Organizing Thousands into the Movement FOR Revolution—Key Points and Principles

May 14, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The movement for revolution is going everywhere with HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution, the strategy for revolution, and recruiting people into this revolution. In doing this, and along with leading people politically to carry out Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution—and carrying out the kind of ideological struggle that is critically needed, in more immediate terms at any given point as well as in an overall and fundamental sense (and along with, yes, digging into and training people in theory and, in particular, method), there is also the need to directly make the call to people (masses, including particularly basic youth) to step forward and become leaders themselves—leaders for this revolution—out among the masses like themselves, and to give them not only overall political and ideological grounding but also the practical guidance and assistance they need to really step forward to do this (which could even include very basic guidelines, spelled out concretely, on how to put things forward and how to respond to things we can anticipate will come up from others, and could also involve, at least at times and particularly when they are first stepping out, combining with them someone more experienced who would actually assist them, and help them sum up, without, however, “taking over from them”).

The point is that, in addition to—and, in an overall sense, on the basis of—the political and ideological (including theoretical) leadership, orientation, and grounding we need to be providing in an ongoing way to people who should be coming forward into the ranks of the revolution, we also need, from the start (as the first steps into the Ohio,¹ so to speak), to give them things to do, tasks to carry out, that are meaningful and will make a real difference—concrete ways they can take part in and bring forward others into the movement for revolution, and into the Revolution Clubs, and develop as leaders for this revolution themselves, even as they continue to learn more and move forward.

In terms of ideological struggle, along with really getting into (going after) such things as nationalism and religion, in a good way—firmly and, as necessary, sharply but once again with “an arm around the shoulder” in the case of anyone who is actually not, or actually not acting like, a pig—we also need to take on the individualism that has very powerful pulls among the masses of people, in various forms, including basic youth and other basic masses. For whom and for what—for self, or for the masses of oppressed, here and all over the world, for humanity? That is a fundamental dividing line, and has everything to do with whether the masses of people, in this generation and for generations to come, will continue to suffer terribly the chains of oppression and degradation or will finally be able to break through and emancipate themselves, emancipate all of humanity. In fact, while things such as nationalism and being mired in religion have real-life effect in and of themselves, misdirecting and mentally enslaving masses of people, at the same time in a real sense individualism is a concentration of those and other ideological chains and oppressive pulls on the masses.

It is also important to emphasize that, in order for people, in particular basic youth and other basic masses, to break out of the encirclement, ideologically as well as politically-practically, and to get a real sense of the possibility of revolution, and what the character and aims of that revolution are and must be, it is necessary and crucial for them to have (to be continually brought, in a number of compelling ways) a real sense of the larger picture, in the country and the world as a whole, and how they fit into—and, by being part of the revolution, can significantly affect—that larger situation.

1. The “Ohio” refers to the Ohio State marching band’s practice of marching in such a way as to spell out “OHIO” when viewed from above; in this process, band members who begin the first O, then move through the other letters of the word until they are at the last “O”. The point is that there is an analogous process involved in building any kind of progressive or revolutionary movement, in which people “move through” various levels of understanding and commitment, though this is not (“in the real world”) quite so linear and in lockstep as the Ohio State marching band!  [back]

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