The general secretary of Britain’s communists has written to his Labour counterpart to dismiss false reports that the Communist Party is infiltrating the Labour Party.
This is the text of his letter:
to: Iain McNicol, General Secretary, Labour Party
Dear Mr McNicol,
According to reports in the Guardian and other media outlets today, Labour Party staff have produced a research paper which links the Communist Party to “entryism” in the Labour Party. In particular, that research paper cites a report made to our party’s Executive Committee which on June 25 declared that “defending the socialist leadership of the Labour Party at all costs” should be a priority for Communists.
Nowhere in that Executive Committee report, which can be found in full on our website at www.communist-party.org.uk, do we propose that our members join or register with the Labour Party. “At all costs” is a rhetorical flourish that cannot, obviously, be taken literally!
I would like to make it clear that in propagating our view on important issues in the labour movement, the Communist Party does not engage in entryism. We have made this clear to our own members and publicly on more than one occasion recently. Please see below, for example, a statement made to the media one year ago when allegations surfaced to this effect in relation to the last Labour Party leadership election.
Should you or your staff have any evidence that Communist Party members have joined the Labour Party without renouncing their CP membership, or engaged in any similar subterfuge, please inform me so that action can be taken against them for bringing our party into disrepute.
We respect the democracy of the Labour Party and have no intention of violating it. We work constructively with many Labour Party members across the political spectrum on a wide range of issues and do so in good faith. I would be grateful, therefore, if you could draw the contents of this
letter to the attention of all members of your party’s National Executive Committee.
With comradely regards,
Robert Griffiths, General Secretary, Communist Party of Britain
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