Last year's May Day was certainly one to remember. The Tories  suffered their biggest defeat this century and Labour  returned to office with the biggest majority in its entire history. In the occupied north of Ireland the republican vote  soared returning two Sinn Fein MP's for the first time since the early Fifties.
 
 Take a look at the post election interview with Andy Brooks - General-secretary of the New Communist Party of Britain.
 
  For the record the state of the parties in parliament now stands at:
 
 
 

By-Election Results since the May 1997 General Election

There are two other communist parties. The Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist), which broke-away from the old CPGB in 1968 under the leadership of Reg Birch, a leading engineering union official, in opposition to revisionism and in support of the Communist Party of China's general line. The other is the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) which springs from the movement in the late Sixties inspired by the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

  1. The New Communist Party (NCP) was formed in 1977 as part of the struggle against revisionism with the CPGB and it publishes the weekly New Worker. The Party does not stand in elections at any level. It calls for electoral support for Labour while opposing right-wing social democracy within the trade union movement.
 
  2. The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) was formed in 1988 by supporters of the Morning Star -- the daily newspaper led by the CPGB --then under attack by the ultra-revisionist and liquidationist
 leadership. The CPB is a revisionist party committed to the reformist and parliamentary British Road To Socialism programme.
 
  The CPB called on its supporters to vote Labour except where its own candidates were standing. The CPB stood three candidates two in England and one in Wales. All received derisory votes.
 
  Monty Goldman got 298 votes (0.9 per cent of the poll) in the London Hackney South & Shoreditch constituency which was held by Labour's Brian Sedgemore who won 20,048 votes (3 per cent swing to Labour).
 
  Martin Levy got 163 votes in Newcastle East & Wallsend 0.9 per cent of the poll in a seat which was held by Labour's Nick Brown who won 29,607 votes (11.3 per cent swing to Labour).
 
  Rob Griffiths obtained 178 votes in Pontypridd which was held by Labour's Dr Kim Howells who won 29,290 votes (0.9 per cent swing away from Labour to the Liberal Democrats).

In January 1998 Mike Hicks was ousted as general secretary in a 17 -- 13 vote moved by John Haylett at the first meeting of their Executive Committee following Congress . Hick's supporters on the Management Board of the  Morning Star followed by suspending and then dismissing its Editor, John Haylett, which led to a prolonged strike at the Morning Star, ending in victory for Haylett and his re-instatement. The leadership, under new general secretary Rob Griffiths and Haylett, now dominate the CPB, which looks set for even wider division and a continuing struggle for control of the Morning Star. Membership of the CPB is said to be 1,200. It was revealed at their 1997 Congress that half of the membership were pensioners.

  3. The Communist Party of Scotland (CPS) was established in 1992 following the dissolution of the old CPGB. It largely comprises of members of the old Scottish district of the CPGB and its policy is a  variant of the British Road to Socialism with greater emphasis on Scottish independence. It has one elected local councillor in Fife -- a long standing position held for over 25 years. At the general election the CPS did not stand candidates and it urged its supporters to vote Labour.
 
 * The NCP's paper, the New Worker, held a public meeting in London to celebrate the Great October Revolution in 1997, sharing the platform with representatives of the CPS, RCPB(ML) and the Morning Star.

* The NCP works together with the RCPB(ML) on the Korean Friendship and Solidarity Campaign and exchanges of views on other issues take place on a regular basis. Informal discussions have also taken place with the CPS, CPB and the CPB(ML).
 
 

This three-strong delegation, representing a retired miner's association from the North-West was used by President Arthur Scargill to steam-roller every motion as well as the elections of their new NEC. A number Welsh delegates walked out and resigned from the SLP on the spot. A further 70 delegates and observers from Trotskyite groups later held a protest meeting and 57 signed a statement describing the voting procedures as "a complete travesty of democracy".

Some have left for good, but others, supporters of the Trotskyite "Fourth International Supporters Caucus" (FISC) patched up their differences with Scargill and one of their leaders, Pat Sikorski, was re-elected (via the block vote) as Scargill's deputy.

Arthur Scargill's own supporters, largely drawn from the NUM and some other unions, easily outnumbered the combined Trotskyite sects. But Scargill's block includes FISC along with the Trotskyite "International Leninist Workers Party" -- a faction of the old WRP -- and Harpal Brar's
"Association of Communists".

The Trotskyite opposition includes sects which style themselves as the "Democratic Platform", "SLP Republicans", "The Marxist Bulletin" and the "CPGB-- Provisional Central Committee".

The Congress rift has seriously damaged the SLP, whose individual membership is now put at well under a thousand. The SLP's journal comes out just once every eight weeks.
 
 

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