Successful launch of the organisation Revolución Comunista in El Salvador

Revolución Comunista [Communist Revolution] is here! On the 23 March, during a Marxist School titled, “Lenin’s life and ideas”, Revolución Comunista was officially launched, a new organisation, which aims to organise communists in El Salvador and which has as its medium-term goal the founding of a Revolutionary Communist Party.

[Originally published in Spanish at elcomunista.org]

After weeks of preparation, the school and the launch gathered about thirty communists. Comrades from San Miguel, San Salvador, Cabañas and a comrade from Mexico were present. The school involved an in-depth discussion on Lenin’s ideas and the need to build the revolutionary party; and was filled with a general mood of optimism and confidence in the ideas that are alone capable of transforming the world.

Reactionary attacks

The announcement of the launch of Revolución Comunista, which was released days before the school at a press conference outside the University of El Salvador, sparked outrage among reactionaries. Our invitation to the press conference was taken up by Bukele supporters, right-wingers, liberals and reactionaries in general, who were outraged by the launch of an openly communist organisation in the country. Hundreds of insults and slander were poured forth since then, and only increased on the day of the conference itself.

At this press conference, we took the opportunity to state our position on the class struggle in this country and internationally. We denounced the failure of capitalism to address the fundamental needs of the youth, of women and of the working class, such as decent employment, access to housing, adequate food, health, and so on. These needs are not being and will not be met, because capitalism is an unlivable system. As long as capitalism exists, the downtrodden are bound to be oppressed and exploited without limits.

The reach of the conference exceeded our own expectations. Our statements were covered by dozens of media outlets and picked up by dozens more on social media. On our X/Twitter account, our statement was viewed almost 30,000 times, and in some outlets it reached up to 160,000 views. This put us in the spotlight and, unsurprisingly, our opponents did not miss the opportunity to repeat the traditional lies about communism.

The so-called ‘defenders of freedom’ demanded our censorship, some even called for our imprisonment, and there was no shortage of death threats in our inbox. They are frightened, our organisation makes them very uncomfortable, because they know that we have the basis for a strong movement that will succeed in changing the present state of affairs, which endangers the interests that this horde of reactionaries defends.

Our opponents can continue to shout and slander all they want, we communists are ready to continue to increase our forces and to prepare ourselves day by day for the tasks ahead of us. We are moved by deep revolutionary convictions because we believe in a different world, without oppression and misery, where everyone is truly free.

The reach on social media led to dozens of people applying to join the new organisation, excited to belong to Revolución Comunista. We welcome these new comrades, and if you are a communist this is your place too!

Why a new organisation?

Undoubtedly the greatest challenge we face is the founding of a revolutionary communist party / Image: Revolución Comunista

For years, our organisation has been known as the Bloque Popular Juvenil, BPJ [Popular Youth Bloc]. In 2008, we joined the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). In all this time, we have worked tirelessly to lay the foundations of an organisation with solid Marxist principles. We have studied the history of the class struggle in the country and in the world, we have assimilated the ideas of scientific socialism, we have edited a monthly newspaper that responds to the needs of the oppressed, and we have intervened as far as we can in the struggles of the working class for their emancipation.

This organisation is the result of the sacrifice of hundreds of comrades who, through their work, made it possible to bring revolutionary ideas back to new generations. They raised the banner of communism in El Salvador, and invested their time and money in building the BPJ. We carry this legacy with pride.

All this time, the road has not been easy, especially in the last few years. The Bukele regime has managed to decimate the progressive and left forces in the country. Our organisation has not come out unscathed, but our deep confidence in our ideas, in the transformative power of the working class and in ourselves has saved us from extinction and puts new challenges before us.

Undoubtedly the greatest challenge we face is the founding of a revolutionary communist party. But this party is not created just by declaring it. It must be built, and for that we need more communists who are willing to assist in the work. That is why we are now launching Revolución Comunista. We want to emphasise that this is not just a change of name but a radical change in our methods of work and is a reflection of the more determined and bold way in which we will take our ideas to the youth who are questioning the misery we have been condemned to, who declare themselves to be communists and are ready to fight to change the system at its roots.

The launching of Revolución Comunista is only the first step. Now we must grow to at least a hundred comrades to begin to draw the road map towards the construction of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Organising and fighting for socialist revolution is not a utopia. The real utopians are those who want to reform capitalism to make it more humane, or who expect the system to regulate itself and provide us with a dignified life. The time to act is today. The working class, women and youth have nothing to lose but their chains. If you are a communist, you must join us!

The legacy we defend

We need a revolutionary press that confronts the monopoly of ‘truth’ that the bourgeois media possesses / Image: Revolución Comunista

The Marxist School, which we held on the day of the launch, was about Lenin’s life and ideas. Comrade Ricardo Ayala of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation (Mexican section of the IMT) gave an impressive, condensed summary of Lenin’s life and work. Subsequently, there were three workshops on important topics.

The first workshop was about Lenin and the importance of theory. Here they discussed how revolutionary practice is impossible without theory. Lenin explained that “without revolutionary theory, there is no revolutionary movement.” For Lenin, this was a cornerstone of party building. A party without theory is doomed to failure. Theory is extremely important for understanding and comprehending the world we live in. It is impossible to change reality if we do not understand it.

A second workshop discussed Lenin, militancy and the press. Here the importance of the workers’ press as a collective organiser was stressed, because it is around this work that communists can organise themselves and form the organisation they need for revolution. We need a revolutionary press that confronts the monopoly of ‘truth’ that the bourgeois media possesses. Such a press would be the voice of the working class that maps out revolutionary perspectives for the struggle. Every communist must get involved in the tasks involved in having a press and use it to attract more and more communists to the organisation.

Finally, a third workshop discussed Lenin and workers’ democracy. Here a vibrant discussion took place on what a communist world could look like, changing the social basis of capitalism at its roots. Workers, women and youth become an integral part of society as producers and decision-makers of their own lives and future. The socialist society would involve the collective participation of workers in society. We discussed how, by taking over the big means of production, the big companies, the big banks and the large tracts of land, putting them into production not to satisfy the needs of the rich, but for the satisfaction of the real needs of society, the life of humanity would change radically.

The conclusions of these workshops were presented in a plenary meeting, where the majority of comrades participated and shared their ideas on how to build the organisation. An atmosphere of revolutionary optimism was reflected in each of the participations, with each comrade reflecting on the best methods to move forward and attract more comrades to the organisation. Lenin’s ideas are the legacy that we defend and that inspire us to continue our revolutionary work.

Let's build Revolución Comunista!

We are facing a change of epoch, an epoch in which the crisis of capitalism has deepened to colossal levels, not only hunger and misery are the order of the day, but also war, the genocide of entire peoples and the devastation of the planet. Capitalism is a dead end that offers only death to the working class.

And it is precisely these conditions that allow more and more people to be ready to fight to transform this order of things. We communists must raise our voices louder and louder to proclaim that a different world is possible, that life is more than the exploitation we know, that it is possible to fight for a better world.

We must face this epoch with determination, contributing our ideas, resources, energies and forces in the construction of the organisation that will lay the foundations to put an end to this inhuman system. In El Salvador through Revolución Comunista we must continue the call to organise, putting up posters; talking to our friends, relatives, work colleagues, etc.; taking our ideas through the press to our colonies and communities; attracting more and more communists to the organisation. There is no time to lose, we must get moving today.