Last week revcoms in a number of cities began to spread the powerful new piece Allegiance. Comrades should review last week’s editorial here on this to reground in just how strategic this piece is to the repolarization for revolution that we are urgently working towards… changing how people in this society are thinking and acting.

Here’s what we learned:

Point 1. 

Allegiance polarizes. Taking this out to high schools in particular—and we are talking about inner-city high schools made up largely of oppressed people—things quickly divided out. And guess what? Those students who voiced reactionary ideas were louder, better organized and on the offensive. Is anyone surprised? In addition to all the other ways this system works on people’s thinking, the ruling class has made a special effort to implant Army-run ROTC programs into areas of the oppressed. These programs indoctrinate students, drill them, and build them up as a special set within the school (with special days where ROTC students wear their uniforms, etc.).

Was that reactionary response the whole story? No. There were some students, faculty and parents who were interested and some were somewhat supportive. But on the whole they were not willing to step out, and many of them said, “But there’s nothing we can do.” Again, are we surprised? Without bold and scientific leadership unafraid to go up against the reactionaries… without some exposure to real arguments that puncture the reactionaries… without a sense that there is a movement, even if small, that has a firm grip on the truth and the scientific method and a way to learn more… and without being sharply challenged, with a sense of the stakes of this moment and what we actually have going for us (including the scientific fact that there is a radically different way the world can be and the positive vision and the leadership of Bob Avakian (BA), who brought forward that vision and the strategy to realize it) and how unconscionable it is to sit on the sidelines when something could actually be done… the minority of people who may be more spontaneously with this, in one way or another, are going to have a very rough time of it and almost certainly feel isolated.

On the other hand, with leadership, substance, and the scientific method… with an organization to back it up… and with sharp challenge and struggle to all the passivity and wait-and-see mentality… it can be and needs to be a whole different story. Which leads to the second point.

Point 2. 

This polarization around Allegiance can provide important openings… IF we go to work on it to REpolarize… for revolution. That means going back more than once, and going back with substance, science and enthusiasm. Most of all, it means making real the CHALLENGE at the end of Allegiance:

If anyone wants to claim that what we have said here is not right, then let them have the courage to put that on the line, directly up against us and the knowledge we are bringing… and it will become even more clear that what we say is the truth—a powerful truth that people need to know about and take up.

It may and almost certainly will require humor, imagination, shock, boldness and in general creativity to force reactionaries to respond to the challenge. But let’s remember—all the qualities we just mentioned are luckily in big supply right in the text of Allegiance itself! Which leads to this guideline:

Use. The. Text. In fact, keep taking the struggles you get into back to the text. And most of all, insist on the challenge. 

One final strong suggestion, and a big plus: everywhere you go with Allegiance, use the provocations on The BA Interviews—especially the provocation that states “How’d you go from being a proud American to opposing everything America stands for?” Let people—no, encourage people to—“meet” this incredible leader for themselves right from the jump, and begin getting into him.

Point 3. 

Bring your “A game.”

If you make a challenge, you gotta back it up with substance and science. Steep yourself in the new article by Bob Avakian, THE TRIALS OF FASCIST DONALD TRUMP, AND THE CRIMINAL NATURE OF THIS WHOLE SYSTEM, and especially in A FINAL NOTE: On the Real Nature and Monstrous Crimes of This Country before you go out there, as well as the American Crime series. Study BA to see how he marshals the substance to make the key points. Use posters and graphics. And make sure that you watch Raymond Lotta’s new talk, The Communist Revolution So Badly Needed… vs. the Anti-Communist Brainwash Your’re Getting, now up on the website of Revolution Books, to go against the lies that people get drilled in about communism.

Again, keep in mind: we are repolarizing for something positive. We are fighting for and aiming to win people to say “YES! TO A RADICALLY DIFFERENT REPUBLIC AND MUCH BETTER SYSTEM—a new socialist republic, a system which will move to abolish and uproot all this madness and give the highest expression to people’s humanity, and a future corresponding to people’s highest aspirations.” Display and use the centerspread from WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE BETTER WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM.

One final note: As for the religious fanatics (many of them Christian fascists) who often seem to show up the day after we do this, every time the revcoms go out… at least one person needs to have their Bible with them, with the juicy quotes from the Bible itself from Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World and God, The Original Fascist marked with post-it notes—to take on both the Bible thumpers, and the youth and others, with actual Biblical text that makes its murderous, reactionary character undeniable.