PARTISAN!

The following theses were drafted by Edith Fischer and adopted by a plenary session of the Central Committee of Communist Unity in May, 2026.

Communists and Parliamentary Participation

1. The orientation of communists towards parliamentary tactics is first and foremost that of an agitator and propagandist. Participation in bourgeois parliaments is a concrete step in the development of the class struggle; it is indicative of a certain level of maturity of the working class and its organisations. However, in the hands of the parliamentary socialists, this development is subordinated to the struggle for reforms through coalition work in the bourgeois parliament, and the struggle to form a reform government.
2. The parliamentary system is the democratic element of the bourgeois state; that is, it is the democratic form of bourgeois rule. In every country, it is supplemented by non-democratic, administrative and bureaucratic cadres which reinforce the rule of the bourgeoisie. It is for this reason that “pure democracy” is an impossibility. Democratic rule, as a form of state, is necessarily a form of class dictatorship.
3. We reject the idea that the bourgeois parliament can be “taken over” and made into an institution of working class power. The parliament, as an institution of the bourgeois state, must be overthrown, not reformed. 
4. To challenge the power of the bourgeoisie, it is necessary to raise the economic, sectoral struggles of the working class to the level of the whole country, to a political struggle. Parliamentary tactics are essential in politicising the struggle of the working class. The parliamentary pulpit is the most effective pulpit from which communists can conduct revolutionary agitation and propaganda. As such, the primary task of communists in parliament is to use their positions in parliament to agitate and propagandise to the masses, and to elevate and advance the mass struggles of the proletariat.
5. The main activity of revolutionaries in parliament consists of propaganda and agitation from the parliamentary rostrum, organising amongst their constituents, attacking the representatives of the capitalist and reformist parties, and unmasking the illusions of the social pacifists and imperialists. In turn, the parliamentary agitator must constantly place the activity of the masses at the front of their agitation and constantly appeal to the struggle outside parliament for a path forward.

Communists in Parliament

6. The Communist Party must be consistently independent, and are consistent advocates for the political independence of the working class. It must reject governing coalitions with all capitalist parties, petit-bourgeois parties, and state-loyalist workers parties. The Communist Party must not form a government unless it can guarantee the implementation of its minimum program in full.
7. The Communist Party must run on a revolutionary program. This program must include a revolutionary minimum: a fully democratic republic, socialisation of key industries, and the political supremacy of the working class. This program provides the minimum basis on which the Communist Party would support a government. The revolutionary program must be popularised by connecting it to the pressing day to day struggles and aspirations of the workers and oppressed. The Communist Party, and communists in general, will not give its support to any bourgeois government. The Communist Party will form no coalitions with the bourgeois parties, will vote against confidence in every bourgeois government, and will vote against every bourgeois budget.
8. The Communist Party and its Central Committee must consistently inspect and oversee its parliamentary faction, and assert organisational control over all of its representatives. All elected representatives must be proven cadres with a firm political education and a proven loyalty to the Party.
9. All elected representatives are to take from their parliamentary salary only a workers wage, and the rest of their resources are to be placed at the disposal of the party. This is not only a propaganda point, but works to ensure that elected representatives do not possess a resources base independent of the party’s democratic structures.
10. Electoral work should be an expression of the wider work of the party in organising the working class in the struggle for power. As such, the electoral campaign must be a mobilisation of the base of the party, rather than an attempt to build a base around an isolated political campaign.
11. Election campaigns should not be undertaken with the perspective of simply winning the maximum vote or the largest number of seats. Rather, the purpose of election campaigning is firstly to demonstrate the popularity of the revolutionary program, and secondly to educate workers about the content of the communist program. A single seat won through consistent communist agitation is far more valuable than a hundred won on an opportunist, liquidationist basis.
12. Communist representatives must be subordinate to the decisions of the Party and its Congress and Central Committee. Discipline in voting must be strictly enforced. Representatives who abdicate the party line must be severely disciplined, and those who betray the working class must be driven out of the movement.
13. Communist representatives must consistently oppose all war budgets and war machinations of the capitalists. Even when this position may temporarily place us in a minority even amongst the working class, principled opposition to all budgets of the bourgeois war machine is the only way to guarantee a principled defence of the interests of the working class.
14. Communist representatives should openly agitate for reforms that strengthen the working class in accordance with the party program. Communist representatives should always oppose any and all attacks on the working class.
15. Communist representatives must be integrated into both the legal and illegal work of the Party. They must be revolutionaries by trade, and be willing to undertake all work assigned by the Party. They must subordinate all electoral activity to the extra-parliamentary activity of the Party – they must be active in the organisation of strikes, of mass demonstrations, and other vital political work.
16. Communist representatives are not career politicians, nor do they exist to cultivate a career in politics. They are operators in the enemy camp. They are not legislators seeking arrangements with other legislators; they are tribunes of the class, and must ruthlessly pursue the interests of the class.
17. Communist representatives must work constantly in their districts to organise for revolution. They must give speeches and organise demonstrations, support unions and cooperatives, and develop popular assemblies. They must meet consistently with the workers and hear their views, and consistently present the communist perspective in clear terms.
18. Communist representatives do not just seek to expose the bourgeoisie – they must also expose the servants of the bourgeoisie amongst the working class. Social patriots and social imperialists, who operate in the name of the working class but in reality serve the capitalists, must be relentlessly attacked and exposed. A Communist representative only earns the title of communist when they show consistent hostility to the entire bourgeois system.
19. Should the communists have the majority in local government institutions, they should a) carry out revolutionary opposition to the bourgeois central power; b) do everything within their power to carry out their minimum program (economic measures, introduction or attempted introduction of an armed workers’ militia, etc.); c) constantly seek to expose the machinations of the central government to crush the working class; d) on this basis develop the sharpest revolutionary propaganda without fearing the conflict with the power of the state; e) under certain circumstances place local administration under the democratic management of workers organisations. The whole activity of the Communists in the local administration must therefore be part of the general work of disrupting the capitalist system. We oppose totally the notion that good communist work at the local level consists of being “good managers” who “deliver results”.

Practical Tasks

20. Communist Unity is a propaganda group, and as such does not seek to run parliamentary candidates on its own terms. However Communist Unity must seek to participate in electoral work, in particular on the Socialist Party ticket. As such, the character of our parliamentary work must be of the highest quality.
21. If elected, Communist Unity members will seek to be productive and disciplined members of the Socialist Party caucus, and to be the most open agitators and propagandists for the party. We seek to give the Socialist Party a real political life, transforming it from an electoral front into a mass party of socialism. This requires taking on the electoralism and concessions to Green liberalism and Laborism that currently defines the Socialist Party.
22. Communist Unity will only put forward cadres for pre-selection as candidates if they are thoroughly vetted and approved by the Central Committee. These comrades must be of the highest political character, must be able to speak confidently and defend the revolutionary program in front of the working class, must be hard workers and consistent organisation members.
23. In our electoral campaigning, we will fight for the combination of parliamentary and non-parliamentary organisation, to combine parliamentary work with trade union work and other forms of mass organisation. Electoral campaigns should combine this work at the most fundamental level, combining electoral campaigning with union drives, organising demonstrations and pickets, and organising tenants.
24. All members of CU who are to participate in parliamentary activity should conduct a study of Bolshevik parliamentary tactics and their use by revolutionary organisations. This study should be overseen by the Education Committee.