The re-election of a Torygovernment means that theruling class offensive will nowbe stepped up on every front,to concentrate yet morewealth and power in the handsof monopoly capital centredon the City of London.

We know already that theTories will attack the welfarebenefits of the working poor,the unemployed, the sick andthe disabled as never before.

Public services will continue tobe slashed or privatised, with afresh rash of publicly subsidised‘free schools’ and academiesdestroying whole swathes of localauthority and comprehensiveeducation across England.

Local government funding willbe sliced to the bone, exceptwhere councils take the Osborneshilling and hand over theircollective decision making powersto a provincial governor, an all-

powerful mayor whose electioncan be more easily influenced bythe right-wing gutter press.

And this will itself be only oneaspect of an all-round attack ondemocratic rights to make ‘Britainplc’ a wholly owned and controlledsubsidiary of City of Londonbanks, hedge funds and privateequity capitalists.

>>

Communist Party

Mobilise against the ruling class offensive!Rebuild the working classmovement. Oppose the EUfrom the left. Renew andstrengthen the Communist Party.

unity!

This statement was endorsed bythe Communist Party executivecommittee on May 16, 2015,following discussion of the politicalreport delivered by CommunistParty general secretary RobertGriffiths

EXTRA

While the Communist Partysees nothing progressive in religiousfundamentalism and condemns theinhuman, anti-women, sectarianbarbarism of movements such asIslamic State, we do not trust theTories not to turn sweeping new‘anti-subversion’ and ‘anti-terrorism’ powers against thosewho, like us, fight for the overthrowof capitalism by the mass of thepeople.

The British state has all thepowers and resources necessary tomonitor and deal with those whopursue their religious or politicalobjectives through the massmurder of innocent civilians.

Indeed, recent history confirmsthat all too often it is the peoplewho need whatever protection canbe secured, within and outside thelaw, against the arbitrary andoppressive use of state power.

To the extent that the HumanRights Act offers such protection, itmust be defended against Toryplans to replace it with a Bill ofRights which will contain anti-progressive provisions reflecting thepolitical balance of forces in ToryBritain today, rather than when theCouncil of Europe drew up itsframework, the EuropeanConvention on Human Rights,following the defeat of NaziGermany.

When the Tories talk of humanor individual rights and so-called‘British values’, they mean above allthe right to own property, to profitfrom the exploitation of labourthrough capital, to enjoy unearnedwealth and privilege and to pass onsuch inequality to futuregenerations.

That is why another new policyof this Tory government will be torestrict employment rights stillfurther, making it even easier foremployers to sack workers and tobreak strikes with agency labour.The Tories intend to launch abarrage of anti-trade union laws,including additional limits on theright to strike, imposing thresholdsthat would make industrial actionsupported by a clear majority ofworkers in, say, a 70 per centturnout, illegal.

In fact, the Tory governmentfails one of its own tests in thisregard, having won the votes ofonly 24 per cent of the electorate,instead of the 40 per cent to bedemanded of workers in a strikeballot. Eleven members of the newCabinet also fail this particular test,including Business Secretary SajidJavid, who announced this latest

attack on workers’ rights on thesame morning that Prime MinisterCameron told his ministers that theConservatives were ‘the real partyof working people’.

That, of course, is a bit richcoming from the leader of the partyof the bankers, spivs, speculators,tax dodgers, landowners andlandlords.

Which raises the question: howcould such a party win a GeneralElection, especially after five yearsof anti-working class austerity andprivatisation?

Assessing theelection

We should approach theanswers with a sense ofproportion. To believe widesections of Britain’s mass media,one might think that the mass ofthe people had endorsed the Toriesand their manifesto, while rejectingLabour and its policies – not leastbecause the Labour Party hadsupposedly moved ‘too far to theleft’.

In particular, it might appear,Labour has been comprehensivelyrejected by the people of England.

Let’s take these myths in turn.Only 37 per cent of votersplumped for the Tories. That’s just24 per cent of all those on theelectoral register and 21 per cent –barely one in five – of the adultpopulation.

While the Tories gained 24 netseats on May 7, their share of thevote rose by just half of the Labourincrease of 1.5 percentage points.In England, the Tory vote increasedby 1.4 percentage points, whereasLabour’s actually rose by 3.6 –more than twice as much.

So, compared with five yearsago, the Labour vote advancedmore in England and Britain overallthan that of the Tories.

But Cameron & Co. gainedmore seats, and enough to form anoverall majority, because of (1) thedistribution of the votes, withLabour doing best in English andWelsh seats which it alreadycontrolled; (2) the impact of UKIPand Green Party advances in keymarginal seats that Labour neededto win – but where working classelectors have turned away from aLabour Party that does not clearlyrepresent their fundamentalinterests; (3) a swing to the Toriesin English seats previously held bythe LibDems; and (4) Labour’seclipse by the SNP in Scotland.

No system of ProportionalRepresentation would haveprevented the return of a right-wing government on May 7, norwould PR be guaranteed to do so in2020 without the fall of UKIP.Nevertheless, the Communist Partywill continue to advocate the SingleTransferable Vote in multi-memberconstituencies, which combines fairrepresentation with localaccountability (especially alongsidea genuine right of recall for electorsover their MP).

A deeper, more significant factorin Labour’s defeat is the reality thatsome 14 per cent of adults inBritain are not registered to vote,while another 29 per cent areregistered but choose not to vote.This means that 43 per cent ofpeople abstain from the electoralstruggle – most of them workingclass, young, unemployed,immigrants and/or in rentedaccommodation.

What an indictment of whatLenin described as a ‘democracy ofthe moneybags’, in which politicalrepresentation is corrupted andnarrowed by big business moneyand its right-wing gutter press!

Certainly, there is no objectiveevidence to indicate that Labour’smildly progressive policies toincrease taxation on the wealthyand the banks, freeze energy prices,lift the minimum wage and abolishzero-hour contracts repulsed largenumbers of electors. Although anti-immigration sentiment was a factorin Labour losing votes to UKIP and,to a lesser extent, to the Tories,this was less important to votersthan health, the economy andeducation – in that order –according to the opinion polls.

On health, Labour washampered in its attack onprivatisation, the NHS funding crisisand PFI because the last Labourgovernment had opened the doorwider to all three.

On the economy, Labour’sfailure – over years – to campaignagainst the banks, tax havens,‘quantitative easing’ and austerity infavour of public services, selectivepublic ownership and rebalancing amodernised economy, made iteasier for the Tories and massmedia to pin the unwarranted labelof business-hating incompetence onMiliband and Balls.

On the SNP, the decision by themajority of Scottish Labour MPs,MSPs and party members, togetherwith some unions, to elect Trident-lovin’, cuts-lovin’, devo-hatin’ JimMurphy as their leader has proved

catastrophic. Giving such a gift to the SNP

meant that nationalist advance inthe opinion polls could then beused to create another factor infavour of a Tory victory – fear ofthe SNP using its influence on aminority Labour government to winfavours for Scotland at the expenseof England.

Bolder policiesLabour’s only hope of a revival

in Scotland is not only theimmediate replacement of Murphyby a leader from the left, but also –as in England and Wales – a decisiveturn to left and progressive policieson major economic, social,environmental and internationalquestions.

This must include coming outclearly in favour of a federal Britain,with equal status between itsconstituent nations and powerful,directly elected regional assembliesin England where demand exists.And based not on a devolution ofresponsibility for imposing fiscalausterity, but on policies toredistribute wealth across all theregions and nations of Britain, fromthe monopoly capitalist class to theworking class and the mass of thepeople.

It must also include bold policiesto diversify media ownership, tobreak up the monopolies whichdominate the print media in Britainand – with their lies, distortions,character assassinations andoverwhelmingly right-wing bias –make rational political debate withinan informed electorate all butimpossible

Such policies will only be wonthrough united struggle, led by thelabour movement in a popular,democratic, anti-monopoly allianceof forces.

Communists andelections

The Communist Party’s GeneralElection campaign to project thisperspective and these policies wasbigger and bolder than at any timesince we re-established the party in1988. Our nine parliamentarycandidates and their supporters,together with comrades whofought in local elections, should becongratulated on their tremendousefforts. In our council contests, theCP share of the poll variedbetween 2 per cent and 11 percent.

At the same time, we should beself-critical that we did not make abigger contribution as a party to thehuge political struggle that has justtaken place on the electoral front,raising the vital questions,projecting the Communist Partyand socialism, building andstrengthening our alliances inworking class communities.

We should now publish a fullillustrated report of our campaign,so that many more Party membersare clear about the reasons whywider Communist Partyparticipation in elections reinforcesand enhances our engagement inextra-parliamentary struggle.

All Party branches are instructedto contest the May 5 2016 local andregional elections in England,complementing a major effort inthe Scottish Parliament andNational Assembly of Waleselections.

No toparliamentaryfatalism!

The result on May 7 leaves thelabour and progressive movements– and within them the CommunistParty – with a number of strategicpriorities and tasks over the comingperiod.

They flow from a perspectivewhich rejects the self-defeatingnotion that five years of rhetoricalopposition to Tory policies,combined with a superficialmakeover in matters ofpresentation and leadership, andeven a turn to the right, will delivera Labour victory in 2020.

It will not – especially after theTories preside over a change inelectoral boundaries that could costLabour at least 20 seats.

Instead of such parliamentaryfatalism, the Communist Party laysout its perspectives on the basis ofmass, class struggle in the interestsof the working class, democracy,peace and the future of our planet.

The objective should be to drivethis government out of office, tospare millions of people a full fiveyears of misery.

This is not an impossibleprospect: Britain’s economicrecovery is fragile, based on debtand inflated values, dogged by lowinvestment, low productivity andhigh imports.

Tory divisions over theEuropean Union will come to thefore as a referendum approaches.However, Labour will only be able

to take full advantage of thesedivisions if it has switched tosupporting popular sovereignty anda referendum, and so is no longeralongside the Tory government, theCity and big business in backingBritain’s membership of themonopoly capitalist and militaristEU.

Strategic tasksOur strategic perspectives and

priorities are that:

1Working class organisation mustbe rebuilt in workplaces and

local communities, among theunemployed and housing tenants,strengthening trades unions andtrades councils.

2Workers and the trades unionsmust be won to a united

campaign against new and existinganti-trade union laws, backing theCampaign for Trade UnionFreedom and being prepared totake unofficial action wherenecessary in order to expose andfrustrate Tory and ruling classstrategy.

3The People’s Assembly must bedeveloped at every level and in

every part of Britain as a broad-based militant mass movementagainst austerity and privatisation,for the left and progressivealternative set out in the People’sManifesto, with the trade unionmovement playing a central andleading role in its organisation andactivities.

4Based on its extensive tradeunion support, the National

Assembly of Women should bebuilt at local, regional and nationallevels to draw many more womeninto campaigning against welfarecuts, privatisation and nuclearweapons; and in support of decentbenefits, public services, the NHSand peace.

5The labour movement mustfulfil its responsibility to reclaim

the Labour Party as a mass partywhose policies represent theinterests of the working class, orfailing significant progress by theLabour Party conference in 2016 atthe latest, to begin taking the stepsnecessary to re-establish a genuinemass party of labour.

6In the meantime, in order tostrengthen the fight to reclaim

the Labour Party, trades unionsshould consider forming a tradeunion party affiliated to Labour

which campaigns for left andprogressive policies in the interestsof the working class and peoplegenerally.

7. Within the labour movementand across the left, the

arguments must be put in favour ofprogressive federalism for theregions and nations of Britain; forworking class and people’s unity inthe fight against British state-monopoly capitalism, reactionarynationalism and racism.

8CND and its affiliated bodies inScotland and Wales should be

reinvigorated and expanded as avital part of the struggle to defeatplans to renew Britain’s nuclearweapons system. A relaunchedBritish Peace Assembly will helpinfuse the peace movement with anessential anti-imperialist outlook.

9Socialists, Communists andtrade unionists and their

organisations must urgentlyconsider how to construct acampaigning alliance to project thedemocratic, working class andinternationalist case against the EU,and for British withdrawal, in theperiod up to the proposedreferendum in 2017.

10Greater understandingneeds to be won in the trade

union and progressive movements,including in the People’s Assembly,of the role of the Morning Star asthe daily newspaper of the labourmovement which informs, inspiresand helps mobilise people instruggle.

Communistrenewal

As for the Communist Party, weurgently need to enhance our roleand work as the Marxist party ofthe labour and anti-imperialistmovements. To equip us effectivelyfor the challenges ahead, there willhave to be a process of communistrenewal – driven by Marxist-Leninist education, training andleading by example – to help ensurethe development of a party that ispolitically advanced, militant, well-organised and united on the basisof democratic participation andself-discipline.

Designing, leading and guidingsuch a process must be a toppriority for the EC and its politicaland organisation committees overthe period to our 54th congress in2016.

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COMMUNIST PARTY

THE DESIRE for a futurebased on peace, co-operation, community,

solidarity and common wealthhas long inspired our people.

The Communist Party continuesthat living, revolutionary tradition.Our party is a product, first andforemost, of the British labourmovement. Its roots lie deep inBritain’s trade unions, socialistsocieties and other working classorganisations.

In the 1920s and 30s theCommunist Party led the fightagainst unemplyment and fascism.During the war it led the battle forproduction in the factories and fora Second Front to defeat the Nazis.In the post war years it foughtagainst US and British imperialism,against the Cold War, for peace,against apartheid and in solidaritywith the liberation movements inthe colonies.

It contribted decisiiveley to thedefeat of Labour and Tory.anti-trade union laws.

The communist-led LiaisonCommittee for the Defence ofTrade Unions united workers inmass one-day stoppages in 1968,1970 and 1971. The last of thesemoved the TUC to call a one-dayGeneral Strike, thereby defeatingthe legislation. PowerfulCommunist and broad leftorganisations were built in many

workplaces and unions.These very successes of the

Communist Party made it aparticular target of the capitalistclass. In recent years, the party hasworked tirelessly to rebuildmembership and organisation intrades unions and mass movementsalongside many socialists andothers.

What is distinctive about theCommunist Party? It is the Marxistanalysis of the dominant structuresand ideas of society combined withdeep roots in the working class andits connection with a world widemovement for revolutionarychange.

Trans-national corporations –acting through internationalinstitutions such as the EuropeanUnion, the International MonetaryFund, the World TradeOrganisation, the World Bank andNATO ensure the rich get richer asbillions of people go withoutadequate food, shelter, clean wateror health and education services.

The need for popular resistanceand class struggle, for liberationand for the working class to takestate power is as great as ever. Butthis requires theory as well aspractice, organisation as well aseducation.

Communist organise forworking class power, for equalityand liberation – to make adifference.

Join us! H

If not you, who?If not now, when?

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MORNING STAR

by Ben Chacko

WHEN THE first DailyWorker rolled off the pressesin 1930, Britain was reelingfrom the Great Depression.

Working people faced soaringunemployment and hunger.Politicians and the monopolymedia demanded savage cuts towages and public spending in the

name ofbalancing the books. Soundfamiliar?

The Daily Worker was foundedto counter that narrative, toprovide a voice for the millionsand not the millionaires.

On its first day a reporterphoned from the Daily Herald toask if it would come out again aday later. Eighty-five years on, ourname may have changed - we'vebeen the Morning Star since 1966 -but we're still here and still true tothat mission.

The Star is a co-operative - theonly co-operatively ownednational daily in the country. Thatmeans we answer only to ourreaders, not to some tax-dodgingnon-dom press baron.

Eleven trade union

organisations are represented onour elected managementcommittee. 

We remain the authentic voiceof working people in struggle -reporting on the stories the restof the press won't touch, whetherthat was last year's People's Marchfor the NHS, the battle ofLondon's Focus E15 mums foraffordable housing in the capitalor, most recently, the election

stories and candidates the restof the media censored.

We're the only paper tostand shoulder to shoulderwith the trade unionmovement, backing workerstaking industrial action tosecure the pay and conditionsthey deserve.

And we're the only paperto expose the lies andpropaganda of the rulingclass, opposing imperialismand fighting for peace andsocialism across the world.

The Morning Star isproud of the role it plays inthe labour movement andas the sole voice for

socialism in the British media.We’re proud of the way we're

evolving, with the paper publishinga wide range of contributors fromacross the left. In 2015 our paperis bigger, brighter and better thanever.

But we need more readers,whether of the printed paper orof our new e-edition, in order tomake that voice - the voice ofresistance - heard louder andmore widely and to ensure we'restill championing the rights ofworking people after another 85years.

If you aren’t yet a reader of theworld's only English-languagesocialist daily - what's stoppingyou? H

Ben Chacko is acting editor of theMorning Star

The daily miracle ... alive and kicking at 85