The British Road to Socialism (3 versions).: The political programme of the CPGB.

(a) The British Road to Socialism. New text prepared by the Executive Committee as instructed by the 25th [special] Party Congress. The Communist Party, London 1957. 8vo. (212 x 140 mm), 30 pages. Paper wraps, age-toned. Text clean. Good condition.

(b) The British Road to Socialism. Programme of the Communist Party. The Communist Party, London, October 1968 (republished October 1972). 12mo. (182 x 120 mm), 72 pages. Card cover slightly age-toned. Text clean. Very good condition.

(c) The British Road to Socialism. Programme of the Communist Party. The Communist Party, London, March 1978. 8vo. (215 x 150 mm), 61, [2] pages. Card cover slightly soiled. Text with some marginal pencil notes otherwise clean. Inscription on rear front cover effaced with Tippex. Good condition.

Background

1957 version

Produced after the 1956 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at which Nikita Khrushchev delivered his "secret speech" denouncing Stalin, and the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian revolution by the Warsaw Pact, this text was circulated to Communist Party organisations for comments and suggestions to be sent in to the Executive Committee. This text was subsequently amended by the acceptance of 159 suggestions (out of 257) sent in by party organisations, leading to the publication of the 1958 (3rd version) of the CPGB's programme, the previous 2 versions being dated 1951 and 1952. It was intended as a response to the dramatic 1956 developments in international communism, but still proved not to go far enough in reforming the CPGB and its political strategy, resulting in the loss of large numbers of party members between 1956 and 1958.

1968 version

The 4th version of the CPGB's political programme produced at the time of the May 1968 uprising in Paris and the 'Prague Spring' Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia. Whilst at this time the CPGB did not embrace the beginnings of the "Euro-communist" detachment from Soviet communism with the same enthusiasm as other west European communists, such as the Italians, this new version still marked a further development of the idea a peaceful, national, British road to socialism.

1978 version

The 5th, final, and most "Euro-communist" version of the British Road to Socialism which brought the party to near breaking point following an unprecedently open debate about the party's future. It had been debated in draft at the party's 35th Congress to which over 2,600 amendments to a draft text were submitted.

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