How Do We Step? Three Stories, Two Approaches
September 17, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
A young woman inspired by the August 27 gathering in Harlem to GET READY for #RiseUpOctober in NYC, and who had donated money, came to the first organizing meeting after the 27th. When someone (fortunately) followed up with her, she told him that she really wanted to do something, but the people at this meeting were so disorganized that she decided her efforts would just be wasted. The person struggled with her, in a good way it seems. But how many other people are like this who have been lost?
Someone wrote to an artist, proceeding from the actual reality we face and the great need before us, to donate and play a more active role. The person responded quickly and in a way that went quite beyond what she had been specifically asked for and actually reflected a more acute grasp of what would be needed to really make October 24 succeed.
Some people in the Midwest were planning to take October 24 to a festival that attracts a lot of progressive people. They were going with a parent of a police murder victim and they planned to set up a table, sell some things, get the word out and meet people. “No way!” someone said. “We need to march in there with some signs, chanting loudly, and put it boldly to people that everybody here has to get with this, that we need money for buses to go New York, and people need to go on those buses, and we’re not leaving ‘til we get what we need!”
Think about it. Are we getting the moment? Do we understand that October 24 could fill a great need—and that people will respond to this need, if that need is really put to them? This can only happen if we step to people in a way that reflects that. If you go to people aiming low, then people think you aren’t really going for what you say you are. If you go to people without an organizational plan, or with a plan that won’t really do what you say, they’ll get that—and they might give you a “good luck” but they won’t throw in, they won’t organize for and donate to this, and they may not even come themselves. If you go to people without challenging them to really TAKE SIDES in this, to be there FOR REAL, well... then why should they? After all, you must not think it’s that important.
There are millions right now who would respond with support to these simple three points or to Carl Dix’s August 27 speech, or to some of the other excerpts from that night. Not always (or even often) without struggle, and not without work—but they would respond. Let’s not let low sights and narrow vision stand in the way!
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