Under sweltering heat over last weekend, scores of RCP members traveled from around the country to attend the party’s Central Committee (CC) meeting.
The CC is not some mysterious body – in some respects, its tasks are not much different than tasks of every branch, only on a bigger scale. It’s a weekend of high-level political discussions on some of the most pertinent questions of the day, from which flow the tasks of our party.
First and foremost the task of the CC is to raise the political level of the party. It is a school of leadership.
Rise and decline of US imperialism
We opened with a discussion on the rise and decline of US imperialism, which coincides nicely with the upcoming 250th anniversary of the American Revolution on 4 July.
Leading RCI member Fred Weston gave an hour-long introduction, where he managed to outline the past two centuries of American history in incredible depth.
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At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the US was still only a former colony, dominated financially by Britain. But by the end of the century, the US took the spot of being the main manufacturing power on Earth from its former overlord, as Britain entered a period of prolonged decline.
The last century was really the century of increased American dominance. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence, Washington had no competition; the US was the world’s policeman. Today, however, America has entered its own period of protracted decline.
While still being the foremost imperialist power on the planet – it has to contend with the rising power of China, Russia, and multiple emerging regional powers. This ‘multipolarity’ has opened up a period of immense instability and wars across the globe.
Popular frontism
In the second political session, RCP political secretary Rob Sewell gave an introduction to a session on ‘popular frontism’ – an opportunist ‘tactic’ that has permeated left-wing politics for decades.
Today, with the rise of Reform and the emboldening of the reactionary right on the streets, calls for abstract ‘unity’ and ‘lesser evilism’ are stronger than ever. Everyone on the left seems to be already bending over backwards to make way for Burnham. And this desperation is only set to intensify.
But, as Rob explained, such tactics have never succeeded, and have only paved the way to the strengthening of the right-wing and reactionary forces.
In Spain, the Popular Front government led directly to the defeat of the Spanish Revolution, ushering in the dark decades of Franco’s fascist dictatorship. In Chile, the Popular Unity government of Allende even tried appeasing General Pinochet – who only days later began executing thousands of communists at the behest of US imperialism.
Genuine communists, on the other hand, stand for an independent, working-class programme, and a clean banner – not mixing and merging with the interests of the liberals and the establishment parties.
Seizing opportunities
This session laid the groundwork for the discussions on the party’s tasks in the coming period.
How can we, as the RCP, cut across this fog of tailing the liberals? In the key cities, where we have several dozens of members, are there opportunities we can seize to demonstrate the superiority of our ideas and methods in practice?
We shared a lot of ideas, initiatives, and lessons on how to reach a wider layer of youth and workers, who are currently being politicised – among many other issues – by the struggles against racism and the right wing.
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The possibilities are endless in this field: the left has never had a weaker leadership than it does today – at a time when the conditions for class struggle are rapidly heating up.
We set ourselves the ambition of planting our flag prominently in the anti-racist movement, using our Marxist ideas and perspectives to cut across the pessimism, moralism, and confusion that has dominated it for years, if not decades.
The RCP is not big enough to lead the struggle against racism nationally, but the conditions are ripe for us to become recognised as a real reference point; as the revolutionary wing of the anti-racist movement.
Sights raised
Annie from Leeds is clearly taking that message back home. As she shared: “Perhaps we were a little bit too conservative before – we must shake ourselves up and take initiative and step into this leadership vacuum now.”
The plan in Leeds is to hold a Yorkshire-wide anti-fascist school, with Fiona Lali as the keynote speaker. The comrades are promoting this meeting widely, with anyone who wants to fight the right wing, particularly amongst black and Asian youth who are being sharply politicised by the rise of racism.
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Orla, a CC member from Scotland, overcame a lot of obstacles to make it to this CC, going straight from an early morning shift to the airport, only to find her flight delayed for hours. “But it is always worth it when we have an amazing meeting like this,” she told me. “This weekend feels like we’re all really forward looking – rather than spending too much time on reports of what we’ve done in the past.”
One of these plans for the future was the student strategy for the ‘Wales and the West’ region – where we are aiming to not simply get a foothold on the university campuses, but make them the strongholds of the RCP in the coming academic year. This summer will serve as a period of political preparation for this offensive.
For Sophie from Teesside, it was her first CC meeting, and she was blown away by it:
“The culture of these meetings is so admirable. Everything about it makes me proud to be part of this organisation. Seeing people leading our party capable of speaking off the cuff on all these questions is really inspiring. Honestly it did make me think about my own political level, and how much I still have to learn. But I never felt a stronger drive to be a better Marxist.”
Such a feeling of inspiration is precisely what the RCP is about: raising our sights from the day-to-day drudgery of life under capitalism, to intrepidly face the future; allowing ourselves to dream about what can and must be achieved – not just in our lifetimes, but in the coming weeks, months, and years.
