From the Revolution Club, San Francisco Bay Area:

Connecting People at the Dyke March
with the RCP Central Committee Message

July 4, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On Saturday, June 25, before the massive Pride Parade in SF, people gathered at Dolores Park hours before the Dyke March. People sported T-shirts that read: “You can pee next to me” in defiance of the patriarchal push in North Carolina and other states to reverse anti-discrimination laws and further alienate and foster fear and hatred against trans (transgender/transsexual) and other people who do not “fit in” to rigid and archaic gender roles. Others read: “I like girls who like girls” and “Vagina Vagina Vagina Vagina,” “Pretty Boy” and “Gay? Fine by me.” On the hill, a brewery tent labeled “Queers Making Beers” was flying a giant white flag that said “FUCK TRUMP.” Vans drove by and honked, with messages soaped onto windows that read things like: “Make America GAY Again.” It was a mix of people all giving the finger to the many ugly faces of patriarchal tradition. Right on.

Two members of the Revolution Club moved through the crowded walkways, offering people the message from the RCP Central Committee, “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution,” 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.” Though there were only two of us, we carried ourselves like revolutionaries, made eye contact, looked serious, and connected with quite a few people.

One woman called out, “End capitalism, yes!” and we called out, “If you’re serious about that, you have to get organized,” so she came back across a moving crowd to get a message. A group of shirtless men came by as we were saying, “Overthrow this monster of a system. End capitalism, end patriarchy,” and they scoffed and rolled their eyes. We said, “Not interested? Not acceptable.” A young woman nearby heard that and came over, saying, “Not interested in ending patriarchy? Hell no, that’s not acceptable.”

We argued with an old activist about why incremental change under this mode of production—capitalism-imperialism—cannot end oppression and exploitation, and why revolution and communism can. We talked to a young Native American woman who was all fired up having just learned the truth about what sadistic concentration camp-like conditions Junipero Serra forced on native peoples, and the kind of relations that could be possible in a world without social class. (Serra was a Catholic priest who played a major role in the genocide of Native Americans—he set up the mission system in California under Spanish colonial rule that led to the deaths of 60,000 Native Americans from 1769 to 1821.) A high school student said she was not used to anyone listening to what she thought about the world because she was so young, and said she never bought the story about communism being a terrible idea; capitalism is a terrible idea. Everyone we talked to got to hear about the historical moment we are in, where powerful machines, technology, and means of production exist to feed the planet and remake the world, but as long as they are governed by profit, the horrors of this society will continue. What’s more, a world-class leadership exists in Bob Avakian, who has synthesized the revolutionary experience of the 20th century, and charted a more scientific path, a vision, a strategy, and even written a constitution for a new socialist society, making so much more possible for humanity than ever before.

We agitated by a park bench, “No more Orlandos—EVER. They want you to choose your leader, between two imperialists. There is another way. The problem is this system. The solution: Revolution—Nothing Less!” In this way, moving through the crowd, stopping to agitate in front of groups, and challenging people publicly who blew us off, two people had an impact. We connected with several people for the anti-4th of July picnic, distributed hundreds of messages and articles, challenged people to lift their sights and refuse to be hemmed in by this system’s version of what is possible, and challenged people to do the work to uncover if this is all real, by going to revcom.us and getting with the leadership of Bob Avakian and the RCP.

 

Volunteers Needed... for revcom.us and Revolution

Send us your comments.

If you like this article, subscribe, donate to and sustain Revolution newspaper.