From 15-17 November, over 1000 communists from across Britain and beyond will descend upon London. Their aim? To train themselves to become the next generation of revolutionary class fighters.
Revolution Festival 2024 is a three-day festival of communist ideas, hosted by the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Such an event couldn’t come at a better time. Across the world, the drums of war are beating louder and louder, as the imperialist powers seek to defend their profits, markets, and spheres of influence.
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The bloodbath in Ukraine continues, prolonged by NATO; the Middle East stands on the brink of catastrophe; tensions between the US and China are on the rise; and all the major powers are arming themselves to the teeth.
And in Gaza, we’ve witnessed a wholesale slaughter and genocide against the Palestinian people, which has had the full backing of the warhawks in Washington and London.
Billions for bloodshed
In 2023 alone, defence spending increased by 9 percent globally. This is the equivalent of $22 trillion dollars per year. In the last year alone in Britain, defence spending rose by a staggering 7.9 percent!
And while all of this has been taking place, there have been unprecedented attacks on living standards, the world over. ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer tells us that ‘tough decisions’ need to be made, which means more misery for ordinary people.
In Britain, schools and hospitals are collapsing, millions of children are living in poverty, and millions are being dragged into a hand-to-mouth existence.
Workers and youth are increasingly asking: ‘Why is there so much money for war, and no money for healthcare?’, ‘Why are politicians happy to lavish billions on bombs, while cutting education and housing’.
There is a growing mood of anger. And rightly so! People are fed up with a system that has nothing to offer but massacres and misery, while the rich and powerful sit on mountains of blood money.
Anti-imperialist conference
Only the ideas and methods of Marxism and class struggle can put an end to this carnage. Communists must therefore wage a struggle to connect with this outpouring of rage, and organise it into a force that can fight imperialism at its root: the capitalist system.
That’s why this year’s Revolution Festival will be different.
As well as being a school of communism, Revolution Festival 2024 will also be an anti-imperialist conference, where we can discuss the role of British imperialism past and present, war and militarism today, as well as the methods and tactics we can use to fight back.
Look out for talks like ‘Horror without end: Imperialism and world relations today’, ‘The role of British imperialism today’, ‘How to fight imperialism: pacifism, direct action, and revolutionary tactics’, and ‘Why is there a genocide in Gaza?’.
School of communism
In total, there will be 32 sessions over the weekend (see the full list of talks below), covering a range of fascinating topics such as, ‘Bangladesh’s unfinished revolution: The 1971 War of Liberation’, and ‘Art, culture, and revolution’.
For those wanting to get to grips with the fundamentals of Marxist ideas, there will also be introductory sessions on topics including ‘What is dialectical materialism?’, ‘Classes, conflict, and revolution: The Marxist view of history’, and ‘Where does profit come from? The Labour theory of value’.
And make no mistake, these will not be dry, academic discussions like the ones you’ll find in university lecture theatres. Marxist ideas aren’t an idle pastime, they’re a guide to action. These talks are tailored for training revolutionary class fighters.
Join the revolution!
Revolutions are taking place all over the world, as we have already seen in Bangladesh, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Sudan, to name only a few.
Similar convulsive events lie in store for Britain, too. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’.
The fate of the British – and world – revolution rests upon one simple question: will a mass communist party be built in time to secure its victory?
You have a role to play in answering this question, comrade. Take your first step on the road to revolution: Get your tickets to Revolution Festival 2024, and join the RCP!
Full list of talks
Friday 15 November
- Horror without end: Imperialism and world relations today (with Alan Woods)
Saturday 16 November
- Crisis in the USA: the next chapter (with leading US communist Antonio Balmer)
- Lenin, the First World War, and the collapse of the Second International (with Fred Weston)
- The role of British imperialism today (with Ben Gliniecki)
- How to smash the state: Lenin’s ‘State and Revolution’
- The legacy of British imperialism in Ireland
- Why is there a genocide in Gaza?
- How South African apartheid was overthrown (with Fiona Lali)
- How to fight imperialism: pacifism, direct action, and revolutionary tactics
- The history of philosophy: A Marxist perspective
- Where does profit come from? The Labour theory of value
- Bangladesh’s unfinished revolution: The 1971 War of Liberation
- How to fight racism: Decolonialism vs Marxism (with Hamid Alizadeh)
- What is dialectical materialism?
- Was the USSR communist?
- Communism and the fight for women’s emancipation
- Books Not Bombs: rally and collection (with Fiona Lali)
Sunday 17 November
- Art, culture, and revolution (with Alan Woods)
- Lenin and the 1917 Russian Revolution
- Labour in power: from 1924 to today
- The ‘golden age of capitalism’? The post-war boom and the crisis of 1973-75 (with Adam Booth)
- Leon Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution
- Artificial intelligence and human consciousness (with Daniel Morley)
- Classes, conflict, and revolution: The Marxist view of history (with Josh Holroyd)
- Slaves in revolt: The Haitian Revolution
- Fires, floods, and finance: how capitalism is killing the planet
- Fascism: what it is and how to fight it
- Capitalism today: debt, inequality, and trade wars (with Niklas Albin Svensson)
- Creeping mysticism: Why science needs dialectical materialism (with Ben Curry)
- Marxism vs anarchism
- How did Lenin build the Bolshevik party? (with Rob Sewell)
- Lessons from the 2011 Arab Revolutions
