Letter From a 14-Year-Old (1989): Importance of Outreach

The following was written in early 1989:

"The American flag to me is an ugly representation of everything bad in the world. It represents the CIA agents working around the clock to oppress the proletariat, it represents the skinheads at my school who act as a more dangerously military KKK. It represents the police, full of corruption.

"The American flag makes me sick to my stomach, because it represents death. The death of a family in Mozambique, a little boy in El Salvador, a village in Nicaragua, the endless slaughter by the rebels, death squads and governments the government supports.

"I have never burned an American flag, I have never had the opportunity. The best way for the Revolutionary Communist Party to attack the fascist intrigues of the right concerning flag-burning would be to burn the flag some more. A nationwide burn-a-thon is my idea. Please send me information on RCP demonstrations in XXX.

"I think the RCP is one of the few organizations that really threatens and scares the capitalists…"

I think the above letter shows the importance of finding ways to connect with youth and others in areas in which there is no presence of revolutionary organization. In regard to the above letter, in 1989 RCP came into the national media spotlight in connection with the case of the RCYB member who was arrested for burning the U.S. flag at the 1984 GOP convention. This legal case had worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the politicians were agitating for action to be taken against those who would burn the banner of imperialism. But something else happened as well. As shown in the letter above, those who truly hated the existing system were moved by the raw and powerful expression of internationalism and anti-imperialism shown by the RCP supporters. It shined a light on a sharp dividing line between liberals and social democrats like those in the CPUSA (or the other various left groups which around that time were dedicated to the presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson) on the one hand, and revolutionary forces on the other hand. The same is true today. The rebels who hate the system will be drawn to those who promote the necessity and justice of revolution. The revolutionary organization must develop relations with those in small and mid-sized cities, and those living in rural environments as well, and especially in the case of youth. The experiences of those rebels must also be analyzed and shared in order to help them conduct political work in their own locales.