Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) 03.08.2025
According to Alan Woods of the RCI[i]:
In April 2023, they had 4,400 members internationally. But in just 12 months, they have grown to over 6,500. And it is only a matter of weeks before the RCI reaches 7,000 members.
According to this Account, the RCI has grown by almost 50 percent in one year. Some sections have grown by as much as 150 percent in the same period, such as the Danish section, which now has 247 comrades.
Currently, the RCI has full sections in 26 countries, with sizable groups. In 12 additional countries, They are working towards applying to become sections. When you add smaller groups and individuals around the world, the RCI is active in more than 70 countries, according to Woods.
On the surface, for people unfamiliar with the long history of the Granties and its various splits, it may sound impressive. However, if you know that the RCI, formerly IMT, has existed since the founder of this tendency, Ted Grant, joined the Marxist group in 1934, 91 years ago, the question is how this tendency has only 6,500 members after 91 years? Fifty percent of them are relatively new to politics, having recently joined the pro-Palestinian movement and are unfamiliar with its history.
They call themselves Trotskyists, but Grants refused to enter the Fourth International when Trotsky led it. At the same time, they called the British imperialist Eighth Army “Our Army” in WWII, and in the Malvinas war, they stood with British imperialism.
Since the RCI exists in 70 countries, if we believe this accounts for it, it has a very small group in most of these countries. Thus, we speak of propaganda groups not of international.
The establishment of the Communist International, or Comintern, by Vladimir Lenin in 1919 marked a significant moment in the history of international socialism. The Comintern emerged in the aftermath of World War I, during which the socialist movement in Europe had splintered into reformist factions that largely supported their governments and revolutionary groups that opposed the war as an imperialistic war. Lenin, along with key figures like Leon Trotsky, recognized that a new revolutionary organization was crucial to prevent the resurgence of the weakened Second International, which had betrayed the international working class, and to disseminate a genuinely Marxist vision of socialism worldwide.
The First Congress of the Comintern took place in Moscow in March 1919, with Russian delegates being the primary attendees. By then, the Bolshevik Party had become a large revolutionary working-class party. The aim was to craft a framework to unite revolutionary socialist factions, especially in Germany, where Lenin hoped for a revolution. The subsequent Second Congress in 1920 introduced stringent conditions for membership, as large parties, some of them with reformist history, wanted to join the International.
Does the RCI resemble an international organization, or is it merely international in name?
Woods knows that he has only a small number of members, even in Britain, where his section has, according to him, 1200 members and it is the largest section.
He tells us in another article in the Defense of Marxism, where he writes: “The announcement by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana of a new party on Thursday has provoked a strong wave of support and enthusiasm. In itself, this was not surprising. The reactionary policies pursued by the Starmer government had been a slap in the face for millions of people who voted for the Labour Party, hoping for a change.
In a remarkably short space of time, having won a landslide electoral victory, Starmer has become the most unpopular prime minister of all time. He is particularly detested by people on the left, who rightly regard him as a traitor who is virtually indistinguishable from the Tories and Liberals.
To the left of Labor, a yawning gulf has opened up, a huge political vacuum, which, sooner or later, had to be filled.
Given the weakness of the forces of genuine Marxism at the present time, that vacuum could only be filled by some left reformist alternative.
It was therefore quite natural that it should be filled by former Labour leader and left reformist, Jeremy Corbyn” [ii]
…” The announcement of a new left party in Britain undoubtedly opens new possibilities for the communists. This fact represents the most important aspect of the present situation.
“Many opportunities exist for the Revolutionary Communist Party in Britain now. We must therefore give careful consideration to it and decide what our attitude should be”[iii]…” We extend a hand of friendship to the members of the party. Since we are too weak to stand candidates in elections, we will work side-by-side with its members for the election of its candidates. And we will defend it against the attacks of the reactionary press, which will inevitably be raised against it.”[iv]
While working inside the new left reformism is correct, if there were a Revolutionary Communist International, it would be very wrong for a real revolutionary party (not a small propaganda grouping) to work inside a left reformist party, while it would be correct to have a united front with such a party.
For a real party it will be the end of its even pseudo revolutionary politics. Thus, Woods is likely repeating the Granties’ strategy of working within a reformist party in imperialist countries and within a bourgeois party in semi-colonies for years and years. A reformist strategy of right-wing centrists pretending to be a revolutionary Marxist.
Endnotes:
[i] https://communist.red/the-revolutionary-communist-international-has-arrived/
[ii] https://marxist.com/jeremy-corbyn-s-new-party-what-does-it-mean-and-what-attitude-should-communists-take-towards-it.htm
[iii] Ibid
[iv] Ibid