Worldwise Fundraising Campaign
From One Corner of the World to the Other,
Raise Funds for RIM!
AWTW received
the following from the Information Bureau of the Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement.
The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement is calling on everyone
who dreams of doing away with the intolerable social order of today,
who dreams of seizing the opportunity and forging the leadership
needed to make revolution, or who dreams of a world in which proletarian
rule again seizes the day to transform society from top to bottom,
to help organize the Worldwide Campaign to Raise Funds for RIM.
A World of Needs
The primary reason for this campaign at the present time is the
great need for increased operating funds to carry out the many tasks
of RIM. Since its beginning in 1984, the Movement has grown and
become stronger through its work. In line with its task to help
strengthen and build Maoist parties united in RIM, the Movement
has actively spread Marxism-Leninism-Maoism around the world in
many ways, not least of all through its literature. It has inspired
the publication of the international journal, A World to Win,
in several languages: English, Spanish, Farsi and Turkish, with
selected translations in Arabic, French, German, Italian and some
Indian languages. The magazine provides in-depth reportage and analysis
of key issues facing the revolutinary movement today, as well as
popularizing the advanced experiences of organizations and parties
united in RIM. From Afghani revolutionaries soaking up its contents
in Farsi to readers in Mexico and Latin America rushing to get the
Spanish edition out on the streets, the journal has built a solid
Maoist lifeline linking the struggles of our class across the world.
RIM has also regularly intervened through its statements on important
international events and battles against imperialism from the outlook
of the international proletariat.
In its unique position as an embryonic political centre
of the world̓s Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, the Movement investigates,
discusses and wages struggle over the paramount problems that may
make the difference in whether or not the oppressed and proletarian
masses in a number of countries favourable for revolution have a
serious chance to develop genuine MLM leadership and build the organization
necessary. In a majority of countries Maoist parties don̓t
yet exist, and where they do they must grow stronger. The more the
formation of revolutionary Maoist parties is delayed, the more the
fruits of the struggle of the masses will not be harvested, or at
least will not fully serve the target and goal of liberation.
Without a strong Movement, the crucial struggles against
revisionism that affect the future of the revolutionary movement
as a whole could not be waged in the same concentrated way. Most
fundamentally, RIM has led the process of struggle over the years
to raise the level of political, ideological and organizational
unity among Maoists united in RIM themselves, in particular the
historic step of adopting Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. RIM has also
led numerous different campaigns, from exposing the imperialists
and building support for the Communist Party of Peru and the People̓s
War it leads, to popularizing the achievements of the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution.
The existence of an organized centre has made a real difference
in the past short fourteen years. One very favourable but demanding
result has been to multiply RIM̓s tasks many times. The demand
for the Movement to play even more of a role is being echoed throughout
the world. This requires money. Funds are needed to spread RIM̓s
materials into places they haven̓t reached, to be able to expand
the Movement̓s presence and work in places where revolutionaries
have not yet had the opportunity to know and work with RIM, and
to strengthen the projects and participation of the Movement in
the priority areas it has already shouldered.
Many people are stepping forward to help RIM in various ways —
this is an important part of the revolutionary movement relying
on the people, its only source of support. It also helps relieve
some financial pressures by providing assistance in areas that would
otherwise incur expense, like local transport, communications, or
food and lodging to visitors, to mention a few everyday examples.
But this needs to develop in many ways, in more countries, and this
is impossible without a conscious effort to raise money. The international
proletariat doesn̓t own any trains, airplanes and printing
presses. RIM is able to do a lot with the support of its parties,
organizations and supporters, but it needs to accomplish more, much
more. In today̓s imperialist world where costs are high, the
stakes are higher; but the potential support for revolution and
for the revolutionary movement has no limit — and within the
bounds of what is possible to raise given our forces, RIM̓s
ability to do more can be boosted significantly. It̓s
really a question of how well we grasp that and can help others
to grasp it.
Training Internationalists
Taking out a fundraising campaign to the revolutionary masses of the
different countries provides an excellent way to train them in proletarian
internationalism -- what is this Movement and what does it stand for? Why
and how does it represent their interests? Why and how is revolution a
reflection of Mao's truth -- "we all go to communism, or none will go?"
The basic people understand that imperialism and the reactionary states
it dominates fit into an international order: the international
proletariat's strength against it must be also seen and supported in these
stratetic terms. The heritage of our class -- the outstanding leaders and
their teachings, the Paris Commune, the October Revolution, the liberation
of China and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution -- are shouldered
today by the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. It is determined to
build on the tremendous contributions, sacrifices and epic-making
revolutions of the past to carry through emancipation to the end.
What would it be like, trying to do without a RIM in today's world, or
one whose mass support around the world is way behind the potential? It
won't do to underestimate the hatred of the masses against the life of
misery, oppression and degradation imperialism has slated for them; nor
to downplay their enthusiasm for fighting it and for making it increasingly
possible to concentrate our science, our experience, and even on some scale,
our resources, to do away with it. To do this people need to understand
what they have in common with the rest of the world's oppressed. This is
a fine opportunity: by actively bringing out RIM -- in its own right
-- we can make the connections between the oppressed internationally much
clearer, and thus also why and how revolution means relying on the masses.
One of the richest examples of combining revolutionary interntionalism
with material support for RIM over the past decade has been the continued
sale in numerous countries of copies of revolutionary artwork depicting
scenes from the People's War in Peru. Originals were painted by political
prisoners based on a model and then were smuggled out of Peru's dungeons
to RIM to contribute to fundraising for the Movement the PCP is part of.
Copies were sent around the world and reproduced in varying forms from
postcards to large colour prints. Several thousands of copies of a high-quality
revolutionary music cassette "We Only Want the World", connecting the people's
struggles in a way only RIM could have achieved have been sold around the
world.
In Tamil Nadu, India, where peasants' living standard is typically
very low, money was raised for the Defend the Life of Abimael Guzman
Campaign by supporting volunteer bicyclists in a long distance ride
to inform the people of the campaign.
In some countries, people may have already been won to contributing
to an MLM organization or party which belongs to and in turn, supports,
RIM. Asking these masses to donate to RIM in its own right poses
what is in fact a good contradiction — one that politically
enables supporters to understand more about revolution as a worldwide
process, the relation between building revolution in one country
and overthrowing the world system of imperialism, and even more
deeply, just who are the revolutionary people from one corner
of the world to the other. This can also serve to generate creativity
beyond the bounds of the organized forces — ways in which
the masses can support the struggle in other countries, and support
the centralized vehicle that strengthens the ties between them.
A Geography of Sacrifice?
Like the burning desire of the masses to do away with their oppressors
and exploiters, the ability to make sacrifices to create the organization
required to accomplish this has no borders. The world is extremely
unequal — that is imperialism̓s logic — and our
determined revolutionary internationalism must rise above these
differences to support, build and strengthen the common interests
of the downtrodden of the world, which are far greater. The Movement
is mainly centred in the oppressed countries, and we have the highest
expectations of even the poorest masses to make sacrifices based
on their understanding of who makes revolution possible. We oppose
paternalism that would say people in rich countries can sacrifice
but that those in the oppressed countries cannot or will not, or
that the “value” of sacrifice in the poorer countries
is less “useful” than the relatively high wages pegged
to an inflated Deutschmark or pound Sterling in the West.
And we must also strive for a similar level of sacrifice
among our supporters in the imperialist countries, challenging any
reasoning that delays or minimizes their need to contribute generously
by those who think that conditions for revolution are not as ripe
as in the oppressed countries. People do understand what an important
difference it makes when their contributions go towards the cause
of undoing the swaggering empire of monopoly capital and its repulsive
political dictatorship. So they must be struggled with to dig even
deeper (into their pockets), as well as to convince others in the
world̓s richest countries to overfulfill their share in supporting
RIM. Of course, in these countries too it is the common sacrifices
of the masses of workers and oppressed which will ultimately be
the backbone of support for revolutionary internationalism, but
allies from other classes defiantly acting out of their own hatred
of imperialism̓s crimes can play a significant role in giving
material aid.
Many friends of RIM are dispersed in places where the revolutionary
movement may be just beginning. Such individuals and groups can
make an important internationalist contribution by joining in this
Worldwide Fundraising Campaign, setting high goals for themselves
and thinking of imaginative ways to help organize it wherever they
are. We encourage you to contact us further about this.
As one facet of the campaign, RIM is calling on people from
all walks of life in all countries to give one-half a day̓s
wages to this fundraising effort. While this does not equalize the
great imbalances among countries, it goes in that direction and
represents a sacrifice for everyone, no matter on which side of
imperialism̓s tentacles they were born.
Aim high and go all out to raise funds for RIM!
Note: Some people will be able to arrange sending funds through
their own connections; we encourage others to be in direct contact
with the London address to facilitate this.
|