On the attitude to the Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RCWP)

From the moment of its establishment in July 1997 until today, the Revolutionary Komsomol – RKSM(b) has been and remains an independent political organisation. Since 2003, the RKSM(b) was ideologically orienting towards the RCWP, which it considered to be the most consistent revolutionary communist organisation operating on the territory of the former USSR. For many years, regional organisations and representative offices of the RKSM(b) worked closely with the party and even performed some party functions in those regions with no RCWP cells.

In the last decade, the relations between the Komsomol and the Party were complicated. From a certain moment, the leadership of the RCWP ignored the crisis inside the Komsomol and hindered all initiatives to recover it. As it turned out later, the leadership of the RCWP was not interested in the development of the youth organisation, did not consider its existence necessary, but at the same time did not intend to give up control over it. The RKSM(b) was needed by the party only as a «label» without any real content.

Additional difficulties were created by the gradual ideological and organisational degradation of the party, the growth of negative trends, including excessive enthusiasm for parliamentarism, adherence to ineffective methods of propaganda, the formation of a faction of open reactionaries and obscurantists within the RCWP (which led to a split in 2021), toleration of the national-patriotic bias, support for the anti-scientific concept of «fascism for export» and other tendencies. All these tendencies formed and intensified a whole complex of ideological, theoretical, political, and organisational contradictions between communists and Komsomol members, on the one hand, and some leaders of the RCWP and the party «swamp», on the other.

These contradictions reached a qualitatively new level in 2021, when young party members from several regional organisations of the RCWP, guided by the decisions of their party committees and the programmatic and statutory documents of the Revolutionary Komsomol itself, made efforts to restore the activities of the RKSM(b). The RCWP headquarters (located in Leningrad) and the Leningrad organisation of the RKSM(b), which was actually under the former’s control, perceived this initiative negatively. First, they tried to put formal obstacles to the formation of new organisations of the RKSM(b), then they tried to impose on the RKSM(b) such a composition of the Central Committee and the Central Control Committee that was convenient to them. Under these conditions, in January 2022, the XV (restorative) Congress of the RKSM(b) took place. It had a full quorum (including delegates from Leningrad), and all the required procedures were followed.

The congress met the demands of the party leadership, but did not satisfy them in full, making its own adjustments. Then the leadership of the RCWP put crude pressure on the elected leadership of the RKSM(b) and instructed the Leningrad organisation of the RKSM(b) to sabotage the work in the RKSM(b). This caused considerable damage to the organisation’s recovery activities. Nevertheless, the Central Committee of the RKSM(b) made every effort to preserve unity and for 1.5 months tried to persuade the Leningrad organisation to return to joint work.

The outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine aggravated the relations between the RKSM(b) and the RCWP to the extreme. As of March 2022, the leadership of the Russian Communist Workers’ Party:

— had adopted an ambiguous statement on this war;

— in its daily propaganda, lopsidedly defends the allegedly «progressive» nature of the military actions on the sideof the Russian Federation;

— held a joint conference in Leningrad with the National Bolsheviks («Limonovtsy») in support of the military actions;

— announced its desire to form a joint electoral bloc with the National Bolsheviks.

While the RKSM(b) signed the joint statement of the Communist and Workers’ Parties «No to Imperialist War in Ukraine!», the leadership of the RCWP refused to sign it.

Thus, the political differences between the Komsomol and the RCWP became insurmountable. At the end of March 2022, the Central Committee of the RCWP finally adopted a line of indirect support and justification of the war, which led to a split in the party. As a result, most members of the RKSM(b), who were also members of the RCWP, left the party. From that moment on, the interaction between the two organisations ended, and the RKSM(b) ceased to carry out any instructions from the RCWP.

Thanks to the eventual break with the RCWP, our organisation managed to preserve its political line – proletarian internationalism, anti-imperialism, anti-militarism.

The XVI Congress of the RKSM(b) states:

1. The RKSM(b) has ceased its ideological orientation towards the RCWP that has betrayed the cause of proletarian internationalism and systematically overstepped the communist principles of internal work;

2. The RKSM(b) intends to continue to adhere to a firm internationalist, anti-imperialist line in defiance of pressure from the RCWP or any other organisations;

3. RKSM(b) successfully continues its activities as an independent communist youth organisation;

4. RKSM(b) remains part of the international communist youth movement.

On the basis of the above, the XVI Congress of RKSM(b) decides:

1. To delete the final sentences of the 4th paragraph of the preamble of the RKSM(b) Charter:

«RKSM(b) shares the basic program provisions of the Russian Communist Workers’ Party within the CPSU (RCWP-CPSU) — the most consistent revolutionary communist organization operating on the territory of the former USSR. The work of RKSM(b) should contribute to the growth of the RCWP-CPSU and its rejuvenation».

2. In the 1st paragraph of the Program Statement of the Revolutionary Komsomol RKSM(b), to delete the sentence:

«…is an assistant and forge of cadres for the Russian Communist Workers’ Party – the Revolutionary Party of Communists;».

3. At the end of the 1st paragraph of the Program Statement of the Revolutionary Komsomol RKSM(b), to add the fragment:

«…is open to cooperation with progressive organisations and promotes the formation of a communist party in Russia».