When we launched Revolutionary Communist Students five weeks ago, we put on a series of meetings underlining the role the youth can and must play in the fight to change society. Our slogan, ‘demand the impossible’, was directly inspired by the May 1968 movement in France.
By the time the final talk in our campus series came around, we were no longer explaining in general the radicalisation of the youth today, nor was the discussion framed around the possibility of a new cycle of class struggle crashing to the surface in Europe. We were living through it.
The scenes of Parisian youth occupying Place de la République, decorating the bronze statue of Marianne with a yellow vest, and demanding the fall of the government, has strikingly confirmed our political perspectives.
We are living through a moment in history where European capitalism is in irreversible decline; the old liberal world order is crumbling; and the youth are taking centre-stage in the dramatic events unfolding across the continent.
First up: Germany, Spain, and France. Now: Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Albania. Next stop: Britain.
Leap in growth
This perspective for the role young people will play was the starting point of our autumn campaign at the universities, with the stated intention of becoming a real reference point for the youth in fighting back on campus.
And it explains the extraordinary response we have received. Campuses across Britain have been abuzz with political meetings and debates; rallies and demonstrations; reading groups, literature sales, and stalls.
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The first phase of our freshers campaign culminated in our 700-strong communist bloc for Palestine in London. As quickly as the police were released into our bloc like rabid dogs, arresting eleven of our members, we had recruited as many as they had snatched!
10 October provided flesh and blood to the concepts brilliantly laid out in Lenin’s State and Revolution. In the week that followed, RCP branches up and down the country honed in on one crucial lesson that flowed from our experience: the British state’s brutal response to our vibrant bloc expresses their deepest, darkest anxieties: that Europe is a mirror to Britain’s future.
The fire is catching, and we must redouble our efforts to grow the RCP in order to intervene in the movements coming to our shores. This appeal to get organised clearly struck a chord with those looking towards us.
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One attendee at a London branch meeting after the Palestine demonstration commented that “communism no longer felt like a dream, but a reality I can struggle for.” She set up her membership on the spot.
Another new member in Cambridge, reflecting on the experience of their first few weeks organised with the RCP, wrote to us:
“The RCP knocked away any sense of defeatism. Being here has made me truly believe, in a way I had never done before, that the revolution will and must happen. It will happen because of comrades like the ones here at the RCP, who have shown to have such clarity and conviction in Marxism, which I want to learn myself.”
In the week that followed the arrests, we recruited 56 new members, bringing the total recruits to the RCP since September to almost two hundred.
This is our fastest recruitment in our history. And there is no sign of this slowing down.
All eyes on Revolution Festival
We are attracting young people who want more than slogans and social media activism. They are looking for revolutionary ideas, an understanding of the world, and an organisation through which they can change it.
The central focus of ‘phase two’ of our autumn campaign is building for the Revolution Festival, our flagship educational event.
Hosted in London on 13-15 November, it will bring together communists from across our International to discuss Marxist theory, revolutionary history, and current events.
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Some talks will focus on the major political questions of today: ‘The making of racist Britain’, ‘The Iran war: Multipolarity and the Middle East’, ‘AI: Liberation or alienation?’, and ‘Capitalism’s climate catastrophe’.
Others will focus on topics which will give attendees a deeper understanding of history, culture, and science: ‘The dawn of class society’, ‘Shakespeare: A revolution in literature’, and ‘Evolution and the struggle for life’.
For Friday night’s rally, we will hear reports from the frontlines: from our comrades in the occupied squares across the Spanish state, from the barricades in the French lycées, and from the anti-conscription movement in Berlin.
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It will provide an opportunity for serious political discussion, and for strengthening the living internationalism of our party.
The perspectives we have advanced are being confirmed by events. Now we must match their scale with the strength of our organisation.
We have made an excellent start. The next phase must take us further: recruiting, educating, consolidating and preparing for the battles to come.
The world is on fire. Let’s get to work building the revolutionary force capable of transforming it.
My first Revolution Festival
My first Revolution Festival was exactly a month after I had joined the party, and was nothing short of life changing.
I was already enthusiastic as a new member, but going to London with the rest of my comrades in the North West, and being in a hall with over a thousand other communists (including international delegates!), and singing the Internationale together was exhilarating.
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I got back on the last day and immediately went postering! Seeing that this was so much bigger than me, and bigger than my branch and district, and meeting comrades who were just as enthusiastic has filled me with optimism and revolutionary energy for the last year.
Alia Al-Mukhtar, Preston
