Fighting for the Truth About Communism with High School Students
November 25, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
The other day we were at a high school where there has been a lot of controversy about the movement for revolution. A group of students was hanging around after school and we handed a flier to one of them. Her friend told her not to read it and snatched it out of her hand. We gave her another one and challenged the friend. We asked him why shouldn’t she read it and he wouldn’t say. We told him we are about making revolution and emancipating humanity, and asked him what he was about. He wouldn’t be serious at first and wouldn’t engage, was playing around and being silly. We did a little agitation to the group about how if you want to play, then play, but if you care about humanity and want the world to be different than how it is now, then get serious and get into this revolution.
A few more students walked up and one said, “I care about humanity,” and asked for the flier. We gave one to each of the three who walked up. The one who had snatched it from the young woman told these guys, “Don’t read that. I’m serious.” They asked why not, and he said seriously, “it’s communist.” I said yes it is, we’re the communists, and asked what he knows about communism.
The guy who had walked up asking for the flier said, “I know about communism.” He went on to say communism is where people are equal and where you can leave your door open at night and not have to worry. His friend said communism doesn’t work. I asked, why do you say that? Look at the Soviet Union. What about it? There is no Soviet communist party that exists any more. What is the evidence you have that causes you to draw the conclusion that communism doesn’t work? He decided to turn the question around: you tell me why communism worked in the Soviet Union.
I drew from the points in the recent interview with Raymond Lotta. What kinds of changes were going on in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, and the mistakes they made in the face of the challenges they confronted. They were all listening. I talked about how Mao learned from the shortcomings of the experience in the Soviet Union, and Bob Avakian today has learned from all of this experience and brought forward a new synthesis of communism so we can make revolution and bring into being a better world.
The main guy who had been telling everyone not to read the flier didn’t have much more to say at this point. The other youth were getting ready to leave. The ones who were more interested could have been challenged more sharply to get involved. We pointed them to the revcom.us website and encouraged them to go there to learn more about this and whenever they are seeking out the truth about what is happening in the world and why and what we can do about it.
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