Programmatic Dead End

Joseph Stalin - inspiration behind the CPB's latest national socialist programme

EXTRACT: Hence, what to make of the Communist Party of Britain’s ‘updated’ British road to socialism? Well, in some senses it is to be welcomed - at least the CPB has a programme, no matter how awful. An open public statement or declaration of strategic intent. Unlike the Socialist Workers Party, of course, which as a point of perverse principle boasts about how it is not ‘weighed down’ by a programme. However, the latest BRS, whether adopted or not by the October congress, represents an object lesson in how not to write a programme. Instead of presenting us with a strategic road map to working class power, a compass with which to get from where we are now to where we want to be (socialism/communism) we are presented with extraneous and transient detail - in other words, the usual ‘official communist’ approach to programme writing. This has often resulted in the need for a speedy rewrite, perhaps almost immediately. Come October the new version of the BRS might be out of date already, even if we are optimistically told that it is “intended to be a guide to action” and “not a speculative prediction or a dogmatic blueprint."
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