Silk Mill Lockout 2023 – No Communists Allowed


After handing out hundreds of their leaflets to everyone at a Rally in Derby on 17 June to commemorate the 190th anniversary of a strike of Silk Mill workers in the area, members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) were told they were not welcome by the very same rally organiser, who apparently welcomes “all and sundry”.  Previously the CPGB-ML had applied in good time to have a stall at the event but shortly before it took place the party was informed it could not have one as there were none left to be booked.

The political decision made by the CPB organisers to refuse the CPGB-ML a stall was petty, sectarian and totally anti working class.

What were they afraid of?

Would a genuine Marxist Leninist narrative outshine their tired and worn out social democratic message of blindly following the Labour Party?

Of course it would: we know that and, if they’re really honest with themselves, they do too.

 While their party is in turmoil with members leaving all the time over their Idpol in-fighting, to name just  one example of negativity, the CPGB-ML is building a genuine Marxist Leninist Party for the UK’s working class to get involved with.

At the Silk Mill Rally gathering after the march, the empty grass area, and later the empty pavement area where the CPGB-ML had its literature table, was supposedly already booked by others – but who these invisible non-existent groups were we’ll never know, as there were plenty of empty marked out spaces where no groups or individuals turned up all day,

The pathetic excuse of ‘over subscription by stall applicants’ to refuse the CPGB-ML a stall was not true as the blatant evidence was there for all to see.

An equally pathetic ‘justification’ given for their outrageous discrimination was that the CPGB-ML was allegedly against trade unions.

The CPGB-ML is not against trade unions or the trade union movement.

• It opposes trade union-bureaucracy movement, which is what the trade unions are now.

• It is against the trade unions that work with the imperialist Labour party backed and controlled by Capital, the sworn enemy of the workers.

• It is against trade unions that obey the immoral and crippling anti-trade union laws.

• It is against trade union celebrations for wage deals that leave workers starving.

• It is against trade union deals that preserve conditions for mid-level and above while leaving low-wage members at food banks.

• It is against trade unions that hold back worker political education.

The trade unions have played a big role in almost every revolution, e.g., in Russia, in Vietnam, and others, but they were of a different type. They were not lapdogs of the sworn enemy of their members. They were wolves on the heels of the enemy.

CPGB-ML will not weaken the trade union movement.

CPGB-ML will fight to make it as strong as it was in those successful revolutions, to give them a strength, which owing to bribes from our imperial masters, we never achieved here in the UK.

It is possible.

We must do it to successfully move to socialism and avoid the AI/automation hell that is possible under capitalism.

We will work to convince the rank and file that they need to find leadership which is committed to the emancipation of workers, to fighting outside of the lines drawn by capital to achieve that emancipation, and most importantly that understands that Capital, and the Labour Party, are the enemy, that this is a zero-sum game and they want us to get as little as possible whatever that means.

The CPGB-ML is different because it consistently applies Marxist science to all areas of its work, and it is not scared to tell it how it is. It refuses to be intimidated by the barrage of lying propaganda that fills Britain’s mainstream media. It is the capitalists’ job to try to stop us from building a socialist society; it is our job to do it anyway!

Challenge your ideas — challenge their propaganda — seek the truth — serve the people — change the world!

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