[1][2] Its stated aim is to 'be a political home for radical students at the university and channel enthusiasm into building a long-term base of student-worker-community power at Oxford'.
Founded with the object of ‘the study of communism in its world social, economic and cultural aspects’,[1] within its first year it gained some 300 members[1] out of a total population of approximately 5000[3][4] undergraduates.
Subramanyam,[9] who would go onto play notable roles in Indian communist and independence politics (along with fellow Club member Freda Bedi).
[1][10] Such was the violence of this period, that, in 1933, communist and socialist students from Ruskin College founded the anti-fascist Red Shirts and volunteered to act as stewards to defend events held by the October Club.
[2] In 2024, during protests against the University's ties to Israel's bombing of Gaza, the Club claimed its members' involvement in violent confrontation with police.