Party and Programme

Marxism is distinguished from competing perspectives on the radical left primarily by its emphasis on strategy - Marxists must take the long view, and take hard-headed decisions about how we are to get from capitalism to communism.

For the CPGB, our most vital weapons in the struggle for a new society are the party and its programme - but even among those who are partisans of party organisation (not all comrades on the far left are), and those who place a high priority on programme, there are fierce and well rooted differences on what these words even mean. The documents collected here aim to clarify the CPGB's perspective on these burning questions.

7-part series: What is the communist programme?

Jack Conrad considers the central problems Marxist politics must address, and the merits of various programmatic methods from the history of the communist movement. Series also available as a PDF.

Part 1: Programme and its structure

Part 2: Programmatic masks and transitional fleas

Part 3: Our republic

Part 4: Programming the Russian revolution

Part 5: Permanent revolution and state power

Part 6: Kautsky, Lenin and Trotsky

Part 7: The test of 1917

4-part series: Trotsky and permanent revolution

Trotskyists overwhelmingly base their programmatic approaches on Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution. Mike Macnair calls for caution in endorsing Trotsky's perspectives, which are based on flawed readings of the political dynamics of pre-revolutionary Russia.

Part 1: 'Transitional' to what?

Part 2: What is workers' power?

Part 3: For a minimum programme!

Part 4: Spontaneity and Marxist theory