On October 28, 2023, the revcoms set out on the offensive for Revolution—Nothing Less! Week, an intense and concerted nationwide effort to put REAL revolution on the map.

This was aiming to not only spread the word of this revolution but mark a real step forward in manifesting the organized presence of the revolution. This revolution must become the “authority” that people look to and follow, NOT the lying politicians and media mouthpieces… NOT those who front for the oppressors and preach about “reconciliation” with this system… NOT people trying to be the top dog in this dog-eat-dog system. And we intended this week to make a big move in that direction.

The main flyer for REVOLUTION—Nothing Less Week! set the basic context and urgent need:

The world is on fire! Climate destruction... nuclear war threatened... a horrifying genocidal war being waged on the people of Gaza by Israel, backed by the U.S.... the direct danger of all-out fascism in this country... the worsening oppression of Black and Brown people, of women, of LGBTQ people…

NO MORE! This system of capitalism-imperialism that we live under is the cause of all this tremendous suffering and destruction of life here and around the world.

People have tried all kinds of changes within this system, but all these reforms never get to the root of the problem. To really put an end to these horrors brought down by this system, we need REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! NOT voting, praying or wasting time trying to reform it.

Throughout the week, the revcoms plastered key areas with the Points of Attention for the Revolution along with posters for The Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show. We went to college campuses, high schools, supermarket parking lots, and other crowded areas to “agitate” about what time it is, and why now's the time for people to step into this revolution and live by these Points of Attention. Dozens of people signed banners that said, “From South Central (or South Side, Chicago... or Third Ward Houston... or Harlem)... to Palestine, We Need a REAL Revolution” and marched through these neighborhoods to demand Stop the U.S.-Backed Israeli War on Palestine! We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System! 

There is more to learn, including about the moods among different sections of the people. But two things we can say now: One, we did not accomplish what we needed through this week, in the sense of dynamically putting this revolution on the map—making it the undeniable presence it needs to be, could be and must urgently become, even if its forces are small and must grow quickly. Two, we did get a stronger sense of what IS required to do that, and in some ways began to forge a new kind of revolutionary work more firmly aimed in that direction and further a much more vigorous wrangling with what that must look like.

We look forward to hearing any further reflections from you about all this. If you took part in these efforts in any way, write to us at getorganizedforrevolutiontour@gmail.com with your thinking—what you did, what obstacles you encountered, who you reached... and what we learned more deeply about the thinking of people, including the thinking that we need to struggle to transform and move toward a revolutionary people first in their thousands, and then their millions.

Live by and Fight for the Points of Attention, the Code of the Revolution!

A key mission of the week was to project a serious force for revolution, through people living by and fighting for the Points of Attention for the Revolution (the POA). These are a concentration of the future we're working to bring into being, they provide a mass form today for people to get organized into this revolution and they are a form for waging sharp struggle against all the ways this system has people thinking and acting that keep them going along with this oppressive system.

One of the leaders of the national week, wrote: 

“Through the struggle this week, I came to appreciate the fight that is concentrated in the POA. We aren’t just 'spreading a good sentiment,' or accept when people say 'that would be nice' if people actually lived that way, but it will take a fight with people to take these up. We are expecting people to live by these and fight for these which will require a tremendous amount of struggle to shred the ways of thinking that run counter to what is in the POA—going for self, dogging women, etc. And directly linking this fight to what these POAs are in service of—making a real revolution.”

These POA were spread in areas where the masses are fighting and killing each other, including in one instance, right in the aftermath of a neighborhood shooting, that seemed like a gang shooting. In that context especially, the revcoms linked this to the need to build up mass organizations to defend people against the attacks on their rights and lives from fascists in and out of uniform—brought together on the basis of these Points of Attention.

Throughout the week, the revcoms talked with young men and women (in their early teens and younger) who don't like the degrading insults against women, or divides between oppressed nationalities (and the racist insults that Black and Latino people hurl at each other)—but never thought about taking this on. And we struggled with youth—including newly arrived migrants—about the need to raise their sights to the interests of humanity, and not just the individual struggle to survive.

We got a deeper understanding of the sharpness with which we need to wage this ideological struggle, and the role the POA can play in fighting for this societally.

Again, from one of the leaders of this effort, “Working back from making revolution, the force for revolution who are the authority that growing numbers of people are looking to and following, have to be setting the terms of how people can relate differently. This is part of what Bob Avakian talks about—a force that carries itself in a different way, is fighting for revolution, struggling with masses—this can make millions sit up and take notice, it can make people who once thought it ain’t possible, to start thinking differently.”

Here too, two lessons: the revcoms have not sufficiently appreciated the potential power and essential role of these POA, have not had a strategic enough view of them, and that needs to change; and two, there are beginning inklings of what it could mean to wield these. 

Two examples: First, this was a form through which to wage sharp struggle with the backwardness among masses. In the midst of a march, “From South Central to Palestine: We Need Revolution.” One guy yelled from his car, “Why worry about them, take care of South Central.” Michelle Xai, from the Revolution Club LA, answered this from the mic contrasting this ugly and narrow “me, me, me” bullshit to what's in POA #1, and what it means to “... strive to represent the highest interests of humanity: revolution and communism.” She also took on the American chauvinism there, and argued that people in the U.S. have a special responsibility to stand against the crimes that “our” government is doing pursuing their blood-soaked empire through the vicious bombing and terror being brought down on Palestinian people.

Second, was how people in one neighborhood responded to the revcoms walking in formation and at the same time doing a loud call and response with the POA. Every time they got to POA #2, they heard shouts of “right on,” “amen,” women especially coming to their doors to get flyers and to learn what this was about.

The point here is exactly not to “rest content” with all this, but to learn from the deep well of suppressed fury that needs to be tapped into—and transformed, through struggle—as part of planting a pole for this revolution, in this time. 

Get with Bob Avakian (BA), the Leadership We Have for the Revolution We Need! 

Another major effort throughout this week was to bring Bob Avakian’s leadership from the neighborhoods to the college campuses showing The Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show everywhere. This was centered in two National Days to Take BA to the Campuses, called for by The Bob Avakian Institute. In addition to these Interviews, we were fighting for engagement with the new communism that BA has developed, a new framework for human emancipation which he applied in writing the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. We also distributed BA's piece “Some Basic Truths About the U.S.-Supported Israeli War Against Palestine” to bring clarity to people about what's driving the horrific slaughter taking place on the Palestinian people.

At first, what the revcoms did was too much characterized by having to “work our way around” to talking about BA—starting with a long list of outrages, or just talking in general about revolution. But as we summed this up, we changed our approach to more frontally bring alive the basic and essential truth: Bob Avakian is a radically different kind of leader. He is a revolutionary who has brought forward a whole new framework for human emancipation. He is “completely different than the endless stream of bourgeois politicians who are put forward as 'leaders,' whose goal is to maintain one variation or another of this system of capitalism-imperialism that is founded on and perpetuates itself through cruel and literally life-stealing exploitation, murderous oppression, and massive destruction, in all parts of the world.” 

In doing this, we set terms over the real questions of reform vs. revolution, and the leadership needed for that revolution. In one area, they made a graphic to illustrate just this point. This was a sharp and biting way to break open discussion and debate about the nature of this system, why it can't be reformed, and what BA's work has to do with making revolution for real.

At three other campuses, there were small groups of students stopping throughout the day to watch clips from The BA Interviews, and engage in various rolling discussions to debate all this out. Because we were foregrounding the breakthrough in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic, there was a lot of concrete walking through the need for a socialist state power to enable the masses to make the types of emancipating, fundamental changes necessary. We opened up the centerfold of We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System which is a popular distillation of what's in the Constitution. Students put forward different arguments about changing laws, or trying to go for democratic socialism that were trying to mitigate the extreme horrors of capitalism short of a revolution. But they were being forced to try to walk this through themselves—responding to BA. Through this debate, one student said, “I've been told my whole life that capitalism is the only way and had never entertained these questions before.” 

There was also discussion and struggle about why you need leadership and who BA is, taking on some of the slander and lies that get spread about him by people who hate real revolution and want to shut down this discussion. 

Here too, this was just a beginning, but we got a sense of how a truly societal debate and contestation of the biggest questions of the revolution, including reform vs. revolution, could be broken open—by setting terms with Bob Avakian's leadership. The revcoms who were part of this felt like: wow, this is what we need to be doing all the time. A student at one campus, who's been checking out BA and the revcoms, was excited that students at his school were actually debating out these questions—when he thought no one cared. And he was surprised that this was broken open because we were on the offensive with who BA is and what he's brought forward.

This experience underscored the significance of what it says in REVOLUTION: Building Up the Basis to Go for the Whole Thing, With a Real Chance to Win: “a leader like [Bob Avakian] has never before existed in the history of this country. Having a leader like this is a rare and precious thing for the masses of people who are so terribly oppressed under this system. It is a powerful positive factor for the revolution that is urgently needed, with the goal of ending all oppression and finally bringing about the emancipation of humanity as a whole.”

Organizing People—on the Spot

While there is much more to learn—and quickly transform—about accumulating forces for revolution in a more mass way, we began to transform our approach to much more organize and involve people on the spot. The most essential thing here is in our agitation—bringing alive, from jump, the need for revolution, and the fact that it's a rare time when revolution is more possible (for why this is so, read Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution), while making the case, with substance, for why everything short of this is a dead end that will leave this system intact.

The revcoms need to be out among masses of people, among the most oppressed and throughout society, continually, even daily, with this kind of agitation, struggle, and organizing. 

We don't need a whole stage of calling meetings, or collecting people's numbers to get back to them later. In fact, this method of first take someone’s number, then call them for a meeting, then chase after them for this or that—this is the opposite of what is needed and required right now. Right then and there, people should get into the Points of Attention for the Revolution—and should be struggled with, yes on the spot, to live by and fight for these. People should watch a clip from the BA Interviews, join a group debate and discussion about spreading this—again, right then and there. If people really can't stick around, invite them back to a street corner meet-up later that day, or find out when they can connect and make an appointment. But we can't wait to involve them in going to work on the problems—and strategic goals—of the revolution. 

Actively Applying our Strategy for Revolution

The most essential thing we learned through all this was the need to consciously, collectively and consistently apply the strategic orientation and practical approach, REVOLUTION: Building Up the Basis to Go for the Whole Thing, With a Real Chance to Win.

This is a strategy for revolution that everyone who recognizes the urgent need for fundamental change needs to actively apply to building up the forces for revolution—in a time when this revolution has become more possible, with things potentially coming to a head in this society sooner than it seems on the surface. And in a situation where the forces for revolution are coming from behind. (Again, the why and how of all this is spoken to in that strategic orientation.) This is a working document, and it means constantly examining whether we're really acting commensurate with the situation and dynamics described there.

Right now, everything the revcoms are doing is aimed at bringing forward millions oriented, organized and determined to wrench a real revolution out of what is shaping up before us: Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating. But which future we get depends on what we do. Through the intense efforts of these last weeks, we learned more deeply and sharply what is needed, and what is not needed. 

The task now is to deepen the struggle, but to do that on the march—working seriously for a real revolution and a whole new, emancipating way to live!