From the Revolution Club, Chicago, excerpted from an article at revcom.us.
Over the past week, the Revolution Club has been out at high schools, colleges, and transit hubs, neighborhoods and protests and events… to reach thousands of people with the message: This Nightmare Must End, The Trump/Pence Regime MUST GO! Nov 4 It Begins, and to organize people to become organizers The more we have grounded ourselves in the REALITY of the urgency to drive out this regime – the danger for humanity it poses and the potential powerful upsurge of millions who want to see it go – the more we have been able to compellingly make the case to others and call people forward to take this up themselves. We have put straight forward that America was never great and the Revolution Club is working for revolution to overthrow this whole system, and right now we have to get rid of the Trump/Pence Regime.
We have called on people to step forward to help get the word out to millions NOW, and almost everywhere we’ve been, people have done that. We’ve worked to give people a vision of how the regime can be driven from power and struggled with people where necessary about acting in the interests of humanity and how people like themselves acting now can be felt throughout society and draw forward thousands and millions more. And we’ve worked to bring forward people in the face of and in response to repression on various levels. As we’ve gone along, we’ve more and more promoted the new talk and Q & A from BA, hosting some collective showings and doing some showings with individuals.
Scene at a Chicago High School
One high school we went to had a diverse mix of students, a history of gang conflicts and a sizeable number of students who are from, or have relatives in, Puerto Rico. We went in the morning, a rainy morning, and got out some stickers and cards to students.
When we went back in the afternoon, students came out of the school wearing the stickers, including one guy who had made a design on his shirt out of all the different styles of stickers we had distributed. We had a really big sign for Nov 4 and stood in a spot where everyone could hear us on the bullhorn. We talked over the bullhorn about the nature of this regime in power, getting into more deeply what that means. And this led to more substance in people’s responses.
People took out their phones and were recording and when the person on the bullhorn would pause, they would say, ‘Keep going.!’ We called on people to get with the movement to drive out trump/pence, enlist yourself in making Nov 4 happen. People were raising fists and saying, ‘Yea get with the movement.’ Students got on the bullhorn—and while there was some silliness, there was also some real substance, including about Trump’s attacks on LGBTQ people.
Students wanted posters, asked if they could take some cards, they were listening to the agitation, they pulled out their phones to get connected on social media. People that gave numbers answered right away so they could lock us in. A guy who said he got it in the morning, for the walkouts, texted later he’s in support of the student strike. He said he would watch the BA film and get back to us. When we went back the next day we worked out getting together with him and watched some of the film together.
The principal had tried to run us off but we didn’t go. In a follow up phone call with one of the students, we learned that the next morning the principal followed this up by making a long announcement over the sound system to the entire school saying, “Don’t listen to these political people.” Students weren’t having it. Many of them were saying to each other that this was bullshit, that Trump is a racist and the principal is probably for Trump.
The Revolution Club has decided to go back this week with a challenge to the principal to meet us afterschool for a debate on whether youth have a role to play in what future they get or if they should just be told to accept a fascist America.