AntiCapitalist Resistance held its conference on 4-5 July to take stock of where things are at politically, our campaign priorities and our political direction for the year. ACR has grown a lot in the last few years – effectively doubling in size since our launch in 2021 – and had some remarkable success with events in Birmingham as well as playing a role in the excellent Carnival Against Fascism in Brighton in June.
After adopting a manifesto at the 2024 conference and a strategy document at the 2025 conference, this year we focussed on discussing the political situation and the prospects for the next few years. We started off with a debate on whether ‘late capitalism’ was a meaningful term to use in our political analysis. In the end, the conference adopted it as a description of the ‘ecosocialism or barbarism’ phase of capitalism although several members felt that it was not accurate – what if capitalism adapted to climate change or lasted another 500 years?
The debate might continue in the issues of our forthcoming magazine we agreed to launch in the autumn!
The reality of the depth of the climate crisis becomes more apparent with every heatwave, including the one that this conference endured. Government climate advice focuses on getting Air Conditioning units whilst they continue offshore drilling of oil and gas from the North Sea. The cost of living crisis will continue with bills mounting up, especially in the aftermath of the Iran war. Meanwhile the British government, whether it’s Tory or Labour, continues its authoritarian drive by increasing police powers and limiting protest rights. The looming threat of a Reform government, and what it would mean for oppressed people, the planet and the state of our democracy, hung over the conference and sharpened minds over next steps.
For our campaign document we reiterated the core orientations of ACR, whilst also agreeing that our strategic goal is to build a mass revolutionary ecosocialist party. We know that this can’t be built by only recruiting directly to ACR, though we do encourage people to join, but that we must have tactics for organising in wider audiences, for our ideas. There was a discussion also on anti fascism, drawing on insight from ACR members in more rural areas, as well as debates over the role of the Together Alliance – a mass force opposing the far right but also an extremely liberal organisation held back by charities that are not allowed to be ‘political’.
We had a discussion on the break up of the British state based on an amendment from our Birmingham branch. The conference ultimately backed the position that we support self determination for Wales and Scotland – as an organisation based mainly in England we didn’t want to tell people living there how to exercise it.
Conference passed a motion on organising work in the Greens as well as Socialist Federation, whilst acknowledging that some members are still active in Labour where it is useful and others focus their energies mainly on ACR activities. We committed ourselves to building an anticapitalist platform in the Green Party, working with others like Greens Organise, who we already have a working relationship with from the ecosocialism conference in May 2026. We lamented the failure of Your Party as a serious defeat for the left as it had the chance to overcome the sect divisions and create a political strategy for power. Despite the setbacks, we remained committed to working with other socialists around building a healthy left rooted in ecosocialism, opposition to all forms of imperialism and social oppression.
Our key approach is to make sure the ecological system is not only at the centre of our politics, but that we are seeking to connect it with the social crisis facing so many people. Ecological collapse is rooted in capitalism so building an anticapitalist, ecosocialist movement means drawing together all the ways that exploitation, austerity, social oppression and the environmental crisis are connected.
We also agreed an approach on the new Bodily Autonomy and Dignity (BAD) Coalition that ACR members have been involved in setting up, and the importance of fighting for trans liberation not only because it is important to allow people to live as they want, but to acknowledge that this is the thin end of the wedge for wider attacks. This is why a broader approach to bodily autonomy in general for the wider LGBTQ+ community and women’s struggles is an important path to coalition building.
We had fruitful discussions – which will continue after the conference – about looking at different formats for meetings and ways to engage new people. Conference agreed that “practice of mutual aid within the organisation should be prioritised to allow us to prepare for the adverse consequences of the poly crisis that will affect our most marginalised members and also to develop a culture of collectivism which we promote in our vision of an Ecosocialist future. Without this culture within the organisation, we are at risk of replicating capitalist structures instead of empowering the working class to meet each other’s needs.”
For a group that has grown so quickly it is important to think about consolidating members and the role that educational discussions can play in that. In ACR we want to foster an approach of critical or open Marxism, meaning that we engage with the key arguments of Marxism but in a non-dogmatic way.
We also voted for a more critical position on using Big Tech social media platforms, and whilst we accepted that some use of them was valuable for wider engagement, we would look to alternative forms of social media.
We elected a new Council (our leadership between conferences) with a majority of women on it as well as a lot of younger members. This new leadership will now be responsible for building on our existing momentum and building a revolutionary ecosocialist, political tendency as part of our internationalist network.
We were pleased to announce the opening of an ACR office in the next few weeks which will help us become more professional and get better organised in terms of the admin work of running an organisation.
There was also a report on Resistance Books, our publishing arm in conjunction with the IIRE in Amsterdam which has some very exciting books coming out in the next few months. We welcomed a speaker from the Fourth International who talked in particular about resisting ‘campism’, where some on the left actively support other imperialist rivals or police state dictatorship because they see them as somehow anti imperialist. Our approach of supporting organised resistance to imperialism and sectarian or authoritarian violence, wherever it exists, was a better approach rooted in solidarity.
Overall, the conference touched on many areas, welcomed new voices and ideas, and started the beginnings of a more professional and action driven agenda inline with the increased stakes of the world we are living in. Our hard won rights and systems are being rapidly dissolved. ACR took this in its stride and is committed to leading the fight against capitalism, for a thriving ecosocialist future.
We encourage readers to follow the International Viewpoint website, to subscribe to our emailing list and also to join ACR to help build a revolutionary ecosocialist organisation!