THE launching of “Your Party” by Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana represents a historic opportunity for the emergence of a new mass party of the left in Britain. It represents a retying of the red thread of history. The last time there were attempts to create a mass socialist party can be dated back to the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain during 1920-21.

The Communist Party of Great Britain emerged from the grave social and economic crisis which afflicted British capitalism following the horrors of the first world war. At the end of the war, British capitalism was bankrupt after four years of bloody conflict with its imperialist rivals in Germany and Austria-Hungary.

British industry emerged from the war in a feeble state, following the failures of the capitalist class over many years to invest. Against the backdrop of the revolutionary crisis which swept Europe after the war and the stagnant, crisis-ridden economy of the 1920s, the British capitalist class were determined to ensure their profits by making the working class pay through wage cuts and longer working hours.

The organised working class of Britain had emerged from the war with a greater social weight in society and a determination that the immense sacrifices which had been made during the war would lead to a better society for all. In the immediate years after WWI, during 1919-21, Britain was wracked by massive social and industrial unrest.

The British working class was also inspired and drawn towards the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917, which saw the working class and poor peasantry move onto the scene of history and abolish both capitalism and landlordism in the largest country on the planet. This enthusiasm for the first workers’ state in history found its expression in the Labour Party’s adoption of clause four, the so-called socialist clause of its constitution.

Besides the massive wave of industrial unrest which swept Britain during 1919-21, large sections of the organised working class took action against the 14 imperialist armies which had invaded the newly created USSR. The sole purpose of this invasion by Britain, France, the US and others was to crush the revolution in blood and reinstall the monarchist forces which had been overthrown by the October Revolution.

In 1920, Councils of Action were formed across the country by the labour movement to force the British government to end its armed intervention against the Bolshevik government. Future leaders of the CPGB, such as Harry Pollitt, played a leading role in this movement.

Pollitt played a central role in the SS Jolly George incident when dockers refused to load coal onto the ship, which was loaded with munitions for the British forces fighting against the Bolsheviks. The pressure from below was so intense that the central Council of Action of the Hands Off Russia campaign, which included the TUC/Labour Party, was forced to threaten a general strike if the government did not end its invasion of the USSR. In the face of this mass pressure from below, the British government ended its participation in the invasion of the USSR.

Against this tumultuous backdrop, the CPGB was formed from several small socialist groups, which included the BSP, SLP, ILP, WSF, and South Wales Socialist Society during 1920-21. These small groups, heavily influenced by syndicalist ideas and displaying an empiricist disdain for Marxist theory, had a very sectarian attitude towards the Labour Party, which was becoming the political voice of the working class in this country.

The newly created Communist International (Comintern), under the guidance of Lenin, displayed great patience with the newly created CPGB as it tried to establish a political and organisational connection with the organised working class and Labour Party.

Time and again, the Comintern patiently explained the necessity of a non-sectarian orientation towards the Labour Party. It was essential for the nascent CPGB to immerse itself within working-class communities and their struggles against wage restraint, lockouts and unemployment.

The Comintern instilled in the CPGB the need to abandon the approach that a socialist party was merely a propaganda organisation for the dissemination of socialist views. The Communist Party needed to become a disciplined organisation which worked in a planned, systematic manner within the trade unions and Labour Party.

The weakness and ineptitude of the Labour Party in Parliament meant that the immense labour struggles of the period had to be fought out largely on the industrial front. The intervention of the coalition government gave these struggles, such as the miners’ lockout of 1921, an overtly political character.

The lockout of the miners was an overtly political struggle with the owners, supported to the hilt by the government, determined to crush the resistance of the strongest section of the organised working class. They were determined to maintain the economic viability of their industry at a time of global recession by inflicting starvation wages on the miners. The defeat of the miners led to lockouts of cotton workers and engineers during 1922-23.

During this early stage of its development the CPGB adopted a Marxist programme which recognised the need for a socialist transformation of society which entailed the expropriation of the wealth of the ruling class and the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy.

It recognised that socialism was never going to come through Parliament but believed that engaging in electoral politics could serve as a valuable platform for propagating Marxist ideas and fighting for reforms which would benefit the working class. In 1922 two of its members were elected as MPs.

Most important of all, was a correct orientation towards the immense industrial struggles of this period which posed a major threat to the stability of British capitalism. The CPGB sought to immerse itself within the rank and file of the unions and win them towards a revolutionary socialist political programme which sought to, “organise the working classes of Britain for the overthrow of capitalism.”

The party membership displayed great courage and militancy in the industrial struggles of this period, with them bearing the brunt of strike breaking arrests. Despite this, many mistakes were made such as failing to develop rank-and-file movements among the unions to develop co-ordinated action from below against the employers’ offensive which the right-wing leadership of the TUC co-operated with in effort to disable industrial action.

Following the third congress of the Comintern, the CPGB was able to reflect on its failure to effectively intervene in the mass struggles of the miners’ lockout and set up the National Minority Movement to facilitate its systematic, organised work among the trade unions.

It had the allegiance of a million trade unionists by 1926. The Communist Party also set up the National Unemployed Workers Committee Movement which organised occupations of workhouses over the level of benefits for the poor and national hunger marches.

It also set up the National Conference of Communist Women and the Young Communist League which sought to organise young workers within unions and factories. By 1923 its newspaper the Workers Weekly had reached a circulation of 50,000. It was seen as, “an organ of working-class life and struggle deep rooted in the factories.”

The CPGB came to play an influential role in the major developments which took place in the labour movement around “Red Friday” in 1925 and the General Strike of 1926 which shook British capitalism to its foundations.

The formation of a new mass party of the left in this country presents an opportunity to continue the radical traditions of the early CPGB in the struggle for a socialist transformation of society. For only this can bring an end to the poverty, financial insecurity, war and environmental destruction which are endemic to this rotten capitalist system.

Dylan Murphy is a labour movement historian who has researched the struggle against fascism for his doctorate.