Members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) are picking up the pace in their efforts to educate themselves and make new recruits.
As the report from Sheffield below underlines, the events of 2026 so far have already provoked a massive shift in young people’s mode of thinking. The speed at which earth-shattering events are taking place is giving a sense of urgency to the RCP’s branches.
The following reports highlight a few key examples of groundbreaking work across the country, which we encourage our readers to take inspiration from to build the party in your local area, university or school!
Manchester RCP holds inspiring Marxist Winter School
At this year’s Marxist Winter School in Manchester, 30 comrades came together over an exciting and educational weekend, to discuss topics ranging from ‘Marxist philosophy, modern science, and the rise of capitalism’; to art and culture, and our perspectives on Palestine.
The theme running throughout the school was that Marxism is not a toolbox of ready-made positions, but a living method that we must learn to use independently and critically.
Led completely by local comrades, and attended by the neighbouring district organisations of Preston and Lancaster, the weekend was a success – especially for the relatively newer comrades who delivered talks, contributed to the discussions, and helped with the running of the event.
The school came during a period of rapid growth for the RCP in Manchester and the North West. We have recruited a dozen or so students in the city since the start of the academic year, so we need to consolidate our gains.
We made sure everyone understood that this event wasn’t just a cherry on the cake, but an essential part of our strategy to continue growing the party.
With this attitude in mind, comrades then discussed our plans for activity at the University of Manchester, and how we can find more revolutionaries on campus.
Comrades highlighted how radical young people aren’t interested in empty sloganeering, but are searching for a deeper understanding.
As one leading comrade said: “The role of a Marxist isn’t simply to draw attention to this or that event, or to moralise about the sorry state of the world. It’s to explain why things are the way they are, and how we can change society.”
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
These are the answers we are hoping to provide with our programme of weekly Marxist Society meetings for the rest of this term.
This weekend of learning definitely provided us with a shot of political inspiration – demonstrated by the fact we raised £1,000 for the fighting fund. This is set to be an exciting 2026 for the Manchester RCP.
William Gedling, Manchester
Cambridge college students host ‘Socialist Society bookfair’
On Tuesday 10 February, the Hills Road Socialist Society hosted a bookfair, selling a variety of books and pamphlets from Wellred Books. This was a massive success.
Overall, we sold £129 worth of books, with copies of What is Marxism? and Classics of Marxism: Volume 1 being incredibly popular. Furthermore, we sold both volumes of In Defence of Lenin.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
The fair was a great success because we had an advertising blitz with book review videos filmed by comrades, and we had the bookfair advertised on all of the TVs across the school!
While organising the bookfair did certainly take effort, it was a thrilling lesson in the potential impact a few comrades can have, not only in sixthforms, but universities and workplaces too.
RCP Cambridge School Students
Peckham raises the bar
In January, Peckham branch set ourselves a challenge – hold our first ever open meeting. And within a couple of weeks we had 16 new interested people in our WhatsApp chat.
We are not based at a university, so having a tangible event to invite people to strengthened our street sales and forced us to turn outwards.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
People resonated with our message, which focused on the need to understand why events are unfolding as they are, not just describing them. As Alan Woods says, “people know the ABCs, what they need is the rest of the alphabet”.
The meeting itself was a huge success, with 14 people interested in joining the RCP attending, almost all of whom participated in discussion on world perspectives and the need for a revolutionary party.
We held the event at SET Social, a public space which drew in three additional people who were just there for a drink, but were captivated by the discussion.
On the back of this success, we aim to recruit and form two branches in Peckham by the Third Congress of the RCP in May!
Sam Harvey, Peckham
Sheffield student: “Revolution is inevitable!”
Sheffield Uni comrades held our term’s first open meeting, “2026: A World on Fire”. The turnout was incredible, 20 people who are not yet members showed up!
We worked hard to make the event a success, putting up hundreds of posters around the city, holding recruitment stalls outside the student union, and multiple stalls during the uni’s refreshers event.
Voir cette publication sur Instagram
We even had our newest student recruits from last term giving lecture shoutouts to promote our meeting!
A wave of radicalisation, beset by capitalism, helped our success. A third-year student at the meeting for example told us how his parents have left the UK because they could not afford their mortgage and did not want to raise their children in such instability. As a consequence, he is now looking towards the Communists for a way forward, something he had never considered before.
Another attendee at the meeting told us “before the Epstein files were released, I would have said revolution is impossible. Now I think it is inevitable!”
These testimonies of capitalist depravity and how they were personally affecting the lives of students in the meeting bought the whole discussion to life.
Saoirse Camilleri, Sheffield
Derby Marxist Society has arrived!
Derby Marxist Society ran our first ever official campus meeting!
We held a screening of the 2003 documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which truthfully documents the failed 2002 US backed coup in the midst of the Bolivarian Revolution.
After the film ended, we chaired a rich discussion and raised £28. One visitor had come as a shill for a student union election candidate, but ended up buying both copies of the Classics of Marxism!
A school student in attendance, who had previously called himself a socialist and not a communist, said he’s now “between the two and leaning towards communism.”
For our very young branch, we prepared meticulously – down to the last detail. To this end, we even went so far as to dedicate a whole branch meeting the day before to ‘rehearsing’ the entire meeting, from start to finish.
This included scrutinising the chair’s opening and closing remarks for clarity and delivery, giving feedback on contributions, and considering possible audience questions.
This meticulous preparation massively boosted the confidence of our newer members, who executed the event exactly, according to plan. Our comrade who joined last September reflected:
“I doubt we would have been able to pull this off three months ago because we likely would not have been able to advertise this meeting to as many people as we did. Also, we were able to learn as much as we could about Venezuela before this meeting and we gave ourselves a lot of time to prepare for it.”
Although the screening was not huge in attendance or we did not recruit any new members, the meeting was still a big step forward. The branch was able to work as a team, prepare carefully, and learn. After running this meeting, Derby Communists are definitely on a firmer footing, and we have begun to build a reputation on campus as a serious political group with ideas worth paying attention to.
Hasan Wright, Derby
