[edited 5/10/11: added #42, combined #23 & #26. Edited again 5/13: added #31, combined #26 and #27, changed wording of #35]
by Stephanie McMillan
The people of the United States are currently unprepared to seize a revolutionary moment. We must fix that.
How can we raise our levels of revolutionary consciousness, organization and struggle?
Raise consciousness
1) Raise consciousness with the purpose of building organization and raising the level of struggle.
2) Investigate before forming opinions. Research how the world and the system function.
3) Read foundational and historical works about revolution, by those who have participated in and led them.
4) Analyze the system’s current condition and trajectory.
5) Learn about the resistance, uprisings and revolutions going on in the world today.
6) Read the material that currently active groups are issuing and discussing.
7) Continuously develop, elaborate upon and refine principles, theories and strategies for our movement.
8. Raise our voices. Articulate revolutionary ideas, and give them a public presence.
9) Listen and speak in the spirit of mutual clarification.
10) Participate in discussion, to develop our ideas and hone our skills in expressing them, and to help others do so.
11) Figure out how to use all our various talents, positions, energy and resources as effectively as possible, to expose the system’s evil, irredeemable and unreformable nature.
12) Analyze and explain the many ways the system dominates and exploits.
13) Stand with the dominated, exploited, invaded, colonized, threatened and oppressed.
14) Display a revolutionary spirit and celebrate it in others.
15) Exercise patience in winning over reluctant potential allies and supporters.
16) Ridicule and discredit the enemy.
17) Create revolutionary culture. Make videos and art, speak, sing, and write blogs, books, comments, leaflets, rhymes, stories, and articles about the enemy’s crimes and the people’s resistance.
18) Exchange ideas locally, nationally and (within the law or safe channels) globally.
19) Encourage others to participate in the revolutionary process.
Organize
20) Organize as a way to raise consciousness more broadly and to build struggle.
21) Start with people we know.
22) If our friends discourage us, make new friends.
23) Network sensibly with people online. Find local people online who express similar ideas, and meet with them.
24) Find a group that we basically agree with. Work with it.
25) If there’s no local group we want to work with, start one.
26) Write a leaflet with contact info. Pass it out in public to find potential comrades.
27) When we meet people, assess our points of agreement. If we agree on basic essentials, decide how to work together. If not, say goodbye for now.
28) Build strong ties locally and nationally, and build solidarity globally.
29) Define allies according to overall outlook and goals.
30) Don’t let secondary differences prevent cooperation. Handle differences between allies non-antagonistically.
31) Do not tolerate oppressive (sexist, racist, homophobic etc.) dynamics within the movement. Confront their expression and put a stop to it.
32) Refrain from saying anything aloud, on the phone or electronically that we wouldn’t want to hear played back in court.
33) Keep illegal drugs away from our political life.
34) Research and practice good security culture.
35) Prioritize the wellbeing of our organizations over personal benefit.
36) Ready our ranks to seize on any breaks in the legitimacy of the system.
Struggle
37) Use struggle to spread revolutionary consciousness and build organization.
38) Collectively determine what we want, and declare our demands.
39) Act as far as possible within our capacity, not either beyond or below our capacity.
40) Continuously strive to expand and consolidate our capacity and strength.
41) Assert our rights and our responsibilities.
42) Bring our revolutionary perspective into struggles already occurring.
43) Defend, support, and encourage our allies.
44) As opportunities arise, weaken the enemy and its ability to rule.
45) Obey the small laws. Don t get taken out of the game for something unworthy.
46) For illegal acts, make sure you can trust your comrades with your life and the lives of everyone connected to you.
47) Avoid being distracted and diverted into symbolic action-for-action’s sake.
48) Don t expect the enemy to act against its nature. It has no mercy and can not be reasoned with.
49) Turn every attack by the enemy into an opportunity to speak out, organize, and grow more powerful.
50) Be willing to work hard. Be smart. Be brave. Remember we’re all in this together.
Obama is too popular. Any successful “revolution” in this country would be a separatist movement instead.
This is perfect. Thank you.
All of these measures are admirable but are external to the self and therefore distractions.
The only work any and all individuals need to do is to work on ones own moral centre. To explore deeply and thoroughly within not to activate without, which is to feed energy directly into the ongoing situation. What revolution has not eventually seceded to more tyranny? And this enemy has patience. Centuries of patience.
Our experience is a collective projection of our subconscious. The external distractions of politics, media, commerce and others fill us with the toxic filth of the ruling elites perpetuation, which itself perpetually who in themselves are the projection of our disconnect from the whole and the manifestation of the sickness of the human spirit.
There are many ways of saying it simply:
1. “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
2. Listen to Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”
3. Take the red pill.
Ben, where has that strategy ever worked? The Civil Rights struggle? Sufferage? Abolition? The Irish resistance? The genocide against Native Americans? Please, with so many people saying what you’re saying, I’d really like to know where to look to for evidence.
Work on self, yes! Get strong, resilient, mentally and spiritually focused. But then do something about it in the real world. Be effective.
@Ben King
Your position can only come from a place of privilege. It’s easy to ignore the system when it doesn’t directly affect you, but it changes nothing. The system is not some abstract evil that can be willed away, it is made up of real institutions and policies that directly oppress people all over the world. The point is to recreate the authentic communities and organizations that were destroyed by the isolation and individualism you promote. We can either work together to create a state (or otherwise) that satisfies all human and environmental needs, or close our eyes and hope it sorts itself out before the current state collapses.
This debate speaks to a systemic divide … which is a huge loss for this planet we’re all wanting to help in some way.
When people who interpret the beautiful attributes of energy awareness, spiritual connection, embodying the energy of what we want instead of what we don’t want, to mean dropping out of the real and pulsing struggles to bring to light the ugly parts of this world and transform them, that is truly a tragedy. Because those struggles are important – and there are many ways to participate – but also because those who embody the change we wish to see and come from a centered place are very much needed.
Andrew Harvey says this well ~~
http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/6332727-the-hope-a-guide-to-sacred-activism
“A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic and social institutions, a holy force – the power of wisdom and love in action – is born. This force I define as Sacred Activism.”
― Andrew Harvey, The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism
I’ve lived Ben King’s (above) ideals and have concluded that inner work without right action isn’t effective. Period. It’s Buddha, Dharma, Sanga. It takes all 3. Not just Buddha. Right action in the world, in service to others and to the entire planet. Thanks Stephanie!