Revolution #246, September 25, 2011
Part 2: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT FOR REVOLUTION
Editors' Note: The following is the fourteenth excerpt from Part 2 of a recent talk by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, which is being serialized in this paper. Previous excerpts appeared in Revolution #232 to #243, and #245. This has been edited, and footnotes have been added, for publication. The entire talk is available at revcom.us.
The Party and Organizing Forces for Revolution
And then there's the importance of giving all this organized expression. And let me emphasize that this must be done not in a way that expects and demands that masses, particularly basic masses, "fit" into forms that are stereotypical and expressive, actually, of a movement that is ultimately reformist. In opposition to that, it must be done in a way where, through the development of many different forms, and on many different levels, these masses can become increasingly involved and actively contribute to the building of the movement—for revolution. In other words, we do need, we very much need, centers of the revolution (and this includes in particular Revolution Books in a number of cities) where people can seek out, learn about, and become involved in this movement for revolution in various ways, and on various levels. At the same time, in terms of a basic orientation and approach, what is required, and what we must be systematically as well as creatively doing, is not just waiting for masses to "come to us" and become involved in ways that are most familiar to and perhaps most comfortable for those who are already involved (and in many cases have been involved for some time) but taking the revolution to masses of people—again, especially basic masses, but people of other strata as well—and developing the means and forms for their involvement, on very basic levels, as well as in more developed and advanced ways, the means for people to learn and advance and for growing numbers to become more fully and deeply committed to this struggle, through this overall process, even as we are learning from them and scientifically synthesizing what we are learning.
In relation to all this, it is necessary to emphasize once again the role of the Party: the importance of its growing ideological and political influence and of its role in organizing forces for revolution, most especially the Party itself—continually recruiting people—people with a "fire in the belly" to radically change the world who, through the work we do with them, come to a scientific communist understanding of what that means, what the necessity is and what the possibility is, and who become determined to be part of the leading force struggling to make that a reality. Here again, "the 'pole' and the organized vanguard force of revolutionary communism" must be continually strengthened, as is emphasized in "Some Principles for Building a Movement for Revolution." We really must not underestimate the importance of this and of bringing into this Party new and fresh forces who are fired with a desire for revolution, for a radically different world—and have made the leap to recognizing the reality and importance of a scientific understanding of what that means and how to wield this science in the service of making this happen.
As has been emphasized before, the Party is in fact the most important expression of the organization of the masses for revolution, toward the ultimate goal of communism. Many other forms of organization among the masses are important, but the Party itself is the most concentrated and most important organization of masses—and leadership of masses. It is not just any old organization of masses—it is a concentrated, higher form of organization of the masses, as a vanguard of the revolution.
Meeting, and Advancing in the Face of, Repression
Before moving to a conclusion I want to say a few words about meeting repression, and advancing in the face of it. Repression, and in fact the heightening of this repression, will be an inevitable feature of the sharpening of contradictions which is already taking place, in U.S. society and the world as a whole—and this would be even more so in the context of the intensification of contradictions that would actually lead to a revolutionary crisis.
This repression will be directed against any serious movements and forces of political opposition and resistance to the continuing criminal actions of the ruling class, both within this country and internationally. It will also be directed against those sections of the masses that at least the more conscious representatives and operatives of the ruling class can recognize as posing a serious potential force in opposition to their rule and their system, even when this has not yet assumed the form, among those masses, of significant, conscious political opposition and resistance (and, in this regard, it is important to recall the observation earlier about a counterinsurgency directed against basic masses before there is even a real insurgency among them).
This heightened repression will assume an especially concentrated form against our Party, the more that we carry forward with the work of actually building a movement for revolution and as this begins to further demonstrate the potential of linking up, in a major and powerful way, with basic masses in particular, as well as making advances among other strata of the people. Such heightened repression and attacks will come both from the official organs of the imperialist state and from counter-revolutionary forces which are consciously aligned with sections of the ruling class (and it may be painful but is nonetheless necessary to recognize that attacks, which will at least objectively serve the ruling class and its heightening repression, will also continue to come from forces which may have the pretension of being "progressive," or even "revolutionary" or "communist," but which in reality act in a counter-revolutionary manner). To not fully confront and apply ourselves to dealing with this, from the strategic standpoint and in the strategic context of our revolutionary-communist line and objectives, would mean that we are not serious about what we must be serious about, and we would not simply fail to meet the challenges we face and perhaps even to make a qualitative breakthrough if the situation presented itself, but on the contrary, especially if and as things did sharpen up qualitatively, we would be crushed and the masses would once again be left leaderless in the most essential sense—they would be defeated and demoralized in an acute situation with profound stakes and consequences—and the revolution would suffer a truly devastating setback, whose effects would be felt for some time, not only in this country but in a real sense in the world as a whole. For all these reasons, we must in fact apply ourselves, in a very focused, serious, determined and scientific way, to this contradiction and develop the means, both in theory/strategic conception and in practice, to not only survive, and to repeatedly rebound and as necessary regroup from repression—including as this is intensified, even in a qualitative dimension—but to actually advance in the face of and through this repression, in building the movement for revolution and carrying it forward toward its strategic objectives.
A profound truth is that the fundamental basis for confronting, countering, and forging the way forward in the face of repression, and the heightening of this repression, lies in fully recognizing and acting on the understanding that, with all the machinery and mechanisms of electoral politics and the trappings of democracy that may exist at any given time, this is in reality bourgeois democracy, democracy practiced on the terms of and in the interests of the ruling bourgeois (capitalist) class; that the inner nature and essential content of this bourgeois democracy is bourgeois dictatorship, a monopoly of political power, concentrated as a monopoly of "legitimate" armed force and violence, on the part of this ruling capitalist class; and that, as experience within this country and internationally has starkly illustrated, over and over again, this dictatorship will be exercised through the most ruthless and, yes, murderous means whenever the political representatives and functionaries of this ruling class determine this to be necessary in order to maintain and enforce this dictatorship, and especially in the face of any significant challenge to—or even what is perceived as a potentially significant obstacle or problem for—this dictatorship and the system it enforces.
So we have to grapple with the strategic implications of this whole dimension of things. Whether or not concerted attention is paid to this problem and whether or not real advances are made in confronting and developing the means to deal with this, now and looking to the further intensification of things in the perhaps not very distant future—all this will have a great deal to do with, and will have a great influence on, whether we are actually able to advance in building a movement for revolution or whether we will, through "revisionist spontaneity," actually abandon—or be forced by the actions of the ruling class to abandon, or be defeated in attempting not to abandon—the objective of building a movement for revolution.
One of the main manifestations of revisionism and social-democracy (socialism, or communism, in name, but bourgeois-democracy and bourgeois-democratic illusions in fact and in command) is the acute way in which this finds expression in the organizational sphere and in terms of dealing with repression: what standards revolutionaries actually uphold and apply, and how they actually operate; whether they take seriously that a society like this is not, after all, some classless democracy but there is actually a ruling class and it actually does exercise dictatorship—and the full implications of that. It is not just in some other parts of the world that the U.S. imperialists are nasty. It is not (as in the mistaken view of some good-hearted, bourgeois-democratic-minded people) only somewhere in their dealings in the Third World that the rulers of this country are nasty. They are nasty by nature. This is the way they respond to any kind of real—and often even to a potential—challenge. And, long before it fully poses itself, they will respond all the more viciously to any serious potential challenge in their own "homeland" and seat of power. This is a fundamental dividing line: whether one really understands that, and acts on that understanding, or on the other hand one has fallen so fully into bourgeois-democratic illusions that one can't recognize this—or won't recognize it.
So this is another arena where there has to be sharp ideological struggle. But that has to be in the context of acting on this, in accordance with the necessity for heightened attention—guided by a correct, scientific approach and method—to this problem and to further breakthroughs in relation to dealing with repression, both the overall repressive nature of the ruling class and the dynamics of heightened repression which must be anticipated as contradictions sharpen.
For now, a final point on this question of repression: If work has been carried out correctly, not only in regard to this crucial dimension of confronting repression, and advancing through and in the face of repression, but overall in grasping and wielding the correct line, as powerfully as possible and to the maximum possible effect at every point; if, on the basis of this line, crucial breakthroughs and advances have been made in building a movement for revolution; then it is possible that a failed—or, we should say, defeated—attempt at repression of the masses and of revolutionary forces could even lead to, or could at least be a very significant factor in contributing to, a revolutionary crisis. This could happen if, in a larger sense and taking into account overall objective developments, things had reached a certain point in terms of the intensification of contradictions, while at the same time work had been carried out on the right basis, including on this front of combatting repression and learning to advance through and in the face of such repression. In any event, carrying forward all-around revolutionary work—and, as a crucial part of this, combatting and learning to advance through and in the face of heightening repression—will contribute to the eventual development of a revolutionary situation, and to the ability of the vanguard, and the masses rallying in growing numbers to its banner, to be in the best possible position to seize on such a situation and go all-out to win in those circumstances. And, on the other hand, without meeting this challenge, there will be no prospect and no chance of making revolution, even if the objective conditions became favorable for that. That's just how crucial and how basic the terms and the stakes are.