The Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) is a Marxist-Leninist organization, committed to the complete overhaul of the current exploitative capitalist system and its replacement by socialism.
The Revolutionary Socialist League is an organization anchored on fighting for the emancipation of the working class; those whose labor produces the means of livelihood for all the people of the world, from the yoke of capitalism. The RSL seeks to work towards the triumph of labor over capital.
The Revolutionary Socialist League fights for the total liberation of the Kenyan people in particular and the African people in general, and all the oppressed and suppressed peoples of the world struggling to smash exploitation in all its forms. The RSL is geared towards the ultimate fulfillment of the aspirations of the people of Kenya, Africa, and the world at large. The RSL, in committing itself to the struggle of the working class of the whole world, recognizes the need to come together speedily, for the sake of the triumph of the International Socialist Movement, with other working class organizations throughout the world, into an international socialist organization.
The Revolutionary Socialist League bases itself upon the values of Socialism; Honesty; Equity; Solidarity; Humility; and Internationalism.
The Revolutionary Socialist League is built upon Eleven Cardinal Pillars that it aims to achieve through a protracted revolutionary struggle. These Pillars form the basis of the movement’s manifesto.
- Economic Freedom and Justice.
We recognize the fact that despite the Kenyan people enjoying certain freedoms as stipulated by the Constitution of Kenya (2010), they are really not free since they neither own nor control the means of production. The people of Kenya have been deprived of justice as the justice system is biased and controlled by the capitalist ruling class. The alienation of the Kenyan masses from economic freedom and justice has seen citizens become modern slaves who must sell their labor power to the highest capitalist bidder in order to survive. This cycle must be stopped so that every Kenyan citizen is at liberty to determine their destiny in a social and economic system working for everyone.
2. Employment
One of the greatest failures of the capitalist system in Kenya and the world at large is the inability to provide work, or the alienation of the people from the process of production. More than 40% of the Kenyan working population is unemployed, while the employed are underpaid and exploited at their work places. Within a socialist system, this problem will be solved by having every single person in Kenya who has attained a working age to be working. Our goal is to ensure that every person participates in the process of production in a bid to build a better and prosperous country. Failure by the private sector to resolve this crisis and it complicity in propagating it means that the means of production and technology MUST be nationalized so that every person benefits and productive. Each will be contributing according to their ability, and each will be paid according to their labor.
3. Education
Our aspiration as the RSL is to establish a free, quality and compulsory education system for every Kenyan citizen from primary to university level. Every Kenyan must be educated and equipped with the core values of socialism and taught the true history of the African people and the people’s role in the societal make-up.
4. Healthcare
RSL holds that healthcare must be free and affordable to each and every citizen in Kenya and all medical facilities accessible to everyone. We emphasize the failure of the Kenyan government in providing medical care to her citizens as healthcare has become too costly for the majority due to the privatization of the medical sector. RSL will nationalize this sector. Furthermore, the sanitation systems of both the urban settlements and rural areas must be replaced by those befitting human beings. The resources of the state must be used to guarantee the provision of healthcare to all citizens and scientific innovations be used for the improvement of the healthcare system.
5. Housing
RSL acknowledges that one of the major problems facing our population has been the lack of proper housing. The capitalist system has created too many urban slums with inhumane conditions. The cost of living keeps rising as the transport system is plunged into chaos, with crime on the increase. Our people deserve to live in better conditions, both in the rural and urban areas. We seek to develop a housing plan that will build better and more comfortable houses for our people so that we may do away with the informal settlements which have negatively impacted the dwellers. The housing projects shall ensure that no single Kenyan is a squatter or homeless in our country where large tracts of land lie underutilized.
6. Women Emancipation
RSL holds dearly that no society can achieve true liberation without the total emancipation of women. We hold that the liberation of women from capitalist exploitation, cultural norms, class oppression and social degradation will hold key to the full liberation of human societies. It is in this regard that we at RSL supports and will continue to support all women liberation movements, socialist feminist groups and any other progressive women struggle across the world that seeks to overthrow the patriarchal, imperialist and capitalist societies that continue to degrade our women.
7. Nationalization of Land and Natural Resources
RSL acknowledges that land is the basic economic factor of production. Historically, from the colonial days, huge tracts of African land were taken away by colonial settlers and once paper independence was achieved, these parcels of land were inherited in large quantities by the children of colonial collaborators and home guards. We have millions of Kenyan squatters in the coastal, central and some parts of the rift valley regions yet millions of hectares of land are being owned by individuals. These tracts of land remain unproductive, furthermore. Our government will nationalize these tracts of land and focus on agricultural and industrial production and the settlement of all citizens.
8. Culture and Heritage. Historically, culture and heritage has formed part of the superstructure arising from the economic mode of production, alongside values, belief systems, norms, art, language symbols and social institutions of any particular society. This makes it a very important component of our Kenyan people. We as RSL strongly believe that through the respect, honor and appreciation of our different Kenyan ethnic cultures we shall unchain our people from the yoke of western institutionalized cultures that deny our people the joy of celebrating their traditional customs and heritage. With the values of Socialism instilled in our pedagogy, we shall work towards a society that is unified and liberated and bound together with working class ideology.
9. Corruption
RSL will work towards eliminating corruption at all levels of the society. Arising from the greed and individualism that capitalism breeds, corruption as a vice has been one of the greatest stumbling blocks to the development of our society. Corruption is a serious crime and those found guilty of participating in or encouraging it will be dealt with accordingly. The values of Socialism will be emphasized, and through the building of a Socialist society individualism will be replaced by collectivism.
10. One United Socialist Africa
Our revolutionary call for “Afrika Moja, Afrika Huru” is not only a theoretical narrative but also a practical lifetime commitment. We are an organization that works towards uniting all the people of Africa under a Socialist State. Furthermore, our call is for the formation of an All-African People’s revolutionary organization that will serve as the vanguard of the African people in our struggle against imperialism. Needless to mention, this would advance the course of the working people throughout the world, and would be the start in unifying the people of the world against capitalism.
11. Revolutionary Internationalism.
There will be no true liberation if there are still oppressed and exploited peoples across the world. Our goal is the total emancipation of humankind from the yoke of capitalism and imperialism. We shall offer our support and solidarity, not only in words, but also materially, to all liberation movements across the world. We pay homage to the different revolutionary liberation movements which, in word and deed, supported our African liberation struggles across the decades and still continue to do so. It is our duty to ensure that the international proletariat is freed from the chains of capitalism and imperialism. We recognize the different peoples’ struggles in Western Sahara, Palestine, and other parts of the world who are fighting for their independence, recognition and dignity. We condemn the economic blockades and sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela among other nations by the Imperialist forces. Their cries are our cries, their struggles are our struggles and their victories will be our Victories.
As Frantz Fanon said, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it”– we as a generation, having discovered our mission of economically
liberating our society from the ugly, rusty and dusted hands of imperialism, neo-colonialism and capitalism in general, unite within the same political ideology, understanding our people’s material conditions, acknowledging the failure of the existing system, cherishing our different cultural diversities, united by the strong feeling for change, and conclude that our duty is to change the existing conditions that have made human beings slaves to fellow human beings, and by doing so, deprived them of their essential human rights, liberty, freedom, justice, peace, dignity, honor and value.
Therefore,we as the revolutionary fighters of our own lifetime, declare these 11 Cardinal Pillars our principles and ideals which we are ready to fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our economic and political liberty. It is through the implementation of these revolutionary pillars that the Kenyan and African economy will be effectively transformed in a manner that will uplift the living conditions of our people. We call upon the mobilization of the whole society behind these pillars, and we can be assured that victory is certain in through the struggle. The wind for the emancipation of the African people has begun blowing from east of the continent and we expect it to gain momentum in our lifetime to other parts of the continent. We believe that a systematic change, that is the establishment of a socialist system in Kenya, will be a great inspiration to other countries in Africa as well as to those in the rest of the Global South and will inspire the people to reclaim their wealth and economies from colonial and neo-colonial masters. As a generation, our lifetime goal is the full attainment of economic, political and social freedom for our people.
Onward with the revolutionary struggle and Victory!
Forward to Socialism!
Nyumbani ama Kifo, Tutashinda!