Communist Party of Britain and Morning Star

Fidel Castro, it is said, opposed personality cults and prohibited naming streets, public squares or institutions after himself. He likewise banned statues and monuments in his likeness. So we can only wonder what he would have made of the Morning Star of 13 August — his centenary — which was pretty much a Fidel fanzine. Starting with the nonsensical front-page headline (“100 Years Of Solidarity: From Havana To London”), the paper went on to devote an editorial and a further eight pages of breathless adulation to Fidel and Fidelismo — what the paper called “the life and legacy of a...

In general, Marxists tend to be sceptical about the concept of common sense, but sometimes, like Antonio Gramsci, we recognise good sense (“buon senso”) as the rational core within common sense.

Image shows an 100th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China logo in the Taxation Bureau of Fuding City 2021

June 23 marked the tenth anniversary of the referendum vote that took the UK out of the EU following a spectacularly dishonest campaign by the populist right and a pathetically inept official “Remain” campaign. Shamefully, much of the UK left advocated voting “Leave”, but dressed up their capitulation to the populist right by claiming their pathetic efforts (sometimes pretending to be a campaign calling itself “Lexit”) offered options different from those coming from victory for the nationalist and often racist campaigns being run by the two main “Leave” outfits, one run by Dominic Cummings...

The Communist Party of Britain’s executive committee, meeting on May 31st, agreed a statement which duly appeared in the Morning Star under the heading “Block the far right. Bin Starmer. Build the united front!” The statement can fairly be described it as a curate’s egg, but only if you use that expression in its original, ironic, 19th century sense (see below). The statement begins by noting that “the collapse in authority of the Starmer government is paving the way for a government of the far right.” But what do the comrades propose to do about it? Building the so-called Together Alliance, a...

Earlier this year the Communist Party of Britain issued a statement calling for tactical voting against Reform. This, they explained, could involve a Labour vote but only where the candidate is "left". The criteria by which the CPB would bestow the title "left" upon a Labour hopeful was not specified. The statement was clear, however, that Labour candidates "who have backed Starmer's most reactionary policies can expect no support from the Communist Party" - effectively ruling out a Labour vote in many situations. Support for non-Labour candidates would be "considered" where they advocate...

The Morning Star writer could scarcely contain his excitement: in an article headed “Central Europe in revolt as Hungary and Slovakia defy Brussels”, he enthused over the “scathing attack” launched by ministers of the two nations against “the EU’s handling of the Ukraine war, its energy security failures and its perceived incompetence in negotiating trade terms with the US.” In particular, the article noted (with obvious approval) the words of Hungary’s foreign minister and Slovakia’s vice-president “tearing into Brussels’ approach to international diplomacy … over the EU’s insistence on...

What advice will the Morning Star be giving socialists when it comes to voting on 7 May?

The antisemitic attack on four ambulances run by the Jewish charity Hatzola in north London, was roundly and unreservedly condemned by the Morning Star. The paper’s editorial immediately following the attack made a point of denouncing “the twisted logic” that holds Jewish people responsible for the actions of Israel. Surely we should expect nothing less from the paper of “Peace and Socialism”? Unfortunately, that is not always the case. In June 2018 the paper carried an article headed “Rising anti-semitism cannot be tackled without addressing Israel’s crimes.” The article claimed “mainstream...

Picture: Mossad logo Anyone writing about the Epstein files needs to bear in mind the words of Marina Hyde, writing recently in the Guardian: “all the bits of the fallout we’re focusing on now are a mass displacement activity, driven subconsciously or consciously by men so we don’t have to reckon with the fact that we now have searchable records of the way some of the most powerful guys in the world, who have huge sway over our lives, talk and think about women. And about girls”. But for John Green, author of the Morning Star’s only substantial piece on the scandal (8 March) “while the abuse...