I’ve been thinking about working on transforming the question of fundraising and what this has to do with organizing. I think we’ve had a lot of discussions where we’ve talked about “OK, so let’s change that, let’s ask for donations” and we’ve even had some really important experiences in getting out there really on fire with fundraising and made goals, and surpassed them. But I think the problem that this becomes a good experience and “turn the page” until the next national fundraising campaign comes, is not a good model and I think it shows some problems of approach.

I wanted to step back to the ongoing struggle we’ve had on the rupture from movement activists vs. strategic commanders. I think stepping back to the level of working back from the seizure of power is something we have to continue to do and constantly evaluate how everything we are working on NOW and going forward, is oriented on creating the basis for that time when we can go all out in a future situation, and we have to constantly wrestle with what that looks like.

First, I think about what it means to build a really broad mass movement for revolution, as Bob Avakian, BA, says in Why We Need an Actual Revolution and How We Can Really Make Revolution about the networks that need to be built and working together to spread the word about and organize people into the revolution, which need to be built and expanded in all parts of the country and linked together. The website, The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show and the fundraising livestreams are so important in how people see each other and learn from each other and get leadership.

Something I’ve been thinking about and struggling over is how so many times the people who see us just see the same few people in the neighborhood, they see others around them who aren’t with it, they hear the whispers in their ears—not to say we don’t have to orient or struggle with people over these questions, but if people don’t see that broad movement and most importantly they don’t get a sense of this national broad mass movement for revolution, they think it’s just them, and I think more consciously being able to knit these people together where people are seeing, hearing and reading about each other, where people in the neighborhood are brought together to meet those who are with this revolution, where they are seeing not everyone is contributing in the same exact way but many people from diverse backgrounds and nationalities are working on the same mission and are learning about this together. I’m not saying this is everything, but I do think it’s something to be conscious about and lead people, both yes, so people don’t feel like it’s just them, but also how they are able to see how this needs to and can quickly grow, what we are aiming to do, working on those three prepares (prepare the ground, prepare the people, and prepare the leadership)—people should get a sense of the strategy that is in the We Are the Revcoms, where people see that we need to build those thousands, tested leaders to lead those millions when the time comes, how they see how they are contributing in both spreading and sustaining this revolution is very crucial in what we are working now.

And all of this isn’t disconnected, in fact it goes hand in hand with the ideological work we need to be doing with people in digging into the BA Interviews, deepening their understanding, and yes moving through an “OHIO,”¹ because we need to be bringing forward leaders, not being content with their role as just people who support on the sidelines. But I think this mission of putting revolution on the map isn’t just something a few of us are doing—but by people raising funds, spreading this revolution, building those networks, people are being brought into working on that together.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is how much there is still the pull to some old practice—an example of this is sometimes when some of us are going through lists of people to be called about different things, we always end up leaving out a lot of people. And sometimes there is a point to prioritizing some people for certain things, but some people are left off as the ones we call when we are raising funds. I think here is some undermining of that movement for revolution that we need to be leading and not just some people we call to raise funds, but actually the kinds of people who are being brought forward and actually deepening their understanding as they are carrying out “basic tasks that they can readily carry out and feel confident doing which make a real contribution to building the revolution, and can learn to take on more responsibility as they gain more experience and a deeper understanding” (from Why We Need an Actual Revolution and How We Can Really Make Revolution, on principles and methods regarding commitment and organizing people into the revolution). This I think is a different process and a different way of leading people, and actually this made me think of the contrast to the gradualism where we end up bringing forward people in the ones and twos and not actually leading a larger broader movement with this kind of process in mind, where it does actually enable people to come forward as leaders, as they are also made responsible to the needs and problems of the revolution and are given real ways to work on this together with others.

When I think about how quickly this revolution needs to spread, to all those addressed in the We Are the Revcoms broadsheet, and how this will happen, through putting this mission in the hands of everyone, when we meet people we need to be telling them they are part of enabling all those who need to know about this, they are part of lifting the sights of so many people who are feeling hopeless, who are living with the belief that this world is the only one possible, and how spreading the word about this very quickly and making this a mass question in society as we are taking on straight up these ways of thinking that have people trapped ideologically, where we are at the same time, building the leadership needed to lead the millions, and the revolutionary people in their millions breaking their “allegiance” to this system, through this contrast of old slave owner constitution vs. the new emancipating constitution. I can totally see bringing people in on working on this together, getting into these questions and being part of working on this all the time.