Coalition of Revolutionary Thinkers

As I write this, it is early November, 2005, and I am, as well as many others around me, feeling that the ruling class has reached a decisive moment. They are in deep crisis, truthfully, this could be very good, or very bad for the people. That is why in a series of editorials I've written and posted on the SJTV.blogspot.com web site, I've been talking about the need to recognize the severity of our situation, and for us to act decisively to build a movement that has vision and can attract masses of people very rapidly.

I think the people really are waiting for leadership but they are also very demoralized. I get the sense at this time that many people are milling around feeling like the end is coming but they can't really put their finger on when. It's as if we're in a semiconscious slumber, and we know that any minute the alarm clock is going to start ringing, but we just keep tossing and turning, pulling on the sheets, but the knowledge of the fact that we have to get up won't go away and it won't let us sleep. Fundamentally I guess the question really is, will we die in our beds, or will we wake up and begin to feel better and more energized to take on the new day. I guess this metaphor really is just trying to describe that we have to face our situation, though doing so will be the hardest part of our struggle, because ignoring our situation, truthfully, will become impossible.

But these people I refer to are you and me. Us. There are many, many of us who feel the same way, who want to see a better world, who are tired of the injustice, and some of us have been terribly, terribly, wronged by this present world we live in. We, are the ones in bed, and the alarm clock is ticking, and because we know that, we have to get up.
So we need to create something new, something attractive, something very powerful. It needs to come from the heart, it needs to come from truth, and it needs to speak right to the power in a way that is undeniable and axiomatic. It needs to be a movement that is completely and totally people based, there can’t be any divisions within the movement, everyone needs to struggle against those divisions and they need to support each other in the process of overcoming their internal problems. This should be the final movement, the one that binds us all in our connectedness as human beings and to our earth.

We need to pick up this movement vision and carry it out to others.

There is a great opportunity coming in this crises, many people will be forced to question their society in the very near future. We need to develop this movement now!


Coalition of Revolutionary Thinkers:

I am a revolutionary because I have great love for this world and all of its beings.

Through seeing unnecessary injustice and cruelty, I have had a range of emotions and reactions, which have had a variety of results. I have concluded that egalitarian economic and social change is fundamentally necessary to secure a sustainable, loving and cruelty free world.

I also apply this needed change to myself. I must never cease digging into myself, my sexism, racism, classism, consumerism. I have to look inside to my fears and underlying biases, the programming that is embedded into my scrip, my hardwire. This is the truest path in revolution, the making better of self, for the betterment of all.

Some Reasoning on the Current System:

The current forces of power have historically not allowed any true release of their power.
In fact, for at least ten thousand years, those forces historically have used everything within their grasp to defend their control over social, market and military forces.

For this and many reasons, I have concluded that working within their framework of elections won’t get me anywhere fundamentally. I mean, if one reflects the status quo one may rise to a place of privilege, but doing anything outside of the goals and aspirations of the status quo, and one risks to lose all of the privilege one attained, or worse.

Having said that, there is still a need to use the current electoral framework to build a movement for sustainable change, but it is more educational in nature.

There are many among me that feel/think that our current form of “democracy” is fundamentally sound. That is flawed thinking. It is a republic riddled with ways to channel control to the wealthiest lobbyists and influences. It was never set up for anything else.

Any opposition allowed to gain favorable public opinion in the arena of the status quo elections is “allowed” to present an illusion of democracy. This is a way of legitimizing the system, presenting the appearance of debate/opposition, but it is illusory, fraud.

Any gains made within this framework may retain some rights, or certain social gains, but rarely does any ‘gain’ we attain here in the U.S. really help the real victims of this unjust economic system, our brothers and sisters in countries we detachedly refer to as “the third world.”

Many though need to learn that this system is rigged for grassroots failure, and that may require working through the channels of the current electoral process, fraudulent as it is, maybe even to the conclusion of a attaining false power, like electing progressives and having them slandered, framed, jailed, or worse… Whatever the “cause,” they are stifled, blocked, and removed from attaining substantive change. If they somehow attain enough power to change ideals within the system, they have adopted those values that they originally set out to change. Or they are removed.

In any case… This sequence of events would serve the purpose of stripping false democratic illusions bear, and legitimizing the agenda of solutions outside the current electoral framework. But otherwise I feel it wastes our energy from being proactive in building a new society.

We need to Develop a coalition:

People in the Seattle/Puget Sound area who can identify with the idea that we must build a revolutionary movement need to form a new coalition. Initially, it needs to be representative of the existing left wing parties that have existed, some of them, since the 60s, young Anarchists, environmentalists, anti-corporate globalists, and people who became politically active in the run-up to the Iraq war.

These constituencies, collectively have the experience and the resources at this moment to create a structure of organization that can provide some of the basic needs we have in our communities like sustainability projects, food co-ops, collective childcare, alternative children's education, and other things to fill peoples needs. While at the same time, wage a broad propaganda campaign to bring forward the most radical and idealistic viewpoints about where our society should go and how to best face the contradictions that we face now.

Keep it Small:

I can't say how strongly I feel this needs to be a local struggle. We need to find out if we should be neighborhood, city, region, or what. I do know, that the structure that we create needs to be one in which everyone feels and knows that their input is part of the process, and it is easier to accomplish that in smaller structures, especially if we are united in vision.

Stop Being Reactionary:

It's really the time for us to take a proactive stance, to put forward a vision, our new, yet to be created collectively, plan for dealing with transitioning from this dominator society into one of partnership. This is going to take a leap of faith for all of us. Unity must be our guideline. We must get to the point where this is just about our humanity, where our humanity is primary and all of the things that we're doing outside of that, are completely secondary.

What we've got, and What We Need:


So straight up… The programs all the left have written are valuable as templates if tempered with more contemporary social understandings about our interpersonal workings.

To me it is the greatest present and historical failing of the left, to not understand how important knowledge of self is. I can never follow any person who I don't love and respect, and they really need to be together, perhaps having had worked on themselves and their emotional scrip for many years. Some people get it young and some never get it at all. It is the way it is. The left needs to begin to write into its language about living healthier lives in a more concrete way. This is an axiom if we ever hope to sustain a peaceful world.


This is radically idealistic, but failure to act on the most forward of ideas is tantamount to holding back oneself and one's community. Don't ever let anyone tell you you don't have the right to make the world a better place than when you came into it.

This is Marlin from Social Justice Television, November 12th, 2005 wishing us all luck and love.

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SJTV Guests for Friday November 11th are NoSpray.org

This Friday will will be speaking with local members of the New York based National Coalition No Spray.Org

Local No Spray activists are Ballard/Magnolia citizens group opposed to the spraying, of Toxic Chemicals in urban environments and along with the Sierra Club, the Green Party, farmers at the Interbay P-patch, an organic community garden, and the Washington Toxics Coalition, oppposed three aerial spray applications of the pesticide Foray 48B over a one mile square area of Ballard and Magnolia to eradicate European and Asian gypsy moths. Foray 48B has a poor safety record. They're also worried that the identity of ingredients in the pesticide have not been disclosed, and that the state will not use a buffer zone when spraying near Salmon Bay.

for more information goto their website http://www.nospray.org and read the seattle press article at http://www.seattlepress.com/article-1744.html