeoisie, we recognise that in certain conjuncture they will play a leading role in the movement against imperialism. Our central task is to win working class leadership in the anti-imperialist struggle. This is only possible on a United Front basis, where we retain our political independence while uniting with our allies in a shared struggle. Working people in the imperialist centres benefit from victories against imperialism, and therefore should make a concerted effort to organise support for anti-imperialist rebellions. One of the foremost Marxists today, Samir Amin, has concluded from this that the principle contradiction in todays capitalism is between the bourgeoisie in the imperialist centres, and the people of the developing world. The United Communists of Europe is therefore an anti-imperialist organisation as much as it is a communist organisation.
Imperialist wars force people to leave their country in search of safety and work. The domination of the global South by oligopolies drives down wages, forcing many migrants to move to Europe to gain better employment. Across Europe, the far-right (but also some centrists), spread hatred towards immigrants. Instead of exposing the bourgeoisie as the real source of unemployment and a low quality of living, the far-right blames immigrants and pushes for policies to terrorise them. Their goal is to terrorise them and make them accept whatever low-paying job is offered. Anti-immigrant politics is designed to create a passive and submission worker, who will do as they are told and accept the terms of the bosses.
The Working Class and Revolutionary Struggle
Despite living in horrendous conditions everywhere around the world, there is a force that can challenge the capitalist system and replace it with a much better, socialist one. That force is the working class and oppressed peoples, who have tremendous strength when they unite and form a strategic alliance. Working people have the power to overcome racism, transphobia, misogyny and xenophobia by uniting on the basis of class. From the moment that they put down their divisions and fight together, they are an invincible force that can take down the entire capitalist system. By forming a strategic alliance with the oppressed peoples of the global South, the working class everywhere can form a single, anti-imperialist united front against monopoly capital. When the working class takes up the demands of oppressed nations, supporting their struggles to free themselves from imperialism and taking action to benefit them, they become a mighty force that will make the bourgeoisie tremble.
The Trade Union: A Major Weapon of the Working Class
A major weapon of the working class is the trade union, which is the earliest form of working class organisation. The trade union is the first organisation in which the working class learns how to organise its struggle against their employer through a strategic plan. Trade unions are not revolutionary, but they allow the working class to discover their collective power and the strength of their class. Through strikes, factory occupations, and political mobilisations, the working class has gained a proud history of struggle. Historically, the trade union movement has been split between militant workers and class collaborationist trade union officials. The militant workers take a class struggle approach, making demands that benefit the whole working class. On the other hand, the class collaborationist union officials will accept concessions from the capitalists that only benefit the upper-strata of the working class and the material privileges of the trade union officials. Revolutionaries can unite with the advanced workers and build campaigns to expose the treason and class betrayal of the class collaborationist trade union officials.
The Capitalist State and Fascism
Capitalist society could not exist without the capitalist state. The state consists of the government and all of its ministries, the legal system, the police, and the military. The state arises due to irreconcilable class antagonisms that exist in society between the dominant class and the dominated classes. State-power is wielded by the dominant class to rule over the dominated classes and prevent them from making a revolution. An important characteristic of a capitalist society is that the capitalist class holds an exclusive monopoly on state-power. The role of the state under capitalism is a complex matter, but its essential function is as an instrument for the capitalists to rule over the working class. Without their exclusive monopoly on state-power, the capitalist class would not be able to ensure the social reproduction of capital.
Fascism is a particular political problem of the capitalist state. The United Communists of Europe applies historical materialism to understand how fascism emerges and the forms it takes by analysing specific concrete conjuncture of the class struggle. The fascist state is a critical form of state which corresponds to a political crisis. For instance, the fascist regimes of the early 20th century in Italy and Germany arose due to the political disintegration of the dominant classes, combined with a failed revolutionary breakthrough by the working class. This dual failure enabled small producers, traders, and salaried employees (the petty bourgeoisie) to act as an autonomous social force within the fascist parties. Fascism then emerged as the political organisation of the petty bourgeoisie, carrying it to power and allowing it to act as the class in charge of the state. In this capacity, it reestablished the hegemony of big monopoly capital before retreating from the scene as the fascist party itself became increasingly subordinated by both the State and capital.
It is important to emphasise that the fascist state is a specific form of exceptional state and should not be confused with other forms of the capitalist state. As Nicos Poulantzas points out, fascism is only one form of regime among other forms of the exceptional capitalist state, such as Bonapartism and various forms of military dictatorship. By understanding how fascism emerges within capitalism and the strategies it adopts, such as the appropriation of socialist language to deceive the working class, our comrades argue that we will be better placed to smash the fascists and their allies.
Fascism represents a real danger today. Across Europe, far-right movements aligned with fascism have grown and taken power: Wilders in the Netherlands, Meloni in Italy, and Orban in Hungary. Fascism represents the organised terror of capital and the bourgeoisie's fight to totally destroy the organisations of the working class. Due to the crisis of monopoly capital and a significant weakening of revolutionary socialist organisations, many layers of the petty-bourgeoisie and some workers have turned to fascist organisations.
To break the appeal of fascism, we must build a popular movement that results in a mass workers party that can mobilise millions against capital. It must reinvigorate revolutionary Marxism by creating a vibrant and dynamic culture of discussion and theoretical practice. We cannot wait for this to happen, as all the signs point to a decline of the Left around Europe. Therefore, we must join the popular movements against fascism, which involves exposing fascists wherever they try to organise, disrupting their events, and making it impossible for them to spread their poisonous ideas.
The State as the Main Site of Political Struggle
Because the state is the main instrument that the capitalist class uses to rule over capitalist society, it must be the primary site of political struggle. Although the laws and policies advanced by the capitalist class are designed to ensure social reproduction, the working class can support reforms that will benefit their class. Every democratic right that gives working people more freedom to struggle against the capitalist class should be supported by the working class. The democratic struggle is the struggle to improve capitalist society so that working people have more power to form trade unions, publicly state their views, form their own organisations, have a better material standard of living, and have more free time. Through working with progressive political parties, the working class can structurally reform capitalist society to improve its own material conditions.
Although the fight for reforms is an important part of the working class political struggle, it is inherently limited because it does not eliminate the antagonisms between the capitalist class and the working class. Often, progressive reforms may intensify these antagonisms, as the reactionary sector of the capitalist class will go on the offensive against the working class after a successful campaign. Every reform won in the democratic struggle can also be eliminated when a progressive government is defeated. Reforms also do not put an end to the symptoms of capitalism, such as racism, imperialism, wars, and poverty. The only way for the working class to ensure its victories is by making a socialist revolution. Our Road to Socialist Revolution
A socialist revolution is the seizure of state-power by the working class and the abolition of the capitalist state. Through the democratic struggle, the working class can dominate sectors of the capitalist state and win positions of influence in it. The capitalist class still holds an exclusive monopoly on state-power, but the working class can dominate sectors of the capitalist state. This generally intensifies the class contradictions, as the capitalist class will fight to become hegemonic in the sector of the state dominated by the working class. For example, the working class may exercise a strong position of power in the Ministry of Education, resulting in universal free education and progressive educational institutions. During a socialist revolution, these capitalist ministries are themselves replaced with socialist ones, under the leadership of a working class that already has experience in them. Furthermore, in socialism the working class holds an exclusive monopoly on state-power and dominates all sections of the socialist state. Every capitalist ministry is abolished, the old capitalist constitution is nullified, and the capitalist military is disbanded. In its a place, a new socialist state is built, with its own socialist government, laws, military, and security system. It is necessary to build a socialist state because the contradictions between the working class and the capitalist class continue under socialism. Without a socialist state, the working class cannot build socialism. Because class struggle continues under socialism, the working class needs a set of institutions to prevent the capitalism class from restoring capitalism. In a socialist society, the profit-motive is put to an end and the economy is planned to meet the material needs of working people. The working class puts an end to the exploitation of man by man, and creates a new society founded on justice and solidarity. In a socialist society, the working class eliminates the material basis of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and national chauvinism in order to build a society free from oppression. Historically, socialist societies have created educational programmes to educate the working class on the nature of oppression and the necessity of struggling against all of its forms. A socialist society changes the relations of production and gradually transfers the management of production to the working class. In an early stage of socialism, the means of production are publicly owned but not necessarily collectively managed. During this stage, all working people belong to a trade union and have the universal right to strike. Working people must be trained how to manage production, participate in the planning process, and be involved in socialist governance. An important function of education under socialism is to make all working class people thoughtful, critical people that take an active part of building socialism. As socialism develops, factories, offices, and farms become managed by the people who work there. The Former Transitional Socialist States
Historically, socialist countries have been most successful when they sought to revolutionise the relations of production at all its levels. In socialist countries like the Soviet Union in the 20’s, the government supported a cultural revolution to transform people into socialist subjects actively involved in socialist construction. The cultural revolution empowered the working masses to collectively participate in production, criticise political leaders they disagreed with, struggle to revolutionise education, and collectivise agriculture. The transformation of the relations of production generally encouraged a growth of economic output, stimulated technological progress, and created subjective satisfaction with socialism. As Trotsky points out, neglecting these things has generally put socialist countries on the capitalist road and resulted in their dissolution, as was the case with the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. This has historically been called revisionism, and a policy that actively struggles against it is called anti-revisionist.
We take inspiration from the former transitional socialist countries, such as the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China. We look to present-day socialist Cuba as an example of what working people can achieve when they take state-power and embark on the socialist road. The Cuban Revolution, which has been under attack for over seventy years by the imperialists, continues its long march to free not just Cuba but the oppressed peoples of the global South.
The historical experience of the Soviet Union and other socialist states (i.e. the GDR, the PRC, etc.) contain valuable lessons for the working class. Despite many contradictions these were transitional social formations that show what is possible in transitional workers' states. While they may have been on the capitalist road–as Trotsky shows–they offer valuable lessons to the working class. We think it is important to look at many sources when studying the transitional socialist countries in order to gain a clear understanding of them.
Revolutionary Marxism and the Need For a Communist Party
The revolutionary ideas of socialism are called Marxism, and have been developed by a wide-range of theorists and revolutionaries. The main theorists of revolutionary Marxism were Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. In addition to these, contributions to revolutionary theory have also been made by Leon Trotsky, Amadeo Bordiga, Fidel Castro, Mao Tse-Tung, Che Guevara, John Maclean, Louis Althusser, Alain Badiou, Ho Chi Minh and Nicos Poulantzas, . We also think the Marxist feminist ideas of Maria Mies, Kirsten Ghodsee, Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, and Heidi Hartmann are important for our organisation. Revolutionary ideas do not spontaneously arise in the working class, for the major working class organisations such as the trade unions exist to reform capitalism. Individual workers may themselves discover revolutionary ideas independently, but they cannot spontaneously become hegemonic in the working class. For this to occur, a revolutionary party is needed that can fuse revolutionary Marxism theory with the working class movement.
A revolutionary communist party concentrates revolutionary ideas into a single organisation, and disseminates them to the working class. It can do this through study groups with advanced workers, party publications, video productions, music, and other forms of media. When the advanced workers take up revolutionary Marxism, they can help to disseminate revolutionary ideas to other workers. These workers no longer only fight for reforms, but make revolutionary demands and calls for a socialist revolution. A revolutionary communist party is the general staff of the working class and provides revolutionary leadership to it. It develops a political line that encourages the growth of a revolutionary movement, which is a long-term strategy accompanied by short-term tactics. Revolutionaries strategically agitate for actions that will hurt the bourgeoisie and put the working class in a better position to fight for socialism. They involve themselves in mass organisations, actively participate in the democratic struggle, and connect every action to the long-term fight for socialism. The revolutionary party seeks to unite all who can be united in order to building a revolutionary movement lead by the working class. Who are the United Communists of Europe?
The United Communist of Europe is trying to build a revolutionary communist party to wage class struggle against the bourgeoisie across Europe. Across the European continent, there are hundreds of organisations that call themselves communist or socialist. While we respect those organisations who are seriously committed to socialist revolution, many of the communist organisations in Europe are non-revolutionary. Although they claim to be building a revolutionary vanguard party and claim fidelity to revolutionary socialism, their practice does not result in revolutionary struggle. Some, such as the Fourth International, the International Marxist Tendency, and International Socialist Alternative, follow Trotsky's mistaken transitional strategy, which presents reformist demands and participation in social democratic parties as revolutionary. Others, such as the traditional Communist Parties and other Marxist-Leninist currents, are unwilling to theoretically elaborate on Marxist theory and devote significant time to defending countries like the People's Republic of China. Their somewhat one-sided attitude and uncritical support for China prevent them from producing a genuine revolutionary strategy. There are also some new Maoist groups who follow the Peruvian communist Abimael Guzman. These so-called Marxist-Leninist-Maoist groups spend their time denouncing each other, everyone around them, and even the working class. This ultra-left sectarianism results in groups of petty-bourgeois ideologues who have no connection to working people and the oppressed. Due to the lack of a revolutionary organisation, the United Communists of Europe has taken up the difficult task of building a new communist party. Our organisation is currently only active in the Netherlands and Scotland. The Communist Organisation of Scotland represents the Scottish section, and the Communist Organisation of the Netherlands represents the Dutch section. We would like to win people to our politics across Europe in order to unite communists and concentrate our forces. Because Europe is the terrain that we inhabit, we wish to focus there. However, as proletarian internationalists, we support communists wherever they take action to unite the working class and fight the bourgeoisie. Whether in Palestine or Bangladesh, Colombia or Canada, our comrades will struggle together with our class allies wherever they may be. The United Communists of Europe operates on the basis of what is known as democratic centralism. This means that all questions related to our political line, strategy, tactics, and policy are democratically discussed in the organisation. Comrades are encouraged to offer their opinion on every pressing issue, give principled criticism when needed, and participate in the production of our political line. Once the group has reached a decision, all comrades unite in order to test it out in practice. When every comrade unites in practice, it is possible to develop a summation and determine whether it was correct. If it is correct, it disproves those who disagreed with it, while if it is incorrect, it disproves those who voted in favour of it. Democratic centralism is a way for a communist organisation to stimulate debate and discussion, and engage in practice in order to develop a revolutionary political organisation. This is a group that places a high value on both revolutionary theory and revolutionary practice. We think the study of Marxist theory is necessary in order to strengthen the theoretical basis for our political work. At the same time, we think it is crucial for revolutionaries to be involved in mass work, as this allows us to put our ideas into practice. The United Communists of Europe invites all who want to fight for a socialist revolution to join us. If you want to fight for a socialist world free of racism, national oppression, sexism, and class oppression, the United Communists of Europe is the organisation for you. Down with imperialism and the bourgeoisie!
Down with racism, transphobia, misogyny and all forms of oppression!
For the strategic alliance of the international working class and the oppressed nations of the global South! Unite the working class and build a fighting workers movement! For socialist revolution everywhere and a united socialist Europe!
Forward to a communist world!