Some of us on the Revolution Tour have been wrestling with the articles from Bob Avakian (BA) that take on the way huge numbers of people are being whipped up by American chauvinism into shameless support for U.S. imperialist intervention in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We’ve been working on developing, and experimenting with, provocations based on this to sharply jolt people and make them confront what is wrong with how they are being led to think. As the situation continues to develop, it is even more urgent to take this on while people who are rallying behind the U.S. are pushing for a “No-Fly Zone” which could involve the U.S. directly militarily and set off a situation that could lead to a major war with the threat of nuclear exchanges that would be a nightmare for humanity. Now, with Biden going over to Europe and making what many consider a barely veiled threat against Putin, these risks are even greater and the urgency to learning how to reach into people all the more pressing.
As BA put it in “Shameless American Chauvinism: ‘Anti-Authoritarianism’ as a ‘Cover’ for Supporting U.S. Imperialism”:
For those of us who are not willing to be blinded by this, we can and must confront and analyze reality as it actually is, and draw the necessary conclusions. Besides the fact that the U.S. is today, and has historically been, allied with many “authoritarian” governments throughout the world (and, in fact, has forcibly installed such governments in many countries), the even more fundamental fact is that the essence of the conflict between the U.S. and countries like Russia and China is not one between “democracy” and “authoritarianism,” but is a matter of rivalry among imperialist powers, all of which are monstrous oppressors of masses of people, and none of which represent or act in the interests of humanity. What is called for, and urgently now, is to oppose all imperialist marauders and mass murderers, and all systems and relations of oppression and exploitation, while giving particular emphasis to opposing “our own” imperialist oppressors who commit their monstrous crimes “in our name” and seek to rally us to support them on the basis of a grotesque American chauvinism, which we must firmly reject and fiercely struggle against.
Our initial experience has been going out with a provocation we developed (along the lines of this video from Noche Diaz), first, at a university and, second, in a busy downtown area. We then did this again at popular Sunday brunch/lunch spots and went around to different eating areas without the RNL shirts on. We passed out a flyer with three questions addressed to those who oppose military aggression:
Do you want to stop a bloated imperial military juggernaut that violates the sovereignty of nations, disregards the right of self-determination, and invades and destroys whole countries?
Do you feel the responsibility to do more to support people coming under attack from this world-wide bully?
Do you find it disgusting that a nuclear-powered state is holding the world hostage with the threat of armageddon if people don't bow down to their aims?
An agitator would then address the crowd—recalling familiar images of people buried in rubble and hospitals bombed. Then we would pose the “punch line”: “Did you think we were only talking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine?” and “Are you okay with it when the U.S. does the same thing all over the world?” And we’d expose some of what the U.S. has actually done in the world, and posed to people that they are being played into going along with U.S. imperialist interests when what they need to be doing is breaking with American chauvinism and becoming part of building for revolution here, to take down the capitalist-imperialist system that is the cause of these wars and causes so much unnecessary human suffering. We went back through the eating areas and talked to people at their tables, giving them a flyer with QR codes to the recent Ukraine articles by BA.
General responses included people who agreed with U.S. military intervention in Ukraine and didn’t want to hear anything different because the Ukrainians need to be protected; people who agreed there are terrible war crimes from both Russia and U.S., but satisfied with leaving it at “there’s nothing we can do about it;” and cases where students and youth only had a vague idea that there is a war happening “over there” and it’s sad, but completely outside of me and my life and anything I can do anyway.
Some people would respond vocally, nodded, and raised hands to wanting to stop this military juggernaut, or to do more to support those under attack, but were made very uncomfortable and did not want to “go there” when the fuller picture was revealed. For a number of people there was a way that “I don’t want to know” and “there’s nothing we can do,” came together and reinforced each other, with a strong insistence of only thinking about self. This was a “crack in the door”—now, how do we take that further and spring it into full-blown debate that draws people, clarifies the sides, and forces people to choose.
Among a number of the people who did have some sense that the U.S. has also waged unjust wars, there was also a thick influence of individualism and defeatism. This got concentrated in a long, loud argument with a guy in his thirties. He said he’s paying attention, but right now has to take care of his family and he’ll get involved in a couple years when his situation is better. And he had this delusion that in relation to the way the right to abortion is coming under attack now, there’s nothing to worry about because Texas will be turning blue in a few years. He thought it was crazy to talk about revolution because it’s too big, and half the country will be against it.
A woman who was seeing this debate started being a bit snarky, saying our people were ganging up on the guy. When asked directly what she thought, she first said she didn’t know enough to have an opinion. However, she and her friend became more open to engaging when this was challenged a bit more and we started to get into the need for revolution to get beyond a world of wars, and that it is the workings of this capitalist-imperialist system that is the cause of imperialist rivalries and wars for empire, including the wars this country wages all over the world.
Overall, doing this was able to challenge, disturb, and make some people think. But we have not “broken through” yet in the way that is needed. In addition to how dangerous it is that so many are being whipped up around U.S. intervention, we have not even scratched the surface of the positive potential of taking on and challenging this American chauvinist way of thinking among people who are now either caught up in these wrong terms or oblivious to the larger reality. What is being shared here should be learned from and serve as kindling to continue going out with these kinds of challenges, raising much needed hell around this, and radically experimenting with an aim to provoke, challenge, inspire and organize people for revolution.
