Today, over 500 communists from every corner of the globe gathered for the first day of the founding conference of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), with 7,160 more having signed up to watch online so far. The atmosphere was electric as comrades discussed the class struggle on every continent, with a focus on the central task of the RCI in its founding week: recruiting and training communists for the coming revolution. If you haven’t yet registered to watch the founding conference, you can still do so: sign up now!
The international character of this event was clear from the very beginning. 500 comrades attended in person from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czechia, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, Morocco, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, USA, Venezuela, and the countries of former Yugoslavia, including Bosnia, Serbia and North Macedonia, and other countries too numerous to name.
For the first time, this was a hybrid event, with watch parties taking place on every continent, and attendees following the stream in 120 different countries.
The conference began with the announcement of comradely greetings sent by Ivan Pinheiro, the historic leader of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB). Pinheiro is part of a group that was bureaucratically expelled by the PCB due to their principled position on war and imperialism and is now organised as the PCBR (Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party). We have published his greetings in full here.
The Manifesto of the RCI
Rob Sewell officially opened the conference to a wave of applause: “welcome to the founding conference of the Revolutionary Communist International!” In preparation for this conference, we launched our founding document to the world: the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International. The Manifesto has already been translated into 25 languages and represents, at one and the same time, a scientific study of the key processes in the world, and a call to communist workers and youth around the world to organise under this banner.
As Alan Woods explained, this is a text which speaks for itself. The RCI’s ideas are nothing less than the ideas of genuine, scientific communism, which have retained all their relevance and freshness since the Communist Manifesto was written by two young men, Marx and Engels. This is the tradition that we proudly represent.
While communists may not have the militaries, weapons, navies or air forces that the ruling class possesses, our bold international movement, grounded in the genuine ideas and methods of Marxism, has the potential to completely transform the world. As Victor Hugo once said: nothing, no army, is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Shifts in consciousness
The global crisis of capitalism that every day confronts the masses with the horrors of war, imperialism and oppression. But like the enormous pressures beneath the thin crust that separates us from the seething magma of the Earth’s mantle, as that pressure builds and builds, eventually it finds a weakness. Eventually that pressure explodes in cataclysms: earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The same dialectical process is developing among the consciousnesses of millions, preparing revolutionary explosions. With life under capitalism increasingly becoming intolerable for billions, more and more people are looking for the most radical possible break with the status quo.
Israel’s genocidal war, commented on by many comrades, has acted as a massive accelerant in this process. In the United States, ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden’s unconditional backing Netanyahu has graphically exposed the imperialist nature of the US ruling class. This exorbitant military spending can only further undermine the US working class’ confidence in the capitalist system at a time when the US economy is laden with crippling debt.
In Britain, a surprise general election has been called in which the public are struggling to distinguish between Sunak and Starmer, both of whom grovel before US imperialism, and have lined and have lined up to defend Israel’s war of slaughter. This has caused significant backlash among workers and youth, who have nothing to gain from a victory of either major party.
The furious mood in society helps to explain the staggering impact of the live TV appearance of British comrade Fiona Lali, who demolished the most prominent representative of the Tory right wing, Suella Braverman, exposing her as a liar and warmonger.
Footage of Fiona’s performance has exploded, accumulating tens of millions of views online, on the back of which, the comrades of the RCP in Britain took the exceptional step to run Fiona as a revolutionary communist candidate for parliament. The comrades’ bold, communist campaign has already tapped into the deep desire for a fundamental change in society, which no other party offers.
In the Middle East, the war in Gaza threatens to ignite a powder-keg the likes of which we have not seen since the Arab Spring. With Israel showing no signs of letting up in its war, a social explosion in this region is on the order of the day. Such a movement would send shockwaves around the world, acting as a revolutionary beacon to workers and youth internationally.
The communists are coming
The enemies of communism often accuse us of being utopians. But as Alan explained, there is not a drop of utopianism in our ideas. The most hopeless utopians are those, on the contrary, who believe that this system can be patched up.
As we can see, explosive events are being prepared worldwide. The ideas of communism are gaining in popularity among a wide layer of youth. The downfall of capitalism is just as inevitable as the feudal system that it once replaced. But its overthrow must be a conscious act. Alan likened capitalism to the character of Russian folklore, Koshchei the Deathless who limps on and on, despite the disgusting decay of his body until one day he is killed. Capitalism too will not die of its own volition. The working class must consciously destroy it, but to do so it must have a conscious, communist leadership. Towards that end, we are founding the RCI. As Alan explained: “We must now boldly strike out in a new direction, and boldly raise the banner of a new party and of a Revolutionary Communist International.”
At the close of the day, the conference unanimously approved the Manifesto of the Revolutionary Communist International, to more singing of the Internationale.
The founding conference of the RCI has started with a bang. We will continue to publish reports throughout the week, but to make the most of this historic event, sign up now and watch online with us as we continue tomorrow!
