From new donors to the Tour:

“...we may be on the verge of a breakthrough”

Updated September 9, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Statement from Carol Downer:
Why I support the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

I support the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour because it is important that consciousness spreads. The Tour is laying the groundwork for people to change by laying out the politics. People are not ready for revolutionary change, but how do we get them to be ready? At this stage, it’s not a numbers game. Whatever our numbers, our work is important. Especially in this time where individualism is the norm, the Tour is working together and collectivity works!

When the Tour hands out leaflets, perhaps only a few people will be impacted immediately, but the message has been put out there and who knows how many will ultimately respond to it? I remember how, in the 1960s, I encountered a Black power group who was handing out leaflets which said that white people were “the white devil.” I got into a brief argument with one of them, asking him why he was even talking to me, his “enemy.” Then when the Watts Rebellion came, I remembered this discussion, and I saw where that anger was coming from. I got it that my just being “sympathetic” to Black people’s problems was part of the problem. I did not change overnight, but that leaflet started the process.

Each Tour member is part of a revolutionary force; speaking out and distributing literature is part of the process of changing conditions so that when events, such as the Watts Rebellion happen, those seeds of consciousness have been planted. The Tour spreads the message, “We have a plan,” and they spread it enthusiastically. That enthusiasm is contagious (just as how the discouraging message of the ruling class is contagious).

It is important that consciousness spreads and more people change. The groundwork is being laid by the Tour for the politics to be laid out. I’m not for the vanguard party idea, but I do agree that it’s important for people, whatever their numbers, to do this work. The process of recruiting people is extremely important, and the Tour is out there doing that, distributing literature to prepare people for when the conditions for revolution happen.

I feel very lucky to be part of this valuable effort. I find a sense of a real revolution at the Club Center in LA, and it is very meaningful to me that a revolutionary force is alive. It might not be flourishing in a widespread way yet, but it is valuable what the Club is doing. Right now, very few people are opposing the ruling class, but in my opinion, the elaborate superstructure that it has created to maintain its power is collapsing of its own weight, because it depends on the destruction of our planet. So, I think the Chicago Revolution Club’s invitation to involve the people to solve the problem of the youth killing each other is a very good process; it provides an answer and an alternative process.

BAsics 3:2 points out the impossibility of achieving a just society by working for reform within the current system. I agree with Bob Avakian on this. We have to work very hard to get even small reforms, and we often compromise our principles and accept certain conditions that undermine whatever reforms we manage to get. Reforms are often self-defeating. We end up in worse shape than before we started. That said, we can’t throw out reforms entirely, but we shouldn’t put our main energy into them. We need to be part of the community effort to show people a better way. For example, the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion in 1973 did not change things fundamentally; women still had to seek medical approval. Women thought that their gain was permanent. They no longer demanded repeal of all abortion laws, and they stopped learning how to get knowledge of natural methods of birth control and abortion so that they didn’t need to ask permission of anyone. Women let down their guard. Now, access to safe abortion may be sharply reversed, and we are totally dependent.

These are scary times, but also, we may be on the verge of a breakthrough. That’s why it’s important that the Revolution Club and the Tour have the money to succeed, so that we can fight against further attacks from reactionary forces, and be prepared to be an important part of the revolutionary process, if and when breaks in the oppressive power structure present themselves.

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Learning from the National Revolution Tour:
“Time to Put My Heart into the Revolution"

I’m writing to share my appreciation of the August 25th Facebook live video from the Revolution Tour in Chicago and share some of my reflections.

I’ve been mainly following the tour and watching the videos privately, but this time I got to drive a few hours to Houston to watch this live stream with others, a mix of people who were longtime veterans of the revolution, people like myself who’d been on the sidelines for a while, or very new and just finding out what it’s about. This internationalist dinner to raise funds for the tour was already scheduled before the livestream was announced, but it was great that the dinner turned into a viewing party. I felt proud that someone from Houston had offered up the first matching challenge and got a shout-out from Andy. Besides that, there was a lot of excellent food, donated by various people, and wonderful conversation about a range of topics. Walking into this room and seeing all of these friendly faces turned toward the revolution felt truly remarkable and special.

As we watched the livestream, it was exciting to hear Andy, Luann, Kiki, and Tala talk about all the wrangling that was going on behind the scenes—on how to be a truly revolutionary force, to act in a way that was commensurate with what had happened in El Paso and Dayton, to apply principle when it is difficult, and really apply the science of new communism that BA has developed. I kept thinking how lucky we are that we have a leader like Bob Avakian and we have a party that is taking responsibility to turn millions into emancipators of humanity and put an end to these horrors... that we have the beginnings of what a real revolution should look like.

I have had my eyes on the revolution for a long time, but on Sunday I came to realize that it was time for me to put my heart into it. When Tala posed the idea of imagining now what could be possible if we got rid of this system and brought a whole new world into being—imagining what architecture would look like, for example—I felt a burning desire for this system and all its ugliness and cruelty to be gone today. I just can’t stand it anymore, not only the reality of what’s happening to the planet and humanity but all of the ways that people have been conditioned to accept that reality and give up on changing it. All of the fatalism, the narcissism—all of these ways that people’s sights are pulled down, the ways that even good people are stopping themselves and others from dreaming of and imagining a whole new world, let alone digging into the science that could actually bring something much better into being.

We had to start cleaning up before the end of the livestream, but as we were putting away food and stacking chairs, I said to someone, “It’s up to all of us in this room to spread this throughout Texas.” I started with Texas because of how much of the white supremacy and Christian fascism is concentrated here, but of course I meant as far and wide as we can. This was a beginning grouping of people who could make a big impact, especially if we learn from the “Revolution School” that the tour is bringing to us.

Finally, I want to give my own special shout-out to the Houston crew who put together the international dinner. When I first encountered them two and a half years ago at the Women’s March in Austin, I didn't know how much they would change my life. I’ve learned so much from the examples they have set for me with their courage, persistence, consistency and love of humanity. It was an honor to be a part of this gathering. I am looking forward to the future we create together.

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Watch This:
“What if the world doesn’t have to be this way?”

From an office worker who donated $60 to the Tour:

I gave because I must. I felt compelled. There is nothing else I can do right now. There is still a chance to change things. There is still oxygen in our lungs. We can still struggle. We have to fight this fascism. The young people’s words and deeds brought back to me that moment of discovery, that we can change things. Change is possible.

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From a supporter of the Tour:
“This Is as Good as It Gets”

I just contributed $400 to the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour.

I was reminded of the movie “As Good as It Gets” that starred Jack Nicholson when a friend and I were watching the video of the fund raiser for the Chicago tour. Luan was talking about how humanity in the world suffers because of U.S. imperialism and then about how that affects us here in the USA.

This is as good as our world is going to get for us without a revolution. Literally billions around the world are at the edge of starvation. Life is not going to get better for them, because to a Capital-Imperialist society, those lives are worthless. They live so close to the edge of survival that there is nothing to exploit from them. Life for them is “as good as it can get” if they can just stay alive.

Those that live an edge above them, have worth in that they can be exploited. But as has been shown in the sewing factory collapse in Bangladesh, they are an easily expendable and replaceable commodity. Our news is filled daily with these tragedies. Their worth is only how much they can be exploited by keeping them on the edge of living. Under this system, they will never get above that struggle. Life for them is “as good as it will get.”

I have been to several so-called second world countries. I have seen their lives up close and personal. Many are well educated with college degrees, and still they struggle to find worthwhile employment to use their education and skills. Yet because of the exploitation, the corruption and collaboration of their governments, they struggle, survive, but cannot get ahead. Neither, intelligence, education, nor hard work will get them to their dream. Life in general is “as good as it will get.”

Here I am, in the USA, the capital of world imperialism. I have attained an upper middle-class status after more than 50 years of hard labor. If I retire, I will quickly lose that upper status. I look around at those who were my friends and colleagues and have watched them slip down the slope from middle class. It is a shrinking and largely disappearing “class.” I see millennials, working part time jobs to make their ends meet. That wonderful “voodoo” economy of trickle-down economy, is indeed trickle down. The rich exploiters are getting richer, and the trickle down has become dribble-down. As fascism doubles down on us, this is “as good as it will get.”

I went through the struggles of the ’60s and against the war in Vietnam. I was surrounded by revolutionaries. I became one myself. But we did not have a party and we did not have leadership. Within 10 years most of those revolutionaries became what Bob Avakian calls BEB, Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit.

This sounds pessimistic, but I am not pessimistic. I watched what was happening in Los Angeles and was encouraged. I watched those young people starting in Chicago who have a clear grasp, not just of the problem, but, importantly, they have the grasp of the solution.

There is a better life possible, the future does not have to be bleak. But it will take a revolution to do it.

Thank you Luan for what you said. It made it clear. This is as good as it gets without a revolution. I am giving what I can. This is the payment on my insurance policy for my children and for all of humanity. As Woody Guthrie sang, “There’s a better world a comin’.” Keep doing what you are doing and Woody’s dream can become a reality.

I gave what I could at that time, $400. I want to ask others to do what they can. We are at the top of the food chain in this country. We all have something to give that will not cause our children to starve. By giving something now, we can see beyond “as good as it gets.”

—An Engineer in Texas

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