Gan Nora Rhiannon

You and three friends are driving down the motorway together when your car breaks down, leaving you stranded on the roadside. It’s really rather urgent that you get wherever you’re going as soon as possible, so everyone starts to panic. One friend suggests that it’s not the right conditions for driving, and recommends you simply wait for the car to sort itself out. A second friend tells you that you’re driving the car wrong and tries to take the wheel. Your third friend declares that the car was never fit for purpose anyway, and starts working on a total redesign. If any of them actually looked under the bonnet they’d find out the truth: your car’s engine has stopped working, the motor has burnt out, and all you need to do is get out of the car and fix it.

This is broadly the situation we find ourselves in as communists in western countries at the start of 2026. Our car is the Marxist model of a working-class movement led by a workers’ party and powered by working-class mass organisations. That car has obviously ground to a halt, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the model or with the (obviously less than ideal) conditions surrounding it. Our class is obviously highly demoralised and woefully misled, but there’s very little that changes in rhetoric or leadership can do on their own when the car itself has stopped. Getting the engine working again is just as important as deciding who gets to drive the car. We’re not going anywhere without that engine.

So what is the engine of a working-class movement? Put simply, it is the network of organisations that recruit members, gather supporters, raise funds and otherwise build power for the movement. Every party that led our class (whether that’s the Chartists, the Labour Party or the Communist Party) was formed out of and supported by a whole ecosystem of such organisations: trade unions, friendly societies, workingmen’s clubs, newspapers, campaign groups, student groups, reading groups and so on. It is only when these groups have active, militant, mass working-class participation that a socialist party seeking to lead them can become a genuine workers’ party.

Note I do not list here only organs of the “economic struggle”. As Lenin explains in ‘What Is To Be Done’ workers aren’t only outraged by workplace issues but also by police brutality, taxation and a thousand other problems. A workers’ party in the modern day could also draw its strength from working class tenants unions, copwatch groups, anti-raids organisations and the like. It’s also vital to understand that most of these groups cannot attain class consciousness on their own, merely “trade union” consciousness; drawing our fellow workers into the political and theoretical struggles will be just as important as welcoming them into the economic struggle. Developing a party as the fully-conscious leadership of the class does, of course, remain essential. What is equally true, however, is that a party cannot represent the organised working class if workers are not actually organising as a class.

Looking at how the British Left operates it is pretty clear that this is the problem facing us currently. The defeats our movement has suffered have left it so atrophied, so pacified, so static that it can hardly be called a “movement” at all. I don’t deny that we have seen a recent upswelling of support, but practically it has translated into very few real victories or advances. A wave of new attendees means very little if the vast majority are totally unaffiliated or transient, engaging only in the shallowest of ways. Petitions are easily ignored, infographics easily forgotten and email lists easily abandoned when there is no followthrough afterwards. A-to-B marches are instinctively organised every time something goes wrong, with no regard for whether they will achieve anything, and so they have become little more than a pressure release valve. We are like caged tigers, too tired from pacing the walls of our enclosure to make any real plans of escape. To claim that what we have now constitutes an organised working-class movement would be confusing activity with achievement.

I am not by any means the first to point out that the solid base of support required to form a workers’ party is currently missing. My comrade Owen Brown wrote about the same idea in his excellent Prometheus article “Depth of Soil”, and I myself have previously referenced it in my Y Seren Goch article “No Permanent Friends, No Permanent Enemies”. Our metaphorical engine, the precondition for the workers’ party everyone is so desperate to form, is failing to start. Given my affiliations I would be deeply hypocritical if I warned readers against joining or forming socialist parties, but at this stage we must keep in mind that one cannot claim leadership of a movement that barely exists. It’s clear that launching a new party (or re-launching an old one) is not enough; we have to get the engine running too. What we communists need to conduct, in short, is a class-wide organising drive.

My proposal is that communist band together into local groups with the explicit aim of rebuilding, revitalising and re-radicalising the working-class engine. Following the model of the Welsh Underground Network, these clubs would coordinate action on multiple fronts to strengthen and encourage the working-class movement as a whole. They would organise support for local working-class and progressive organisations, doing whatever they can to bolster class consciousness and class power. Such a group acts as a mechanic for the movement’s engine: filling it with petrol, lubricating it with oil, fixing or replacing broken components and jumpstarting its battery.

If we want a workers’ party we need a mass movement with mass support. If we want a mass movement with mass support we need to make a concerted effort to pull people into that engine. I find it utterly ridiculous when I see activists from tiny socialist parties standing on street corners like evangelicals, asking random passers-by to become revolutionaries before they have even become union members. Spreading class consciousness is not a video game dialogue tree where the perfect combination of words will induce a sudden ideological revelation in complete strangers and turn them into Marxists, it is a grinding multi-step process that requires consistent exposure to our theory and practice. Any communist party whose first demand to everyone it meets is “join the revolution!” (“join our fringe organisation!”) is operating under a totally unserious strategic framework. The cynical chauvinism of a civilising mission where we bring communist enlightenment to “the masses” is transparently clear and completely repellant to the average person in the street. Recruiting for a militant community union like ACORN (which has a proven track record and cross-ideological appeal) or for a local campaign is a far more sensible and effective proposition.

We cannot expect people to run before they can walk, or to leap into a party that has not earned their trust. By giving people realistic routes into the movement’s engine we can both increase its capacity and improve our standing with its organisations. The friendly neighbourhood communist who talked to you about your working conditions, introduced you to a trade union and then brought soup to your union meeting is much more down-to-earth and compelling than the annoying outsider who did nothing but lecture you and LARP. I do not mean to suggest that we should “conceal our views and aims” or say that Marxist ideology has no appeal to the 21st century proletarian. It is, however, very important to understand that Marxism is not some protestant sect where “faith alone” is enough to win a place in some communist heaven. Theory and practice must exist in a dialectical relationship, each half developing and re-enforcing the other. Successful outreach depends on a balanced and patient approach that at each stage uses only the information and jargon necessary. Communists who want our tendency to grow in prominence must make the health, success and radicalism of bread and butter organisations their number one priority. Promoting these busy little “halfway-houses”, rungs on the ladder to radicalisation, is a key way to effectively embed our message in people’s minds.

Crucially it isn’t enough for us to funnel workers with less fully-developed consciousness into working-class organisations: we must enter those organisations ourselves. I have met far too many people who seem to consider themselves above “ordinary” direct action work, and I find such an aloof attitude unbecoming of Marxists. As the members of our class with the most advanced theory, communists are especially needed within the unions. If we reserve our knowledge and expertise only for arguing amongst ourselves then it is wasted. Actively applying the theory we have learned to these organisations is vital if we want them to avoid the mistakes of the past. In particular we must combat chauvinism and insist on class solidarity, warning against bigoted, nationalist and class-collaborationist attitudes whenever they appear. We should not relegate ourselves to the role of practical functionaries, we can and should be ideological leaders too.

At the same time it is generally ill-advised to engage in full-blown entryism, to join organisations en-masse in attempts to stage hostile takeovers. It seems both hopelessly naïve and unconscionably reckless to attempt such adventures in the hope that a change in branch leadership is enough to turn a union from yellow to red. Naturally many working class organisations do require reconquest and communists should not shrink from improving our position, but looking for shortcuts is likely to spell disaster. Conducting coups on behalf of a fringe party rather than taking the time to educate and agitate thoroughly is tantamount to wrecking. If we are ever going to convince them of our arguments it is essential that we try to show our best face to those in our class already conducting real struggle. At this stage these comrades are our best potential recruits, and they are very unlikely to listen to parties whose combative or intrusive methods disrupt their work. In such an environment good old-fashioned hard work will advance the communist line and unnecessary putsches will sabotage it. The best way for us to attain leadership is to earn respect by demonstrating the seriousness of our commitment and the correctness of our positions.

Given what I’ve just said you might wonder why we need to organise in our own separate groups at all. Why should we not join these engine pieces as individuals and devote all our energy to one cause or another? Because that creates a depoliticised tunnel-vision approach that hamstrings our ability to promote class solidarity. Following our own individualised paths alone we end up so absorbed in our day-to-day duties that we forget all goals outside those our union or reading group or foodbank gives us. Being part of a diverse group of comrades who encourage each other, who hold each other to high standards, who develop each other politically, who make collective decisions, is a key difference between narrow “activism” and broad organising. Capitalism encourages us to engage in politics only in the most highly individualistic ways, as “voters” and “consumers”, which means it is doubly important that we communists form political blocs to resist this trend.

At a time when I see many socialists around me stuck in a false dichotomy between frontline organising/campaigning work and theoretical/political work it is vital that we find ways to do both. We cannot neglect the learning and teaching of theory, either internally or externally. Our consciousness-raising efforts must target everyone at their own level of understanding, not in a patronising manner but with due patience and care. Relatively short theoretical texts are often spoken of now as if it is an arcane, almost indecipherable language, forgetting that the ideas contained within have been firmly grasped by uneducated 19th century industrial workers and illiterate 20th century peasants. Even in the age of the red scare we can surely do just as well. Marxists are science communicators, we must have deep understanding precisely because simple (and correct!) explanations are required of us. Theory will return to fashion as our movement develops so long as we take care to connect it to the everyday needs and passions of our working class neighbours. Failing to give our movement adequate theoretical grounding, failing to combat revisionism and opportunism, will only set our movement up for collapse.

My proposal is that we communists organise separate groups that consider wellbeing of the whole movement rather than acting as parasitic entryists (harming organising/campaigning work to feed theoretical/political work) or solipsistic syndicalists (neglecting theoretical/political work to focus solely on organising/campaigning work). The path forward is coordinated effort on all fronts: economic, political and theoretical. That means specific communist organisations. The method I envision, the method we are developing in my own organisation, looks a little bit like this:

Get together around five, ten or fifteen communists you can trust from your local area. Make a signal groupchat. Form a study group with them and start reading Lenin, Marx, Engels and so on. Schedule a group meeting once a month where each member of the club gives a report on their recent political activities. Attend local protests, meetings and direct actions as a bloc, and launch projects and hold events together.

Research the demographics and history of working class areas around you and study the problems affecting the people there. Talk to your neighbours, conduct surveys, read local newspapers, look at the census results. Choose a few key issues and practice explaining the communist perspective on them. Find organisations that have been effective at organising around those issues and join or found local chapters. Organise events in support of those organisations, make leaflets promoting their activities, encourage the public to join them, become an indispensable part of their operation. Offer to educate organisation members on theoretical and political subjects. Write articles, letters and poems in support of the movement. Drive people to actions, hand out bottled water at protests, cook food for meetings, help repair local community centres, do arrestee or court support, write solidarity messages, organise social and cultural events, paint and carry banners, raise money, provide practical training, make introductions, act as lookouts… be useful! We in the Welsh Underground Network were once dismissed as mere “Stalinist Litterpickers” but we’ve built that moniker into our identity and it has won us a great deal of goodwill over the years. We will be carrying that spirit forward into 2026.

Document your club’s activities with a social media account (if you can do so safely) and make a little pamphlet to explain your group and its ideas. Chat to people when they express interest in you, and encourage them to deepen their organising commitments. Interview those who are keen to join you (for security reasons and to ensure group cohesion) and let them know what is expected of club members. Remove club members who become inactive or break discipline. Co-operate with similar groups when your goals align, coordinate larger campaigns and actions together when that makes sense. Learn from your mistakes and do not let failures dissuade or dishearten you. Innovate as new opportunities appear, become the glue that binds your local organising scene together. Take care to ensure your club members engage in a continuous collective study of Marxist-Leninist texts and come to a shared understanding of their meaning. Remember that without revolutionary theory there cannot be a revolutionary movement. If a Communist Party should be a “working school of Revolutionary Marxism” then let your club be a working nursery of that ideology. Remain true to your purpose: you are not there to leech off or hijack the movement, you are there to lead by example and to be its biggest cheerleaders.

It is not enough for Marxists to merely sit and wait, or to argue amongst ourselves, or to attempt takeovers of this or that organisation; we must go out, talk to people, work with them and earn their trust. Banding together into local communist groups and involving ourselves deeply in the struggle teaches us vital practical and theoretical skills and prepares us to be ideological cadre for when the workers party does fully emerge. Only if we put in the necessary labour here and now will we be prepared for that moment when it comes. By fighting and campaigning and working to intensify the class struggle we can both restart the engine of the working class and position ourselves as the people to lead it.

The UK left begins 2026 on the back foot, crouched (one might even say cowering) in a defensive posture. We have spent the past seven years in a state of total reactive panic: moving frantically from one issue to another as crises emerge, chasing public opinion like a dog chases its tail, pouring energy into expressions of impotent rage. It’s easy to get sucked into that mindset but we’re not going to end this if we don’t build up strong and lasting organisations; the carnage will only cease when the working class is able to seize power for itself. So let us clear our minds, focus on the task at hand and make 2026 the year that working class politics make a triumphant return.

Recommended further reading on this topic:
‘What Is To Be Done?’ – Lenin (1902) – Lenin: What Is To Be Done?
‘Theses on the Organisational Structure of the Communist Parties and the Methods and Content of their Work’ – Comintern (1921) – Theses on the Organisational Structure of the Communist Parties by Third Congress of the Communist International
‘Depth of Soil’ – Owen Brown (2025) – Depth of Soil | Prometheus
‘Stalinist Litterpickers’ – Hedd (2024) –  ‘Stalinist litterpickers!’ – Y Seren Goch

Thank you to my comrades in the Welsh Underground Network and to a number of comrades from America for helping me write, research and edit this article.