Revolutionary Communist International
 Revolutionary Communist International  (Political movement)   | |
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A new Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) is scheduled to be launched at a World School of Communism founding conference from 10 to 15 June 2024. The whole conference will be streamed online so it can be watched at home, or with other comrades in one of many watch parties planned in countries around the globe. Attendance at the RCI founding conference can be arranged here.[1]
The launch of the RCI signals the demise of its forerunner the International Marxist Tendency (IMT).
- “This is a rebirth, a renaissance!” These words, spoken by Alan Woods, leading theoretician of the IMT, encapsulated the mood at a recent meeting of our International Executive Committee (IEC) in Italy.
Manifesto of the RCI
| Launching the manifesto of the RCI |
In 1938, the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky stated that “the historical crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership.” These words are as true and relevant today as the day when they were written.
In the third decade of the 21st century, the capitalist system finds itself in an existential crisis. Such situations are by no means unusual in history. They are the expression of the fact that a given socio-historical system has reached its limits and is no longer capable of playing any progressive role.
The Marxist theory of historical materialism provides us with a scientific explanation for this phenomenon. Every socio-economic system arises for certain reasons. It develops, flourishes, then reaches its peak, at which point it enters into a phase of decline. This was the case with slave society and the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
In its day, capitalism succeeded in developing industry, agriculture, science and technique to a level undreamed of in the past. In so doing, it was unconsciously laying the material foundations for a future classless society.
But now this has reached its limits, and everything is turning into its opposite. The capitalist system long ago exhausted its historic potential. Unable to carry society further, it has now reached the point of no return.
The present crisis is not a normal cyclical crisis of capitalism. It is an existential crisis, expressed not only in the stagnation of the productive forces, but also in a general crisis of culture, morality, politics and religion.
The yawning abyss that separates rich and poor – between obscene wealth in the hands of a few parasites, and poverty, destitution and despair for the great majority of the human race – has never been greater.
These are revolting symptoms of the sickness of a society that is rotten ripe for overthrow. Its eventual downfall is inevitable and cannot be avoided. But that does not mean that the bourgeoisie lacks the means of delaying crises or of reducing their impact, at least to some extent and for a temporary period.
Yet such measures merely create new and insoluble contradictions. The 2008 financial crisis was a major turning point. The truth is that world capitalism has never recovered from that crisis.
For decades, bourgeois economists argued that the ‘invisible hand of the market’ would solve everything and the government should play no role whatsoever in the economic life of the nation. But the markets collapsed and were only saved by massive government intervention. During that crisis, governments and central banks were compelled to pour vast sums of money into the system to prevent a total catastrophe.
The bourgeoisie succeeded in saving the system only by pushing it far beyond its natural limits. Governments spent vast quantities of money that they did not possess. This reckless method was repeated in the COVID-19 pandemic.
These desperate measures led inevitably to an uncontrolled explosion of inflation and the creation of huge public, corporate and private debt, which has forced governments to slam on the brakes. Now the whole process must go into reverse.
The age of exceptionally low rates of interest and easy credit is now merely a dim memory of the past. There is no possibility that we will return to the previous period any time soon – if ever.
The global economy is faced with the prospect of a perfect storm in which one factor feeds upon another to produce a sharp downward spiral.
The world is heading towards an uncertain future characterised by a never-ending cycle of wars, economic collapse and increasing misery. Even in the wealthiest nations, wages are undermined by the remorseless rise in prices, while deep cuts in public spending constantly erode social services such as healthcare and education.
These measures represent a direct assault on the living standards of the workers and the middle class. But they only serve to deepen the crisis. All the attempts of the bourgeoisie to restore the economic equilibrium only serve to destroy the social and political equilibrium. The bourgeoisie finds itself trapped in a crisis for which it has no solution. That is the key to understanding the present situation.
However, Lenin explained long ago that there is no such thing as a final crisis of capitalism. Unless it is overthrown, the capitalist system will always recover from even the deepest crisis, albeit at a terrible cost for humanity.
The RCI manifesto continues here.[3]
