About the Revolutionary Front (Active 2002-2015)
We live in a time where the existing working class movement is weaker than it was in the beginning of the 20th century. For a long period of time the working class movement in Sweden has suffered from the cooperation between the social democrats and big business. They share the same goal – weakening the unions through class-cooperation. The working class movement collapsed under the pressure.
Now we are the target of well organised and well calculated attacks from the ruling-class. This is no secret and every human being willing to, can see it happening. These open attacks against our class, and our dignity is something that the companies haven’t done in a very long time. They used to work secretly through cooperation with the social democratic “labour movement”. The Swedish fat cat Peter Wallenberg said it best himself: ”The social democrats are the only ones who are able to keep the unions under control”.
As a result of these attacks workers feel alienated from their own unions and have lost faith in the strength of our collective organisation. Now, when we are weakened, they move their positions forward.
They attack everything from our unemployment benefits, employment security and wage levels and use pure scare tactics about unemployment and a growing lower-class. These are well planned tactics that have divided workers against each other and destroyed the solidarity in our class. The consequences of this are very clear: growing racism, assaults on women, homelessness, drug abuse, crime, segregation, alienation and lack of faith for a large part of our class.
Capitalism is making sure that we turn against ourselves and our class. That we segregate ourselves, destroy ourselves and are busy fighting within instead of kicking upwards. They deny us our given rights – that those who built our society and keep it alive shall also control it.
Throughout history we can clearly see the solution to the problems we are facing today. If you do not fight, you cannot win anything. Everybody’s right to vote, eight hour working day, health care, childcare, pensions, unemployment benefits and public transport. These are all things we take for granted today, but what we can’t forget is that all of this someone struggled for yesterday. All of this has been won in the struggles between the working- and the ruling class: These struggles have not been fought throughout dialogue and peace; they were won with the only methods possible of countering capitalism and its unnecessary role in society: direct action, strikes, organisation and, in many cases, a more militant form of struggle.
This memory of class struggle, class responsibility and class feeling is now countered on a regular basis by the leaders of society. They are denying our memories in favour of the direction which the ruling class is trying to lead us in to – neoliberalism. An ideology which devastating results are visible all over the world. In Sweden unsecure employment, alienation, hopelessness and wage dumping has come as a direct result of neo-liberalism.
In the rest of Europe and the world poverty is growing rapidly and the societies and cities are more like the cities from the early years of industrialisation than cities in the beginning of the 21th century. It is obvious how the neoliberal way divided us against each other on an international level, but it is also visible right in front of us.
In our homes, in our wallets, through the threats of outsourcing corporations on the 9 pm news, the fast food we are eating and the child labourers who make our clothes.
One can only conclude that while the left argues that we are forwarding our positions we are in fact facing a major setback. The result of this is that the rich become wealthier at the poor’s expense.
This is the era of capitalism and our good conditions, won by struggle, are being torn apart. We are being pacified and alienated to the limit where we don’t care any longer and we have lost interest in evolving ourselves. Together this becomes too much and in the end you stop caring.
But somewhere something must happen, and history has shown us that the time for parties and
bigwigs has come to an end. We are never falling into the same trap again and let them betray us in their ''working class struggle''. The only ones who can make a real change to this are ourselves, and it is upon our shoulders this responsibility lies.
It is us, the unemployed, the under-waged, flex employed, single parents, healthcare workers, factory workers, we the ones who make the society – all of us are utterly responsible for our own fate. It is time to organise the resistance against the neoliberals and everything that their politics leads to. The Working class liberation can only be the work of ourselves!
RF is a part of this resistance.
What we want...
The Revolutionary Front sees the solution in that we, the people, reclaim the power of our lives by any means necessary. To accomplish this, a sort of revolution is inevitable. This revolution requires organisation and RF’s goal is to offer this organisation to those who have opted for the politics we pursue. RF has no intentions of becoming a union or a party. We see our role as part of the non-parliamentary movement that has to act outside this framework. We strive for working class rule in working-class areas and to restore a sense of class and class responsibilities again with the goal of creating direct democratically governed communities at the local level, cooperating with other communities built on the same direct democratic principle.
We strive for an equal society where everebody is equally worthy regardless of your gender, the colour of your skin or who you are attracted by.
We strive for a society where responsibility and freedom go hand in hand and where law and order are maintained by ourselves.
We strive for a society where unions and other forms of organisation are allowed to grow and cooperate to be able to force back global capitalism and the injustices and racism it leads to. We oppose all sort of imperealism. What we see ahead of us is an international society based on a local level where the power is held by its citizens and not the rulers.
What we do...
Until this has been achieved, RF’s intermediate goal is to organize parts of the resistance which means that we will respond to all attacks against the working class with all of our ability.
This includes everything from attacks from the government in shape of legislative proposals, to confronting nazis and fascists; who are now growing stronger, and will do everything in their way to disrupt our class and threaten our interests. Fighting anti-democrats by democratic means, we consider as idealistic and naïve. We have instead chosen to be upright and militant in our resistance to the state and the non-parliamentary racism.
We are also willing to actively criticize the left and never pay tribute to a movement, that as we have seen, failed to reach their goals too many times. We will always keep our mind focused and steady on what really matters; class struggle and class position.
RF does not set out to become another middle class organisation that talks over people’s heads with a language and questions that are foreign and muddled. We will not talk in study groups locked behind academic door at universities. Our goal is to be be on the streets, where we live and where we work. We will work in our reality and daily life, where we have the foundation for our commitment.
At the present stage, eight years after our formation (2010), we are growing continuously and yet another goal is to keep on doing so. We will continue to organise people from the working class and work with our organisation, forge links, keep dialogues and build bridges with our comrades and other who follow the same path as us. This includes everything from antifascist organisations to peaceful movements and organisations that defend trade unions and labour matters.
We will never embrace a completely peaceful approach. Too many times we have witnessed how such movements are stifled by paralysis and their demands pushed back. Instead we choose to act by any means necessary, as the distress call, and what is tactically reasonable and feasible.
We choose what we do, how we do it and when we do it. But one thing is for certain throughout history: Every action has a reaction and RF will actively participate and work for that reaction.
Declaration of principles:
1) The Revolutionary Fronts basic principles can never be changed or abolished, because they make the foundation of the Revolutionary Front as an organisation.
2) The Revolutionary Front has a Socialist view of society and we strive for a society without social or economic classes, a society free of oppression. To accomplish this we need a revolution.
3) The Revolutionary Front fights capitalism, sexism, homophobia and racism/fascism in all of their forms.
4) The Revolutionary Front accepts all methods of struggle and looks at peaceful resistance and revolutionary violence as two equal parts of the revolutionary class struggle. The use of violence is looked upon as a pure tactical and political issue, not a moral one.
5) Members of the Revolutionary Front shall follow the line that is decided by the organisation. ''Open in discussion, unity in action'' shall be a guide line.
6) All our political work is comes from our position as a class. The working class struggle is of the utmost importance in the socialist movement.
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Final RF Facebook page post (September 2015):
The revolutionary front has been as an organisation since 2002. Over the years, we have undergone a series of changes with the development of the social climate. Now we have come to a point where our previous platform is no longer fulfilling its function. So we choose to dismantle the organization.
The dream of socialist society is still alive, even if the revolutionary front is over.
The fight continues!
/ revolutionary front
2015-09-27
