UK
March 16, 2026: Celebrating the 47th Anniversary of RCPB(ML)
March 16, 2026: Celebrating the 47th Anniversary of RCPB(ML)
Volume 56 Number 8, March 14,
2026
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JBCENTRE
March 16, 2026
Celebrating the 47th Anniversary of RCPB(ML)
Michael Chant General Secretary of RCPBML speaking at the
new year social
March 16 marks the 47th anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary
Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) in 1979. The Party is proud to
have reached this anniversary tempered in the midst of the struggles and
fighting traditions of the working class and people of England, Scotland and
Wales, and as a contingent of the international communist and workers' movement
in Britain. We pay tribute to these struggles and traditions which the working
people have never betrayed, especially the working women who have always been
at the forefront. As the Party said on the threshold of a new millennium:
"The challenge of history is to move forward into the 21st century on a
new basis and to prepare for the revolutionary transformation of society."
Comrade Hardial Bains speaking at the International Rally
of Marxist-Leninist Parties on the Centenary of Karl Marx, London, June 4
1983
RCPB(ML) also takes this opportunity to record its immense debt to the
leadership of Comrade Hardial Bains, and now to the close fraternal comradeship
of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) which continues to this
day.
The Party was tempered in the anti-fascist struggles of the 1970s under the
leadership of the late John Buckle. This has defined the contribution of the
Party in terms of pinpointing the struggles thrown down by history which
require addressing at any period, challenges which the Party has never shirked
from accepting. In this context, it is important to state that right from the
word go, RCPB(ML) has taken up as one the cause of the liberation and unity of
Ireland and the Irish people from British colonialism and imperialism. It has
taken up the struggle against all racist attacks, organised by the state, and
has taken up as one the cause of the people of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the
Caribbean, whether as part of the working class in Britain or in unity against
the colonialism and neocolonialism of the British state, its ruling elite and
its reactionary and retrogressive monarchy, which today is demonstrating its
true colours.
Very crucially, RCPB(ML) has always taken up the fight against imperialist
war, and today has as part of its cutting edge work the fight for an Anti-War
Government in a period characterised by extreme dictate and wanton violence and
conflict. How does the Party do this? It does so first and foremost in its work
of Party building, the taking of decisions and implementing them in and through
the collective, having in mind the necessity to give rise to the modern
democratic personality, and takes these methods into the movement itself. In
this way, the line of march is being taken towards establishing an Anti-War
Government which embodies the modern democratic personality and which fulfils
the people's striving for peace, democracy and freedom. This is a profound
conception encompassing a government which is also pro-social and pro-worker.
Out of the resistance struggles of society, and guided by the theory of Modern
Communism, is emerging the outlook of the New. This is a new framework which
has fidelity to the ensemble of human relations, and recognises that the need
for political power is indispensable. It is an internationalist framework,
working to bring into being a world of socialised humanity, humanising the
natural and social environments.
35th anniversary of RCPB(ML), March 16
2014
RCPB(ML) persistently implements its stand against the police powers wielded
by the ruling elites who are restructuring the state to ensure everything is
done to serve the narrow private interests of finance capital and the
oligopolies. The Party puts on the agenda to organise and inspire the working
class to respond to the urgent necessity for a change in the direction of
society and the economy. It calls for the people to establish their own vantage
point and for the working class to rely on and implement its own agenda and
programme. It calls for workers and the class as a whole to speak in their own
name. This it is which points the way forward to the way out of the crisis, a
crisis which is characterised by the existence of defunct liberal democratic
institutions which no longer answer to the needs of the times in any sense.
This requires settling scores with the old conscience which embodies the
"covenant thesis" on which the old political system is based, with
"representatives" authorised to speak in the name of the electorate,
a system which is disempowering the people, maintaining a fictitious person of
state which keeps everyone as subjects, rather than as citizens with equal
membership rights.
The Party in this context upholds that the working class must constitute
itself the nation and vest sovereignty in the people with the aim of creating a
society without the exploitation of persons by persons, and in particular
ending the old system of wage slavery. The Party organises the people to be
history-making. This is the significance of its own history. No amount of
attempts to marginalise the Party can erase this. Its outlook, revolutionary
ideology and methods of work mark it out.
We are proud to say that the Party has over the decades foiled every attempt
of the state to subvert it, marginalise it and crush it or get it to conciliate
with the ruling elites. It has continued to march on along the high road of
civilisation, taking its stand with progressive humanity and the resistance
struggles of the people against exploitation and oppression. It pledges to
build the New by leaving the Old behind, being at one with the struggles of the
people for their rights, and with its programme for the working class:
"Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Investments in Social Programmes!" It
calls on all democratic forces to join the work for democratic renewal and the
empowerment of the people.
Over the years since its founding, the Party has built itself in the course
of providing solutions to the critical problems of society. On this occasion
the Party pays tribute to all its members, activists and sympathisers, workers,
women and youth, who over the years have contributed to building RCPB(ML) in
all its vibrancy and vitality, dealing with the world as it is, and as part of
the communist and workers' movement internationally. As the conditions have
changed, so have the analyses and political programmes, while the theory known
as Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought has become all the more powerful. In
this context, as the Third Congress of RCPB(ML) brought out, the Party has not
only been built and strengthened but is a living organism, in motion in this
historical phase of the retreat of revolution, and with a vision of a new and
classless society.
On this occasion the Party gives a call for everyone longing for and
fighting for change, especially the youth, to consider joining the ranks of
RCPB(ML), building it as the Party which the times demand as the instrument for
this change. Let us together fight for the alternative!
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