‘A genuine rejection of the system’: Why communist ideology is rising at UBC

On a rainy evening, a handful of students gather around a table adorned with leaflets and worn-out copies of The Communist Manifesto. The conversation is animated — rent hikes, tuition increases and labour strikes dominate the discussion. The student group UBC Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) holds these public seminars weekly to talk about interpretations of the philosophies of Marxism and the politics of communism.

UBC RCP is not just an ideological club. They see themselves as an organizing force, bridging students and workers in collective action. In a political landscape where left-wing groups often clash over priorities, UBC RCP maintains a strict class-based analysis.

“When [people] see that the classical parties fail, the classical method fails, they tend to radicalize themselves towards us,” said Enzo Rosari, a UBC graduate student and member of UBC RCP.

“The goal of communism, if you can put it succinctly, is a stateless, classless and moneyless society,” said third-year computer science student Skyler Sauer. “But the ultimate difference [between definitions] is how you achieve those things.”

According to Rosari, with rising wages and the increased cost of living, class conflict is becoming more pronounced, pushing more young people to align themselves more with communism. Faced with declining economic mobility, government inaction and a political system that many perceive as serving only the wealthy, students are turning to leftist frameworks. And because of this, according to Rosari, UBC RCP has found itself gaining momentum.

A 2022 poll commissioned by the Fraser Institute found approximately 1 million young Canadians consider communism the ideal economic system.

This surge in left-wing sentiment is not confined to Canada. Across the globe, some young people are turning to increasingly left-wing ideologies as they grapple with economic uncertainty and systemic inequities, according to a 2021 peer-reviewed article published in Politics. In the US, 11 per cent of youth express support for communism and 14 per cent in the UK, according to the Fraser Institute poll.

Economic precarity has played a key role in this shift — according to the Canadian Association of University Teachers, recent trends show public funding for post-secondary education in Canada has declined from 80 per cent in 1990 to under 50 per cent today, while tuition revenue has skyrocketed by nearly 83 per cent since 2008, despite only a 20 per cent increase in student enrolment.

Many students have turned to their own interpretations of Marxism, communism and beyond to make sense of their reality and organize for systemic change. These ideas, once dismissed as values of the post-war past, are being revived as tools for understanding and resisting a system some see as inherently exploitative.

"I find the theory of [communism] incredibly convincing,” said Sauer, pulling out a notebook, a pen and a worn-out copy of Capital from his tote bag from across the table.

Communism in Canada traces back to 1919, with the formation of the One Big Union in western Canada and the month-long Winnipeg General Strike. Both of these helped unite Canada’s working class amid veteran unemployment and unsustainable post-war employee wages and working conditions — a socio-economic climate echoed in today’s post-pandemic world.

The revitalization of communist followings on university campuses in younger generations across the country, for Sauer, comes down to privilege and timing.

“People learning new things about the world [are] in a stage where they’re willing to question things,” he said, citing that engaging in political theory in university courses is the mechanism he believes prompts some students to question their ideological leanings.

“If you don’t have the privilege to be at a university or in another setting, it is going to be much more difficult for you to take the risk, to genuinely engage with the theory and to actually live out [its] conclusion,” he said.

Sauer is not a member of UBC RCP, though he still aligns with many of the principles communism stands for.

“I certainly consider myself sympathetic to the Marxist critique. It’s impossible not to be, in my opinion, but the specifics of what people call communism, I often don’t agree with,” said Sauer.

Rosari said many students identifying with the working class and balancing jobs with school out of necessity feeds into an ideological shift.

“Living conditions are … terrible for everyone. Your rent is more expensive, your food is more expensive, everything is more expensive,” Rosari said. “People are radicalizing themselves for their own future, for the future of everybody … to make sure that our future as workers, as students, is possible and is not being destroyed by a minority that is only looking for profit.”

Rosari also said the campus Palestinian solidarity movement is where he met his first comrades at UBC. But his alignment with communism began long before joining the group, driven by ecological concerns and further catalyzed by the climate crisis and growing awareness of capitalist exploitation.

“How is it possible that industry is polluting the atmosphere freely, killing biodiversity that is keeping us alive?” he said.

Rosari's frustration with these systemic issues led him to communism after encountering Marxist theory in works like Wage Labour and Capital.

“[The] few minority wanting profit and in control of the means of production, control of the politics, control all things that they allow themselves to destroy everything because they don’t care,” he continued.

Third-year philosophy student Will Bragg, another member of the RCP, became interested in communism for similar reasons a few years ago, when he began questioning how the world was being run during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that seeing how the political system can perpetuate environmental damage and human-caused disasters was what “ultimately radicalized [him] into becoming a communist.”

“Joining the RCP was extremely helpful in my political development, because really, it allowed me to turn what was just anger at capitalism into Marxism,” Bragg said. “Because ultimately, it's not enough to just be critical of capitalism. You have to also be for a solution, and Marxism offers that solution.”

“Actions follow theory” is the principle of UBC RCP’s activity. Rosari emphasized the primary goal of their party is to build numbers, grow the movement and create a base of people capable of conveying communist ideology. Having garnered a diverse following on campus, UBC RCP encourages all workers to “build this party” and “work for a better world,” Rosari said.

But UBC political science Associate Professor Dr. Bruce Baum warned some interpretations of communism might oversimplify the complexities of class struggle by overlooking how communism intertwines with racial and gender oppression, and the nuances of what it means to be part of the working class in a modern day capitalist society.

“I think we need a more subtle class analysis, and I’m not hearing that [from some students],” said Baum.

Baum said some undergraduates concerned about the inequalities of capitalism might gravitate to communist organizers who offer “a simple picture of capitalism.”

“Given the complexities of class structures and class divisions in contemporary capitalist societies and the aspirations of students … many are going to see themselves as either independent entrepreneurs, self-employed or professionals, and they don’t really fit in that picture [of communism],” said Baum.

“When we think about communism and Marxism growing out of responses to class-based inequality, in particular, related to industrial capitalism, there often wasn’t that much attention to how that was intertwined with colonialism and imperialism,” he added, referring to some previous literature.

Baum specifically referenced Marxist scholar Dr. David Roediger, who “is much more inclined to say, ‘class inequality is real, but class inequality is not something that stands apart from the history of racism and sexism and the like.’”

Baum suggested this intersectionality also extends to a university’s role in fostering activism and intellectual engagement; adding, while universities should encourage political awareness and student activism, they must also balance this with ensuring fair conditions for all students.

He pointed to historical examples, such as late 20th-century labour unions that, rather than dismantling capitalism, reinforced racial segregation to protect white workers’ interests. Rosari, however, highlighted UBC RCP is made up of a diverse body of undergraduates and graduates, drawing in Queer and BIPOC people and international students.

“Marxism couldn’t address things like colonialism and racism without, to some extent, rethinking some of its basic concepts and understandings, like how it thought about alienation … ways in which it didn’t really think about the dispossession of Indigenous lands,” Baum said.

For Sauer, understanding how to disentangle Marxist theory from these historical implications is the question — and it has to do with separating hierarchy from political ideology.

“Communism or capitalism are tools that can be used to enforce hierarchy,” Sauer said. “You can placate democracy, or workers will vote, and it’ll all be great. But fundamentally, you’re still going to replicate hierarchy, so long as you regenerate the state in a different manner … when you focus on capitalism singularly you miss that.”

For Sauer, looking at communism as only the antithesis of capitalism tends to oversimplify the robustness of the theory, though he finds some students tend to engage with the ideology through this lens.

For students torn between single-issue activism and broader systemic critiques, Baum advised looking at past mistakes and recognizing how identity politics and class struggle intersect.

“Here’s the question: How [do we] foster education outside of the classroom and enable space for different groups to organize and have educational events?”

Rosari said it is important for all members to understand communist ideas before applying them to practice. He said going out and talking to people on campus about current and historical events through a communist lens is a step the group takes to disseminate biases about left-wing politics.

“When people think of communism, they think of Red Scare, McCarthy-Era … things that are reductive, but not necessarily entirely false,” said Sauer.

“What we’re fighting for is the end of oppression, with workers taking power and controlling the economy to ensure that everyone has [basic needs],” Rosari said. “Our goal is to explain these ideas clearly to people, to show that we’re not ‘red, thirsty monsters’ who want to enslave everyone. That’s not what we’re about.”

UBC RCP frequently canvas campus with their own banner and literature. While UBC RCP is deeply rooted in campus activism, Rosari highlighted its dedication to a broader, systemic approach while partnering with other local communist branches. The group sends student contingencies to cross-city protests and events.

“We have an international point of view ... to fight on every front,” Rosari said.

Rosari added the current role of UBC RCP involves addressing rising tuition fees and UBC’s complicity in global crises, including what he and human rights experts called the genocide in Palestine.

Last summer, UBC RCP was involved in the Palestinian solidarity encampment that sat on the MacInnes Field for two months. And with values in line with mobilizing, protesting is a vital function of the student group. Last September, the group held a community meeting to plan student strikes in solidarity with Palestine as part of the Canadian Revolutionary Communist Party’s Towards a Student Strike for Palestine movement.

“It’s very important to not sequester ourselves to just UBC,” said Rosari. “And to make sure that we connect everything to a systemic problem.”

Sauer said he found the US, his home country, torn between two leaders in November 2024, who both vouched to maintain their own approach to maintaining hierarchy.

“If [a country] was communist, it wouldn’t have a state, and therefore it wouldn’t be a country, and therefore probably it would get conquered by the neighbouring countries very quickly,” he said.

Maybe then, communism works better in theory than in practice. Maybe in academic spaces, like universities, where theory is often most potent, is where communism thrives most, informing the way students critique systems, rather than the systems themselves.

Sauer summarized it from across the table: “Communism specifically is appealing because it is a genuine rejection of the system.”

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First online April 17, 2025, 11:53 a.m.

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