Harpal Brar

Harpal Brar
Brar speaking at the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in Birmingham, 2015.
Born	(1939-10-05) 5 October 1939 Muktsar, Punjab, India
Nationality	British and Indian
Education	University of Westminster
Occupation(s)	Former Chairman of the CPGB-ML, Businessman, University lecturer
Known for	Anti-imperialist activism, CPGB-ML founder, support of Irish republicanism and Palestinian solidarity
Notable work	"The Perfideous Labour Party" "Trotskyism or Leninism?" "Imperialism: decadent, parasitic, moribund capitalism" "Zionism: a racist, antisemitic and reactionary tool of imperialism" "Perestroika: The complete collapse of Revisionism" "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Marketisation of the Chinese economy" Inquilab Zindabad: India's Liberation Struggle (2014)
Political party	Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Children	Joti Brar (daughter) Ranjeet Brar (son) Carlos Martinez (son)
Relatives	Kathy Sharp (Wife) Alexander Brar (Grandson) Ashoka Brar (Grandson) Nikolai Brar (Grandson)

Harpal Brar (born 5 October 1939) is an Indian communist, politician, writer and businessman, based in the United Kingdom. He is the founder and former chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist), a role from which he stood down in 2018. The CPGB-ML publish a party paper Proletarian, to which he still contributes articles as journalist, commentator and theorist.

Born in Muktsar, Punjab, British India, Brar has lived and worked in Britain since 1962, first as a student, then as a lecturer in law at Harrow College of Higher Education (later merged into the renamed University of Westminster), and later in the textile business. Brar qualified as a Barrister but did not practice, instead concentrating on his community activism and working class politics, and political writings.

Harpal Brar and his comrade Ella Rue built the principal CPGB-ML party premises Saklatvala Hall in Southall, West London.[1] The hall was named in honour of Shapurji Saklatvala the much loved Indian communist who became the first British communist MP for Battersea - then a staunchly working class district of South London. Saklatvala Hall was opened in a ceremony attended by Saklatvala's daughter Serhi, his biographer Mike Squires and Arthur Scargill, leader of the 1984 Miners' strike. Saklatvala Hall is still used for CPGB-ML party activity.

Harpal Brar became one of the principal leaders of the Indian Workers Association (GB), and the Indian Workers Front (IWF) from the 1970s and remained its National Organiser for over 30 years. He led the IWA to adopt a frontline position in the anti-racist struggle as well as the anti-colonial movement throughtout the world, giving support to the struggle of the Palestinian people for self-determination as well as the ultimately victorious struggle of the South African workers against the colonial system of Apartheid. He and his comrades played a significant role in the Zimbabwean liberation struggle against British imperialism and the Racist apartheid Smith regime.

Brar was prominent, along with his close comrades Ella Rule, Kathy Sharp, Iris Cremer and Godfrey Cremer, in the Association of Communist Workers. That group, together with the Association of Indian Communists played a leading role in the Vietnam Solidarity movement and Brar led a major demonstration against the US Embassy in Grovsevenor Square in 1968.

Harpal Brar was most active as a community leader in Southall, home of the Punjabi Sikh community in Britain, and together with the IWA led a major demonstration against the racist National Front (NF) attempt to hold a provocative anti-immigrant "election rally" in Southall on 24th April 1979. At that time James Callaghan was the Labour Prime Minister and he sent Metropolitain police of the Special Patrol Group to beat the anti-racist demonstrators off the street and protect the National Front fascists. Blair Peach, a teacher born in New Zealand, attended the anti-racist demonstration that day and was beaten to death by Met Police SPG patrol officers who had rebored their truncheons and lined them with lead (illegally) in order to more effectively injure their victims, in solidarity with the Racists. This they termed "Paki Bashing". The people of Southall long remembered the sacrifice of Peach, who laid down his life in the struggle against Racism. A local school has been named in his honour. Harpal Brar and Ella Rule were both arrested by the heavy-handed Racist police on that day. The SPG was disbanded as a result of a later inquiry into their misconduct, but were replaced by the equally thuggish and brutal Territorial Support Group (TSG).

Harpal Brar and the IWA also organised and led other major anti-racist marches, including the Welling demonstration of 16 October 1993, which was organised against the presence and activity of the BNP in South-East London (including their racist book shop), after the death of Stephen Lawrence.

He and his comrades officially dissolved the ACW in 1997 to join Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, a breakaway from the Labour Party after its abandonment of the original version of Clause IV. Brar was the parliamentary candidate in 1997, standing against the Blairite, reactionary and incompetent incumbent Pyara Khabra MP for Ealing Southall. He famously stated during the campaign that "...in Ealing Southall, and other rotten boroughs like it, you could pin a Labour rosette on a donkey and it would romp to victory!" Brar come fourth after Labour and Tory and Lib Dem, standing against Tony Blair's incoming Labour Government, which was considered an outstanding achievement in the political climate of the day. By 2001,^[1] moves were already made by the Labour party to stand other "alternative candidates" to divide the abnti-Labour vote, a tactic they have made much use of sionce.

Harpal Brar and his comrades worked to bring an Anti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist programme to the SLP, but despite successes they ultimately came into conflict with Scargill's vision for a "Old Labour Party" mark 2, and were eventually expelled by Scargill with the acquiescence of his followers seven years later. The circumstances of the break between the communists and Scargill are fully laid out in the founding documents of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist).^[2][3]

Scargill expelled the entire Yorkshire Regional Committee and five members of the National Executive Committee. From this, in July 2004, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) was formed,^[4] and Brar was its chairman.^[5]

Adopting positions maintained by Brar and his comrades since the 1960s, the CPGB-ML has been vigorously opposed to all those who work with or in any way endorse the Labour Party since its inception. They maintain this position in a series of articles up to the present day with vehement criticism of what they term Sir Keir Starmer's "Labour Imperialism". Its stated aim on formation was to oppose opportunism in the working-class movement, and push for actual socialism with economic redistribution of wealth from the capitalist class to the working class ,as well as a working class government - "dictatorship of the proletariat", which they claim, along with Marx, would represent a massive expansion in real democracy for the mass of British Workers. In this way, they claim to be reviving the "class against class" programme embodied by the Communist Party of Great Britain during the 1920s, and working for the establishment of genuine socialism in Britain.^[6][7]

The CPGB-ML lays claim to be the true inheritor of the third international and the successor to the original CPGB (which dissolved itself in 1991). It had a number of original CPGB members as its members and honorary presidents including Jack Gaster, Jack Shapiro (Brother of Michael Shapiro), and Isabell Crook. This position is contested by the revisionist Communist Party of Britain, founded in 1986, which still follows the 1953 CPGB electoral program "Britain's Road to Socialism". Ranjeet Brar, a member of the CPGB-ML and Harpal's eldest son, has written a critique of that program entitled "Britain's Road to Socialism?", denouncing the concept that the Labour Party is capable of bringing socialism to Britain.

Brar is the editor of a left-wing political newspaper Lalkar, the former journal of the Indian Workers' Association.[2] Brar has written multiple books on subjects such as communism, Indian republicanism, imperialism, anti-Zionism, anti-colonialism, and the British General Strike. He is also a co-founder of the Hands off China Campaign.

Political activities

Brar joined the Maoist Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League but soon left to become a founder member of a small group, the Association of Communist Workers, as well as being a member of the Association of Indian Communists.

He and his comrades officially dissolved the ACW in 1997 to join Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party, a breakaway from the Labour Party after its abandonment of the original version of Clause IV. Brar was the parliamentary candidate in Ealing Southall in 2001, coming eighth with 921 votes. He had previously come fourth in the 1997 general election, with 2107 votes. Brar and his comrades worked to bring what they described as an Anti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist programme to the SLP, but were eventually expelled seven years later.

Scargill expelled the entire Yorkshire Regional Committee and five members of the National Executive Committee. From this, in July 2004, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) was formed, and Brar was its chairman. The CPGB-ML maintains strong links with socialist movements via the World Anti-imperialist Platform and maintains links with the Embassies and Ruling political parties of the Socialist and progessive nations including the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China, Cuba and the Communist Party of Cuba (former Leader: Fidel Castro Ruz), the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the United Socialsit Party of Venezuela (PSUV), The Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Communist Party of Vietnam, the People's Republic of Laos and the Lao Peoples' Revolutionary Party, Nicaragua and the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN), among others.

Adopting positions maintained by Brar and his comrades since the 1960s, the CPGB-ML has been vigorously opposed to all those who work with or in any way endorse the Labour Party since its inception. Its stated aim on formation was to oppose opportunism in the working-class movement, revive the "class against class" programme embodied by the Communist Party of Great Britain during the 1920s, and to work for the establishment of socialism in Britain.

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist) was registered with the Electoral Commission in 2008 under the name "Proletarian", which is the title of the bi-monthly newspaper of the CPBG-ML. The party was registered "to prepare for standing in elections".

At the eighth congress of the CPGB-ML in September 2018, Brar announced that he would step down as chairman of the party, to be replaced by Ella Rule.

Views on China

On 19 July 2008, Harpal Brar was one of the people who founded the Hands off China campaign, dedicated to defending the People's Republic of China and to defending "China's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and "the country's just stance on issues of its vital national interest such as Taiwan and Tibet."

Views on India

Brar strongly disagrees with the popular belief that the Indian independence movement was peaceful and pacifist, and was led entirely by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress. In his book Inquilab Zindabad: India's Liberation Struggle he argues that a violent and bloody class struggle involving the masses took place. He accuses Gandhi and Congress of supporting British imperialism, describing the latter as "the most compromising, cowardly and obscurantist representatives of the India bourgeoisie".

Views on the Soviet Union

Brar defends the governments and leaders of the USSR until the appearance of Khrushchevite revisionism during the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1956. Lalkar, the newspaper edited by Brar, criticises The British Road to Socialism (the programme of the original Communist Party of Great Britain) from its earliest version in 1951 as "un-Marxist" and regards the claim that Joseph Stalin approved it as a "fiction". Brar is seen as an admirer of Stalin and has been attacked as an "anachronism" in the Weekly Worker publication of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee), which Brar in turn regards as Trotskyite propaganda.

He has chaired and is an active member of the Stalin Society, along with his daughter Joti Brar (deputy leader of the Workers Party of Britain). The Society denies Soviet wrongdoing in the Katyn massacre which they blame on the Nazis, the Soviet famine of 1932–33 which they blame on foreign sanctions, kulak sabotage and weather patterns, and the Moscow Trials which they describe as fair process.

Publications

For many years, he was on the executive of the Indian Workers Association (GB) and was the editor of that organisation's journal Lalkar. He continues to publish the journal, but the IWA cut its ties with the paper in 1992, when members of the executive committee with affiliations to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) objected to Brar's publishing of an article that was mildly critical of the adoption of market socialism in China.

Since 1992, Brar has self-published fourteen books on various aspects of Marxism, imperialism and revisionism. These works are a combination of original material and articles previously published in Lalkar and have been translated and distributed internationally by a number of sympathetic communist parties around the world.

Works

• Zionism: A Racist, Antisemitic and Reactionary Tool of Imperialism
• Capitalism and Immigration (second edition)
• Britain’s Perfidious Labour Party
• Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: Marketisation of the Chinese economy
• Imperialism in the Middle East
• Inquilab Zindabad, India's Liberation Struggle (2014)
• The Soviet Victory Over Fascism
• 'Revisionism and the Demise of the USSR
• The 1926 British General Strike
• Nato's Predatory War Against Yugoslavia
• Imperialism and War
• Imperialism – the Eve of the Social Revolution of the Proletariat
• Imperialism and the Worst-Ever Crisis of Overproduction
• Chimurenga! The Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe
• Imperialism – Decadent, Parasitic, Moribund Capitalism
• Bourgeois Nationalism or Proletarian Internationalism?
• Perestroika: The Complete Collapse of Revisionism (1992)
• Trotskyism or Leninism? (1993)
• Social Democracy: The Enemy Within (1995)

Elections contested

UK Parliament elections

Date of election	Constituency	Party	Votes	%
1997	Ealing Southall	SLP	2,107	3.9
2001	Ealing Southall	SLP	921	2.0

European Parliament elections

Year	Region	Party	Votes	%	Result	Notes
1999	London	SLP	19,632	1.7	Not-elected	Multi-member constituency; party list

London Assembly elections (Entire London city)

Date of election	Party	Votes	%	Results	Notes
2000	SLP	17,401	1.0	Not elected	Multi-members party list

External links

• Preface to Brar's book Trotskyism or Leninism?.
• Brar's business website.