About Us
RISE is a revolutionary Marxist organization and network of People Before Profit. The four letters of RISE underscore our politics - Revolutionary, Internationalist, Socialist, and Environmentalist. We are ecosocialists organising to end the exploitation of both nature and workers, dissolving the “antagonism between town and country” and collectively building an ecologically sustainable society. You can read more about What We Stand For here.
We have been involved as activists in the movements to defeat the water charges, for abortion rights, for the right to housing, and to stop climate catastrophe as well as many other issues. The conclusion we have drawn is that socialists need to participate in these movements in an open, non-sectarian way, willing to work alongside others who don’t share all of our views while putting forward our own ideas. We joined People Before Profit to contribute to the rebuilding of an active trade union movement and a broad mass ecosocialist party as a step towards building a mass workers party of the left. While working to build People Before Profit we will also build our own group and advocate for revolutionary socialist change.
We will be building RISE as a revolutionary socialist organisation. We have a quarterly political magazine, Rupture, a weekly podcast, Rupture Radio, and a website featuring news, debate, analysis and commentary about struggles taking place in Ireland and around the world. We have fortnightly branch meetings discussing our politics. Please contact us to find out more and get involved.
RISE’s 10 Points of Unity
We are Marxists. We use the Marxist method of analysing reality (including ideas and ideology) as a product of a dynamic and contradictory process of change. We base ourselves on the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, as well as contemporary Marxists who seek to develop new areas of Marxism and apply the Marxist method to today’s situation.
We are revolutionary socialists. While we fight for relief and gains for people here and now, capitalism ultimately cannot be reformed, it must go. There is no parliamentary road to socialism. To build a majority of support for ecosocialist change, we utilise elected positions in the Dáil, Stormont and local councils to help build and strengthen the movements in the streets and workplaces. We seek to establish new, grassroots, autonomous and democratic organisations to build the power and confidence of workers and oppressed peoples to challenge and eventually end the rule of capital, build a new society based on solidarity, equal rights, ecological sustainability, and common ownership of wealth and resources.
We are ecosocialists. We aim to raise awareness of the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss within the workers’ movement - to connect them to the class exploitation and oppression all working-class people experience - as well as raise awareness in the environmental movement about the power of the workers’ movement to end the capitalist destruction of nature.
We work to develop and promote a ‘transitional programme’ - a list of demands that meet the needs of people and nature today but challenge the framework of capitalism and point towards workers’ control (see our What We Stand For). In this way, we aim to build a bridge between the current struggles of people to improve their lives today and the necessity of ecosocialist revolution. Through this, we aim to raise general awareness of class division or what we call ‘class consciousness’ (as well as racial and sexual/gendered class experiences), the need for a socialist revolution and the potential power of working-class people to bring that about.
We use ‘united front methods’ to build the biggest possible movements, working alongside all groups prepared to join a common struggle, including the leadership of trade unions, radical NGOs, social justice organisations, and sometimes parties to our right (e.g., Sinn Féin). Within that broader movement we propose class-based methods - mass demonstrations, non-violent civil disobedience, workplace actions and strikes - to win demands to strengthen the movement and to expose the limitations of reformist politics and the unwillingness of non-revolutionary leadership to go beyond what capitalism will allow.
The multi-racial, multi-gender global working class is the key revolutionary force in society with the interest and potential power to overthrow capitalism and establish an ecosocialist society.
An injury to one is an injury to all. We stand unconditionally with those fighting oppression. The multi-gender, multi-racial working class, because its labour creates all value and wealth, yet it suffers brutal and uneven exploitation, has both the potential power and the self interest to fight against all forms of oppression and for the liberation of humanity.
For workers’ unity North & South in the struggle to end partition and for socialism, and for the protection of the rights of minorities in a future socialist state. We do not advocate the unification of these two capitalist and sectarian states, but rather the creation of a secular and socialist Ireland, within which the rights of Protestants and all minorities would be protected. Instead of the downward harmonisation of corporation tax and the creation of an all Ireland tax haven, we advocate the democratic public ownership of the key sources of wealth across the island, using them to guarantee a quality National Health Service, investment in decent public housing and services for all, dramatic improvements in people’s standard of living, and solving the climate and biodiversity crises. We support the democratic right to use a Border Poll to end partition and initiate broad discussion and debate about how a socialist state could be built.
We need a mass workers’ party that challenges the establishment while basing itself on grassroots movements on the streets. Such a party should be grassroots-based, broad, pluralist and open to all workers and oppressed people who support and want to actively bring about socialist change. It should have full democratic rights of all groups and tendencies to make the case for their ideas, and strive to create a party free from sexist, racist, ableist, anti-LGBTQ attitudes or behaviours. We believe People Before Profit can become a step towards this new mass workers’ party, helping to raise class consciousness and organisation. Crucial to the growth of such a party is ruling out coalition with FF and FG and determining its entry into or support for any future left government based on whether potential coalition partners would agree to the ecosocialist policies and struggle necessary to resolve the crises facing people. Participation in building a mass workers’ party and in the debates between revolutionary, reformist and centrist ideas which are inevitable, is a crucial part of building a principled Marxist trend and laying the basis for a mass revolutionary party.
We need a mass democratic revolutionary party to defeat capitalism. The Russian Revolution has proven positively that revolutionary socialists need to be organised within the broader workers’ movement to agitate for ecosocialist ideas and win a majority of working-class and oppressed peoples to fight for socialism. Like a broader workers’ party, such a mass revolutionary party should be based on democratic debate and decision making, with a tested leadership, held accountable and challenged by politically confident, independent-thinking members. A future mass revolutionary party would likely contain multiple trends within it, as did the Bolshevik party. We are not that party in embryo, we are contributing to building it by learning Marxism and the history of the workers’/socialist movement, applying the lessons and Marxist method to today’s situation, and developing a thoroughgoing democratic culture where vigorous debate is normalised.
Organisational cohesion
There will of course be differences between members on how we bring about building PBP and other questions. We encourage new ideas and understand that constructive debate and different perspectives are an important part of developing our programme. To that end,
All members should aim to attend weekly RISE and PBP branch meetings and participate in at least 1 activity weekly. We are building an activist network within PBP, so we ask all members to be active in their workplaces, communities, and colleges.
All members should read/listen to Marxist ideas/theory/history and put that into practice. We have reading lists and study groups to facilitate this.
All members are encouraged to join a trade union and help to build fighting trade unions.
To pay a monthly sub to RISE. We cannot rely on the state for resources. We must raise the money ourselves to fund our campaigns and any staff we hire to help politically organise our work. We ask members to pay 10% of their monthly disposable income. Of course, we understand if that is not always possible. Most new members join on a lower sub, then raise it over time as they become more convinced of our politics and their role in building RISE and the socialist movement.
All members have the right to propose new policies and ideas for building the socialist movement and RISE. All members should read our Constitution and learn our democratic process so they can fully participate in developing our programme and policies.
We do not tolerate any form of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism or discriminatory attitude or behaviour, striving always to create a space welcome to the most marginalised within capitalist society. All members must read through our complaints and harassment policy and attend a consent training workshop (organised by RISE) within 1 year.