Some Observations: We ARE Building a Movement for Revolution

May 21, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

We—that is, everyone who desires to work for revolution and emancipate humanity—need to bring forward a movement for a REAL revolution. We need growing numbers of followers of Bob Avakian (BA), spreading his breakthroughs in the science, the strategy, and the leadership for an actual revolution, and his vision of a radically new society on the road to real emancipation to every corner of society. We need a movement that’s straining to get to the situation where you could actually make revolution for real—not as some abstract distant goal but as something urgently being worked toward. We need a movement massively distributing and rooting itself in the strategy laid out in HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution (HWCW). And we need a sustained geometric progression in all this—where people are more and more being enlisted into and given meaningful work to do in building a movement for an actual revolution, and where the movement is beginning to grow by leaps and bounds, and through that process increasingly impacting all of society.

In the wake of the article “The New Communism Could Change Everything—If...,” this website has begun to more clearly focus toward that goal. What follows are some important principles and initial lessons aimed at carrying that further and making real breakthroughs.

The Core Message

In all that we do, the utter “intolerability” of this system and the towering crimes and atrocities it continually commits, here and all over the world, must really be driven home in a powerful way, along with the fact that it is no longer necessary to live under such a system; that this system cannot be reformed, that to transform society to fully achieve the 5 Stops and abolish and move beyond all relations of exploitation and oppression, everywhere in the world requires an actual revolution, which, as emphasized in HWCW, means not some minor changes within this system but the actual overthrow, yes overthrow, of this system, through actually defeating its armed forces of oppression and repression, when the necessary conditions (a revolutionary situation and a revolutionary people in the millions) have been brought into being (as set forth in HWCW), dismantling the institutions of this system and building a whole new society on a radically different economic and political basis; that this is something we (continually involving new people in geometric advances) must be actively working toward, from right now forward; that this system of capitalism-imperialism can be replaced by a far better system—one that is truly emancipatory—as embodied in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America; and that there is the basis, in the new communism and the leadership of BA, to make all this a reality.

This is our core message. We should lead with this and continually come back to it with everyone. Setting terms in this way attracts those who are serious, people who viscerally hate the way things are.

Bringing Home WHY: The Importance of the 5 STOPS

The first part of the core message—the utter “intolerability” of this system and the towering crimes and atrocities it continually commits, here and all over the world, must really be driven home in a powerful way, along with the fact that the system can NOT be fixed—that it cannot be reformed and that it is no longer necessary to live under such a system—should be brought home with sharp agitation around the 5 stops. Those 5 stops, as they constantly appear on this website, are:

STOP the genocidal persecution, mass incarceration, police brutality and murder of Black and Brown people!

STOP the patriarchal degradation, dehumanization and subjugation of all women everywhere, and all oppression based on gender or sexual orientation!

STOP wars of empire, armies of occupation and crimes against humanity!

STOP the demonization, criminalization and deportation of immigrants and the militarization of the border!

STOP capitalism-imperialism from destroying our planet!

We need agitation that rips into outrages around one or all of these “STOPS,” making people FEEL how intolerable and unnecessary it is that people are subjected to this, and then goes directly into the “core message.”

The 5 STOPS are not just things we are angry about. Each one is a key concentration of contradictions in this system—ongoing, horrible outrages that torture and suffocate humanity and that can NOT be reformed away. We should display posters from the website that draw out one or all of the 5 STOPS, with the message of revolution. The point that has to come through: “we have to put a stop to this and that requires a revolution and we are here to enlist you now in the ranks of the revolution.” We cannot allow ourselves to get drawn into deep explanations or talk about things in a scholarly way—we need hard-hitting agitation that is compelling in its radical simplicity and that draws people toward, and increasingly into, the ranks of the revolution.

HOW WE CAN WIN: The Strategy FOR Revolution and a Working Document

HOW WE CAN WIN is a working document—a basis and guide to bring alive the need and basis for revolution and to concretely organize people into this revolution. This is not just something to grasp firmly as a basic point of orientation, but is something that we must be actively applying in practice, further grappling with and forging the means to consistently carry out work that actually organizes people into the revolution on the right basis and in so doing lays the basis for continually expanding the ranks of the revolution, not just in ones and twos but in terms of masses of people, and through ongoing geometric leaps.

HWCW is the strategy for revolution. It is written for the masses of people and it is written for them to take up and to organize around and to influence society as a whole. HWCW is the key means to involve and lead many others in preparing the ground, preparing the masses and preparing the leadership for revolution—“for the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win.” Spreading the fact that we have a strategy IS part of our strategy—this is what enables us to bring forward the thousands to act now to carry out those “three prepares” and this is what will ultimately enable millions to win when the time comes when they CAN be led to go for revolution.

Again, HWCW is a working document. It’s a concentrated statement of what needs to be applied, with the main things we need to be doing and how they relate to each other. It is written with a GREAT deal of precision and nuance, which becomes clearer on repeated study and wielding. HWCW is written to the potential growing ranks of people in the movement for revolution, to orient, train and lead them. The guidance in the boldfaced parts in particular is crucial for people to constantly return to.

HWCW contains the gauge with which we should lead people to judge our progress:

All this is aiming for something very definite—a revolutionary situation: Where the system and its ruling powers are in a serious crisis, and the violence they use to enforce this system is seen by large parts of society for what it is—murderous and illegitimate. Where the conflicts among the ruling forces become really deep and sharp—and masses of people respond to this not by falling in behind one side or the other of the oppressive rulers, but by taking advantage of this situation to build up the forces for revolution. Where millions and millions of people refuse to be ruled in the old way—and are willing and determined to put everything on the line to bring down this system and bring into being a new society and government that will be based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. That is the time to go all-out to win. That is what we need to be actively working for and preparing for now.

This massive distribution to popularize, apply and accumulate forces for revolution is not a one-time push—but something we are doing in an ongoing way, all the time, until we make the revolution.

Organize, Organize, Organize for REVOLUTION: Actively Enlisting People NOW

We should be straight-up saying “We’re here to enlist you in the ranks of the revolution and putting you to work for the revolution. We have a battle plan on how we are going to get there.” We should be clear with people: “We don’t have the millions now—this strategy is how you get them. If you really hate this shit, if you really want to do something, then you need to be with this.” This is how we have to go to people—not “answering every question.” We know what we don’t have right now—the many thousands who can bring forward the millions needed for revolution. What we DO have, though, is a concrete plan and vision to make revolution, with the leadership to carry that forward, and an organization for you to join, as part of becoming one of the thousands who are working to get those millions AND being able to lead that somewhere good. The question is what are YOU going to do?

This will involve intense struggle against the system’s ways of thinking all the way through, but that should not be turned into endless (and aimless) education. Do you want revolution, or are you willing to make your peace with this shit, knowing that it grinds up billions of people every day? Being able to put an end to it— actually making revolution, and getting to a whole new world—all this depends on people like you coming forward now, and taking up this battle plan.

We have to take people to the final paragraph of HWCW:

All this depends on winning millions to revolution in the period that leads up to the ripening of a revolutionary situation. The chance to defeat them, when the time comes—the chance to be rid of this system and to bring something far better into being—has everything to do with what we do now. Everyone who hungers for a radically different world, free of exploitation and oppression and all the needless suffering caused by this system, needs to work now with a fired determination to make this happen, so we will have a real chance to win.

Enlisting people now makes a huge difference. The more we have organized forces of the revolution, the more we can affect the terrain. While we are working strategically for the whole thing, we are also aiming at particular objectives building towards that—preparing the ground: getting to the point where you can push things in directions that are more favorable to revolution; the point where all the other forces in society have to respond to what you are doing. There is a difference between a few people at a demonstration trying to influence 300 and having 300 people influence 3,000, when you are going for impacting the whole society.

It is not that “one fine day, far off in the future, we are going to change the political terrain”—but in an ongoing way this is what we are doing, all the time, everywhere we go. Transforming how whole blocs of people see what is politically tolerable or intolerable, desirable or undesirable, and impossible or most definitely possible and necessary—so that we can prepare the ground for revolution. To return to HOW WE CAN WIN, and how the “3 Prepares” are discussed there:

While awaiting the necessary conditions to go all-out for revolution, we need to hasten this and actively carry out the “3 Prepares”: Prepare the Ground, Prepare the People, and Prepare the Vanguard—Get Ready for the Time When Millions Can be Led to Go for Revolution, All-Out, With a Real Chance to Win. We need to Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution—protest and resist the injustices and atrocities of this system, and win people to defy and repudiate this putrid system and its ways of thinking, and to take up the outlook and values, and the strategy and program of the revolution, build up the forces for this revolution, and defeat the attempts of the ruling powers to crush the revolution and its leadership. With every “jolt” in society—every crisis, every new outrage, where many people question and resist what they normally accept—we need to seize on this to advance the revolution and expand its organized forces. We need to oppose and disrupt the moves of the ruling powers to isolate, “encircle,” brutalize, mass incarcerate and murderously repress the people who have the hardest life under this system and who most need this revolution. We need to “encircle” them—by bringing forth wave upon wave of people rising up in determined opposition to this system.

Driving Out the Trump/Pence Fascist Regime: A Crucial Aspect of Making Revolution

If we really approach things from making revolution and the 3 Prepares, the crucial importance of succeeding with the mission of Refuse Fascism should stand out. Whether we succeed or fail at this will have a huge impact on the ability to make revolution—and on the fate of humanity! This fascist regime is shaping the political terrain of the whole society and the movement for revolution must be in this, AS the revolution. We should be leading people through things like BA’s speech THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible to see the deep roots of this regime in class society and capitalism, with the particularly perverse form that takes in the U.S., taking on the bogus arguments against fighting this (or fighting this in a way that does not really fight it but instead makes peace with it), and all the while bringing out our full strategic perspective, as embodied in HWCW...while continually struggling for unity against the regime with people whose viewpoints on these issues will widely diverge from ours.

Why Bob Avakian IS Important—Crucially Important

As HWCW puts it:

We need to be on a mission to spread the word, to let people know that we have the leadership, the science, the strategy and program, and the basis for organizing people for an actual, emancipating revolution. We have Bob Avakian (BA) the leader of this revolution and the architect of a new framework for revolution, the new synthesis of communism. We have the Party led by BA, the Revolutionary Communist Party, with this new synthesis as its scientific basis to build for revolution. We have the Revolution Clubs, where people can take part in and powerfully represent for the revolution in an organized way, as they learn more about the revolution and advance toward joining the Party. We have the website of the Party, revcom.us, and its newspaper Revolution, which sharply expose the crimes of this system, scientifically analyze why it cannot be reformed, and give guidance and direction for people to work in a unified way for revolution. We have the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA and adopted by the Party’s Central Committee, which provides a sweeping and concrete vision and “blueprint” for a radically new and emancipating society. People in the inner cities, and in the prisons, students, scholars, artists, lawyers and other professionals, youth in the suburbs and rural areas—people in all parts of society—need to know about this and seriously take it up.

Let’s focus on the first big strength outlined above. Anyone who is serious about revolution knows this takes leadership. As the official biography of BA states, “Bob Avakian (BA) is the architect of a whole new framework of human emancipation, the new synthesis of communism, which is popularly referred to as the ‘new communism.’” On that foundation, BA has developed the strategy for how to win, and for a radically new kind of society that could free humanity from its chains. He leads the Party and the movement for revolution, he has a deep connection to the masses of people, and he has a whole lot of humanity—all of which comes through in his films and books. This is a huge plus for the revolution.

And this—making revolution and emancipating humanity—is the heart of why BA is important. We should be clear: “This is the most important thing that people can know and people like YOU need to know about this and seriously take it up.” The Bob Avakian Institute is dedicated to getting that work out to people all over the world. This Institute is a great potential strength, and must become much more dynamic in the months to come.

One big element of what we need to be doing right now is getting BA’s speech on the Trump/Pence regime way out in the public eye and ear. The fascist remaking of society is right now the sharpest question in society—it is a real dividing line around which millions must be drawn to fight and this fight is a crucial aspect of making revolution—and nobody addresses it like BA. This film gives the most powerful and deepest analysis of this regime and what to do about it, and it opens the door to this leader and everything he’s brought forward and represents.

The Revolution Clubs and others should be leading people right now to take this up and promote it in a way to make an impact on all of society: winning people to promote this through community, campus and church showings, organizing flash film showings on walls, advertising the film and getting it to actually spread on social media. At these showings we should be spreading HWCW, BAsics and the New Constitution. The Revolution Books stores, the clubs, and The Bob Avakian Institute can set up tables with BA’s body of work, and get into the biography with people.

Leading... and Learning as We Lead

Every time we go out we should be including people first getting involved in mass summations—teaching people basic scientific methods by summing up how what we did today or this week contributed to preparing the ground, preparing the people and preparing the vanguard—getting ready for the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win. What did we learn, what mistakes do we need to learn from and correct, and—very importantly—what advances did we make that we have to get up on the website right away so the whole national movement for revolution can learn from it and the whole process is hastened and accelerated.

One part of this: in evaluating questions and the ways people think that come up, and that people new to taking this out will encounter, the following from HWCW is the critical guideline:

While many people will do positive things in opposing the crimes of this system, we need to approach everything—evaluate every political program and every organized force in society, every kind of culture, values and ways of treating people—according to how it relates to the revolution we need, to end all oppression. We should unite with people whenever we can, and struggle with them whenever we need to, to advance the revolution.

We are not the “answer people.” WE have to set the terms based on science and strategic confidence based on that, not chase after things in the ways and on the terms of which people are seeing them right now. In all of this, we have to return to BAsics 3:1. This quote is a great clarifying yardstick and dividing line. If someone is not about revolution, then let’s take them back to the intolerable and unnecessary outrages perpetrated by this system, and the fact that these outrages (the 5 Stops) cannot be stopped while we are trapped within this system—and ask whether they are or are not okay with that. “Do you want to live this way or not? Because we HAVE a real way out.” This is the ground on which we must stand and which we must train others to stand.

People right now are paralyzed by “populist epistemology”—by the idea that what everyone thinks now determines reality, and that is what sets the limits for what you can imagine. No. The basis for revolution lies in the system’s “strategic weaknesses, based in its deep and defining contradictions.” [HWCW] Of course, most people do not see this now—they are brainwashed with the system’s ways of thinking. But you can’t look at how most people think now through the lens of how it is right now—you have to look at what it means to prepare for major jolts to the system and revolutionary crisis which shake millions out of what they think is needed or possible very suddenly and where the influence of the revolution can grow exponentially. The thing is, we will never get there if revolutionaries and people who want fundamental change can’t think beyond “right now” and are not preparing the ground, preparing the people and preparing the vanguard all along the way. When people come at us with all kinds of bullshit we have to call it out, simply, as just “that system way of thinking.”

There will be a constant struggle all the way through—from the system’s way of thinking in everyday people... to the attacks and slanders from the enemy... to the struggle over what is the problem and what is the solution among people who want to see change. Revolution advances through this—it’s how things change and we should expect this and relish the battle to set things right side up. Revolution requires setting and re-setting the terms based on the interests of the people and against the enemy getting people to act against their own interests.

What does it mean to re-set terms? Some examples: when people tell you, “I’ll be there when the time comes,” you have to tell them that “the time is now—or it will never come.” When people tell you “the system is too powerful,” tell them that ‘‘you haven’t studied this but our leadership has—the strategy is right here in HWCW—read it and study it, and then come back.” When people say “what’s in it for me?” tell them, “It’s not about you, it’s about humanity and your reward is their emancipation—and if that does not interest you then don’t waste my time because we are living and dying as future people with a whole different morality than this dog eat dog capitalist bullshit they’ve got you wallowing in.” When people in the middle classes say, “Don’t confront or provoke the fascists,” we should say, “Yeah, right—all of history shows that if you ignore them it all works out fine.”

There’s lots of examples, and people should write in with what they come up with. The point is this: you don’t need long discussions but sharp agitation to set and reset terms.

At the same time, we have what people who are for real need to get deeper into the key questions. We should be backpacking BAsics and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America and we should also be showing Revolution—Nothing Less! and the new film by BA, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible. We should be directing people to and popularizing our website and The BA Institute.

We need to bring to people what we have—and also say what we don’t have and that this is where they come in. As it says in HWCW, “Thousands need to get organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution.” Today this means dozens, then scores, then hundreds, moving as quickly as we can to those thousands. And doing all this as part of a NATIONAL movement and accumulating forces and strength from there—growing from a minority to being able to lead an actual revolution when the time is right for this.

We need to give people a way on the spot that they can meaningfully participate in spreading this. And we need other ways for people to get into it—informally and by inviting people to get into things more deeply at the bookstores and organizing centers. We should be going with people to cultural events where people who hate this shit are—enjoying these and talking to people about there being a way out of this madness. We should give people a way to report their experience via social media, phone calls, or in person, ways to join people in taking this to their friends and circles and through their own lives finding the ways to constantly be spreading this. There are actually a ton of ways for people to build this!

A National Movement, with the Whole World in Mind

People have to understand that the movement for revolution is a national movement, with the whole world in mind. We are building this all over the country, not just in the place a person happens to encounter it. But what we do in each locality gets amplified all over, to everyone, as part of that national movement. Again, 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,” and that is exactly what we’re doing and what you need to be part of. Right now we are organizing forces into the revolution to achieve this, to prepare for the actual showdown of millions. It might start as scores in a city or neighborhood but that is part of people doing this nationally.

In light of all this, the website Revcom.us assumes even more importance. As HWCW puts it, “We have the website of the Party, revcom.us, and its newspaper Revolution, which sharply expose the crimes of this system, scientifically analyze why it cannot be reformed, and give guidance and direction for people to work in a unified way for revolution.” Write in and be part of this whole process, contributing in all three dimensions. One very important element in this: giving people a sense of themselves and their potential impact means that sending in pictures and reports are very important. Take group pictures, pictures of banners and ways people are making impact, send in videos of your best agitation so people can see this is happening around the country and can be connecting with and learning from each other—this is a very important part of tasks and assignments people take up that contribute to the acceleration of the revolution—that make real that WE ARE DOING THIS.

With all this in mind, and continually grounding and re-grounding in HWCW, we should be able to begin a sustainable geometric progression of followers of the revolution...now. The future of humanity—and whether humanity will even have a future—depends on it.

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