Manifesto for Revolutionary Liberation: Chapter II. Today’s Worldwide Historic Revolutionary Period
Due to the decay of the productive forces of capitalism and, consequently, the system’s economic, social and political viability, today’s world is pregnant with major explosions – economic crashes, major wars, climatic catastrophes, and political revolutions.
It is because of the inherently contradictory dynamic of increased concentration of capital accumulation and the decreased rate of profit from capitalist production that, in lieu of non-existing major productive channels for investment, the bourgeoisie has for decades been forced to defend and augment its accumulated capital and future profits by two main means: (1) the increased financialization of the world economy (creating one investment bubble – “wealth on paper” – after another) and (2) relentlessly attacking the working class with one austerity package after another. Naturally the two are inextricably linked, as we witness whenever the latest financial bubble bursts. This was in particular obvious when in 2008 the potential collapse of the great Western banks was only averted by the unprecedented criminal transfer of workers’ taxes by the bourgeois governments to the financial wizards of Wall Street. When the treasuries of the capitalist states are looted to save the criminal bankers, the working class faces huge cuts in government spending on health, education, housing, and social welfare.
Due to the very same decreased rate of profit, the imperialist bourgeoisie increasingly and relentlessly needs to strangle the semi-colonial countries of the South, siphoning off more and more of the profits produced there to its own coffers via economic concessions granted by puppet governments and “benevolent” interest-bearing loans which these pillaged countries find impossible to pay back. This ongoing robbery from the countries of the South in turn obliges each of the imperialist nations to make its presence felt, leading to the waging of more and more military interventions and occupations (in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Mali, etc.), thereby shoring up its control of one or other of these “peripheral” countries.
And it is precisely for this reason that the rivalry between the imperialist Great Powers is exacerbating, since they all have to compete against one another to gain a larger share of the relatively decreasing global capitalist wealth. The result is the increased conflict we witness today, for example, between the US and the EU against Russia over the Ukraine or Syria, or between the US and Japan against China in East-Asia.
None of these contradictions can be solved within the limitations of the capitalist system. Crisis, depression and wars will accelerate more and more if the working class does not smash the capitalist system.
If the imperialist Great Powers are not stopped in time, their rivalry will lead to a Third World War. The working class can only end this continuous chain of misery, wars and catastrophes via a world socialist revolution. Rosa Luxemburg’s statement that humanity is faced with the alternative “Socialism or Barbarism” is more relevant today than ever. Under the conditions of the early 21st century, the concretization of Luxemburg’s statement means: “Socialism or Widespread Death through Climate Destruction and World War III”!
This is why the RCIT, as it has already stated in its Program of 2012, characterizes the present historic period of capitalist decay as a long-term revolutionary period (which could last for many years or even decades). Capitalism’s decay constantly provokes economic crises, political instability and the incessant danger of war and in doing so continually generates revolutionary situations, as well as counterrevolutionary dangers. Historic events like the breakdown of the world economy in conjunction with a major political and military crisis between the Great Powers or a popular uprising in China could inaugurate a worldwide revolutionary situation. The RCIT calls the working class vanguard to prepare itself for such a period replete with revolutionary convulsions.
About RCIT Britain
What the RCIT stands for
Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT)
The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT)is a revolutionary combat organisation fighting for the liberation of the working class and all oppressed. It has national sections in a number of countries. The working class is composed of all those (and their families) who are forced to sell their labor power as wage earners to the capitalists. The RCIT stands on the theory and practice of the revolutionary workers’ movement associated with the names of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky.
Capitalism endangers our lives and the future of humanity. Unemployment, war, environmental disasters, hunger, and exploitation are all part of everyday life under capitalism as are the imperialistic oppression of nations, the national oppression of migrants, and the oppression of women, young people, and homosexuals. Therefore, we want to eliminate capitalism.
The liberation of the working class and all oppressed is possible only in a classless society without exploitation and oppression. Such a society can only be established internationally.
Therefore, the RCIT is fighting for a socialist revolution at home and around the world.
This revolution must be carried out and lead by the working class, for only this class has the collective power to bring down the ruling class and build a socialist society.
The revolution cannot proceed peacefully because a ruling class never has nor ever will voluntarily surrender its power. By necessity, therefore, the road to liberation includes armed rebellion and civil war against the capitalists.
The RCIT is fighting for the establishment of workers’ and peasants’ republics, where the oppressed organize themselves in councils democratically elected in rank-and-file meetings in factories, neighbourhoods, and schools. These councils, in turn, elect and control the government and all other statue authorities, and always retain the right to recall them.
Authentic socialism and communism have nothing to do with the so-called “socialism” that ruled in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and which continues to do so in China and Cuba, for example. In these countries, the proletariat was and is dominated and oppressed by a privileged party bureaucracy.
Under capitalism, the RCIT supports all efforts to improve the living conditions of the workers and oppressed, while simultaneously striving to overthrow this system based on economic exploitation of the masses.
Towards these ends, we work from within the trade unions where we advocate class struggle, socialism, and workers’ democracy. But trade unions and social democracy are controlled by a bureaucracy perniciously connected with the state and capital via status, high-paying jobs, and other privileges. Thus, the trade union bureaucracy is far from the interests and living conditions of its members, based as it is on the top, privileged layers of the working class – a labor aristocracy which has no real interest in replacing capitalism. Therefore, the true struggle for the liberation of the working class, the toppling of capitalism and the establishment of socialism, must be based on the broad mass of the proletariat rather than their “representative” from the upper trade union strata.
We also fight for the expropriation of the big land owners as well as for the nationalisation of the land and its distribution to the poor and landless peasants. Towards this goal we struggle for the independent organisation of the rural workers.
We support national liberation movements against oppression. We also support the anti-imperialist struggles of oppressed peoples against the great powers. Within these movements we advocate a revolutionary leadership as an alternative to nationalist or reformist forces.
While the RCIT strives for unity of action with other organizations, we are acutely aware that the policies of social democrats and pseudo-revolutionary groups are dangerous, and ultimately represent an obstacle to the emancipation of the working class, peasants, and the otherwise oppressed.
In wars between imperialist states we take a revolutionary defeatist position: we do not support either side, but rather advocate the transformation of the war into a civil war against the ruling class in each of the warring states. In wars between imperialist powers (or their stooges) and a semi-colonial countries we stand for the defeat of the former and the victory of the oppressed countries.
As communists, we maintain that the struggle against national oppression and all types of social oppression (women, youth, sexual minorities etc.) must be lead by the working class, because only the latter is capable of fomenting a revolutionarily change in society . Therefore, we consistently support working class-based revolutionary movements of the socially oppressed, while opposing the leadership of petty-bourgeois forces (feminism, nationalism, Islamism, etc.), who ultimately dance to the tune of the capitalists, and strive to replace them with revolutionary communist leadership.
Only with a revolutionary party fighting as its leadership can the working class be victorious in its struggle for liberation. The establishment of such a party and the execution of a successful revolution, as it was demonstrated by the Bolsheviks in Russia under Lenin and Trotsky remain the models for revolutionary parties and revolutions in the 21st century.
For new, revolutionary workers' parties in all countries! For a 5th Workers International to be founded on a revolutionary program! Join the RCIT!
No future without socialism! No socialism without revolution! No revolution without a revolutionary party!
RCIT in Britain 