On April 30 two members of Communist Students in Manchester attended the Manchester launch of the Left Nationalist No 2 EU – Yes To Democracy campaign. The attendance was a paltry eight, and of those eight three were from the Morning Star’s CPB, one from the Socialist Party of England and Wales (SPEW), one from Permanent Revolution and a comrade from the Green Left. So out of eight in attendance 5 were hostile to the campaign. The meeting began with an unwelcome discussion on the politics of the campaign with myself and other comrades taking the CPB to task for backing immigration controls, British jobs for British workers and little Britain politics dressed up in trade union clothes. The comrade from SPEW seemed genuinely shocked when Dave Hawkins from the CPB proclaimed that immigration controls are a great British tradition and that British workers should be protected from immigrants coming over here and taking their jobs. It took but a second for the real politics of the campaign to come out. The CPB members present seemed stupidly unaware that muttering such sentiments did nothing to help the campaign an only encouraged and angered the small but hostile audience. For over 45 minutes they were subjected to ridicule and the proper communist approach to Europe. To the credit of the SPEW member he did not engage in any abusive or arrogant remarks like the CPB members did, he listened and discussed calmly taking on the points that many comrades had raised but still saw that the positives outweighed the negatives in the campaign. It was a peculiar atmosphere considering CPB bureaucrats in Unison are witch hunting socialist trade unionists who are members of the SPEW.

Further questions where raised about the establishment of the campaign and why it was done behind the backs of not just the RMT but the entire movement. There was no democratic process or discussion within or outside the RMT. Unlike the PR member and CPB members everyone else thought that this was an important issue. The claim that the RMT are backing the electoral bloc when the RMT as a union has not discussed it or voted on it has no basis in reality.

As the meeting went on CPB members became more and more embarrassed with Hawkins spending a good five minutes with his head in his hands. Hopefully he had just realised that Stalinism and its half witted adherents will face opposition whenever they climb out of the safety of the trade union bureaucracy. Tempers did begin to fray and instead of discussing with the female comrade from the Green Left Hawkins gave a sharp one liner that ended in “love”, to which she replied “comrade would have been fine”. So not only is the CPB happily promoting left nationalism it’s members are also happy to be derogatory towards female comrades who are critical. Sexism has always been apart of this movement, and it is no surprise an old Stalinist is intent on perpetuating it.

The meeting was brought to an abrupt end as the CPB decided they would organise the campaign via email. They quickly ran out of the building even forgetting to pay for the room. It was one of the most farcical launch meetings I have ever been too.

Stalinists beware, internationalists are everywhere!