Founded in 1968, the Communist Party of Britain regards Britain as composed overwhelmingly of the British working class in all its diversity. Workers are the nation, though the nation is not yet for the working class, nor do all workers yet recognise that their class constitutes the nation.
Britain is where people first overthrew a feudal monarchy and where the scientific enlightenment forged the first industrial revolution and the first working class. It was within the framework of the nation and for the good of its industry that systems of education and health, and the skills of its people were developed, and working class organisation in the form of trade unions was invented and fought for to protect the gains that had been made.
Today’s Britain – robbed by finance capital and its apologists in government, its industry deliberately laid waste, its laws dictated by a foreign power (the EU), its parliament anachronistic, corrupt, supine and subservient both to the EU and the US, its reputation now in tatters – cries out to be rescued by its people.
The revolutionary possibility of this country run by workers in the interest of the working class is what we call “workers’ nationalism”. Workers have the understanding, based on their history, education and the knowledge which comes from work, to put together a national plan for everything from economics and foreign policy to local government and the environment. The nation is key, because workers have no choice other than to fight for a future where they live and raise their families. We know best about our country; others know best about theirs.
Capitalism, however, will resist this to the death. A spent force, so increasingly vicious, it regards the destruction of sovereign nations as the solution to prolonging its life just a little bit longer. Workers’ nationalism means that each nation must fight to build socialism in its own land, the only alternative to capitalism.
If you come to live and work in Britain, you become part of our geography, history and working class culture. Join a union and, more importantly, join our struggle to build an independent nation led by workers. Be clear and committed on this national class question. That is the only possible basis for internationalism.