Weekly Worker
| Type | Weekly Newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Online, Print |
| Owner(s) | CPGB-PCC |
| Publisher | CPGB-PCC |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Political alignment | Marxist |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | London |
| Website | http://weeklyworker.co.uk |
The Weekly Worker is a newspaper published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) (CPGB-PCC). The paper is known on the left for its polemical articles, close attention to Marxist theory and the politics of other Marxist groups. It claims an online readership averaging over 20,000 a week but only prints 500 copies per week.
The CPGB-PCC's declared intention is to emulate Iskra in providing Marxist analysis of politics and organisation to an initial vanguard of the working class. The Weekly Worker is integral to the CPGB-PCC identity given that the party consider, probably dialectically, themselves to not be a Marxist party. They aim instead for the paper to provide a focus for the communist organisation and theory which will be absorbed by a Marxist party that will arrive in a time of greater working class activism.
The paper has a policy of printing a wide variety of viewpoints. For example, it has printed the articles of the Revolutionary Democratic Group (RDC) over a significant part of the paper's history. The group has also given columns to factions within the party, notably the Red Platform faction during a debate over the CPGB-PCC's stance to the newly founded Respect. The Weekly Worker is known for its reporting of the activities of other left-wing groups with a particular focus on the Socialist Workers Party and the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Critics regard this as being gossip and amounting to sectarianism, a charge inverted by the CPGB.
The paper has, amongst left-wing publications, one of the most open publishing policies. The paper prides itself on publishing a variety of letters, including critical ones. This has often resulted in lengthy debates been conducted through them, leading to a set of familiar names in the letters page.
The paper has also attracted many leading activists, but non party members, to write in the paper. Leading UK gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, former Soviet dissident Boris Kagarlitsky, Marxist scholar Hillel Ticktin (editor of the magazine Critique) and Graham Bash of Labour Left Briefing have been regular contributors.
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