PARTISAN!

Coups and personality clashes masquerading as political splits are nothing new, the Central Committee of the RCO assures remaining members of Red Ant Collective after a factional dispute leads to a nasty split.

Dear comrades in Red Ant,

Following the split of your organisation, we would like to express our condolences. Such news is always disappointing. With every split in the movement, we become even weaker. As long as we are competing with one another, we are even less than the sum of our parts.

But we are not surprised by these events. This is the inevitable result of the narrow “sect” form of socialist organising, wherein an organisation founds itself on strict adherence to a certain set of theoretical principles, rather than a practical political program. Red Ant is such an organisation. 

Red Ant did not start with an open-minded attitude to internal factionalism. Yet, the formation of factions and theoretical tendencies is inevitable. New members have a wide variety of experiences, varying levels of political maturity, and unique quirks which will inform a wide variety of opinions, even if they agree with the core principles of an organisation. An organisation cannot maintain an eternally cohesive internal theoretical identity against this trend, and it should not try to. Indeed, there is always at least one tendency within an organisation – the leadership – and the development of others is inevitable. Accepting this, what matters is whether tendencies are open and founded on principled political differences, or whether they are undeclared and cliquish. By frowning on the former, Red Ant’s internal factions took the latter form. 

The results are obvious. The politics of the split in Red Ant are unclear. Is the split even informed by political differences? Such secrecy does no one any favours. Political disagreement should be conducted in the open, not hidden away in conferences closed to the public. To do otherwise makes us look insular, which is unappealing to potentially sympathetic workers. 

It also seems that the split was conducted completely undemocratically, which is an inevitable result of an organisation without factional freedom and internal democracy. If factions cannot fight one another in the open, they will do it behind closed doors, and cause havoc on their way out. 

There is also a lack of principled politics about this split. Again, where open political discussion and agitation are sidelined in favour of theoretical dogma it’s opportunism, interpersonal charisma, and a kind of theocratic interpreting of the “sacred texts” that takes charge instead. 

The degeneration of Red Ant was accelerated by its lack of internal structure. Unclear internal rules, a lack of internal political education, no expectations of activity on members, and an unhealthy internal culture meant that Red Ant struggled to survive its first influx of new members. But fixing these problems would not have solved the core problem, which is the sect form.

None of this is unusual. In fact, it is typical of Australian socialist politics. 

The Revolutionary Communists believe that we can overcome these problems, but only if we abandon the sect. The entire socialist workers movement must come together and re-found a Communist Party in Australia. This party must be founded on unity around a common program, not a theoretical dogma. The qualification for membership must be acceptance of this democratically constructed program, not agreement with it. There must be freedom of factions and criticism, but unity of action. 

As such, we call on the remaining members of Red Ant to dissolve themselves, accept our draft program for a future Communist Party in Australia, and join the Revolutionary Communist Organisation as an internal faction.

In Red Ant’s current state, divided, disorganised, thin on resources, your organisation can achieve little. But together, we can begin to build a movement that matters. 

We look forward to hearing back from you. Who knows, maybe we’ll see you fighting for your programmatic views at our 2025 General Conference. 

In solidarity,
Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation