Communist Party of Great Britain

The British Road to Socialism (1968)

Building a Socialist Society


Towards Political Power

The logical outcome of the fight to extend democracy, to weaken and undermine the power now held and exercised by monopoly capitalism, is the winning of political power by the working class and its allies.

Without such a revolutionary change in society socialism cannot be built. Without such a revolution every advance that has been made in living standards and democracy will be threatened again and again.

The people of different countries have taken power into their own hands in different ways, according to the conditions in their own countries and in the world as a whole. So also the people in Britain will take power in their own way, on the basis of their historical conditions and traditions.

But whatever the conditions in any country there are certain essential requirements for the advance to socialism in every country, including Britain. Power must be taken by the working class, supported by a broad popular alliance. The working class must establish a new socialist state to defend the new social system from opposition both within the country and from outside, and to set about the building of socialism. To carry through this gigantic task the working people need a Communist Party to help lead and organise the struggle, and develop international solidarity and relations with other countries.

The working people through the experience of the struggle carried out under socialist leadership, and helped by the constant exploration of socialist ideas, will come to understand the need to win political power. The broad popular alliance that they have established in the Course of united action for a common democratic programme will give them the strength to apply the knowledge they have gained.

In the course of struggle important inroads will be made into the power of the monopolists economic, political and social. The aim must be increasingly to isolate the monopolists and the Tories, to break the right-wing domination of the labour movement, and to win a left majority in the Labour Party.

Working class unity, vital for effective democratic struggle against monopoly capitalism, is doubly necessary for winning political power and building socialism. It is the heart of the wider political alliance. Political co—operation between the left majority in the Labour Party when it is won and the Communist Party is indispensable for successful advance to socialism.

By Peaceful Means

It is in the best interests of the working people, of the vast majority of the nation, that this mass struggle for political power should be carried through by peaceful means, without civil war.

The struggle for political power will be intense, will go through many phases and take many forms. In the Parliamentary field the aim must be to win a Parliamentary majority, pledged to decisive socialist change and actively backed by the working people. Such a Parliament would be very different from What we have today.

It will not be simple to achieve this. There will be advances and setbacks. Political power must be won; and in the struggle for power, the winning of a majority in Parliament, supreme organ of representative power, is one of the essential steps.

When a socialist majority in Parliament is won it will need the support of the mass movement outside Parliament to uphold the decisions it has taken in Parliament. Conversely, the Parliamentary decisions will give legal endorsement to popular aims and popular struggles.

The strength of the mass movement will be felt in Parliament, and the strength of the socialist movement within Parliament will strengthen the movement outside. The one supports the other.

In this way, by political action, using our democratic rights to transform traditional institutions, Parliament can be made into the effective instrument of the people's will, able to carry through major legislation to challenge capitalist power, and replace capitalism by socialism.

These developments, this programme, will have to be fought for 'by the mass movement at every step, with conscious understanding of the issues at stake. The ruling class will not easily surrender wealth and power. On the contrary, it will strive by every means, direct and indirect, constitutional and unconstitutional, to restrain and impede the popular movement, to break its strength or sap its unity. Against all such attempts popular vigilance and mass action will be essential.

The working class and popular movement will need to be ready to use its organised strength to prevent or defeat attempts at violence against it, its organisations or representatives, or other illegal actions by reactionary forces at home or by agents of their foreign allies.

There will be particular dangers of such resort to force at crucial stages of the struggle, for instance when a general election is likely to result in a socialist majority; or even more when a socialist government has been returned and is taking essential measures to break the economic and political power of the monopolies.

The extent to which the popular movement, above all its working class core, is informed and vigilant, the extent to which it is geared to bring all its formidable strength into play in support of socialist policies, will be the decisive factor. This strength will determine whether the verdict is accepted, or whether, in defence of their interests, the capitalists resist by force.

We believe that this is a perspective that can be achieved, that the working class and popular movement can, at a time of mounting class struggle, in which the overwhelming majority of the people is in action, be brought to the vital challenging stage where a general election, fought on the issue of socialist change, can bring decisive results. This country has a labour movement which potentially is most powerful, with a high degree of organisation embodying long experience and a strong democratic tradition. There are growing numbers in the professions and elsewhere who, once working class unity is established and a popular movement in being, would be ready to join their efforts to ensure a fundamental reorientation of the economy and assist in developing socialism. In these circumstances a socialist Labour and Communist majority could be returned to Parliament, and a socialist government established. This government, with the backing of the people and their powerful mass organisations, would begin to carry through the change to socialism.

Main Tasks of a Socialist Government

A primary task of the socialist government would be to deprive monopoly capitalism of economic and political power, ensure that political control remained in the hands of the freely elected representatives of the people, build up a state loyal to the working people and initiate measures to reconstruct the economy on socialist lines.

This would entail:

The determined application of these principles, the carrying out of these policies would break the hold of capitalism over the industry and wealth of the country, and radically undermine its power over the minds of the people. For the first time British democracy would really be democracy for the people.

The aim would be to carry out these changes peacefully, as part of a programme planned to promote the welfare and assure the future of the British people. Only against illegal opposition would the force of the law be invoked; only in the case of violence against the socialist government would forceful measures be taken by the state and the people.

Socialist Democracy

Democratically organised political parties, including those hostile to socialism, would have the right to maintain their organisation, publications and propaganda, and to contest elections. With proportional representation the electors would operate their choice fully in contrast with the present unrepresentative, and in effect, two-party system.

Elections would give the people the opportunity to discuss and modify policy and to decide what government they wanted.

A socialist government which bases its policies on popular interests and aspirations, and consults and in— forms the people at every stage, can be confident of retaining the popular support won for its programme. Such a government sees its task both to lead and accept the guidance of the people.

A socialist Parliament would obviously involve new principles, as the aim would be for the control of the country's affairs to be administered by the people through their elected representatives. To ensure this the House of Commons would have to become the sole legislative body. There would be no place for the House of Lords and the Monarchy in a socialist Britain.

The socialist majority, now truly representative, would be directly answerable to those who elected them, would consult with them, and encourage their activities.

The House of Commons would be a real national forum as well as a decision-making body, debating statements of policy as well as voting upon Bills, drawing on the views of all relevant public organisations in discussing particular issues. It would have standing committees to enable individual members to learn about and influence administrative policies, so that these were constantly brought under public scrutiny.

If Welsh and Scottish Parliaments were not already in being, one of the first measures of a socialist government would be to establish them. The peoples of Wales and Scotland would need to develop the most effective, democratic forms of self-government in the process of the common effort to build socialism. The peoples of Britain together would work out the best forms of association to fulfil their national, democratic and social aspirations.

A socialist government requires a socialist state machine. Without this the political power of the people, expressed in the democratic decision of the electoral majority, cannot be effective nor can socialism be built.

The leading positions in the Ministries and departments, the armed forces and the police, the nationalised industries and other authorities must, therefore, be filled by men and women loyal to socialism and with experience of the problems and way of life of the people. This ensures that the socialist policies determined on by Parliament are fully implemented, The aim is to make the socialist state machinery the servant of the people and their needs.

Great responsibilities would devolve on the trade unions. Independent of the state and retaining all their rights, they would not only negotiate on all questions affecting members, but would have a leading part to play in economic planning, in promoting scientific and technological change and in ensuring that the workers and the people as a whole benefited from it.

One of the main objectives attainable under socialist ownership of the key industries would be the development of industrial democracy. Autocratic managerial control as it exists under state monopoly capitalism would be replaced by democratic management. This would involve workers' participation in management at all levels - in the planning of industry as a whole - in the individual factories and departments of factories and at workshop level, with the right to inspect the books. The workers would play their part in determining the overall economic plan through the exercise of their rights as citizens.

The great extension of industrial democracy, with workers having the dominant say in determining environment and conditions of work, becomes possible with the removal of barriers between workers and management. This comes about with the elimination of the irreconcilable conflict between them, which exists as long as private ownership is the basis of production.

It would be the function of the trade unions, responsible to the membership, to safeguard the interests of the workers. And it would be obligatory on existing managements, in co-operation with the trade unions, to provide training and retraining so that all workers could add to and change their skills, increase their scientific and general knowledge and fit themselves for managerial responsibilities.

Co-operation as a form of public ownership would also have an important part in a socialist society, with all facilities necessary to make its full contribution in distribution, production and all democratic activity.

Civil Liberties

Civil liberties, won through the centuries, would be consolidated and extended.

They would include:

The basic rights and freedoms would be embodied in a code of citizen's rights, backed by the full force of the law. There would be constant public education, particularly in the schools, to combat racialist views in any form.

The judiciary would be independent of the executive, and no longer be drawn, as at present, from a small privileged section of the community. Magistrates would come from nominations by the trade unions, co—operatives, and other representative organisations.

Arbitrary acts of officials would be subject to appeal to a democratically elected and locally based organisation; and a free legal and advice system would provide the necessary service for those who require it. The right to sit on a jury would be extended by the removal of all property qualifications. Corporal punishment and the death penalty would be abolished

Press Freedom

The reorganisation of the press and other mass media, and the dissolution of the press monopolies would ensure the expression of a variety of views, and the transmission of news without distortion for commercial ends.

Newspapers and periodicals would be owned and controlled by political parties and social groups, trade unions, co—operatives and professional associations, organisations for women, youth and those catering for particular fields of literature, art and sport.

Publicly-owned regional and local radio and television would be expected to give widespread coverage to events and opinions, extending opportunities to all social, religious and democratic political groups.

Creative artistic activity, experiment and innovation would be encouraged Without any administrative interference. Facilities for exhibition and performance would be made available. There would be full support for scientific inquiry in the natural and social sciences. Free confrontation of ideas would be encouraged.

Such measures, using the educational potentialities of the mass media to the full, would genuinely place them at the service of the people as a whole, and could be a major stimulus to democracy and to the development of critical and creative powers.

Labour and Communist Parties

The Communist Party and the Labour Party in which the right wing had been defeated, would be the political organisations of the working class, primarily responsible for the success of the building of socialism.

In working together for this end, in breaking down step by step the old bans and barriers, members of both parties could be drawn closer together, discuss long-term aims and deep political questions - the nature of socialism, Marxism and the Marxist outlook. The Communist Party believes that, in the course of such action and joint discussion, a common approach would increasingly be found. We do not and will not in any way seek to impose Marxist ideas on the members of the Labour Party. Acceptance of the Marxist standpoint can only come through personal conviction, as the fruit of experience, discussion, argument and study.

Only when and if the majority of Labour Party members come to accept Marxist ideas will the foundation be laid for a single united Marxist party. The formation of such a party would, in our view, greatly strengthen the British labour and progressive movement

Socialist Nationalisation and Planning

The social ownership of all the main industries and national resources makes possible for the first time effective national planning. The vast potential of modern science and technology—automation, cybernetics, advanced techniques and new sources of energy - can really be used and developed for the public benefit.

Socialist nationalisation is quite different from nationalisation undertaken within a capitalist state, bureaucratically organised, restricted mainly to the utilities and in the interests of the privately-owned sector. It serves the community as a whole.

It entails no compensation,except for reasonable life annuities to individuals paid by the state, thus avoiding debt charges of the kind that have crippled formerly nationalised industries. Funds to modernise and expand publicly-owned industries and services under socialism come from the state budget.

A socialist government would produce draft plans to rebuild industry on socialist lines for discussion in the House of Commons and by the nation at large. Once Parliament had decided on priorities, it would devolve on a new national planning authority to prepare plans in consultation with bodies at all levels - financial and industrial, regional, local and at factory level, with trade unions, co-operatives and consumer organisations. These plans would then come before Parliament for further discussion, finalisation and enactment.

Socialist nationalisation would extend to all large-scale privately-owned productive enterprises, to large-scale privately-owned multiple wholesale and retail concerns, the privately-owned banks, insurance companies and institutions, and to the land of large landowners as well as to urban land, except that of owner occupiers. Nationalised industries would form the core of a planned economy guided by the socialist government and state. Their boards would be composed of workers, technicians, technologists, scientists and managers with direct experience of the industry.

Socialist ownership and control of the country's wealth would allow for decisions on a proper investment policy, which would in turn define the scope of development for different industries in relation to one another and to general needs, High growth rates would result from planned investment accompanied by the rapid application in all fields of new techniques, automation, computering and nuclear power.

As a result the government could plan with full confidence for an expansion of exports of capital goods and consumer goods. It could at the same time set out steadily to improve the standard of living at home, partly through wage increases and a shorter working day, partly by devoting far more of the national product to social expenditure - on housing, education, health, pensions, social benefits and town planning.

As in industry, so on the land, socialist nationalisation of large estates Could bring decisive changes, making possible for the first time the planned use of resources for homes and recreation, as well as for industrial and agricultural development.

Key aims would be the production of considerably more foodstuffs of all kinds to lessen dependence on imports, improve the national diet and contribute to overcoming the present world shortage.

All forms of co-operation developed by working farmers, including buying, marketing, use of machinery, building and cultivation would be encouraged. Some large state farms would be established as model enterprises and for purposes of scientific research.

Amenities in the countryside, particularly transport, health and welfare, could be improved to close the gap between urban and rural living conditions Agricultural workers could be guaranteed wages commensurate with their skill and importance to the economy, and adequate non—tied housing near their jobs.

In the supply and distribution of consumer goods the co-operative movement would make a key contribution to the national plan. There would be room to extend (to-operative forms of organisation, particularly in handicrafts, fishing and farming, and to develop the co-operative production of consumer goods.

The nationalisation. of large-scale industries and trades, the planning of their production and of public services, would assist small owners who have hitherto been progressively squeezed out by the monopolies. They would benefit, too, from the increased purchasing power of the people. Working farmers, craftsmen, small retailers and shopkeepers, would continue to provide essential services.

The dangers of over-centralisation of planning could be avoided by wide consultation, not only in the preparation of plans, but also in carrying them out. This would be done by drawing in workers at all levels of industry, by according regional and local responsibility for enterprises wherever possible, and by paying close attention to consumer demand and providing for its expression through encouragement of public criticism and advice.

Under socialism financial policy is a means of ensuring proper use of the country's resources. It operates to allocate labour, plant, materials and land, and to produce in a planned way what is needed to increase productive power and improve the general standard of life.

The budget of a socialist government would therefore be of a quite different pattern from those of capitalist governments.

The main sources of revenue would be the publicly-owned enterprises. Personal taxation would take a simple form, free of the present anomalies; and the aim would be to keep indirect taxation down. The present rating system would be abolished. Budget expenditure would include funds for the further expansion of industrial and agricultural production (the source of new wealth), allowing for a systematic expansion of social services and benefits.

Large resources would become available with cancellation of the national debt, providing compensation to small investors. Drastic cuts in expenditure on armaments and the ending of overseas bases would release enormous funds hitherto put to unproductive use.

Foreign Policy

A socialist government would have no interest in acquiring territory beyond its own boundaries, or in profiting from investments in underdeveloped countries. It would therefore pursue a genuine policy of peace, play a consistent role in strengthening the peace forces throughout the world work to prevent imperialist aggression and show solidarity with all states and peoples fighting against imperialism.

It would take a firm stand against colonialism in every form, and for the right of all people to self-determination and full independence. It would pursue an independent foreign policy with these key aims:

Regional Government, Town Planning and Housing

A socialist government, seeking to extend democracy, would decentralise the machinery of government and planning. Democratically elected regional councils would plan for economic and social development throughout the region. Town and country planning could be effectively undertaken as a result of nationalisation of the land, without the burden of compensation and with the exclusion of speculative building.

The destruction and decay of natural environment, the heritage of capitalism, would step by step be overcome by large-scale urban and land renewal. Special attention and facilities could be given to areas which, under capitalism, were allowed to deteriorate. It would be the aim of planning to bring about a better distribution of population, and create balanced opportunities of employment and equal distribution of educational and cultural facilities and amenities.

The main directions of a socialist policy would be:

Housing is already a responsibility of local authorities. Once it has been released from the burden of interest charges, inflated land prices, monopolies in the building and building materials industries, it becomes possible to provide each family with a separate house or flat at a low rent or purchase price.

The main aims of a socialist policy would therefore be:

Health and Social Security

To a socialist society people matter, and a new high priority is given to services for health and welfare. They are allocated the proportion of the national income necessary to promote expansion, and the allocation increases as socialism becomes more firmly established.

Therefore, under a socialist government health services would be free and available to all with no means test and the interests of the patient would be paramount. The bureaucracy and inhumanity which still cling to some of our public services, would be eliminated. A community run by the people for the people would accord, as of right, care to its children and aged, to those in need or distress.

Good health is not simply the avoidance of disease, but is a positive state of well-being. Among other things this requires good housing and earnings, security and enjoyment of work, longer holidays and the facilities to make them restful and enjoyable, the elimination of air pollution and control of industrial processes to eliminate the danger of accident and disease.

A socialist health service would place particular emphasis on preventive medicine, encouraging this by an imaginative programme of health education. There would be efficient ante-natal and maternity services. Every mother could have a hospital confinement if she so wished. Priority would be given to regular health checks beginning with the new-born baby and continuing at regular intervals throughout life. An occupational health service would safeguard the health of the workers. A curative service would include a comprehensive modern dental service, and offer the highest standards of medical care for all.

The cumbersome present tripartite division of the medical services, which perpetuates the harmful isolation of hospitals from the rest of the health service, would be ended. Instead, area health boards could co-ordinate all the health facilities of an area. Democratic representation would ensure that all interested sections of the community participated in the running of the health service. This would result in greater efficiency, and a sympathetic and humane attitude to sick people.

In a unified health service the general practitioner would co-ordinate GP and welfare services, functioning as leader in a health team based on efficient, well-staffed health centres, and working in close liaison with the district hospital. This could help eliminate the wasteful use and deployment of scarce manpower.

There would be a great increase in new hospital building to provide sufficient beds of all kinds, taking into account the special needs of the old and the young. Hospital waiting times could he reduced to a minimum. The vast problem of effective and humane treatment of the mentally ill would require not only a large extension of modern hospital beds, but the training of large numbers of medical and nursing staff of all grades with specialised experience, and the provision of proper after-care facilities for the patients' return to the community.

An up-to-date accident service would provide the most efficient available treatment for accident cases, including rehabilitation, and could co-ordinate research in this important subject.

It should be a main aim to ensure adequate resources for all medical research, which has hitherto been starved of finances.

The health service would need to be properly staffed and recruitment of all grades encouraged, with more medical students from the working class, and health workers encouraged to become doctors, should they want to. In a planned socialist society, wages and conditions of work in this vital field, in which so many women are engaged, would be commensurate with the responsibilities and the value placed on this work.

Social security depends on narrowing the gap between earnings and the payments accorded to the sick, disabled, temporarily unemployed, or retired. This would be the policy of a socialist government, to be implemented progressively as social wealth increased.

All working people would qualify for pensions and other services sufficient to support them in retirement. Those who had retired after a lifetime's service to the community would be treated as honoured citizens. But opportunities to engage gainfully in new occupations would be provided without loss of pension, as well as the special kinds of housing and welfare services needed. Pensions and other benefits would not depend on deductions from wages and salaries, but the cost would be met out of the total social product. Family allowances would be sufficient to maintain each child during childhood and during the years spent in education. In these ways the poverty line could be eliminated, and families now below it enabled to take a full part in community life.

Education, The Arts and Research

Socialist society can only develop through a system of full education for all. Such education opens up opportunities for young and old, provides the specialists and experts, the trained and skilled people who can make the most of the country's resources add to them and explore new prospects.

The proportion of the national income accorded to education, the scope given for the development of facilities of all kinds, is the measure of a community's belief in itself and its future. So a socialist government would accord first priority to educational expenditure.

New discoveries, applied in a planned way, would revolutionise work in most spheres and make ,possible the cutting back of working hours. What society would need at such a time of rapid technological change and sc1entific advance, would be men and women who combined sound and broadly based knowledge with imagination, resourcefulness, flexibility of mind. This would call for an end to narrow over-specialisation in school and university, for the provision of new courses of study covering a wide field, but geared to discovery innovation, creative work. It would demand new kinds of education to increase the skills, widen the interests and promote enjoyment of all ages, and foster a critical and forward-looking spirit.

It would be one of the main aims of a socialist government to provide educational services of this kind not only through schools and colleges, but through radio teleViSion, the press, publishing houses, the cinema, concerts, theatre, opera and ballet; through libraries, museums and art galleries; through sporting activities of all kinds; through public discussion, debates lectures scientific demonstrations. This could be the main way of ensuring that the people as a whole participated in and contributed to advances in knowledge enjoyment of the arts, and the extension of human achievement It would be the best guarantee that the most would be made of the abilities of all.

The foundation for an education which continues throughout life is laid in the schools and the home. Qualified workers from day nurseries and child welfare clinics would be available to help parents. Nursery education would be provided up to school entry age. The schools of a socialist society would all be genuinely public schools, maintained by and open to all the community from the nursery to university age. There would be no private fee-paying schools. The schools would provide programmes planned to stimulate mental and physical development, to ensure that the new generation was able to undertake tasks of a kind that, in this age of revolutionary discovery, we cannot yet know. Provision would be made for children's leisure activities. Special services for the physically and mentally handicapped would be extended. There would be full secondary education for all, with full maintenance provided for those who continued their full-time studies.

Colleges and universities would be planned to provide for increasing numbers, and be geared to the needs of a planned society, in the interests of both individuals and the community. All would be encouraged to combine teaching with research, so that students were brought to the frontiers of present knowledge and saw it as their task to extend them.

Besides sandwich courses for those entering industry, and courses to add to skills in particular fields, there would be ways back into full-time courses for workers in all spheres. At a time when techniques change rapidly, when knowledge is advancing on so many fronts, this is essential to ensure that industries, the arts, social services, are manned by those acquainted with and able to apply new discoveries and methods.

Encouragement and financial assistance would be given to popular organisations of all kinds promoting drama, music, literature, the visual arts, the cultivation of particular fields of study or activity. It would be the aim to provide facilities for these, rather than to pro- mote them directly, so that they could remain under the control and administration of those concerned. The same would apply in the case of youth organisations, which have too often been "led", too seldom provided with the room and materials they need to promote their own activities.

With such aid, extended also to the professional theatre, cinema, opera, orchestras, present divisions between the artist and his audience could be overcome. There would be a new understanding with a new enjoyment of all forms of artistic endeavour, whether undertaken directly or in the work of others. Innovation and experiment in the arts would be encouraged.

A socialist government would extend the same principles to cover technological and scientific research. Socialist forms of organisation and participation in the factories could provide great scope for invention and innovation at the bench and in the workshop, building up to the level of production promotion and laboratory research. In offices and hospitals, in work of all kinds, links could be forged to encourage and facilitate a creative approach to work, which is the foundation of all research.

Highly specialised research institutes would be encouraged to maintain links with education on the one hand, production on the other, and to keep workers in the relevant fields continuously informed of research in progress, its direction and significance.

By all these means a socialist government would help to cultivate, draw on, direct into new fields, the infinitely various abilities of people, and ensure for them constructive and creative outlets. This would enrich not only the community but individual lives, would open up quite fresh opportunities, call on people to rise to them and to value properly their contributions. It would invest life with a purpose, make it infinitely worth while.