Summer’s Still Here and the Time Is Right for...
Building the Movement for Revolution

August 18, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

As the summer opened, Revolution published an important editorial, “A Summer of Big Challenges and Intense Struggle.” Big challenges and intense struggle indeed! The world and this country have seen unexpected and momentous changes since that editorial was published. And everywhere that struggle, turmoil, and jolts in the everyday functioning of this global system of oppression break out, the big question is objectively posed: does the world need to be this way? The ruling classes of the world decree the answer is yes. In reality, the answer is hell, no! But in order for people to see and act on that, they have to know how the world could be, and what it will take to change things.

The key dynamic factor in this mix: going out with BA Everywhere. Because of Bob Avakian (BA) and the work he has done over several decades, there is a new synthesis of communism that has been brought forward—there really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and there is the crucial leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal. Getting BA’s vision and project into all corners of society makes it possible for people to identify and get into the “big questions” concerning the direction of society and the world, and to be inspired to fight for fundamental change and the emancipation of humanity.

As the summer closes, millions in this country are still seething with anger and outrage over the travesty of the killer of Trayvon Martin walking free. The prisoners’ hunger strike against the torture of long-term solitary confinement enters its second month, and the prisoners face brutal retaliation from State of California authorities. The Abortion Rights Freedom Ride is taking on the attacks on the right to abortion in state after state.

And look at the world as a whole. In Egypt, in the wake of the military coup, millions have been drawn into struggle over what a revolution really is, and what kind of society people want to live in. The courageous revelations of NSA surveillance by Edward Snowden—that the U.S. government spies not only on every person in this country but billions throughout the world—have called into question why there is such ubiquitous monitoring of people across the planet and the nature of the system and those who rule over it. Look at the quickening pace of natural disasters, aggravated by capitalism’s insanely heedless destruction of the environment, that compels millions to question what is happening in the world. A case in point: 300 tons of radioactive water is being dumped out of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean every day.

In all these realms of struggle and controversy, the big question is posed: what are people to make of these events... and what will be their response? There is a need and the potential at times like these for a dramatic change in how people see and interact with the world. But the reality of this system, and the need for revolution, nothing less, has to be taken to people, and people need to be struggled with to take this up—in their thinking and actions. These last weeks of summer are a time to step up efforts to influence and change the thinking of people all over society. This is a time to build and to join in struggle and resistance to all these outrages. And most important, this is a time to build the movement for revolution and accumulate forces for revolution.

As the Revolutionary Communist Party’s “On the Strategy for Revolution” says: “For those who have hungered for, who have dreamed of, a whole different world, without the madness and torment of what this system brings every day...those who have dared to hope that such a world could be possible...and even those who, up to now, would like to see this, but have accepted that this could never happen...there is a place and a role, a need and a means, for thousands now and ultimately millions to contribute to building this movement for revolution, in many different ways, big and small—with ideas and with practical involvement, with support, and with questions and criticisms. Get together with our Party, learn more about this movement and become a part of it as you learn, acting in unity with others in this country, and throughout the world, aiming for the very challenging but tremendously inspiring and liberating—and, yes, possible—goal of emancipating all of humanity through revolution and advancing to a communist world, free of exploitation and oppression.”

Key Fronts in Building a Movement for Revolution

Near the beginning of BA’s epic speech, REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, he repeatedly poses the question around the murder of Black and Latino youths by the police: how long must this go on? And this question continues to sound a deep chord, as one outrage after another goes on: the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer; the murder of Oscar Grant by the transit police in Oakland, as shown in the important movie Fruitvale Station; and just this week the dismissal of all charges against the cop who killed Ramarley Graham in his own home in the Bronx, NY, as well as the police Taser murder of Israel Hernández-Llach, an 18-year-old graffiti artist in Miami—after which the police reportedly high-fived one another! The pain and anger and questioning in the wake of these outrages is still very close to the surface and people are open to hearing (and reading) a compelling analysis linking all this to the system we live under and to the need for revolution. People are often ready to act in response to these outrages; and they are ready to come closer to and get with the movement for revolution.

At the same time, there is the crucially important—and heroic—prisoners’ hunger strike against the torture of long-term solitary confinement, focused right now in California, which requires a leap in support from “the outside”—from those who day to day suffer from the New Jim Crow to professionals, academics, and artists to students and others who are now learning of the atrocities committed in their name. Here the key link is bringing what is posted at revcom.us and in this current issue of Revolution to broad swaths of people across society. Take note, in particular, of the message from the Los Angeles Branch of the RCP, USA, “What Is Actually Revealed by the California Prisoners Hunger Strike?” and the article in this issue from BA, “More on Choices... and Radical Changes.” These pieces speak to the questions holding back people on the outside from standing with the prisoners. The ways must be and can be found—on the basis of engaging with what is being said in these articles—to bring more people into motion in support of these prisoners. And we call on the prisoners themselves to spread Revolution within the walls of the dungeons as well.

The Abortion Rights Freedom Ride is now heading into its home stretch—through the South and into Mississippi. This ride is taking up an uncompromising fight for abortion rights straight up in the face of those who would deny women these rights. Forced motherhood is female enslavement. And revolutionaries need to maximize the impact on all of society of this path-breaking Freedom Ride. People everywhere can read and hear about what they are doing, and spread the news of this pathbreaking Freedom Ride by going to revcom.us and the StopPatriarchy.org blog.

This summer is witnessing a movement across the country of people who are protesting the destruction of the environment—with a focus on stopping the Keystone Pipeline which, if approved, would increase by 830,000 barrels a day the flow of tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast—causing great harm to the environment and posing even greater dangers if something goes wrong. As this movement unfolds, people need to be going out to where people are in struggle, joining with them, and bringing them both “State of Emergency! The Plunder of Our Planet, The Environmental Catastrophe & The Real Revolutionary Solution” (available as a printable pamphlet at revcom.us) and BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! We also encourage readers to broadly distribute “Four Points for Bill McKibben,” by Raymond Lotta.

Preparing Minds, and Organizing Forces, for Revolution—Nothing Less

Showings, on the spot, of at least the first hour of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live should bring out questions people have and an understanding of this society in a way that nothing else can—and get them into the journey that BA takes us on. Aim to show this film to large groups of people, wherever they congregate or wherever a crowd can be gathered. Show the film at community centers, libraries, and other venues. Organize weekly showings and discussions of the film’s chapters. Donations, on the spot and after a showing, give people a way to participate in making revolution. Invite people to join in and support the van tours in all the ways they can. During the first round of these tours, a number of people joined—becoming part of the tour must multiply. And don’t fail to organize showings after the tour leaves. These must be seeded and put in place, as well as finding the ways to continue to connect with people in the areas where the tour impacts.

When we get BA out everywhere, we expose people to the only real alternative to this capitalist-imperialist system—the vision and plan for a whole new structure of society that can enable people to do away with all oppressive institutions and ideas, and the exploitation at their root.

Two key documents for building the movement for revolution now: the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal), from the RCP, which brings BA’s new synthesis of communism to life in living color; and the RCP, USA’s “On the Strategy for Revolution,” which breaks down how revolution is possible in the USA.

And we need to take full advantage of important articles in Revolution that not only expose the nature of this system, but help people learn to understand and act on reality. In that vein, the article “Millions of People CAN Be Wrong: The Coup in Egypt Is Not a People’s Revolution” can play a particularly valuable role.

The website revcom.us is both the collective educator and the collective organizer for the movement for revolution. Get that URL—revcom.us—out everywhere, from social media to sidewalk chalking. In the next few weeks, new promotional materials will be up at the site. And sign people up, right now and in an ongoing way, as financial sustainers so revcom.us can continue to function, and the print edition—Revolution—can continue.

Write to revcom.us/Revolution at revolution.reports@yahoo.com. Tell us what you are learning, what questions you have and are wrestling with, what you are thinking, what you are doing. This is an important part of building the movement for revolution.

In short, these last few weeks of summer must be a time where we persevere in going very boldly into society on these key concentrations of social contradictions and making a major impact on how people are thinking, and what they are doing.

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