Page "Communist Party of Great Britain" Paragraph 4

During the negotiations leading to the initiation of the party a number of issues were hotly contested.

Among the most contentious were the questions of " parliamentarism " and the attitude of the Communist Party to the Labour Party.

" Parliamentarism " referred to a strategy of contesting elections and working through existing parliaments.

It was a strategy associated with the parties of the Second International and it was partly for this reason that it was opposed by those who wanted to break with Social Democracy.

Critics contended that parliamentarism had caused the old parties to become devoted to reformism because it had encouraged them to place more importance on winning votes than on working for socialism, that it encouraged opportunists and place-seekers into the ranks of the movement and that it constituted an acceptance of the legitimacy of the existing governing institutions of capitalism.

Similarly, affiliation to the Labour Party was opposed on the grounds that communists should not work with ' reformist ' Social Democratic parties.

These Left Communist positions enjoyed considerable support, being supported by Sylvia Pankhurst, Willie Gallacher and other notable activists.

However, the Russian Communist Party took the opposing view.

In 1920, Vladimir Lenin argued in his essay " Left Wing " Communism: An Infantile Disorder that the CPs should work with reformist trade unions and social democratic parties because these were the existing organisations of the working class.

Lenin argued that if such organisations gained power, they would demonstrate that they were not really on the side of the working class, thus workers would become disillusioned and come over to supporting the Communist Party.

Lenin's opinion prevailed eventually.