The ‘Gen Z Revolution’ – that’s what many are calling the youth uprisings that have erupted internationally: in Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria, and now Indonesia.
These movements are more than your regular protests. They are the result of an entire generation of youth – particularly in countries hyper-exploited by imperialism – living through nothing but capitalist crisis; realising they have no future.
And this same realisation is dawning on young people in Britain.
In the past, young people could expect to inherit a world better than the one in which their parents had grown up.
In 1957, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told Britons that they had “never had it so good”. Back then, a teenager finishing school would look forward to starting a job or an apprenticeship, often in nationalised industry; or they could go to study at university with no tuition fees.
Having finished their education, they would enter an economy with near-full employment and a ‘cradle-to-grave’ welfare system. And they could live in a home of their own.
Fast forward to today, and what prospects await those now leaving school?
On average, homes are worth over 100 times what they were in 1957. 872,000 young people (12.2 percent) are unemployed. Life expectancy is falling.
And to top it off, we face the existential threat of war and climate catastrophe. Conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine continue to cause untold death and destruction.
Meanwhile, the planet has seen 15 consecutive months of record-breaking global temperatures.
But young people are increasingly fighting back – not simply for ‘moral’ reasons, but because the world around them is pushing them into struggle.
In Bangladesh, students have just led a revolution. Everywhere, young people are thinking about the future and what (little) this society has to offer them.
Burning indignation
Looking at the US elections, people are hoping for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza. There is relief that senile ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden will not stand for another term.
But this cannot distract from the fact that his administration has aided and abetted the Israeli regime in murdering in excess of 186,000 Palestinian people – a policy that Kamala has parroted.
The people of Gaza won’t celebrate that it’s a black woman sending bombs their way. Nor will American workers care about the diversity on display in the White House, while their conditions are worsening.
There is burning indignation over the issue of Palestine. We are forced to watch in horror as the establishment fails – and refuses – to stop this brutal assault on humanity.
But the fury goes beyond this question. The reason why the Palestine movement in Britain has taken on such an explosive character – with millions coming onto the streets, and students setting up dozens of encampments across UK universities – is because of the longstanding rage felt towards ‘our’ own ruling class.
The same people that try to justify what Netanyahu is doing are the same people pushing austerity here.
They appear on our screens saying we must support Israel and Ukraine, financially, politically, and militarily; then, in the next breath, they talk about the cuts and ‘tough decisions’ needed in relation to education, healthcare, and services at home.
30 out of 350 arms licenses suspended is pathetic. Malcom X knew how to deal with the David Lammy’s of the world! Not one penny, and not one bullet should be going to Israel.
I forgot to add the end of the quote ‘they wont even admit the knife is there!’
On @GUnderground_TV pic.twitter.com/W2fVq44OAd
— Fiona Lali (@fiona_lali) September 9, 2024
Revolutions are coming
Palestine has become a lightning rod for all the accumulated anger in Britain, built up due to decades of decay and decline, falling living standards, and endless hypocrisy, lies, and corruption from those in Westminster.
This anger is increasingly being directed against the whole system, capitalism, which offers no positive future.
Already, support for Starmer’s big business government is plummeting. As the crisis deepens, the ‘Labour’ PM is likely to face the same kind of mass protests that have taken place against Macron and Biden, in France and the USA.
We’re going to see more intense movements – in Britain and internationally – against any party or leader who defends capitalism’s status quo of austerity and war.
We must rise up and reject the bankrupt legacy that we have inherited. The students of Bangladesh have shown the way.
Our job as communists is to tell the truth. All of these establishment politicians represent capitalism. They and their rotten system must be overthrown.
Revolutions are coming, here and across the world.
Our job is to connect with the radicalised mood in society: putting forward a communist programme that answers the pressing problems that workers and young people face, and getting organised in preparation for the titanic events and fierce battles coming our way.
So don’t delay! Fight for your future! Join the communists today!
Why we are communists
I want to see a change
I am a communist because I want to see a change in this world, at the mere age of 12.
I have only been on this earth for a short time, yet I am distraught because of what the capitalist warmongers are doing to this world, with endless destruction across the poorer nations.
Until a few months ago, I mindlessly supported Labour (shamefully!). But after the commencement of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, I finally had it with the idea of capitalism, so I started looking for political alternatives.
I considered anarchism, social-democracy, Stalinism, but then I stumbled upon Marxism in a history lesson, and thought that I should research this. I bought the Communist Manifesto, read it thoroughly, and felt inspired.
Because of the bad reputation of communism, I wouldn’t have thought that it would be such a large movement across Britain.
I joined the RCP to at least try to educate my friends and peers, to try and change their view on communism.
Our schools just brush over politics, focusing on topics that are only to help us live in a capitalist society.
Our schools are just trying to keep us uneducated in politics, to prevent an uprising.
Whenever we have a lesson on subjects like the October Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky are always portrayed as ruthless dictators.
We need to change this! We need an uprising to genuinely educate us about true politics, and not propaganda advocating that capitalism is the only system that works.
Kian, a frustrated 12-year-old in Cambridge
From XR to communism
I’m 17. My journey began five years ago, after witnessing live footage of wildfires devastating the Amazon.
I started attending local Extinction Rebellion meetings for a few months, until the repetition and lack of direction caused me to part ways.
At this time, like many young lefties, I thought a Nordic-style welfare system was the way forward.
Over lockdown, however, I began to encounter videos online introducing socialist ideas.
It took a bus stop covered in ‘Are you a communist?’ posters for me to finally take the plunge last year and write in!
Since then, the war in Gaza, alongside the prevalence of the mental health crisis, have only emboldened my revolutionary zeal. The party and its ideas continue to be the shining light in my life.
We youth are continually berated by this collapsing system. The RCP is the only way forward!
Harry, Cornwall
Class struggle unites us
Growing up, I became increasingly frustrated by the stark inequalities in the world. Many of us work excruciatingly hard for necessities like food, housing, and education.
Witnessing a resource-rich continent like Africa, where most people are denied access to its wealth or are exploited by imperialist powers, deeply angered me as an African.
The fact that a small group of people amass immense wealth while the rest of us struggle to get by filled me with pessimism about my future.
At university, I gravitated toward the Communist Society, coinciding with my growing disillusionment.
Around this time, discussions were being organised on the protest movement in Iran, following the regime’s murder of Mahsa Amini.
As a Muslim, I understood the wrongness of policing religious practices and acknowledged that some people are forced to conform. The children of Iran’s ruling class can dress freely, while the working class faces harsh punishments for ‘immodest’ attire.
I realised that the ruling class uses religion to maintain the societal status quo and suppress rebellion.
Joining the RCP made me understand that the fight against class struggle should unite us, regardless of our backgrounds.
I came to see that many societal ills are rooted in capitalism, and it is this system we must challenge.
Laila, Canterbury
We are the real communists
I became a communist at the age of 13. I grew up in a working class family in Szczecin, Poland. I saw neglect, poverty, hardship, and depression in this once proud industrial city. We struggled to make ends meet.
To give you a glimpse, I remember my mum coming back from a factory with a box of valves that needed to be put together by her next shift. My mum was too exhausted, so me and my brother, aged 10 and 9 used to spend our evenings doing these for her.
We moved to Wales when I was 13 – certainly not for the weather.
I asked my parents: Why is Poland so poor? Why did we have to move? Is it because we were only free from communism for 25 years, so we needed more time to rebuild? (This is what I was told in school).
When my parents told me about what life was like under ‘communism’ – full employment, subsidised holidays, and stable jobs – I was mesmerised.
Of course, I now understand that this wasn’t real communism, because the working class was not in control of society. But even so, the benefits of a planned economy were obvious to me.
I read the Communist Manifesto and other texts. But I had to do something. I tried various groups, but I didn’t come across this organisation until I was 18. Once I did, I never looked back.
It is the RCP’s analysis of the role of Stalinism that truly connects with all of my Polish family and friends. When I had illusions in Stalinism, there was no chance. We are the real communists – fighting for genuine workers’ democracy and internationalism.
RCP member in Wales
‘The Communist’ is written by and for revolutionary workers and young people. So if you’re reading this, that probably includes you!
Want to share your story of how you became a communist? Whether it was your experience of life under capitalism, or the appeal of Marxist ideas – let us know!
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