Red Star was a

revolutionary socialist Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolu ...

organisation in Britain formed by former members of the

Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the '' Weekly Worker'' newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, 'One state, one party'. To the extent that the European ...

, the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and the Peace Party. Founded in July 2004 as the Red Party, it produced five issues of its paper called the ''Red Star''.

History

Red Platform

Politically, the Red Party was a continuation of the Red Platform of the CPGB formed in April 2004 in opposition to the CPGB's electoral support for

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

, with the aim to reverse the CPGB's withdrawal from the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform. It also argued for greater democracy and humanism in the party's internal structure. Though it won the battle to take the CPGB back into the SADP, most of the platform members left following disputes over the publication of their views in the '' Weekly Worker''. The Red Party regarded the division of the left into separate groups as natural and even a healthy sign that socialists are arguing out complicated questions of programme. It believed the left had "lost its way" through "sectarianism", which it defined as the refusal to unite in a single workers' party unless each group's own programmatic demands are met. It further believed that the left focuses primarily on arguing these programmatic issues internally, rather than taking basic socialist arguments to the working class as a whole. It placed an emphasis on plain language arguments for socialism.

Red Party

Leninism Leninism (, ) is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the Dictatorship of the proletariat#Vladimir Lenin, dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary Vangu ...

became the rupture point within the group in the early summer of 2005. The discovery by group members of the writings of

Maurice Brinton Christopher Agamemnon Pallis (2 December 1923 – 10 March 2005) was an Anglo-Greek neurologist and libertarian socialist intellectual. Under the pen names Martin Grainger and Maurice Brinton, he wrote and translated for the British group Solid ...

(pen name of Chris Pallis) and the

Solidarity Solidarity or solidarism is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. True solidarity means moving beyond individual identities and single issue politics ...

group led to a reassessment of the groups political orientation and the departure of one member to the AWL. The surviving ''Red Star'' group considers itself as a part of the libertarian left and has comrades who are active in

Class War Class War is an anarchist group and newspaper established by Ian Bone and others in 1983 in the United Kingdom. An incarnation of Class War was briefly registered as a political party for the purposes of fighting the 2015 United Kingdom gener ...

, the Anarchist Federation and Surrey Anarchist Group whilst maintaining a libertarian Marxist persona and links with parts of the traditional left through the Socialist Alliance. David Broder, whose departure from the Red Party group in protest at its lack of Leninist purity, is now a leading figure in The Commune, an anti-Leninist and libertarian Marxist group that derives a great deal of its founding politics from the writings of Maurice Brinton and the Solidarity group.

Publications

* ''The Red Party Tiny Red Book'' (July 2004) * ''Red Star 1'' (August 2004) * ''Red Star 2'' (October 2004)"Spoiling your ballot"
* ''Red Star 3'' * ''Red Star 4'' * ''Red Star 5''

References

{{reflist

External links

Red Star blog

Red Party homepage

Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform

The Commune
Political parties established in 2004 Defunct socialist parties in the United Kingdom