With the launch of the Revolutionary Communist International this summer, our comrades worldwide have been working tirelessly to build fighting communist organisations all across the globe.
The massive turn towards communist ideas by young workers and students is visible not only in Britain, but internationally. And the incredible work our comrades have been doing shows what we can achieve with boldness and enthusiasm.
Our US comrades posted one video that received 200M+ views! Within days, they were then inundated with hundreds of applications to join the newly formed Revolutionary Communists of America.
The Revolutionary Communists of America are forming a party! After the launch rally, we hit the street in downtown Brooklyn to say it loud & clear: the communists are here! #Communism pic.twitter.com/i4xapzQFSC
— Revolutionary Communists of America (@communistsus) February 26, 2024
Since then, they have been giving radical speeches on Palestine and International Working Women’s Day directly to workers and youth on the New York subway. This is a method recently used by our Swiss and Canadian comrades too.
In Sweden, one new young contact, who hadn’t even joined yet, walked into a local factory with a red flag, some stickers, and 15 papers, and managed to make over 10 contacts, even after being approached by security.
The comrades in Britain have followed these examples. This has involved giving radical speeches, not only in tube and train stations across the country, but outside school gates and in university lecture halls and canteens.
One of our doctor comrades in Lancaster covered their medical school in our flyers after giving a radical speech about why the fight for women’s emancipation means the fight against capitalism. People immediately began taking flyers and even photographing these leaflets, as there weren’t enough to go round!
RCP posters, stickers, and even graffiti have been seen up and down the country. Old pools of contacts and periphery are being contacted and reactivated off the back of recent events. Everyone that interacts with our social media content is also being asked directly to join.
This is only the tip of the iceberg – just a glimpse of what the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) can achieve!
Get in touch today, join us, and help us build!
Party building reports
In the Glasgow Central branch, we have made the agenda more free-flowing and focussed on contacts who attend. Recent discussions include a ‘why, what, how’ of the RCP, with short lead-offs followed by questions.
Comrades have given out our Leninist Handbooks, to be read and returned next week by the contacts. This has led people to sign up and join straight away, no doubt as a result of the responsibilities given to them at branch. New recruits are already all helping out with postering and paper sales.
We’ve also seen branches, such as those in Birmingham, prepare speeches to make to the public at recruitment stalls and demos.
Other branches have completely torn up branch agendas where necessary, opting instead to use The Communist as the basis for their whole branch meeting.
The London Aldwych branch, for example, recently decided to scrap the usual format of a political discussion, followed by branch business. They instead went through the paper, page by page.
This led to a wide-ranging discussion covering a mixture of revolutionary theory and current events, with a focus on what branch activities flowed from these.
In particular, the recent articles on international women’s day and the events in Palestine were used to prepare comrades for upcoming recruitment stalls and rallies.
Swansea
The Swansea comrades have been taking a page from the Swiss comrades’ book and acting boldly. We’ve been doing speeches in public squares and on all of our paper sales.
So far we’ve had great results. Some people have stopped just to listen to our speeches. One guy even bought two papers and gave us a £6 donation. Our small branch has found seven new contacts in just two days!
These methods separate us from everyone else: we are bold!
London (Bloomsbury)
We held a speech-delivery workshop in our branch to prepare comrades for International Working Women’s Day (IWWD). Not only did we practise speeches, but the whole meeting had a complete focus on politics.
Instead of having a routine discussion, the comrades discussed the political situation, the mood in society, and how to connect with it.
Six comrades from SOAS and UCL attended a rally to give speeches, selling five papers and making four contacts. There is now potential for a new cell at Birkbeck university.
West London
The recent AGM of the West London district was one of the best events we’ve ever put on locally. Not only did we decide to split the district, in order to better focus on the continued education of comrades, but we also made this an inspiring political event.
After a rousing leadoff and discussion on the Theses for the British Revolution, we took to the streets as a whole district and put on a flash paper sale. This quickly turned into a mini-rally, due to the enthusiasm of the comrades.
Forward to the RCP! ☭ 🚩#Communism #Revolution #Marxism #rcp pic.twitter.com/u7EOakAOFY
— Rui Cardoso (@ruicardoso1995) March 11, 2024
We gave several energetic speeches, which grabbed the attention of many people passing by.
One of these speeches, by comrade Anthony, was recorded and posted online, where it has since reached nearly a million views. This has already led to someone contacting us and agreeing to join.
The newly formed districts are now ready to make the coming year a truly revolutionary one. Forward to the RCP!
School students
In schools, student comrades have been reported for selling the paper, and banned from handing out flyers.
As communist students, we have discussed how our activity and ideas will always be repressed, but how this shouldn’t deter us.
In fact, Hereford school student comrades recently discussed the need for personal sacrifice to build the Revolutionary Communist Party, including the efforts needed to overthrow capitalism.
Successful work in schools recently has included setting up ‘debate clubs’ and day schools. The Balham communist cell held one such event on the myths of Bolshevism. The Cardiff cell held an open discussion on Palestine. To prepare for both of these, comrades sold the paper and flyered in and around their schools.
All of this work has led directly to more contacts – potential recruits for the revolution!
The communists reclaim International Working Women’s Day
Friday 8 March marked International Working Women’s Day.
IWWD has long been co-opted by the establishment; watered down to fit into their liberal view of the world.
On this day every year, company after company and politician after politician fall over themselves to show just how much they care about women.
They talk about how they are proud to live in a world where women can be CEOs and cabinet ministers. They talk about how society is breaking the ‘glass ceiling’, with more women entering into big business boardrooms and into Parliament.
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But while they pat themselves on the back for these accomplishments, working women in Britain and abroad are having their rights wrestled from them.
Childcare costs are becoming unmanageable, isolating more women in the home. Murder cases such as Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa show women that they are not safe on the streets.
In Palestine, women are seeing their babies being pulled from rubble; they are being sexually assaulted by IDF soldiers; and they have no access to menstrual products, or any other basic necessities.
The communists spent IWWD calling out this vile hypocrisy.
On campus
In UCL, SOAS, KCL, UEA, Lancaster, and Cardiff, comrades organised rallies on campuses, giving speeches and using the backpage of the recent issue of The Communist to explain why women are oppressed under capitalism – and how we can fight for genuine emancipation.
At KCL, comrades gave speeches about the position of women in Palestine and the horrors they have faced. They used this to explain that capitalism can never create a real end to oppression of women.
In Lancaster, comrades organised a meeting to discuss the roots of women’s oppression, explaining that only a communist society can sweep away this oppression for good.
Beforehand, Lancaster comrades held a two-hour stall on campus, with speeches about how communists fight sexism – through united struggle against capitalism.
In schools
In Balham, Leytonstone, and Windsor, school student comrades took to the streets with The Communist and gave speeches about fighting sexism.
In Balham, a 14-year-old communist stood on top of a bin outside the local station, giving an impassioned speech about how the crisis of capitalism has led to more oppression for women.
Revolutionary roots
These actions resulted in dozens of workers and youth asking how they can join and help us build the Revolutionary Communist Party.
IWWD is a day with roots in socialist and communist struggles. Those who first marched on 8 March would never have been satisfied with simply incorporating a handful of women into the capitalist class, while the majority of women’s lives get worse.
The Revolutionary Communist Party continues this proud socialist tradition. We will continue to call out the hypocrisy and callousness of the ruling class, until class society is abolished and women everywhere are free from oppression.
Palestine solidarity
Leeds University occupation
On 7 March, student groups at Leeds University occupied the Parkinson building, the university’s flagship building, in solidarity with Palestine.
The Leeds Communists are taking part in this occupation – in fact that’s where these lines are being written!
The occupation’s demands include:
- The removal of genocidal murderer (read: IDF volunteer) Rabbi Zechariah Deutsch from the University Chaplaincy.
- End the university’s collaboration with weapons manufacturer BAE systems.
- Cutting all links with Israeli universities.
The communists are connecting these demands to the need for staff and student control of universities, and kicking capitalism off campus.
To nobody’s surprise, this action – coinciding with a university open day – has angered university bosses. It has also ruffled the feathers of the vocal minority of Zionists on campus – the horror!
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We have hung Palestinian flags, agitational posters, and banners inside the building. Currently the building remains open in the daytime, allowing students into the occupied space to participate in talks and discussion.
Every evening, there are discussions on the way forward, in which we have been arguing for revolutionary communist perspectives and fighting tactics.
So far, the bosses have refused any negotiations, and have threatened police action and arrests. So much for the university’s ‘compassion and inclusivity’ and ‘free speech’ policies!
London national demonstration
On Saturday 9 March, Camden Communists intervened in the latest national Palestine demo.
We set up right across from the US Embassy. Dozens of people were drawn in by the front cover of The Communist, depicting Aaron Bushnell’s martyrdom. And our shouts for revolution from London to Gaza made us stand out to the most radical layers present.
One woman told us she had been to six Palestine demos now. When we asked her how she felt about having to come out so many times, she said it was necessary, but also that it felt like it wasn’t enough.
Despite there only being four of us at this location, we sold out of our copies of The Communist (47 sold in total), alongside eight pamphlets on Marxist theory.
More than ever, people are looking for solutions – not just to the imperialist war against Palestine, but to the never-ending horrors of capitalism everywhere.
Manchester
We had a positive intervention in the Palestine demonstration in Manchester on 9 March.
The demo was bigger than it has been for some time, and there was a more militant mood – no doubt due to Aaron Bushnell’s sacrifice, the bombing of aid trucks, and the looming invasion of Rafah.
View this post on Instagram
We noticed a mood amongst the protestors; a feeling that the movement’s leaders aren’t doing enough.
It was interesting to hear other people using our chants about intifada and revolution. I don’t remember this at all in the early Palestine demos.
Falmouth
We were all surprised at the militant energy of the protest in Falmouth on 9 March. The mood has changed profoundly.
The same activists that have initially been giving us a hard time for raising the need for revolution are now talking about this themselves.
After speaking at the rally, we were approached immediately by people wanting our paper. Despite the moderate turnout, we sold nine papers in total, with several signing up, enthusiastic to join the communists.
The people that are still attending these rallies are clearly desperate for a way forward. The extreme situation in Gaza no longer justifies empty talk about consumer boycotts or ‘pressuring’ local representatives.
Sheffield SU campaign
Comrades at Sheffield University ran a proudly communist campaign for the position of student union president, in the recent SU elections.
The key demands of our programme were: scrapping tuition fees; cutting the university’s ties with those complicit in the slaughter in Gaza; and opposing extortionate student rents.
Above all, we highlighted the need for a fighting union. And we identified the culprit for all these crimes: capitalism.
Thanks to our bold and enthusiastic approach, we’ve come out of this campaign with 15 contacts and over 30 paper sales – all of this from just under four days’ of activity!
We quickly realised that the SU campaign was a complete circus, with over 90 candidates, almost all of them careerists or clowns. Seeing the opportunity before us, we immediately went on the offensive and called out the election for what it was.
After a slightly subdued first day, we decided to completely transform our methods. We began giving agitational speeches in cafés, lectures, canteens, and study spaces.
We plastered campus with over 500 posters, debated other candidates, went from table to table to talk to students about our campaign, and urged people to join our fight for a communist SU.
We denounced tuition fees, rents, poor courses, the mental health crisis, and more. And we made it clear that capitalism is to blame on all accounts. On this basis, we directly appealed to students to vote communist.
Every contact we made was asked to join in and help with the campaign.
Notably, the SU livestream of the results event was cut off as our candidate, Will, was denouncing Sheffield University’s profiting. But ‘free Palestine’ chants could still be heard.
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Unintentionally and inadvertently, the SU has provided us with an excellent clip to use on social media!
This showed everyone that we won’t stop fighting and agitating, just because we didn’t win. We won’t be deterred by sabotage from the SU or the authorities. Our campaign only starts here.
These bold methods can be adopted by every branch in the country, on election campaigns and on the streets. Our success shows the potential for massive and rapid growth in a short space of time.
