May 1, 2010—Push Out Big with the Campaign

May 1 is the revolutionary holiday. May 1 is the day when people come together, around this tortured planet, and declare their determination to end exploitation and all forms of oppression. It is the day when they state their aim to unite millions to overthrow this system, to bring to an end the ruling state power of this system that maintains and feeds off exploitation and oppression—and bring into being a radically new state power, working to end all forms of this oppression. And to do that as soon as conditions allow. It is a day when the revolutionary movement of today reaches out, boldly, to awaken and bring forward those who have not yet heard of this vision and this goal.

May 1 is an international holiday. A day on which the vision of a world without oppressor and oppressed nations, and ultimately without borders and nations of any kind, is set forth. A day of solidarity with struggles everywhere against the oppressive order of the world. A day celebrated in every corner of the globe.

And May 1 is a holiday of struggle. A day that commemorates the martyrdom of leaders of the radical workers' movement in Chicago 124 years ago, framed up and hanged by the authorities. A day celebrated by standing up against the system, expressing resistance as part of a movement for revolution.

This year, on May 1, we call on people around the U.S. to find the ways to mark this revolutionary holiday with the spirit and determination it must really symbolize. In particular, we call on people to use May 1 to make a further advance in the Revolutionary Communist Party's campaign to let people know what communist revolution is really all about... to get them acquainted with the leadership of this revolution, Bob Avakian and the RCP, USA which he leads... and to draw them into this movement. May 1 should be out in the streets and neighborhoods—centered around massive distribution of the RCP's message and call to the millions who don't yet know about this revolution—"The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have." Our special May 1 issue—coming out on April 26—will carry this call, along with other materials that highlight the themes of May 1.

Imagine bands of people, determined and with confidence, marching through the streets and getting out this message, and drawing in others as they go. Imagine drum corps of youth giving a vision of the discipline demanded by our struggle, and the pride, energy and joy that must surge through it. Imagine men and women proudly taking the streets together, and declaring their refusal to go along with the oppression of women. Imagine faces of every color shouting their hatred of racism and white supremacy. Imagine signs and posters boldly opposing the religion-fueled ignorance that demonizes and denies gay people their rights. Imagine chants ringing out in different languages, the voices of those who were born here raised in unison with those who've been driven here—all on the theme that, in the words of the party's message and call, "this is NOT the best of all possible worlds and we do NOT have to live this way." Imagine people making the connection between imperialist wars, economic misery and the threats against the very ability of the planet to sustain human life—and, as they do so, manifesting their determination to go up against all that with a whole new revolutionary society, and a revolutionary movement aiming to bring it into being. Imagine militant manifestations in the day, and celebrations in the evening—with culture, and with setting forth the real vision of revolution, including by playing parts of Bob Avakian's classic speech, Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. And imagine those manifestations in the day, and celebrations at night, giving a sense of a movement with a morality, culture, and relations between people that are night-and-day different from what people live today.

May 1 has been suppressed in the United States. For many, it is hardly known, or at best known vaguely. In most other countries it has been sterilized into just another day for a reform-minded labor movement, that hasn't had a radical impulse in decades, to parade around. And in revisionist countries—where those who have cut the revolutionary heart out of communism still rule in communism's name—it is just a day to strut around symbols of military might in a way that has nothing to do with revolution. In a world that desperately needs a really radical alternative, we can't tolerate that.

This is all the more reason to fight to reclaim this holiday as part of beginning a whole new stage of communist revolution. And all the more basis for a movement that is yet small in numbers, but very, very large in terms of the truth it grasps, the vision it aims for and the determination it manifests, to boldly rally people to it. And there is no better means to do this than massive distribution of the message and call from the RCP, USA, "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have."

Again: let May 1 mark a major effort in the party's campaign to put this revolution back on the political map... to make known very broadly the leadership of Bob Avakian—giving people a sense of the work he is carrying out, his history and character as a rare and outstanding communist leader and the ways in which this leadership heightens our chances to actually make revolution for real... and to bring forward and further forge a core of dedicated fighters for this revolution.

Let us know your plans. And keep up with revcom.us to learn what is going on everywhere.

The Campaign

In July 2009, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, launched an important campaign with the issuing of the message and call "The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have" in Revolution newspaper. It was announced that the campaign would be the focus and pivot of our Party’s efforts over many months, reaching and enlisting many, many people, in a campaign with many parts and dimensions.

We ARE BUILDING a movement for revolution, concentrated now in mounting the campaign: The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have. The point: to familiarize millions with the goal and character of communist revolution, as it has been reconceived by Bob Avakian, to inject this into the discourse in a radically creative and urgent way, and to make known very broadly in society the leadership of Bob Avakian—giving people a sense of the work he is carrying out, his history and character as a rare and outstanding communist leader, and—on the broadest level—his connection to revolution... and through all this to begin forging a core of dedicated, ardent fighters for this revolution.

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