The Revolution Club in the Bay Area has been broadly distributing and deeply grappling with the proclamation “We Are the Revcoms (Revolutionary Communists).” Since May Day when we announced the nationwide publication of this Proclamation, we’ve taken this message out to several festivals, a flea market, and a farmers’ market. We’ve done all of this with the strategic orientation from Bob Avakian’s quote “Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people…”
On May Day itself, the Club read out loud the freshly printed Proclamation as part of our day’s orientation. The point was emphasized that the Proclamation will be one of the main organizing tools for (and accelerant to) the spring/summer offensive to put revolution on the map. We set out to talk to everyone, but with our sights set on the people that the Proclamation singles out in the opening paragraph: “To everyone who can’t stand this world the way it is…” We met a lot of thoughtful people that day who were attracted to the rally and march, and our straight-up revolution message. This included a revolutionary-minded international student who was moved to tears after the march and two people who were moved to check out the Revolution Club closer.
The following day, one of them joined a few Club members for a scheduled discussion of the Proclamation and became a member on the spot after reviewing the Points of Attention for the Revolution. This discussion included a continuation of a conversation that came up on the subway ride home from May Day. A newer member of the Club who came forward around International Women’s Day and Sunsara’s tour against “woke” lunacy, brought up the doubt about whether “the ultimate goal of finally abolishing wars among human beings” is possible since “there have always been wars and conflicts among humans.” We talked about the full scope of the future communist society, how by necessity it can only be done on a world scale with the eventual abolition of the “4 Alls.” And how through this, wars themselves would no longer be necessary and are not inherently bound up with human nature. Separately, the question of the existence of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction came up. People had doubts about the practical feasibility of dismantling these weapons under socialism, but mainly the conversation revolved around “ends and means.” How even the ways of fighting by revolutionaries, and defense of a future socialist state, need to be consistent with the goal of human emancipation. That these weapons are inconsistent with that goal because of how extremely devastating and indiscriminate they are. We got into the policy written in the draft Constitution to never use these weapons and to dedicate resources to safely dismantling them.
Another question raised was about our strategic approach of “Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.” Someone asked why isn’t it “Transform the People” first, and then “Fight the Power” with these already transformed people. The point was made to them that the two are not separate processes, that the transformation of people has to be done as we stand with and defend people against unjust attacks. And that fighting the power takes different forms, such as taking to the streets on May Day, which is where this person came to know us. In a conversation amongst the leading core after this discussion, we talked about how fighting the power actually serves as fertile ground and an accelerant for transforming the people. And that people can’t fundamentally transform if they become defeated and accept even the worst outrages.
With the summer festival season starting, we’ve also had some experience inviting people to join scheduled discussions at our event booths. These are informal discussions where people can dig into the Proclamation and get to know the Revolution Club. At one of these discussions at a book festival, we were joined by someone who met us on May Day. They got fired up, reviewed the Points of Attention, and joined the Revolution Club right there at the booth. We invited people throughout the day at these events with small flyers, and we also made calls the day before to invite broader contacts. Later in the day, we were joined by a young couple we had just met who at first stated their full agreement with the need for revolution, but throughout the discussion advocated for the need to “feed people first” and local farming collectives being the way to end capitalism. A veteran revolutionary challenged her to think about who owns the major means of production (land, factories, resources, etc.). And to think about how this approach would meet the other needs of the people (clothing, housing, medicine, etc.). Or how this approach would deal with inequalities in geography between these different localized farming collectives. Some of the newer Club members expressed some agreement with the approach of trying to meet people’s needs within the existing system to win them over to the revolution. We struggled over the need to have higher sights than trying to get small scale reforms within the system on some local level, and that this revolution has its sights set on the emancipation of all humanity. We tried to pull the conversation back to the Proclamation, but the couple wasn’t interested in continuing the conversation after being challenged. This exchange inspired us to take up more systematized discussions around key questions and ways of thinking that keep people stuck in this system with members of the Club, as we realized there is quite a bit of unevenness in understanding. We scheduled the first in a series of discussions the following weekend at our booth at the Malcolm X Jazz Festival.
As we grappled with the goal of organizing thousands, and then millions, of people into this movement, and the unique opportunity we have in this rare time to make revolution, we realized the importance of masses of people taking up the Proclamation as their own. This has led to taking up a new approach: challenging people who are more interested in this revolution, and who have a fire in their belly against oppression, to make a $2 donation for a bundle of 5 Proclamations that they take to others, stay in touch with us, share their experience of bringing it to others, along with the questions and conversations they had. This allows regular people to both contribute financially and politically to put revolution on the map, while it also trains them on how to work collectively with this movement. The price of $2 for a bundle of 5 broadsheets is something most people can afford but it is already a contribution and sometimes a sacrifice. Revolution requires funds, and if we don’t want to be social workers but want to lead the masses to emancipate themselves, we need to create the culture of not just giving things out for free but one in which the people continuously support this movement for revolution and encourage others to do so. We are only just beginning to take up this challenge and we look forward to gaining more experience with it. This can be a key way to identify potential leaders for revolution, people who are bold enough to be the first to take this up at a time when on the surface things look stable, but below it’s ready to erupt. We’ve so far had limited experience, but we intend on following up with everyone who has taken bundles so far and assessing our approach. And as newer members of the Club become more confident—based scientifically on evidence—of the need and possibility of revolution, this will enable them to more effectively challenge masses to take up this approach.
As another form of fundraising that we’ve discussed before locally, going into the warmer days of summer, we’ve started bringing water bottles with The RNL Show stickers to every outing for a $2-$3 donation. We found it to be an easy way for people to contribute to our fundraising goals while promoting the valuable guidance of the weekly RNL Show and hydration! So far we’ve been hampered by unseasonably cold weather.
Several people at the jazz festival took bundles and donated, and many others took individual copies. The main organizers of this event were local identity politics hustlers as well as Black small business owners. We got to experience firsthand how this “woke” bullshit keeps people away from even hearing the truth if it comes from the “wrong identity.” A few people who started walking up to the booth seeing the word “revolution,” stopped in their tracks and turned around whispering something about “white people” as they looked at the diverse group of revolutionaries. One of the groups we approached with the Proclamation refused to talk to us saying: “We don’t want to talk to white European colonizers at the Malcolm X festival! Get out of our faces!” For a lot of the Club members the level of ignorance was surprising, but it gave us experience on holding our ground and really fighting for the truth even if it’s unpopular.
We ended the day with a scheduled deep-dive of the Proclamation. While we discussed the entirety of the Proclamation, particularly the second paragraph about the rare time and the quite a bit on the defining elements, we spent the majority of the time defining basic features of our program. We zeroed in on the middle section with “defeat… abolish… establish…” And a large part of the conversation focused on “defeat…,” both the seriousness of it, as well as the increased possibility of it, with the sharpening divisions in society and amongst the rulers. At the end of the discussion, people said they felt a better understanding of what we’re all about, even if they’re not fully convinced of the evidence. We encouraged this exploration process and scheduled a discussion the following week on BA’s piece on the U.S. Constitution and another discussion on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.
While we’ve run into quite a bit of ignorant dismissal and cowardly “woke” slanders (e.g., they shout “cult!” and run away at a farmers’ market), we’ve also discovered that there are people out there who care about the future of humanity and the planet, and that this revolution can connect with them. And we’ve been consistent about staying in touch with those people and finding ways to organize them in ways big and small. An example of this is a restaurant owner from the Middle East who by chance talked to a Club member when they went in for lunch and separately was approached by a team canvassing local businesses for donations. Through these conversations, he repeated multiple times that the problem is capitalism and that he agrees we need revolution. He told us he wanted to find out more and wanted to contribute and connect us with a cultural group he knows.
Recognizing that $2 for water bottles isn’t going to generate enough funds for a revolution of millions of people, the Club is organizing a fundraising BBQ lunch to coincide with this livestream, and this restaurant owner donated several sides for us to use. We will make sure to come back to him and let him know how his contribution is part of something very big and get into the content of the Proclamation with him. And, overall, we are continuing to rely on the initiative of masses of people, new people, to carry out every element of this BBQ so that they get the experience of working as a team for a common goal. We’ve also integrated our regular discussions into the lunch planning, like clips from the BA Interview during the BBQ planning meeting and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic being combined with preparing ingredients and marinating meats the day before the event. We will have more to say about this BBQ and the livestream afterwards.
Overall, we’re taking on several new ways of doing things with limited experience. It is not easy, but we are confident that if we persevere in this approach that we will bring forward a solid core of revolutionaries along with a presence and support base that’s built on the right foundation. Fundraising is really a key way through which people can become part of this movement. We look forward to putting revolution on the map this year together with others throughout the country and raising big funds in order to do so!