The YCL’s 51st congress: working class democracy and renewing the communist movement
This weekend the Young Communist League’s 51st congress will meet at Ruskin House, Croydon, the contemporary home of Britain’s resurgent communist movement. The event will welcome over 100 delegates, representing branches, districts and nations from across Britain, to discuss and debate the current position and the future plans of our Party and YCL.
Haiti loses all elected government officials
Haiti’s last sitting Senators left office on Monday, January 9, leaving the country with no elected government officials. Much of Haiti’s legislature has sat empty since 2020, after planned elections failed to be completed, and now the country’s last 10 Senators have reached the end of their terms too.
Algeria holds parliamentary election, with many boycotting
Algeria’s first parliamentary election since the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been held amid mass calls for a boycott. Those choosing not to vote include the decentralised Hirak movement, who pushed against the former President in his attempt to stand for a fifth term.
Communists on Queen’s Speech: ‘Tory talk can’t be trusted’
Communist Party General Secretary Robert Griffiths issued the following statement today in response to the Tory government’s Queen’s Speech. “When a Boris Johnson government talks about renewing and strengthening democracy, it’s time to count the spoons.”
Philip Mountbatten dead at 99
Buckingham Palace announced this afternoon (9 April 2021) that the Philip, so-called ‘Duke of Edinburgh’, had died. The BBC’s stations all took a moment of silence before a rendition of God Save the Queen was broadcast throughout the country. Flags will be flown at half mast, and testimonials will follow from across the political spectrum.
Communists warn of growing threat to freedoms
“Despite his reputation as a ‘Tory libertarian’, Boris Johnson’s government is now attacking democratic freedoms on a scale that cannot be justified by the Covid emergency”, Alex Gordon told a meeting of the Communist Party’s Political Committee on Wednesday evening (24 March 2021).
Young people are disillusioned with capitalism – not democracy
A prominent study published towards the end of 2020 through Cambridge University made the stark finding that “This is the first generation in living memory to have a global majority who are dissatisfied with the way democracy works while in their twenties and thirties”, receiving significant coverage in parts of Britain’s media.
Socialist Democracy and Real Human Rights
Robin Talbot discusses the limitations of bourgeois democracy under capitalism, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the promise of real human rights through socialism.
22. Dictatorship & Democracy
In liberal ideology, dictatorship and democracy are commonly thought of as occupying opposite ends of a spectrum against which all forms of government can be measured. Typically, bourgeois parliamentary democracy, as practised in the US and western Europe, occupies one end and is held up as the gold standard. This conception is based on an entirely false understanding of class society.
