By Henry Stevens
Published September 4, 2024
Having worked with the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) in Phoenix for about nine months, I decided to leave the organization. Even though the organization grew rapidly and taught me a lot about Marxism, ultimately I didn’t think it had a clear plan for the future beyond recruitment and working within protest movements.
The organization recently decided to rename itself the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), and its US section, Socialist Revolution, was renamed to the Revolutionary Communists of America (RCA).
I was inspired to analyze the IMT / RCI by Viv Soni’s article, “Modeling the structure of organisations - a research proposal.”$^1$ `The problems which occurred within the Phoenix IMT probably exist within other regions and even other national sections of the IMT. Similar problems may also occur in other leftist organizations which base their organizational model on the Bolshevik Party. This includes other Trotskyist, Marxist-Leninist, and Maoist groups to greater or lesser degrees.
(Note to RCA Members: All internal bulletins referenced can be found in the US Section Box, cited as “Box: ‘<name-of-bulletin>’” in this article)
****I grew up with a fairly liberal worldview and generally supported the Democratic Party because my parents did. I became interested in left wing politics over the pandemic through the internet, primarily via left wing YouTube channels called “Breadtube.” I felt very isolated and bored during the pandemic and online high school, so learning about various political ideologies was very entertaining to me. I didn’t have a specific or coherent worldview, but my political views tended towards anarcho communism. I believed that both the government and corporations created oppression. Although I had broadly anarchist principles, I still engaged with the two party-system, believing the Democrats were capable of making important reforms such as social welfare programs, which were important to support in the short term, even though I believed in the long-term goal of a stateless, classless, moneyless society. However, I did not have a clear understanding of how to connect these short term and long term goals.
I became interested in Marxism after finding the Marxist YouTube Channel Zer0 Books, and I decided to read Capital by Karl Marx. I found Marx’s critique of capitalism very compelling.
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In August 2023, I began my first semester at Arizona State University (ASU). My parents drove me to my new dorm, and they helped me move in. After they left, I wandered across the campus, and I noticed many stickers. They were all the exact same, with an image of Karl Marx pointing at me, below the text: “Are You a Communist? Then Get Organized!” Below Marx was a QR code and link to join this organization. Some stickers were scratched or torn, but there was a ridiculous amount across campus. I was curious about the org. I had talked to a couple socialists during high school, but I had never met a self-proclaimed capital C “Communist” in real life. I had heard there were a couple pro-socialist clubs at ASU, but I wasn’t aware of any “Communist” groups. I scanned the QR code and was unsure if it was related to ASU, but I looked up the name on Sun Devil Sync, the website for ASU student clubs and found a club named “Socialist Revolution at ASU.”$^2$ It had a meeting coming up, called: “Marx Was Right Forum: Why We Are Communists,”$^3$ scheduled for August 29, 2024.
I attended this meeting and met people who shared my fascination with Marxism, philosophy, and other niche topics. We chatted for about 15 minutes and then a member began speaking about the topic: “Why we are Communists.” He listed the problems of capitalism such as poverty, homelessness, and war and claimed that a democratically controlled planned economy could address these problems. He pointed out that there are more homeless people than homes, that enough food was produced to feed everyone on earth, yet starvation and hunger still occur, etc. He listed self-proclaimed socialists like Bernie Sanders who criticized these problems, but he also described the many limitations of the American political system which prevented these people from implementing even basic reforms like universal healthcare. He pointed to Communists such as the Bolsheviks of Russia who gave workers democratic control over factories in the October Revolution of 1917. Although the US education system presented the USSR as backwards, it put the first man in space before the US. It accomplished this and many other technological innovations, despite starting as a semi-feudal backwater. The Bolsheviks implemented more than just economic development and workers’ control, they also passed many laws which seem very progressive even in a liberal democracy like America. They implemented universal suffrage, decriminalized homosexuality and abortion, and provided paid maternity leave to women, before the more industrialized countries, such as the US and the UK. In Arizona, abortion is illegal after 15 weeks and 6 days.$^4$ In Soviet Russia in 1920, it was not legalized but also covered by the USSR’s healthcare system.$^5$ How could Phoenix, the fifth largest city in the US, the most powerful country on earth, be more culturally backwards than the USSR, which started as a semi-feudal country with mass illiteracy?
If Russia could go from the undeveloped backwater of Europe before the revolution, to space, in less than 50 years, then what could a socialist revolution do for America? A planned economy could significantly boost technological innovation, and a revolution could address the oppression of women, according to the speaker. It would achieve massive growth and development, just like the USSR, but starting on a higher technological basis. It would be a sort of American October. But, I wondered, how?
He eventually finished his speech, and students were encouraged to ask questions. Some students were skeptical of Marxism in general, and they parroted surface level right wing objections to Communism. Other students asked questions such as why the IMT takes inspiration from the Bolshevik Revolution in particular. After these meetings, IMT members encouraged people who were interested in the meeting to attend branch meetings and eventually join the organization.