The Revolutionary Communists of America (RCA) is a communist political party in the United States. RCA is the US section of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), a Trotskyist political international formerly known as the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). RCA first formed in 1998.
RCA describes itself as a revolutionary socialist party fighting for a workers' government and a democratically planned economy, because capitalism cannot be "gradually reformed out of existence".
Ideology RCA is a Trotskyist party, arguing that communists "must base ourselves" on "the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky", which are the "pinnacle of revolutionary theory". RCA's program supports public ownership of "the essential levers of the economy", economic planning, a $60 minimum wage and a 20-hour workweek, "socialized health care", public college for all, and "guaranteed employment". RCA supports anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-transphobia, anti-xenophobia, and anti-imperialism.
Joaquin Montelibano characterizes RCA as a "middle of the road" Trotskyist organization, between "programmatic" orthodox Trotskyists and "progressive" post-Trotskyists who seek collaboration with left and progressive organizations.
RCA rejects the Big Bang, which RCA writers call a "broken theory" (2025), "an idealistic notion of an origin to the universe" (2023), and a "modern creation myth" (2022).
Membership In August 2023, Socialist Revolution claimed 340 members. In February 2024, RCA claimed 630 members. In June 2024, RCA claimed 800 members. In August 2026, RCA claimed over 1100 members just before the event of the RCA’s party congress that year during May.
History
Renamings
In 1998, supporters of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) in the United States created the group as Youth for International Socialism (YFIS), which published New Youth. In June 2002, YFIS renamed itself to the Workers' International League (WIL) and its newspaper to Socialist Appeal. In 2017, WIL renamed its newspaper to Socialist Revolution. In 2024, WIL renamed itself to the Revolutionary Communists of America and its newspaper to The Communist, as part of an IMT-wide rebranding from Trotskyist labels & symbols to more generic communist labels & hammer and sickle symbols. IMT itself renamed to the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) in 2025.
Subsequent history In 2020, after the rapid growth of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), many SR members joined DSA chapters. In contrast to the DSA's current strategy, in which virtually all elected DSA endorsees won on the Democratic Party ballot line, SR members demand "an immediate and total break with the Democrats".
In 2022, conservative website Campus Reform negatively covered SR's "Marxist School" events, where a Turning Point USA reporter noted that the Socialist Revolution organizers "allegedly called for a revolution".
In 2023, SR members put up posters near college campuses which read: "Are you a communist? Then get organized." The posters were styled after "I Want YOU for US Army".
In 2024, after its founding convention, RCA held a rally of 300-500 people in Philadelphia, who chanted "fight the rich and feed the poor!" When Elon Musk replied with "!" to a video of this on X, the RCA said "billionaires are parasites".
In 2024, several conservative influencers spread a fake video of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz posing with a Revolutionary Communists of America sign. The image went viral among some American Latino communities. The La Nueva Poderosa podcast cited the video to prove Kamala has "no shame" about supporting communism. When corrected, the hosts said their story was "not true" but that "doesn't take away from the reality that Kamala is a Marxist".
In 2025, RCA members joined the No Kings protests in New York City, Chicago, and New Orleans.
See also American Left Democratic Socialists of America Socialist Alternative Revolutionary Communist International
References
External links
List of US Perspectives documents 2026 archive of Communist.red 2024 archive of SocialistRevolution.org 2017 archive of SocialistAppeal.org 2002 archive of NewYouth.com Splits and Fusions archives for Socialist Revolution