A recent Zoom call crackled with energy after more than a dozen people watched The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show together. People spoke one after another. Here’s some of what they said:
“The hoods I came up in, I was taught at an early age, that you have to have more than three girlfriends. My mentor, on the streets, taught me how to degrade women. As a young boy I learned to treat women as sex objects. I was like eight or nine years old and I was like, I want six, or even 12, girlfriends. You begin to view women as beings to be exploited. And it doesn't change with the church. The church teaches the same thing about what woman’s place should be. Not as equals.”
“Billie Eilish has some good points. I hear people say, ‘I got my own OnlyFans.’ They say, ‘We are taking porn away from the porn studios and controlling things ourselves.’ Look what happens to women all around the world who are forced into sexual slavery. The majority of women have no choice. I listened to this former porn star Mia Khalifa say you can’t make porn less brutal, you can’t say no to anything during a porn shoot and have to put up with all this degrading stuff. A woman asked me during sex, ‘Do you want to choke me.’ No! This is what is considered sexy and edgy. This is very harmful and progressively getting worse.”
“I agreed with a lot of what said about abortion and gender. We as people opposed to capitalism can’t end capitalism with the tools of capitalism around gender and race. The division of men and women continues to divide people. This has limited intimacy. Sex work is horrific for everyone, sapping away intimacy from human beings.”
“I have been listening in and watched the video. It made some great points. How do we break people out of what I call ‘slave mentality.’ Porn? Every man I know watches that. It does something to your mindset.”
These are just some of the deep, visceral comments made in a discussion following a group watching of The RNL Show Episode 87 on Zoom. The interview with Luna and Annie about the response to their article on Billie Eilish’s remarks on porn struck a raw nerve. People’s reactions spoke to how fucked up the social relations in this society are, how patriarchy permeates everything for both women and men.
The Importance of The RNL Show to the Life of the Revolution Club
At our recent Revolution Club mass meeting we discussed the following points from Noche Diaz:
“We urge you to pull together discussion circles that are regularly watching The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show together as part of applying the organizational model in the Declaration—groupings that are making plans together to spread the revolution, and grappling with why a revolution is necessary, what a revolution involves and what it’s aiming for... training people to become organizers (and leaders in this revolution) themselves.” (from “Notice to Revcoms and Supporters of the Revolution: From Noche Diaz, National Spokesperson for the Revolution Club,” January 24, 2022)
We have often had difficulty, due to various people's work schedules and life conditions, as well as the pandemic and weather, even having the Revolution Club collectively watch and discuss the show when it airs. We've done some sidewalk showings on summer nights where we have drawn a few people to watch parts of the show but we've rarely had deep discussion following the show.
After getting the guidance above we decided to try something new. We decided to do a watch party on Zoom and picked a time when we knew at least most club members could come—4 pm on Wednesday. On Monday, we began texting invites to people who had been at our mass meeting or expressed interest in coming about joining us. The response was very positive. We had over dozen people on the Zoom. At least two of them were watching The RNL Show for the first time.
The discussion was both animated and deep. Much of it did center on the segment with Luna and Annie about the controversy generated by the article on Billie Eilish but other questions were also touched on. One person said, “The degradation of women, the female enslavement that Sunsara Taylor talked about... it is an inhumane act when you say a woman can’t have full control over her body. That's bogus as fuck.” Someone else said, “I really appreciated the way Annie and Luna went after the arguments on the table. Those opposing the article weren’t addressing the points Billie Eilish made. You can’t approach this from ‘me’ but from half of humanity. People are forced into these gender roles.” Addressing the last segment from “Bob Avakian for the Liberation of Black People” he said, “The struggle for the emancipation of Black people and the role BA played in this whole fight is inspiring. It shows what role millions of Black people should play in getting humanity free.”
One person summed things up in this way, “I really appreciate everyone’s comments. There are themes and threads in this show that are really important. The segments on abortion and porn bring out the stakes and what it’s going to take to transform all this. Forced motherhood and female enslavement and the connection to patriarchy and porn and how the degradation of women is bound up with the system of capitalism. We need to bring forward the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution. Then the thread continues to the oppression of Black people. This is Black history month and HBCUs [historically Black colleges and universities] have had to close due to bomb threats. It brings out why we have to have a revolution to change all this and then there is the debate about what to do if the country goes to war.”
At the end of our discussion, one first-time viewer made the following comment about his life. “I used to work at the airport and they had this room with big pictures depicting Black men with 40 ounces... I was born on the West Side and grew up on the South Side and never knew anything about white folks. I hated white folks. This is how this system teaches people to look at each other—pitting us against each other. It’s not Black and white but haves and have nots. There’s this guy on the South Side who is taking youth to some of the more diverse neighborhoods on the North Side to introduce them to different cultures.” After the Zoom he said that he wants to join the club.
At 6 pm, after an hour of discussion about the show, we were still going strong. But after surveying everyone we decided to end the discussion and make this a recurring event on Zoom every Wednesday from 4 pm-6 pm. Several people who missed this have already let us know they want to join us next week.
Looking Ahead
This was a beginning. A new thing. In this Zoom we sort of opened things up and let it rip. Some very powerful things came out. We could have been stronger at pulling the lens back to the bigger picture and helping new people see the connections between things and how all these horrors are rooted in the system of capitalism-imperialism and can only end through revolution. One thing we plan to do next time is to focus some discussion on Andy Zee’s commentary which opens and sets an important framework for every episode.
Discussions of The RNL Show can be an important way of implementing the following from A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution:
Organizing people into this revolution means reaching out to all sorts of people—not just where there are protests and rebellions against oppression and injustice, but everywhere throughout society—spreading the word about revolution and getting people together (in real life and online) to grapple with why an actual revolution is necessary, what such a revolution involves, and what kind of society this is aiming for. This will enable people who are new to the revolution to themselves become organizers for this revolution and to recruit more and more people to do the same. On this basis, and through the growing ranks of the revolution acting together as an increasingly powerful force, it will be possible to attract and organize the necessary numbers, and build up the necessary strength, to be in the position to do what needs to be done.
This is one critical way that we will build organization and go to work on this need in BA’s major new presentation:
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.
