2012 Party Campaign Plan

The following text is taken from the introduction to this year's party campaign plan
COMMUNIST PARTY CAMPAIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2012

1. The Communist Party's central objective in the current period remains that of turning the financial and economic crisis of capitalism into a political crisis for the Con-Dem government and the ruling class. In the course of this struggle, it is likely that deeper questions would be raised within the working class and progressive movements about relations between the battle for reforms, political representation of the working class and the fight for state power.
2. Our strategy is to build a broad, democratic, popular anti-monopoly alliance aimed at the big capitalist monopolies and the British state power which promotes their interests. Such an alliance would have to be firmly based on the leading role of the organised working class, developing its power and winning recognition by trade unions, campaigning organisations and local communities of the class nature of the crisis. It also demands that divisions within the working class are overcome, notably between public and private sector workers, the employed and unemployed, men and women workers, workers in the regions and nations of Britain and between those of different national or ethnic origin, while also combating false-consciousness notions of 'Middle England', the so-called 'squeezed middle' and who is or not 'middle class'. We need tactics and slogans which emphasise collective interests and the common enemy, for working class and people's unity against the Con-Dem government and monopoly capital.
3. The significance of the international context of the crisis and the ruling class responses has been confirmed by developments in the Eurozone. The Communist Party will ensure that the monopoly capitalist character of the European Union, its treaties and institutions (notably the EU Commission and Central Bank) in promoting and enforcing austerity, bailout and privatisation policies, features in the anti-cuts campaign in Britain. We will raise the left, progressive, democratic and working class case for British withdrawal from the EU, which is fundamentally different from British nationalist arguments intended to defend finance capital in the City of London.
4. Challenging the Con-Dem government and its monopoly capitalist policies, and building the necessary alliances, will help clarify and sharpen perspectives in the labour movement and inside the Labour Party. Of necessity, the trade unions have chosen the issue of public section pensions as the basis for launching and coordinating industrial action. This issue needs to be located and projected in the wider context of pensions generally, public services, living standards, quality of life and social justice in order to secure wide sections of public opinion. At a more strategic and ideological level, some advance has been made within the trade unions reflected, for example, in the adoption of the Alternative Economic Strategy and foreign policy resolutions at the 2011 TUC. But there is not yet a clear strategy for taking forward the anti-austerity struggle and projecting an alternative left-wing programme. This underlines the need to bring the People's Charter to the fore in the anti-cuts movement and to win a significant increase in occasional and daily sales for the Morning Star.
5. Similarly, while Labour Party policy has moved a little more towards a social-democratic position, the leadership is not yet giving any significant support to the trade unions in struggle, or projecting a clear left alternative to Con-Dem policies. This underlines the need for the labour movement to take forward the fight to reclaim or re-establish its mass party of labour. Again, increased support of every kind for the Morning Star will contribute substantially to advances on these different but inter-related fronts. At the same time, full advantage must be taken of establishing and strengthening the Communist Party's links locally and nationally with the Labour left in the CLPs, affiliated unions and on elected bodies. In particular, we should ensure that the battle against the cuts in local communities is taken into the Labour Party whereby, with trade union support, the base can be broadened for principled resistance to the cuts.
6. The degree to which the Communist Party exercises influence and guidance in this process will determine how the movement develops beyond mass demonstrations, expanding its organisational and ideological capacity for the next phase of the political struggle against the cuts: to bring down the Con-Dem government and its programme, for which nobody voted, and prepare the ground for a government of the left. Promoting Britain's Road to Socialism will form an essential aspect of our work in the wider movement, to be carried out in ways that inform and help educate the movement, not divide it. Our perspectives require the Communist Party to increase its membership through recruitment and develop its cadre force through a systematic programme of Marxist-Leninist education, leading to renewed commitment of members to disciplined Party activity. A section on recruitment through activity is therefore included in this plan, while proposals for political education will feature in a separate report.
7. The promotion of the Communist Party needs to be seen within the Party and in the wider movement as an approach which strengthens the labour movement, unifies the left as far as possible around common policies and priorities, and helps to develop a clear 'line of march' for the working class and its allies. In this process, in the context of growing class struggle and politicisation, we will win wider support for our strategic perspectives including the need for the labour movement's mass party. As our 51st congress made clear, the Communist Party does not place preconditions on cooperation and united struggle on the left and in the labour movement, whether on Labour social democrats or the non-Labour left.

The full plan includes details on:

• Key campaigning dates for 2012
• Our work in the trade union movement
• Mobilizing the voice of the left in the anti-EU struggle
• The importance and priority of representing the roles, activities and real needs of women
• Anti-racist and anti-fascist work
• Local elections
• Youth and student work and recruitment
• Raising the struggle in the countryside and rural communities
• International priorities
• Promoting the Morning Star
• Building the Party
• Promoting Britain's Road to Socialism

Party members should contact their branch secretary for a full copy of the plan, or email southwest@communist-party.org.uk
Visit www.southwestcommunists.org.uk for more information