5 Reasons Why Workers Need To Be Revolutionary

REASON ONE: The Bosses Are Our Exploiters, Not Partners!

How many times have we seen grassroots union members vote for action and then end up disappointed when the union leaders pull the plug and negotiate a settlement that gives ground to the bosses or to the government?

Some of the best worker activists get demoralised or just end up supporting bad deals because they think “well it’s the least worst option!”

But when you understand that the bosses are parasites living off of us workers then you think differently. They aren’t our “partners” - social partnership has hollowed out the unions.

Even parties that say they represent the working class, like Sinn Féin, talk about pleasing bosses and workers at the same time. You can’t. You have to pick a side and when you’re a revolutionary worker you fight for the working class no matter what.

REASON TWO: Building Is A Hard Slog, You Need Political Inspiration.

Let’s be honest, building up grassroots confidence in our unions is a hard slog. If you’re not fighting for some vision of a better Ireland, a better world, you’re not going to keep going.

I’m a revolutionary because I know that just fighting for crumbs isn’t good enough and that any little thing we win can be stolen back as long as the bosses control the state.

Every small bit of work I do is connected to the fight for a 32 County Workers’ Republic - where us workers democratically plan the economy. Every little step towards that goal is worth taking. That keeps you going.

If your union leaders let you down you could think “screw the unions, I’m out!” When you have socialist politics you know that they let us down because the bureaucracy balances between bosses and workers and doesn’t truly represent us.

You know that we have to build a grassroots counter balance to the bureaucracy in every union.

REASON THREE: Connecting The Struggles.

Syndicalism is the idea that workers should just organise in the unions and forget about politics. The good side of this is the understanding that politics under capitalism is rotten.

But most workers are going to vote and if we don’t give people an option then we end up with candidates that don’t truly represent the working class.

Let’s say there’s a big strike and the workers want it raised in the Dáil - they have to go to one of the parties in the Dáil and ask them to raise it for them. Wouldn’t it be better to have one activist based party that had members in the unions and stood candidates that were it’s voice?

That’s what we Reds want. You have to fight on every front - in the estates, in the workplaces and in the councils and Dáil. We need to sit down and strategise as one movement coordinated and fighting for our class.

We also have to use the power of the working class to defend the vunerable and push back on any attempt to divide the working class.

REASON FOUR: Soft Politics Leads To Disorganisation.

A working class party needs clear politics. If you don’t spell out exactly what you want then anyone can join and use your party as a vehicle. But when the key turning points in struggle come your party pulls in different directions.

The Reds want a party that’s politically cohesive because we understand that this leads to organisational cohesion. When you know what you’re fighting for you can act as one to fight for it.

This has an impact on the struggles of today, on protests and strikes, and will have an impact in the struggles of tomorrow.

REASON FIVE: Workers Are the Heroes Of The Story.

As a revolutionary I am proud to be part of fighting for a better world. I am proud to fight for our class, the working class. We make no apologies for putting the working class in the front.

The working class is the only class that has production in our hands, we have massive power. We could shut the system down tomorrow if we only understood our great power and used it.

The working class has the skills and talent to apply the kind of economic planning you see in big corporations like Tesco but to the whole economy so that no one goes homeless, we have to cost of living crisis and the health service works for the people.

We Reds put the working class at the front of everything we do. We do this because we know that the working class are the heroes of a great story - we are the class that can end capitalism and build a 32 County Workers’ Republic.

You should join us.