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Five takeaways from the RCP Central Committee meeting

Last weekend, the Revolutionary Communist Party’s leadership met in London to discuss the developing political situation, and the tasks that flow from it. National organiser Lotta Angantyr shares her five takeaways from the Central Committee meeting.

1. We must grasp perspectives

The Revolutionary Communist Party’s ambition is to prepare the leadership needed for a successful revolution to overthrow capitalism, not just in Britain but across the world.

Given this historic task, we constantly strive to raise the political level within the party. A clear understanding of perspectives and tasks is essential to achieve our aim.

Analysing the fundamental processes of the class struggle gives us a general sense of where we are heading. We must understand the twists and turns of the situation to navigate where we, as a party, are going.

Every RCP member must grasp perspectives. They anchor us, allow us to see things in their wider context, and prevent us from being taken by surprise by events.

2. Capitalism is mired in crisis worldwide

We are living in an epoch of profound crises not seen in a generation. World capitalism has reached an impasse: the system can no longer develop the productive forces to the same levels as it once did, due to the barriers of the nation-state and private ownership.

The relative decline of US imperialism and the rise of China have produced unprecedented instability. Trade wars, protectionism, and military tensions are producing volatility in the world situation, with flashpoints on every continent.

Meanwhile, European capitalism is in decline, accelerated by the Ukraine war, which has severely damaged its economy. The German economy, once Europe’s powerhouse, is heading off a cliff, dragging the EU with it.

Shadow banking and vast speculative bubbles, particularly in the US, rest on shaky foundations. The tools used to bail out the system in 2008 are no longer available. Worse still, those very measures have created bigger problems today. A new financial crisis would be far more destructive, given the enormous global debt burden.

British capitalism has been in decline for 40 years. The destruction of productive industry, steel, coal, shipbuilding, was replaced by services and financial speculation. Today the consequences are clear: weak productivity, rising unemployment, low investment, and extreme vulnerability to global shocks (of which there are now many).

Since 2008, Britain has essentially endured a 20-year slump. Foreign trade growth has collapsed – from 5 percent between 1980–2008, to 2.5 percent between 2008–2019, and just 0.3 percent between 2019–2024. National debt now stands at almost 100 percent of GDP. The OBR forecasts borrowing costs reaching £138 billion in 2025/26.

The result is a dramatic fall in living standards for the working class. There is a relentless squeeze: rent, bills, groceries, and council tax are all rising. After 15 years of austerity, public services are crumbling. Workers must work harder and pay more for far less.

This decline is reshaping consciousness across society. Fifty-seven percent of Britons say they are unsure whether the cost of living crisis will ever end. These conditions are preparing the ground for explosive political developments.

3. The British establishment is crumbling

We are witnessing an all-time low in faith in capitalist institutions.

People increasingly blame the pillars of the establishment for instability. Parliament, political parties, the media, the British Army, the monarchy, the judiciary, and the police all are seen as rotten.

What was once a formidable state apparatus, perfected by the British ruling class over the course of centuries, has turned into its opposite.

The two-party system has collapsed. The Tories have been reduced to an almost irrelevant party, hated by everyone.

At the same time, Starmer’s government is riddled with chaos, U-turns, and scandals. Three out of four Britons think the Labour government is just as “chaotic” as the last Tory one.

Any government in office during an epoch of decline is doomed to crises.

The capitalists are putting enormous pressure on Labour to make the working class pay for the crisis, through higher taxes and cuts to public services.

But the working class, too, is exerting huge pressure on Labour to not carry out further attacks. Labour MPs feel this pressure sharply, fearful of losing their seats. This is why the government was forced to U-turn on welfare cuts earlier this year.

 

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In the latest budget, Labour tried to avoid upsetting either side: scrapping the two-child benefit cap and raising the minimum wage to throw a bone to workers, while freezing income tax thresholds – pulling millions more workers into higher tax as wages rise with inflation.

This budget won’t solve poverty or revive growth. It won’t have any effect on the decline of British capitalism. Labour avoided major spending cuts for now, hoping to soften their political collapse. By doing “as little as possible”, they have pleased no one, neither workers nor the capitalists.

More than half of Britons do not believe any political party has a serious plan for the economy. Reform UK leads only marginally in perceived credibility, but even then, most people are deeply sceptical.

And even if Reform forms the next government, they will inherit a crisis and will be reviled just as Labour is today.

The majority of Reform voters feel politically ignored and betrayed. Their anger flows from austerity, pollution, collapsing public services, and falling living standards. Thirty-six percent are desperate or worried about their finances.

A Reform government, which will have to be based on layers of the working class, would quickly disappoint, because they cannot solve any of the major problems people face.

Reform voters are not a stable right-wing bloc. This is a confused, disillusioned, volatile layer – one that can swing sharply left under the right conditions.

A future Reform government would provoke backlash from the working class, particularly the youth. It would be extremely unstable, and its support would collapse. Under these conditions, we can expect a massive swing to the left in Britain.

4. The left leaders are weak

The question is: who will connect with the anti-establishment mood? Your Party had enormous potential when it first launched, signing up more than 800,000 people. But due to the extreme political weakness of its leaders, most of this potential was squandered even before the founding congress.

That said, we must follow events as they develop. It cannot be ruled out that something could emerge from Your Party under the pressure of events.

In the future, with continued attacks on the working class, and a potential Farage government, Your Party could grow, due to their nationally recognised figures like Corbyn and Sultana. Exactly what form this takes is impossible to say – but such conditions would stimulate a further revival of left reformism.

The only other party that has grown is the Greens, with young people especially flocking to them due to its leftward shift under ‘eco-populist’ leader Zack Polanski. They have moved from focusing on environmentalism onto broader social issues, like the cost of living and wealth inequality. They are posing themselves as a left alternative to Labour.

When speaking to people who support the Greens, our task as communists is to patiently explain the limits of reformism, and why revolutionary measures are ultimately needed to solve society’s problems.

5. The RCP must step up to the task

The future we are heading towards is one of extreme volatility and turbulence. Developments will not unfold in a straight line, especially in the absence of a real political alternative. Within the next five years, we could see a Reform government, followed by major shifts to the left.

These are the conditions we must prepare our forces for. At the moment, we are far too small to reach the masses. We must urgently grow the party in order to take advantage of the events that are unfolding. We must step up to the tasks in front of us.

Therefore, we are looking for thousands of young people. We must prioritise our resources and apply all our forces to the point of attack. Our task is to build a party based on students and young workers, firmly educated and trained in Marxist ideas, methods, and traditions.

In the next period we must raise the public profile of the party, which includes our newspaper, The Communist, and our bookshop, Wellred Books.

With a clear communist image, we can draw the most radical layers in society towards us. When people see the RCP, we want them to think: youthful, knowledgeable, and serious about theory and analysis.

The main focus is therefore open work as revolutionary communists. Strengthening our student work at the universities will be key, to become the reference point for radicalised youth.

Since September, the RCP has almost doubled its student base to over 300 across Britain, recruiting hundreds of students in the Autumn term.

We did this under an unapologetic communist banner. We told students: if you want to fight imperialism, exploitation, and oppression – if you think we need a revolution – you should be a communist.

Branches held open meetings on the fundamental ideas of Marxism and communism. We discussed the Gen Z revolutions sweeping the world, and intervened in the Palestine movement, highlighting the political general strike in Italy and the need for mass action to fight western imperialism.

2025 was the year we strengthened the party. This has mainly been achieved by raising the political level. Early in the year, we held several regional cadre schools focused on politically educating the leadership.

We also held national educational events – the Summer Camp themed around the ideas of Ted Grant, founder of our International, and the Revolution Festival, which was our biggest yet.

Throughout the year, we have focused on training up new layers of leadership in our branches, through one-to-one follow up, giving comrades political and organisational responsibilities, and encouraged our members to practice explaining our ideas by turning outwards. This work has led to a broadening of the cadre base within the party, allowing us to absorb more members in the near future .

Our political strength is reflected in our finances: a 31 percent increase in members’ subs income, and a 21 percent increase to our fighting fund.

This success did not happen automatically. It was a conscious, politically-driven campaign by the Central Committee, which discussed this question throughout the year and set a clear aim to work towards.

This year, The Communist surpassed a record 60,000 in circulation, serving as a key tool in our recruitment and integration of new members. The paper is our uniform when we intervene in the movement, and meet workers and youth in the universities and on the streets.

We finished 2025 with over 1,300 members, a 9 percent growth this year. On the basis of this qualitative growth, from the national centre through to the local branches, we believe the party is now in a position to make a major leap in quantitative growth in 2026.

The only thing that is holding us back from further growing the RCP is ourselves. The objective conditions could not be better.

Therefore, it is up to each of us to think: what do we need to do to break through? If we all have an attitude of smashing through obstacles, the 2,000-member mark should soon be within our reach.

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