Revolution #012, August 21, 2005, posted at revcom.us
Sunday afternoon, somewhere in the neighborhood of Boyle Heights in East L.A., 20 immigrant proletarians--men and women--sat in metal folding chairs lined up in front of a small card table. They came to meet and talk with members of the Revolutionary Communist 4 tour. Some came to become organizers for the tour and others came just to check out what the communists had to say. After a brief presentation on the tour, people were encouraged to raise their questions and comments.
A slim young man wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap nervously stood up on the edge of the crowd. He began to talk about how he had attended the RC4's first speaking engagement in L.A. and came home really excited. He spent hours talking with his wife about all he learned from the tour. He said he was so enthusiastic about what he heard about revolution, socialism and communism that his wife asked him if this was paradise. He said he had to stop and think about this and wanted to know what the RC4 thought he should tell her. After some discussion about the nature of socialism and communism, the young man smiled and sat back down. Suddenly he stood up again, pushed his hat back on his head and spoke much louder than he had before. "I know we are fucked. I work 6 days a week when I work. If I miss one day then everything falls apart; things like the rent don't get paid. I have only worked two days this month and so I am in big trouble. I borrowed $100 last week so my wife and I can survive. Now I am down to $30. I know we are fucked, we are just fucked living like this. So I want to support this, I want give you something that I don't have. I want to give you $10 to show my support for this tour."
The brother smiled as he carefully counted out ten one dollar bills. He passed them to the card table in front and sat down to listen to the rest of the questions and discussion--throwing in a few more of his own ideas about how to build the tour and some of the questions people ask him when he tells them about it. When he left a few hours later, he and many others at the meeting carried organizing packets for the tour under their arms.