Britain: Revolution Festival 2024 – a landmark for the forces of communism

This year’s Revolution Festival – a school of communism organised by the RCP – saw 1,000 communists gather for a weekend of anti-imperialist and Marxist discussion. This landmark event is a launchpad for building the forces of communism in Britain.

[Originally published at communist.red]

The weekend of 15-17 November marked a milestone for the forces of communism in Britain: the biggest and best Revolution Festival yet – and the first to take place under the banner of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).

This was “a historic moment for the RCP”, as one attendee put it.

One year ago, at last year’s Rev Fest, RCP political secretary Rob Sewell announced plans to found the Revolutionary Communist Party and a new paper – The Communist.

The first six months since our founding congress in May has seen our young party thrown into Palestine encampments across the country; achieve the best result for an openly communist candidate in a general election in the last half century; and reach thousands of students and young people across the country with our autumn offensive and ‘books not bombs’ campaign.

To top this all off, Revolution Festival 2024 was – as London regional organiser Khaled Malachi stated at Saturday’s evening rally – the biggest anti-imperialist conference of its kind in Britain in a generation.

1,000 attendees came from Britain and beyond, with visitors from the USA, Taiwan, Poland, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Denmark, and more taking part in 33 different sessions over the course of the weekend.

Anti-imperialism

Alan Woods opened this year’s Rev Fest on Friday evening, speaking to a packed audience about capitalism’s “horror without end”, in the words of Lenin.

Introducing the world situation, Alan described how we are witnessing increasing turbulence in world relations, with chaotic consequences that are difficult to precisely predict.

With the instability of capitalism globally today, there is “no shortage of combustible material”: from genocide in Gaza and the potential for a wider war in the Middle East; through war in Ukraine and Trump’s election victory in the USA; to Starmer and Labour suffering an unprecedented collapse in support within mere months of coming to power.

Alan noted he had painted a rather bleak picture of “reactionary wars, killing, deaths, imperialist aggression, maniac leaders” everywhere.

But, he added, for communists, there is no reason for pessimism. “Beneath the surface,” he explained, “there is this build up everywhere of this colossal dissatisfaction, this anger seeking a way out.

Fiona highlighted to a full house how the conflict in Palestine has “shot like a lightning bolt in the consciousness of people” / Image: RCP

“There will be a colossal explosion in one country after another,” Alan continued.

“This presents us, the communists, with enormous possibilities – on condition that we have built sufficient forces before these events in order to intervene effectively…

“This is the heavy historic responsibility which lies on our shoulders.”

This was reiterated at the ‘books not bombs’ rally on Saturday evening, headlined by Fiona Lali, the RCP’s national campaigns coordinator, and the party’s revolutionary communist candidate in the last general election.

“We are living through a turning point in world capitalism,” Fiona explained.

Fiona highlighted to a full house how the conflict in Palestine has “shot like a lightning bolt in the consciousness of people”, channelling the deep anger in society.

This same anger has been expressed many times over the past decades, most notably with the mass movements around Black Lives Matter, the climate crisis, and the murder of Sarah Everard.

By watching such movements play out, and in many cases by directly participating in them, illusions in reformism are rapidly being erased amongst a growing layer of workers and youth.

Fiona had the audience gripped. As communists, she outlined, our task is to explain clearly and patiently why we cannot have any illusions in the capitalist system. Instead, we must organise and educate the most radical and far-sighted layers, and build a force that can play a decisive role in events.

In the words of Leon Trotsky, which Fiona quoted:

“To face reality squarely; not to seek the line of least resistance; to call things by their right names; to speak the truth to the masses, no matter how bitter it may be; not to fear obstacles; to be true in little things as in big ones; to base one’s programme on the logic of the class struggle; to be bold when the hour for action arrives: these are the rules of the Fourth International. It has shown that it could swim against the stream. The approaching historical wave will raise it on its crest.”

School of communism

The Revolution Festival was not just an anti-imperialist conference, but a school of communism.

Beyond the three main plenaries, 30 breakout sessions provided Marxist analysis and perspectives on topics ranging from art and AI, through the Haitian Revolution, to global debt and the climate crisis.

There was an immense appetite for these ideas amongst all attendees, with rooms often full to capacity.

“Thought-provoking discussions around the oppression of women in capitalist society really got me thinking,” said first-time attendee Lubbna, speaking to The Communist about her experience. “It’s not just about men vs women. The whole damn system is flawed!”

“That was brilliant,” said a prospective RCP member from Coventry after attending the session ‘Art, Culture, and Revolution’. “I never knew that a talk on art and culture could be so hard-hitting.”

Another attendee emphasised the importance of communists discussing art, recognising that we are not just fighting for food and shelter, but for “taking back our humanity” through revolution and the liberation of art.

In every session, contributions from the floor enriched the discussion.

“Even more impressive than [the speaker] was the discussion,” said Ben from Nottingham after the session on ‘Lenin, the First World War, and the collapse of the Second International’, “with everyone coming in with so much knowledge about the past and the world today.”

In the discussion on Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation, Maya from Leeds made an impassioned contribution that had members of the audience in tears, as she detailed the immense sacrifices of downtrodden women in Bangladesh’s war of independence.

The Revolution Festival was not just an anti-imperialist conference, but a school of communism / Image: RCP

Maya emphasised that today in Bangladesh, and around the world, it remains the case that: “A woman’s place is not behind her husband, it’s certainly not in the home – it’s in the revolution. And most importantly, it’s in the revolutionary party.”

Another first-time attendee, Simon from the Canadian RCP, was thoroughly impressed. “The level of insight and the wide breadth of knowledge of comrades was impressive,” he expressed. “I also got to meet a lot of kind, funny, and most of all serious revolutionaries.”

In this respect, discussions enthusiastically continued beyond the boundaries of the venue, into the Saturday night social, against a backdrop of music and dancing.

Bolshevism

During the Saturday rally, Antonio Balmer, a leading member of the Revolutionary Communists of America (RCA) and editor of The Communist (USA), discussed how comrades of the RCA are connecting with workers and youth in the most powerful imperialist country in the world; inside the “belly of the beast”.

He also highlighted the potential that exists for humanity, should the immense productive capacity of countries like the USA be placed under workers’ control.

“To be a communist is to know [socialism] will come; to be a Bolshevik is to understand how we are going to get there, comrades,” Antonio concluded. “And this international [the Revolutionary Communist International] is creating Bolsheviks everywhere around the world. We have a world to win.”

The central message of the weekend was clear. The foundations upon which our international is built are the rock-solid ideas of Marxism. And this Rev Fest provided comrades with no shortage of quality material for the task of educating themselves and mastering theory in the coming period.

But a stable, growing, professional organisation requires not only trained, committed cadres, but also the cement of finances to bind the party together. And this year’s event made important advances in this respect too.

Over the course of the weekend, an immense £8,200 of literature was sold as people looked to keep deepening their knowledge of Marxism across a range of questions. And an additional £5,200 was raised through merchandise.

Most impressive, however, was the collection on the Saturday evening. This reflected the dedication and sacrifice of all comrades to fund the revolutionary party, and to finance the war to end all wars: the class war.

A record-breaking £91,000 was donated from RCP branches across the country during this financial appeal, led by Ben Gliniecki, the organisation’s national secretary.

This brings the total raised so far this year to over £270,000 – an astonishing feat, and a demonstration of the revolutionary optimism and confidence amongst comrades in the party and its perspectives.

For those feeling inspired by this achievement: don’t worry, it’s not too late to donate!

Better yet, we encourage all our readers and supporters to make a regular financial contribution to the RCP, and to join the party today.

“Hard times make hard people”

After a fantastic three days, attendees gathered together one last time on Sunday afternoon to hear Rob Sewell bring the Revolution Festival to a close.

Rob remarked on the weekend’s discussions and the tasks for the Revolutionary Communist Party ahead.

After a fantastic three days, attendees gathered together one last time on Sunday afternoon to hear Rob Sewell bring the Revolution Festival to a close / Image: RCP

As the RCI’s ‘Year of Lenin’ campaign – to reclaim Lenin’s ideological heritage – nears its end, Rob underlined the importance of continuing the educational value of the weekend through works like In Defence of Lenin.

This is essential reading for any budding communist, Rob explained, providing “a bridge to Leninism on a plate”.

Key to really grasping any of these ideas, however, Rob continued, was not just to read these texts, but to study them.

Most importantly, quoting Karl Marx’s famous lines from his Theses on Feuerbach, Rob emphasised that Marxism is a guide to action. “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”

Amidst a deep crisis of British capitalism, the speed of events is such that “processes expected to take years are taking weeks”, Rob noted – drawing attention in particular to the rapid collapse in approval ratings for Starmer’s Labour government.

Yet, as was also outlined by Fiona during Saturday’s rally, there is currently no party on the left that can provide a proper outlet for the anti-establishment mood in society, or that is offering real solutions to the problems that ordinary people face.

As it stands, the RCP is too small to fill this vacuum. Yet we know that all the comrades who attended Revolution Festival 2024 will go back to their branches inspired to build the party; to build the forces of communism.

The task now, as emphasised over the weekend, is to steel ourselves theoretically for the convulsions to come; for all members to raise their monthly contributions to strengthen the party apparatus; and to recruit more widely and boldly. As Rob stressed to the massive plenary audience: “It is your responsibility to do this.”

“Hard times make hard people,” stated Fiona in the ‘books not bombs’ rally. There is no chance of an easy life for those who have grown up under capitalism in crisis.

But it is precisely these layers – those who are being radicalised and pushed into action by the crisis and chaos of capitalism – who we are organising and building up to become the leaders of the future world revolution.

On this basis, we have the confidence that socialism and communism will win. As Rob stated in his concluding words to #RevFest2024:

“We are more confident today than ever before, because of what we have succeeded in doing, which shows just a glimmer of what can be done. We’ve only just started, only just turned the page. Our pre-history is behind us. We’re beginning the real history of the return of genuine communism, in Britain and internationally.”