Opposition in slow motion

Abstract

This chapter looks at the evolution of the pro-Soviet Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) opposition of the 1960s and 1970s and the debilitating effect of the inconsistent narrative of 'anti-revisionism'. It then considers the disastrous impact that the Stalinised version of 'Leninism' had on the pro-Chinese CPGB oppositionists of the 1960s. The year 1977, like 1945, was another year of rebellion for a significant section of the CPGB's left opposition. The group emerged in 1961-1962 and initial activities appeared to have been based around interventions in internal CPGB meetings and schools, composing articles for the party press and visiting contacts around the country. There then followed an extremely fractious history of splits (both from the CPGB parent body and among the 'anti-revisionist' factions). The Action Centre for Marxist-Leninist Unity was fairly sanguine about the splits that had taken place in the Committee to Defeat Revisionism for Communist Unity.