Rebellion is cool, but revolution isn’t random

Protesters face off against the National Guard in LA. Photo credit to Getty Images

Who doesn’t love a moment of great courage?

An ICE van in full retreat before the righteous wrath of a downtrodden community.

Students seizing campus buildings to call for divestment in genocide.

Workers chucking their tools on the ground and marching out of the factory.

Armed state thugs repelled by a makeshift barricade and an unexpected rush of courage.

For those of us who hope for a better world, these scenes are sudden flashes in the long dark. We manifest them with a liberation spirit that will wash over our city, our state, our country, our world and shatter the war machine, smash every cage, and topple every throne.

It’s inspiring, it’s invigorating, it’s downright fucking cool, man.

But no, it’s not random.

You hear this narrative sometimes: “The people had been pushed and pushed, and at last a moment came. The straw broke the camel’s back, and as one they decided to rise up and change their conditions.” It’s a nice story, but let’s think critically about it.

Sure, you wouldn’t be wrong to say it's hard to predict just what moment will be the trigger point for resistance. Why this ICE raid of so many? Why this police murder of hundreds? That can be debated on a case-by-case basis.

What is not up for debate is the conditions that make a person, a group, and a community ripe for rebellion. What’s more, history is extremely clear on the course of action needed to take that moment of rebellion and turn it into lasting, substantive change. 

You might know where I’m going with this. It doesn’t matter, you need to hear it anyway:

You need to ORGANIZE.

This word gets thrown around a lot in socialist, progressive, and even liberal spaces. For the sake of clarity, let me give you a useful (though not definitive) explanation of what it means to organize.

At its most basic level, to organize means to work with other humans. It is an acknowledgement that you are not a Mythic Hero or the Main Character, but rather just one part of this story. It is not the end of your personal identity or individuality (though it may challenge your ego!), but rather an agreement between you and others on ways in which you as individuals fit together to accomplish things impossible to do alone.

To organize is to find or build a group with whom you have shared principles. It is to define and refine your own beliefs as humans are meant to: in relationship to others. It is to debate and lose debates. It is to debate and win debates. It is to train, and to plan, and to educate yourself. It is to become an expert at seemingly random tasks that turn out to be extremely important, to become a good listener, to triumph over your fears. It is to look into the eyes of someone you would have never met in another context, someone you may not even like on a personal level, and know you would fight until your last breath for them, and that they would do the same for you.

Humans are not designed to operate independently. I’m hardly the first person to point that out. We require complex social systems to build adequate shelter, to grow and distribute food, to administer medicine and widely share information. Why should we, when it comes to something as vital as politics, abandon such an essential part of ourselves? This is further emphasized by the alternatives, which seem to either be giving up or hoping spontaneous actors loosely guided by infographics from political meme accounts can be our salvation.

I assure you, our oppressors are well aware of the power of organization. The ruling class has organized vast armies against us. They have built walls of concrete and capital. They have banks and firms and trusts, think tanks and mass media, courts and surveillance networks. They do not trust spontaneity to save their property or decentralization to maintain their empires. They develop plans and build tightnit organizations to enforce the status quo…by any means necessary.

If you’re reading this, I need you to understand there is no beating these people without us doing the same.

Spontaneous moments of courageous resistance are the products of the education you’ve received, the life experience you’ve had, the people you can rely on, the communities you love and want to defend. Divided communities don’t rush to defend one another. A “revolutionary” artist without political grounding is just expressing their own identity. A protest that can’t agree on its purpose will be co-opted. Lone vigilantes can’t march at battalion strength.

Without the work being done to prepare our homes for moments of courageous resistance, that resistance will either fail to appear or be crushed at the start. We can’t be satisfied with people swarming ICE vans on one street. We need organizations all over the country to help millions resonate with that courageous act, to defend those carrying it out, and to work to replicate it at a massive scale.

We need teachers to lead mass education campaigns, organizers to arrange marches and the media apparatus to call people out to them, legal defenders, movement elders. We need writers to create pamphlets, printers to print them, and charismatic doorknockers to distribute them. We need text and phone bankers, fundraisers, sign-and-banner-makers, medical personnel, street artists, drivers, translators, and thousands of other jobs that are essential to not just fighting, but winning.

And while some may not like me saying this, yes, we need leaders. They should be chosen democratically, they should be accountable to membership, and subject to criticism, but you need some damn leaders if you want anything to get done at all. We need leaders to guide our organizations, to help them work in concert with one another (not always an easy task!), and to serve as an example of what an organizer should be. We need leaders who can get our ass in gear when the moment calls for it. An uprising is not a time for a debate, it is time to deepen and broaden the rebellion!

I do not know you. I don’t know if your politics exactly align with mine, or if our life circumstances are at all similar. That’s fine. If you’ve read this far, I’m going to trust that you’re someone who wants to smash imperialism, end the climate crisis, put a stop to bigotry of all forms, and meet everyone’s economic needs. If that’s the case, then our differences be damned, you’re the type of person who needs to organize.

This can look different ways, I won’t make prescriptions. You know your skillset, your capabilities, your limitations, and your aspirations. If you live in LA, you’ve got different options than someone in Loving County. If you’re a single parent working three jobs, you’ve got different options than a freshman in college. If you’re unable to walk, you’ve got different options than an able-bodied person. Our conditions vary, and that’s okay. We need that breadth of experience and perspective in our movements. But wherever you are, whoever you are, it’s time right now to seek out like-minded people that you can join together with to pursue concrete goals. For most, this will mean joining a pre-existing organization, but for some (especially those Loving County folks!) that may mean starting something yourself.

You don’t need to wait for permission. You won’t receive a vision from an angel or prophet or burning bush (George or otherwise) telling you that now’s the time. The impetus is on you.

If you are moved by scenes of courageous resistance, the solution is not to spend all day arguing online about whether that resistance was good or bad. The solution is not to become a lone vigilante stalking the night. The solution is not to make a one-time donation to some charming politician and decide you’ve done your good deed for the decade. The solution is to organize.

Find an organization to join or support, or start one of your own, but don’t wait any longer.

Bad shit is coming. It’s time to get to work.