Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

[[File:CPGB-MLmayday.jpg|right|165px|thumb|"Oi, Harpal, how do you think we should go about attracting more people to our cause?"<br>
"I know, let's march around waving a huge great poster of the second biggest mass-murdering bastard of the 20th century!"<br>
"Sounds like a plan!"]]
{{Communism}}

The '''Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)''' (or '''CPGB-ML''' for short) is a catchily-named [[British]] [[Communism|far-left]] party. It should not be confused with the Communist Party of Britain, the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist), the [[New Communist Party of Britain]], the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), or the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Naturally, their doctrinal disputes are only fundamental issues between themselves. The CPGB-ML was founded and led by '''Harpal Brar''' (1939–2025) until 2018, with '''Ella Rule''' succeeding as first comrade. It publishes a newsletter called ''Proletarian''.<ref>[https://thecommunists.org/proletarian/ Proletarian homepage], CPGB-ML website</ref> They are [[Stalin apologetics|Stalin apologists]].

Unlike most left-wingers they are [[transphobia|transphobic]] and generally hostile to [[LGBT]] rights, because "When you're older you'll understand the urge to have kids." (Never heard of adoption then.)<ref name=hodder>[https://www.ebb-magazine.com/essays/inside-the-last-days-of-the-cpgb-ml Inside the last days of the CPGB-ML], Lewis Hodder, Ebb Magazine, April 29, 2019</ref>

==History==
The party's origins were in the [[w:Socialist Labour Party (UK)|Socialist Labour Party]] (SLP) of [[w:Arthur Scargill|Arthur Scargill]] which Harpal Brar and his followers joined in 1997.<ref name=rogan>[https://medium.com/@JRogan3000/george-galloway-the-cpgb-ml-and-9-11-9eb8e3b5c991 George Galloway, the CPGB(ML) and 9/11.], John Rogan, Medium, July 9, 2021</ref> Brar, in a 1998 speech in Belgium, thought Scargill should treat his common derogatory epithet of being a Stalinist "with honour".<ref>[https://www.weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/290/brar-revelation-rocks-scargill/ "Brar revelation rocks Scargill"], Alan Fox, ''Weekly Worker'', May 27, 1999</ref> Both men were active in the [[w:Stalin Society|Stalin Society]], an organization which defends the long deceased Soviet tyrant with Brar serving as chairman.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stalin-apologists-drink-to-the-memory-of-uncle-joe-120991.html "Stalin apologists drink to the memory of Uncle Joe"], Andy McSmith & Severin Carrell, ''The Independent'', March 2, 2003</ref><ref>The Stalin Society was founded in 1991: [https://www.irishtimes.com/news/uncle-joe-s-hero-status-survives-demonising-disinformation-1.669204 "Uncle Joe's hero status survives 'demonising disinformation'"], ''The Irish Times'', October 28, 2010</ref> The Brar faction won a vote at the 2002 party congress of the SLP on a resolution calling for greater association with the Workers Party of [[North Korea|(North) Korea]], which Scargill had opposed.<ref name=proletarian1>[https://archive.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=10 Formation of the CPGB-ML], ''Proletarian'' Issue 1, August 2004</ref>

Brar and his allies on the SLP's National Executive Committee were expelled in May 2004 having disagreed over [[9/11]]. Scargill was anti-Al-Qaeda, while Brar and his allies were somewhat in favor of their actions on that day.<ref name=rogan/><ref>[https://weeklyworker.co.uk/worker/530/scargill-expels-brar/ "Scargill expels Brar"], ''Weekly Worker'', May 26, 2004</ref> The expulsions led to the formation of the CPGB-ML in early July 2004 under Harpal Brar's leadership.<ref name=rogan/><ref name=proletarian1/>

The party welcomed the [[2011 England riots]] as consisting of "working-class people expressing their rage in the only way they presently can"<ref>http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=754</ref> and published comments from an [[Australia]]n correspondent hailing the [[crime]]s as "an inspiring and heroic stance against all the wonderful 'freedoms' of [[capitalism]] ([[poverty]], [[racism]], despair, ''etc.''), and ... a shining example that the Australian proletariat should emulate."<ref>http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=756/</ref>

From around the time of its foundation in 2019, the CPGB-ML was involved with [[George Galloway]]'s own vanity outlet, the Workers Party of Britain: the WPB's deputy leader was formerly Joti Brar, CPGB-ML's vice-chair and Brar's offspring.<ref name=CapX>[https://capx.co/defending-the-indefensible-the-hard-left-china-and-covid-19 "Defending the indefensible: the hard left, China and Covid-19"], ''CapX'', Paul Stott, April 3, 2020</ref> But Gorgeous George's party has also let them down.<ref>[https://thecommunists.org/2021/08/07/news/workers-party-rally-against-ltn-scheme-kings-heath-birmingham/ "Workers party hosts popular rally against LTN scheme in Birmingham"], ''The Communists'', August 7, 2021: "However, developments since [December 2019] have led our comrades to consider that the WPB has failed in its stated aim of becoming a truly broad movement within which communists could work openly, transforming itself into a left-social-democratic vehicle for bourgeois parliamentarism and anticommunism".</ref>

==My enemy's enemy==
{{main|My enemy's enemy}}
Chairman Brar supported [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]]. Speaking of the civil war in [[Libya]], he stated: "The Libyan opposition are paid agents of [[imperialism]]. It's precisely for that reason that we think the only leader, and the only government that befits the Libyan people, is the government of Colonel Gaddafi... Death to Anglo-American and [[French]] imperialism."<ref>http://youtu.be/P3ydc9lbluQ?t=2m42s</ref> He also stated that "What [[NATO]] are doing today is what [[Godwin's Law|Hitler used to do]];"<ref>http://youtu.be/SrY83sD1d9s?t=4m45s</ref> ''viz.'', invade countries in order "to bring German civilization to the barbarians."

Brar, the Great Leader, was a huge fan of North Korea. Speaking at a welcome dinner thrown for him and other party members in Pyongyang by Choe Thae Bok, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Worker's Party of Korea in 2006, Brar stated the CPGB-ML was "very much inspired by the example of the DPRK, which shows that a small country, if it has the correct line and is led properly" could "defeat the mightiest imperialist power" and expressed the hope that "working people will begin to listen to sane voices like ours."<ref>[https://archive.is/HLQBJ "CPGB-ML delegation to Democratic People’s Republic of Korea"], ''Proletarian'', Issue 14, October 2006]</ref> When Kim Jong-il died in 2011, a party statement said the second member of the Kim dynasty "devoted his entire life to the freedom and happiness of the Korean people, to the building of a thriving and powerful socialist nation." Meanwhile, in April 2005 the party delivered "its heartfelt congratulations to Comrade Robert Mugabe" when he won what was considered a rigged election in Zimbabwe and in December 2006 described [[Saddam Hussein]] as a "martyr of the Iraqi resistance."<ref>[https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2011/12/kim-jong-comrade-communist "Communist Party mourns for 'Comrade Kim Jong-il'"], ''New Statesman'', George Eaton, December 20, 2011. Original sources: [https://archive.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=statements&subName=display&statementId=2 "Statement on Zimbabwe elections"], ''Proletarian'', April 19, 2005 and [https://archive.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=248 "Saddam Hussein: martyr of the Iraqi resistance"], ''Proletarian'', December 30, 2006</ref>

Despite opposition to [[revisionism]], the party has a platform of supporting the revisionist Communist parties of China and Vietnam and regards them as Socialist states. Brar founded Hands Off China which marked 60 years of Communist China in 2009 at a special event.<ref name=CapX/> The party supports the Russian government of [[Vladimir Putin]] in accordance with its supposed "anti-imperialist" tendencies even though, as a party representative once admitted, Russia is a capitalist state.<ref name=vice>[https://www.vice.com/en/article/mvnk4v/cpgbml-versus-natwest-russia-today I Went to a Stalinist Free-Speech Protest to Defend Russia Today from Natwest], Gavin Haynes, ''Vice'', October 19, 2016</ref> In October 2012, at the party congress a motion was passed unanimously supporting [[Bashar al-Assad]] and praising the Iranian government for its "axis of resistance" in standing with Assad.<ref>[https://archive.is/6mv0o "No cooperation with the criminal war against Syria"], ''CPGB-ML'', October 2012</ref> In 2016, it protested in defence of Russia's propaganda TV channel [[RT]] in part because, as its youth wing declared, Putin's armed forces were acting in defence of Assad's "democratically elected Syrian government".<ref name=vice/> A resolution was passed at the party congress in October 2021, following the withdrawal of American and allied forces from Afghanistan, another unanimously accepted congress resolution stated that "the present generation of [[Taliban]], though medievalist in their outlook, have played an objectively progressive role" in having "weakened imperialism."<ref>[https://thecommunists.org/2022/03/18/news/victory-afghan-resistance-forces-heavy-blow-against-shared-enemy-taliban/ "Victory of Afghan resistance forces is a heavy blow against our shared enemy"], ''CPGB-ML'', March 18, 2022. It seems no one got around to posting this 'historic' vote for five months; the dates are accurate.</ref> 

==Funding==
The party received funding in donations from businesses owned by Central Committee member Keith Bennett, a business magnate and consultant with investments and factories in China.<ref name=rene>[https://comraderene.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/capitalist-party-of-great-britain-marxist-leninist/ Capitalist Party of Great Britain – Marxist Leninist], Comrade Rene, July 11, 2020</ref> There is suspicion that the funding from business interests in China is the main reason behind the party's refusal to criticize the Beijing regime for abuses of workers. However Bennett was expelled in 2013.<ref>[https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/formercommunists/cpgb-ml-did-business-disputes-play-a-role-in-keith-t1688.html CPGB(ML) - Did business disputes play a role in Keith Bennett's expulsion?], Former Communists discussion board, Dec 28, 2013, #1</ref>

There are also allegations that Harpal Brar earns money from the less than Marxist profession of landlord, letting property not only to the CPGB-ML but also homes to families, as well as running a business importing shawls from India.<ref name=rene/>

==See also==
*[[New Communist Party of Britain]]

==External links==
*[https://thecommunists.org/ Official website] - they're at thecommunists.org, they must be the real deal!
*[https://twitter.com/CPGBML Twitter]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{UKPoliticalParty}}

[[Category:British political parties]]
[[Category:British politics]]
[[Category:Communist political parties]]
[[Category:Far-left political parties]]
[[Category:Tankies ]]

Categories: British political parties, British politics, Communist political parties, Far-left political parties, Tankies