Joint Statement on the Fusion of the Socialist Tendency (Russia) and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 6 August 2022, https://www.socialisttendency.com and www.thecommunists.net 1. After a period of several months, the Socialist Tendency (Russia) and the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) have decided to merge their forces. From now on, the Socialist Tendency (CT) will be the Russian section of the RCIT with representatives in the international leadership structures. 2. The programmatic basis for our fusion is: a) Agreement on the RCIT Manifesto (“The Fire of Revolution Will Burn Down Catastrophic Capitalism!”, April 2021, https://www.thecommunists.net/rcit-fire-manifesto-2021/) b) Programmatic agreement on the Ukrainian War, the character of Russian imperialism and the Putin regime as well as the nature of the inter-imperialist rivalry. All these are key issues of the current world situation. In fact, it is impossible to act as a revolutionary in the current historic period without taking a consistent internationalist and anti-imperialist position on these issues. Our far-reaching agreements in these areas have been expressed in three joint statements, two political reports from CT as well as the “Donbass Theses” of the RCIT. (All documents are compiled here: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/compilation-of-documents-on-nato-russia-conflict/) c) Furthermore, the CT comrades have familiarized themselves with the RCIT’s positions on a number of issues (Chechnya, Syrian Revolution and the issue of Turkish intervention, Venezuela, Bosnia War 1992-95, Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in 1979-89) and express general agreement. 3. While Russian members of the RCIT were in loose contact with the comrades of the CT since several years, the latter were affiliated with the Cliffite IST (dominated by the British SWP) until spring 2022. However, the comrades of CT argued within the framework of the IST for their positions, i.e. identifying Russia as an imperialist state and taking an intransigent anti-imperialist position against the Kremlin. Hence, they defended the Ukraine from the first day of the war and tried to convince the SWP/IST to adopt a consistent revolutionary defeatist position. However, they could not get a hearing from the SWP leadership – which takes a reactionary abstentionist position in the Ukraine War – and, consequently, the comrades officially split with this organization in early June. 4. The fusion with the CT is an important step for the RCIT – not only because it expands our presence and activities to an additional country. It is also crucial because of Russia’s role in world politics in general and, even more so, in the current world situation with the Ukraine War as its focus. 5. We call all socialists in Russia and internationally who share the principles of our perspective to join us in building a revolutionary party – nationally as well as internationally!
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