Britain: Autumn offensive – the communists have arrived on campus!

September has been a busy month for the Marxists in Britain, with comrades recruiting for revolution at schools, colleges, and universities across the country. Everywhere, we see a clear thirst for communist ideas and organisation. Join us today!

[Originally published at socialist.net]

Over the past few weeks, members of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) have been mobilising their forces at university campuses, schools, and colleges across Britain.

Our aim is to recruit as many radical young people as we can to the struggle for communism; to build communist cells in every university, school, and college; and to train up a new generation of revolutionary class fighters.

On the back of this summer’s incredibly successful Are you a communist? recruitment drive, and with more young people than ever looking towards communism, we are pleased to say that our ‘autumn offensive’ has been a huge success so far!

Schools and colleges

Schools and colleges are becoming hotbeds of revolutionary anger, with schools literally falling apart, and young people being made to suffer all of the problems of capitalism from a young age. Our comrades have been energetically intervening to turn their local colleges communist.

In Chelmsford, following a successful day school recently, comrades at a number of different schools and colleges have been intervening to build communist cells. At this meeting, one student said: “It will be easy to set up a communist cell at my school. The vibe is just there”.

At another school, a comrade told us that as soon as they walked through their school gates they had sold out of Socialist Appeal newspapers.

In Darlington, where we have just started a new branch, comrades went along to a local college. As one comrade told us:

“When classes ended, groups of students were literally swarming around us to hear what we had to say. It caused a real sensation. I’ve never seen anything like it. In some groups, every single person bought a paper and wanted to get involved.”

The same thing happened in Sheffield, where comrades set up a recruitment stall outside of a college. After being told to move the stall by security, the students followed our comrades around the corner to continue speaking to them!

Many of these young people already consider themselves communists. In Sheffield, one school student said that they are currently reading Lenin’s What is to be Done?. In Durham, another said that they are making their way through Marx’s Capital!

As we speak, our new recruits are organising communist clubs, to discuss our newspapers, the In Defence of Marxism magazine, and our various introductory Marxist pamphlets.

And they are actively trying to recruit more people to the IMT. One student told us they were put in detention for being caught putting up ‘Are you a communist?’ stickers. We applaud this worthy sacrifice for the communist cause!

Communists on campus

Turning to the universities, we have also had enormous success. To date, we have intervened in at least 25 universities, with many more to come.

This includes places where we’ve never intervened before – like UCLAN in Preston, and UWTSD in Swansea.

Branches report students making a beeline towards our freshers stalls after spotting our bold ‘Are you a communist?’ banners. “I’ve seen your posters everywhere at home,” we’ve been told. “I love what you’ve been doing. How can I join?”

At Queen Mary University London (QMUL), one student was asked by another left-wing group: “Are you a socialist?” – to which they replied, “No, I’m a communist!”. They then came straight over to our stall.

The thirst for revolutionary ideas has also been impressive. Many branches report newspapers flying out of our hands.

In Edinburgh, the comrades sold 40 copies of the first monthly edition of Revolution. And at Bristol University, the comrades sold a staggering 70 copies of the Socialist Appeal in a few hours!

Ready to build

Our newest recruits have shown a high level of revolutionary sacrifice, and a commitment to build the forces of communism.

One student at QMUL, who had just arrived from India a few days earlier, told us they felt it was their duty to get organised as soon as possible.

Several students set up membership subs immediately after meeting us at recruitment stalls. One person at York St. John said they’d do bake sales at their accommodation to raise money for the IMT.

These new recruits are all immediately being involved in the work of our branches. This includes leafleting accommodation blocks, organising more recruitment stalls, and heading along to local strikes.

In a number of cases, we have had to start new branches and cells to accommodate the amount of recruits!

At the time of writing – in the space of a few weeks, and with the rest of the semester ahead of us – we have recruited dozens of new members to the IMT in Britain: a record amount for one month. We are well on our way to smashing our target of 1000 members.

And this is just the beginning. If you are a student or young person reading this, you know what to do!

York yields young communists

By Maya

We’ve had an unbelievably good response to our recruitment efforts at York St John’s (YSJ) university. It’s a new area for us, so there were just three of us who set up a stall one day. We were immediately inundated with communist students wanting to build.

We sold 24 copies of the paper and met 25 people who wanted to join us! One of these guys immediately began helping us on the stall and selling papers. We met some of them that same day for a great political discussion, and made plans for setting up a Marxist society and a branch of the IMT at YSJ.

One of the new people we met said he was a communist because he is working class and “f*****g hates the rich and the Tories”, and wants to immediately go about building our organisation.

Another student told us he organised a protest at his college after Starbucks and other companies were brought in to replace the cheap school canteen. The protest won free school lunches for the students! Now he wants to put his energy towards building our organisation.

We can’t quite express in words how inspiring this recruitment stall was. We’re reaching a layer of new, young communists who are going to completely transform our organisation. The only problem we’re going to have is helping them set up and grow their own branches quickly enough!

Daring deeds deliver in Darlington

By Luke & Jack

The brand new Darlington branch set up a recruitment stall outside QE College this week. We were only there for about 30 minutes, but we were swamped with people.

Entire groups of students were crowding around us trying to buy the paper. We met eight people who wanted to join us and help build communist cells in Darlington.

There were some amazing conversations and a real buzz. There’s truly something promising in the air. People are coming to revolutionary conclusions – and I’m here for it!

This radical layer of young people is out there. And it’s our job as the communists to seek them out and show them we can work together to get organised. Capitalism is crumbling. We’re here to build a better future.

Socialist enthusiasm at LSE

By Pan & Jeff

We’ve had a tremendous freshers’ week at the LSE in central London. We advertised ourselves around student halls in advance. And just from that, one worker saw our posters and joined our next branch meeting.

At the freshers’ fair itself, from the moment we set up until we packed up, we had no more than a few minutes in which someone wasn’t coming up to the stall and speaking to us.

At certain points, we had far more people wanting information about how to join the communists than we had comrades available to talk to them.

As you’d expect in a place like LSE, there were a few students approaching Marxism from an academic point of view. But the bold way in which comrades presented our organisation made it clear to them our position as a serious revolutionary group, and not a study circle.

Later that evening, 12 new people met with us to find out about how to sign up as a member of the IMT. There were loads more who also plan to join, but weren’t free that night.

Everything bodes well for an imminent third branch based around LSE!