| The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
success- fully held its 3rd Congress, the Party’s highest decision-making
body, in London, beginning its proceedings on March 19 and concluding on March
21, 1999. 
RCPB(ML) came to its 3rd Congress as the culmination of the period of its work
which began on January 2, 1994. The Party and its cadres also came to the
Congress with the experience and deliberations of the two National Consultative
Conferences of 1998 behind them. The agenda of the Congress centred around the
problems the Party had taken up for solution, the work which it had identified
as crucial, in extricating society from its crisis.
The Congress took place at a crucial time for the working class and people. In
the situation where the capitalist crisis is extremely acute, Tony Blair has
been brought to power as the champion of the bourgeoisie to actually carry
Thatcherism forward. The Congress put forward that in this situation, the Party
must articulate the vision of the new society and the way forward into the 21st
century which the objective conditions are pointing towards, to give confidence
to the workers’ movement, and imbue it with the revolutionary theory based
on settling scores with the old philosophic conscience and as part of the
summing up of the workers’ and communist movement world-wide in the 20th
century. The Congress pointed out that such a revolutionary theory will give an
invincible quality to the proletarian movement for emancipation. It pointed out
that the Party must work out the modern arrangements that require to be made to
advance the communist and workers’ movement in the conditions of retreat
of revolution as well as the coming revolutionary storms. The Congress pointed
out that the Party must formulate the immediate as well as the strategic
political tasks that the working class needs to elaborate to lead all of
society out of the crisis, and that it must set the tasks which the Party must
now undertake and the aims it sets for itself in advancing on its line of
march. These were the themes of the Congress. They were summed up in the
slogans of the Congress: Forward into the 21st Century! For a Socialist
Britain!
The banner of the 3rd Congress with these slogans and the logo of the Congress,
inscribed with the Party’s red star and hammer and sickle, was hung
prominently at the front of the Congress hall. It is reproduced on the back
page of Workers’ Weekly.
At 2.55 pm on Friday, March 19, a representative of the Central Committee, to
prolonged applause, declared the 3rd Congress of the Revolutionary Communist
Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) open.
He then welcomed the delegates and observers and announced the presence of the
fraternal delegates and observers participating in the Congress proceedings.
Following this, the Congress elected a seven-person Presidium. The Congress
Rules and Agenda were then discussed and adopted. As never before, those that
have participated in the work of the Party were those that participated in
formulating the Agenda and the 52 pages of material on which the Congress
deliberations were based.
The Political Report to the 3rd Congress on the Work of the Central Committee
of RCPB(ML) was then given. At the commencement of the report, the
representative of the Central Committee called on those present to remember all
those comrades who have fallen since the last Congress of RCPB(ML) in 1987,
particularly our beloved Comrade Hardial Bains. The Congress observed a minute
of silence in their memory. The Political Report declared that with this 3rd
Congress, RCPB(ML) proclaims that it is standing firmly on its own feet. This
can only be done if at the same time any theory of exceptionalism is rejected.
The Party does not hold that there is a peculiarly British road to socialism,
nor that the issue is to build socialism with peculiarly British
characteristics. Standing on our own feet means that we are capable of dealing
with the world as it is and not as a category of ideas. In this context, the
Report summarised the line of march of RCPB(ML) since January 1994. It summed
up the objective situation in the light of the anti-social offensive which is
being carried out in Britain by the Labour government, and condemned Tony
Blair’s “Third Way” which seeks to conciliate the class
struggle. And it assessed the importance of the fighting programme for the
working class: Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social
Programmes!
In setting the seal on the entire work of this period, the Report explained,
the holding of the 3rd Congress is something which is quite momentous. It
pointed out that since the 2nd Congress of the Party in 1987, the world has
gone through a historic turning point. The main and crucial aspect of the
Party’s and the Central Committee’s role during this period, it
declared, is that the Party of John Buckle, Cornelius Cardew and the many other
comrades who worked to the utmost to build the Party and to give it life not
only survived, but is here today holding its 3rd Congress. This declaration was
fervently applauded by the delegates. The Report affirmed that the Party was
never reconciled to a situation where it had difficulty finding its bearings or
a situation which could be described as “groping in the dark”. It was
this factor of not being reconciled to the situation, a determination that the
Party should live, and a realisation that only the work of the Party itself
could ultimately transform the situation that were the basis for the Party to
once again make its own history.
The Report declared that as a historic stage in its forward march, with this
Congress the Party is rising to meet the challenge of opening the path to take
society into the 21st century on a new basis. It affirmed that in preparing for
the coming revolutionary storms, the Party must build itself in the heart of
the working class so that the class is organised and made conscious that it
must take control of what belongs to it and empower the broad masses of the
people. The Party and the working class should elaborate and fight right now
for their vision of a socialist society, of a socialist Britain, a modern
society in modern colours, proletarian colours, the Report concluded. It was
met with a vigorous standing ovation, and it ended the proceedings of the first
day of the Congress. 
The Political Report set the tone for the deliberations of the Congress which
took place on the second day, March 20. The agenda items dealt with the key
theoretical, ideological, political, organisational and practical issues facing
the Party and the class – problems which demand solution. In pointing
towards the future, the orientation of the discussions centred on building the
communist party on the new historical basis as the most crucial factor in
bringing about the transformation of society to socialism through revolution.
The discussions were successfully completed.
The morning of the third day, March 21, was allocated to a closed session in
which the new Central Committee was elected. At the commencement of the
afternoon session, it was announced that a new seven-member Central Committee
of the Party, its leading body between Congresses, had been elected.
Three-quarters of its new candidate members are women. It was announced that
the Central Committee had held its First Plenum and had re-elected Chris
Coleman as National Spokesperson for RCPB(ML).
The Congress received messages of greetings from a number of fraternal
organisations abroad as well as from British organisations and individuals. As
well as these, the Congress was addressed by the leaders of the delegations
attending the Congress from the Communist Organisation of Britain, Jammu
Kashmir Liberation Front, Indian Workers Association (G.B.), New Communist
Party of Britain, Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist), Communist
Ghadar Party of India, and by Sandra Smith, National Leader and First Secretary
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).
The Third Congress of RCPB(ML) to enthusiastic applause adopted Resolutions on
the Party’s programme and political tasks for the coming period. These are
published separately. 
In his concluding remarks, a representative of the new Central Committee said,
“It was in July last year that we resolved to hold this 3rd Congress at
the time of the 20th anniversary of our Party. There was much work to be done
from that time but it has been accomplished and we are here and the 3rd
Congress has been held. It is also five years since the launch of our draft
document There Is a Way Out of the Crisis which has now been formally
adopted by the Congress. This alone constitutes a great victory for the
Congress. But as the resolutions have pointed out, as the political report has
pointed out, there are great vistas opened up for the working class and people
but there are great responsibilities on the Party also to fulfil its duty in
organising the working class and people to bring about this socialist
revolution in Britain, to bring about a transformation of Britain into a modern
country with modern sovereign states and moving forward into the 21st Century
on a new basis, a socialist basis. We pledge to fulfil these responsibilities
on the path this 3rd Congress has charted.”
The Congress concluded with the singing of the first verse of The
Internationale and the shouting of the slogans: Hail the Victory of the
Third Congress! Forward into the 21st Century! For a Socialist Britain! Long
Live the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)! Workers
of All Countries, Unite! With pride in its accomplishments, the 3rd Congress of
the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) ended its
historic proceedings at 4.35 pm on Sunday, March 21, 1999. 
A closing cultural event celebrating the victorious 3rd Congress was held that
same evening. It was a festive event of music, song and poetry marked by great
enthusiasm. Its centrepiece was a powerful video celebrating the Congress,
which interspersed footage of the Congress itself with a mosaic of the
Party’s rich fighting history.
* * *
For further information on the 3rd Congress and on the Party, contact the
National Office of RCPB(ML) on 0171-627 0599. or
e-mail: office@rcpbml.org.uk
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