“We must demand the impossible, demand the future, and not let anything get in our way.”
These words summed up our most inspiring RCP Summer Camp to date, held from 23-26 July in the Peak District.
Two hundred communists from every corner of the country gathered this past weekend in the countryside to better grasp the power of Marxist ideas.
The RCP banner for the event depicted a communist climbing a mountain. We, too, spent the long weekend on our ascent, broadening the horizons of our understanding through discussing the general features of world politics today.
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Over the course of many sessions, we discussed: the death of the US empire; the weakness of European capitalism; world debt and the crisis in the world economy; the crisis of reformism; the polarisation in society; and the radicalisation of the youth.
From sharp polemics against the Frankfurt School and Sylvia Federici; to stirring presentations on the role of the individual in history, the beginnings of philosophy, and art; the Summer Camp provided the perfect opportunity for leading comrades to delve deeper into theory.
The camp framed learning as a fire to be lit, rather than a vessel to be filled. With that in mind, we sold £5,000 worth of Marxist literature – which is a pledge by all of us to sharpen up our theoretical level over the summer.
All comrades that attended were brimming with enthusiasm, and hardened in their resolve to build the RCP. As two of our members answered, when asked what their favourite part of the event was:
“Perspectives for the American revolution. So inspiring. No doubt in my mind it’s on the horizon.” – Sol, Birmingham
“I loved hearing about the Cockroach Janta Party and the Long March in ‘Azad’ Kashmir. Historically divided by British imperialism, brought together once again by class struggle. The workers in the Indian subcontinent will build a new society, where they can truly be free.” – Sanmay, Bristol
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Seething anger
Two defining themes emerged from the discussions throughout the weekend.
On the one hand, there is a seething mood of hatred towards the status quo. As the old world order crumbles, society is undergoing a profound moment of ideological questioning.
On the other hand, there is a huge political vacuum on the left – a vacuum that has allowed others to channel this mood of rage.
The rise of Reform and far-right grifters like Tommy Robinson was not inevitable. It is a direct consequence of the so-called ‘left’ doing nothing to address the material and economic insecurities of working-class communities. What a damning indictment.
The working class is increasingly beginning to connect the dots between wars abroad and austerity at home; wage restraints for the poor, alongside handouts for the bankers; political repression and legal reprisals for standing up against genocide, whilst the British state shares intelligence for Israel’s next target.
As consciousness is churned up by events on a daily basis, the youth are instinctively beginning to reject capitalism. The sentiment we are finding on the streets is clear: burn it all down.
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Our tasks
The contradictions of capitalism are producing an enormous political radicalisation. But there remains no revolutionary expression for this process. That is the responsibility before us.
As was stressed throughout the weekend, we need to place the party increasingly on a war footing. If we are serious about preparing the forces of communism for the explosive events ahead, then we must strengthen our apparatus and seize the moment.
With this in mind, we launched a national subs drive to take on two new full-time revolutionaries for the RCP.
The first aim is to develop our work amongst black and Asian workers and youth, and to help nationally coordinate our interventions in anti-racist struggles.
Fiona Lali’s plenary session on the role of racism as a weapon in the hands of the British establishment stressed the need for communists to be armed with a programme capable of cutting across this poison.
The bankruptcy of liberal anti-racism is obvious. Whilst many young people are physically defending their communities against the far right, they look at much of the existing left and see a ‘movement’ detached from their reality. They see moral preaching, symbolic gestures, and counter-protests organised miles down the road.
Is it any surprise that many angry, radicalised youth feel politically homeless?
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Our task is to provide a genuine class alternative. The ideas discussed at the summer camp are the greatest weapon in the hands of the youth.
We are increasingly standing out in practice through our interventions against Britain First in Manchester, and by establishing ourselves as the revolutionary wing of the anti-racist struggle in Sheffield and Leeds.
We are also the only organisation consistently highlighting the revolutionary history of black and Asian struggles as part of the broader fight for socialism. Expanding this work with a dedicated full-timer will allow us to reach thousands more.
The second task is to strengthen our youth work.
As we gathered in the countryside, some 4,000 miles away the Indian youth movement forced the resignation of the hated education minister as the Gen Z movement reached a new height.
This is not an isolated phenomenon. The same combustible material – the anger against corruption, nepotism, unemployment – is gathering beneath the surface in Britain.
Unlike ten years ago, campuses today are not crowded with competing political organisations fighting for influence. There is a huge political vacuum. Marxist ideas have an unprecedented opportunity to take root.
We finished the year with 350 students, making us the largest left-wing group in universities nationally. Now we must build on this success.
The students arriving this autumn will likely graduate around the time of the next general election. They will face the same dead end presented by the establishment: support Labour as the ‘lesser evil’ to prevent Reform from getting into power.
There could be no better time to organise, educate, and train a new generation of communist fighters capable of cutting across these false choices with a revolutionary programme. A new London youth organiser at the national centre will help us plant our flag on even more campuses, and build strongholds at the key universities.
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Unresting optimists
Ultimately, these targets are only a means to an end.
We are not building a party for its own sake. We are building a party capable of leading strikes, occupations, demonstrations, and future revolutionary upheavals in the struggle for a society without profit, war or national oppression.
Every Gen Z revolt gives us a glimpse of a new society struggling to be born. We do not have a minute to waste.
In May 1968, when students battled the police on the streets of Paris and called on workers to join the struggle, France was brought to the brink of revolution. One slogan, graffitied across the city walls, captured the mood: “Be realistic, demand the impossible!”
This is a fitting slogan for communists today. We are told that our demands are unrealistic. But can any reasonable person truly believe that the alienation experienced by millions every day is the natural order of things? Can it really be true that humanity is incapable of organising society in a better way?
In a world consumed by crisis and pessimism, communists must be the unresting optimists.
We are demanding what we are taught is impossible. But communists understand that the material conditions for a new and higher human society already exist on a world scale.
That is the vision that will carry the RCP towards 2,000 members – and beyond.
Revolutionary students prepare for a Red Autumn…
Bela Miftari, London
As the RCP prepares to make a big red splash on the campuses this autumn, a Freshers’ Task Force was set up of 20 leading students from around London.
We have just finished two week-long training courses, with sessions covering: the radicalisation of the youth; philosophy; becoming correspondents for The Communist; reading groups on the relevance of The Communist Manifesto and Imperialism; a Karl Marx walking tour; and much more.
The purpose of the Task Force was to ensure that the leading comrades know how to turn anger into political conviction, and show how Marxist theory is our greatest weapon in fighting the crises confronting young people today.
The liberal mouthpiece for the millionaires The Economist recently rang the alarm of rising “Gen-Z socialism” on the front of their magazine – appealing to politicians for a “punchier defence of capitalism,” so that liberalism can “win the argument.” How pathetic!
The material and economic insecurity of young people is, of course, feeding this anger and fury. The number of NEETs in the UK has exceeded a million young people, and the number of graduate jobs has dropped below ten thousand for the first time ever.
It is no wonder that the youth are beginning to question whether the system has anything left to offer them.
Both weeks of our training course saw lively discussions on the problems facing the youth, leaving our members determined to make this the biggest and most successful freshers’ campaign the RCP has seen.
Last year, we tripled our student base in London, reaching 90 comrades. This year, it is our task to triple it again, and establish the RCP as the unmistakable revolutionary presence on every campus in the capital.
Coming out of the Task Force, students have been discussing how to bring a vibrant communist presence to campuses, launching new initiatives like weekly ‘Red Days’: coordinated stalls, rallies, and activity to ensure every student knows where to find the communists, across the whole of central London.
The necessity of this political preparation became clear when discussing the situation on today’s campuses.
As many universities become implicated in spy scandals, and deepen their ties to the so-called ‘defence’ industry, more students are beginning to understand that these institutions serve the interest of British imperialism.
The Revolutionary Communist Students of London will increasingly be taking a lead in battles on the campus – whether that be on the pickets standing alongside our striking lecturers, or organising rallies to expose management’s lies and hypocrisy on the main university squares.
Movements around the world show us that the youth will not wait for revolutionary leadership to be ready – and so we are getting to work building it over the summer months. Watch this space.
… Whilst UK universities prepare for ‘war-readiness’
Alice Nicholson, Cardiff
For years we have witnessed war, genocide, and barbarism carried out with the full support and financial backing of our government.
In Britain today, workers and youth face humiliating conditions: collapsing healthcare, decaying education, and crumbling social spaces.
Yet while public services starve, the war drum keeps beating.
This month, 35 UK universities signed a deal with the Ministry of Defence to found the Defence Universities Alliance (DUA). This alliance is a further entrenching of the militarisation of higher education.
The aims of the DUA are to support the pipeline of graduates into defence sector jobs and to translate “cutting-edge research into battlefield advantage”. This deal will, we are told, “fundamentally change the way defence, universities and industry work together”.
This is deepening the murky ties that already exist between universities and arms manufacturers. A study by Demilitarise Education previously found that British universities’ partnerships with the arms trade are already worth over £1 billion.
Now, the government is publicly flaunting greater involvement of universities in preparing the country for ‘war-readiness’.
The ‘defence’ sector, which has next to nothing to do with defence, has for decades leeched off of university departments and their technical innovations – using university partnerships as the ‘human face’ to their profiting from suffering.
Today, at least 24 universities face the risk of insolvency in the next 12 months, with over 100 currently undergoing deep cuts and restructuring. It is in this context that university managements run towards the defence sector – eagerly offering up students and workers as their pound of flesh.
The hypocrisy of university management is being exposed. We are told our institutions exist for social progress and free thinking, whilst really they are acting as cogs in the war machine!
Many of the universities in the DUA have in fact already shamelessly attacked and intimidated students who have dared to speak out against their warmongering. This year, UCL even called the police on and suspended RCP member Jamie after he gave a pro-Palestine speech.
There’s a deep anger and radicalisation building on the campuses. Both staff and students have a hatred for university management and the political interests they represent.
However, these same campuses are completely devoid of any organisations that can connect with this anger. There is a huge political vacuum.
Over this summer we are preparing the students in Bristol and Cardiff to become the revolutionary leadership that is so clearly needed – through the setting up of a Task Force similar to the one in London.
There are huge battles being prepared at the universities against war and imperialism. We are building to put ourselves at the forefront of this struggle.
