At the beginning of February 2025, a faction concentrated in the states of Oregon, Washington, and California decided to split with our organization and form their own parallel RSU-type formation on the West Coast. This split came after a period of difficult line struggle between this faction and the majority of areas nationally, represented democratically in the elected body of RSU Steering. RSU opposes the use of a split to resolve internal political contradictions and hopes that the involved chapters can eventually be re-integrated into RSU’s national struggle after a period of self-criticism and rectification through the methods of class struggle and political education.

What is very disappointing about this split in particular is that the central points of contention regarded very simple and basic principles that any class-conscious organization would uphold, much less any revolutionary organization, and that these chapters have decided to split amid an intensifying period of capitalist offensive on the working class and the oppressed masses.

Organizationally, the basic points that provoked the faction’s decision to split were:

1. Whether or not a democratically-elected body like Steering can make leadership decisions, and whether or not there should be freedom of discussion and unity of action around those decisions within an organization that upholds democratic centralism.
2. Whether or not RSU members can be held accountable when they break the discipline of an organization and refuse to self-criticize or rectify.
3. Whether or not the minority must submit to the majority, and lower bodies submit to higher bodies, within a democratic centralist organization.

This manifested primarily in a struggle over RSU Steering issuing discipline for one of its three members being caught out in a series of lies and backdoor schemes he was using to advance the positions and agenda of his local “Red Front” organization, and in asking the three chapters associated with this “Red Front” organization to re-affirm that they would abide by RSU’s democratic centralism over the democratic centralism of their local “Red Front”, which had been interfering in RSU internal functions and “forbidding” its members from abiding by majority decisions reached by RSU.

To impose their unilateral unity over the majority of RSU, the factionalists went so far as to deliver an ultimatum in late January which threatened a split in an attempt to liquidate discussion and debate around documents that came out of this line struggle. When their ultimatum was rejected by the majority voice in RSU, they refused to participate in the national call (the highest decision-making body of RSU) planned for the struggle around the documents. Instead, they reached out to RSU Steering Committee to negotiate and settle the line struggle “bilaterally”. Their action spelled out their rejection of open and honest line struggle and support for scheming and unprincipled agreements to form fake, paper unity.

Politically, the two-line struggle revolved around whether the basis of unity of RSU’s mass membership should be a “unity of understanding and conception of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism”¹ or around a draft political program based on class conscious principles and support for socialist revolution. While the majority of RSU chapters supported the latter point, the minority faction supporting the former positions decided to issue an ultimatum that either Steering liquidate itself or they would be forced to split. Thus, they were willing to engage in out-and-out liquidationism rather than struggle over the question democratically and or re-affirm that they would abide by the democratic centralism of our organization over any other. Despite their supposed support for “unity under Maoism”, ironically it is this minority faction which has advanced a series of incredibly anti-Marxist positions over the period of this line struggle, including the strange thesis that students are like artisans or small business owners and are engaged in “individual commodity production” through their studies and classes, that the “formal” aspects of democratic centralism like voting or having higher leadership bodies are not particularly important, or that the main purpose of mass organizations like RSU is not to mobilize and lead masses in fights for power through “the struggle for demands” within our sector.

The last thing the factionalists advocated for is more splits, multiple parallel factions under the umbrella of an “RSU” based on factionalism, localism, and abstract ideological differences rather any united and real practical or political work. In spite of their decision to split, we still call on all areas involved in this split to self-criticize and submit themselves to rectification through political education and class struggle so they can be re-integrated into the national body. If the individual leaders of these chapters are intransigent in their opportunism and refuse to listen to this call, we in turn ask the rank-and-file membership of these organizations to struggle against the incorrect ideas and actions of these leaders and to work with RSU to eradicate factionalism, liquidationism, and opportunism within the revolutionary student movement. This is especially relevant because the expelled ex-Steering member refused to hand over his list of contacts that he had control over in his role as outreach coordinator, and thus there are likely many good comrades who have been caught up in and are confused by all this because of his monopolization of information and communication with them.

Despite all this, because of the factionalist’s insistence of basing RSU’s unity on a strange eclectic anti-Maoist “Maoism”, RSU has to re-initiate united front and mass work in a class-conscious and coordinated way to combat its points. Based on the fruits of the recruitment and work in the past weeks, we are very optimistic for the future of our organization and the revolutionary mass struggles in our sector of work. Keep an eye out for the new campaigns and calls to action that are on the way, and please make sure to reach out to inquire for more information and clarification on anything that comrades are unsure of about the points contained within this statement.

Against Opportunism!

For Revolution!

For Coordinated Struggle Against the Current Capitalist Offensive!

RSU

1. While the factionalists suggested a unity around “Marxism-Leninism-Maoism”, they in fact advanced a set of abstract theoretical positions that are by no means Marxist. The end of this paragraph provides an example. ↩︎