Looking Forward to Advancing Our Work in 2021
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As we enter the New Year, RCPB(ML) pays tribute first and foremost to its activists and circles and all their efforts to advance the work of the Party in the challenging conditions of 2020. The working class and people too in the conditions of the pandemic, in the refusal of those in power to guarantee the safety and interests of the people as a whole, are demonstrating that they have the potential to constitute the new authority. The future is that of taking hold of what belongs to them by right, and in this it can be said that now is the time for the working class of England, Scotland and Wales to show what they are made of.
In the conditions of the pandemic and the anti-worker, anti-social offensive, and the attempts to crush the resolve and initiative of the working people, working people have shown that they are by no means reconciled to being spectators to the programme and agenda of the ruling elite. On the contrary, their spirit is to build the resistance movement to the anti-social offensive and refuse to be reconciled to relinquishing control of their lives to any other force. They are showing their will to fight for peace and justice, and, most importantly, to engage in the battle of democracy.
The fight of the Irish people for the reunification of Ireland, and to put the Irish people themselves in control of the destiny of the island of Ireland has also been evident. The Westminster elite, showing its contempt for this right, as well as for the rule of law, attempted to turn back the clock with such measures as the Internal Markets Bill. But the motion of the people of the whole of Ireland to decide on their own future is an irresistible one.
In 2021, there is much work to do to continue to challenge the status quo, and for the working class and people to set their sights on a way out of the all-round crisis which favours them. It goes beyond the issue that the Westminster government is not listening to the voices of those who have the solutions. It is that the old authority is in shambles, and demonstrating that at base what it relies on is its police powers. In these circumstances, the fight of the working class to defend its dignity, defend its rights and defend that its security lies in fact in affirming the rights of all, is crucial. Workers have shown this resilience during the pandemic of 2020.
The government lacks mandate for its actions. Its claim that it is acting on behalf of all the communities and the nations within Britain and that “we are all in this together”, is a pretext to attempt to act with impunity and without any recourse to be held to account. The cause for dignity and optimism which pervades the stands and actions of the working people are not the counterfeit “optimism” and “confidence” promoted by the ruling elite. It is not imperialist globalisation which is a guarantee of the defence of rights and peace and social justice, but the resistance struggle of the people themselves. This is a common struggle of the working class and people throughout Europe.
What kind of society is it where the government openly declares that to call for the end of preserving the rotten capitalist system and its associated anachronistic and dysfunctional liberal-democratic institutions is “extremist”? The “optimism” and “confidence” of the ruling elites that in 2021, the peoples of Britain have their freedom in their hands ring very hollow, and are not shared by the working people. It is inconceivable that a few wrong policies, attributable to one party or another, to one leader or another, can account for the crisis, chaos and incoherence. The forums and collectives of the working people themselves in opposition, reaching the conclusion that a fundamental change in direction of the economy and the safeguarding of the social and natural environments are required, are giving the lie to this ludicrous and dangerous definition of “extremism”.
In this respect, we pay the utmost tribute to the key workers themselves, the healthcare workers and professionals, the teachers, social care workers and others, who have had to perform heroic deeds in a situation where this very system of privatisation, cutbacks and enrichment for the very few have created intolerable conditions. Yet they have continued under all the stress, collectivising their experience, acting with full responsibility, and speaking out.
Globalisation under the control of the financial oligarchy is a disaster with threats of world war increasing with every passing day. The stand of many political and working class leaders for peace and justice in this context is what the ruling elite cannot stomach and tries to eradicate its influence. The working class of Britain has a vital role to play as a contingent of the working class internationally fighting against the wars of aggression of the imperialist powers, fighting to establish an anti-war government, and establishing a new framework of action and thinking. It remains an urgent necessity to step up the work towards establishing such an anti-war government, with its modern democratic personality, its participation by the people themselves, who wish for peace and justice, and direct their anger and organisation against the ruling elites in positions of power, and who themselves want decision-making power.
The struggle against state-organised racism and police violence has been one of the hallmarks of 2020. The year has been one where the under-cover policing has also been exposed, in which the state has attempted to undermine and block the people's movement and the resistance to the attacks on rights. This struggle too will continue in 2021, despite the attempts to render the opposition passive.
We reaffirm our anti-imperialist solidarity with the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America, Oceania and the Caribbean fighting for their rights, and all the peoples affirming their right to be. RCPB(ML) salutes the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban people, the Workers' Party of Korea and the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and the Communist Party of Vietnam and the people of that country on this occasion. We stand as one with all our fraternal parties.
In our work for 2021 there are many challenges, but this is vital work and the Party is determined to fulfil its responsibilities to the maximum. It is a case of going all out to get rid of the Old and to bring in the New, the fight for a human-centred society, the fight for and the unfolding of the independent programme of the working class to which RCPB(ML) is dedicated. This is a fight taken up for solution, with the perspective that new forms of governance have to be brought into being.
We once again extend our heartfelt greetings to all the democratic and justice-loving forces in motion, and wish everyone the greatest success in 2021!
