Report from October 2 Women’s March in Lansing, Michigan
Correspondence sent in to revcom.us
Four of us who went to October protests here in Michigan, two of us old hands, and two brand new to the revcoms. Three of us went to the protest at the state capitol in Lansing. The other, because of family complications, went to one in Detroit. Both the new people had been drawn in by A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution. One came to a meeting beforehand to discuss the attacks in Texas, what they mean, and the importance of the contingent. We used the guidelines from the Rev Club for the meetings.
A Meeting of Students—Drawing Strength from Each Other; Grappling with Abortion Rights and Revolution
From a member of the Revolution Tour in Los Angeles:
Over the last few weeks, the Revolution Tour has been working with several students on one of the campuses we’ve been to who have engaged with the Declaration and Call from the revcoms, and the call for the October 2 marches, and who are working on building a Revolution Club on their campus. We recently had the first meeting where we were able to pull together six of the students. It was very important they got to meet each other and strengthen each other’s understanding and commitment.
The October 2 Slogan “Really says it all!”… an Artist Donates Her Work
Notes from phonebanking
From a Revcom in Chicago:
I introduced myself, and went over that on October 2 the Women’s March and other groups have called for demonstrations all over the country in defense of abortion rights. Everyone who cares about the emancipation of the half of humanity that is female should be at one of these marches and make this a turning point in building relentless in-the-streets resistance. The Revcoms are forming a Break the Chains contingent to march on that day...
I read a few of the slogans of the contingent and asked her thoughts. She said, "Oh, I like the first one! (No Going Back—No Surrender! Abortion On Demand & Without Apology!)" I asked why. "Because it’s very succinct. And still, it really says it all!"
“BA concentrates REAL revolution!”
Reflections from a member of the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour
September 24, 2021
I’ve been getting a lot of experience in learning to lead discussions of A Declaration, A Call to Get Organized Now for a Real Revolution from the revcoms/revcom.us with new people who are just meeting the revolution. There’s a lot of richness to what kinds of discussions and struggle get opened up when it is on the basis of the Declaration and Call.
One important thing I want to note is that in recent experience we’ve had a lot of focused discussions on Part 3 of the Declaration focused on the question of leadership:
At a University: Workshopping a New Style of Work, “Rolling Discussions,” Mass Recruitments into the Revolution
From members of the National Tour to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution
September 24, 2021
A local university welcomed back students this week—after over a year of COVID Zoom learning. We had a big impact at two welcome back to campus events—a street fair attended by thousands of students, and an activities fair on campus. We are still learning a lot about how to apply the process described in A Declaration, A Call to Get Organized for a Real Revolution—none of what's here should be taken as a formula... but we did want to share experience for everyone to learn from.
Discussing and Debating:
Bob Avakian On Fascist Lunacy and “Woke Folk” Insanity: A New “Two Outmodeds”
From a member of the Revolution Club, Bay Area
September 20, 2021
The Bay Area Revolution Club hosted a discussion on Bob Avakian On Fascist Lunacy and “Woke Folk” Insanity: A New “Two Outmodeds” at Revolution Books in Berkeley. Attendees included about eight students from UC Berkeley, a high school student, and a young woman who said she came because she felt compelled to attend after seeing what's happened in the last two years in this country.
We started with an intro about the Revolution Club—that we are getting organized now for an actual revolution, that people should get into the A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution and join the Revolution Club now even as they are continuing to learn. We identified the leader of this revolution and architect of the new communism, Bob Avakian (BA). The two of us leading the discussion introduced ourselves by briefly walking through our own political journeys that saw us taking up and fighting for identity politics to becoming revolutionary communists. We shared about finding BA and confronting, as BA himself said, wanting revolution bad enough we became willing to be scientific.
Digging Into, Learning From, Applying
A Declaration, A Call to Get Organized Now For a Real Revolution
On the National Revolution Tour, we've begun to see—in this whole last week—in still initial, but real ways, what is the process described in A Declaration, A Call to Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution.
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An important thing that comes through in the initial experience is what happens when people are grappling together over these questions—on the basis of the Declaration, debating things out, and wrestling with reality and the burning questions of “why an actual revolution is necessary, what such a revolution involves, and what kind of society this is aiming for.” Digging into these things together with others—in a basic and initial way—is the basis on which they can go organize others. We need to exponentially build up the forces for revolution and this is the process through which that can happen.
The Revcom Recruiters on a Campus in a Stop Everything Moment
This week, abortion became effectively illegal in Texas. This is a stop everything moment... and it's a reflection of the overall way that, as it says in A Declaration, A Call to Get Organized Now for a Real Revolution from the revcoms, “Society is being ripped apart.” In moments like these, we need to make a big leap in organizing for revolution!
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On the day the Texas law went into effect, we decided to pull our whole crew together to have a big impact... and we did... with some important lessons for going forward!
Spreading the Revolution at “Sundays on State Street”:
Field Notes from the Revolution Club, Chicago
With “reaching out to all sorts of people” in mind, the Revolution Club has been participating in a free downtown street festival of various types of small vendors called “Sundays on State.” We designed a simple booth (see photos) with provocative visual displays, including a large photo of the flag burning outside the White House in 2019. The table promoted most prominently our two key working documents “A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution” (and we made sure everyone who came to the table got at least one copy) and BA’s “This Is A Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible—Why That Is So, And How to Seize On This Rare Opportunity” along with other literature, stickers, T-shirts. We had TV playing “Bob Avakian for the Liberation of Black People and the Emancipation of All Humanity” on a loop.
Download these new flyers for high school and college students:
“This Declaration Is Crucial!”
A report about a Zoom discussion of the Declaration from a member of the National Revolution Tour
We’re getting some important experience applying the simple style of organizing called for in the Declaration and Call from the revcoms to Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution. We took this out to a busy shopping area/youth scene on Sunday and based on a serious invitation and challenge in the Declaration, we invited people to a Zoom discussion to get into it. A few people were more seriously interested and two people came on the Zoom.
Grappling with the Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible... and how to organize for revolution to seize on this
from a member of the National Revolution Tour
I’ve appreciated recent discussions on the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour, on the importance and need to root our work and thinking in the Declaration from the revcoms: A Call to Get Organized Now for a Real Revolution and the recent piece from Bob Avakian (BA), “This Is A Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible—Why That Is So, And How To Seize On This Rare Opportunity.” These are world historic interventions—providing clear leadership on what’s needed and why... putting the basic reality to people, the problems of the revolution, and leading people to grapple with why we need a revolution, the situation we’re in, and how to get organized for revolution.
A New Understanding of the Process of Organizing for Revolution
Thoughts from a member of the National Revolution Tour
Going more deeply into the Declaration from the revcoms, A Call to Get Organized Now For a Real Revolution, has sparked a lot of thinking. I’m very excited, as I always get when I get clarity on key questions.
First, I’m really appreciating the work we did a few months ago to dig deeply into the New Year’s Statement By Bob Avakian: A New Year, The Urgent Need For A Radically New World—For The Emancipation Of All Humanity. The more we are grappling with a scientific understanding of reality, the more I feel equipped to take this out to others, not just repeating phrases, but breaking things down for people in simple terms.
I also appreciate our discussion of the fact that what’s in the Declaration, and now further developed in this new BA piece, This Is A Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible—Why That Is So, And How To Seize On This Rare Opportunity, is “a higher synthesis of what it means to apply the new communism to actually organizing people for revolution.”
Creating a Buzz About the Rare Time for Revolution at the Mini-Bike Races in Compton
From two members of the National Revolution Tour
For the last couple months, we’ve gone out regularly to organize for revolution at the mini-bike races in Compton held every Sunday. We heard about these races from a youth who stepped into the revolution a year ago. It’s a scene where all kinds of youths come together to hang out, race their mini-bikes, as well as where youths caught up in the gangs come, but with an agreement to not set-trip for the day. (To give a sense of some of the positive aspirations of some of these youths, one of the slogans of one of the mini-bike crews is, “Smoke tires, not the homies.”) We have been there a number of times in the past couple of months and have learned a lot. There are many youths there—Black and Latino, ranging from 9 to 19, as well as more OG types... older Black and Latino people. About 200 people or so attend these races, and we’ve had somewhat of an impact where people know us, have taken stickers and buttons, have engaged BA, have donated, and have at times raised disagreements with what we are about and are doing.