The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the Weekly Worker newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, 'One state, one party'. To the extent that the European Union becomes a state then that necessitates EU-wide trade unions and a Communist Party of the EU". In addition, it is in favour of the unification of the entire working class under a new Communist International. It is not to be confused with the former Communist Party of Great Britain, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist), or the current Communist Party of Britain.
Formation
The origins of the CPGB (PCC) lie in the New Communist Party of Britain (NCP) which split from the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1977. Under the influence of a faction of the Communist Party of Turkey, a handful led by NCP youth section leader John Chamberlain (who uses the pseudonym Jack Conrad) attempted to rejoin the then CPGB.
Few actually regained party cards but the grouping began to publish The Leninist, first as a journal, then as a more or less monthly paper. Initially The Leninist appeared to some to be a Stalinist publication in its politics, but over time it mutated into something very different. This may be due to their interaction with various Trotskyist groups including a series of exchanges with the Spartacist League. The faction developed a critique of the Stalinist states as well as the bureaucratism and political liquidationism of the old CPGB.
Post-CPGB dissolution
After the dissolution of the official CPGB in 1991 and its relaunch as the Democratic Left, the group declared their intention to reforge the party on what they declared to be "firm Leninist principles". They organised an "emergency conference", at which they claimed the CPGB name, but not its assets. They also changed the name of their paper, increasing its regularity to weekly.
By the early 1990s the group was working closely with the tiny Trotskyist Revolutionary Democratic Group and the discussion magazine Open Polemic. It also sought to deepen its links with a group of recent ex-members of other Trotskyist groups such as the Socialist Workers Party who called themselves the International Socialist Group. The CPGB (PCC) described this process as "Communist rapprochement". The attempt failed as the ISG collapsed and Open Polemic briefly enrolled a few of its supporters in the CPGB (PCC), only for them to quit in a row over money.
During the 1992 general election campaign, Ken Livingstone claimed that the members of the CPGB (PCC) were "MI5 agents".
In 1999, the group stood candidates for two UK constituencies in the European elections. Prevented from using the CPGB name it stood as 'Weekly Worker'.
Activities
The group was for a short while embedded in the Socialist Labour Party, but left to join the Socialist Alliance in which they came to work closely with the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and proposed a merger of their papers, rejected by the AWL. The two have since politically drifted apart.
In 2004, the group affiliated to the Respect Coalition. A minority disagreed with the tactic of working within Respect and formed a faction called the Red Platform. The new faction called instead for the CPGB (PCC) to rejoin a Socialist Alliance reform current called the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform. The Red Platform won their aim but the CPGB (PCC) majority continued to work within Respect. Members of the Red Platform subsequently left to create the Red Party in August 2004 over a disagreement about their views being published in the paper.
The group was active in the Campaign for a Marxist Party (2006–2008) and is critical of the Campaign for a New Workers' Party and the Convention of the Left. The CPGB (PCC) was heavily involved in founding the Hands Off the People of Iran (HOPI) campaign. Mark Fischer, formerly National Organiser of the CPGB (PCC), is HOPI secretary. The CPGB (PCC) also enjoys close links with Communist Students.
The CPGB (PCC) endorsed the Labour Party in the June 2009 European Parliament elections and criticised the No to EU – Yes to Democracy coalition as "left-wing nationalist".
Non-members such as former Soviet dissident Boris Kagarlitsky, Matzpen founder Moshé Machover and Professor Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique and chairman of the Centre for the Study of Socialist Theory and Movements, University of Glasgow, have spoken at CPGB (PCC) events.