This was the political platform of Communist Students before being amended at the 2010 conference:

1. Communist Students is an autonomous organisation established by members and supporters of the Communist Party of Great Britain – but you do not have to be a member to join us. It exists to promote the ideas of Marxism, campaign for democracy in all spheres of life and fight to replace capitalism with communism.

2. Communists have no interest apart from the working class as a whole. This class consists not only of those in employment, but everyone who does not own or control the means of production. The majority of students in a country like Britain are therefore part of the working class.

3. The education system, the fight for women’s equality, against racism, fascism, homophobia and chauvinism, and the struggle against war and for ecological sustainability are just as much working class questions as pay and trade union rights. We fight for free abortion on demand, free 24-hour childcare, an end to the discrimination against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.

4. Communists oppose the commodification of education and the turning of schools and universities into teaching factories. The entire education system needs to be radically transformed from top to bottom.

5. Education must be democratised, free and aimed at developing fully rounded human beings, not exploitable office dolts. The situation where students are burdened with massive debts and forced to take paid work to get themselves through college must be ended. Students need time to think, argue, experiment and enjoy the experience of full time education. Grants must be set at a level that allow students to live a decent life.

6. Communists recognise the importance of Marxism as a guide to practice. Marxist theory is no dogma, but must be constantly developed and enriched.

7. There are many so-called ‘parties’ on the left. In reality, most are confessional sects. We stand for openness of debate and reject that members of left parties who disagree with the prescribed ‘line’ often have to gag themselves in public. Either that or face expulsion. We reject all such practices as anti-democratic and alien to the method of Marxism and believe that they have produced divisions and fragmentation on the left.

8. Capitalism in its endless search for profit puts the future of humanity at risk. Capitalism is synonymous with war, pollution, exploitation and crisis.

9. The capitalist class will never willingly allow their wealth and power to be taken away by a parliamentary vote. They will resist using every means at their disposal. Communists enter parliament to win the biggest possible working class representation in elections on all levels. Communist Students are in favour of revolutionary socialists standing in elections on a revolutionary platform. Communists also seek to mobilise working class self-activity independent of the state, the employers, and the labour bureaucracy. The working class must prepare itself to make revolution – peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must.

10. Socialism is the first stage of the worldwide transition to communism – a system that would consign wars, exploitation, money, classes, states and nations to the history books and bring about general freedom. Socialism requires the active support of the mass of the population and represents victory in the battle for democracy. It is the rule of the working class. Socialism is either democratic or, as with the abomination that was Stalin’s Soviet Union, it turns into its opposite.

11. Communists are internationalists. Everywhere we strive for the closest unity and agreement of working class parties and student organisations. We oppose every manifestation of national sectionalism and chauvinism and fight to abolish all borders. We oppose all immigration controls, believe that no one is illegal and fight for full citizenship rights for all immigrant workers.

At the core of any anti-fascist fight must be the mobilisation of the working class movement. We do not call on the state to ban fascist organisations. This would only give the state more repressive powers to be used against the left.

12. We oppose all forms of imperialist aggression and bullying and demand the immediate withdrawal of all imperialist troops from the occupied territories. At the same time, we express active solidarity with the working class progressive, democratic and secular forces fighting not only the presence of imperialism, but also their own ‘national’ oppressors.

13. As a global system capitalism can only be superseded globally.

14. All students who accept these aims and principles are urged to join us.