Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) – CPB(ML)

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Election Fraud – 1970 General Election

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Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) – CPB(ML)

The Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) was formed on April 14th 1968. It arose out of the British anti-revisionist movement which had taken a long time to re-establish a formal party structure following Nikita Khrushchev’s repudiation of Joseph Stalin (but fundamentally Marxism-Leninism) at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956. It was the closest the British working class have, so far, come to establishing a Marxist-Leninist Party in Britain.

However, come 1982 the Party had started to lose direction (principally in relation to the Labour Party/elections and the attitude towards the Soviet Union). It still maintains a somewhat confusing stance on international issues and now treats the issues surrounding Britain’s departure from the European Union almost as an obsession.

From the beginning of 1969 the Party published its newspaper, The Worker. This began as a monthly and then progressed to a fortnightly before becoming weekly towards the end of 1977.

Most of the documents below come from the period of the 1970s and early 1980s. Many were not dated and so the dates given are (sometimes) an approximation. The originals of these documents have been deposited in the Labour History Archive of the People’s History Museum in Manchester. Also to be found in the Archive are most of the issues of The Worker, the Party’s newspaper, for the first 13 or 14 years of the Party’s existence. Some other copies of The Worker can also be found in the Working Class Movement Library in Salford.

Finally, also included below are some documents that are (or have been) available on the Party’s website.

The complete, total and absolute decline of the CPB(ML)

Fundamental documents

Bulletin of the CPB(ML), No. 4, 8 pages. Announcement of the formation of the Party.

Burning Questions for our Party, 1971, 5 pages.

The British Working Class and its Party, 1971, adopted at the Second Party Congress April 9-12 1971, 10 pages, duplicated version.

The British Working Class and its Party, the Party Programme, 1971, 13 pages. Adopted at the Second Party Congress April 9-12 1971.

Constitution of the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), with Application Form and Candidate Letter, adopted at the Second Party Congress April 9-12 1971. 11 pages.

The Definitive Statement on the Internal Polemic 1972-74, 1974, 16 pages.

Party structure and organisation

Branch Formation and Conduct, 1970?, 3 pages.

Discussion Documents, the Central Committee, Branch Functioning, 197?, 4 pages.

Party Building; organisation and Party building, Party building – practice and theory, Party building and work in industry, the role of the Party in the current situation, the Party in the present situation. Pre-Congress documents – but not sure which, probably 1976, 20 pages.

Discussion Documents

Draft action programme and analysis of the student movement, 1970, 25 pages.

Writing for The Worker, 1970, 5 pages.

Worker Distribution Committee, 1970, 2 pages.

Student National Advisory Committee, 1971, 8 pages.

Teachers Committee, Orientation of our work, 1971?, 2 pages.

The Struggle for Wages and the Current Situation, 1970?, 6 pages.

The Struggle of Ideas, 197?, 6 pages.

The Working Class, Past, Present and Future, 197?, 11 pages.

Student National Committee; Launch an offensive against ruling class repression, housing – the collective battle, EEC – a question of class, grants and education cuts, executive elections, 1971-1981, 14 pages.

Facts about the Industrial Revolution, 197?, 7 pages.

Internationalism, 197?, 3 pages.

Graduate Unemployment, discussion document for weekend school on students, October 28 and 29th 1972, 1972, 8 pages.

Dialectics, 1973?, 3 pages.

Motor Industry School, 1974?, 7 pages.

The Struggle for Ideas, 1974, 6 pages.

Revolution, Social Democracy, Class and Party, 197?, 6 pages.

Class in Britain, 197?, 9 pages.

Pre-Fourth Congress 1976, notes on organisation and Party growth, propaganda report, report on the Worker, Teachers Committee, world crisis of capitalism, economic situation, 1975, 31 pages.

Pre-5th Congress documents; the Worker (the Party newspaper), the question of discipline in a Marxist-Leninist Party, organisation, propaganda, the conduct of the Party under more difficult conditions, Soviet Revisionism, British Imperialism, 1979, 10 pages.

Draft 5th Congress Report, 1979, 13 pages.

Pre-1982 (Sixth) Congress Papers; Further and Higher Education Committee, Health Committee, National Teachers Committee, Media Committee, Workers in Public Service Sub-Committee, Civil Service Sub-Committee, Professional and Technical Sub-Committee, Revolution and the Soviet Union, Britain, Worker Distribution, Worker Editorial, The Party, 1981, 19 pages.

Party and Central Committee Statements

Central Committee statement on War and Peace, 1980?, 1 page.

Education Courses

The Bolshevik Revolution 1905-1953, 197?, 6 pages.

Study List and Bibliography, Liverpool, 1971?, 3 pages.

Study Programme, 1974, 15 pages.

Study Programme, 1975, Trade Unions, the Labour Movement, the struggle of the British Working Class, 12 pages.

Education courses; Party Study Syllabus 1976-77, Back to basics: Party education and the present situation, Education Syllabus: Revisionism and Social Democracy, Marxism – what it it? 1976-79, 10 pages.

Party Study Document, 1977-78, the need for study in the Party, Branch study, Syllabus 1 – 3, reading list, a study course for contacts. 7 pages.

Party Study Syllabus, 1978, 2 pages.

Congresses

Congress ’76, Fourth Congress, 1976, 16 pages.

Congress 1979, Fifth Congress, 1979, 23 pages.

Congress ’82, Report of the Sixth Congress, 1982, 14 pages.

Congress ’85 – Report of Seventh Congress, 1985, 15 pages.

Congress ’88, Eighth Congress, 1988, 14 pages.

Congress 2012, Sixteenth Congress, 2012, 10 pages.

British Independence and the working class, Political statement from the 18th Congress, November 2018, 4 pages.

Real control for real independence. Political statement from the 19th Congress, November 2021, 4 pages.

Taking charge – tasks to be done. Our priority is Britain. Political statement from the Communist Party of Britain Marxist-Leninist, 20th Congress, London, June 2024, 5 pages.

International

Statement on Czechoslovakia, 1968, 8 pages.

British Imperialism Out of Ireland!, 1971, 14 pages.

Oil Imperialism Britain and the Middle East, 1971, 12 pages.

Songs of the Fedayeen – Songs of the Palestinian National Liberation Fighters, 1971, 24 pages.

Ireland – One Nation, 1974, 16 pages.

Britain in the World 1977, 1977, 12 pages.

Albania – the most successful country in Europe, New Albania Society, London, 1977, 36 pages.

Strategy

Guerrilla Struggle and the working class, 197?, 16 pages.

Guerrilla Struggle and the working class, 2nd reprint, 1974?, 16 pages.

White Collar – A Myth Destroyed, a Class Made Stronger, 197?, 16 pages.

Protracted Struggle and the Working Class, May 1986, 20 pages.

Contemporary issues

Health – The Working Class Fight, 1970, first edition of the pamphlet, duplicated, 22 pages.

Teachers to the Front Line, 1970?, 12 pages.

Towards a Revolutionary Student Movement, London Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation, 1970, 28 pages.

Students into Class Struggle, 1971, 14 pages, duplicated version.

Students into Class Struggle, 1971, 10 pages.

Health – The Working Class Fight, 1971?, 16 pages.

Women in Class Struggle, 1971?, 14 pages.

Unemployment – War against the workers, 1972, 16 pages.

Education, 1973?, 18 pages.

Students into Class Struggle, 2nd Edition, 1974, 19 pages.

Grants Autonomy – Students and the Class War, 1974?, 15 pages.

London Murder, 1974?, 16 pages.

Higher Education – The struggle for the future, 1975?, 12 pages.

For Education – A Revolutionary Struggle, 1975, 16 pages.

For Health – A Revolutionary Struggle, 1976?, 16 pages.

Cuts – Brighton Fights Back, 1976?, 24 pages.

For an Industrial Revolution, 1976?, 16 pages.

Stop the Rundown – Seize our Heritage, 1977?, 26 pages.

Food for the people, January 1978, 16 pages.

Unity not Devolution, 1978?, 16 pages.

The Worker – Universities Special, 1981, 4 pages.

The Worker – Oil Industry Special, 1982?, 6 pages.

The Worker – Textile Special, 1982?, 4 pages.

Britain’s Finances – Treachery in the City, 1984, 28 pages.

Counter Attack – shop workers into struggle, 1986?, 20 pages (page 4 missing).

In the end who will defeat Thatcher?, 1988, 4 pages, leaflet.

Reclaim London, February 1990, 15 pages.

Out of the EU! Why Britain must vote Leave in the June Referendum, March 2016, 8 pages.

Take control. Red lines for Brexit – and an independent Britain, 2017, 8 pages.

Brexit – let’s get on with it. Six principles to put leaving back on track. September 2018, 8 pages.

Labour History

The Economics of Genocide, Part 1, An Historical Introduction, 1980, 16 pages.

The Economics of Genocide, Part 2, 1981, 16 pages.

The Economics of Genocide, Part 3, Genocide NO!, 1982, 22 pages.

Unemployment, 1983?, 16 pages.

A History of the Miners Struggle (Historical Reprint), 1986?, 16 pages.

Marxism-Leninism

Stalin on The October Revolution, Socialism and Industry, the Cold War, 1982, 24 pages.

Anti-party group, 1976

Anti-Party Group 1976, 5 pages.

Miscellaneous

Leaflets, a selection of leaflets from the 1970s and early 1980s. 97 pages.

Various short documents, unclassified, 14 pages.

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10th February 1972 – Victory at The Battle of Saltley Gate

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 - 01

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 – 01

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10th February 1972 – Victory at The Battle of Saltley Gate

Introduction

This article first appeared in 2012, on the 40th anniversary of the crucial event in the Miners’ Strike of 1972 – which eventually brought down the Tory Government (and for which the vindictive Tories – being champions of the capitalist system – took their revenge in the 1984-1985 strike). It’s reproduced here, on the occasion of the 49th anniversary, to remind readers what workers’ solidarity can achieve – if only there’s the will.

……………………………………………..

Bill Mullins, a shop steward at the Rover Solihull Plant, shares his memories on the Battle of Saltley.

Forty years ago in 1972, the miners’ strike for a fairer pay system saw some of the biggest demonstrations of workers’ power since World War Two.

The Tory government, led by Edward Heath, was trying to enforce a pay restraint policy in the teeth of rising inflation, which was cutting workers’ wages.

The miners were badly affected. But their strike and important victory not only won a fair pay rise but inspired and showed the way forward for other groups of workers fighting to defend their living standards.

The undoubted highlight of the strike was the gigantic battle around a coke depot in Saltley in Birmingham.

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 - 02

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 – 02

The significance of the depot to the miners and the bosses became clear to all as lorries from around the country headed for the depot. The million-ton mountain of coke was needed to keep industry going.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had called on the workers of Birmingham to join them outside the depot in a mass picket to stop the lorries coming in. The Birmingham police were equally determined to keep the depot open.

I was at the time a newly elected senior shop steward in the Rover Solihull car plant and a member of the National Union of Vehicle Builders (NUVB), which later merged with the TGWU and is now part of Unite.

Like many Birmingham trade union activists I had been following the events of the miners’ strike since it started and I had explained to my members the issues around the strike and what it meant to all workers.

But the call for solidarity picketing at Saltley gates significantly raised the stakes for all workers in the city.

Arthur Scargill, at the time a Yorkshire NUM official, appeared at a meeting of the east Birmingham district committee of the AUEW engineering union.

There he famously said that he didn’t want just collections of money for the miners, he wanted Birmingham workers to come down to Saltley gates and stop the lorries leaving with the scab coke.

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 - 03

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 – 03

My own NUVB district committee was meeting at the same time and made a call on Birmingham car workers to join the mass picket.

From the Monday onwards shop stewards around the Birmingham car and engineering industry, including myself, went down to Saltley gates and joined the miners’ picket lines.

But when it became clear that we would need far more “bodies” to stop the lorries, we agreed that we would try and get solidarity strikes off the ground.

I remember on the Thursday morning, 10 February, I and a number of other stewards from the plant who had been going down regularly, went to see our convenor.

We wanted to get him to agree to call a mass meeting of the 8,000 workers in the Solihull factory to ask them to go on strike in support of the miners and for as many as possible to go down to the mass picket.

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 - 04

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 – 04

As we were speaking to him a knock came on the door. A shop steward came in and told us that that the word had got out and the workers were already walking off the job without being asked.

Of course we were delighted and went immediately to round up as many workers as possible to get down to Saltley gates.

Geography had an important role in what happened next. The Solihull plant was about six or seven miles from Saltley in east Birmingham.

We organised as many cars as possible to get people there. But in the immediate vicinity of the Saltley depot there were many car component plants, all of them heavily unionised.

As we gathered outside the gates we could at first hear and then see a mass of workers coming over the hump-backed bridge from the direction of some these component plants.

They included those from SU carburettors, who were mainly women workers, the tractor and transmission workers, led by a pipe band and workers from the General Electric plant from Witton just down the road. The Valour gas heater plant workers were there, and many others.

Thousands of workers from at least five different directions began to pour into the area around the coke depot gates.

Until then the 800-strong police present had managed to get it all their own way. They formed a barrier against the pickets to allow the lorries unhindered passage.

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 - 05

The Battle of Saltley Gate 1972 – 05

But the balance of forces rapidly changed as the thousands of Birmingham factory workers entered the scene.

It is difficult to say how many were there but the police later estimated 15,000. The anti-union Birmingham Evening Mail that night said at least 10,000. I and many others thought it was a lot more than either of these figures.

Certainly at least 50,000 workers came out on strike that day, of course not all going down to the picket line.

The cops knew then they were beat and with Scargill, who by now had got up onto a public toilet roof 50 yards from the gates, encouraging the mass ranks of workers forward, the Birmingham chief constable ordered the gates shut and the lorries turned around.

A huge cheer went up from the mass ranks of picketers with this victory. It was undoubtedly the most significant moment of the strike and a massive victory for workers’ solidarity.

Postscript: The miners went onto win their battle and forced a significant pay rise of the coal board. The Birmingham police meanwhile licked their wounds and said “never again” in fact they produced a blue tie with a logo of a gate with those words underneath.

……………………………………………..

The article above was originally published on the National Shop Stewards Network. Here I’ve included all the references that accompanied that article.

This weekend, at 12.00 on Sunday, 14th February, there’s a Zoom public meeting on ‘Fight together against Tories and Bosses covid offensive’.

Reproduced with kind permission from the National Shop Stewards Network.

Photograph Credits: Tony Coult.

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