Revolution #159, March 22, 2009
A “Blitz” to Build a Revolutionary Movement
Recently, in an effort to step up systematic efforts in distributing the newspaper and integrating into that broad mass use of Bob Avakian’s DVD, REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, we spent two weekends in a neighborhood in our city. Our orientation was to present in a concise, straight-up way to people that we are building a movement for revolution, and this newspaper is the core of and the organizational foundation for that movement—that “the revolutionaries are here” building a revolutionary movement and people need to find out what this is all about, and to get with it, including by regularly getting and building networks around this newspaper as a very powerful tool for building and organizing revolution.
This was a great thing to do—to go out there boldly with the paper, open up some new territory, lay a basis to bring forward new people to be a part of a revolutionary movement. We learned some things about how critical that is. And we got a sense of both the potential to forge a revolutionary movement—and the real challenge and necessity of getting into and struggling with people over all the things, including backward thinking, that hold them back.
With this kind of orientation, who was advanced and who was not was quickly sorted out and we could move on to someone who wanted the paper. ” The masses responded seriously in the main, with only a very few negative responses, including “I have my religion. I don’t need this.” We did not get into a series of long discussions with people, but introduced the paper if they seemed interested, we offered the sub, and said we would be back next week. This was a scientific and systematic approach—neighborhood scoped out in advance, teams set up, clear, simple orientation given, good visuals, and quickly out of the gate in the morning. Sum up mid day, then out again.
Some youth who went out with us for the first time were excited to see how our line really resonated with this section of the people. It wasn’t about a long scholastic discussion about why revolution is necessary but instead people coming from a basic understanding that the system is fucking people over and uniting with “we need a whole different future” and being eager to learn about what we are doing and how we are approaching this.
A young comrade of ours helped in selecting this neighborhood, which the team was not familiar with but he knew and thought it would be good place to start. He seemed to know where to not go, as well, which is important to know and not blindly walk into very contested areas. The neighborhood we chose is mixed Latino/Black proletarians, but not the roughest area of the city. It is overwhelmingly proletarian, many owners of small, very modest homes, about 80% Black, some who have been there many years, some who grew up in that area and may have inherited homes; others who said they are fighting to stay afloat with the mortgage crisis. Maybe 10% of the houses are boarded up or empty with for sale signs. People knew of others who lost their homes in the area. We sold a paper to two Latina women who were packing up their belongings after losing their home to foreclosure. They were moving just down the street to an apartment complex.
We divided up into teams, each with a particular area to cover. Each team had at least one Spanish speaker, which was crucial. In order to give a sense that the revolutionaries were there, each team had visuals—enlargements of the centerfolds from the newspaper, and the visuals were carried through the neighborhoods. Each team also had a bullhorn, though they weren’t used that much. At the end of the day, the teams came back together to turn in names and notes.
We set up a team of people to call all the names back during the week and see if people wanted to have a showing of the DVD at their house this week; we wanted to learn what they thought about the paper if they have read it.
People we spoke with in going door to door and to those on the street commented that we had not been there before though some recognized us from protests and TV. “Where have you been?” was a common response. Overall the response we very open, positive. Revolution, yes, but what kind? How do you do that in a country like this? A few of the people we talked to had connections to the 60's, the Panthers; others talked about recent police murders and the protests against them, proud they had been a part of those protests. And another proletarian woman said she is concerned about the fate of the planet due to global warming. There was, of course, a large helping of Obamamania and hope that things may change. But that was tempered by a lot of the reality of what is really going on, with the economy, with brutality.
After looking at the enlargements of centerfolds we had with us, several people motioned us over. Several said they remembered us being out there with the masses demanding justice for Oscar Grant and pointing out the role of the police, the epidemic nature of police murder. A group of younger men playing dice on the street corner recognized one of us from the protests and bought copies of the paper. Another time we sat down with a group of junior high school students who collected all the change and pennies that they had among them to get the paper and then gathered on the steps of a house with one of us, getting into big questions of can you make revolution, can we make a whole different kind of world.
The first weekend 25 people gave their names to be contacted. 8 subs were sold. Nearly 120 papers were distributed. We did not focus on leaving bundles of papers with people. Most were not familiar with the paper and we thought they should read the paper and we’ll get back to them next weekend about taking a bundle, helping them figure out how to get them out. It is interesting that the majority of subs were sold to women, and of that just under half of the women were Spanish-speaking women. One Spanish-speaking woman whose husband was somewhat cynical about this stuff about “revolution”, really like the cover story about revolutionary women of Iran and Afghanistan, and it resonated with her that these women want revolution and we need that here too. She was really heartened that we are fighting to build a revolutionary movement and welcomed the opportunity to be connected to it through the paper. We did sell papers to a lot of men, including Spanish-speaking men, in fact almost all of the Latino men talked to bought the paper.
During the week, we called those who bought subs, but we had a hard time reaching people. When we did reach people, most had not yet read the paper. But one woman who had read the paper, asked for 5 more copies to get out to her friends. Most people are really pressed for time—just trying to survive and didn’t feel they could set up a meeting with us in advance. We summed up that we needed to go visit people during the week, to go through an article or two with them, show them a section of the DVD. When we did that, one woman told us she had already ordered the DVD off of seeing the ad in the newspaper she bought. We suggested that she do a showing with a woman across the street who had also bought a sub. She said it was the woman across the street who suggested she order the DVD! We invited them both to the upcoming fundraising dinner for the newspaper and gave them leaflets for the dinner and upcoming tribunal. So already there is a buzz in the neighborhood. People have started talking to each other about us, talking about this movement and the things we are doing. And we need to encourage and promote a lot more people coming together to watch the DVD. Next weekend, we will make a big focus on showing the DVD on the spot and selling it to people, encouraging them to have home showings as part of building this movement for revolution.
The second “blitz” weekend , we went back again to the same neighborhood and sold 8 more subs. People remembered us from the week before. Some commented that their neighbor got the paper from us the first time we were there. In other words, boldly going out and having a presence makes a big difference. It gives people a sense that this is a movement. Our multinational character, different ages, the number of women who were part of the blitz tell people about what kind of movement we are building. And they were happy to see us back. People in the neighborhood got a sense that we are not a one time thing, that we want to continue connecting with people through the newspaper, and with the DVD, that we are serious, and really want to organize, with them, for revolution.
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