Vancouver School of Communism 2025

They’re Rich Because We’re Poor: How Capitalism Really Works

85% of Canadians say living paycheck to paycheck is their new normal, meanwhile the ten richest Canadians have a combined net worth of over $260 billion. In fact, using only the wealth of Canada’s billionaire class, you could carpet all of Vancouver in fifty dollar bills.

There’s no fluke here. This is a fundamental characteristic of capital: the concentration of society’s wealth – which could be used to feed, house, and care for all people – in diminishingly few hands.

Come learn how this works and how we can fix it: by expropriating the wealth that we collectively produce and using it to benefit all of humanity.

Lessons from the Cuban Revolution

In 1959, just 90 miles south of the world’s foremost imperialist power, the Cuban working class overthrew the US-backed dictator, seized power, and created the first worker’s state in the Western hemisphere. Even while suffering under a brutal embargo and isolated on the world stage, Cuba has managed to eradicate illiteracy, provide universal housing, and a stellar healthcare service.

To this day, Cuba remains a stark reminder to the US ruling class the limits of its hegemony. For Marxists, the Cuban Revolution remains a shining example of how revolutions are won, and what is possible even right at the doorstep of American imperialism.

Marxism v. Post-colonialism

Communists stand for a united struggle of all workers, regardless of nationality, race, or culture, against the capitalist system. Yet, in academic circles today, this emphasis on our shared class interests and international solidarity is often met with the accusation of being “Eurocentric.”

We are told that ideas that first emerged in Europe, like Marxism, can never truly explain the experiences of people from the former colonial world, and instead, we should “decolonize” our thinking and turn towards the eclectic world of post-colonial theory.

But is dialectical materialism really a simple product of “European subjectivity”? If no philosophy can be said to be true beyond cultural differences, then where does post-colonialism come from? And most importantly, which of these ideas can actually help us win the fight against imperialism and racism?

What is the Revolutionary Communist International?

The Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) carries the living traditions and methods of Marxism, from Marx and Engels through Lenin, Trotsky, and Ted Grant to today.

Learn about the origins of the RCI and how our firm foundation in theory allows us to understand the world clearly, forming the basis of the struggle to build a single, global party of the working class and advance the struggle for a communist future.

The Need for Revolutionary Leadership

In 1917, the working masses of Russia took power and became the first people to overthrow capitalism in their country. Since then, revolutions have come and gone, some ending in victory, but a vast majority have ended in defeat.

Today, revolutions are popping up all over the world. What’s needed for these revolutions to succeed is the same as what led the working class to victory in the Russian Revolution: a revolutionary vanguard party. Learn about what made the Bolsheviks successful, and how we can build that leadership today in order to overthrow capitalism in our lifetime!

New World Disorder: Capitalism in Crisis

Momentous events are transforming the world as we know it. From the genocide in Gaza to the West’s defeat in Ukraine, and from rising tariffs to ballooning world debt, epoch-defining developments are shaking the consciousness of billions.

The so-called liberal world order, which had existed for decades, is now collapsing in front of our very eyes. Revolutions erupt in country after country as the masses try to find a way out of the darkness of capitalism.

Joel Bergman from the executive committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party will present on this topic to help make sense of the tumultuous events transpiring on the world scale.