The CPGB-ML defines the working class as “Everybody who depends for a decent livelihood on getting and keeping a job.” This is not only incorrect, but it is insulting to people who are working class, i.e., people born working class with working class history and culture.  A quote from their Party Program (2008) states:

“The proletariat alone is the most consistently revolutionary class, for it alone has an interest in the elimination of, not just one system of exploitation of one human being by another, but of all exploitation.“
I am not an expert in sociology; I dropped out of my 6th-form sociology course due to ill health, but even then, it defined the working class. So why is it important to highlight the difference? Well, because Ranjeet Brar is a Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at King’s College London. The wage for such a job is between £90,200 and £102,501 annually. Mr. Barr is the party’s General Secretary.
A bin man in London earns an average salary of £22,281 to £35,236 per year, depending on the source and experience level. Clearly the wage defines much of what it means to be working class, as well as the type of job. This is before we look at the history of a person, their parent’s occupation, where they were born and grew up, what schools they went to, what their social interactions consisted of, etc.

For the record, I class myself as a Communist/Marxist, and I share almost all of the ideals of the CPGB-ML. However, what it crucially gets wrong is that it doesn’t recognise the difference between being working class and a member of the proletariat. The working class cannot wait for the CPGB-ML to get organised. It is in a class war now. Handing out leaflets on a stall won’t feed working-class kids. It won’t pay high energy bills. It won’t pay rent and council tax, things Mr Brar doesn’t have to worry about. So when he attacks figures like Jeremy Corbyn, a man who is trying to organise a party that does understand what being working class means, it annoys me. Try talking to him Ranjeet, and show some respect.

The CPGB-ML needs to get out into working-class communities. Establish regular food banks, pop-up tea and food stalls, and encourage Martial arts training, at the very least. It won’t be middle-class surgeons who are fighting in the trenches if a revolution ever occurs; it will be the binman, and it is frankly insulting when glossing over his history, culture, welfare, and basic needs, along with his dependents. All parties fail in this area, but Reform cleverly mixes with the working class, especially when a camera is around.
Working-class people are angry, and they have a right to be angry. Legitimate cause. If we ignore who and what they are, then we will never recruit enough people to overthrow the State.