Britain: the launch of the Revolutionary Communist Party – a historic step

Last week saw the official foundation of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Britain, amidst one of the most turbulent periods in history. Explosive events show the need for bold Marxist leadership. Join the RCP and help us build such a force.

[Originally published at communist.red]

The Communist, the fortnightly newspaper of the RCP, was launched in January of this year, to great success.

The last seven issues have really been laying the groundwork for an even more important milestone, however: the foundation of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).

Following the party’s founding congress on 3-6 May, The Communist is now the official organ of the RCP.

Our mission statement is clear: to answer the lies and hypocrisy of the establishment and their media mouthpieces; to provide a voice for the exploited and the oppressed; and to offer a razor-sharp weapon for a new generation of communist class fighters.

Storm and stress

In January we launched The Communist and laid the foundation for the Revolutionary Communist Party / Image: The Communist

The need for such a revolutionary instrument has never been so clear.

As is evident from all our recent articles, the world has never been wracked by so much instability and uncertainty; by such storm and stress; by as much chaos and catastrophe.

At the time of writing, Netanyahu is preparing a bloody invasion of Rafah. University students across Britain, the USA, and more are mobilising to shutdown campuses, in protest against the western establishment’s complicitly in the Gazan genocide. And the ruling parties in both Westminster and Scotland are being torn asunder as a consequence of their attempts to manage the crisis of British capitalism over the last decade-and-a-half.

It is the working class, at home and abroad, who are being forced to pay the price.

While the imperialist warmongers promise increased military spending to bomb homes, hospitals, and schools in the Middle East, ordinary people in Britain face the prospect of dilapidated homes, hospitals, and schools back here crumbling to pieces.

Social murder

British industry is similarly going to the wall – a reflection of the senile decay and decline of British capitalism.

The imperialist warmongers have promised increased spending on war abroad and cuts at home / Image: The Communist

Workers at the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales and the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland face the threat of a jobs massacre. Across the country, town after town, community after community, is at risk of being murdered by these industrial closures, as fat-cat bosses put their profits ahead of workers’ livelihoods.

Confronted by this disaster for their members, however, the trade union leaders have been found wanting. There has been little fight by steel unions in Port Talbot. Similarly, the unions have done next-to-nothing to resist the cuts that are laying bankrupt councils to waste.

Instead, these leaders are naively placing all their hopes in an imminent Labour government. But they will be sorely disappointed. As shown by his recent backtracking on workers’ rights, ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer is far more concerned with appeasing big business than defending the interests of the working class.

The fact that Starmer and co. have welcomed rabid Tory MP Natalie Elphicke into the party tells you everything you need about what Labour has become: a home for reactionaries and class enemies.

Reference point

There is a reawakening of the working class. Alongside the movements on the industrial front are social explosions / Image: Lancaster Communists

As we explain in our perspectives, therefore, a mighty explosion of the class struggle is being prepared, in Britain and beyond.

In the coming period, layer after layer of workers will begin to move into action. In fact, this process has already begun, as reflected in the 2022-23 strike wave.

What we are witnessing is a reawakening of the working class.

Alongside the movements on the industrial front are social explosions over one question after another: from the youth climate protests, to Black Lives Matter, to the current demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine.

All of these have acted as a lightning rod – a catalyst – for the accumulated anger in society, which is searching for a reference point around which to express itself.

Join the communists!

Within this process, ever-larger numbers are already beginning to draw explicitly revolutionary conclusions. Thousands, if not millions, of young people in Britain are now open to the ideas of communism.

That is why we have decided to launch the RCP at this moment: because history demands it.

Whether you are a student occupying your university campus to demand divestment and disclosure; a militant worker wanting to mobilise against the bosses’ attacks; or a young person fed-up at having no future under this decrepit system, looking for an answer, a revolutionary alternative, and a clear understanding: this is your party – a fighting party.

Join the RCP today.