In November the U.S. power structure will claim that they have a mandate from the people. We cannot allow the power structure to set the terms for the people's future unchallenged.
The will of the people needs to be expressed in a clear voice against this whole agenda of cruelty, poverty, punishment, and inequality. Whether you think, as we do, that the elections (which are entirely controlled in the interests of the monopoly capitalists) will never solve the problems of the people...or you think that you have to vote to stop the right wing...or you are just disgusted and alienated from the whole process...the people need to put our hearts together and let it be known that we intend to turn this reactionary agenda around.
This voice of resistance must be heard in October.
The October Month of Resistance can be a common vehicle to turn the situation around. But we need all the resisters to unite -- from their own point of view -- to do what needs to be done for the people.
The Month of Resistance and the national days of resistance can serve notice that there is a movement which seriously aims to turn back this whole agenda. And we can emerge from this month with stronger organization and capacity to carry the struggle through in the months ahead.
It's time for a real culture of resistance, where the artist resisters connect with the people--especially the '90s generation--in potent new ways, giving voice to the voiceless and creating an atmosphere where the resisters feel that "right is on our side."
It's time for a community of resistance--where a message is sent to the basic people that "you are not alone"-- creating a positive climate for expressions of resistance on many levels.
It's time for some amazing new alliances--like the scene at RESIST 96, where abortion providers from Florida, militant Black poets from New York, anti-racist folks from Montana, Hollywood people, religious activists against the death penalty, clinic defenders from South Carolina, former Panthers, high school kids from Utah fighting discrimination against homosexuals, Puerto Rican parents from New York against police brutality, Latino youth fighting for immigrants' rights, and all kinds of folks saw the possibility that, together, we can recast the line-up throughout society.
The challenge for resisters is this: to plant a pole of opposition and to reach out broadly in society to all those people who resist, or oppose going along with, the ugly program and even more broadly, to those who fear for their futures and are uncertain where to turn or how to act.
In building for October we can learn from the struggle in defense of Mumia Abu-Jamal--whose fight for a new trial remains one of the most important fronts against the death penalty, police state, racist moves of the power structure. The authorities tried to politically cast the situation as "all of society against the `cop killer' " but the movement recast the line-up into one where increasing numbers of middle class people of all nationalities joined those on the bottom to fight for a Black revolutionary political prisoner against an unjust system. That recasting was a big part of what forced the government to temporarily back down. And that backdown also proved that the enemy is not quite so all-powerful as they would like us to believe.
For our part, we revolutionaries see the need to make October a powerful month of resistance in a strategic context. Maoists believe that we need to "unite all who can be united against the real enemy."
The challenge is, as Mao says, "to create favorable conditions through struggle" -- to recast the polarization in society, to create a radically different polarization that is favorable to the people, and ultimately favorable to the revolution. Through this process we believe many forces can be won to supporting a revolutionary attempt at power--when the conditions are ripe--and many others will be won to "friendly neutrality."
So we revolutionaries are very serious about uniting with everyone who wants to defeat the reactionary agenda. And we really welcome the chance to discuss with people of many different viewpoints -- what is the cause of all the problems facing the people and where it's all going -- while we unite to take urgently needed steps to stop the madness coming down on the people.
To make October as powerful as it can be -- we think that a broad, diverse and determined movement is needed. This is a movement that takes a strong stand against the cold-hearted punishing program of the power structure and at the same time reaches out to make new alliances -- bringing together people who have a common enemy, but who are kept apart by the barriers thrown up by this social system.
This is a movement where there is unity and struggle--where there is mutual appreciation of the different streams of protest and all the different kinds of people involved. We need a movement where the militant edge of the youth and basic people is respected --and at the same time a wide range of people from different walks of life can register protest in many forms. We need an atmosphere where middle class people can learn to appreciate and respect the anger of our people who are literally under the enforcers' guns, from the neighborhoods to the border--and learn from them about the real nature of this society. And we need an atmosphere where the young and the militant reach out to many different sections of the people -- learning how the people are being messed over by the system and supporting their protests. We think this kind of process can unite all who can be united for a powerful new expression of resistance in October.
It is time for all of us to take our resistance to another level.