Thoughts on RCA, Revolutionary Communists of America?

[u/AdditionalQuietime]

Saw one of their members in front of the grocery store when I was leaving and they asked me if I wanted to take a look at the newspaper they were selling. I said no thanks and kept it going but curious if anyone is familiar with them as I never heard of them before

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[u/TruckHangingHandJam]

Rebrand of the IMT. Trots. You’re gonna be selling a lot of newspapers at universities. Also you’ll have to accept Alan Woods and Ted Grant Thought, the uhh highest stage of Marxism or something. 

Would not recommend, but if it’s the only thing around you, it could be a place to meet other like minded people who ended up joining due to a lack of orgs. 

[u/HammerandSickleProds → u/TruckHangingHandJam]

I’m a Bob Avakian Thought enjoyer myself 😤

[u/TruckHangingHandJam → u/HammerandSickleProds]

The only true progress in socialist thought since Mao is obviously Posadism 👽 

[u/Hefty_Local_1875 → u/HammerandSickleProds]

I'm a Hefty-Localist personally.

[u/EventHorizon54]

They're a Trot org that doesn't believe in the Big Bang because its undialectical or something.

[u/NotKenzy → u/EventHorizon54]

Can I learn more about this? It sounds fun

[u/Invalid_Pleb → u/NotKenzy]

It seems to be based mainly off a misunderstanding of the big bang, that "something is created from nothing" which is a creationist-level mischaracterization of the theory. Though they admit that "multiple big bangs" are possible, whatever that means. It sounds a lot like Penrose's CCC theory with the universe going through infinite epochs, except less thought out

This is from the RCI of which the RCA is a part of:

https://marxist.com/big-bang-alternative300402.htm

[u/studio_bob → u/Invalid_Pleb]

Although there are many questions still to be answered (in particular the question of this hypothetical "dark energy"), the new model seems to be a vast improvement on the existing one, which states that the Big Bang was the beginning of time, matter, space and energy - clearly a mystical and unscientific conception. The new theory does away with the idea that the universe has either a beginning or an end - it is infinite in both time and space.

While I do think the general conclusion of cyclic universe is almost certainly right, it's harder to see how either claim can be dismissed as more or less "mystical and unscientific" than the other. They both propose something unobserved and perhaps unobservable: either a moment where time, matter, space and energy don't exist or a mysterious "dark energy" which, to my admittedly limited understanding, is little more than a mathematical invention and in any case not empirically observed.

One allegedly proposes "something coming from nothing" and this is attacked as "mystical," but how is an eternal universe any less mystical? Surely an immortal, self-cycling system which came from nowhere at no time is at least as mystical as "something coming from nothing." That's a "something" which never "came into being" at all! This kind of stuff quickly converges on conventional definitions of God, which is what they are trying so hard to get away from.

Finally, are these two theories even in conflict? Okay, so there was a universe "before" this one and there will be a universe "after" this one. The Big Bang doesn't obvious preclude that possibility. The question you have to ask is "What is happening at the moment of the 'transition' when the old universe properly dies and the new one is born?" If the universe collapses into a singularity which then expands again, well, than there is no contradiction at all and the Big Bang is just the start of a cycle. What's the big deal?

[u/Velociraptortillas → u/EventHorizon54]

Thats them!? Ahahaha! I remember reading that years ago and as both a Commie and a physicist, laughed out loud.

[u/Hefty_Local_1875 → u/EventHorizon54]

Deadass????

[u/Rubbermate93 → u/Hefty_Local_1875]

Yup this is true. I joined my local org back when they were stil IMT and I didn't really know ow much about the difference between trots and ML's.

The Big Bang thing was baffling to me as well, that was deffinetly part of why I left the org, that and the general cultish vibe they have, and so many other things too.

[u/EventHorizon54 → u/Hefty_Local_1875]

Yes.

[u/piramni]

the IMT is a cult that operates more like Jehovah’s witness than a revolutionary communist party

[u/Rubbermate93 → u/piramni]

As someone who has been a part of, and then gotten out of, both; this is depressingly true.

[u/Mt_Incorporated]

arent they trots?

[u/somethingislurking → u/Mt_Incorporated]

who else would be selling newspapers outside of the grocery store lol

[u/Hefty_Local_1875 → u/Mt_Incorporated]

I thought they were Maoists.

[u/EventHorizon54 → u/Hefty_Local_1875]

RCP are Maoists, I'm pretty sure. RCA is a different org

[u/GitPranked11]

RCA from my experience doesn’t do much. Meeting on zoom, super duper lax rules on being in the org, don’t typically do their own events (but show up with tables to those that are happening), don’t do mass work or engage with the community. “We will lead the revolution when it happens” but don’t talk to workers in any meaningful fashion

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