Germany: Karl Marx Seminar 2025 – a new milestone for the RKP

From 5 to 7 December, the ‘Karl Marx Seminar 2025’, the national education seminar of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) – the German section of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) – took place in Berlin.

With 15 Marxist workshops and 240 participants, it was an inspiring event and the largest seminar we have organised to date.

The main reason we were able to organise the Karl Marx Seminar on such a large scale this year was the theoretical development of our party. Since growing rapidly from just over 100 to 300 comrades between 2023 and 2024, the RKP had reached a plateau in its growth. In order to break past this plateau and achieve new goals, the many new comrades had to be trained in the fundamentals of Marxism, and those who had been with us before had to be turned into genuine revolutionary cadres.

For it is only through a good theoretical understanding that we are able to convey our ideas and analysis to the vanguard of the youth and working class, and convince them to become active members of our party.

At the Karl Marx Seminar, and in the lead-up to it, it was demonstrated that our efforts had begun to bear fruit. In the autumn, our branches held 49 open meetings and sold 700 copies of our paper, Der Kommunist, over 150 paper sales.

We are currently in discussions with around 120 people who are interested in our ideas and programme, in order to convince them to join the RKP. This, and the fact that 50 of the participants at the Karl Marx Seminar were not yet members at the time of the event, shows that we are now better able to communicate our ideas to the wider layers of workers and young people than ever before.

The struggle against reformism

Whether it’s the Gen Z revolutions or the rise of Zohan Mamdani in New York, these events all show that large sections of the working class and youth are looking for solutions to the precarious conditions they suffer under capitalism. But none of these movements fundamentally break with capitalism and are therefore forced to accept its rules in one way or another. It was no coincidence,then, that the subtitle of the seminar was ‘The Road to Socialism: Reform or Revolution’.

In Germany, too, the left-reformist Left Party (Die Linke) unexpectedly achieved almost 9 percent in the federal elections in March, despite previous polls predicting 3 percent. The driving force behind this victory was young people, whom the party was able to win over with radical language. But disillusionment quickly set in.

The leadership of the regional party chapters in Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which are represented in the governments of their respective federal states, approved the €500 billion special fund for rearmament. The party does not take a clear stand against Zionism and, instead of building a class based opposition, it prefers to present itself to the ruling class as a trustworthy partner.

This was evident when they voted for a second round of voting in Merz's chancellor election [when, for the first time ever, Merz failed to be elected by the Bundestag in the first round. Die Linke saved Merz by voting for a second], and it was evident again recently when they abstained on the government's pension package in order to prevent the government from failing.

Many who look to the Left Party see through this false game. These mostly young layers have already broken with capitalism, and want radical answers. This was evident when the Left Youth passed a motion at their congress, condemning Israel and placing the liberation of the Palestinians in the context of the international socialist revolution. The task of communists is to connect with the radical mood of the youth, and to sharpen it with the tools of Marxism.

The first session on Friday was introduced by comrade Francesco Merli from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), he highlighted the situation capitalism finds itself in today. While the imperialist nations of Europe are in decline, fierce competition is taking place on a global level between the United States, China, and Russia.

At the same time, there are barely any countries where the government enjoys broad support among its population – the ruling class is in a crisis of political legitimacy. Meanwhile, some of the anger of the masses is being absorbed by left-wing reformists and right-wing demagogues alike. Ultimately, however, both directions can only lead to a dead end.

We must reach out to all those who reject capitalism, whilst at the same time waging a political struggle against the influence of reformism in the labour movement. To this end, the lectures at the Karl Marx Seminar covered a wide range of topics.

From the fundamentals of Marxism, to the character of and struggle against the AfD in Germany. As well as the fight against austerity, the question of how to win the majority of the working class to socialism, the historical experiences of the young Communist Party (KPD) in Germany, and the October Revolution in Russia.

The workshops showed that socialism can only be achieved through revolutionary class struggle. And to that end, we must build a party of Marxist cadres today, with a theoretically sound understanding of strategy and tactics that will enable us to build roots in the working class.

Raising the political level

In order to prepare the party for the weekend, a reading list was uploaded to our website in October, containing articles, books, and lectures on the various topics to be presented. Each local branch has assigned topics to its comrades, which will be the focus of their theoretical education for the coming months.

Based on their preparation for the seminars at the event itself, each comrade will now study one or more books on the same topic in the following weeks and months. Through this patient approach to theory, in which comrades thoroughly engage with one topic instead of jumping hastily to the next, we want to anchor an understanding of the Marxist method.

The enthusiasm for theory and the comrades' preparatory work for the seminar was evident in the large participation of new and old comrades in the political discussions at the event. Many comrades had prepared high-quality contributions for these discussions over a period of weeks beforehand.

We also set a new record at the literature and merchandise table, almost tripling the sales at our last event! A total of 246 books were purchased, which means that on average, approximately every participant bought a book.

Bolshevik financial tradition

Another highlight of the weekend was the financial collection on Sunday, where we once again set a new record. The introduction on revolutionary finances masterfully demonstrated how the Bolsheviks would never have been able to build strong leadership, a popular newspaper, and a cadre of professional revolutionaries without a tradition of financial sacrifice. The seminar showed why we too must follow this example.

Without the financial sacrifices of our comrades, we would not have been able to finance such a large event. Nor would we be able to maintain a staff of fulltimers who organised the seminar and prepared the many talks with the speakers politically, and thus play a vital role in bringing the ideas of Marxism to the membership.

For this reason, we have held a collection in order to raise money for our office, where all the work of the leadership is centralised, as well as for our International, which, through its analysis and theoretical material, provides us and our sister parties with invaluable political guidance. Without this, none of us would be able to build the communist movement worldwide.

The introduction explained that this financial sacrifice is no small matter, that we can just scrape together. But because Marxism gives us the political foresight to see the possibilities that develop with every situation, we do not view the world pessimistically and buckle under immediate pressures.

We see that the working class is being forced to rise up in many parts of the world, we see a period of fierce class struggle ahead of us. This insight into the real processes of the world gives us the revolutionary optimism and willingness to make sacrifices. With these, we fight for our ideas among the working class and youth and also support this struggle financially.

And our comrades outdid themselves this year. We smashed all of our targets, and set a new record with our fundraising. This sends a clear signal. Our party is not looking for excuses, our party means business, and it is here to stay.

Forward to next year!

The Karl Marx Seminar has once again shown that the RKP has further matured politically. But this process is far from over.

The many people we met in the autumn who are interested in joining the party, and who we mobilised for this inspiring event, present our young party with new challenges in establishing consistent political education within our ranks.

The leadership bears the main responsibility for solving this task. That is why we began this year to set up an education department in the national centre, which is now being followed by a department for external work. Both have the task of distributing material, and providing an impetus to professionalise these two areas of work in the local branches.

To this end, both departments have designed an introductory booklet for new comrades and sympathisers, which was also discussed at the Karl Marx Seminar. The booklet is intended to provide a guide for our educational work by immediately discussing the core ideas of the RKP and the RCI with new comrades. It also provides them with a reading list of key Marxist works for their first year of membership.

The leadership of the RKP will continue to work to strengthen the areas where we are weak, and lift the party over obstacle after obstacle.

In this way, we will turn the many comrades we meet and recruit into Marxist cadres, and be able to set new records in 2026.