Revolution Summer! Chicago Fund Drive Enters Second and Decisive Phase
On to $50,000!
From the Revolution Club, Chicago
July 31, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
We are in the midst of an important campaign to raise $50,000 for Revolution Summer! Through this, we hope to bring many people in more middle strata to support this effort, and in the process to learn more about what the masses of people are facing in the oppressed neighborhoods, and about the revolution that is needed. We have raised a little over half of what is needed. Many people around the country will need to step forward to meet this goal as quickly as possible, to keep this project going.
As it says on the GoFundMe site for the project: “Donations are needed right now to support the work being done this summer in Chicago by the Chicago Revolution Club, out-of-town volunteers, and Carl Dix [a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party]. The Club is taking out the leadership and the science people need to get free to the people who are currently shooting and murdering each other. The Club is on the front lines, fighting relentlessly to get the youth to stop the insanity and get into the revolution. This situation is more acute than ever as the Trump/Pence regime sets its fascist sights on Chicago. ... Everyone with a heart agonizes over this situation. But here is a way for you to actually do something—make a donation that can actually make a difference—because this project is not about putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.“
We have learned some things with our initial efforts in the middle class in Chicago, concentrated in a group of health professionals and workers who have donated several thousand dollars to Revolution Summer! in both small and large sums. The six Points of Attention for the Revolution have played an important role in this work—projecting a vision for a new future and of moral authority for that future.
Because there is such a huge gulf of ignorance and ignore-ance among the middle strata, even in Chicago, of the conditions people on the South and West Sides actually face—there is the need in this work to bring to life the reality that the violent oppression of Black people has been deeply embedded in every aspect of this country for hundreds of years and that, due to the workings of capitalism-imperialism, millions of Black people have become expendable in its eyes. This agitation/argumentation does have an impact on people being asked to donate to this project. The problem is this system and not some pathology of Black people who in fact are the victims of all of this. Middle class people raise to us: Can these problems be addressed by more education? Should we focus more on problems of the Black family and the lack of fathers in the home? But how well do these people in more privileged positions, who are immersed in “information” but not in scientific analyses, get the horror of mass incarceration that has robbed these communities of so many people? How well do people understand the history of how this system created these segregated neighborhoods with redlining and restrictive covenants/the destruction of public housing/the turning of public schools into prisons with no chance at real education? These questions are all addressed at revcom.us, and using these articles has made a big difference in winning people to donate.
Why People Donated
Among those who decide to support this it has been important to get people to express why, from their perspective, they are supporting this project and to share that with others still on the fence. One health professional donated to Revolution Summer twice and wrote: “Made another 50.00 donation on the GoFundMe page. Instead of writing something of my own I will just pick some quotes that I like. (1) ‘The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.’ Marcus Garvey. (2) ‘For any marginalized group to change the story the society tells about them takes courage and perseverance.’ Sharon Salzberg. (3) People often call fighting discrimination being ‘PC’ because they don’t want their own unearned privileges challenged.’ DaShanne Stokes.”
A professional whose parents are from South Asia wrote: “I grew up doing volunteer work with my parents. So I’ve seen injustices and inequality of under privileged communities as well as the sense of hopelessness in the children/adolescents who can’t see a way out. When my friend discussed the Revolution Club, it got my interest immediately. An organization that is working to change things on a big scale. I’m in agreement that the world needs to open their eyes and see the blatant disregard for other humans just because of the low income or skin color. Thus glad to see a national movement for change.”
Carl Dix Dinner/Discussion with Health Professionals
We recently had an informal dinner meeting/discussion where four health professionals met with Carl Dix after all had donated to this project. Carl spoke about the decision to bring a Revolution Summer to these neighborhoods, to the pull of the street and the struggle to break people out of that and onto another road and what would be involved in this. He also gave a lot of attention to the campaign of police-imposed “martial law” in the area on the South Side where the Revolution Club has planted a pole—including the raid of over 100 cops on a family’s 4th of July party. Those at the dinner were really taken aback by this and learning of the 7 am-3 pm curfew which led to one resident being ordered off the sidewalk to his porch and then off his porch into his home! The issue of neighborhood development to “uplift the neighborhoods” came up. Carl spoke to the Obama library and the Tiger Woods golf course, both planned for South Shore and, as Carl explained, both meant to delude people into dead ends that do nothing to address the real problem.
At the end of the dinner, one professional who has been generous in her support of this project raised her questions about communism and human nature, and Carl went into this with substance. The next day, another of the professionals added that she very much appreciated what Carl had to say, and expressed her views this way: “Changing all of this is hard work and will take a lot of time and I appreciate that there can be many approaches to going at this.” She offered that she is going to donate again and would be willing to reach out to a few others that she knows. What we have learned, among other things, is that people do not have to agree with everything about Revolution Summer in order to support it, AND TO TAKE IT OUT TO OTHERS.
Support Those with a Real Plan to End the Crimes of This System
It is important to grasp that progressive middle class people, people who do have a heart and are agonizing over the daily carnage among these youth, have a responsibility to support this project even as they explore and engage with and raise questions about and voice disagreements with revolution and with Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism. We welcome all of this, but not by making disagreement principle over the need to have the back of Carl Dix and the courageous Revolution Club volunteers as they fight the power, and transform the people, for revolution in these neighborhoods. You can sense the excitement of so many good middle class people when they first hear that somebody is out there on these mean streets with a plan to actually END this monstrous crime imposed by the system upon humanity! Then, of course, people want to “get real,” and why wouldn’t they, not grasping the deep science behind this plan? So now they’re on a journey—and we need to help lead them to that science and its methods and conclusions. But don’t let them lose that spark that we lit! Here’s a simple truth—No other plan out there is even close to commensurate with this fucking problem! Support that!
Bob Avakian, in his new book THE NEW COMMUNISM: The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation, talks about the “positive synergy” between building the revolutionary movement among the most oppressed—and among the middle strata. Those who catch the most hell need the middle strata to back them up to not feel that the rest of society is against them. This is strategically important in making revolution.
Another positive development we’ve seen so far in this fund drive is increasing excitement, and multiple donations, from a section of donors who follow Revolution Summer online at revcom.us or at least through GoFundMe updates, and emails we send out to them. When they read articles like “Face-Off on the South Side of Chicago” and how things were getting very intense and people in the neighborhood were stepping forward in various ways, including putting on the BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! T-shirts, some donated again and sent encouraging statements. We have to make sure the Revolution Club and the people they are reaching out to HEAR that there ARE middle class people who do HAVE THEIR BACKS.
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