I think it is really important that all of us continue to return to Bob Avakian’s (BA’s) talk, “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed. A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution.”

Sometimes we shorthand the analysis there and lose what is actually being said about the urgency of the situation AND the potential to change things.

Returning to the talk has helped me really think about the analysis SCIENTIFICALLY. What I mean by this is that the “something terrible” part sometimes gets thought about as “the situation is so urgent that we just know we need to do something” (which we do) and we become all panicky just trying to get “out there” and do something (which, again, of course we need to get out there).

But, going back to the SCIENTIFIC assessment of the “Something Terrible” BUT, also, the “Something Truly Emancipating” and the actual way BA breaks it down in this section about re-polarization for revolution, in a changing situation where the part of society represented and led by the Republican Party have become fascist:

… These divisions cannot be resolved within the framework that has existed and has held things together, for nearly 150 years, since shortly after the end of the Civil War which led to the abolition of slavery—they cannot be resolved on the basis of the capitalist “democracy” that has been the “normal” means of capitalist rule (dictatorship) for so long.

And:

This rare situation, with the deepening and sharpening conflicts among the ruling powers, and in the society overall, provides a stronger basis and greater openings to break the hold of this system over masses of people.

It is extremely important to deeply understand this:

As this situation develops, and the ruling class is more and more unable to rule in the old way, society and daily life for masses of people, from different parts of society, can become increasingly unsettled and chaotic, with frequent “disruptions” of the “normal” way things have been.

And as “the normal way” society has been ruled is failing to hold things together—and society is increasingly being ripped apart—this can shake people’s belief that “the way things have always been” is the only way things can be. It can make people more open to questioning—in a real sense it can force people to question—the way things have been, and whether they have to stay that way. And this is all the more likely to happen if the revolutionary forces are out among the people shining a light on the deeper reality of what is happening, and why, and bringing out that there IS an alternative to living this way.

We can see this very clearly with how everything is unfolding in society now, and I thought it was really helpful to “go there.” Really look at how BA scientifically walks all this through. We can actually look at the terrain we are working on, and how all this applies. “OK, so how do we work to repolarize this situation? On the question of abortion and Ukraine?” When we look at it, there is a lot of bad shit that is setting terms right now. The way people are being whipped up around the U.S. imposing a “No-Fly Zone” in Ukraine—which could threaten World War 3. The way some forces are trying to obstruct the needed struggle to defend the right to abortion with nonsense about it being a “white women issue,” or the “Woke BS” of rhetorically erasing women in the name of “the inclusion of trans people.” But, when you look at how BA is going to work on providing leadership and resetting terms in society on these questions, it just takes you to a whole different place than all the petty-ass terms that are out there.

I wanted to start there because we need to constantly return to BA, when it starts becoming fuzzy in our thinking. We need to be going there because there is so much leadership being provided. There is, yes, a lot of work to be done. But, god damn! We got the most tremendous leadership to really be able to do this!

So, with all this in mind, I want to share some more thoughts on the process of building the Revolution Club.

In “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating,” BA puts emphasis on this:

Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force.

Are we bringing forward people into the Revolution Clubs just to “do things” or as strategic commanders, working on the above objectives? This does have to be brought together with concrete ways that people can spread this revolution, and be part of impacting society. But there is much greater potential if we bring people into the process of wrestling with these larger questions, making strategic plans for how to repolarize society (these plans, by the way, don’t have to stay abstract if approached correctly). Like, for example, wrestling together with what questions do we need to be writing polemics against? This is very different than “a few of us make the plans, and just dispatch people to different places.”

This brings people into a whole different process, a CONSCIOUS process, of going to work on solving the problems of the revolution, and making concrete plans. There are ways that this process will involve people coming up with things that may not be the same as what some of us with more experience would come up with. We need to be open to—and leading—this process, while still providing the right solid core. What should the Revolution Club contingent on April 9 look like? Working back from this, how do we need to be out in the world now? What questions do we need to hit at, including taking out those new polemics from BA to open these questions up on the campuses, etc.?

We also need to have the kind of life and culture where we aren’t just narrowly talking about what we are doing the one day and the next day and the next… becoming NARROWER & NARROWER. We need to pay attention to having the kind of culture where people are wrestling with these strategic questions and having this kind of collectivity to deepen their understanding, while also contributing to breaking through on these questions as part of a NATIONAL movement.