The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) is committed to fighting for the overthrow of the British ruling class and the establishment of socialism. Our newspaper, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! has been published since 1979. The title is itself a political statement: any movement for socialism in Britain must have the fight against racism and imperialism central to its theory and practice.
Fight imperialism
Britain is the world’s oldest imperialist country. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, it controlled the largest empire in the world. The industrial revolution was made possible by the capital accumulated from the slave trade and colonialism; this allowed for the development of capitalism. Capitalism is a system based on the private ownership of the means of production, the materials needed to produce the necessities of life. Under capitalism, the working class and the environment are exploited for profit. At the turn of the 20th century capitalism entered its imperialist stage. A number of advanced capitalist countries divided the world between themselves, splitting the world into oppressor and oppressed nations and creating a system of national oppression and exploitation. This history shapes politics and class relations in Britain today.
Although the British Empire is gone, imperialism still exists as a global system. British capital still subjects much of the world’s population to brutal exploitation. British monopolies and banks profit from their control over the resources of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and saddles them with unpayable debt, leaving the people of these countries in appalling levels of poverty. This has allowed the British ruling class to extract superprofits from these countries and buy off an upper layer of the working class within Britain, a ‘labour aristocracy’. The labour aristocracy is joined by the ‘new petit bourgeoisie’ which is made up of professionals, white collar workers in financial services, public sector administrators, lawyers, journalists, academics and so on. This layer dominates the labour movement and the trade unions and its economic and political privileges are dependent on the continued viability of British imperialism. The working class is now irreconcilably split between this privileged upper layer and the masses of the working class.
The labour aristocracy and the new petit bourgeoisie are the social basis for ‘opportunism’ – a political trend represented by British ‘left’ organisations that promote the illusion that it is possible to reform capitalism and imperialism through electing ‘left’ MPs and parties into parliament. Opportunists are useful to the ruling class because they divert the working class movement into ‘safe’ channels that will never lead to socialism. They are firmly in alliance with the ruling class in defending British imperialism. Historically, this trend was politically represented by the Labour Party – a racist, imperialist, anti-working class party since its founding. Ultimately, no matter what new political formations or ‘left parties’ this layer throws up to defend its economic and political privileges as the crisis of British imperialism deepens, the essence of its politics will remain the same.
More and more sections of the working class are being impoverished by British capitalism and oppressed by the state. Vicious attacks against disabled people, young people and the unemployed are increasing. Benefit cuts and sanctions and the rising cost of living have put them in a situation where they must take whatever low-paid work they can find or starve despite the fact that capitalism will inevitably leave a section of its workforce unemployed. Women, especially black and migrant women, have always made up an oppressed layer of the working class, being exploited at work and made to do unpaid domestic labour. The two child benefit cap, the overall cap on benefits and the lack of free and accessible childcare are all attacks on working class women.
Imperialism threatens humanity’s future. Although colonialism has mostly ended, imperialist countries have still divided most of the world between themselves so that their respective monopolies can profit from new sources of exploitation. At the same time, rivalries between imperialist countries are leading to trade wars and military confrontations. At the root of this is the drive for imperialist powers to redivide the world between themselves according to economic and military strength – this can only be done through war. The devastation in the Middle East and the NATO proxy war in Ukraine are only a prelude of what is to come – inter-imperialist rivalries led to two world wars in the 20th century.
In Palestine, the barbarism of imperialism is clear for all to see. The imperialist ruling classes have always unconditionally supported the Zionist occupation of Palestine in order to protect their interests in the Middle East. This is why the Zionist state is able to commit genocide against the Palestinian people with impunity. The RCG unconditionally supports the right of the Palestinians, and all oppressed people, to self-determination. We support the right of the Palestinians to struggle for national liberation through any means necessary, including through the use of armed struggle. Palestine is just one example of a nation rising up against imperialism. We also support anti-imperialist movements that are fighting to take control of their country’s natural resources and put an end to the exploitation of their countries by imperialism, such as in Venezuela and the Alliance of the Sahel States.
As internationalists we fight in solidarity with all national liberation struggles and anti-imperialist movements; we fight for an end to the exploitation of underdeveloped nations by imperialist ones; we fight against all national oppression and for the liberation of all people oppressed by imperialism; we fight against all imperialist wars; we fight against opportunism which works to undermine revolutionary movements in Britain in order to preserve imperialism; and we fight to defend the interests of the masses of the working class.
Fight racism
Imperialism is the material basis of racism in Britain. Racism is the form national oppression takes within Britain’s borders. Since the days of colonialism and the slave trade, racism has been promoted by the ruling class to dehumanise those who face national oppression, justify their exploitation and divide the working class along racial lines.
Imperialism has forced workers from underdeveloped countries to move into imperialist countries for either work or refuge. Migrants face racism and discrimination. The majority of migrants are subjected to super exploitation, forced to take the worst jobs at the worst pay with very few protections and rights. They are at constant risk of being arrested in immigration raids, deported or imprisoned in immigration detention centres. Meanwhile, the British state is continuously passing racist immigration laws in order to fine-tune the flow of labour into Britain to meet the needs of British capital.
Black and Asian workers face state racism – they are imprisoned at disproportionate rates while also facing police brutality and state-sanctioned murder in prisons and police custody. Under capitalism the rise of racism is inevitable, both to justify expelling or keeping out migrant labour and to justify the poverty and oppression black and Asian working class people face.
Migrants, black people and Asian people make up an oppressed layer of the working class in Britain. They have experienced the brutal realities of imperialism and their daily experiences of poverty, state racism, repression and unemployment mean that this layer of the working class has nothing to gain from British imperialism but everything to win from destroying it. Police brutality and harassment faced by this layer has led to a number of uprisings in British cities in recent history showing that these workers have no illusions in the British state. Therefore, along with the other groups facing increasing impoverishment and state attacks, they are the key to building a socialist movement in Britain. The RCG’s practical experience shows that there can be no fight against imperialism or a fight for socialism without a fight against racism.
We fight for the abolition of Britain’s immigration controls, recognising that under imperialism all immigration controls are racist. We unconditionally support the fightback against all racist oppression in Britain: particularly against the British police, the prison system and immigration detention centres.
Fight for democratic rights
Under capitalism, the state is a tool to enforce the rule of the capitalist class over the working class – we live under a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. As British capitalism continues to lurch from crisis to crisis, the ruling class grows more overtly reactionary and the state grows more repressive. The British state has passed a variety of laws attacking our democratic rights. The Terrorism Act 2000 has been used to silence, arrest and charge activists and journalists while the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have further criminalised dissent.
The RCG has a long history of fighting for democratic rights, recognising that attacks on even formal democratic freedoms are attacks on the working class. Throughout our solidarity with the Irish Republican movement in the 1970s and 1980s, we fought against the anti-Irish Prevention of Terrorism Act. Throughout our solidarity with black Africans struggling against apartheid South Africa, we fought against the police attempts to silence the anti-apartheid movement. The lessons from these experiences need to be applied today as the state steps up its attacks against the Palestine solidarity movement. The fight to defend Palestine is inseparable from the defence of our democratic rights.
These experiences also apply to people incarcerated. Through our solidarity with Irish political prisoners, we came to support all prisoners who fight for their rights. FRFI is the only left newspaper that regularly reports on the struggles of prisoners. We supply prisoners with political education by sending our newspaper for free to any prisoner who requests it. We regularly feature contributions from prisoners to publicise and discuss their struggle. This is particularly important today as the number of political prisoners in Britain grows. Prison solidarity is a class question.
Fight for socialism
Imperialism, racism, environmental destruction, poverty, war and exploitation can only be overcome by destroying capitalism and replacing it with socialism. This can only come about through socialist revolution. The working class must smash the capitalist state, establish a workers state (a dictatorship of the proletariat), seize the means of production from the capitalist class, and democratically organise the economy to meet the needs of the working class.
Socialist Cuba provides an example of such a society. Despite a crushing blockade imposed by US imperialism for over six decades, no child in Cuba is homeless; healthcare and education are free and accessible to everyone; the economy is planned and directed for the needs of the people, not for profit; and the working class has a genuine say in the running of the country through mass organisations, consultations and participatory democracy. All of this has been achieved without exploiting, invading or occupying other countries. The Cuban Revolution also shows us that only socialism can create the conditions to eventually eliminate racist oppression, end women’s oppression and fight discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. The example of the Cuban Revolution must be defended by socialists everywhere.
The RCG exists to defend and strengthen the revolutionary trend within the working class in Britain. As communists we must work alongside the most oppressed sections of the working class to build a revolutionary movement that can struggle against opportunism and overthrow the British state. This new movement must be democratic, politically educated and militant. This new movement must also be internationalist: it must be in alliance with anti-imperialist movements, national liberation struggles and communist organisations around the world. This revolutionary movement does not wait for us in the distant future, it is urgent to build it now.
Join the RCG – fight racism, fight imperialism, fight for socialism!