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How Do You Know You Are Revolutionary?

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

I have read articles, books, essays, viewed documentaries and engaged in conversation with like-minded comrades after clocking out from a job that does not engage your spirit, yet fuels your fight after remembering the words and work past organizers have left. The groundwork set, contemporary nonconformist thinkers have the task of answering the question. Am I revolutionary? Can I call myself a revolutionary? How would one know? Who sets the bar? What tangible fruit must be borne unto us to be deemed as such? Revolutionary.

Fred Hampton says, “That the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx and Lenin and Che Guevara and Mao Tse-Tung, and anybody else who ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that a revolution is a class struggle.” Fighting against classism requires trusting relationships with a foundation in integrity among the working class. Revolutions are given torque by focusing on labor and the impact stopping, or removing, said labor for any period of time can cause. Do you have worker allies?

I am aware of what capitalism truly means in this country and understand the implications of the American economic system and the impact it has globally on millions of people’s quality of life. Then I get frustrated enough to talk to someone else about it and realize they are frustrated too.  Angela Davis states, “We must understand that we must completely revolutionize the entire fabric of society… Overturn the current economic structure… Destroy the political apparatus.” The paradigm shift can be put into play when visualizations of what a different working system can look and feel like become a working plan. Plans become actions, and the organized actions of many working-class individuals conceive revolution. A very small percentage of the population should not be dictating to the majority working class what the wages are and how much paid time off they get. Do you understand capitalism?

Style of language and display of action must change. Not telling you what to do. Not condescending others who are in different stages of their journey. But Audre Lorde speaks to us saying, “The true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors’ tactics, the oppressors’ relationships.” There is a focus to call the mind’s eye to be still. To recognize in oneself, first, the remnants of patriarchy, capitalism, and fascism that stick behind and attempt to fester.  Psychological, emotional, spiritual development is happening constantly. Introspection, constructive analysis of behaviors can allow us to form trusting relationships with ourselves. To know that personal intentions are pure and grounded. Have you had a talk with self today?

After all the work must go on. The revolution will not be stopped. Cannot stop. Are you willing to fight? Fighting not your thing? Know there is a space for every revolutionary in the revolution. Make no mistake in consuming this point. Whatever you do, whichever passion drives you the hardest, makes your heart race; be driven by it. Decide once and for all if you will allow silence to suffocate you. Or choose life. The life you can create with alliances. I have decided there is no choice. I have decided there is NO alternative option. Once you’ve decided the task now is to go. Do. Take action. Educate yourself. Align with individuals. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays at 1418 North Claiborne, New Orleans LA you can find organizers at the table taking action in the city of New Orleans. Come join us, your voice is valid, and we welcome all revolutionaries. Are you ready to work?

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Bush Dynasty Got Rich by Arming Hitler, From Oil Companies and Banking and Lies, Bought His Way Into Office

9 Reasons Not to Be Sad That War Criminal & Racist, Bush Sr. is Dead

Bush began the 1991 war with Iraq with a blatant lie that Iraqi troops were aiming to invade Saudi Arabia and cut off the U.S. oil supply and deliberating encouraging Kuwait to steal Iraqi oil. With Bush even bombing air raid shelters, 89,000 tons of bombs killed 200,000 Iraqis. He bombed the infrastructure including sewage treatment plants which led to wide spread disease. He massacred tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers while they were retreating. By 1991, Iraq was ordering its soldiers to pull out of Kuwait through two roads. Those roads became known as the “Highway of Death” when the U.S. military bombed them “like shooting fish in a barrel,” according to one U.S. pilot.

He armed the death squads in Nicaragua that were killing anyone who opposed the Somoza dictatorship and U.S. invasion. He later pardoned all involved.

Bush was a war criminal. He violated the Geneva Convention, anti-torture convention, and War Crimes Act.

He initiated the so-called War on Drugs while allowing drugs to deliberately poison Black and other working class communities. Then threw a million people in jail where inmate slave labor is used to profit corporations.

During his presidential race against Michael Dukakis, he ran the infamous racist “Willie Horton ads”, painting young Black men as rapists and murderers. Bush Sr.’s campaign advisor would even apologize for the ad on his deathbed—Bush never did.

He sexually assaulted at least 8 women, including a 16-year-old woman by groping her when he was 79.

He let the AIDS epidemic grow to kill over 100,000 people. While mostly working class LGBT+ people were on their hospital deathbeds, Bush told them “well, change your behavior.”

As CIA director, Bush Sr. prioritized arms deals with fascist death squads in oil-rich areas, like the mujahedeen in Afghanistan (which would later become the Taliban). This was after he was on the payroll of Dresser Industries—a corporation that made a fortune off of weapons production and oil extraction.

He invaded Panama in 1989, killing 3,000 people and destroying the homes of tens of thousands more, all to keep U.S. military bases in Panama after they were scheduled to be closed by the government.

So who profited from Bush Sr.’s career? Oil corporations, private prisons, and military arms dealers (Bush’s own family!) reaped billions of dollars all throughout the criminal’s presidency. Bush Sr. was only an “American hero” to the wealthy elite that he served. He was an enemy of working class and oppressed people all over the world. It is sad that some progressives like Bernie Sanders praised him in death for his “humble and devoted service” to the country. Truth is our greatest weapon in securing a better future.