In recent days, the Revolutionary Communist International, formerly known as the International Marxist Tendency, has announced a split in the Brazilian section. We are told that the leadership of the organisation deserted the ranks following a long-running dispute over whether China is an imperialist power. As a member more than half a decade ago, I attended the World School and recall a dispute between this section and the rest of the organisation over the ability of capitalism to continue developing the means of production. At that time, they were assured that they would enjoy perfect democratic rights. Something tells me that this promise was not kept.
There is something more to this story that we are simply not being told. The RCI leadership would have us believe that, one fine morning, the Brazilian leadership took a cold, hard look at the balance of forces, realised they were going to lose a democratic vote at the November congress, and left. Of course, we are not being given their side of the story. Do we know, for instance, if there were any bureaucratic shenanigans like those the IMT has launched against past unruly sections? Were the leadership of the section threatened at any point in time with bureaucratic measures, up to and including expulsion, for daring to hold opinions that the RCI leaders did not approve of? Was there a deliberate effort to split the Brazilian section from within, using a minority of loyalists in order to do so, as was done many years ago with the Iranian section? Was there perhaps an orchestrated coup effort launched from within the section, with the blessing of the Woods-Weston clique in London? In due course, I am sure this will all be revealed.
As of now, the RCI has managed to retain a mere 100 comrades according to the figures they have given for the emergency ‘refounding’ Congress held by the Woods loyalists. A mere 100 members in the whole of Brazil! That is a staggering indictment of the failure of decades of party-building. The lives wasted! The time and effort thrown away! How can RCI members read news of these splits and purges and expulsions and desertions, occurring year after year, decade after decade, and not question whether their divinely-ordained leaders know what they are doing? How do they not lose heart, and desert the sinking ship?
One can only wonder.