Things That Should Be Clear to Revolutionaries Right Now
December 18, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader
To be as clear as I can be: Fighting the power—standing up and fighting back—both in an ongoing way, and in specific relation to the police murders of Eric Garner and Michael Brown and the outrageous grand jury decisions to let their killers walk and everything these decisions concentrate, is extremely, extremely important, inspiring, and righteous. In fact, this resistance is not only important but essential, both because it is morally imperative to resist crimes against humanity that really do constitute a slow genocide against Black people that could easily accelerate to a fast genocide, and because organizing people—including those most viciously oppressed by this system—to stand up and fight back against these crimes and against the key pillar of this system and society represented by white supremacy and the oppression of Black people— is an essential part of working to bring closer, and prepare for, the future conditions when going all-out for revolution would be possible and an essential part of accumulating forces for that revolution. As spoken to in several recent very important statements and articles in Revolution newspaper/revcom.us, this resistance needs to not only continue but get even broader, deeper, and more defiant and determined.
At the same time, for those of us who have come to understand that nothing will fundamentally change without revolution—a real revolution that, when the time is right, overturns this capitalist-imperialist system and brings into being a whole new socialist system and society, on the road to a whole new communist world—I think the following is really important to constantly have in mind and proceed from: While it is essential to resist and fight injustice, what we are even more fundamentally about is getting to a world where there is no longer the need to resist and fight injustice, because there is no more injustice, oppression, exploitation, or divisions between people. In other words: We are about radically changing the whole fucking world through revolution.
If we understand that and keep that in the forefront of our minds—that everything we are doing is about making revolution and bringing a whole new world into being, and getting to the point of being able to lead millions of people to actually make this revolution at the earliest possible time—then a few other things should quickly become clear:
First, it should be clear that in everything we are doing, including right in the heart and on the front lines of struggle, we should be connecting people in a big way with the work and leadership of Bob Avakian (BA), the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and getting BA Everywhere throughout society. BA, and his work and leadership, concentrate the understanding, strategy, vision, and method—the theoretical framework—we need to make this revolution, and millions of people need to know about and dig into BA’s work and get with his leadership. Right now, one key way—definitely not the only way, but one key way—of doing this is by making a really huge deal out of the recent historic Dialogue between BA and Cornel West. We should be directing everyone to the Livestream of this Dialogue, urging them to watch it, watching and discussing it with groups of people, working to set up showings in campuses, housing projects, and many other places, and in all different kinds of ways projecting this Dialogue and the continued excitement and buzz about it throughout society. This Dialogue is a fantastic concentration of who BA is, and what his work and leadership are all about.
Second, it should be clear that in everything we are doing, including right in the heart and on the front lines of struggle, we need to connect people in a big way with the website revcom.us and Revolution newspaper. This newspaper and website are, as BA says in the film BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less!—not only a “collective educator” but also a “collective organizer” for this movement for revolution. By connecting people with this newspaper and web site, we are not only connecting them with critical coverage and analysis of major events and developments in the world, but even more essentially connecting them with a resource that, in an ongoing way, powerfully brings alive the need and possibility of revolution; connects people with BA, the leader of the revolution; provides a living sense of the development and growth of the movement for revolution that BA is leading; and gives people concrete ways to be part of that movement for revolution. We should be telling people about all of this , about Revolution newspaper and revcom.us. And we should be not only getting visuals with the newspaper and website everywhere, which is definitely very, very good and important, but also selling lots of copies of the newspaper, signing people up for free e-subscriptions, and working to develop organized networks around the newspaper and website in housing projects, college dorms, communities of artists, and much more.
Third, it should be clear that in everything we are doing, including right in the heart and on the front lines of struggle, we need to be working to actively organize people into the movement for revolution through a very broad range of forms and on many different levels. Right now, as pointed to in the recent piece on revcom.us “Get Organized,” this work to accumulate forces for revolution very crucially includes actively organizing people into Revolution Clubs and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. Let’s just tell it like it is: Without getting to the point where millions of people are ready to go all out for revolution, there is no chance at winning against the forces of the most powerful imperialist country in history. We are not at that point of having millions now, but we have to be working every second to get to that point, accumulating forces for revolution. And we need to get to the point where there is an organized, disciplined force of thousands of people ready to lead the millions of people, when those millions are ready to go all-out for revolution.
This brings me to the final point I want to make here: It should be clear that in everything we are doing, including right in the heart and on the front lines of struggle, we need to be letting everyone know about, building, and strengthening the vanguard force of the revolution, the Revolutionary Communist Party that BA leads. Without a vanguard party that is taking responsibility for making this revolution and whose members have dedicated their lives to this—without a unified, organized, disciplined force that is, on an advanced level, collectively and in a continuous way applying the new synthesis of communism developed by BA to making revolution, and on that basis, constantly summing up and applying the lessons of advances made, contradictions and setbacks encountered, challenges presenting themselves and how to approach those challenges, openings revealed, key tasks that need to be taken up, and more—without such a party, a real revolution cannot be made. And in fact, without that party growing to include thousands of people ready to lead millions, a revolution cannot be made.
It is true that when people are first getting introduced to this party and what it’s all about, they are not yet ready to—and shouldn’t—join it on the spot. And it is true that joining the party is a serious, life-long commitment that can’t be approached casually. But this does not mean that we shouldn’t be telling everybody about this party, working to project its influence throughout society, and working with those who are supportive of the party to get even deeper with the party and to take the leap to joining it. We have to do this! How are we going to get to the point of thousands and thousands more people joining the party if we are not constantly building support for it, strengthening it, projecting the reach and influence of the party throughout society, and working and struggling with those who are already close to the party to get even closer and, on the right basis, joining it?
In short: In this moment, and all throughout the process of making revolution, we need to manifest, bring alive, and put the challenge to people—in words, images, and deeds—what is spoken to by BA in this quote from BAsics:
If you want to know about, and work toward, a different world—and if you want to stand up and fight back against what’s being done to people—this is where you go. You go to this Party, you take up this Party’s newspaper, you get into this Party’s leader and what he’s bringing forward. (BAsics 3:34)
Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution
If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.