Building a revolutionary party requires ruthless discipline, in order to carry out the 1,001 small tasks that allow us to function. Organising branch meetings, selling The Communist to make contacts, booking rooms, printing posters, and so on.
All of this is facilitated by constantly discussing theory, which gives us a sense of perspective for why we are doing these things.
Then, intermittently, we are able to physically see and feel the culmination of that activity, by bringing together a large section of the party, and sharing our ideas with as many people as possible.
Palestine demonstration
The national demonstration for Palestine, marking two years since the beginning of the genocide, was precisely that. Our 400-strong Communist bloc was revolutionary and bold. As we marched over Westminster Bridge, shouting “down with the war criminals!”, hundreds more joined us.
“Keir Starmer you’re the terrorist!” echoed all around parliament on that day. In my experience, that chant brings more people towards us. It concretises why we are there, and exemplifies our political approach to the Palestine movement: the main enemy is at home.
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Your Party
This bloc came off the back of my day at The World Transformed festival. I spoke on two panels: “BLM 5 years on” and “Who’s got the Power? Your Party Democracy”.
In the first, I argued that racism in Britain is on the rise due to the deep crisis of the capitalist system, and the desperate need for the ruling class to maintain divisions within the working class. This is having a devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people, in particular Muslim and Asian communities.
This weekend, UKIP was planning to march through Whitechapel in East London, under the slogan “mass deportations now” and “take our country back”.
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Despite police cancelling the march, due to enormous community pressure, this attempt was an outrageous intensification of the poison spewed out by the ruling class over the past few years. Furthermore, this was just one stop of many, on their tour around the country.
The full weight of the working class across London could and should be mobilised. In fact, Your Party` could be taking the lead in this fight. But so far, like with Tommy Robinson’s massive ‘Unite The Kingdom’ demonstration on 13 September, they have done disappointingly little.
In the session on Your Party Democracy, I argued that the main argument we should be having within the movement is around political perspectives, and our programme.
Some in attendance questioned me, and said that the question of internal democracy supersedes the programme (for now), because without good organisation structures, there can be no political debate!
Ultimately, we can sympathise with those who are frustrated with the “roadmap” to the founding conference presented by Your Party’s leadership. So far, it has not inspired anything.
Their petty organisational spat at the top has set the tone, and now people are concentrated on fixing the constitution, which unfortunately comes at the expense of promoting the politics that would re-invigorate the party’s launch.
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The focus should remain on the politics. With UKIP emboldened enough to take a stand in Whitechapel, the need for a fighting, anti-capitalist party has never been clearer. Working-class people cannot wait.
While Your Party dithers, I have continued my university tour, speaking at Leeds University and Goldsmiths on the fight for a free Palestine. The tour concludes next week with Cambridge and Oxford. After that, it’s full steam ahead to the Revolution Festival! Have you got your ticket?
