Max J introduces Issue 17 of Partisan Magazine.
Partisan has undergone some subtle but interesting changes since Issue 16. These changes coincide with changes within the Revolutionary Communist Organisation. Firstly, the Revolutionary Communist Organisation accepted the membership of the Spartacist League of Australia, who now exist within the RCO as the Spartacist Tendency. Secondly, the RCO voted at its 4th General Conference to change its name to Communist Unity (CU). This is to better reflect what the aims of the organisation are: unity of the communist movement.
The entry of the Spartacist League into CU has opened a lot of opportunities for comrades. Partisan can now be printed professionally (as you will see in this issue you are holding), distributing effectively, and run like a proper, professional magazine. CU comrades now have an example of principled unity we can point to for the rest of the communist left. We join together to fight for revolutionary politics in a time of war, reaction, and widespread destitution.
Our 4th General Conference held in January was a pivotal event for the development of CU, both of its politics and as an organisation. Much of this issue is committed to presenting reports and analyses on our conference, so that you can learn about the issues at play during the conference, how the conference went, and where CU aims to go in the future. This is alongside articles covering the ongoing assault against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and others by US imperialism. Under Trump 2, US imperialism’s war-drive has gone haywire. Pres. Maduro of Venezuela was kidnapped by American forces in alliance with layers of Maduro’s own state. Israel continues its genocidal assault against the Palestinians, alongside invading Lebanon and Syria, and goading the US into a conflict with Iran.
This war with Iran has sent ripples across the world. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead – as are all his replacements, and thousands of workers and toilers across the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz, through which travels 20% of natural gas and 25% of oil trade, has been permanently blocked by Iran. Both sides have destroyed gas and oil production and storage facilities. The world economy is barely on life support. Dire times like this impress the importance of revolutionary politics onto those of us who claim to be ‘communists’, ‘socialists’, or even ‘anarchists’. We must organise a revolutionary pole to oppose the imperialist war drive, to defend the peoples of the third world, and to build the power of the working class at home, in opposition to the domestic ruling class. This is why communist unity matters. Because without it, we will fail, every single time, to rise to every opportunity that presents itself to us. With crisis after crisis on the horizon, and no end to the chaos of imperialist warfare and destitution in sight, we can’t afford to keep missing our chances.
This issue marks the beginning of a new time for Partisan. No more will Partisans be printed shoddily, too late, and mailed improperly. No more will Partisan issues look amateur. We have expanded our operations team, bringing in talent from the Spartacist League’s Red Battler. We will be printing Partisans professionally and on time. We have switched from a monthly to a bi-monthly release schedule in order to adjust to the ‘new’ way of running things. By January 2027, we hope to return to our previous, monthly schedule. New year, new troubles, but a new Partisan!
Comradely,
Max J, for the Partisan Editorial Team
“Man’s dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world──the fight for the Liberation of Mankind.” -Nikolai Ostrovsky, How the Steel Was Tempered, 1936
PARTISAN! 
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