New Shanty Sharehouse, Sydney
The Revolutionary Communist Organisation needs to engage with the paradox of being a non-sectarian sect. Every couple of years, a group or individual arises in Australia who is ‘going to unite the left’. Who sets out saying ‘I want my group to be small and not get along with people’? or ‘I’d really like the left to be a patchwork quilt of factions that means I’m either delivering or hearing the same joke about the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front once every Rising Tide mobilisation’?
It is impressive that the RCO is said to contain factions spanning from Anarchists to Stalinists, and that they get along well enough in a shared project. However, if you want to grow the left’s base, it’s important to question what non-sectarianism and solidarity actually looks like, and whether leading your paper with so many critiques is helping that. Capitalism instills a scarcity mindset in all of us. If someone is doing ‘their’ project, they’re not doing ‘my’ project. If you flip this mindset and recognise the shared struggle refracted through innumerable organisations, cultures and projects, suddenly we are surrounded by allies, accomplices and comrades mounting resistance in ways we never imagined, towards liberation and justice.
Everybody wants to unite the left, but too many of us do this by saying ‘stop doing your thing and do my thing’. This is a poor basis for imagining not just shared futures, but also collectivism, collaboration and solidarity in the present. Further, as our contexts evolve and the circumstances of resistance change, we must maintain the ability to change and grow. This collective political development is best when differing people, ideas and values come together in solidarity. It is that diversity that we can draw from to build, adapt and resist.
So the question we pose to the editors and your readers is this: what set of values, ideas and practices can we foster that enable us to work together given we will never (and nor should we) always agree? And how can people work with you if they agree with parts of the RCO program, and disagree with or are unsure about others? We know you’ve been making minizines so that might be a good format to address these questions.
PARTISAN! 