On Saturday 27 July, comrades gathered in Edinburgh for the first Scottish conference of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
This landmark event, held in the birthplace of James Connolly, saw comrades from around the country attend to clarify the party’s perspectives and tasks.
Crisis, conflict, and class struggle
RCP political secretary Rob Sewell opened the conference, outlining the total impasse of the global capitalist system, which is daily provoking new conflicts and horrors, such as those we are witnessing in Palestine, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Congo, and elsewhere.
Thousands upon thousands are being killed and maimed to serve the interests of Wall Street, the City of London, and the IMF. While sponsoring these atrocities around the world, Starmer’s government is intent on imposing more misery on working people in Britain.
Far from a new regime of stability, Rob explained, the foundations of the new Labour government are built on sand.
The announcement of deep and long-lasting austerity measures will only add to the anger against the whole system that bubbles barely below the surface of society, and which will inevitably give rise to fresh class struggles.
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SNP in decline
The same is true for Scotland, where the SNP have been completely stripped of their progressive veneer.
Trust in the party has collapsed, as hundreds of thousands lose their faith in the SNP to mitigate the worst cuts and present a viable path to independence.
The SNP now stands naked before the country, having ruled over a period of sharp decline in public services and industry, and steady rises in poverty and inequality, with little done for the benefit of the working class and young people.
Lessons of Bolshevism
While some may be feeling despondent at the miserable state of the country, communists are full of optimism.
As the RCP Central Committee recently stated: history is moving in our direction. Alongside the intensifying crisis of capitalism, we see the rise of the radicalised working class.
Our aim is to organise and train the most revolutionary layers of workers and youth for the overthrow of this system.
In that vein, RCP Scotland organiser Shaun Morris introduced a discussion on Bolshevism – the guiding methods and traditions of our party.
Marxism has always based itself on the past experience of revolutions and class struggles, in each country and internationally.
The crucial lesson we take away from the titanic contributions of Lenin, Trotsky, and the Bolsheviks is their absolute firmness in the realm of ideas and principles, rooted in Marxist theory and analysis, combined with a shrewd sense of tactical orientation and flexibility.
The history of the Bolsheviks shows how a core of dedicated revolutionaries can forge a revolutionary leadership capable of winning over the masses and leading the working class to victory. We base ourselves on this legacy for the world-changing battles to come.
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Turn Scotland red!
RCP comrades made contributions on building the party’s cells and branches at workplaces, schools, colleges, and universities, and spoke about establishing the party in new areas.
Our ‘turn Scotland red’ campaign – in the build-up to the conference – demonstrated the pioneering spirit that only our party possesses.
This is still much work to do. But we have raised our flag, and issued a call for communists to get organised in the fight for revolution.
We strive to continue the unbroken red thread of genuine communism that runs through the hands of Marx and Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, James Connolly, John Maclean, and original RCP founder Ted Grant – and which remains tightly bound to our party and international to this day.
