First Published: The People’s Tribune (Online Edition), Vol. 22, No. 20, May 15, 1995.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
From those recently liberated from Black Belt plantations; from those who teach and learn in the sanctuaries of the universities; from Treaty Chief Richard Grass, the respected, fighting leader of the Lakota Nation; from those who live on and struggle in the cold, mean streets; from those of the new poor fighting desperately to avoid living on those streets; from the humble, determined, passionate fighters of the spiritual community; from the veteran, steeled revolutionaries; from trade unionists; from the surging new movement of women– from all these tribunes of the people came an outpouring of enthusiasm, tales of struggle and hope for the future.
A new movement, this time united with and guided by an age-old cause, was born in Chicago April 29-30 at the Second Convention of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.
For more, see [below].
We have just concluded a successful convention. It was a reaffirmation that we are marching with history.
A revolution is coming to America. This third American revolution is a continuation of the first two: the revolutionary war of independence from Britain and the revolutionary war against slavery within the Civil War. This third revolution is a revolution to end poverty once and for all. A revolution arises not simply from discontent about injustice, but from deep changes in the economy.
Our April 29-30 convention formed the League of Revolutionaries for a New America. Now we need to produce a press for this organization of revolutionaries.
Our pages of the People’s Tribune have been full of militant exposes of the effects of this economic revolution. The unemployed, the homeless, the welfare moms, the spiritual leaders, the health care workers and the educators, the rap artists and the poets have used the pages of the People’s Tribune to inform America about their struggles and to link up with each other.
Now is the time for the revolutionaries to enter the pages of the People’s Tribune in a more systematic way to speak for the approaching third American revolution.
The new ideas of reorganizing society based on the new means of production have to be put forth to challenge the rulers’ solution of a police state. We must rally everything that is decent and noble in America to put forth a vision for victory.
We will take two weeks to work on a prototype of the new People’s Tribune. This new People’s Tribune will be presented to the organization at the end of May. Distribute it widely and send us your feedback about it.
Why are we changing?
Because we need a press which will politically educate the masses as to who is their friend and their foe, and that there is nothing sacred about the private property of the capitalists.
The People’s Tribune will be published every two weeks. This is to allow more time to gather the articles that will politically educate the masses. The League would also need more time to make the plans for expanding the distribution of the press. Last, but not least, publishing every two weeks will give the League time to use the press as an educational tool.
What is needed from each member?
1. Discuss the content of this statement within the context of the League’s program and political resolution.
2. Make plans for contributing articles, or topics for articles, which will serve as educational tools.
3. Make plans for expanding the distribution of the People’s Tribune. We appeal to everyone receiving bundles of the People’s Tribune to double their orders.
4. Make the necessary plans to raise the funds needed for the expansion of the distribution and circulation and production of the People’s Tribune.
Let’s all join forces to make the People’s Tribune even more of an educational tool and a weapon of struggle.
A great convening of revolutionaries! The response of the poor to the fascist terrorists, racists and murderers! A rejection of President Clinton’s policy of unending compromise with the billionaires who are robbing the people and destroying the country! A united and successful gathering of the organizational leaders of the new class of the poor!
The Second Convention of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America (formerly the National Organizing Committee) was all that, and more.
The founding convention in 1992 was a statement of intent, as all founding conventions are. That intent was to create an organization of revolutionaries from the thousands of fighters who were already convinced that social revolution is the inevitable result of the on-going economic revolution. The question is no longer “will the country change?” but “in whose interests will it change?”
Robotics, in the hands of the new class of economic royalists, is replacing the workers and impoverishing the masses of the people. Whether we work or not, the people still must live. The coming social revolution must place the robots in the hands of the new class of poor people. Robotics and other forms of electronic production will be the foundation for a whole new world. Abundance, created by robotics and people working for the common good rather than the profit of the few, will forever end poverty, exploitation, oppression and war. The founding convention of 1992 called for the comrades to create and structure an organization around this new vision.
The Second Convention was called to approve the organizational structure, spell out the political line of march and select a permanent name for the NOC. The Convention was called not only to develop a strategy for the defense of the new poor, but a strategy to liberate them forever through the creation of a new, cooperative, communal society based on robotics and computerized production.
The Convention, built around such a vision and guided by such a cause, could not help but be something new in the movement of the people of this country. After the reports and proposals were presented to the Convention, the microphones were turned over to the delegates and observers. These participants– from 22 states, the District of Columbia and the Lakota Nation– reflected all that is decent and democratic in the history of our country.
From those recently liberated from Black Belt plantations; from those who teach and learn in the sanctuaries of the universities; from Treaty Chief Richard Grass, the respected, fighting leader of the Lakota Nation; from those who live on and struggle in the cold, mean streets; from those of the new poor fighting desperately to avoid living in those streets; from the humble, determined, passionate fighters of the spiritual community; from the veteran, steeled revolutionaries; from trade unionists; from the surging new movement of women– from all these tribunes of the people came an outpouring of enthusiasm, tales of struggle and hope for the future. A new movement, this time united with and guided by an age-old cause, was born.
An organization of revolutionaries will arise if there is a revolutionary movement. A revolutionary movement will arise if there is such a fundamental change in production as to require a change in the way the necessaries of life are created and distributed. The delegates who signed their name with a “Ph.D.” at the end and those who signed their name with an “X” were united on this. They understood that if there is production without wages then there must be distribution according to need. Unity on this concept was the foundation for the great unity of the Convention. Such an understanding and such a concept demanded that we name ourselves the “League of Revolutionaries for a New America.” That name, a crown to our political program, was enthusiastically proclaimed.
This organization, arising from a concrete movement, is not and cannot be a sectarian, ideological group. It cannot be guided by some “big shots.” Its goal is no daydream but the demand arising from the new economy and the new poor that economy created. As in critical times in the past, either the system must change or the people will perish. The people have not perished and will not perish. They will reclaim and renew America. We will win.
– The Editorial Board
Editor’s note: Kathleen Mary Sullivan died on April 13 from injuries sustained when she was hit by a drunk driver while riding her bike in Philadelphia. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America, formerly the National Organizing Committee, dedicated its Second Convention to Kathleen. The following statement was read by Marian Kramer at the convention.
* * *
It is customary at the openings of serious meetings of revolutionaries to pause for a moment to remember comrades who have lost their lives.
Unfortunately, just a few weeks ago, the National Organizing Committee lost a member who was highly committed to humanity and to the struggle, a very young and very wonderful comrade– Kathleen Sullivan from the Philadelphia area of the NOC.
Kathleen was a remarkable person and a beautiful young revolutionary. Her warm and caring heart compelled her to do something to right the wrongs she saw around her. Her morality committed her to do more than just ease the suffering. It drew her into political activity along with other young people, and it committed her to doing what she could to put an end to the cause of that suffering.
Kathleen’s seriousness sought out a scientific approach to her hard work. She saw a society in rebellion against itself, and she directed her energies at resolving that turmoil in the interest of humanity.
Kathleen’s growth signaled the new generation of young revolutionaries who are moved to the struggle for solutions, for the vision of a world of love and justice. Kathleen’s tragically short but powerfully significant life serves as a sign of what’s to come and an inspiration to us all.
Let us take just a moment to reflect in silence on the significance of the life of this wonderful young revolutionary. Let us each reflect on the value of the lives of those revolutionaries around us, the urgency of our tasks, and the certainty of our success.
[At this point, the Convention observed a minute of silence.]
By Allen Harris
CHICAGO– With tremendous enthusiasm, fighting spirit and unity, the League of Revolutionaries for a New America was established during a convention held in Chicago on April 29 and 30.
Attending were 73 delegates and 67 observers, as well as representatives of 30 areas and the national office. They came from 22 states, the District of Columbia and the Lakota Nation.
The meeting was the second national convention of the organization founded in Chicago in April, 1993 and originally called the National Organizing Committee.
Ranging in age from 17 to 80, the participants were Native American, white, black, Latino, Asian and Arab. They were urban, suburban and rural. They were secular and Christian, Muslim, Jewish and people of other faiths.
The convention elected on April 30 the following leadership: General Baker, Chair; Abdul Alkalimat, International Secretary; Beth Gonzalez, National Secretary; Jo Ann Capalbo, Organizational Secretary and Nacho Gonzalez, Secretary-Treasurer.
The convention also elected on April 30 a female majority to the Steering Committee and a gender-balanced National Committee.
On the Steering Committee are General Baker, Marian Kramer, Jitu Sadiki, Abdul Alkalimat, Tonny Algood, Ethel Long-Scott, Dorothy (Dottie) Stevens, Beth Gonzalez, Jo Ann Capalbo, Nacho Gonzalez, Manuel Torres, Laura Garcia, Stephanie Shanks-Meile, Clare McClinton and Lenny Brody.
On the National Committee are Theresa Allison, Michelle Tingling- Clemmons, Leona Smith, Willie Baptist, Ted Quant, Jerome Scott, Gloria Sandoval, Ronald Casanova, John Slaughter, Timothy Sandoval, Richard Monje, Jackie Gage, Alma Ornelas, Maria Martinez, Larry Regan, Rose Sanders, Nitza Vera and Luis Rodriguez.
The two days of proceedings at the Inn at University Village here included highly political discussion of the draft documents on the League’s name, program, political resolution, organizational resolution and bylaws.
The draft proposals were discussed on the floor and modifications proposed. The proposed modifications of the drafts were discussed in convention committees, then decided by the convention.
On April 29, the political resolution was accepted 58-9 and the program 69-2.
The name “League of Revolutionaries for a New America” was accepted 44-25, then by acclamation.
On April 30, the resolution organizing the LRNA on the basis of chapters designed to carry out agitation and propaganda was accepted by unanimous voice vote. The bylaws were also passed unanimously by voice vote April 30.
The convention ended on April 30 with shouts of “Long Live the League!” and “Viva la Liga!”
[Editor’s note: Below we reprint the full text of the program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, adopted by the League at its Second Convention held April 29-30.]
* * *
This is an era of revolutionary change. For the first time in history, humankind can produce such abundance that society can be free from hunger, homelessness and backbreaking labor. The only thing standing in the way is this system of exploitation and injustice.
The struggle today for homes, education, health care, freedom from police terror is the beginning of a revolution for a better world, economically, culturally and spiritually.
The League of Revolutionaries for a New America takes as its mission the political awakening of the American people. We invite all who see that there’s a problem and are ready to do something about it to join with us. With our organized strength, we will liberate the thinking of the American people and unleash their energy. We will win them to the cause for which they are already fighting.
We will excite the American people with a vision of a world of plenty. Electronic technology provides better, cheaper and more products with less and less labor. Society now has the capacity to devote the energies and talents of its people to satisfying the material, intellectual, emotional and cultural needs of all.
We will educate the people of this country about the economic revolution that’s disrupting society. Every day, the new electronic technology throws thousands– laborers and managers alike– out of their jobs. Their labor is worthless to a system that values only what it can exploit. If they cannot work, they cannot eat. Radical changes in the way a society produces its wealth call for radical changes in how that society is organized.
We will sound the alarm about the danger of a police state. The capitalist class cannot convince the American people to believe in their system while they are starving and freezing them and destroying their hopes and dreams. Their answer to the destruction of society is a police state. Their government takes away constitutional rights and gives back terror and prisons. They attempt to disarm the victims of capitalism by turning them against one another.
We will inspire our people with the alternative to a police state: a society organized for the benefit of all. A society built on cooperation puts the physical, environmental, cultural and spiritual well-being of its people above the profits and property of a handful of billionaires. When the class which has no place in the capitalist system seizes control of all productive property and transforms it into public property, it can reorganize society so that the abundance is distributed according to need.
We will empower the American people with the understanding of their role in striving for this new society and with the confidence that it’s possible to win. The struggle of those who have no stake in this system carries the energy to overturn it. The League of Revolutionaries for a New America is an organization based on the aims of these millions of people. We are an organization of revolutionaries. Our members come from all walks of life. We are in the thick of battle on every front. From within housing takeovers and protests, universities and hospitals, courtrooms and prisons, factories, sweatshops and fields, from within each of the scattered battles, from wherever there is poverty and injustice, we take this message out to politicize and organize the revolution that is already shaking up this country.
We call on you to join us in crusading for this cause.
[Editor’s note: On these pages, we present a brief selection of comments about the Second Convention of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America from some of the people who attended the convention, held in Chicago on April 29-30.]
* * *
Tonny Algood, a member of the outgoing National Council from Mobile, Alabama who was elected to the new National Committee of the League by the Convention delegates:
“The unity expressed at the Convention through the adoption of the Program and the Political Resolution is really going to help us move forward as an organization and grow. It will help ensure that we all have the kind of future we want for our children.
“It was very gratifying to see the young people who were there, as well as the people who have been in the struggle for 50 years or better who lent their wisdom to the Convention.
“For the first time in history, we have the technological ability to put into effect the principle ’from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.’ I really look forward to the future of this organization and what it will mean not only to people in the United States, but throughout the struggle.”
* * *
General Baker, the chair of the Steering Committee of the League:
The second national convention was a momentous occasion.
After agitating for years on the effects of the current electronic revolution– one that is causing massive unemployment, misery and poverty on the one hand, and an abundance of commodities of all kinds on the other– we were able over the weekend of April 29-30 to deliberate and adopt a political resolution, a program and an organizational structure.
These things will, for the first time in history, unite our movement against poverty and misery with its great cause: the fight to create a society of abundance, free from want.
* * *
Timothy Sandoval, 22, a delegate from Los Angeles who is active in MEChA in California and was elected to the National Committee of the League by the Convention delegates:
“What struck me most about it was that in one of the most segregated cities in the United States, it was monumental to see people from all generations, from all ethnicities and from one race– the human race– come together.”
* * *
Dorothy Stevens, a member of the League’s Steering Committee:
[Referring to Jesus driving the moneychangers from the temple]: “He went into that statehouse to change the status quo, and we’ve been trying to do that ever since. ...
“We’re what’s called the last remnants of Israel– the disenfranchised, the marginal, the blind, the women in the work force. We have to get our forces together. It means the meek shall inherit the earth. Not meek like ’we’re going to let you walk over us,’ but meek in heart. ...
“I’ll fight until I go down and I can’t fight anymore. Because this isn’t the end, this is just the beginning!”
* * *
Stephanie Shanks-Meile, a member of the newly elected Steering Committee of the League from Indiana:
“It was revitalizing to see a real, democratic social process in action. People from across our multicultural country stood up for progressive social change, expressed opinions relevant to their regional collective struggles, and helped shape the future of the League.”
* * *
Ali Hangan, 26 years old, a delegate from Pomona, California and a member of the Inland Empire Networking Society:
“The convention represents a turning point for a new world. It certainly gives me hope for a better future for my generation.
“The key thing is to keep educating myself on the objective motion and organizing around that movement and foster a commitment that will ensure successful transformation of revolution in this country.”
* * *
Sheilah Olaniran, a delegate from Flint, Michigan:
“I always try to put things into a perspective. I think given the struggles we’ve been involved in Flint, the all-out attack, this convention puts into bold relief the absolute necessity for revolutionaries to organize, to strategize and fight as informed people. I think that this convention, for me, triggers almost a new epoch in taking this struggle to a new level.
“It’s a pitched battle out there. Flint is really exemplary of that battle. Coming here and gaining strength and understanding prepares me to go back and develop strategies to win some victories. We can pull people together around the documents [adopted at the Convention] and prepare to win some victories.
“I just feel really energized by this!”
* * *
Ebon Dooley, a delegate from Atlanta:
“I was not at the founding convention. This is my first convention. It was very inspiring. It let me see who makes up the League. To see the mix of people, it was very emotional for me. It re-affirmed my belief in the League. It sends me back to Atlanta with renewed enthusiasm to reach out to more people.
“We have a lot more recruiting to do in the South. We have more work to do!”
* * *
Kay Strauther, 80 years old, an observer from the national office of the League in Chicago:
“I was very happy to see all the young people– young people who had earnestly studied and put into practice what we’re trying to do– from California, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia. The organization of the convention was very well done. Organizationally, it was ’jam up,’ as the kids say.”
* * *
Anna Teixeira, 17 years old, a delegate from Los Angeles:
“I think the conference helped give a concrete shape to the scattered struggles we have seen occurring. It helped to remind me that our organization already has a broad base to build on.
“Now it is up to us as revolutionaries to realize that we do have a new vision to offer, and that society is waiting for someone to give them an understanding and a solution to the conflicts they are up against.”
* * *
Christine Verdon, a delegate from Baltimore and a student:
“It amazed me. Being on committees on my college campus with professors and administrators, it seems like it takes forever to get things done. Here, we had a lot to do and such a short time to do it in, but we got it done. There was an overwhelming spirit of unity which superseded any conflict. It was highly emotional and invigorating.
“It was exactly what we needed. I didn’t realize that people in the League across the country were experiencing the same problems with the existing organizational structures [that we in Baltimore were having]. We opened ourselves up to free thinking and adjusted ourselves to a new organizational structure.
“[When we get back to Baltimore,] we have to set up our chapter system so we are accessible to people in different areas. I need to do serious reading and have meetings to discuss what we do next in terms of education.”