The British Communists You Didn't Know Existed
- AD HOC
- Jan 18, 2019
- 5 min read
A walk-through Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon need not take longer than 60 seconds to prove the comprehensive domination of consumerism. The globalised free market has forged London’s place as a metropolis of card swiping indulgence, with Topshop’s gravitational appeal making it the Kaaba of this retail pilgrimage.
This was briefly interrupted by The People’s Assembly March last Saturday. They weren’t marching in opposition of Selfridges’ £1000 handbags, but they did want a general election immediately. They being - Labour supporters, Socialist Party supporters and others from Corbyn’s end of the left. More surprising however, was the prominence of flags sporting the hammer and sickle.
Communism in Britain lives a quiet existence. Their presence at the demonstration last Saturday made the presumption that a convoy of dodo’s was following behind on Regents Street seem more of an expectation than wild fantasy. It’s a movement that endures a dormancy in the media, making them the most enigmatic political entity in the country. So, who are they? What are they doing here? And what do they want?
Steve Cook is a key figure within the Communist Party of Great Britain Marxist Leninist. Not to be mistaken with the Communist Party of Great Britain, or the many other variations of the movement. He and a few other colleagues were at the march, and appeared to represent the fringe of the fringe.
“We don’t want a government that is run by the capitalist class” Steve says, donning a khaki cap with the hammer and sickle pinned to the front. This viewpoint is obviously a staple of being a ‘red’. But Steve’s plan to achieve the overthrowing of the capitalist class is less conventional.
“We want a revolution. As violent as necessary, as least violent as possible.”
Whether this is inflammation for the sake of it or a genuine ambition is up to the imagination of the rest of us. But when I asked what sort of violence this entailed he seemed to sense he’d made an error.
“No I didn’t say as violent as necessary I said by any means necessary” he responded. Only time will tell whether this slight modification to his plan means less blood will be shed by the time he takes Number 10. His next confession probably won’t settle those nerves.
“I’m a Stalinist, I’m openly prepared to say I’m a Stalinist” he exclaims. We touch on the criticism communism receives in relation to Stalin and his rule in the Soviet Union.
“It’s all bollocks” is his comprehensive evaluation. Robert Conquest’s account of 1930’s Soviet Union in ‘The Great Terror’ has been largely supported by historians, with how many millions of deaths that occurred due to Stalin’s policies being one of few points of debate.
Lucas, a 19-year-old student, was with Steve at the march. He is also a campaigner with the Marxist-Leninist branch, and is also a member of Red Youth.
“At the moment the situation is fairly dire, the forces are limited, at the moment the working class isn’t conscious of its situation so much. There is a real cultural stigma around communism.”
He echoes some of the sentiment about Stalin with less profanity than his comrade. It feels very conspiracy theory, but Lucas’s concerns about the treatment of artists and his view that the EU is an unaccountable bureaucracy proves there are more dimensions to the movement than we hear about.
“My dad is an artist, he’s a classically trained painter but he can’t make money doing what he wants to do, he has to jobs such as teaching classes, lecturing at universities and so on. He hates it, he finds it soul destroying. In places like the Soviet Union, China and the DPRK, the state fully commissions people to make art. Artists can paint what they want to paint without the markets dictating what is popular.”
As mentioned, Steve and Lucas are campaigning for a sub-sect of the communist movement. A couple of miles east, a stone’s throw from Farringdon station in Islington, the Marx Memorial Library is the setting of a meeting of members from the Communist Party of Great Britain, the main body of communist supporters in the UK.
The general secretary of the party, Robert Griffiths, describes Steve Cook’s statements as “childish” and refers to him as “a specialist in attacking other parties of the left.”
Castro, Marx and Lenin stand proudly on walls, mantels and murals. When Griffiths starts dissecting Steve’s organisation, its clear volatility isn’t uniform across the movements.
“Unfortunately, there are people who call themselves communists who don’t do the cause of communism any good. If the media wants to portray communism in a bad light they tend to make a beeline for organisations such as Steve’s.”
So, what does the CPGB that Robert Griffiths leads want from politics in the future?
“The transition from capitalism, to socialism, then communism is a revolutionary process. Need it involve violence? Certainly, what we know is the British ruling class is pretty ruthless and has always been prepared to resort to violence. But anyone serious about revolutionary change has to have a serious strategy to eliminate the possibility of violence.”
Robert hopes for a socialist Britain as a stepping stone to the “most advanced version” of society. He says his party supports internationalism with the absence of “capitalism and the militarisation that comes from it”, but also expresses his sceptical view of the European project.
“The reality is the European Union has not functioned in the interest of the majority, we’ve lost millions of productive manufacturing jobs and have been defenceless to stop it. We’ve seen a huge expansion of the influence of the City of London and the banks, we’ve seen the growth of low paid, zero-hour contract jobs. This is the capitalist jungle the EU has created.”
“There are valuable links to be had with the EU and indeed the rest of the world, we are in favour of traveling and working across countries. But we want a general election, in that election we would like to see a left lead Labour government, and to see that government negotiate a new deal.”
Whilst the idea of a communist Britain is a far-fetched one, Robert believes that if Corbyn was to step into Downing Street, it would be a huge moment of progress for the cause.
“We never imagine that it would be likely for a communist party to gain power in this country. But certainly, to have a left led Labour government elected, for us that would create a whole new range of opportunities. This is why we need stronger movements outside parliament and a stronger Communist Party is also going to be an essential element for any substantial move forwards in Britain.”
Robert’s ideas are radical. He’s an advocate, as you can probably imagine, for nationalisation of pretty much all of the country’s services.
An idea that many would condemn as old fashioned, throwback ideas. But he sees it as the solution to worker exploitation.
Communism’s association with not just the Soviet Union, but with East Germany, Romania and North Korea means that right now only Kevin Spacey requires more PR to become universally revered once more. In principle the ideas are derived from compassion as much as they are fantasy. London will remain the epicentre of opportunity, the growth of business will remain a celebrated concept, and Selfridges will go on selling ludicrously priced handbags.
By Charlie Bradley
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