What is The Lever?

This publication came about in reaction to a number of trends within our movement. The chauvinist and myopic attitudes of the established British left. The dogmatism of the ultra left, the opportunism of rightist currents.

We believe that the British left has reached several theoretical and practical impasses, which none of the existing class struggle organisations are capable of overcoming.

We recognise that organic social movements related to race, gender, sexuality, etc. are legitimate and genuine, but also that they are limited by the very conditions in which they were produced and in which they subsist. This is not merely a theoretical or ethical standpoint, but one that is fundamental to building our movement today.

We therefore recognise that movements based around all aspects of the totality of class struggle are at once interconnected and in tension with each other. We require new theory and a dynamic form of organisation to build a real progressive movement through these contradictions and tensions, instead of leaving the masses isolated, or worse, in self-destructive conflict.

To this end, we aim to publish material which serves the whole of our class, which interrogates dominant trends, challenges the regressive, and promotes those who are dispossessed and downtrodden.

However, we have no doubt that what is written here will remain nothing but objects of passing interest unless they form part of a broader revolutionary project. Our aim is to find a direction, or to create one if need be. This must entail building new forms of class struggle organisation. This must mean building new strategies and new tactics based on the people’s struggle as it exists. We aim to build these in reference to an unflinchingly critical approach to our current situation as it rapidly develops. We aim to learn from our shared history, and from the experiences of class struggles in the UK and around the world.

We recognise that the left in the UK is not just hampered by the various dogmas it holds, but also by its forms of organisations. We believe that both 'anti-hierarchical’ and perverted forms of democratic centralism have utterly failed. We seek an organisation of critical dialectical thinkers, not cultists and true believers. We seek an organisation with cadres who learn their craft in the many legitimate and independent struggles that exist today, and a leadership which learns from them and is subject to criticism by them. Rather than seeking to control or subvert these struggles, we believe in an organisation which can weave them together into a movement which reaches a qualitatively higher stage.

We hope that this project can play a role in the construction of just such an organisation. We hold values of inclusivity, accountability, and rigorous self-criticism at our heart. We will always follow the oppressed in investigating their own oppression, exploitation, and abuse. We will struggle to end all forms of oppression and exploitation, in ourselves and in the world in which we live.

We see a few things as fundamental to our ongoing project:

That the power of Marxism comes from its method. That this method is dialectical materialism, defined as a materialist application of Hegelianism: Material reality is constantly in a process of quantitative and qualitative change, driven by contradictions. Our concrete politics must reflect the concrete dynamics, and sectarianism and idealism cannot be substituted therefor.
That Lenin’s analysis of imperialism holds true today, albeit in a different form, and that inter-imperialist rivalry is fundamental to understanding capitalism today, as well as how to defeat it.
That the national question is both under-theorised and essential by the left in imperialist states.
That nations have the right to self-determination.
That “identities” and the fundamental class basis of struggle do not and cannot negate one another, rather the class basis “becomes” through particularities of social belonging.

In the final instance, our project and the communist movement at large must be guided by the these words:

WORKERS AND OPPRESSED PEOPLES OF THE WORLD - UNITE.

- The Lever Editorial Group