Comrades from across Ireland gathered in Dublin on the 11th and 12th of April for the 3rd congress of the Revolutionary Communists of Ireland. This was our first congress as an official section of the Revolutionary Communist International, a fact that was reflected in the quality of the discussions and the sheer enthusiasm of all in attendance.
With 70 comrades present, we discussed the perspectives for class struggle around the world and in Ireland, and studied the lessons from our growth of the past year. Since the previous congress, we have been able to establish an office, hire a second full-timer, nearly double our membership and create new branches in Cork, Limerick, Kildare, Newry, Belfast and Dublin. Bursting with enthusiasm, comrades raised €25,500 towards our fighting fund, with over €1,000 being from our revolutionary literature!
The congress opened to the announcement of 96 active members across Ireland! A tremendous milestone and a living testament to the number of workers and youth daily coming to revolutionary conclusions due to the crisis of capitalism.
At our last congress, we resolved to increase the regularity of our paper to a bi-monthly publication, to hire our second full-timer and to establish a revolutionary center in Dublin for our full-time apparatus to work from. We have succeeded in each and every one of these tasks!
The Congress resolved to double down on our efforts and to reach 200 active comrades by our next congress, move to a monthly paper, hire two more full-time workers and to upgrade our office to accommodate the growing apparatus of the organisation.
A world on fire
We started our first day with a discussion on World Perspectives. As we explained last year, the return of Donald Trump to the White House signified a new stage in crisis of world capitalism ushering in the end of the so-called ‘rules-based international order’. 2026 continued this trend with the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the intensification of the barbaric blockade of Cuba, threats to invade Greenland and now the brutal war against Iran.
Trump has attempted to use these foreign adventures to shore up his support at home, but he has overplayed his hand in Iran. Far from a quick victory, the US is facing humiliating defeat. The blockade of Hormuz is only adding fuel to the fire with the largest oil crisis in history threatening a new cost-of-living crisis.
This along with Trump’s cover-up of the Epstein files is accelerating the fracturing of his MAGA base along class lines. Millions of workers are learning from events that the blame for their economic and social problems lies at the feet of the Epstein class – the gang of paedophilic billionaires, politicians, financiers and monarchs, spanning the elites of the entire western world. This has enormous revolutionary implications.
Even before the Iran war the past year has seen a remarkable sharpening of the consciousness of workers and youth internationally: the global wave of Gen Z revolutions, Italy’s two political general strikes for Palestine, the insurrectionary anti-ICE movement in Minneapolis. Every new day it seems events are irresistibly drawing thousands of fresh layers to revolutionary conclusions. This is the raw material on which the future mass revolutionary parties will be built.
The crisis in Ireland
This radicalisation is also taking root in Ireland. The congress took place during the heights of the fuel protests which saw farmers and hauliers blockading the country’s fuel depots and brought hundreds of trucks and tractors to a standstill across Dublin and the motorways leading to it. It was against this backdrop that we launched into our second session on Irish Perspectives.
Ireland’s economic success over the past couple of decades has hinged on foreign direct investment particularly in acting as a bridge for US capital to be invested into the EU. This means the Irish economy is incredibly vulnerable to shocks in the world market – of which there has been no shortage this year! Before the war in Iran, the Bank of Ireland was predicting a 10 per cent chance that this year Ireland could be tossed into a “deep recession” resulting from crisis in the world markets.
But even before a recession the Irish working class is struggling, the most acute example of this is the ever worsening housing crisis. There is a nearly 20,000 house deficit each year in regards to the targets set by the Central Bank for new housing constructions and the number of people seeking emergency accommodation has risen to a harrowing 17,300 – with over 5,000 being children.
In the North, the situation is even more grim. Around 1 in 5 people in the Six Counties live in relative poverty, with 25 percent youth unemployment. Wages are 10 to 15 percent below the UK average. With the budget allocated to Stormont by Westminster, Sinn Féin has volunteered themselves to dish out austerity to the working class in the name of ‘fiscal responsibility’.
More than a century after partition and of the sham independence in the South, the burning problems of the Irish working class remain. What is needed is a return to the revolutionary Marxist ideas and traditions of James Connolly and above all the construction of a party based firmly on those ideas to lead the working class in a struggle for a 32-county socialist united Ireland.
The task of communists in 2026
In our organisational report we discussed just how we are fighting to build this party and what must be done to further develop this work. Having become a section of the RCI and smashing all of last year’s targets we set our sights to the future.
Only four years ago we were a tiny handful of comrades. But we were armed with the correct ideas and orientation. Since we have grown rapidly, from 50 members at our last congress to 96 this year. Our ‘secret’ has been following in the footsteps of Bolshevism – firmness in our revolutionary theory, and flexibility in our tactics. We are too small to lead the struggles of today, but with our growth, both quantitative and qualitative, we are embarking on the struggle down the correct path.
Conscious of the need to speed-up our political development, the congress committed to a campaign of Marxist schools and education over the summer, including for the first time for our organisation to begin publishing a series of pamphlets on Marxist theory and Irish history. Additionally, we intend to move to a monthly paper as soon as possible. Armed with a more regular publication it will become possible for our organisation to enter into a dialogue with the most advanced layers of the working class and youth, exchanging ideas and reflecting their moods in the pages of our press. A monthly will only be the first step in this, to really connect with the masses we must produce much more regular and timely materials.
As we continue to grow and extend the horizons of the organisation the number of tasks for the national organisation will continue to expand in turn. As such it will be necessary to continue to grow our full-time apparatus. At the congress we announced our intention to hire a third full-timer as soon as we reach 100 members – we call on all class fighters who agree with the urgent need to raise a genuine Bolshevik party in Ireland to join us today and help us reach the 100 milestone!
On this basis, we will fight to grow not only in numbers, but also in quality and theoretical clarity and build a party on the strongest of foundations. The strength of our International lies in our unwavering commitment to orthodox Marxism, in the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Connolly and our founder, Ted Grant.
Forward to 200 members!
Forward to building the Revolutionary Communists International in Ireland!
