We have been returning to the pre-May Day guidance on the proclamation/broadsheet We Are the Revcoms.

This guidance is very concentrated and helpful. We Are the Revcoms, “Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points,” and the Bob Avakian (BA) Interviews are an overarching and leading edge of the whole strategic ensemble of our work in preparation for a real revolution. Concentrating and putting before all: our goal, our strategy, our morality and the leadership we have in BA, as we carry out the full roadmap of 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. We Are the Revcoms will deepen and sharpen the ferocious struggle we need to have with all the ways people think about the world that keeps them chained to the system.

In grappling with this ourselves certain things stand out.

Digging Into—and Returning to—the Broadsheet

Digging into the broadsheet in its own right for the Revolution Club and everyone in reach of the club and its supporters is very important. This was important going into May Day but much more could have and should have been done, even with the press of the build up to May Day, fundraising and the arrangements to print the broadsheet. We need to quickly return to this both in and around the club, through watching The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show and in forging plans.

In thinking about why this frames and complements the "7 Key Points," we asked: “What is We Are the Revcoms doing that is needed? How does it sharpen the ferocious struggle we need to have with people?” It is a very popular version of setting before all the problem and the solution... it is emphasizing certain things from the standpoint of the seizure of power... the existential crisis of climate change and the growing danger of nuclear war.... not clinging to the awful "normal way" things have been in the face of the fascists. The contrast of the two constitutions... taking on the illusion that the U.S. Constitution is the best humanity can do... the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA, contrasts both the emancipating vision but also very concretely—getting rid of nuclear weapons and going to work on climate change. These in a sense could be “immediate demands” and objectively go up against the American chauvinism of war and destruction for preservation of U.S. domination and empire.

The back page gives people ways into the revolution, to learn about and meet the leader of the revolution (the Interviews, who is BA) and also The RNL Show, the Revolution Clubs, and the revcom.us website. This proclamation can go “anywhere” and do its work where people are being jolted, agonizing and lifting their heads if we can figure out how to get it out there (and take up political struggle in such a way that people are seeking it out)... WHO ARE THOSE PEOPLE?... THEY ARE THE REVCOMS.

The importance of discussing the proclamation and returning to it is very critical for old and new alike and using it to forge groupings of people who are in varying degrees supportive of the revolution, spreading the broadsheet, fund raising to get it out all over the country, watching the Interviews and The RNL Show.

Mobilizing Everyone, Far and Wide—and Contending with Dead-End Paths

We should be mobilizing everyone to help get it out far and wide and whenever and wherever possible making a priority out of digging into the content to deepen people’s understanding of the rare times and the emancipating way of living that could be wrested out of the insanity.

Since May Day, the club here has been in the midst of two outbreaks (the murder of Lil Red by the Chicago pigs and the reactionary protest in South Shore over the immigrants). What should look different about how we take up fighting the power and in particular transforming the thinking of the people with the proclamation, "7 Key Points," and the Interviews as a strategic leading framework and edge?

In summing up the 2020 beautiful uprising around George Floyd, revolution was brought out but not in the sense of really contending with the dead-end paths in a mass way... we got out flyers but didn’t engage the reformist political lines that dominated the uprising frontally in the way needed.

We have been wrestling with how to not turn the proclamation into something we just distribute. How does it really need to be wielded fully?

How would the club carry this out in the midst of these outbreaks (i.e., in the protests themselves) but also in and around them in a mass way?

One way this would be different is if we actually joined the content with people and they began to wield it. For instance, there are stolen lives family members (those who have had people in their family murdered by pigs) who have responded to these police murders and are influential and supportive of the “revolution” who can play an outsize role in these struggles. Some are drawn to BA and have made statements in response to attacks on him. Delving into the proclamation with them, and them joining with the club in wielding it in the midst of these outbreaks and more generally is something we should pursue.

In the midst of these protests around police murder should we consider dramatic actions like ripping up the U.S. Constitution to drive people to the message of the proclamation.

Maybe it would mean getting the broadsheet to both the people who are protesting but also saturating whole areas where things are breaking out, enlisting as many others to do this as possible... maybe it would mean not just getting it to people at a protest but fighting to sit down with even one or two key people who are fighting for justice to get into what is in the broadsheet and why other things out there are dead ends. It is very important connecting with these outbreaks especially among the basic masses and the youth in and around the street life but we have to figure out how to bring them some key clips of the interview with BA as well as the broadsheet.

One part of our plan should be to send or get stacks of 50 to 100 to individuals who live in different areas of the city. Everyone supportive of the club can get it out in the course of their everyday lives like Neesha (a beloved Revolution Club member who died last year) used to do... leave it on public transportation, post it at school or grocery store, stack at church, etc.

There are people we know who were “in the life” who have trouble going to different parts of the city but interact with others they could be engaging with over the proclamation.

There are people the club knows in different cities who could get these out to people they know and they could also get out small stacks in hang-out spots, including memorials like grocery stores with George Floyd murals (Ferguson, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Waukegan, Champaign, Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, to name a few)... there are supportive people in all these areas. Ask them to fundraise too, tune into the fund drive livestream and get others to do so.

Everyone who is going somewhere this spring or summer: Take stacks of the broadsheet to get out to people you see or leave/post in some key gathering spots. Take Spanish of the broadsheet too. Graduations, vacations, family retreats, etc.—seed and spread it all over.

There are parts of the city where the club historically and in the last period concentrated having an IRL [in real life] presence. Are these areas where there is a plan to saturate, wall poster and get out to every household, and how do we mobilize all positive factors to accomplish this? There are different areas of the city where there are club members, friends of the club living there and/or have extensive family connections. What if there was a week where everyone we know there made it their mission to get the broadsheet out (i.e., saturate that part of town so it could hit with more impact)? Besides the individuals, there are small business people and community organizers who are friendly and small stores who could carry stacks. How through all this could there be fundraising plans made which would involve people?

In South Shore, where right now there is a reactionary outbreak and fight to repolarize around the immigrants seeking asylum... how can the broadsheet really be wielded? How to saturate the whole area with it as part of the pole of a whole different way things could be? Holding discussions and playing clips of the Interview, The RNL Show etc.—how to fully make use of the Revolution Club center to do this?

There are some key high schools... also doing this in ways that dramatize the message... like the skit about Ukraine and nuclear war... the earth on fire (even simple protests like the one in Austin on Earth Day with a stack of the broadsheet).

There are some other parts of town with either mixed or broader middle strata where ways should be found to get this out.

Also, the American Librarians Association (ALA) convention in Chicago in June is important to reach with this in some quantity.

With an eye to the 2024 Democratic Party convention coming here, the Hyde Park neighborhood which is a big center of the “Obama legacy” takes on even more importance. This is good area to poster and saturate and also to get up widely the "A Challenge" poster around the BA Interviews—"What?! You Don't Know... The Most Important Political Thinker & Revolutionary Leader in the World Today”