The Revolution We Need...
The Leadership We Have
A Message, And A Call, From The Revolutionary Communist
This Is NOT The Best of All Possible Worlds…
And We Do NOT Have to Live This Way
"The land of the free, and the home of the brave." "The leader of the free world." That's what they always say about this country. But this is a Big Lie.
The truth is that we live under a system that, from the start in this country, built up its wealth and power by enslaving millions of Black people, stealing land from Indians and Mexicans through war and genocide, and working many people, including children, literally to death. It is by such murderous means that this system has expanded "from sea to shining sea" across this continent—and around the whole world.
It is a system of capitalism-imperialism…a system in which U.S. imperialism is the most monstrous, most oppressive superpower…a system driven by a relentless chase after profit, which brings horror upon horror, a nightmare seemingly without end, for the vast majority of humanity: poverty and squalor…torture and rape…the wholesale domination and degradation of women everywhere…wars, invasions and occupations…assassinations and massacres…planes, missiles, tanks and troops of the USA bombarding people in faraway lands while they sleep in their homes or go about their daily lives, blasting their little children to pieces, cutting down men and women in the prime of life, or in old age, kicking down their doors and dragging them away in the middle of the night…while here in the USA itself the police harass, brutalize and murder youth in the streets of the inner cities—over and over again—and then they spit out their maddening insults, insisting that this is "justified," as if these youth are not human beings, have no right to live, deserve no respect and no future.
Throughout the world, as a result of this system, a billion people or more go hungry every day…with many facing the threat of starvation. Hundreds of millions of children are forced to work like slaves and to live in putrid slums, in the midst of garbage and human waste. Waves of immigrants, unable to live in their own homelands, travel the earth in search of work—and if they find it, they are worked until they can hardly stand and are forced into the shadows, with the constant fear that they will be deported and their families broken apart. Growing numbers of people cannot find work at all now, with many losing their homes as well as their jobs, while others are worked even more mercilessly. Everyone is lured and driven to consume more and more, at the cost of ever-mounting debt and the loss of any sense of larger purpose or meaning to life or any deeper connection with other human beings. Many are being pushed to the edge…growing numbers are going over the edge, often lashing out in crazed desperation.
Young women in the millions are traded like cattle and forced into sexual slavery, shipped across countries and continents, while women everywhere are degraded, demeaned, and brutalized in a thousand ways—beaten and raped in huge numbers, treated as objects of sexual gratification and breeders of children instead of full human beings. The idea of an intimate loving relationship with another human being is made into a sick joke, perverted into a property or commodity relation, weighed down by repressive patriarchal tradition and denied or restricted for people of the same sex.
The environment and human destiny itself is being taken to the brink of disaster.
All this because of the dictates of this system—because of its stranglehold on humanity. All this while technology and wealth exist on a scale and in forms never before imagined—technology and wealth produced by millions, billions, throughout the world who are nameless and faceless to the powers that be—technology and wealth that could and should be a resource belonging to humanity as a whole and used to meet the needs of people everywhere for a decent and ever-enriched material, intellectual and cultural life.
Look at what this system is doing to youth right here in the
And, despite the good intentions of many teachers, the educational system is a bitter insult for many youth and a means of regimentation and indoctrination overall. While, particularly in some "elite" schools, there is some encouragement for students to think in "non-conformist" ways—so long as, in the end, this still conforms to the fundamental needs and interests of the system—on the whole, instead of really enabling people to learn about the world and to pursue the truth wherever it leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity, education is crafted and twisted to serve the commandments of capital, to justify and perpetuate the oppressive relations in society and the world as a whole, and to reinforce the dominating position of the already powerful. And despite the creative impulses and efforts of many, the dominant culture too is corrupted and molded to lower, not raise, people's sights, to extol and promote the ways of thinking, and of acting, that keep this system going and keep people believing that nothing better is possible.
Look at the lies they constantly tell us—with all their honeyed words about "democracy" for the people and "human rights," while they are ruthlessly dictating over people, with force and violence, all over the world, and right here at home. Oh, and now they come on with Obama…to make us think they will be bringing some kind of change for the better. But Obama represents this system, and all this system can bring is more of the same: more torture and torment, more oppression and brutality, more war and destruction.
Some say this is all "god's will" and we just have to "put it all in god's hands." But it was not some god that got us in this situation…and it won't be some god that will get us out of it. The truth is, there are no gods…and we don't need them!
THE REVOLUTION WE NEED
It is this system that has got us in the situation we're in today, and keeps us there. And it is through revolution to get rid of this system that we ourselves can bring a much better system into being. The ultimate goal of this revolution is communism: A world where people work and struggle together for the common good…Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings…Where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.
This revolution is both necessary and possible.
This capitalist-imperialist system is in crisis…This system is bankrupt…This system is rotten to the core…This system is based on ruthless exploitation…This system commits so many monstrous crimes, and causes so much unnecessary suffering. We do not need to be sacrificing even more to "rescue" this system. This system needs to be swept aside…its crimes against humanity stopped cold…its institutions dismantled, and replaced by ones that empower people to build a new society free of exploitation and oppression.
The biggest lie of all is that there is no other way than this system—or that attempts to really make a different way, through revolution and advancing toward communism, have brought about something even worse. The wretched of the earth have made revolution and started on the road to communism—first in
It is up to us: to wake up…to shake off the ways they put on us, the ways they have us thinking so they can keep us down and trapped in the same old rat-race…to rise up, as conscious Emancipators of Humanity. The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world…when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness…those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.
"But people are too messed up. It's just human nature for things to be this way, and it can't be changed."
Yes, it can. It has happened before—when people have risen up to make revolution. It can and must be done again—and it can and must go even further. We, in our millions and millions, can change ourselves and fit ourselves to rule and remake society in the interests of humanity—but we can do this only as we fight to change the larger conditions, to throw off oppression, as we join with others, throughout the world, to change the whole world. This is what our Party means when we say: Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.
"But we are not in a position to make revolution in this country…they are too powerful, and they will never let us get that far." No one is more aware than our Party of the difficulties, the risks and the dangers, in making revolution. We are out here working for this every day. We know the price that has to be paid…and we know it is worth it, and that giving our lives to this is more rewarding than anything else. We know that they want to stop this revolution—crush it and bury it before it can really get going again…but we also know that a fight can be waged, and that we can have a chance to win the fight, to make this revolution real. And, yes, it is true—now is not yet the time, in this country, to go all-out to seize the power away from those who rule over us and to bring a new power, serving our interests, into being. But now IS the time to be WORKING FOR REVOLUTION—to be stepping up resistance while building a movement for revolution—to prepare for the time when it WILL be possible to go all out to seize the power.
Revolution can be made when there is a revolutionary situation, an even greater crisis in society as a whole: when people in greater numbers come to deeply feel and understand that the present power has no legitimacy…that it serves only a handful of oppressors…that it uses lies and deception, corruption and completely unjust force and violence to keep this system going and "keep the people in their place"…when millions see the need to fight to break this power and establish a new power that can bring about the changes that people desperately need and want. For a revolution, there must be a revolutionary people, among all sections of society but with its deepest base among those who catch hell every day under this system…people who are determined to fight for power in order to radically change society, to get rid of oppression and exploitation. But the point is this: we cannot, and we must not, sit around and wait for "one fine day" when this revolutionary situation comes about and a revolutionary people comes on the scene. No, we must—and we can—work to bring a revolutionary people into being…to enable people to see why they should put no faith in this system, and should not live and die in a way that keeps this system going…but instead should devote their lives to resisting oppression and building up for the time when we can get rid of the cause of all this oppression. Using our Party's newspaper, Revolution, as the foundation, guideline, and organizational scaffolding for this whole process, this is what our Party means when we say we are hastening while awaiting the revolutionary situation, preparing minds and organizing forces…for revolution.
All this is not possible without leadership. But the thing is…There is leadership.
THE LEADERSHIP WE HAVE
In Bob Avakian, the Chairman of our Party, we have the kind of rare and precious leader who does not come along very often. A leader who has given his heart, and all his knowledge, skills and abilities to serving the cause of revolution and the emancipation of humanity. Bob Avakian came alive as a revolutionary in the 1960s—taking part in the great movements of those days, and especially working and struggling closely with the most advanced revolutionary force in the
If you have not heard about this—if you don't know about the revolution we need and the leadership we have—that is because those who now hold power do not want you to know…they keep this from you, or lie about it when they can't keep word of it from getting out. And it is because our Party itself has not, until now, been consistent enough and bold enough in getting the word out, and acting on it.
BUT WE ARE CHANGING ALL THAT—STARTING NOW.
We must spread the word to every corner of this country…giving people the means to become part of this revolutionary movement, and organizing into this movement everyone who wants to make a contribution to it, who wants to work and fight, to struggle and sacrifice, not to keep this nightmare of a world going as it is but to bring a better world into being.
We mean what we say, and we will not back off or turn our backs on what we have started, on the people who need this revolution. We will keep coming back and digging in, to strengthen this movement for revolution, to build up the bases, spread the influence and organize the forces we need to make revolution. We will not be scared off, backed down or driven away.
A WHOLE DIFFERENT WORLD, A MUCH BETTER FUTURE, IS POSSIBLE. WE HAVE WHAT WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR THAT WORLD, THAT FUTURE.
IT IS UP TO US TO GET WITH IT AND GET TO THE CHALLENGE OF MAKING THIS HAPPEN.
As our Party's Constitution says: "The emancipation of all humanity: this, and nothing less than this, is our goal. There is no greater cause, no greater purpose to which to dedicate our lives."
Comments
1. Taking "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" to Chicago
On a very hot Saturday, the 80th Anniversary of the Bud Billiken Day Parade took place on the south-side of
The highlights of the parade were the youth in the school marching bands, drill teams, in-line skaters and other performers who wowed and amazed the crowds lining the parade route, cheering with an exuberance that did not wilt in the stifling heat.
Each year, the parade marks the return of the youth to school but no one ever mentions the horrendous conditions these school-age youth confront. In one
The t-shirts passed out by the Chicago Public School system were a cruel joke—on the back they had a list of what these children can supposedly become: lawyer, doctor, teacher... a list that ended with president. They forgot to list prisoner or dead. Last summer, the police in
There is a dark ominous cloud that increasingly hangs over the parade...the contingents not just from the military, but from military-run PUBLIC schools...under Arne Duncan, now the Obama-appointed U.S. Secretary of Education,
At the end of the parade route when one military academy contingent was disbanding, revolutionaries were there handing out a free back copy of the newspaper with the front cover "Don't Be a Buffalo Soldier." The students' commander—a special ops type guy—got into a yelling match with the distributor... "you are harassing these students"... "you can't give this stuff to them"... "I'll have you arrested" to which there was a feisty back and forth for all to hear. "You are training them to be killers for the empire"... "You are lying to these students, you can't keep the truth from people." As students continued to take the newspaper, the commanders started grabbing them back out of the students' hands and whisked them onto buses. The revolutionaries vowed to be outside the opening day of school.
As the statement says: "A system which offers million and millions of youth no greater purpose, no better fate, than crime and punishment, or to become a mindless killing machine for the system itself—that alone is reason enough to sweep this system from the face of the earth!"
The revolutionaries needed to bring the message and the call from the Revolutionary Communist Party into the whole parade scene. Thousands of leaflets with the call on one side and Bob Avakian's statement on Willie Mobile Shaw on the other side were printed up, along with a few thousand neon yellow stickers with big block letters saying "EMANCIPATORS OF HUMANITY" with revcom.us.
The police presence at the parade is massive and meant to be intimidating, especially to the youth. The police have exhibited a particular hatred for anything calling out police violence and previous years have snatched banners, surrounded anti-police brutality marchers, tried to shut down the informal vendors and passed more rules and regulations.
The revolution needed a bold presence. This required getting good places for the tents at the entrance to the park where the parade enters. And forming up teams to go out into the crowd before the parade started, when the streets are lined with people just waiting around. But early in the morning the crowds are thin and it would be relatively easy for the police to try and shut the revolutionaries down without many people even being there to have our backs. So only the Revolution booth skeleton was set up at the crack of dawn to hold its primo spot, but no banners or displays were hung yet. The revolutionaries gathered across the street but wore other shirts over their Revolution t-shirts. The red flags were not unfurled. The truck which would hold the display "NO MORE STOLEN LIVES" of all the people killed by the
As the crowd began to fill up in the park, the revolutionaries went around and talked to the neighboring vendors and picnicking families. Kitty corner from the park, the police were amassed getting their assignments. When the police dispersed, then the revolution booth was unveiled—everything had been prepared in the days before to put it up in short order—the banners 15 feet in the air. One banner with the Revolution newspaper masthead and the other with the full title of the DVD of a film of a talk by Bob Avakian in large letters [Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About]. There were displays on three 10 x 6 foot sides of the tent. All the literature, stickers etc. came out. The Revolution t-shirts were unveiled and the team going out into the crowd practiced their chants louder and moved out in the parade route. In 20 minutes or so, the Revolution was in the house.
Three sides of the tent were vivid color displays. One side had a 6-foot enlargement of the short version of the statement; the cover and centerfold of the special issue of Revolution #170 and a special section on the leadership we have in Bob Avakian. Turn the corner and there were color enlargements of the covers of the "A Declaration for Women's Liberation and Emancipation of All Humanity" and the "Oppression of Black People, the Crimes of this System and the Revolution we Need." Each was framed by a quote from Bob Avakian. There were other graphic pieces drawn from Revolution newspaper. The back page poster about the beating of Rihanna still draws a lot of attention and discussion. Woven through all this were scenes of "spreading the word about revolution" to all sections of people. Turn the corner again and this side was a stark depiction of the horrors of imperialism with recent center spreads enlarged from Revolution—the world food crisis; we are being lied to about the real causes of Africa's oppression and suffering; democracy + capitalism = imperialism and the centerfold on the worldwide oppression of women.
It gave a sweeping picture of the world we live in, and why only communist revolution could solve these daunting problems, and how this party and Bob Avakian could lead such a revolution. In the days leading up to the parade, newer people helped lend their creative juices and political thinking about what/how to convey our message through the displays. Something to keep building on and improving.
Another canopy was set up for viewing of the DVD Revolution, a film of a talk by Bob Avakian and a place for people to gather and talk. Playing in the background was the ghetto re-mix, songs by Nina Simone, and the reading of the statement by Joe Veale. Once the parade started, the noise was so overwhelming it drowned out all the other sound including attempts to watch the DVD.
Like flies the police began to hover around the truck that held the display of people murdered by police. In spite of a legal observer challenging them on this, the police wrote bogus tickets on the truck—"license plate too high"; "commercial vehicle in residential area"—when the whole street was filled to the brim with cars and commercial vehicles parked legally and illegally. This blatant harassment will be fought.
The contingents of people, all dressed in their Revolution T-shirts and carrying red flags, had marched out chanting. One chant was a familiar rhythm with startling content:
"Everywhere we go,
People want to know
Who we are, so we tell them
We're for revolution,
We're with Bob Avakian
Fighting for emancipation of all of humanity.
Heads turned and people reached out to get thousands of flyers and the bright yellow stickers Emancipators of Humanity. The police surrounded the group—and tried to stop them from marching, eventually confiscating dowel sticks (less than one-half inch thick) that held up the red flags. As the police tried to say you can't parade—the contingent pressed on as eager hands grabbed the fliers and the police backed off in their efforts to get them to cease and desist.
Some of the people who had gotten the paper from the contingents got some money and came back to the table to pay for them—others took the revolutionary "tour" around the tent. The displays elicited some deep discontent with the way things are or hit home about the oppression of women or the locking up of the youth. A mother talked about her son railroaded to 11 years in prison. Others said enough is enough and wanted to see people come together to make a radical change and then there was a lot of debate over what that means. Some more readily endorsed the concept of a revolution—and were challenged to become part of a movement that is seriously working for revolution. Others who came by spoke to how they had a bad feeling about communism. Or how repression comes down on people when they get too close or too much of a following like the Panthers during the '60s. They wrangled with questions of how to advance in the face of repression. They opened up to the possibility that they have been lied to about the achievements of socialism and what communism really is.
Many stopped at the enlargement of the special supplement—and we read sections aloud so it would have the full impact—this is where we are going, this is communism, this is what the emancipation of all humanity is all about. People from a nearby hospital took bundles of fliers back to work and some to pass out on the bus ride home. One 20-something woman and her kids looked at the displays. She was going back to college. She said you don't hear people talking about the common good of people—most people think about themselves. She was challenged to take that on—the world didn't have to be dog-eat-dog-look out for number one—that a whole other world was possible. She got an organizer kit.
The youth were mainly running in small posses. At the parade to see and be seen. It was harder to engage them more deeply on the spot. When the challenges got sharp, that usually opened things up. One young man boasted "I can't read" when approached with a leaflet. He was challenged—"I think that is bullshit. Everyone I know who is illiterate doesn't brag about it. You need to know about the world, the revolution we need and the leadership for this revolution." At this point his friends were cracking up and all took leaflets.
Another person reported, "In challenging a group of very street young guys around the need to spread revolution and the leadership we have with Bob Avakain, one guy stood up and said seriously, we were just talking about the need for leadership in the world, some of the others guys laughed, but he was serious, he said he would check out the flyer." One young grouping of high school girls came by—when talk turned to Professor Gates—one young woman jumped right in—about how the cops had busted this professor right in his own home! The other girls were a bit taken back—wow—she really knew what was going on—with that they studied the displays on the tent. At the end when asked what struck them another young girl said "people are going hungry—that's not right"—she was looking at the pictures of the women from
More than a few older people rolled their eyes when we spoke about the need to bring the youth forward—to get out of the "life" and get into revolution. Others promoted religion, but many with a social justice approach to taking on oppression. They were more open to listening to the CD of the dialogue between Carl Dix and Cornel West, which a number of them got. But their religious beliefs really blinded them to the underlying dynamic of this capitalist/imperialist system and left them look to "getting right with god" and leaving the big decisions up to Obama.
The revolutionaries made an important beginning impact. Much more needs to be done to crack open the space among the youth including by drawing forward those who are willing to step out and go up against the pull of the social scenes and the intimidation of the police. Recognition should be growing of the revolution we need and the leadership as we head towards opening of school and the challenge needs to be deepened these youth that there is no greater purpose and no greater cause to which to dedicate our lives than the emancipation of all of humanity.
2.Bringing "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" to Leimert Park in L.A.
This past weekend, a bilingual DVD showing of "Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About," a film of a talk by Bob Avakian, was held in a well-known breakfast and dinner/jazz club in
We presented a special selection of excerpts which played in both Spanish and English simultaneously (with Spanish language translation run through headphones). It included sections of "They're selling postcards of the hanging," "A world of rape and sexual assault," "Not fit caretakers of the earth," "Why do people come here?" and "Imagine.. a new society." One of the themes of the selections was how communist revolution could not only end national oppression but emancipate all of humanity. The program was hosted by Clyde Young of the Revolutionary Communist Party,
The people who showed up were serious and some had come from quite a distance. It was the younger folks who jumped in: One young white man took a 3-hour bus ride to get to the showing. We had met him in an area where we had taken a sound truck, done a DVD showing in a park, went back the next week and met a number of youth at a free jazz festival at the same park. He wanted to know, "what will you do with all the wealthy people, because they won’t want to give it up?" Another white student just out of
A middle-aged Chicano former musician wondered later what you do with investment brokers in the new society and how do you get people to not just think of themselves? He was very interested in Avakian’s new thinking around middle class people and how to incorporate them into the dictatorship of the proletariat. Two young Black men came later in the showing. They said that they had known Mobile Shaw and spent many hours up at his house watching the DVD and talking about revolution (See "Statement by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, on the Occasion of the Death of Willie 'Mobile' Shaw" on the back page of Revolution issue no. 171). They stayed for the whole discussion and one bought a bundle of the special issue afterwards, saying he used to be into this, and hasn’t been active for a while, but wants to get back involved.
One shop owner came to the showing to support it and to dig deeper into Bob Avakian’s works herself, and a friend of hers, another shop owner, came as well, though left very early saying she had just wanted to check it out. The shop owner who stayed for most of the showing kept crying out "That’s right!" during parts of the beginning section on "They're selling postcards of the hanging." The next day, she thanked us for inviting her, and said that Avakian was both "extremely intelligent" and "very down to earth" and she said she liked all of what she saw, and agreed with all of it. She repeated "he was so sincere and down to earth" and said this world "is so crazy" that you lose sight of many things. She said she went home and told her sister that they weren’t going to have any Buffalo Soldier stuff in their shop (which they had almost ordered because some folks had been telling her she should). She said she told her sister "Buffalo Soldiers carried out murder and we should know this, but then with all the craziness you lose sight of that...it’s very good to have Bob Avakian out here telling people the truth about this."
3.Some thoughts from people in New York
In the phone banking we found that quite a few people who got the statement at the July 14 Carl Dix/Cornel West program had not yet read it. Our experience has been that to get people to engage this actually takes work and does not happen spontaneously. When we called people back we encouraged them to read it—and we read parts of it over the phone on the spot—several of them really liked it and were particularly struck by what the statement had to say about the youth and off of this a few of them came to the Raymond Lotta program, "Why Everything You've Been Told About Communism is Wrong, or Why the Bolshevik and Chinese Revolutions Were Breakthroughs in Human Emancipation" and have hooked up with the youth volunteers. From people being very busy, to not reading long text over the internet (where even the statement is considered long), to going up against a priori assumptions people have as to what they think will be in the statement (clouded by the predominant narrative and verdict that revolution and communism is neither possible nor desirable) it actually takes work to connect and get people to engage the statement. Where we have sat and read the statement with the basic masses this has been a very important method of getting people to engage and even where this has gone on in full—it's also taken going back into sections of this and drawing out what people think.
4. A plea to my generation...
I would like to say that I have been very inspired by all of the correspondence that has been sent in from people. It is really great that you all are posting it online and in the paper. I have definitely learned from other people's experiences and wonderful ideas. I would like to contribute what turned out to be more of a plea than ideas on how to spread this further. None the less I have supported this newspaper for a while and felt compelled to send in some correspondence of my own. You all are doing a great job!
Keep up the good work!
"The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have"
I would like to start off by saying that shortly before this call was put out I had been reading the memoir by Bob Avakian, From Ike to Mao and Beyond, and had been very inspired by reading about everything that was going on during the sixties. I really thought, before reading it, that the memoir was not a piece of literature that was very important. I didn't see how it contributed to the overall work that we have been carrying out. I was very wrong about that though. I can see how even in his memoir Bob Avakian has the method of thoroughly and often humorously explaining everything that was going on at the time and how it affected the way things developed including himself and the Party. So this was very inspiring in a lot of ways. For someone who did not live through that type of environment it is amazing to read about all the wonderful things that were going on at the time, and everything that Bob Avakian and the Party have gone through in order to stay on the Revolutionary road to Communism.
I was contemplating how I was going to work to contribute to that type of movement and to fight for it to be even more revolutionary this time around, in order to actually get on the path to Communism. At that moment I opened up the web page to Revolution and saw that "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" had been posted. As I went through and read the article those thoughts I had been having seemed to really connect with what this statement was calling for.
It was motivating as well as inspiring. I felt moved to get up and do something right then and there. And then of course I realized it was 9 am on a Monday morning and I hadn't even brushed my teeth yet; none the less it was a great feeling.
I agree that this call is right on time and right on point, and the ways in which we are working towards bringing into being not only a Revolutionary movement but a core of people who, as the Constitution of the Party poetically puts it, "want revolution so badly that they are willing, and determined, to be scientific about it."
Some of the things I have been thinking about lately have been how to actually break through the rampant isolation and relativism that plagues my generation. I guess people from my generation where raised with the "Don't talk about Politics and Religion" policy. . A lot of people my age are uncomfortable with discussing these things and quite frankly
But my generation does have the type of leadership that can not only create that type of movement, but can actually enable us to be critical, to be scientific, and to be rebellious for the goal of actually breaking free from the brutally oppressive intolerable exploitative system of capitalist dictatorship.
My generation; we have been lied to! They say that we can't do better than this system; that it just needs to be reformed. They say that we're in the situation we're in because our generation just can't get its act together. They say that there are things that should not be discussed. They say that no one will watch out for you, so you might as well watch your own ass. They say all these things but when was the last time they listened to what we have to say? When was the last time the congressmen, the senators, the President came into your neighborhood and asked what you thought? Or got up on their podium and started talking about ending the exploitation, instead of making more jobs where when it boils down to it... you are still working for a relative handful to get rich off your labor! You're still working to maintain a system that spreads devastation not democracy all around the world. My generation; open your eyes! This world is intolerable, but we can do better than this! We have to work for it though. I know that in the age of microwaves, drive-thrus, Wikipedia, text messages, and all the other instant gratifications that we are used to; working for long term goals is a bit foreign, but we can do this! Let's organize discussions and meetings on the spot wherever we are, be it in the neighborhood projects or in the park. Let's do Revolutionary Poetry in the streets that inspire people to learn more about this Revolution. Let's incorporate the masses of people in protests and fundraisers.
There are so many people who need to be reached with this call, who need to be introduced to this Party and its leader and learn about The Revolution We Need... And The Leadership We Have. Needless to say, we have a lot of work to do!
5. "The Revolutionaries Are Here!" Taking out "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" to a high school and in a proletarian neighborhood
At the high school we went out there boldly in Revolution t-shirts, with a banner, agitating on the bullhorn, and plenty of copies of the call and statement from the RCP "The Revolution We Need ... The Leadership We Have." We got statements into the hands of the youth and a bunch of them signed up. That night we e-mailed the students who signed up, then came back the next day and got out more flyers and met more youth, getting into discussions with them mainly about the need for revolution.
All of us read the article by Andy Zee in issue 172 "Observations on Taking the Message Out in Harlem," and the next week we went back to fight to bring forward some of these youth, on the basis of honing in on the leadership we have. We learned that the controversy had begun to swirl in the school over communism, and whether or not it is desirable with communism being defined as "everybody's equal and gets paid the same." Also swirling seemed to be people taking positions on "the revolutionaries." One young woman didn't want a flyer and told us, "I'm not a revolutionary, I'm a Jehovah's Witness," while a young guy specifically said he's a supporter of us and what we're doing.
We made a half-page high school flyer with the picture of the dead Iraqi child on one side and the paragraph on what kind of future this system has for the youth in this country and that this system needs to be swept away, and on the back a picture of Bob Avakian's DVD Revolution Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About with the paragraph that it is up to us to shake this off and rise up, and the days when people aren't inspired and organized to stand up can and need to be gone. The flyer called on people to get with the revolutionaries and come to a nearby McDonalds to watch the DVD. This flyer was taken up by students who took stacks of them inside the school and passed them out in class.
We did DVD showings at the McDonalds two days in a row. The first day two rebellious students who hate the police and live near the McDonalds came and checked it out really quickly and took papers to get out in school. The second day a more serious 22-year-old who lives across the street from the school came with his 17-year-old friend who goes to the same high school but is not due back in class until September. They watched the"Imagine" track and the Q&A on smoking weed in socialism, and we talked about what kind of revolution this is, in particular a revolution of masses of people with communist goals and aims vs. individual acts of frustration. The older of the two very sincerely made the point to his younger friend that we have to be working for revolution now, we can't wait, because this is about the people of the world. He told us he really appreciates this leader and what we are doing. We told him we're recruiting into the revolutionary movement and he should join, and he said OK. He gave $2 for a bundle of 20 papers and then he and two friends came out with us the next day when we went into the community.
We have plans to follow up at the school with weekly DVD showings at the McDonalds, and we're aiming to meet some teachers who will invite us to come speak in classes, and we're talking to the contacts we've met.
In the neighborhood, we went to a shopping area where a lot of people go and did a march through the area with a small youthful crew. We held up the banner of the DVD, and we marched using the chant, "seize the day, seize the hour, the people need revolution, and political power." We ran into three white youth who had seen the paper at the Warped Tour and they marched with us until we stopped. They didn't want to run with us the whole day, but got the paper and gave their contact. Next time we should go at a slower pace so that we are able to talk to people who are checking us out and spend more time talking with the youth we run into about this statement and what we're doing and challenging them to take up bundles of the paper.
It was when we got into the neighborhood itself where people got a sense that "the revolutionaries are here." We had a large crew all in the Revolution t-shirts, and a sound truck playing one of us reading the statement. We talked to everybody out on the street and in the park and we went into the apartment complexes and knocked on doors. We talked to some youth who opened up and spoke bitterness about their encounters with the police, but we weren't really able to go over to a discussion about the kind of revolution we need and the leadership we have.
We told everybody we'd be doing a DVD showing in the park after dark and we did. We made a screen, hooked up the projector and played the DVD, loud enough that it could be heard down the block. A couple people decided to come over and watch some of it. This DVD showing contributed to the sense that the revolutionaries are here and not backing down, in the sense of fighting through on doing it and bringing people to it. The small crew that included the new youth also marched down a major commercial street in the area to where the theaters and restaurants are stopping at each corner to talk to people and get out the paper. It was loud and vibrant, with everyone holding up the paper, and stirred things up. The decorated truck followed the march and people kept coming up to it, wanting to know what this was about. Two people along the way had heard of Bob Avakian before and both basically said, "I think he has some good ideas," when asked what they thought of him. Seeing this march gave people a sense of seeing those ideas becoming a material force.
6.Revolution at Rock the Bells
Thousands of twenty-something proletarians, college students, older hip-hop heads, and a smattering of high school youth came to the day-long hip-hop festival Rock the Bells last weekend to hear artists like Nas with Damian Marley, Busta Rhymes, The Roots, and Ice Cube, and less mainstream people like Sage Francis. Rock the Bells is a festival that aims to have a rebellious edge—featuring many artists who challenge the status quo in different ways, who instead of only rapping about bitches and ho's and making money, include lyrics that rail against some of the outrages of this system. Every once in a while, you hear lyrics that encourage resistance to these outrages, or even inspire people to dream of a better world, but most of even the rebellious edge of this culture is unfortunately locked within itself, trapped in not being able to see any means of actually changing the world, and consigned to the idea that bringing out some of the truth through the music is as far as we can go to having any kind of effect on society. In fact, over and over again this is what we heard from many of the youth at this concert who hate the injustices they see around them, who think we needed revolution yesterday, but up until now have not seen any real possibility of that.
We've gone to Rock the Bells several years in a row, so our paper and the Bob Avakian DVD [Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About] are already known by some people. Some people expect to see us there and some of those have been watching carefully, checking us out. This year, we had a real presence with "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have." The Revolution DVD banner was visible as people entered the parking lot, flyers of the message and call from the RCP, USA got into people's hands as they walked in, and then inside, the words of this statement emanated out into the walkways from the loudspeaker in the Revolution booth, alternating with the voice and words of Bob Avakian, as his historic Revolution talk played on a laptop screen in the booth. A five-foot enlargement of the statement with color pictures flanked the booth. Many people passing by the booth stopped to read parts of the statement and find out about this leader.
One youth in his twenties who'd met us last year and signed up to be on the e-mail list has been getting the e-mails from the bookstore. He came into the booth asking, "Do you have the Bob Avakian DVD?" He said he had listened to the Cornel West and Carl Dix dialogue on KPFK and wants to watch the DVD. He wasn't ready to get involved, didn't want to talk more or give his number, but said he just really wants to learn more and when he's ready he'll come to the bookstore. A guy from
People had all different kinds of ideas of what revolution meant. Some people were into Che and said that's what it means to be a revolutionary—to fight for real and to give your life for the people. We told people who said this that Che had good intentions but he didn't have a strategy that could lead to liberation—in particular he didn't think the masses themselves could understand and change the world and actually uproot the relations of oppression and exploitation and thoroughly transform society. We told people this highlights even more the significance of THIS leader, Bob Avakian, who has tremendous confidence in the ability of the masses to change the world and change themselves in the process, and has developed revolutionary theory which can lead them to do this. Mainly the people we talked to who were more into Che weren't into pursuing this discussion when it came down to genuine revolutionary leadership that exists today and what's involved in actually making revolution.
Some people made comments that were clearly not at all serious about making revolution, best described as "infantile posturing and distortions of revolution" which is addressed in an article from revcom.us called "Some Crucial Points of Revolutionary Orientation—In Opposition to Infantile Posturing and Distortions of Revolution." We used the orientation in that article to address these comments, but we should have also directed people to read it themselves (it's located as an appendix in the pamphlet Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic Orientation).
Other people said revolution was about people changing themselves as individuals, or that the way to make revolution—and really they meant a general idea of change—is through music that makes people more conscious. With many people who said these kinds of things, we went right to the need to get rid of this whole system, that this is the revolution we're talking about, and that right now we need to be fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution. For some of the advanced, when they realized we were talking about a real revolution to get rid of the whole capitalist system, they said yes we need it, but it's not possible, they are too strong, we would be crushed. We used the statement itself, reading from the enlargement we had where it speaks directly to this question. When we got to the part that "now IS the time to be WORKING FOR REVOLUTION—to be stepping up resistance while building a movement for revolution—to prepare for the time when it WILL be possible to go all out to seize the power," some of these people were looking at us with new eyes, and saying, "yes!"
A small detour: earlier in the week, a teacher at a high school where we've been doing a lot of work with the statement, said his students had come to him with the flyer and asked him if we were for real. He had taught them about the need for resistance, about different revolutionaries in history, and they saw the revolutionaries outside of their school and couldn't believe it was really real. This was how some of the revolutionary-minded people at Rock the Bells were. They spoke with a sense of urgency, almost desperation, for the need to radically change this world, and as they engaged what we were bringing to them, they grabbed onto it thirstily but also somewhat tentatively—like someone in a desert who is going to the pool of water they see, but also thinking it might be a mirage.
One person who was like this was maybe around 20 years old and he was at the concert with his girlfriend. It was the Fuck Capitalism t-shirt hanging from the booth that first caught his eye. He showed it to his girlfriend and they both came over to get a closer look. I showed them the statement and we started to talk about it, getting into some of these questions. I asked them what they think of communism. The boyfriend explained to me that he hates money, he hates what money does to people, what people do to each other to get money. He said he wants to see a world where people work together and share for the benefit of everybody and when he's said this to his friends, they've called him a communist—but he never really knew what communism was. We read the part of the statement about communism, and I began to tell them how the history of socialism has been kept from people, how these societies were turned back by the forces of the old order, but they didn't fail and we can go further the next time around. I showed them the picture in the paper from
I asked them if they wanted to see part of the Bob Avakian DVD where he talks about what a new society would look like. They wanted to know about who Bob Avakian was. I told them about how he developed into a revolutionary and a communist and how he has studied and summed up the experience of the first wave of communist revolutions, developed theory and strategy for how we can make revolution in this period and take it even further, and he is leading a vanguard party to initiate a new stage of revolution in the world. They decided to buy the DVD. I told them that we had a special offer with a subscription to the newspaper and we looked through the articles in the current issue. They definitely wanted the subscription, and they took ten issues of the statement to distribute.
An important component in how seriously people were taking us is how seriously we took ourselves. The more bold and confident we were in putting forward the content of this statement, the more it attracted the serious people to us—like one guy rushing into the amphitheatre heard us say, "we need a real revolution, we need resistance, and we're building a movement for revolution—NOW." He stopped, took the flyer and asked, "How do I sign up?" We told him to take a bundle of papers, to distribute them there at the concert, to donate money for those papers, and to give us a way to get back to him. He said OK, took ten papers, gave $5, and gave his number.
Our boldness also drew a couple backward comments from those who are more seriously against communism and revolution but didn't feel the freedom to do more than yell out something stupid in passing (one guy passed by the booth and said "fuck communists," another threw the flyer and said loudly, "oh I thought this was porn"). The word clearly got out that not only were we the revolutionaries, we were the COMMUNIST revolutionaries. Some people said they've read the communist manifesto and they like it. Some of them said it's a good idea but doesn't work. Others who hadn't engaged it that much and were pretty much just repeating what's commonly out there just passed by and said, "Communism doesn't work" or "It won't work here." At the end of the night we did agitation from on top of a milk crate as waves of people were exiting the concert. Again, some passed by and said, "I don't agree with communism," and kept walking while others stopped to talk about what they understand of communism. But many stopped to get the statement or get a bundle of statements, because they agreed: that the crimes of this system are intolerable and that we need "to be stepping up resistance while building a movement for revolution¼" and they were inspired and challenged by the call to wake up, to shake off the ways they put on us, to rise up as conscious emancipators of humanity.
After watching us throughout the day, one person came up and said he liked what he saw, that he's the organizer of an extreme sports event, and he wants to donate booth space for us to be there. A young Black man walked in to the bookstore the next day, saying he was in town for Rock the Bells, that he'd seen us there, had gotten a subscription to Revolution the year before, and he wanted to renew his subscription, get the DVD, and get a second subscription in Spanish. He told the staff person that he sends his paper to friends in different cities, that he doesn't know if any English-speaking people in his town would be interested in the paper, but there's a meat-packing plant nearby where a lot of Spanish-speaking immigrants work and he thought some of them would be interested. After talking it over with the comrade at the bookstore, he decided to get a bundle of 50 of the statement, half in Spanish to distribute at the meat-packing plant, and half in English to distribute to students at a nearby college.
Altogether, we got out over 2000 copies of the short-version flyer, 500 plugger cards for the Bob Avakian DVD, and more than 800 copies of the full message and call from the RCP,
7. Bringing Forward a Communist Core in the Spanish-Speaking Community
In Part 8 of "Ruminations and Wranglings", Bob Avakian speaks to "the crucial importance of bringing forward and continually strengthening the communist solid core of, in turn, a broader revolutionary movement." In light of what he is putting forward, there was a meeting with some of the Spanish-speakers who have been taking out the message and call, "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have" to the Spanish-speaking community.
The purpose of the meeting was to learn from their experience in going out to achieve the three inter-related objectives of this campaign. How they understand it. What questions, ideas, and suggestions they have about who and how to advance and spread out this campaign, and then we wanted to get into how to continue to take out this campaign in a way that will continue to build on the three objectives—to change the situation where there IS a broad revolutionary movement in this country that everybody in society is responding to one way or another, that the leader of this movement (Bob Avakian) is known broadly throughout society, and within that there is a growing militant core who are on a mission to emancipate all of humanity.
One of those who have enthusiasm for taking this out, talked of the receptiveness from the masses to revolution we need. He told a story on how he would take out the statement to people, telling them about how god did not put us in this situation and how thinking that way would stop people. He said some would give money and take small bundles. He also spoke about a regular group of people he gets the paper to weekly, including some bundles, but he was having difficulties in figuring out how to be further organizing of such people.
A short clip was played from the DVD, Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, where the Chairman talks about the masses need for leadership in order to strengthen the way this group takes that out and enables them to struggle with the people around it.
A question was posed, why is communism alive in the world and why is it possible for it to get some strong legs under it? To get into it, we read that section on the leadership we have.
One person spoke to the fact that he was running into some anti-communism but he thought most were receptive. At the same time, people in the group were coming up against how to make distinctions between movements in
Another person has shown a lot of enthusiasm for this whole campaign and felt that he has not been taking out the message and call correctly. He said that he has being taking this to smaller groups of people, rather then getting it out in bold and broad ways, which he felt was the more correct approach in terms of conveying the seriousness of what we are trying to do in projecting this movement as one that needs to grow by leaps and bounds. He said that we need to get the DVD out there, project it on walls or in the parks where there are soccer and basketball games, be in the t-shirts, with 10-12 people going into the Spanish-speaking neighborhoods, with our tables, raising funds with buckets like the picture on page 3 of the special issue, and put more emphasis on being bold.
There was a discussion about how to do both—being out there broadly and boldly, as well as having discussion with smaller groups of people—where the small needs to grow, and even the big needs to get bigger—with an emphasis on the broadly and boldly as was laid on in the editorial in the paper on taking out the message and call. The group came to the conclusion that our vision has to be more in line with having a bold and broad approach to bringing people into the revolutionary movement, where people will find their level of how to enter this movement.
Throughout this discussion there was a lot of emphasis on making more use of the DVD to show people who this leader is and the part in the statement about the precious and rare leader and what makes him so.
The group broke up with a determination to make plans, based on the discussion, for how to continue to take the message and call to the Spanish-speaking community and find ways to organize people on the spot.
