Communist Party of Great Britain © 04 February 2012
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Weekly Worker 899 Thursday February 02 2012

Image: Cliff: petty-minded, stick-bending, bureaucratic dictator?

Mangling the party of Lenin

Opportunist twists and turns and the perversion of democratic centralism have characterised the Socialist Workers Party and the groups it has influenced, including the US International Socialist Organization. But where did these practices originate? Former ISO member Pham Binh examines the method employed by SWP founder Tony Cliff

The following is dedicated to anyone and everyone who has sacrificed in the name of ‘building the revolutionary party’ - Pham Binh

Tony Cliff’s Lenin: building the party, published in 1975, was the first book-length political biography of Lenin written by a Marxist. As a result, it shaped the approach of subsequent investigations by academics like Lars T Lih, as well as the thinking of thousands of socialists in groups like the British Socialist Workers Party, founded by Cliff, the US International Socialist Organization, and Paul LeBlanc, author of Lenin and the revolutionary party and former member of the American SWP (no relation to Cliff’s group). [read more]

Letters
Got it wrong; Nationalist?; Dancing; Counterposition; Templater; PSC witch-hunt; Preacher man; Bastard; Take time; The other SP;

Monti prepares for fresh attacks
The nature of the Italian resistance to austerity has so far been contradictory, writes Toby Abse

Fool's paradise at Davos
Even though Greece continues to edge closer to default, writes Eddie Ford, there has been yet more inaction by global 'leaders'

Opposing imperialism does not mean supporting oppression
Anti-war protest disrupted by attack on supporters of the Iranian green movement. Ben Lewis reports

Choose your conspiracy
Dave Douglass reviews Robert Greens' A thorn in their side: the Hilda Murrell murder Rata Books, 2011, pp208, £26.

Normalised duplicity
Yassamine Mather reviews new film A separation, directed by Asghar Farhadi, on general release.

Taking the Chinese road
This week, Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, makes her first state visit to Cuba. James Turley sees another step from Stalinism to capitalism.

Blank cheque
The January fighting fund target was missed by a whisker (or two). But Robbie Rix remains optimistic and asks readers to push that paypal button.

Weekly Worker 899 is available for download as a pdf file.

CU2011 Sessions

More videos from Communist University are available on our vimeo web channel.

Fighting Fund

Blank cheque

The January fighting fund target was missed by a whisker (or two). But Robbie Rix remains optimistic and asks readers to push that paypal button.

We narrowly failed to reach our new £1,500 fighting fund target in January - the first month following our decision to up it by £250. Despite one or two fantastic last-minute donations, we were almost £150 short at £1,353.

The consolation, of course, is that this comfortably beat the old target, but that isn’t much help when it comes to raising what we actually need, especially when you factor in our plans for extra pages and more use of colour. Nevertheless, thank you very much, comrade RG, for your tremendous £75 cheque and, PJ, for your £50 PayPal gift. Comrades JT (£20) and FR (£10) used the same method (they were just some of our 19,376 online readers last week). Finally a total of £138 came in via standing orders.

I can also report that we already have £171 towards our February fighting fund - that all came from 10 standing orders received on the first day of the month. But I would really like to see a big increase in those making use of our PayPal facility. Just get out your credit or debit card and fill in the online form stating ‘Donation’. Or else you could email us separately explaining what you have done and why.

Some people are far too modest to write a covering note though. That certainly applies to RG, whose £75 cheque arrived inside a folded piece of blank paper. But I know from past experience of the comrade’s quiet generosity that it was meant for the fighting fund.

If anyone wants to match that, I don’t mind if they write me a few words too!

Click here to download a standing order form - regular income is particular important in order to plan ahead. Even £5/month can help!
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