From a new sustainer
"Get involved in some small way in bringing forward a new vision, a new way, a new world."
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
This writer is sending this letter to friends. He made a generous donation and became a monthly sustainer.
Hi Friends,
I know all of you are concerned with justice, progress, and the environment in some way or another. I wanted to share with you my perceptions of things right now.
I see a world in crisis with sharpening contradictions. Here are the main contradictions I see now.
Endless war and conflict as U.S. imperialism seeks to extend/manage its control and influence through invasion (Afghanistan/Iraq), CIA terror, torture, drone strikes, and assassinations.
The deepening oppression of women here (rape culture and attack on women’s right to abortion) and around the world. (Rape is being institutionalized as a form of reactionary warfare.)
Police terror and murder in our oppressed communities combined with Mass Incarceration.
The fate of Mother Earth is in the balance as capitalism-imperialism pollutes, devours rain forests and resources, drills and drills for oil in a predatory drive for profit. No regard for the planet, future generations, or science exists in any meaningful way.
Millions of humanity are in refugee camps or forced to migrate because of war, poverty, and climate change. And these brothers and sisters are targeted as the problem as the capitalist countries build walls, fences, and work at other ways to keep them out.
And these millions will become millions upon millions in the future.
I’ll be honest. I had convinced myself that the “system” could be reformed. But this was an illusion. In some ways a self-induced illusion.
You know the “Walking Dead”? In the past few years even though I had remained active in some ways—anti-Iraq war and climate change demonstrations, I was living a life in “quiet desperation.”
What brought me back to life was working a year at Home Depot and reading Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow about the mass incarceration of our Black and Latino youth. I was stunned and angry that this had happened on “my watch.”
I saw a YouTube video of Cornel West and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network which he founded with Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). I began to get involved with this movement which led me back to my radical roots and the RCP.
I went to the RCP website revcom.us and found that the RCP line had evolved in positive ways. And was putting forward a “New Synthesis of Communism” which resonated with me on many levels. Especially the emphasis on “humanity coming first” and not sugar-coating the need for real revolution and the challenges it will take to realize it.
I invite you and urge others to visit the website and critically evaluate it yourselves.
I hate this system and the “take care of me and screw everybody else” culture it promotes and shoves down our throats. I hate its everyday crimes that it numbs us to accept. I hate the way it isolates us from each other and makes us wonder, “Am I crazy? Am I the only one who hates this shit? Is this it? This is the best humankind can do?”
I am asking you to check out revolution. I am asking some of you to check out revolution again.
I need you. We need you. Above all humanity needs you.
There is a fundraising drive going on. Please contribute to it. Get involved in some small way in bringing forward a new vision, a new way, a new world.
Is this guaranteed? Nope.
Do I agree with everything on the RCP website? Nope.
But do I think that in some ways this might be humanity’s best hope? Yup.
I am determined that I will live the rest of my life trying to bring forward fundamental revolutionary change in the most honest way I can. Do I still feel “desperation”? Almost every day. But it will no longer be quiet. And amidst that desperation there will be moments of revolutionary joy and love.
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