From the Revolution Club, Chicago:

Taking Out a Revolutionary Banner on Immigrants to an Oppressed Neighborhood and a University

November 5, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The Revolution Club came together recently to talk about creating a banner that would not just bring people together, but would draw forward people’s better sentiments and support for the immigrants who are traveling in the caravan that is being attacked by Trump. He has been attacking the caravan as criminals and terrorists who deserve to be punished and even killed if they cross the borders of the USA. We read two articles from revcom.us, “Immigrant Caravan Controversy: The Aggression of the Fascists, the Capitulation of the Democrats, the Truth of the Matter, and the Stand of the Revolution“ and “As Migrants March to the U.S: STOP: The Demonization, Criminalization and Deportations of Immigrants and the Militarization of the Border.” We also listened to the Q&A on “Bob Avakian’s Answer to People Who Complain about Immigrants Crossing Borders.”

At the end of the second revcom article, it says, “Now these migrants have come together to escape the hell that U.S. imperialism has created. They have right on their side and must be supported! It’s Trump and the whole imperialist system that are the criminals!” There was a question that needed to be responded to on the banner of what this system has done to force immigrants to come to this country, and what the problem and the solution is. We brainstormed what to say on the banner and came up with “From Revolution Club Chicago: We Support and Welcome the Immigrant Caravan, Imperialism Has Created the Hell You Flee, Overthrowing the System Will Get Us All Free!”

One reason we thought this banner was necessary was to work on the crucial problem of the revolution as outlined in HOW WE CAN WIN: “We need to oppose and disrupt the moves of the ruling powers to isolate, ‘encircle,’ brutalize, mass incarcerate and murderously repress the people who have the hardest life under this system and who most need this revolution. We need to ‘encircle’ them—by bringing forth wave upon wave of people rising up in determined opposition to this system.”

We brought the banner out to a busy transit hub, where we set it up on a wall. We had a member with the donation bucket asking for funds, a member doing agitation, a member organizing people, a member holding the other side of the banner and a couple of members bringing people to the banner to sign. We were conscious to talk to people about what the banner was about and of our plans to send it down to the border, where Trump has already threatened to send up to 15,000 troops to stop and threaten the caravan of immigrants.

Some young Black women in middle school said this was something they were talking about in their classes. They wrote messages of love and support. A middle-aged Black woman with her two daughters agreed with the banner. She felt the deeper problem was the violence among the Black youth fighting and killing each other. She conveyed that the violence in Chicago was the problem that we needed to focus on to be able to deal with any of the other contradictions happening to people. We united with her outrage over the violence and talked about the two things Chicago is known for: Yes, the violence among the people, and the violence brought down by the enforcers of this system, but there was a third thing that Chicago needs to be known for, and it is people getting out of all that and stepping into the revolution, as part of the forces for revolution getting prepared and organized to overthrow that system that got them in that mess. We took her to the banner to look at and to engage what it said. She said it was important. Her two daughters and she posed for a photograph holding up the banner, and then they came over to sign messages of support and love. We organized her into the revolution and talked to her about the new film by Bob Avakian and about coming to the Revolution Club Organizing Center for a celebration and benefit party on the weekend. She said she wanted to come with her daughters.

A young Black man also raised the question of the violence among the youth in Chicago after he had proposed the need for Black people to own businesses. It took a lot of struggle to get him to stop blaming the masses. He looked at the banner and said he agreed, but he went back to talking about what was happening in Chicago. We asked if he had a message to send to the immigrants who are forced to flee their homelands because of what the U.S. has done to their countries. He said he would write, “The problem is us, and we are the solution.” We united with that sentiment halfway... on the side of we are the solution, but we struggled with him about seeing the problem as the people themselves when the actual problem is this system. He changed his mind and thought about what he would write for a minute, and he said he was going to write a message of unity with the immigrants as the solution.

A young Black man was drawn to the banner from the beginning when he saw the word IMPERIALISM. He talked about growing up in Nigeria and about how Black youth there have picked up weapons to kill each other like the youth are doing in Chicago. He identified as a socialist and wrote “Socialism is what we need.”

The banner drew forward supportive and welcoming messages like “Let them stay” and “Fuck Trump” and “Chicago cares.” We also had to struggle with some people’s contradictoriness and even backward sentiments about immigrants coming for Black people’s jobs, struggle over what the problem and solution is and who are real friends and real enemies.

On the next day, the Revolution Club took the banner out to a university. Latina students from a cultural center were invited to come out to the quad where the banner was laid down for people to sign. Many of the staff and students wrote letters of “¡BIENVENIDOS!” and messages in Spanish of love and encouragement, like to not turn back but to move forward and that we are here fighting for your human rights. Spanish-speaking students agonizing over the immigrant caravan came to sign the banner. They said briefly that this is sad to see. One staff member who worked with undocumented students gave a small donation and left saying that she will see us down at the border in a few weeks. A couple of fascists were around, and we did agitation for others to hear what these fascists and this fascist regime they support are doing to our brothers and sisters. A couple of students were confused by this as many others continued to come to the banner to write messages of support and welcome. A young Black student disagreed with a message already written that said “Come to Chicago,” but she wrote her own statement of love and support.

What was being utilized was the new print issue of Revolution newspaper, which draws out the “5 Stops” and Bob Avakian. A young white student expressed his own agonizing over the immigrants. He said this system couldn’t resolve any of the contradictions it perpetrates. We organized him into the revolution, and he donated to get a newspaper. We read him the quote in the paper from BAsics 3:1, and he said he’ll check out the new talk online.

Click here to watch the whole film:
Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution