Beyond the Left's Fringe....

These are strange time indeed when I find myself agreeing with at least something written by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) and I'm no friends of theirs believe me! Since the rise of Corbynism the definitions of political stances has become somewhat blurred.

The CPB (M-L) wrote back in early 2017 that:

In the days leading up to the French Revolution of 1789, the National Assembly used to meet with the commoners on the left and the aristocrats on the right. From this came the terms “left wing” and “right wing”. But what was a useful description 230 years ago has turned into its opposite. In modern Britain, these terms mean nothing.

Of course for them class is the central issue which is hardly surprising given they are at heart very old fashioned Marxists. For the rest of us mere mortals notions of left and right are meaningless in an age where the main opposition party has moved from the centre left to embrace a form of "Strasserism"with a hefty dose of anti-Semitism.

While we talking about strange bedfellows the New Worker paper of the equally Stalinist New Communists Party writes:

UKRAINIAN anti-fascists sent a message of support to London demonstrators in Whitehall last week protesting at continuing British support for the fascist regime in Kiev. The early evening protest, opposite the prime minister’s resistance in Downing Street, was organised by the New Communist Party of Britain (NCP), Socialist fight, Posadists in Britain and members of Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine. NCP leader Andy Brooks and Gerry Downing from the Socialist fight movement joined other picketers in a protest that attracted considerable interest on the busy street.

I am sure that this oddball collection would have attracted attention. What a combination of the wicked and the bizarre. Stalinists, the most despised Trotskyist in the country in the form of Gerry Downing's mob, Socialist Fight and other trots who believe flying saucers come from workers planets. Don't ask. The Posadists even forgot to tell the working class their leader Posadas was dead for some years despite filling their paper with his posthumous articles. well that is unless they have managed to find a proletarian medium....

Ukraine is a fascist state according to this mob. They Defend Russia despite it neither being communist or even a degenerated workers state. They read out a statement from an "underground" Marxist organisation (Borbota/Struggle):

After the coup in February 2014 many Ukrainians began to resist the illegitimate liberal-nationalist government with weapons in their hands, forming militia units.

After the terror inflicted by the new Kiev authorities in Odessa on 2nd May, 2014, when neo-Nazi militants killed dozens of civilians, it became clear to Ukrainian society that there was no possibility of reaching any agreement with the new government peacefully. Mass resistance began in the southern and eastern regions. A civil war began. In this war, the new Ukrainian government used the army against civilians of its own country. It used heavy artillery to destroy whole villages.

A wee bit of re-writing of history there comrades. And what about the Russian invasion of Crimea. No? Don't want to talk about that fine. 

A rally for Russian Imperialism! Restore the Soviet Union? It's over comrades, wake up and smell the colonial coffee.

If you are wondering what Socialist Fight is up to whilst Gerry Downing gallavants with stalinists and UFO entusiasts their website published the thoughts of Dov Winter sole member of their Hawaiian section who will upset the NCP by describing China as (wait for it) an Imperialist country:

It is hard to let go of defending a country that Trotskyists deem progressive after it transformed and become reactionary. This is true in particular in regard to the degenerated/deformed workers state. After the successful capitalist restoration in Russia and the Eastern European countries, it took most of those who called themselves Trotskyists years to concede that capitalism has been restored in these countries. A similar process is taking place in regard to China. Some Trotskyists still consider China to be at best a semi-colony, while in reality, China has been imperialist for some time.

Comrade Dov concludes:

It is understandable that comrades want to defend what is progressive, and thus, it is difficult for them to concede that what was progressive in the past, is no longer progressive at the present. It took Socialist Fight a long time to admit that China was no longer a workers’ state. After studying the data about China, Socialist Fight and the LRCI should consider seriously whether China is an imperialist country. The objective world operates dialectically; not in stages, but in leaps and zigzags, forward and backward. That is why a degenerated or deformed workers’ state can leap backward and become capitalist. 

I hate to disillusion the comrades but the rest of the world noticed China was now a capitalist and imperialist competitor a long time ago. Some of us watch the news. Do try and keep up.

And finally lets say hello to the new kids on the block.



There has been a split in the Revolutionary Communist Group (They're the mob that sell the newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! who were expelled from the International Socialists (Socialist Workers Party) way back in 1974) but nobody seemed to know.

It seems the RCG have had some form of scandal involving sexual harassment and cover-ups by the party leadership. The breakaway group have set up shop on a new website and issued a Statement which is far too long-winded to publish in full here:

We outline the appalling way in which the RCG dealt with the recent sexual harassment scandal, pointing out both the events and responses of the RCG as well as their attempt to suppress the issue internally.

We conclude that, as is typical within the British left, the sexism present in the RCG is a result of institutional chauvinism and a complete lack of both representation and solidarity with oppressed people groups, particularly in instances when it is beneficial for the RCG to ignore such oppression.

On the 13th October 2017, the eve of the RCG’s annual 2 day national event at which all members would be in attendance, an email was sent out by the EC (the executive committee of the RCG) via the RCG email list: “A public accusation of sexual harassment has been made against AF (Manchester). The Manchester branch committee has discussed this but they should have both informed the EC immediately and sent in a written report without prompting. Such an allegation has the potential to cause serious political damage if it is not handled correctly. The EC therefore suspends AF from membership whilst an investigation takes place. This is a necessary step to protect the integrity of the organisation.

It seems that the member was reinstated with his "suspension being the only punishment" which seems to have precipitated the split.

An appendix gives a rough outline of the complaint which included:

At branch it seemed like there was a large effort to minimise what AF did for one example a comment from LB was “Yeah he got into someones bed a year ago… when he was drunk”, time since or drunk or not does not excuse these actions. Comments like this (although the situation was not rape) contribute to rape culture and I found it to be unacceptable, as well as other comments.

I was told the victim was very involved in the investigation and agreed with the decision, it turns out this was not the case at all according to her twitter account activity.

The woman who complained plus a small group of around five other people quit. They seem to have been in touch with other ex-members of the RCG but whether this group lasts is open to question.