Theoretical Weekends continues here at Scission with something a little different. This time we go back to 1974 a time when manywho were active then were trying once again to figure out what in the hell to do next. It was a time of much re-examination. The Weather Underground, too, was going through an internal process of re-examination and change. I am printing below the introduction and the table of contents to Weather's, "The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism." I will add a link to the entire document for those of you who are interested in learning from the past.
PRAIRIE FIRE
THE POLITICS OF REVOLUTIONARY
ANTI-IMPERIALISM
POLITICAL STATEMENT
OF THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND
May 9, 1974
Sisters and brothers,Here is PRAIRIE FIRE, our political ideology – a strategy for anti-imperialism and revolution inside the imperial US. It comes out of our own practice of the last five years and reflects a diversity of experiences. This paper is not the product of one or two people, nor even a small handful of us. Rather PRAIRIE FIRE represents the politics and collective efforts of an organization. It has been the focus of our study groups and our political education. It has been chewed on and shaped in countless conversations, struggles and written pages. It has travelled around the country, growing, developing thru the attempt to understand the shape of world forces and the revolutionary possibilities before us. The paper was rewritten four times and collectively adopted as the political statement of the Weather Underground. The twelve-month process of writing PRAIRIE FIRE, squeezed between on-going work and practice and action, has now reached a kind of end-point. A cycle is done.
We undertook this analysis to explain the changes in US and world conditions since the Vietnam ceasefire and to evaluate the consequences of the Vietnamese victory. We have come some distance in evaluating the political situation, the priorities for revolutionary work since we began this writing. Now many more revolutionaries will need to shape and change the paper. The politics cannot be realized unless and until the content of the program is activated in thousands of situations, among thousands of people in the coming period. PRAIRIE FIRE will be a growing thing.
We hope the paper opens a dialectic among those in the mass and clandestine movements; we hope people will take PRAIRIE FIRE as seriously as we do, study the content and write and publish their views of the paper as well as their analysis of their own practice. We will respond as best we can.
Our movement urgently needs a concrete analysis of the particular conditions of our time and place. We need strategy. We need to battle for a correct ideology and win people over. In this way we create the conditions for the development of a successful revolutionary movement and party. We need a revolutionary communist party in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power and build the new society. Getting from here to there is a process of coming together in a disciplined way around ideology and strategy, developing an analysis of our real conditions, mobilizing a base among the US people, building principled relationships to Third World struggle, and accumulating practice in struggle against US imperialism.
PRAIRIE FIRE is written to communist-minded revolutionaries, independent organizers and anti-imperialists; those who carry the traditions and lessons of the struggles of the last decade, those who join in the struggles of today. PRAIRIE FIRE is written to all sisters and brothers who are engaged in armed struggle against the enemy. It is written to prisoners, women’s groups, collectives, study groups, workers’ organizing committees, communes, GI organizers, consciousness-raising groups, veterans, community groups and revolutionaries of all kinds; to all who will read, criticize and bring its content to life in practice. It is written as an argument against those who oppose action and hold back the struggle.
PRAIRIE FIRE is based on a belief that the duty of a revolutionary is to make the revolution. This is not an abstraction. It means that revolutionaries must make a profound commitment to the future of humanity, apply our limited knowledge and experience to understand an ever-changing situation, organize the masses of people and build the fight. It means that struggle and risk and hard work and adversity will become our way of life, that the only certainty will be constant change, that the only possibilities are victory or death.
We have only begun. At this time, the unity and consolidation of anti-imperialist forces around a revolutionary program is an urgent and pressing strategic necessity. PRAIRIE FIRE is offered as a contribution to this unity of action and purpose. Now it is in your hands.
Bernardine Dohrn
Jeff Jones
Billy Ayers
Celia SojournFor the Weather UndergroundTO READ THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT, PLEASE CLICK HERECONTENTS:I. ARM THE SPIRITTHE BANNER OF CHE
WHY IS REVOLUTION NECESSARY ?IN THE EARLY STAGES
TO READ THE ENTIRE DOCUMENT, PLEASE CLICK HERE
1 comment:
Greetings,
I have been on a search for many years about what is the truth about our Freedoms and Civil rights.
The United States is no different than Syria, Lybia, and Egypt. If you think the US won't turn its troops on you then let me sell you some land in the Sahara Desert.
Capitalism is a crazy form of government. So much Greed and corruption it is horrible. But, What will you replace it with.
Wallstreet is already using special alogrythms in their double book burning programs that when a foreign country invests too heavy they can dump the stock and bury the investor making it look like the stock has fallen. Why do you think so many countries in Europe is having so much problems. Also global economy will never work and they are demonstrating that also. The Goal is for the United States to be in a position to control the world bank.
So with the above in mind, what will you heros of the revolution replace Capitalism with. That is a legitimate question and deserves a legitimate answer.
How does a country control it's people? Every country in the world has to control it's people.
Do you want Socialism? Or Communism? These regimes have never worked, they never worked in Russia and aren't working in England and Wales. I grew up in the Bridgeport area of Chicago and put a few lumps on some cops heads during the 60's. We kept a lot of rocks on the roof tops. I am 71 and certainly lived during those years.
What is the answer because right now we are going to loose our rights and freedoms very soon. Look at that midget Bloomberg who sucked his way into another term is now going against the people that voted for him and now is banning soda pop over 16oz. And Popcorn and other sweets as well. So there you are. That is what Hitler did to get elected Chancellor in 1933. He got the young vote because he went out and built the Autobahn and gave them jobs. The Germans loved Hitler. Then how many did the bastard kill while he was invading Europe?
Now let me tell you something.
Norman Mattoon Thomas, (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American Socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
The Socialist Party candidate for President of the US, Norman Thomas said this in a 1944 speech:
"The American People will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But, under the name of iberalism, "they will adopt every fragment of
the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party.
The Democrat Party has adopted our platform."
Now that happens to be the truth. Why don't the media ridicule the Democrats until they all resign. Romney will never be elected because too many young people under 35 who have no idea who Vladimir Lenin, Carl Marx, or Uncle Joe Stalin is. And what they did during their regimes to kill and starve people to death. So they will vote for Obama. As well as some seniors who want to keep their social security. That is a myth they are believing in. I get social security but I paid for it for 64 years. I have earned my check each month. If in their ignorance they take it away from me, I guess I will have to find a silencer for my pistol.
I am with you but I don't and won't condone violence. It serves no purpose. Violence is a sign you want to lose your battle. The ideal thing to do is use the same tactic that Julian Assange used on Wikileaks. His goal was to embarrass as many corrupt politicians as possible. With as many people that you have spread out across the US you should be able to find out just about anything on anybody.
Ok that is about all I have to say. I would like to hear from some of you and discuss how I could address the seniors here in Missouri so they won't vote Obama.
I wish you well every one of you and hope to talk to you later.
AJ Cheritino
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