In the spring of 2024 we met as a whole district (two branches) and passed two resolutions. In retrospect, this meeting was decisive for the development of the Manchester district.
With a mission statement and educational resolution in tow, we set about with one singular task: finding and educating the next generation of Marxist revolutionaries!
“Our task now is to build strongholds, fortresses of the world party of socialist revolution in Manchester. […] The foundation of a real fortress of our International is a body of developed Marxist cadres, steeled in practice and deeply educated in the science of Marxism. What the objective situation calls for is more leaders [and] more Marxists!”
This small team set out to do exactly that: to create new Marxists.
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Back to basics
From a little over ten comrades in the summer, we have tripled in size to 34 members! We had a feverish summer of study, and revolutionised much of our work.
We started with a revitalisation of the branch meetings.
We swept away any unnecessary fluff on the agenda and we made room for discussions on international events that the newest members would introduce. We would discuss imperialism, developments in the class struggle, and news from across our International.
Maria, a member of three weeks in the Withington branch:
“Learning about Marxism and being in the RCP gives me that motivation to learn more and to get better! Being in the RCP makes me really believe that we will change the world.
“When I’m in the meetings, the things we talk about and learn the way the comrades talk about it, it’s so clear how passionate everyone is. It’s made me want to learn all the history of the Russian Revolution. It’s sparked a new interest. I used to not care about politics and history, but now I can’t get enough.”
She was keen to put these ideas into practice: “On the first paper sale I joined, I was nervous. But how excited I am about this party made me want to push myself.”
The first person Maria spoke to and sold an issue of The Communist came along to our branch meeting and wanted to join. Enthusiasm is infectious!
Marxist ideas
This progress did not fall from the sky. It was the direct result of our serious approach to revolutionary history and theory.
Leading comrades in Manchester took the time to study the revolutionary struggles in Ireland. Rather than read a book chapter by chapter, we decided that each comrade would read independently on a different aspect of this question.
One comrade read in depth about the position of Marxists in the 1970s and 80s, another on the Irish Civil War, and so on.
The discussion was held over breakfast at a comrades’ house. Despite lasting almost four hours, it never felt tiring because of the range and depth of the discussion. We found this had a direct impact on the quality of discussion in the branches.
As part of our summer of study we had held day schools, going in depth on topics ranging from the basics of Marxist philosophy and economics, to revolutionary tactics to win the masses.
One comrade would introduce the topic and other comrades were encouraged to ask questions, and so on.
We had also resolved to grow from two relatively weak branches to six strong branches in a year. Currently, we have four branches, and they are unrecognisable from how they were just five months ago.
In the Northern Quarter branch we grew by 100 percent in five weeks.
When asked why they had joined, every new recruit said that the branch meetings were “exciting”, that they were “learning a lot”, and were impressed by our emphasis on building an international organisation.
Keelen, a new member of the Rusholme branch said:
“I thought I was clued up on what was going on, but I realised I was only scratching the surface. It’s crazy to think how much I’ve learnt in the past three months. Even the brand new people are given stuff to do immediately.”
Autumn offensive
With growing and reinvigorated branches, we set forth into the new academic term to find the next generation of communists. The energy and determination the comrades have had in the past two months has been like nothing we’ve seen.
In the first week of we met over a hundred people who were interested in learning more about the Party, and sold 70 copies of The Communist.
This enthusiasm continued right up until our anti-imperialism demonstration outside of the student union with Fiona Lali. We were buzzing! We made one recruit that night and reactivated another comrade which meant we could establish a new branch the following week.
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Our success has been so resounding that we have had to increase our growth targets twice since we have already smashed our previous ones.
We have reached nine new recruits and brought two existing members back into activity in the past two months! We hope to increase this to fifteen by the end of the year.
