Straight Left

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Straight Left was the name of a political group in Britain, and of a left wing newspaper.

Straight Left was a political group consisting of members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who disagreed with the leadership's policies. It was also the name of a monthly newspaper produced by the group. Though the origins of this faction within the CPGB go back earlier it emerged under this name in 1977.

The leading ideological force in the faction was Fergus Nicholson, who had previously worked as the CPGB's student organiser. Unlike the leadership, they supported the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. They also thought the party should concentrate its work in Trade Unions, and not in social movements such as feminism and environmentalism.

Because the CPGB's rules banned the formation of factional groups, SL operated in secret. Members of the faction contributed funds to the organisation through significant monthly donations, which helped fund the groups educational gatherings, often referred to as campinq weekends. Its meetings were not publicly announced, and writers in their newspaper Straight Left and their theoretical magazine Communist wrote under pseudonyms like Nicholson, whose pen-name was "Harry Steel". The Straight Left faction also produced anonymous bulletins to try and influence CPGB Congresses usually under the heading "Congress Truth".

The faction also produced a a dissident internal pamphlet entitled "The Crisis in Our Communist Party- Cause, Effect and Cure", which was distributed nationally but not under its name. This was authored,(in all likelihood in conjunction with others), by veteran miner and communist Charlie Woods, who was expelled from the CPGB for putting his name to the publication.

Charlie Woods, who had been the CPGB's Northern organiser in the late 1930's, was the factions oldest link to a period when the CPGB was operating in a manner that the Straight Left faction hoped the CPGB could eventually return. A significant number of Straight Left faction members had developed close personal friendships with members of fraternal communist parties, particularly the Iranian, Iraqi, South African and Greek parties, who were well organised on most British University campuses. Many Straight Left supporters felt that the style of organisation and the overall ethos of these organisations was significantly more impressive than the CPGB at that stage, and as a result sought to steer the CPGB away from its maverick stance within the world communist movement and back to positions similar to these highly effective and highly disciplined and considerably better supported fraternal parties. They wished the CPGB to return to a pro-Soviet stance, with high levels of membership commitment, a focus on working class organisation, as well as a strong emphasis on Marxist-Leninist education in the branches. The faction recruited members from within the CPGB and required members to demonstrate a high level of commitment. The faction was widely regarded as being quite successful in recruiting a large number of bright and able younger members within the CPGB, especially in the 1980's when Thatcherism and a return to overt class politics from the right, led more CP members to question the alliance of euro-communists and centrists who were increasingly focusing not on traditional class politics but on the new social forces around the environment and feminism. The faction's opposition to the leadership of the CPGB was visceral and extremely time-consuming for its members, and many members were expelled throughout this period.

Though it was a faction within the CPGB it had supporters within the Labour Party. In March 1979 the Straight Left newspaper was launched as a monthly which claimed to be a "non-party, non sectarian journal of the left, committed to working class unity and class consciousness". It was edited by Mike Toumazou and the Business Manager was Seumas Milne. Frank Swift was responsible for fund-raising and the editorial advisory panel consisted of Ray Buckton, Bill Keys, James Lamond MP, Jim Layzell, Alf Lomas MEP, Joan Maynard MP, Alan Sapper, Gordon Schaffer and William Wilson MP.

Straight Left supporters chose to stay in the CPGB, when rival factions split off to form the New Communist Party (NCP) in 1977 and the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) in 1988. Some leading members such as Andrew Murray and Nick Wright formed a group called "Communist Liaison" after the dissolution of the CPGB in 1991 that published a newsletter called "Diamat" but it later dissolved and most of them, including Wright and Murray joined the CPB. Others, (notably Fergus Nicholson) decided not to join any party.

The Straight Left magazine is still published by Nicholson and his supporters and they have organised a number of annual Straight Left conferences over the years.