“This Declaration Is Crucial!”

A report about a Zoom discussion of the Declaration from a member of the National Revolution Tour

August 16, 2021 | revcom.us

 

We’re getting some important experience applying the simple style of organizing called for in the Declaration and Call from the revcoms to Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution. We took this out to a busy shopping area/youth scene on Sunday and based on a serious invitation and challenge in the Declaration, we invited people to a Zoom discussion to get into it. A few people were more seriously interested and two people came on the Zoom.

We opened with an introduction of why we are pulling people together in this way to grapple with the questions in Part 4 of the Declaration (based on the other three parts):

Organizing people into this revolution means reaching out to all sorts of people—not just where there are protests and rebellions against oppression and injustice, but everywhere throughout society—spreading the word about revolution and getting people together (in real life and online) to grapple with why an actual revolution is necessary, what such a revolution involves, and what kind of society this is aiming for. This will enable people who are new to the revolution to themselves become organizers for this revolution and to recruit more and more people to do the same.

We briefly walked through all four points, directly drawing from and reading the Declaration, then opened it up for them to share their reflections, to lay out their thinking and questions.

First, both of them wanted to know more about Bob Avakian (BA). One person asked, “What is BA’s role and how does he communicate with those he leads?” and the other person asked, “What is the scientific method that BA has developed?” I stepped back with people to talk about who this leader is, drawing from the revcom article, “Bob Avakian For The Liberation Of Black People And The Emancipation Of All Humanity.” I talked about how BA developed as a communist and what his world historic contributions are to developing communism as a science. Here, I drew from the example of just last year in the uprising against white supremacy and murder by police: How can people understand where this oppression comes from? How are they able to see and analyze what are the underlying dynamics that give rise to all this unnecessary suffering that people are put through? BA is not only putting forward analyses on this, but is giving people the tools to themselves understand these things and go to work on transforming it. I talked about the moment we are living in which is a rare time when revolution becomes possible and why this is... BA has been doing analyses since even before the days of Bush, to get into how we have gotten to this point—this is leadership on a scientific basis!

It was heavy, because off of this, one of the people said she had read the Declaration all the way through and was glad to get a better understanding of her question—understanding more the content of this leadership. She pointed to the part in the Declaration where it says, “to be young now means being denied a decent future, or any future at all....” She really agreed with this and said this Declaration is crucial, this is what people need to get their hands on. She said, “I don’t know about 100 years ago or 100 years in the future, but right now, this Declaration matters and can make a big difference in what people understand and how they are acting.”

The other person shared how he’s been confronting the situation and said, “I want to do my part to help the future and keep humanity alive for at least another century. The way things are going now, pretending nothing’s happening is just going to kill everyone.”

The person who co-led the discussion with me said she learned a lot from how I led the meeting, including right from the beginning putting to people part 4 from the Declaration:

We need to urgently change the situation where not nearly enough people know about this revolution and are with it. We need to get this revolution, and its leadership, known everywhere. We need to challenge and seriously struggle with people right around us, and all over the country, to do something that, yes, requires real heart and will make a positive difference for real—become part of this revolution, and follow this revolutionary leadership. We need to organize more and more people into the ranks of the revolution.

The whole discussion was explicitly in the context of—and to go to work on changing—this. At the end of the discussion, we made plans to watch The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show together. That between now and then, people would take this Declaration to others and invite them to a Zoom watch party. There was an important difference in how this discussion was led—really drawing from the Declaration and having people work with what is in that, and having people see themselves taking this to others.

FROM THE REVCOMS (REVCOM.US): A DECLARATION, A CALL TO GET ORGANIZED NOW FOR A REAL REVOLUTION

youtube.com/therevcoms

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