Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) | |
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| Abbreviation | CPB-ML |
| Founder | Reg Birch |
| Founded | 1968; 57 years ago (1968) |
| Split from | Communist Party of Great Britain |
| Headquarters | Tottenham,London, England |
| Newspaper | Workers |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left |
| Colours | Red |
| Website | |
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TheCommunist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist), often abbreviated asCPB-ML, is a BritishMarxist–Leninist political party. It originated in 1968 as ananti-revisionist split from theCommunist Party of Great Britain and was chaired byReg Birch until 1985. The official programme of the party since 1972 has beenThe British Working Class and its Party. The publication of the CPB-ML was originally known asThe Worker, but is today calledWorkers.
The party was formed in 1968 byReg Birch as aMaoist,anti-revisionist breakaway from theCommunist Party of Great Britain, siding with theCommunist Party of China in theSino-Soviet split.[5] From 1979 onwards the CPB-ML sided withEnver Hoxha in theSino-Albanian split.[4]
A small number of members split from the party in 1975, forming the Nottingham Communist Group. In 1976, three branches of the CPB-ML split and formed the Communist Workers Movement, initially under the leadership of Ian Williams.[6] This group later joined theRevolutionary Communist League of Britain.
In the 1980s, the CPB-ML came to support theSoviet Union again for a period, before dropping this line overMikhail Gorbachev's reforms. More recently, the CPB-ML has developed a national line for Britain: "Rebuild Britain"; the party is strongly opposed to theEuropean Union.[7]
The party publishedThe Worker from 1969 until 2000, when it becameWorkers.
Party members focus on work in the labour movement.
Notable early members of the CPB-ML included writerWilliam Ash,[8] journalists and academicsRoy Greenslade andSteve Hewlett,[6] engineer and trade union activistMike Cooley, journalist and speechwriter Ian Williams[9] and comedian and authorAlexei Sayle.[10]
During theBritish EU referendum of 2016, a number of parties on the far-left supported "Lexit" (arguing forBrexit, Britain leaving theEuropean Union, from a left-perspective). The Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) was one such party. They opted not to join theNo2EU — Yes to Democracy campaign (dominated by theCommunist Party of Britain and TrotskyistSocialist Party), but instead backed theGrassroots Out campaign. This was supported by a broad array of British political figures, fromNigel Farage ofUKIP toKate Hoey ofLabour andGeorge Galloway of theRespect Party.[11]
Following the referendum, on 29 March 2017 thePrime MinisterTheresa May invokedArticle 50. The Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) promptly issued a statement which described those who opposed the triggering of Article 50 after the British people voted in favour of Brexit as "enemies of the people". The statement also called for "taking control" of "our economy, our laws, our borders".[12]
The party is notable for its opposition to unskilled and low-skilledimmigration. In a statement from 2005 in their publicationWorkers, the party stated that it regards the recent mass immigration from Eastern Europe into Britain as a deliberate plan by the capitalist ruling class to use "cheap labour" to "undermine the wages and conditions of British workers."[13] It also stressed concerns in the same article that this recent mass immigration was having the effect of impacting national infrastructure; schools, hospitals and transport; by overloading them, to the detriment of the indigenous working-class.[13]
The party calls for the UK'swithdrawal from NATO.[14]
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