Helping New People Get Started

May 14, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

As the article “Organizing Thousands into the Movement FOR Revolution—Key Points and Principles” makes clear, on the basis of the ideological and political work that we do with people, and as part of bringing them forward as leaders of this revolution, we need to give people meaningful things to do and ways to contribute, and we need to work closely with them.

It’s very important in giving assignments that we link this back with them into HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution (HWCW) and that we try to go with them to do these assignments. We should find out where people live or work or hang, what networks they are connected to, and then strategize with them where to go and what to do.

Everything we do—whether it’s building for a film showing by getting up posters and getting people to hand out cards; posting the Points of Attention for the Revolution in an area; handing out HOW WE CAN WIN or other Party literature; making a presentation at a meeting; leading people to fight the power around some major political issue, etc.—is about preparing the terrain, preparing the people, and preparing the vanguard for the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance of winning. The work we do right now is aimed to get to a revolutionary situation, as described in HWCW, where a revolution could actually be made.

People need to know that and see how the work they are taking up concretely fits into and leads to that. But people who are just coming around and who we are assigning things to do also need basic help on how to present themselves and how to handle what they’ll encounter.

We should orient people with something like the following:

When you take out the material from the revolution, you should tell people that you’re spreading the word about and organizing people into a movement to make a REAL revolution. Agitate with them about the abuses of this system. Let them know that “we have the leadership, the science, the strategy and program, and the basis for organizing people for an actual, emancipating revolution” to overthrow this system and put an end to the oppression and misery it brings down on people everywhere.

Then tell them how what you are giving them relates to that. If you are giving them a poster or flyer for the film of Bob Avakian’s speech, say that we want them to come and see the film of Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution, where he lays out the real deal with this fascist Trump/Pence regime—where it comes from, how deep a threat it is to the people of the world, and what we have to do about this. If you’re giving them the Points of Attention to distribute or post up, let them know that we are spreading the Points of Attention for the Revolution to make the morality of the revolution “the ‘authority’ that growing numbers of people look to and follow—not the lying politicians and media of this oppressive system—not those who front for the oppressors and preach about ‘reconciliation’ with this system—not those who turn people against each other when they need to be uniting for this revolution.” Let people read what you’re passing out or posting up, or read it with them, and talk with them. Try to challenge them to go deeper and get more into this, as you were challenged when people talked with you. Ask for their ideas on where we can take this and how they can help, and then follow up with them.

You’ll run into a lot of questions—and that’s good. Here are some typical ones, and ideas on how to handle them:

“Who is Bob Avakian?” In short, he’s the most radical revolutionary on the planet, the architect of a whole new communism, and the leader of the revolution. The best way for people to understand this is with the Bob Avakian (BA)—Official Biography, so have plenty of those to give to people. But you should be able to say in a few words that the people have never had a leader like this, with a deep scientific understanding of this whole society and how to transform it and a deep connection with the masses of people, and what a great thing it is that this is who’s leading the struggle right now. At the same time—and naturally enough—BA is controversial. So you should read “BA: A Contended Question” and have a copy of that with you to understand some of what you’ll run into.

People may raise that, “You can’t beat them, they’re too strong.” Take them to HOW WE CAN WIN: How We Can Really Make Revolution: “To make this revolution, we need to be serious, and scientific. We need to take into account the actual strengths of this system, but more than that its strategic weaknesses, based in its deep and defining contradictions.” Let them know that we’re not talking about right now—we know that would be crazy—but about “preparing the political terrain, the masses, and the vanguard itself for the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance of winning.” Show them the part in HWCW about a revolutionary situation and read this with them, and let them know that one big thing we are doing right now is trying to get the thousands who will lead those millions when the time is right. As HWCW says, Thousands need to get organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution.

You could also challenge them: make the point that unless you’ve gone through the work that the RCP has done, and it’s made available to the people in this very pamphlet HOW WE CAN WIN, then you’re really not qualified to speak on whether or not the system is too strong to be defeated. Go through it first, and then we can go talk to someone from the Party who’s studied this.

“People out here won’t do anything.” Yes, most people right now are either sleepwalking or have their heads up their asses; and most people don’t know shit in any case, or the shit they think they know is wrong. But like BA says in BAsics, “What people think is part of objective reality, but objective reality is not determined by what people think.” (4:11) The fact is, we don’t need “most people” right now—we need the people who hate what this system does to people here and all over the world and want to do something about it to get organized into a core, and if that’s you, then we have a plan for revolution and a new society, and a leader who’s brought that forward that you need to know about, get into, and act on. Again, we are preparing for a revolutionary situation—you can’t read that paragraph enough to people—and we are doing what part 2 of HWCW says to do that, and what we’re doing right now out here is part of that.

“You guys don’t believe in God.” Read from BAsics 4:1: “Oppressed people who are unable or unwilling to confront reality as it actually is, are condemned to remain enslaved and oppressed.” Communists confront reality as it actually is, and apply science to understand it. We don’t believe in gods or supernatural beings, but we work and unite with people who do. So you need to be working with us, while we talk about and struggle out our differences. You could also show them the clip from the dialogue between BA and Cornel West, where BA talks about the “what ifs”—how the world really COULD be different—and then that you need science to get there.

“The RCP is a cult.” Tell people that that’s just a word used to scare people out of seriously checking out the revolution. You can read what the Party has to say and meet the people who work with it and see for yourself how stupid and slanderous that accusation is. But more than that, we should confront people who run this with the reality: again, the fact is that nobody besides BA has done anything close to breaking through on why have the revolutions of the past been defeated and how we can do better, on what would be the actual strategy, on how to do we scientifically understand the world and lead others to understand it, on what the new society should look like and how it should function to get all the way to emancipation. BA’s brought forward a whole new framework of revolution, not just for the U.S. but for the whole world. So yeah, we definitely follow him, and learn from him, and revere him. What’s wrong with that?

And what’s their analysis of the problems we face? What’s their strategy for revolution? Or do they think that we can solve the problems without a revolution? What’s their replacement for this system? If they’re so concerned about “following leaders,” how do they handle the real contradictions between the fact that humanity needs leaders right now, people who have a deeper understanding and can apply and transmit that understanding to others, but that leaders can “go bad”? We should be telling people not to let anyone scare them off from the only force which has a serious plan to deal with this madness and the leader of that force.

“I see what you’re saying, but I gotta take care of me first.” Taking care of you first just means that everyone, here and around the world, stays in the same dog-eat-dog, getting ground down. Someone has got to stand up and say, “I’m going to fight for the emancipation of the masses of humanity,” and that has to be you.

“Yeah, but BA is white (or BA is a man, or BA is an Anglo, etc.).” Ask people, “Look, how badly do you want the masses of humanity to get free? BA is the leader who happens to have summed up the most important lessons and contributions from all the revolutions and struggles of the past, taken those further, showed where they were wrong and how to more correctly understand things and do better; he’s deeply analyzed society and all the oppressive relations, and developed a Constitution that people could use to move toward eliminating ALL oppression and exploitation; he’s done all this and never lost his deep feeling for and deep connections with the masses of people, and never stopped leading the revolutionary struggle in the U.S. It’s just a matter of fact that there’s never been a leader like him. And you’re not gonna follow him, or even seriously check him out, because why? What’s your criterion for leadership? What do you think the struggle needs to aim for?”

“Why do we not initiate violence during this period when we are carrying out the ‘three prepares’—why do we not just ‘get it on,’ and try to bring down this system, right now?” Because we are serious about revolution, and we are proceeding according to a strategic approach to bringing about an actual revolution, working to hasten and prepare for the time when a revolutionary situation has been brought into being—when there is a deep revolutionary crisis throughout society and among the powers that be, and there is a revolutionary people in the millions and millions—and we do not intend to make it easier for the vicious ruling class of this system, and its violent machinery of oppression and repression, to crush us and the movement for revolution we are building, before it is time to go for the whole thing, with a real chance of winning.

“Aren’t Ferguson and Baltimore examples of the people initiating violence?” NO. These are examples of the people, masses of people, rising up in response to violence initiated and perpetrated against them by the police and the system that the police enforce.

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