Organizing for the Revolution
Getting Out the Message
Updated July 31, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Posted 7/31/16
Posted June 20, 2016:
» VIDEO: Message from the Revolution Club in Baltimore Demanding #Justice4FreddieGray
A Call to Take the Revolution to the Political Conventions: OVERTHROW, DON'T VOTE FOR, THIS SYSTEM!
This July, in Cleveland and Philadelphia, the two main political parties will officially nominate their candidates. In Cleveland, for four days beginning July 18, Donald Trump, cheered on by his mob of racist baboons, fascist jackasses, and shit-eating Republican hacks, will strut around and whip up the backward and the confused against immigrants, Black people, women, Muslims, and anyone else who doesn't fit his perverted vision of "American greatness."
And in Philadelphia, just a week later, Hillary Clinton—flanked by her "diverse" crew of big-time exploiters and dominators, wannabes, and double-dealing, double-talking Democratic hustlers—will try to lure and lull those who can't stomach Trump to line up behind her "inclusive" banner as... a serial war criminal and proven aider and abettor of the mass imprisonment of Black youth!
Come to July 4 “Imagine a World Without America and Everything It Stands For” Picnics... Celebrate the REAL Revolution and the Dream of a TRULY Better World
The Revolution Clubs and the BA Everywhere campaign invite you to the kind of July 4 picnic you can really enjoy: a REALLY revolutionary one. There’ll be food, fun and friendship—plus ways to find out about the work and leadership of Bob Avakian, BA, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party... ways to get involved with the Revolution Club, which is working to spread revolution and communism, and fight the power, and transform the people, for revolution... and ways to get with BA Everywhere, which is working to raise big money to get the word on BA out all over.
And guess what? There won’t be a bloody American rag in sight—unless it’s being used to get the coals going!
If you are in—or if you can get to—New York, LA, Chicago or the San Francisco Bay Area, bring your friends and bring your family for a day of fun and celebration that is part of getting to a radically different and far better world.
At the press conference in Chicago to demand "Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail." Left to right: Percy Coleman, father of Phillip Coleman; Dariana and Gloria Pinex, daughter and mother of Darius Pinex; Emmett Farmer, father of Flint Farmer.
A Day with the Revolution Club—Full of the Revolution We Are Urgently Working to Bring into Being
In the past week, the Revolution Club made a push to make revolutionary communism and the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian much more of an attractive pole, including on the south side of Chicago ... where if this were to be out there in a much more powerful way, growing and contending, it could have a real effect on the whole political terrain in the country .... at a very crucial and politically explosive time nationally.
Chicago Press Conference Demands: Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail
The whole issue of police murder continues to pulsate through Chicago, where protests erupted last fall after the release of the video of Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. On June 30, Gloria Pinex (whose son, Darius, was murdered by pigs in 2011) and the Revolution Club, Chicago, held a press conference/protest in front of a police station in the South side where some of the murdering cops are stationed.
Revolution Club, NYC, in Baltimore: “Justice for Freddie Gray!”… “We are the Revcoms, the mighty, mighty Revcoms!”
On the day that the outrageous “not guilty” verdict was announced for the pig who gave Freddie Gray the “rough ride” that led to his death, a crew from the NYC Revolution Club answered the call to go to Baltimore. They were out in the streets—at the courthouse and in the neighborhood where Freddie lived—to get out the message: “Justice for Freddie Gray! Send those killer cops away! What's the problem? The whole damn system! What's the solution? REVOLUTION!”
The Revolution Club at the Pride Parade in San Francisco
From the Revolution Club, SF Bay Area: Connecting People at the Dyke March with the RCP Central Committee Message
On Saturday before the massive Pride Parade in SF, people gathered at Dolores Park hours before the Dyke March. Two members of the Revolution Club moved through the crowded walkways, offering people the message from the RCP Central Committee and the article from revcom.us: "On the Horrific Massacre in Orlando and the Need for a Whole New World." Along with the title of the message, we were saying things like, "No more Orlandos—EVER," and "Get with the overthrow of capitalism, end patriarchy, end white supremacy," and "We need to overthrow this system, not vote for it."
Revolution Club, Los Angeles. Photo: Special to revcom.us
From the Revolution Club, Los Angeles:
HELL NO! to the Outrageous Verdict in Case of One of the Cops Who Murdered Freddie Gray
The Revolution Club in LA took up the call to take to the streets and say HELL NO! to the outrageous verdict that let yet another cop on trial for murdering Freddie Gray walk totally free. The Revolution Club went out with the RCP Central Committee’s message, “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution,” on a busy corner in South Central L.A., just a few blocks from where 2 weeks earlier the police killed Keith Bursey, a 31-year-old Black man.
DO Try This At Home...Matter of Fact, We Will Tread on Your Nasty-Ass Imperialist Rag
Chicago: Our Revolution Club decided to do an action giving commuters the opportunity to walk on the red, white and blue rag to build for the July 4th picnic. We got flags at Home Depot and ended up stapling 2 together in order to have a large enough swath to almost cover the entire ground where people exited from the turnstiles at a busy south side El train stop.
A Pleasant Surprise in the Courthouse Bathroom Stalls
From a reader:
This week, as hundreds and hundreds of people were forced to go to appear at the infamous Criminal Courthouse in their city, they were greeted with the Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party: Time To get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution.
FLASH: Revolution Club Arrested Taking the Message That It's Time to Get Organized for an Actual Revolution to the Downtown LA Criminal Courthouse
Wednesday morning, June 15, 8 people with the Revolution Club were illegally arrested in front of the Los Angeles Criminal Courthouse. They were bringing the Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party that begins: “The Revolutionary Communist Party IS ORGANIZING NOW TO OVERTHROW THIS SYSTEM AT THE SOONEST POSSIBLE TIME. Preparing to lead an actual revolution to bring about a radically new and better society: the New Socialist Republic in North America.”
VIDEO: Message from the Revolution Club in Baltimore Demanding #Justice4FreddieGray
Protest at Trump rally, San Jose, June 2. Photo: revcom.us/Revolution
San Jose, California: Righteous Protest vs Trump's Fascist Rally
June 6, 2016: From members of the Revolution Club, San Francisco Bay Area:
The fascist Donald Trump, promoting bigotry and American chauvinism with every breath, exhaled his vile odor and released his supporters all over the San Jose Convention Center on Thursday, June 2. This was met with righteous anger from a youthful crowd of protestors from many backgrounds.
Photos: Special to revcom.us/Revolution
Picnic to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution
June 6, 2016: The Revolution Club sponsored a picnic on Memorial Day at a park near a neighborhood that has been the focus of taking out the Message from the Central Committee of the RCP, “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution.” We wanted to reach hundreds of people, and this park on a beautiful day was a great place to do that. It is a park with a reputation for being peaceful in an area of town where shootings take place daily. Many Black people come to this park from all over the area and there are also a few groupings of Latinos and a sprinkling of white people. We did up a quick flyer about the picnic and contacted people we met in the area to come meet up with the revolution at the park.
Photo: revcom.us/Revolution
UCLA: Student Protest Against Anti-Woman Event by Campus Republicans
June 6, 2016: From members of the Revolution Club at UCLA:
A group of people started a Facebook page planning to protest an event called “Feminism is Cancer” hosted by the Bruin Republicans. The main speaker was Milo Yiannopoulos, an active promoter of the hatred of women, who claims that rape culture is a myth, that women are inherently less intelligent than men, and so many other fucked up ideas that contribute to the atmosphere within which women are regard as mere breeders, sex objects, and the property of men. People were stirred up by the outrageousness of this event and the ideas it promoted, but also because of a recent incident where Bruin Republicans took a photograph of themselves smiling smugly and holding signs which said “Get your gender out of my restroom,” “There are only two genders” and “Transgenderism is a mental disorder.”
Spreading the New Message from the RCP in the Projects
May 26, 2016: Last week, six people got up at 4am to get organized to spread the new message from the RCP in a housing project. They knew they were part of a larger local effort, an even larger national effort, and ultimately the largest interest of humanity, to accumulate forces for an actual revolution.
We met before sunrise in hats and hoodies, determined to create a situation where the people in this projects, who are under constant surveillance, harassment and threat from several police agencies, and routinely criminalized and treated as less than human, would wake up to the message that another world is possible. Where everywhere they went on the way out to wherever they were going, they would see that there was a world-class leadership hell bent on emancipating humanity, calling on them to play a special role in the most radical revolution the world has ever seen!
Going Out to the Neighborhood with the Message from the Party
The following is taken from a report on the initial efforts of some people who are getting out the broadsheet, “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution.” This focuses on plans going into this past weekend.
Arrest & Outrage at City College of New York (CCNY)
Statement from CCNY Students Being Circulated on Campus
To President Lisa Staiano-Coico,
We are utterly appalled to learn about the two young people who were arrested on campus on Tuesday, May 17th, 2016 for being on campus, and sharing with students a written message from the Revolutionary Communist Party's Central Committee (printed from www.revcom.us)
To be clear: Neither the popularity or level of agreement with the content of a message, nor the popularity or level of agreement with those delivering a message, should be grounds for repression, banning of ideas, or physical and/or legal attacks on people.
To silence voices and prohibit engagement with the student body—selectively so, we are compelled to add—by not only ARRESTING people, but even more by bringing CRIMINAL charges against them and dragging these individuals through the tortuous process of being detained, transported, jailed, processed and "booked," arraigned and prosecuted for NOTHING MORE THAN BEING ON CAMPUS is UNEQUIVICABLY CONTEMPTABLE.
Students must have the right to hear and engage ideas, including ideas which propose answers to the biggest questions of our time, such as the message being distributed by the women arrested and the NYC Revolution Club they are part of. This is especially important when such ideas are selectively targeted and disliked by established authorities.
We Denounce this attack on freedom of speech, the open contestation of ideas, and very spirit of intellectual life on campus.
We Demand immediate action from the administration of CCNY instructing Campus Security to cease, now and in the future, from suppressing the spread of ideas or in any way attacking, threatening, and/or arresting people for spreading ideas.
Revolution Club Member Arrested at CCNY:
I Was Proud That I Was Getting in Trouble Because This Message Is Calling for People to Fight for a Future Society
Revolution/revcom: What were you thinking when you got arrested on campus?
A: Right when it happened, I was thinking about the reasons why we were getting arrested. And I was angry that this was being banned, but I was proud that I was getting in trouble because of the message we were taking out, because if you look at this message it is about the future. It is calling on people to think about the future of society, and not just think about it but working to bring it forward and to fight for it.
And in spite of the fact it is being banned, it is what people need. Not only people discussing this, but thinking about what kind of world we are living in, whether or not it is necessary and whether we can get free of this nightmare. So that being banned is totally illegitimate.
Second-Year Student at CCNY, a Black Woman Majoring in Medical Sciences:
"This is the time of our lives we're supposed to be exposed to this. But it's clear from what happened that some ideas are not deemed acceptable."
Revolution/revcom: What’s your reaction to the arrest of the Revolution Club members who were getting out the message “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution: Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA” at City College?
A: I had never heard of someone being arrested on campus—I figured it had to be something really, really bad. And then what I found out what it was, I thought it was really ridiculous, to arrest people for hanging posters. Being a student at the school, I know people hang up posters all the time, for anything, all the time. When my club has events, we hang posters without permission. But what they did to them was unconstitutional, and I’m not OK with that.
I also don’t like our college president. I don’t like the way we’re treated. Nobody does. It even comes down in ways like we had no toilet paper on campus!
Revolution/revcom: That’s degrading! But going back to what you said, that you figured this had to have been something really bad for them to have been arrested—what do you think about what happened now that you know what the real story is?
A: It definitely had something to do with the message. They just wanted to get rid of this and they thought the only way they can do it. And from what I heard, the administration wants to stop them from doing this, and make them rethink their choices, and what they stand for, and break them. And that is not OK!
Early on the morning of May 17, two young women in the NYC Revolution Club were arrested getting out the message Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution: Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA at City College of New York (CCNY)!
These young Revolution Club members were taking out a message that begins: “The Revolutionary Communist Party IS ORGANIZING NOW TO OVERTHROW THIS SYSTEM AT THE SOONEST POSSIBLE TIME. Preparing to lead an actual revolution to bring about a radically new and better society: the New Socialist Republic in North America.” It poses the problem—this system; the solution—revolution; and the leadership—Bob Avakian (BA), the leader of the RCP. As the message says "BA’s leadership is a huge strength for the revolution: to follow, to learn from, to defend. " And the message gave people ways to move today to Prepare the ground, prepare the people and prepare the vanguard for the time when millions can be led in the all-out struggle for power.
READ THE MESSAGE NOW: Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution: Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
They were accosted by someone who identified himself as a maintenance supervisor and told them he didn’t like the content of the message, claiming that nobody wanted to hear this, and that he would tear it down wherever he found it on campus (revealing that he wasn't really that confident that no one would want to hear the message). Immediately afterwards, the two were detained by campus police who turned them over to the NYPD. They were arrested and charged with criminal misdemeanor trespassing—a serious charge with a possible sentence of 90 days in jail. They were detained at a precinct station, and then transported down to the “Tombs”–the holding jail for people being arraigned in Manhattan.
That they were charged with criminal trespass—and the explicit verbal harassment denouncing communism and belittling the young women—makes crystal clear that campus authorities were arresting and turning them over to the NYPD because of the message's content. It is utterly outrageous that at NYC's premier public university, people cannot freely go on campus and disseminate political literature and speak with students. It is time that students, professors, administrators, and people more broadly not accept how thoroughly this system has turned its schools into institutions of indoctrination and discipline. They must not accept how the terms of what is acceptable “discourse” are being enforced, under penalty of arrest, to maintain the terrible state of the world today.
As these women were being held, other members of the Revolution Club were rallying support—including mobilizing students to express their outrage at this arrest and get deeper into the revolution themselves.
And this arrest poses sharply the need for organizing for revolution on colleges and universities, and fighting for the right to critical thinking that confronts the brutal reality and engages the solution to the horrors of today.
After being held in jail all day and night, the two women were finally arraigned just before 1 a.m. on the morning of the 18th. At that point, their case was “adjourned contemplating dismissal,” and they were finally released—but with a threat from the judge that their charges would only be dismissed if they “stay out of trouble,” in the judge’s words, for six months.
On this page are an interview with one of the young women arrested; an interview with a CCNY student who was outraged by the arrest; and a statement of protest being circulated on campus.
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