Found and Shared

In the course of preparing this edition of A Soldier’s Story, the editors received invaluable assistance from former comrades of Kuwasi’s, some of whom still had in their possession writings by Kuwasi that had never been published or widely circulated. The status of the three following texts is unclear; we do not know if Kuwasi considered them complete or if they were drafts he would have wanted to return to. In at least one case, given that the document ends abruptly, it is clear that his intention was to write more. We present them all here, with little editing, to present as broad and wide a scope of Kuwasi’s contributions to radicals who hold him in deep esteem, and to the many who are just learning about this too often overlooked and complicated revolutionary.

1. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

“Where do we go from Here?” is first and foremost a strategy for building collectives from the material basis of will. It is an attempt to point out a path of thinking and action that leads from one stage to another or one position to another, by cultivating the collective process within any small determined group of three or more people and making the best use of time, space, and whatever specific available resources to influence others to join the process, contribute, and exercise a measure of control consistent with their participation immediately. The basis of this process is agreement, and since collectives are guided by popular one person, one vote, the strategy is an anarchist strategy and this work is an anarchist organizing manual.

The collective process is more important than a large treasury, cache of arms, or throngs of people shouting your name, because to do anything in the social arena that determines the conditions for liberty and wealth, the spending and the investing of wealth must be organized. If it does nothing but sit it does no good, if one person or a few spend it as those few decide, while it was in fact the fruits of the labor of many, it only reinforces the existing structures that are responsible already for the genocide of entire peoples and the literal murder of the biosphere, and if it’s spent pell mell it will only bring temporary and partial relief and problems. A large cache of arms in the hands of a few doesn’t translate into much more than a weapon apiece unless it can be sold to someone who can be counted on to at the very least not use the arms to take back the money, and, of course, there’s problems attendant with security with both money and arms. It wouldn’t be wise to simply pass out arms to everyone who’s been kicked in the ass, because one traitor fearful of being kicked out of existence or glad of pleasing his or her masters or to receive awards would immediately put you and all you had armed in peril. To carry on a war, many people united in purpose and organized into small manageable units must be present. While simply arming those who wish to and deserve to be armed would indeed be a service in a giant step towards self and community defense, it must be borne in mind that the enemy has an inexhaustible supply of both arms and ammunition and is continually on the attack, and so in order for people to really practice defense, they must practice offense, if only to force the enemy to have to be on guard.

Masses of people who believe in the cause is the greatest asset a movement can have, and even that doesn’t bring you and them “out of the woods.” Sympathy is not support. Actions must be channeled and coordinated with other actions that interrelate and translate into offensives that cannot be stopped. To do this people must attend to practical matters in measurable groups to ensure that there are in fact enough people to complete tasks, and that things that must be done at different places can be dealt with at the maximum efficiency and the least amount of time, effort, and resources being wasted or idle.

Who will lead these collectives? Who is the most qualified? Those are questions for the collectives to decide. All that can be decided on a one person, one vote basis should be decided that way. At the same time, at different points, on different matters, particular individuals will clearly be more knowledgeable than others, but this too should be decided collectively. Obviously, a mechanic in a collective garage would know more about what tools should be bought first, how to obtain the best at the best rates, and the approximate amount of time that may be required for certain work and would therefore practically be a leader. However, at the same time a collective shouldn’t establish a garage if there’s not at least enough mechanics to do a large portion of collective transportation work, and it is the collective who decides if, when, and where. Additionally, an auto repair collective would have other members, based in some aspects of auto repair and maintenance, such as changing tires, batteries, jump starts, etc. and would be required to learn more through on the job training.

Besides this, there are other things attendant to operating a collective garage or any other collective project. The obtaining and stocking of supplies and parts, the allocation of funds for light and heat, propaganda, the national procuring of office supplies and lunch, maintenance of the building, scheduling of shifts, classes and meetings, security, services, and interactions with the community.

On the ideology front, who is to decide what is to be studied in each collective which is also a study group? Who is to determine the mass line and be certain that it’s consistent with the organizational line? There is simply no single person qualified. No individual knows what’s best collectively. Only the collective can solve its ideological needs through collective participation and it’s the collective who has to take responsibility for its propaganda, cultivation, and etc.

But how can a maze of separate collectives connect into a mass organization? Firstly, by aligning with other collectives whose purposes and rules are in alignment. Further, once a number of collectives of the same collectives agree to work together, they simply call a congress to further coordinate their efforts. The propaganda at that point is decided by that congress. Rather than a group of fifteen people struggling to put out a paper, a portion of the federation of collectives is channeled into that end, while the remainder do collective work that now translates into a larger organizational work.

Should a collective be concerned fundamentally with establishing anarchy where it is, it groups with other collectives, reorganizing its organizational efforts. Should a collective be concerned with liberation of a territory to achieve independence for colonialized nationals, it should group with other collectives, reorganizing its organizational efforts. Three or more collectives become a federation. A neighborhood organized becomes a community, a commune or federation of communes. Because armed struggle and mass propaganda alone will not develop into mass movements and significant irregular and regular forces necessary to overthrow the USA, mass organizing must be the main focus of a revolutionary program. If these federations of collectives and communes choose to institute a republic and this is the mandate of the masses (that is determined through referendum), then it is the task of the organization to aid in translating the will of the people into reality. If at the same time the federation of collectives and communes chooses to continue anarchy on a national territory, and this is the mandate of the masses, determined through referendum, then it is the task of the organization to translate that will into reality.

It must be borne in mind that all the suggestions as to enterprises, etc. do not beg to be followed and that many times it may be opportune to attempt objectives in the later phases, and perhaps come back to others or omit them altogether, it depends on particular conditions and predilections. Many would shun all elections as a matter of course, and many would deal with mass organizing alone, more than likely the bulk of collectives will, and since that is in fact what is needed most that should prove more than enough. The line between open work and clandestine work should be respected, because to proclaim a cause in the open and then do military work is overly risky, you become too easy to be found. The state will watch public organizations while looking for clandestine organizations, and it is best that they have to start with no idea as to participants in military acts.

At the same time, an underground movement simply cannot wait until mass movements complete their tasks before building itself and beginning its program of action. People applying for federal firearm licenses should not be identifiable as movement figures, and at the same time they should belong to a collective and consequently to a study group. Not aligned with the public movement, visibly, and prepared to buy weapons wholesale and in bulk transfer them, distribute them, and join an underground military collective, with the training and preparation necessary to be a class-one people’s soldier.

Collectives who infiltrate comrades into correctional departments, security firms, police departments, and the armed forces should be as careful to not align with public movements. Build a treasury, procure weapons, and establish and maintain communications with at least but not necessarily more than one underground formation through a representative of a collective or a representative of a federation. This representative should have no police record and should have no direct involvement with the underground or public organizations, and coordinating in that line should have a straight nonsensitive job and the appearance of a regular worker.

These people should be well studied, disciplined, and known and checked out. For instance, if a comrade can’t make meetings for a year and participate in a study group, they shouldn’t be approached to take on the tasks of revolutionary spies or ordinance personnel. Except in instances where a regular group operating underground picks members with straight jobs and records for one of these tasks, the procedure should be initiated by collectives who choose that task, are not yet public, and choose as well to develop a military collective. That way only those responsible pay for mistakes and shoddy security.

The regular army is the immediate army that carries on irregular actions while the mass movement is being built and militias are being formed. This army is also made up of collectives formed in prisons, the u.s. armed forces, and anywhere that a collective of people come together and decide that that is what they want to do. Like every other collective, it is a study group as well, and like ordinance and spy collectives, security is of the utmost importance. Aside from meetings and study sessions, the underground must conduct security checks, obtain electronic detection devices, weapons, explosives, apartments, lofts and warehouses for hospitals, presses, and fronts, [and] among other things, carry on armed actions, such as bombings, arson, assassinations, expropriations, and kidnapings. To do this an underground military collective must establish a people’s academy where books on these subjects can be studied and where training and testing can be given, along with ideological cultivation. It must develop the means to supply identification to all members and develop codes and procedures to change addresses and locations quickly when a member knowledgeable of them is captured, as well as devise objective methods of detecting weaknesses in members that could eventually be used against members of the army, as well as supporters.

Boastful, vice-ridden, vindictive, petty, and weak-willed people, as well as “rug eaters,” people who storm out of meetings when they cannot have their way, should be eliminated before they are suspected of going over to the side of the enemy, just as bullies and people who talk of violence and are overly fearful. Character, strength of will, clear thinking, and physical fitness, along with truly democratic selfless principles are the elements a guerrilla must pit against superior mobility, firepower, methodological intelligence, and the principle of command and/or coercion that the police employ to enlist the cooperation of citizens and colonial subjects. If a member of a military collective finds at any point the traits needed [wanting], in his or herself or any other member, it is time to make new arrangements. At the same time when and if a guerrilla discovers that he or she can’t make scate, they should be able to say so and should be allowed to leave the collective and be respected for their honesty.

With all the fundamentals in check, a collective should consist of two teams, with from five to seven members in each team. Have two drivers armed with sidearms, one automatic rifleman or woman or shotgunner also armed with a sidearm, and other members with sidearms. As soon as possible these arms should be minimized and all members should obtain bulletproof vests and grenades, either manufactured or homemade. Likewise, each group should have electronic detection equipment, and any member should be able to call a strip search to check for wires at any meeting. Additionally, each group should employ sniper rifles, bombs, in providing weapons and fires as they see fit to monopoly capital, defense industrial complex targets, police stations, businesses that contribute to rewards, and any opportune enemy targets that can be reconned, studied, and ascertained to present the least risk. The key is to consistently be on the attack when not preparing to attack, and remaining victorious, even when the victories are small, like a small police station, sporting goods shop, an unarmed government agency, armored car, a bank, landlord or marshal’s office, electric, gas, or phone monopoly billing offices. After each action, the group should hold a critique, keeping in mind that simply because no problems were encountered or problems were overcome, those facts do not indicate that either the plan or execution was flawless; it only indicates that the plan and execution was passable under the particular set of conditions present.

The most important tasks will be the assassinations of clear enemies such as police, traitors, landlords, and the liberation of captured guerrillas; ofttimes this will take no more expertize or execution than an expropriation. All actions should be considered not only on the basis of value but also in terms of ability to do. A continuous thoroughly developed reconnaissance program will make clear weak spots in the enemy’s defense area, where small portions of them are isolated, exposed, and vulnerable. Likewise, links with captured guerrillas who are not celebrated but are in fact dedicated soldiers should yield easier escapes than known revolutionaries held under extra-deep extra-tight security. Again, every action should take into account the risks involved in order to minimize them, as we have no soldiers to hand over or trade, and small victories that incur no losses are indeed victories nevertheless. It is the insurgents who choose when and where.

The first and hardest task of any revolutionary army is to avoid getting “nipped at the bud” and to become established in the minds of the people as a force that will not be stopped. The second task is to grow and develop into a force that is responsible for consistent military political acts, that establishes in the mind of the people that a war is clearly in progress. The values of the revolutionaries must be reflected through the conduct and propaganda of the revolutionaries. When the masses of people conscientiously choose revolutionary values over reactionary values, to the point where they support revolution and refuse to collaborate in any way with reaction, the balance of power will shift (all people is truly of the people).

Once the movement perceives that a balance of power has in fact evolved, the final offensive begins. The “regular” people’s army units become commando irregular units attached to the people’s militias, who are in and therefore within the consensus of the mass party. Destruction of monopoly capital begins in earnest, with the occupation of territories and public executions of those who profit from exploitation and oppression.

GENERAL STATE OF THINGS
Perceptions—Experiencing and Building an Experience Rather Than Allowing the Media to Describe Our Lives

When we examine, where do we go from Here? it is clear from the onset that to discuss or address that question we have to talk about Here. Where this particular Here is in relation to everywhere else. In terms of our health and living conditions. Socially, in terms of how other people are doing and where they are. Our dealings with other people individually and in terms of whatever institutions they have built to serve their purposes, and of course mentally, how we experience things and what we recall about the events or processes that brought us or made us decide to come Here.

“We” is plural, meaning more than one. Appropriate because as individuals we interact with other individuals and, regardless of our designs, do not live in a vacuum. Since that is the case, who we are with is part of the answer to where we are, and the answer to what we are doing with who we are with is part of the answer to where we are going. Where we might be at a particular time and who we may be with at a particular time can be answered without the resulting illumination lighting the way very far. For instance, one can leave here for work, get on a train and ask oneself that question, and it is obvious that you are going to work. If you were in a desert aided by a map which showed a water hole that you were standing near, that would be part of the answer to where you were. If you were there with others and it appears either that there was enough water for all or that there wasn’t enough for all to drink their fill or for all to take rations of it to sustain them until they got out of the desert or to another water hole, then that would enter into the question of where you were.

So it would serve us better to ask that question in regards to where we live. We can agree that we live on a planet called Earth, and go on to say in the northern hemisphere, and for some of our purposes what is presently the United States.

When we advance further on that question in relation to where we live, we may examine ourselves in regards to our health. Investigate how we feel at the moment and most of the time. What does our diet consist of? Are our dwellings safe? Do we share these dwellings with others? Who are they? Who is in the immediate area? Who occupies the surrounding areas? How do we feel about this, as well as the people closest to us?

If everything appears to be satisfactory and what you do every day insures you satisfaction, then this manual and suggested agenda will only serve as a poor diversion. If, on the other hand, you are not satisfied with things, are trying to decide what to do or if you should leave wherever you are and take your chances elsewhere, this will hopefully aid you and those who come in contact with you.

If you feel that the house you live in is not safe or not worth the time you spend in it and that it’s not worth the money you pay to live there. If you feel that those who inhabit your surroundings are in a similar condition, that the money you pay for food and clothing takes up too great a portion of what you make even after budgeting, that what you do each day, how you are employed, does nothing to change these matters, perhaps it is time to consider another course.

If on top of this you perceive decisions that shape these and other aspects of your life are out of your hands and influence, as well as out of the hands and influence of those in the environment you share, then it is time to sit down and talk with your neighbors; if not all of them, then some of them.

Out of the issues that affect you and them directly, discussion can disclose new insights and confirmations. Where the basics of living are the issue, they should be dealt with and listed first. If stretching money or getting money in the first place are problems, living in a suitable domain of your own, abuse from law enforcement personnel, landlords, and other community criminals are a problem, then a program must be built and maintained to change this situation or eradicate these problems.

There is no one act an individual can perform that can change these things in an instant and nothing that a small group of people can do except begin to create ways of defending themselves and, more importantly, organize and initiate organizing of large groups of people in the neighborhood and area; as in all the neighborhoods and areas.

The main thing is to focus on your lives collectively, rather than accept the definitions and descriptions of others. The things that you can confirm through your experiences must be more creditable than those things that you cannot. If you cannot make hide or hair of what the government’s economic forecasters issue you, you can disregard it. At the same time, there is no book that will liberate anyone. A book may give ideas, but it takes people to apply, adapt, and if they don’t work disregard and develop and find new ones.

A Revolutionary Agenda

At the point where a group of people find themselves agreeing to the fact that they have the same problems, where their decisions hold no weight, as well as any influence they may have on the government in charge, the question is then to decide if the government is the source of the problem, or a source. When this is perceived to be so, then the solutions ultimately will be changing that government, overthrowing that government and replacing it with a new one; overthrowing the government and replacing it with anarchy; seceding from the government, and in the waging of a war of liberation by colonized people, that [is to say] people exploited for their land and labor and controlled by a separate nation of people.

Organizing—Collectivizing and Revolutionizing Our Lives

None of these solutions can be brought about by decree or by simply deciding on the part of a small group of people or even a large group. The society and, in fact, the world is organized a certain way that results in people having problems basic to living and, of course, have to be organized another way, to rearrange the situation in a real way.

Before the revolution is organized a movement must be organized, and before a movement can be organized a revolutionary organization must be organized that will empower people to distribute power and wealth in a free egalitizing manner.

Before revolutionary organizations can be built; people who know in their hearts that only a drastic change will be suitable must cultivate their thinking and actions into the thoughts and actions that bring about the changes they seek.

They must accept the consequences of their actions in the event the state and the establishment forces prevail and know in their hearts that these forces must be contested, in any event, for a worthwhile change/revolution to be established, and yet never make a needless sacrifice. That is, a revolutionary must strive to minimize the possibility of defeats, and yet act in accordance with the game plan that will lead to the overthrow of the government and the retaking of power by a revolutionized mass organization that can set matters right. In this regard a revolutionary’s private life cannot run contrary to collective responsibility, and the desire for this change within one’s self should stem from love of people and the desire to aid the evolution of society where people can live completely with both bread and liberty. The more our lives fit into this revolutionary context, the more revolutionary we become, to the point that we do simply what we conclude the revolution requires, cognizant of what that means and clear as to why.

Across these United States, in every large city, there are New Afrikan colonies, as well as in towns too numerous to name. In the middle of the night when the streets are deserted one can still see that these are the areas where New Afrikan people live. The actual real estate belongs to someone outside the colony. The services that are a matter of course elsewhere are withheld, apartment buildings and public buildings from schools to storefronts are boarded up. In the light of day unemployment is admittedly 50 percent according to the U.S. government. Police patrol and harass but do not protect residents—they shoot residents; any day’s reading of a newspaper will recount an incident where a New Afrikan man, woman, or child was killed or brutalized. At the same time these conditions that are ripe for rebellion have not been organized into a revolutionary mass movement.

Hispanic colonies that are often bordering New Afrikan colonies suffer the same conditions. Puerto Rican, Mexicano, and New Afrikan migrant workers pick the bulk at America’s tables and are only paid enough to live to produce new generations of migrant workers. While Native Americans are isolated on reservations and oppressed in cities and get the same range of work that other Third World people get; hospital workers, nursing home workers, factory workers, and employment that make of them a menial class and castes, and employment that brings less salary for the same work as whites, but there has been no real mass movement inside the colonies.

The white working class suffers with wages, unemployment, job-related injuries that could be avoided, drafts, wage freezes, inflation, environmental pollution in water, air, and ground, utility hikes, and etc. that the Third World colonies suffer; as well as being organized by the state and ruling class to combat the liberation of Third World colonies. An antinuke movement to prevent the immediate destruction of the world appears from time to time, along with anti-draft movements.

However, there is no revolutionary mass movement within the white working class. This is not to say that there are not any public revolutionary organizations or that there are not revolutionaries who clearly understand that the genocide of Third World people and the manipulation and exploitation of the working classes will not cease until there is revolution. Nor does this absence of a mass movement imply that there are no revolutionaries among any of the captured nations or of the white working class who have not historically or presently showed themselves to be truly heroic and deliberately revolutionary in their dealings. But it does mean that the need to organize a mass movement has not been appreciated to a large extent and that the formulas for doing this have not been developed.

Make no mistake about it, without a mass movement there is no revolution. An army without a mass movement can never achieve a balance of power necessary to defeat a government or build a mass movement to organize the people. A mass movement, on the other hand, can organize the people and set the conditions for the building of real people’s armies, which will not only have the power to carry on protracted war but [will] build the forces strong enough to sweep the government and ruling class out of power …

Why the Collective First?
SMALL IS POSSIBLE …

No one individual can carry out a revolution. If there were thousands of people gathered to carry out the revolution in any one place, these people would have to be organized to carry on in a coherent fashion within a strategic framework to fulfill the tasks of the revolution; they would have to be organized into companies, clubs, communities, or some type of political military or economic formation in tune with other formations, and it would take an organization to do this. It would take an organization as well to organize smaller groups of people and individuals. That is, to share a basis of understanding with them as to your objectives and means to carry them out and the reasons why these efforts are worthwhile. Moreover, it would take an organization to actually coordinate efforts by individuals into a means of doing practical and actual work, as well as coordinating efforts by this work into a coherent and consistent program that brings people collectively to the goals desired, while maximizing the effect of small actions and efforts and securing the progress made.

A collective that is from three to fifteen people is a starting point and functional unit, where these terms can be developed, where understandings can be confirmed, and where the potential of individuals can be maximized. A mass of people can be organized into a network of collectives, and a few people can build and expand a collective.

Once there are too many people to easily coordinate their actions, collectives can split in two, and tasks and programs can be coordinated between collectives. More importantly a collective has the greatest potential of maintaining a democratic one person, one meaningful vote process and can demonstrate clearly the power of organized people. A suggestion might be to keep the numbers in collectives odd, that way there are no tied votes.

The Collective
GUIDELINES, MEETINGS, RULES, AGENDAS, DISCIPLINE …

Once you have formed a group, it’s time to change that group into a political entity, a collective, if there are three or more people. You can set a list of things you collectively agree are priorities and make note of the things that you can deal with, to whatever extent, immediately, keeping in mind that you will have to work on matters for a long period of time and that, as you expect the collective to grow, you collectively establish guidelines.

For instance, even though you consist of a relatively small group of people, you would want the group to be self-reliant and yet responsive to the issues before you. You will want to establish ways for members to contact each other. A method of sticking with and following up on tasks once started. Criteria for recruiting new members, and standards for dealing with each other, potential friends and allies, and with enemies.

You will have to set meetings at regular times to deal with matters on your agenda. Decide what type of propaganda you may employ, share information with the group that may result in a collective advantage and advance for the struggle, and check in on projects, as well as setting aside time for group study and exercise.

Meetings should start on time and end on time and should cover the matters on the agenda and updates on work done before moving on to general discussion. They can be at homes on a rotating basis, in public parks, or at sites where tasks are being performed. Each collective should get two loose-leaf notebooks for the gathering of political and economics intelligence, with dividers between each topic, and notebook paper with ads, news clippings, and other printed items as a storehouse of information to be used in future research. That way when individual members run across information of value, the collective gets the opportunity to review it and gain by its storage. It is always a good idea rather than everyone buying the same newspapers to collectively buy them and collectively choose books and magazines. Particular members pick up particular publications at different meetings to share.

Rules should be within reason but definite. For instance, no member should be allowed to assault another member and yet continue to be a member. No member should have drugs or alcohol in his or her possession while at a project site or be under the influence of drugs or alcohol when doing collective tasks or representing the collective. No member should live off the proceeds of prostitution or sell hard drugs.

Agendas are necessary both in meetings and away from meetings, since they aid the collective in focusing input. At each meeting an agenda should be set and followed. At the close of each meeting the agenda for the period between that meeting and the next should be set, and every agenda should have an automatic re-check of tasks assigned or volunteered for from the next.

Discipline should be clear in regards to infractions. In relation to rules, for instance, if it comes to a collective’s attention that a member sold heroin or was an informer that member would have to go. Obviously, a member who was late at meetings or who had failed to attempt a task or join in collective work wouldn’t be subject to the same fate. However, if a member actually missed enough functions the collective would have to proceed as if that member wasn’t there and under the circumstances decide the correct way to deal with minor problems. For instance, when a member misses a regular meeting he/she misses the opportunity to vote on whatever issues are before the collective, and if there is no advance notice of any particularly important matter, this cannot equal to being absent at a collective function where a task has been decided upon. Since all members are required to keep in touch and informed of meetings and collective tasks, the excuse of missing a task through ignorance by missing a meeting is not valid. There will more than likely be meetings missed and tasks for different reasons from time to time which the collective will have to pass judgment on. More than likely some members will drop out and return from time to time if that is permitted. As some drop out at only stages you should be as happy as you are when you recruit a new member and unless a member has committed a serious offense against the collective, or [against] the people while in the collective, they should be considered. When a member drops out due to commitment or differences they may reexamine their practice once away from the collective and renew their efforts once back in.

A collective must not be a group of vindictive individuals ready to take sides against anyone for petty reasons. At the same time for offenses that fall between being late or absent from a meeting or task, and assault, theft, drug possession or sale, there should be not only a collective disciplinary proceeding and a punishment deemed fair by the majority but an extra task. An individual under discipline should have to write an essay on where his or her action or actions were wrong. The reasoning or their motive in the particular matter. Refusal to do this should result in expulsion, and all serious offenses should include permanent expulsion. If a collective finds out later that it was wrong, the members who voted for the expulsion, which should be a matter of record, should write an apology and self-criticism to the individual in question, just as the individual would be expected to write. In many cases it might be a good idea for members of the collective to write an essay before joining as to their aims and feelings.

Resources
PEOPLE, TIME, UNUSED SPACE …

Starting out small and broke, the first objective of a collective is not to get in debt, either in terms of money or in terms of any patrons who may wish for any reasons to bankroll the organization. The desire to rent an office when in fact meetings can be held in homes, schools, parks, vacant lots, and in favorable conditions storefronts that can be taken over and occupied.

The task is to organize people through services that the government or corporations cannot perform, if they had the intentions, as well as the people themselves. The task before the collective is to initiate services and maintain self-reliance. Propaganda of the deed and mouth to mouth, as well as posters, graffiti, letters to the editors, and leaflets can accompany but cannot take the place of actual work and actual organizing. The desire to put out a paper which must be funded by a broke collective usually without an established system of distribution is crazy, and at the beginning is only an expressed view of small organizations.

A collective treasury should be designed before the details of money become a question, and by collective what is meant is that all funds brought into it are collective funds, and all funds leaving it do so after being accounted for collectively. If a bank account is set up then at least two members should have the power to withdraw funds only when at least both members are present. When funds are not held in banks and are held in safes, the safes should be in the homes of members who do not know the combination and should only be attended to by others when a vote has been taken. When commercial banks and safes are not used, the money raised collectively should be distributed after meetings have decided what should be the aim or needs to be taken care of.

Just as unused space in terms of a meeting place is a resource, time is a resource. Members are therefore required to invest time other than meeting-time into the organization, whether employed or unemployed. Investigation into resources should be made, as well as possible services to the community. For instance, it may be profitable and a good means of conducting propaganda to be in a babysitting service or to liberate an in-court lot and charge for parking or to develop a craft into a light industry and save the proceeds until a used car or a van can be bought to begin a gypsy car service.

At the same time, some investigation can be made into the whereabouts of recycling plants. At least one day a week a collective can converge on a vacant lot, bag aluminum and steel cans, bottles, and clear the particular lot of trash. At the same time, spraypainting or postering the area with the message you intend to get to people.

People seeing you at work get to wonder who you are and why you are doing what you are doing. At the same time a steady source of income enters the treasury to be saved until a bigger source of capital can be obtained. If, for instance, you buy a used car and start a car service where members of the collective alternate shifts, the money goes back into the treasury and the collective continues the process of accumulating collective capital.

Once the weather is favorable you plant Victory Gardens in the vacant lots close to members where they can water them straight from the building they live in, if possible. You invite the community to help you clear more vacant lots and turn them into gardens. After investigating what would be wisest and easy to grow and as vegetation ripens, you set up stands in areas people pass through and sell produce at a reasonable price; after dividing the produce between people in the collective and/or organizing gardens for people in the community to do with as they see fit.

Once you are known and recognized throughout the community and more than enough money is coming in, it is time, if you cannot simply liberate a place, to rent one and buy a press, even if just a hand crank model.

Arrangements should be made to have a public phone installed, which will not only be cheaper but discourage hours of sap rap. Then you can start turning out leaflets with a phone number to be contacted by and an address which should be occupied from noon to at least 8 p.m. so people can stop in after work as well as during the day. This place should be used for more than a contact and for meetings. A book exchange can now be initiated, where anyone can bring a book in and trade it for another book. A clothing exchange, likewise, could be initiated so as to not only serve people but bring them in contact with the organization on the basis of needs.

When profitable and no other use can be made of the rented space, political movies, decided upon by the collective, and plays should be staged. Dances, likewise, with no alcoholic beverages sold, on a weekly basis can be held. At the same time, periodicals from organizations friendly to us, as well as any periodicals thought appropriate to put out collectively, can be distributed.

However, at this stage the collective organizational goals include buying and taking an entire building big enough to cover all organizational functions. But not right away, unless someone donates a building, knowing that this organization wants things but never favors, then the regular publishing of a newspaper can be included.

At the same time this point, or early points, should mark the beginnings of rent strike organizing when it is clear that there are enough people to see the entire process through. Everyone who comes in contact with any of the collectives should be informed as to the goals and principles of the collective and rules of membership, if they are potential friends …

PART TWO

Although this is written in parts and is a suggested agenda, this is not to suggest every suggestion in Part One must be taken up before moving to the suggestions in Part Two, or that equal or better ways to reach people and be self-reliant are not to be found. Success must be measured in terms of how many people have been organized and participate fully in terms of developing and internationalizing the ideology of the group. Success must also be measured by the relationship with the community and area residents and the degree of self-reliance and freedom from counterrevolutionary influences.

In order for a revolutionary collective or organization to grow into a revolutionary mass organization certain requirements must be met, which include:

1. The acceptance of the organization by the people the organization intends to organize into an organization which is on their side and which places their interest before the interest of any individual or group of individuals. People must accept that the organization is theirs and intends to address and does address their needs.

2. People must know that the organization is firmly rooted and is not a “fly by night” group. That the principles and programs are sound and that the organization is guided in an intelligent manner that doesn’t allow or tolerate corruption in any form.

People must feel that the goals of the organization can be reached and that the goals are worthwhile and deserve their participation and support …

Building and Aiding the Building of Other Collectives
SUGGESTING LINES ALONG FOOD, CLOTHING, AND SHELTER …

A collective, besides carrying out its program and proving its program can work, must encourage the formation of other collectives. As new members are recruited, they must be given the opportunity to join a collective process, whether it’s one new member or one thousand. Having a list of names in a book doesn’t organize people or transform a group of people into an organization. Having people enter collectives, participate in study and discussion groups, attend meetings, vote on issues, do organizational work and participate in collective tasks, air their ideas, and organize other people, transforms people into revolutionaries and transforms groups of people into revolutionary collectives.

New members should join old collectives and form new collectives and be aided both in terms of encouragement and in terms of material support. For instance, if a collective already formed has tools and isn’t using them on a particular day, they could lend them to a newly formed collective. [In] the case of sticks with nails for picking trash, any collective would look for suitable sticks when cleaning a lot, and it’s cheaper to buy nails by the pound. Also, different collectives should help each other plow plots and harvest and look for other suitable vacant lots and areas. Food, herbs, or even green grass, cloves, and dandelions look better than trash-filled spaces between buildings. Spray painting on the walls of abandoned buildings, flags, trash barrels for debris, for those who would otherwise litter, painted with the symbol of the organization is constant propaganda. A knowledge of the planting seasons for different vegetables carries this on from May until November.

Special attention should be made to aid squatters who live in abandoned buildings. They should be encouraged and aided to turn the lots adjacent to their dwellings into Victory Gardens, because they have begun to literally take back the land already. Collectives of squatters may be formed in the beginning of warm weather, equipped with camping gear and building skills. As squatters are many times unemployed, the investments of time and employment by their own collectives may be the actual material basis of the superseding society.

One of the objectives is to plant so many gardens that it becomes impossible to go through what were before ghost towns [without seeing them transformed] into areas where the best aspects of city and country living merge. Church groups, clubs, gangs should be encouraged as well to take over plots, as well as coordination for the purposes of trade between groups and forming of a “People’s Market,” where each group and collective can trade and sell their produce and carry on their own business independently.

At the point where there are a number of collectives in a given area attempts should be made of forming communes. First where buildings are taken over in a given area and where buildings are bought. Solid structures should be investigated for the purposes of establishing food co-ops.

None of this should be dealt with as ends unto themselves but as means to propagandize and organize the mass movement. Propaganda in front of structures, as well as bulletin boards outside and in, should alert all who enter to programs, activities, and meetings of the organization.

Possible employment outside of organizations for certain members may be investigated, in the ways of Veterans seeking loans and moneys from the government to buy houses and open businesses and government programs where houses can be bought for a dollar and repaired.

These ongoing programs are to continue year in year out with the goals of revolutionizing squatters’ unions and organizing regional land banks, where groups of collectives pool resources to buy large tracts and connecting tracts of lands in given areas around and away from where the organization began, and most importantly until neighborhoods are transformed into commun-commun-e-ties. This is not only to initiate people’s control over their lives and show the power of organization but to demonstrate the logic of socialism and justice and the desirability of revolution.

PART THREE

During this time, alternative energy sources that give independence from monopoly capital should be carried out and developed to as great an extent as possible. Wood-burning stoves should be built and installed in buildings taken over by squatters as quickly as possible, and there should be no inhibitions from collecting wood from structures less habitable.

Offices should set a fund aside for the buying and installing of windmills and solar heating equipment, this not only frees the organization of monthly bills, but demonstrates to a public that no donations are accepted without a good or service rendered, that the organization takes steps to be independent and cuts overhead so as to be able to serve more and better.

A building owned and propagated as being owned by a collective or an organization, with visible and independent sources of power and independence, is a permanent piece of propaganda.

A clothing exchange is a service that merely calls for the allocation of space and cadre to deal with the public. A food co-op is clearly an operation existing on the principle of buying bulk at the cheapest price and distributing at the cheapest price a wide range of wholesome foods, beverages, and herbs. To make a donation to see a movie, attend a dance, play, or recital of revolutionary content in such a place is to know that money is going into a revolutionary process.

Every member should have access to wholesale food and clothing and have tasks that include organizing and propagandizing and community service. Members not employed elsewhere may opt to join a manufacturing collective or a service collective. For example, money generated from a gypsy cab service, movies, dances, and open-air markets could be reinvested in collective capital, such as more gypsy cabs, etc.

Other capital investments may include machines and material for clothing production, videotaping of plays, canning of commune-grown foods, etc.

The task being to become free of capitalism and to better serve lumpen proletarian and proletarian people by the cultivation of revolutionary ideology through theory and practice on a mass scale. The building of alternative economic structures along socialist lines and building the grounds for the two classes to interact in a progressive manner by initiating the means for the two classes to interact along principled lines and adopting to a degree the role of the revolutionary proletariat.

PART FOUR

By the time an organization advances this far in one area certain processes should have been initiated in other areas, through members moving to other areas and initiating collectives but also through example which a revolutionary organization should be clear in both setting and explaining, especially with mass level participation. Once a federation of collectives is established in one area and progress is noted, the most progressive elements of other areas should be invited to witness and formulas should be shared, as this is not a competition. When an organization takes on the practices and guiding theories of another it becomes the organization. When a neighborhood becomes a commune, members should aid in building a federation of communes, just as collectives aid in building a federation of collectives.

A Word on Collective Business

Savings from individual collectives through enterprises that the members are engaged in, funds from a rotating basis from programs jointly carried out by collectives, and pooling resources are the means used to generate collective capital. No collective will receive government funding, except in the case of veterans from the U.S. armed services demanding their benefits. The organization should work with Third World and anti-imperialist veterans’ groups, not only in aiding them to fight for their rights to benefits but to form collectives and be a part of the federation. However, funds from different government departments will always have strings attached and tend to direct interference from the U.S. government under the justification of protecting the American taxpayer. Likewise, money from corporations also leads to intervention, aiding to investigate the resources of a given collective and later the federation, tax investigations, fishing expeditions into what is being done with the money. Worst of all, these grants make the entire organization suspect to those who it serves.

The primary purpose of collective business besides building the infrastructure for a superseding society is of course to serve the needs of people we intend to aid, and in those regards not be a burden or a source of competition, except in cases where capitalist businesses from people who live outside or inside the community take advantage of conditions to exploit the community.

For instance, if there is only one laundromat in the area, which is exploiting the people, a group of collectives may pool resources and establish another laundromat that may merely come out even. We will encourage people to eat in family-owned and operated restaurants, rather than chain fast-food enterprises or expensive restaurants, as well as small stores, to pool resources and buy in greater bulk to make their prices cheaper.

At the same time, we will open food co-ops to give people the opportunity to be a part of an operation that helps them and to be able to get foods that are cheaper and of more variety than at established locations. We will not open a liquor store and at the same time will promote buying from community stores if you drink and making your own wines, whiskeys, and beers. We will not open a video or pinball parlor or otherwise engage in an enterprise whose motives are not clearly seen as practical fulfillment of needs.

At the same time, some vacant lots may be converted into picnic areas, flower gardens, playgrounds, small parks for the playing of checkers, chess, darts, horseshoes, etc.

When a certain strength is reached some collectives should open daycare centers, revolutionary cultural centers, and when possible schools.

Every advancement on our part must be seen as an advancement on the people’s part. Rather than taking over communities we must initiate the reorganization of communities; reorganization, because communities are already organized, but not for the purpose of bettering the condition of the inhabitants or for their liberation. Our task is to revolutionize and neutralize all we come in contact with …

Organizing Block Associations and People’s Militias …

Block associations are very important, and when members of collectives live in blocks that already have block associations, they should join, and collectives should take care to consider block association meetings when scheduling collective and commune meetings, so that members can attend both.

At the same time collectives should help to organize block associations whenever they conduct rent strikes or initiate Victory Gardens or any type of mass work in a given area. If there is already a block association where a rent strike is being organized, tenants should be encouraged to join in rather than set up a rival association, as well as when a Victory Garden is being initiated.

Candidates for recruitment into collectives should be asked to join and be familiarized with the programs and rules. This keeps the organization on ground level in touch with people who are familiar with what the organization is doing and makes a lot of work easier.

For instance, landlords often count on people not showing up for court and filing forms to contest evictions or conditions, and a particular tenant may indeed have to work or be at the hospital or otherwise be indisposed on a particular day. In that case an organizer who may represent people in court may have to get another tenant instead of the particular tenant to file a form. At the same time, as many tenants may have the same date in court from the same building, and many of these people may have to work, they may be replaced by people from other buildings who may need the same type of standing at a court date for a rent strike they are involved in. This is easier to arrange when an organizer can simply walk to the next building and talk to another tenant. This way no court days are forfeited, and landlords are contested every inch of the way. The more delay tactics are used the more money is withheld by the tenants.

Each time the landlord concedes the power, the tenants’ union grows; each time a landlord is forced to give up a building and the organized tenants take it over directly, this should be noted and “celebrated.” As the “city” is the landlord in many cases, actions should be sustained in an effort to force the city to give in. When through a crooked court a landlord receives a ruling in his favor, an organization fully prepared to make court dates should propagandize the struggle and appeal to civil court leaving the landlord to pay two sets of lawyers, the lower and higher court, while organizers train other tenants to be organizers and target other buildings of the same landlord with enough violations to initiate rent strikes and court actions.

With collective members involved in tenant unions and block associations consolidating mass power within the community, knowing that these organizers do in fact have organizational backup, former tasks that still have to be carried out become easier and advance becomes possible.

Collectives have a responsibility to protect patrons who come to dances, movies, and other organizational functions. From time to time members will volunteer to serve as security. To prevent assaults, stop alcohol and drugs from entering premises, search out electronic eavesdropping devices, etc. Those found to be satisfactory should be encouraged to be militia and perhaps represent the People’s Militia while dealing with security.

In the same view, members of collectives who have formed people’s car services and have shown themselves to be of the traits of militiamen/women should be harmonized with each other, as well as those living in the neighborhood. Their cars and radios give them the means to report enemy and criminal movements and transport militia to given areas quickly.

An intelligence network can be established and a People’s Militia with members being known for their political practice over a period of time. Neighborh