Who We Are:
A revolutionary Marxist organization made up of people who live and work in the Richmond area. We seek to build workers’ power, hone revolutionary theory to our current conditions, and work towards establishing a base for socialist revolution.
How we see society:
We see two primary groups in society whose interests are in conflict — the working class, which includes those who must sell their labor for wages as well as homemakers and students who are dependent on wages; and the capitalist class, the business owners, landlords, and financial interests who reap profits not from anything productive that they do, but by exploiting the labor of workers. In a capitalist society like ours, the capitalists don’t just exploit us economically — they constitute a ruling class. Governments pursue capitalist interests, and many social institutions, often without realizing it, promote ideas and social relations which benefit capitalists and make their system of exploitation seem legitimate and natural.
The working class is far from defenseless, however. The class’s ability to organize itself is its most effective way to fight back and to begin to blaze a trail to a better society.
Where we stand:
We are revolutionaries.
We understand the state is nothing but the institutions of organized violence used by whichever class rules society – in our case, the capitalist class – to retain control. For this reason, while elections may be used strategically from time to time, there is no electoral path to communism. The state must be smashed and replaced.
We Are Communists.
Communism is a classless, stateless society where society’s labor goes to meeting human needs, not to making bosses, landlords, and other business interests richer. It is the end of exploitation and oppression. This world is possible and the achievement of this goal guides all of our actions.
We are Marxists.
Marxism provides us with more than just moral outrage against capitalism – it provides us with a concrete analysis of the world around us, an understanding of how it develops, and a general idea of how we can change the world to build communism. Marxism is no mere dogma; rather, it is a science of revolution, refined and proven in the course of struggle.
We cannot mindlessly repeat the theories and methods of the past and even as we learn from the positive aspects of the communist movements of the 20th century, we acknowledge that no previous socialist experiments have yet ended in communism and conditions in society have changed. However, as Marxists, we understand that the essential road to communism still entails unifying the working class through a mass party, overthrowing the existing state, and establishing a radically-democratic workers’ state, the necessary precondition for developing communism.
We are Internationalists.
The workers have no nation. Our brothers and sisters are the working people of the entire world. Our enemies are our “own” exploiters. Therefore, we reject national borders, restrictions on the free movement of migrants, and any forms of discrimination and oppression of immigrant communities. We seek to unite all workers, migrants and native-born, in struggle against capitalism and imperialism.
We combat patriarchy and white supremacy.
Patriarchy subjugates women as a group to the domination of men as a group, leading to women’s oppression as a gender and to women’s exploitation in the home, workplace and elsewhere. Patriarchal society also forms the root of other forms of oppression and discrimination including against LGBTQ people. Another mainstay of oppression and discrimination in our society is white supremacy that subjugates non-whites as a group, bribing white workers to commit treason against their class by providing them with greater social standing and some material advantages above workers of color. A meaningful path to communism must attack patriarchy and white supremacy directly. This is only possible with a unified working class that struggles together.
We are organizers.
The most urgent priority for revolutionary communists is to begin building a base for revolution. This means going directly to the people to help set up institutions of class power like workplace unions, tenant unions, workers’ organizations, transit unions, etc. Organizing requires the slow, day-to-day construction of class consciousness and the accumulation of organizational capacity.
We are disciplined.
We face enemies who are well-organized and entrenched in their power. Any path to revolution will necessarily be steep and daunting; consequently, communist revolutionaries must be committed to a long struggle, to performing difficult work with professionalism, consistency, humility, and a profound love for the people. The way we organize ourselves must reflect our long-term commitment to political struggle and to the people.
We are Marxist-Leninists.
While mechanically transposing Lenin’s works onto the modern world is both undialectical and anti-Marxist, Lenin’s core ideas have been proven by history to be the only road to successful revolution. These include: revolutionary professionalism, cadre organization (no paper members!), commitment to theoretical struggle, democratic centralism as pertains to our practical work, and the organization of radicals and the most advanced sections of the working class into a vanguard organization.