Revolutionaries from around the globe explain why they're coming to the World School of Communism!

The global crisis of capitalism is pushing workers and young people in one country after another towards revolutionary communism! As a result, we’ve been receiving dozens of messages and requests to participate in the founding conference of our new International, with some of the most inspiring examples shared below. This new generation of communists burns with rage at the horrors and injustices of the capitalist system, and instinctively understands that to overthrow it we need to get organised!

Young people are seeing the prospects for their future destroyed. In Britain, the situation is especially acute, with the economy dipping in and out of recession, the political establishment wrought with turmoil and scandal, and infrastructure such as schools and hospitals literally crumbling. Little wonder we received the following message from the UK:

“I’m a 17-year-old in Year 12 doing my A-levels. I’m tired of seeing news day after day where the country is crumbling under the capitalist system. I believe that communism is the answer to a lot of our problems and hope to make an impact and join the fight against capitalism.”

The past period has also seen a wave of strikes and protests globally, with workers and young people standing up to defend what little they have in the face of rising inflation and collapsing living standards.

In France, we have seen years of tremendous struggle against Macron’s government of the rich: from the gilets jaunes movement in 2018-19, to mass strikes, to the battle over a hated retirement age hike. These movements were all led to dead ends by the reformist leaders of the left and trade union bureaucrats. The most advanced layers of fighters are coming to understand that fighting leadership and revolutionary ideas are needed! As one French write-in states:

“The progressive left (as expected) has failed. More than ever, we [...] need to unite and take back the fight to where it belongs: in the streets, in the media, in the companies, and factories, and everywhere else where the labour force opposes capitalist exploitation (and everything it brings with it). But more than ever, true Marxist theory and principles need to guide this movement.”

The turbulence is felt even in countries that have managed to maintain a veneer of stability throughout the previous crises. Switzerland, long a beacon of bourgeois peace and prosperity, is feeling the effects of the world crisis of capitalism, leading the Swiss ruling class to increasingly put more pressure on the working class.

Discontent is building up, and pushing the most advanced youth and workers to draw revolutionary conclusions. One message from Switzerland says:

“We need the unification of all class fighters behind a revolutionary program. An organisation able to make that rotten system fall and lay the basis for a world free from alienation and misery. There can be nothing more to ask for, nothing more to fight for, nothing more to live for.”

It is no accident that our Swiss comrades are growing so quickly!

This kind of radical consciousness is developing all over the world. We witnessed a rising tide of insurrectionary class struggle sweep Latin America in recent years; followed by an especially brutal impact from the COVID-19 pandemic; then a revival of mass struggle, and the election of a new raft of reformist leaders. All are being tested by events, and some have already been overthrown by reactionary coups, such as Pedro Castillo in Peru.

In Colombia - a country with a particularly bloodstained history of repression and violence by the pro-imperialist oligarchy - left-wing president Gustavo Petro has been trying to appease both the masses and the capitalists. While many people still support the fight for reforms and oppose the pro-imperialist right, a growing layer recognises the impossibility of reconciling the interests of the proletariat and the oligarchy, which is already plotting to recapture power. A message from Colombia shows the mood of the revolutionary youth:

“I am a young person from Latin America concerned by the power and violence of the bourgeoisie and the capital system. I want to participate in the creation of a new social model where workers will be free from capitalist greed.”

In the Middle East, the new generation has begun to recover after the defeat of the revolutionary explosion that erupted in 2011, and is enraged by the brutal slaughter of the Palestinians in Gaza by the imperialist-backed Israeli regime. The youth is awakening and eager to complete the tasks of the 2011 revolution. They are looking for the guidance of Marxist ideas, as one write-in from Egypt emphasised:

“The only way forward is through socialism, and one cannot be a socialist without being properly educated. This is why I want to further my knowledge of communist thought.”

The collapse of Evergrande was a symptom of the rising crisis of Chinese capitalism, and has been followed by other signals, such as turmoil in the banking sector, a plague of unpaid wages, and land grabs. These are the initial tremors of a full-blown slump, which will necessitate brutal attacks by the state on workers and the poor. It is only a matter of time before the Chinese masses explode onto the scene.

The Chinese people have inspiring revolutionary traditions, and a layer of workers and youth are looking for real communism, not the hammer-and-sickle-adorned capitalism offered by the Chinese Communist Party, as attested by the following from China:

“Capitalists are pushing the world into a bottomless abyss. But the proletariat can change all this, and Marxism can change all this. Although I know that my own power may not change anything, as a Marxist and a proletarian, I know that if I do nothing, nothing can be changed."

Marxist ideas are spreading even in conditions of extreme state repression against communists. Despite obstacles preventing them from organising openly, revolutionaries are striving towards educating themselves. A person from Thailand, where the royalist-military establishment stubbornly clings to power and threatens any dissent with imprisonment and even death, wrote in saying:

“We need collective study for collective struggle.”

Similarly, in Indonesia, where communist activity and symbols are illegal, there are workers and youth looking for our banner. A communist from Indonesia wrote:

“In a country with strong anti-communist laws such as Indonesia, I would like to help raise the class consciousness, as the working class has been collectively brainwashed against communism since the Suharto era [a brutal military dictatorship], leading to huge misinformation among the working class. I want to connect with other communists and actively support the RCI.”

Importantly, this growing layer of revolutionaries is looking for genuine communist ideas. They are rejecting the Stalinist caricature of Marxism and Bolshevism, and are seeking a clean banner. A message we received from Italy states:

“Even before calling myself a ‘communist’ – which in Italy was still associated with the Stalinists – I have always called myself a ‘revolutionary’. A new revolutionary Internationale might be the spark that ignites this feeling in other people in my country and in others.”

In these incredible messages lies the significance and the necessity of our new Revolutionary Communist International. The revolutionary workers and youth are hungry for genuine Marxist ideas, and understand the need for international organisation. We aim to unite these communists under our banner, a clean banner of genuine Marxism and Bolshevism. If you feel the same way, you should read our manifesto, sign up to attend the World School of Communism, and join our International. There is no time to lose.