A poster for MacEwan’s Revolutionary Communist Club on 109 St NW. Amanda Erickson/The Griff
Inside a MacEwan’s Revolutionary Communist Club meeting
Virginia Boden
Communism. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear that word? A dictatorship? How about a society in which everyone wears the same clothes and eats the same things? Communist theory throughout history has been deemed a philosophy that leads to dysfunctional authoritarian regimes. But are the rumours true? Well, I wanted to find out, so I attended a Revolutionary Communists of MacEwan meeting. And I can say with full confidence, it was worth it.
The discussion at hand was “Capitalism Means War,” a presentation and discussion on how we can put an end to capitalism and its brutal wars, which began with a lengthy speech highlighting how the current wars and genocides, from Gaza to Ukraine and beyond, are not purely moral failures, but systemic outcomes of capitalist and imperialistic interests. The speech advocated for listeners to look beyond the surface of these issues to communicate the underlying issues with war. Their goal within this speech was to educate and organize people, particularly workers and class-conscious individuals, towards a broader movement against war, violence, and the capitalist system that sustains them.
But what benefit do they bring to MacEwan? The Revolutionary Communist Party’s (RCP) main goal with students is to educate them, as well as offer a support system for those who may feel discouraged within the current political and economic climate. Long-time member Derek Jones says that the RCP is “honestly the only hope students have” to fight back and win better conditions for themselves in a world that is seemingly against all forms of radical change.
The club is often seen around campus with posters encouraging new people to join, while also helping organize and attend protests, the most recent being the “Draw the Line” protest that was advocating for community funding, the upholding of Indigenous sovereignty, and ending fossil fuel usage. They also host informative meetings that are open to anyone.
While yes, there is a major stigma around communism, the individuals I met on that Tuesday greeted me with nothing but warmth and kindness. They are striving to be an outlet and educational club for those not only at MacEwan, but in the general public as well. They’re a welcoming group of people who are trying to offer people a way out from the degradation of capitalism. If you’re sick of how the world is, with the abundance of billionaires, the increase of class disparities, or just want to share an opinion without the fear of judgment, then I cannot urge you enough to attend a meeting.
based.
we have nothing to lose but our chains!
Great article!!
As a former member of the RCI, I would not recommend this or any Trotskyist party. The more I study Marxism, the more I realize how fraudulent and insincere Trotskyism really is. For information as to why we need Marxism-Leninism and why Trotskyism is trash and should stay in the trash, read ‘Disruption of Unity Under Cover of Outcries for Unity’ by Vladimir Lenin and ‘Trotskyism: Counter-Revolution in Disguise’ by Moissaye J. Olgin, free to read on the Marxist Internet Archive.
Trotskyist parties have a long history of splitting from each other for the most trivial of reasons. If Trotskyists really are uniters of the working class, then why can’t they unite amongst themselves? Trotskyism is a reactionary movement that fights against communism and decolonization, as many prominent Trotskyist intellectuals, like Christopher Hitchens, Max Eastman, Max Shachtman, James Burnham, Lyndon LaRouche, Sidney Hook, and Irving Kristol, were all Trotskyists who would go on to become awful reactionaries who argued in favour of Western imperialism.
This is a chart mapping all the different Trotskyist groups in the U.S. that keep splitting from each other. Permanent revolution in theory, permanent division in practice; that’s Trotskyism. https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/trees/mapping-trotskyism.pdf
Also, this ‘international’ has some very bad sexual abuse allegations from two former members in its Swedish branch; I know that because it’s literally on the RCI’s Wikipedia page. The two former members accused the party of encouraging them to “give away their savings, distance themselves from their families, drop out of education and engage in sexual relationships with older party comrades.” The party denies these allegations and claims it has a “zero-tolerance to violence and harassment in the party,” just like how the company Aylo (owner of numerous adult websites) denied hosting abusive material on their platforms by claiming they had a zero-tolerance policy for abusive material. The party has been inconclusive about their ‘investigation’ into the abuser(s).
What I’m saying is, study Marxism-Leninism and avoid Trotskyism like the Lyndon LaRouche movement. Trotskyism is left-anticommunism, and it must be fought against.
A great place to learn Marxism-Leninism would be the anti-revisionist YouTube channel ‘Socialism for All,’ which does human-read readings of Marxist books, speeches, and insightful commentary and critiques of contemporary events.
A great textbook to learn Marxism and Marxism-Leninism would be ‘Curriculum of the Basic Principles of Marxism-Leninism: Part 1; The Worldview and Philosophical Methodology of Marxism-Leninism,’ free to read on the Marxist Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/subject//vietnam/texts/curriculum-of-the-basic-principles-of-ml-part1.pdf