The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), formerly known as Socialist Fightback, is a political party in Canada, founded officially during its congress on May 20, 2024. [1] The party is associated with marxism, and advocates for the overthrow of capitalism in Canada and throughout the world.
The Revolutionary Communist Party is the Canadian section of the Revolutionary Communist International.
Revolutionary Communist Party | |
---|---|
Founded | May 20, 2024 |
Newspaper | Communist Revolution |
Ideology | |
Political position | Far-left |
International affiliation | Revolutionary Communist International |
Colors | Red |
Website | |
www |
From the 2000s to 2023, the organization is composed of a group of activists organizing around the publication Socialist Fightback. In addition to publishing this paper, the group organizes marxist discussion circles on campuses throughout the country, [2] [3] [4] participates in demonstrations and workers struggles, and organises larger public events to discuss marxist ideas, notably the Montreal Marxist Winter School. [5] In 2024, in the context of a reorientation of its international, the organization decides to rename its paper to Communist Revolution and to launch a new party, the Revolutionary Communist Party. According to its members, this change was motivated by a surge in popularity for communist ideas, particularly among the youth, [6] and a disappointment towards other existing left parties, such as the New Democratic Party and Québec solidaire. [7]
The Revolutionary Communist Party claims to represent the ideas of revolutionary Marxism, in particular the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. It advocates for the seizure of power by the working class through a communist revolution, in order to nationalize the biggest corporations and implement a "democratic and socialist economic plan". [8]
The organization's strategy is to build a mass revolutionary political party, based on the model of the Russian Bolshevik party, which led the October revolution of 1917 and laid the basis for the creation of the Soviet Union. [9]
Inside the communist movement, the organization as well as its international are associated with Trotskyism, [10] in particular the tendency associated with the British Trotskyist Ted Grant. Trotskyism is a current that aims to distinguish itself from the various communist parties that were in power in the Soviet Union or China, for example, notably through its positions on the questions of internationalism and worker's democracy. [11]
The party's program includes the following points :
The program also underlines the necessity of expanding these measures on an international scale, through the creation of a socialist world federation.
The RCP is composed of cells, i.e. groups of activists in a region that meet on a regular basis to discuss marxist ideas and plan activities with the goal of recruiting new members. [12]
These activities include street paper sales, public conferences, and demonstrations.
Literature and podcast
The party publishes its paper, Communist Revolution, on a monthly basis. It runs a publishing house in english, Camilo Cahis Marxist Publishing House, and another one in french, Raison en révolte, which publish, among other things, reissues of classic marxist texts. [13] The party also produces a podcast, the Revolutionary Communist Podcast, on platforms like Spotify and Youtube. [14]
Marxist schools
Every year, the party organizes marxist schools throughout Canada. These events are public rallies where multiple presenters from Canada and abroad give talks on marxist theory. The most significative is the Montreal Marxist Winter School, which had 600 participants for its 2024 edition. [7]
Campaigns
The party sometimes organizes campaigns to intervene in the labor and student movement. For example, in 2024, in the context of the international student movement demanding the divestment of universities from Israel, the party launched a campaign to agitate for the idea of a student strike for Palestine across Canada. [15] The idea was then taken up by some student unions in Quebec, which led to a two-day student strike of more 82 000 students. [16]
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an orthodox Marxist, a revolutionary Marxist, and a Bolshevik–Leninist as well as a follower of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Liebknecht, and Rosa Luxemburg. His relations with Lenin have been a source of intense historical debate. However, on balance, scholarly opinion among a range of prominent historians and political scientists such as E.H. Carr, Isaac Deutscher, Moshe Lewin, Ronald Suny, Richard B. Day and W. Bruce Lincoln was that Lenin’s desired “heir” would have been a collective responsibility in which Trotsky was placed in "an important role and within which Stalin would be dramatically demoted ".
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