Unity in diversity

If a group of people all wanted the same thing, one would expect them to work together in order to achieve their common goal – that is, so long as the differences that existed between them were not sufficient to jeopardise that final goal in the process. One may particularly expect this of the far-left: those revolutionaries, socialist and communists who say they want to change the world – no small ambition – and whose slogans include ‘unity is strength’. Well, no such luck, I’m afraid.

The revolutionary left and its student off-shoots remain small, split and either caught in a permanent rut, or trapped on an endless treadmill of constant, frenzied but ultimately un-theorised and directionless ‘activism’ devoid of any overriding strategy. This is because the student organisations are essentially miniature replicas of the parent organisations and reproduce all of the terminal failings that have historically crippled these organisations – and the workers’ movement as a whole.

Little value is placed upon educating young comrades in Marxism by the larger organisations such as Socialist Students or Socialist Workers Student Society, and a premium is placed on groupthink as a form of ‘loyalty’ and towing the party line. In place of understanding Marxism and the the critical questions of exactly how we change the world, you get the reheated social democratic politics of some ‘golden age’ (1968 is currently in vogue) and an endless series of paper sales, meetings, elections of ‘left wing’ union officers and so on. Usually such meetings limit themselves to why (insert topic of the day) is bad and must be opposed. The raising of political questions or political differences in these organisations is positively frowned upon as ‘sectarian’ or divisive.

The lack of democracy in the regimes of these groups forms the second bulwark against an empowered membership educated in Marxism. Factions are usually banned for the sake of an illusory ‘unity’ that leaves these organisations unable to resolve natural and inevitable political differences without splitting and repeating the tragic cycle once again.

The lack of a political programme (which could be critiqued), and the iron discipline imposed by often unaccountable leaderships permanently subordinates the membership to the party full-timers and bureaucracy. The result is that countless students and young people sign up, burn out, get run down and spat out by these organisations.

Communist Students aspires to something better. We emphasise the political education of our members. We believe that a strong political organisation is a democratic one, that can have the liveliest debates on political questions and then vote on and implement the majority line. This entails significant rights for minorities who are encouraged to publish and debate their views with a view to becoming the majority if they can, but also responsibilities to abide by majority decisions after a vote and when engaging in political actions. Our executive is fully accountable to the membership and can be recalled at any time. This is genuine democratic centralism, not the warped parody implemented by most of the far left.

Michael Copestake