Since the national congress in May, Cambridge RCP school students’ branch has nearly doubled in size – from six members to eleven.
Two joined on consecutive days after a discussion on issue 30 of The Communist sparked a debate on Iran and Israel, which then leapt into a wide-ranging conversation about art, culture, propaganda, and identity politics.
Of the six new members, two are friends of existing comrades, while three found us after seeing our posters and stickers and writing to the website.
And we’re not stopping there. We’re already in touch with ten more school students and recent sixth-form graduates in Cambridge who want to join the RCP.
Recruitment drive
After an intense period of political education at the start of 2025, we launched a focused recruitment drive in May around Cambridge’s largest sixth form to connect with new young radicals.
There, we run the Socialist Society – the most radical name our comrade could get away with! – hold weekly sales at a nearby leisure centre (where one contact has already brought their brother along to branch), and have plastered surrounding bus stops with posters. One of these posters directly led to our most recent recruit.
Our comrades say recruiting friends is “as easy as talking about communism all the time”, which starts with being confident in Marxist ideas and eager to explain how the world works.
The enthusiasm is infectious. Our first May recruit is already a branch paper officer, organising regular sales at their school and meeting many interested students. A comrade who joined just two weeks ago now brings two friends to the branch every week.
Marxist training
Because older comrades can’t participate directly in school-based work, it’s crucial we train ourselves in Marxist theory and methods.
This has been made possible entirely by students stepping up as political leaders in their schools – trusted to organise independently, free to make mistakes, and confident to learn by doing.
All officer roles (secretary, treasurer, and paper officer) are now held by school students, who lead their work independently.
The atmosphere is lively, everyone contributes, and political discussion is always given priority. Political discussions take up at least half, often three-quarters, of the duration of branch meetings – the same standard as any other branch in the organisation.
Our experience shows there is no ‘special approach’ to building branches around schools.
What works is treating comrades as young adults serious about changing the world, and doing the basics well: find energetic young communists, give them a strong grounding in Marxism and our party’s perspectives, and set them to work with inspiring branch meetings.
Given that foundation, comrades will take the initiative and recruit their peers. The role of the branch is to support them and keep that dynamic alive in every new wave of recruits.
Our immediate tasks now are to bring more students into the party, train our new members in our ideas and traditions, and hit the ground running as a stronger branch in the new school year!
