Now is the time to join the Communist Party

Working people across Britain are fighting back against austerity, war, repression and exploitation. The challenge now is to unite those struggles, says Communist Party of Britain assistant general secretary JOHNNIE HUNTER

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WORKING people in Britain today stand at a crossroads.

Keir Starmer ushered in one of the biggest Labour majorities ever, reflecting popular disgust with the Tories rather than any affection for Starmer or support for his nebulous policy platform.

Starmer was unceremoniously ousted when he failed to deliver on his vague promise of change. Andy Burnham’s bounce so far has been largely “positive vibes” and good soundbites rather than tangible policies or a break with Starmer’s Tory-lite manifesto.  

Working people continue to face stagnant wages and grinding austerity now administered by a Labour government — all the while profits in the City of London skyrocket.

Our NHS and public services are on the brink and councils are going bankrupt. For working people, the trajectory under capitalism in Britain is grim.  

This has provided fertile ground for Reform UK and Nigel Farage to spread xenophobia and hatred, blaming asylum-seekers for the chronic problems of capitalism in Britain — and being given rich succour by the Establishment media which he claims to decry (and by shadowy crypto billionaires of course).

The scourge of war is spreading across the planet with a rapidity and a danger not seen for generations. After having been promised a Europe of peace with the destruction of the Soviet Union, we see a bloody proxy war ground out in Ukraine.

The people of Palestine continue to resist a genocidal offensive at the hands of Israel, imperialism’s bastion in the Middle East.

Promised an easy victory by Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump has created a fresh quagmire for the US in the region with his open war on Iran. The world economy has tanked but Trump’s clique have made billions on insider trading.

The work is also being done by the United States, Britain and the other imperialist powers to lay the groundwork, if they can, for a conflict with China over Taiwan — desperate to turn their new cold war into a hot one.

Other conflicts and tensions continue to erupt across the Middle East and Africa, almost always prompted by the machinations of the imperialist powers. Always and everywhere the real winners are the profiteering arms manufacturers.

And while all of this unfolds, our planet continues to burn and slide towards permanent environmental degradation, leaving it poisoned and unfit for human civilisation as we know it.

It would be incorrect to think these ruling-class attacks and plans have gone unchallenged.

The trade union, Palestine solidarity and environmental movements in particular have all stood up to face down the government on these respective attacks in recent years.

This resistance has in turn led to the biggest attack on civil liberties, trade union rights and the right to protest that we have seen in living memory.

Capitalism aims to masquerade as a free and democratic system — but it is in the face of resistance like this that the mask begins to slip and its true, brutal and oppressive face is exposed.

If we continue to resist and deepen our resistance, as we must, we can only expect these attacks to intensify.

For our part, Britain’s communists have been present in all of these many struggles, fighting the many battles on the many fronts our class is forced to contend with in 2026.

In a context like this, where the left and labour movement are weak in historical terms and constantly on the defensive, it can be difficult to maintain our own line of march.

But it is essential that we do. It is not enough to oppose ruling-class attacks, austerity or involvement in certain wars on an individual or piecemeal basis.

Our goal is and must be nothing less than sweeping away the whole rotten and inhumane system that has made our world as it is today: capitalism.

Our goal is to replace it with a new system, free from exploitation and oppression of human by human and war: socialism.

In the struggles of today it is our task to fight and win these battles in a way that builds the strength, size and level of organisation of the left, progressive and labour movements in such a way that we build a mass movement ultimately capable of ending capitalism itself.

History has shown us in the clearest possible terms that when the Communist Party is strong, Britain’s labour movement, left and working class are strong. Strong both in terms of our ability to fight the battles of the present but also in our vision of and determination to reach the future.

Around the world, the unique record of communist parties for challenging the ruling class, raising the political consciousness of working people, winning and holding working-class state power and building socialism speaks for itself.

One of the many negative forces, but one of the most fundamental, facing the working class in Britain is the absence of a Communist Party with this critical mass, strength and influence.

The strategic intervention and mobilising power of the Communist Party has been at the heart of many of the proudest chapters of Britain’s working class over the last century and more — from the General Strike, the defeat of fascism, the UCS Work In and the fight to end British colonialism around the world, to name a few.

But we aren’t custodians of the past.

In Britain today, communists work to play an active role in the mass movement whether that’s in the workplace, our communities or on campuses. In doing so we work to given organisational strength and political direction to the thousands of different struggles taking place every day, linking the local with the national and the international and winning working people to a class understanding of society.

We’re fighting to turn the individual fights and victories of the immediate moment into a mass United Front of working people and our organisations that can not only make gains for working people but ultimately win working-class state power.

Our party and Young Communist League have experienced an exciting period of growth and activity across Britain over the recent period. But there is much work to be done if we are to be the force that working people in Britain and history need us to be.

You can play your part and take up the fight, and the challenge, by joining us today.

For more information visit communistparty.org.uk.

Features / 5 September 2026 Lessons from Germany on rebuilding the peace and communist movements in Britain 5 September 2026 JOHNNIE HUNTER reports from the German Communist Party’s (DKP) weekly Unsere Zeit (Our Newspaper)-organised Peace Days festival in Berlin last weekend

Full Marx / 2 August 2026 What is ‘internationalism’? 2 August 2026 Internationalism is deeply embedded in socialist theory and practice. Examination illuminates its complexity asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School

Opinion / 8 July 2026 Andy Burnham doesn’t offer hope. Only a combative labour movement can do that 8 July 2026 JOHN McINALLY sees little chance of change at Westminster, and calls on the left to get serious about building a real alternative

Features / 6 October 2025 58th congress of Britain’s communist party: renewal and change in a dangerous time 6 October 2025 The CPB's congress aims to build the united front against monopoly capitalism, utilising the YCL’s promising new generation of militants — but our party remains far from the strength history requires of it, despite recent progress, writes JOHNNIE HUNTER