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Happy weekend, my fellow eRebupnik slaves and slavers, addicts and pushers! As the more revolutionary readers already know, I've been digging through the recently-discovered journals of well-known international socialist man of mystery, the unflappable and only slightly reprehensible Phoenix Quinn.

As I was turning page after sticky page of the "Prison Notebooks", materials for the period from about Day 1000 thru Day 1430 jumped out at me. They started to paint an interesting picture of one of PQ's enduring legacies: the creation of the SFP's Revolutionary Committee.



Most of these materials date from the period around the first of only 2 times in the Party's epic history when PQ served as its President. Or, in line with my theme today, I should say as the first Chair of the first (Provisional) Revolutionary Committee of the Socialist Freedom Party.

I was intrigued to see that establishment of the first Revolutionary Committee actually pre-dated the formal adoption and enshrinement of this structure into the revised SFP Constitution, almost a year later, during PQ's second (and last) term in the leadership post.

The record shows that creation and formalization of the Revolutionary Committee was, in many ways, the main contribution that Comrade Quinn made to the Party. It was a key focus of his two terms in the leadership post.

So let's see what the old codger had to say about it...



Panayot Volov, organizer and leader of the Gyurgevo Revolutionary Committee, 1876




The Prison Notebooks contain about a dozen pages of references and notes, dated prior to Day 1000, to RL historical instances where the term "revolutionary committee" was used. A smattering of analytical and editorial comments accompanies these notes. This reveals some the thinking that led up to PQ's proposal to augment the traditional Steering Committe and official Party Offices with a more dynamic alternative.

A few small excerpts from those RL historical notes are recreated at the end of this article.




It is clear from the Notebooks that early drafts of PQ's proposed modifications to the original "Day 637" Party Constitution were drafted and distributed as early as Day 1003, soon after starting his first term as PP. This was followed by a lengthy period of discussion, debate and revision, culminating in adoption of the fully revised SFP Constitution -- the one that still stands today -- on Day 1423, during his second term as PP about a year later.



But a revolutionary committee "storm" was unleashed immediately upon his taking office.


PQ's "Call" to join the "Provisional Revolutionary Committee" was sent to the full party membership via private message, just prior to Day 1000, which is to say, immediately after his election as PP.

Four comrades in particular were asked to focus their attention on organizing "campaigns" to deal with specific themes: Ramon on economics, Tommyss41 on international-socialist diplomacy, Leonardo Franklin on domestic issues, and Mark Valshannar on elections.

It is clear from both the extant copy of the private message "Call", as well as minutes from meetings of the Revolutionary Committee during his first term that Quinn intended not to augment the traditional appointment of "Office Directors", but to replace it altogehter by opening up all party work to volunteers and making leadership position much more a matter of "cadre" mentoring and setting the pace than a titled role in a hierarchical structure.

As can be seen in the historical notes, this was a purposeful echo of how Chinese guerilla units operated in the 1940's and of the short-lived Shanghai People's Commune of 1967.



Poster celebrating establishment of the Shanghai revolutionary committee, January 1967




Notes from minutes of the first SFP RC meeting are fun to rea😛

"Announcements:
* sdrawkcab has been exposed as a counter-revolutionary and a thief.
* Zhao Ji should be considered a member of the Revolutionary Committee because he is the indispensable proletarian mario brother"



Regarding Valshannar's role as the leading inspirational cadre for elections, recall that this was in the period when there were local elections that required organizing and strategy. This game mechanic was exciting and requiring careful tactics on the part of smaller parties. The SFP's careful deployment of its "sniper squad", as well as its awareness of the problems and opportunities of parliamentary representation, is alluded to in the following notes from the RC minutes:

"Domestic Campaigns

Operation Parliamentary Cretinism

* Valshannar - mobile votes/MarxMen Snipers
* SFPer Terry Mcdougal Isentrham is running in Utah on Federalist ticket
* Get him elected
* Encourage him to not be idiotic if elected, review SFP Program with him
* Strongly encourage him to focus on helping SFPers who are traveling abroad"



It is also interesting to note that the first Revolutionary Committee was intent on waging active campaigns, not simply plonking people into roles. For example...

"Operation Sensible Socialism

* Endorse/reward other candidates on the basis of their level of agreement with SFP Program.
* 4 points of agreement -- Alliance for Progress Merit Badge
* 8 points of agreement -- Friend of the Workers Ribbon
* All 11 points -- Working Class Hero Award

* Encourage small parties to wage unceasing attacks on Pizza the Hut/Ajay Bruno
* Mercilessly ridicule any and all propaganda put forward by far-right morons of any kind
* Promote the socialist alliance as the only way to protect the homeland from Hungarian invasion

Operation WorldComm

* Evaluate what might be best way to start commune-to-commune trade relations"



These tidbits from the Prison Notebooks of Phoenix Quinn, helped to highlight for me the texts found in Part III, Section 13 of the Party Constitution, dealing with "Democracy and Voluntarism"...


Things I noted from this section are the emphasis on "Revolutionary Volunteers", "working groups" and "affinity groups" operating in addition to the "Revolutionary Committee". It is almost as if Quinn and others expected that the "RC" could become bureaucratized and stale, as the previous "Offices" had, and perhaps would itself require "revolutionizing" from time to time.

As you will see below in the excerpts on "revolutionary committees", this problem was very much on PQ's mind from the start.




"Part III Powers of the Membership

Section 13: Democracy and Voluntarism

1. The Revolutionary Committee and Revolutionary Volunteers serve the international e-working class and the Socialist Freedom Party membership as a whole.

2. The Socialist Freedom Party is a grassroots-democratic organization that encourages individual initiative on behalf of its collective goals.

3. Majority voting is one method of inner-party democracy. The RC and the SFP uses majority voting -- not consensus -- to make decisions, as needed, as a pragmatic method. There is more to democracy than voting. Majority votes shall not be used to suppress minority views. All Party members shall be free to contribute their ideas, take initiative on behalf of the Party and act as Volunteers, whether members of the RC or not.

4. Party members who hold a minority view on any matter shall be respected and listened-to. While majority decisions are sometimes necessary to reach agreement on a plan of action, they do not imply the need for Party members to follow a centralist or authoritarian party line on all matters.

5. Although consensus, unity of action and unity of opinion are desirable, Party members are free to form working groups or affinity groups, and to initiate campaigns, organizations and tasks without approval from anyone. Such initiatives shall be criticized only if they do obvious harm to the Party or to the international e-proletariat."




Photo accompanying Communique of the Clandestine Indigenous Revolutionary Committee - General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Mexico, December 2012




Excerpts from PQ's historical notes on revolutionary committees

"French Revolution. Jacobins. Committees were formed to defend the revolution against overt attacks and suspected subversion from within. Committee of Public Safety replaced Committee of General Defence. Extermination of Herbertists and Dantonists (the strongest anti-clerical wing of the revolution) marked its turn into a reactionary force. Following that, the punishment for all crimes was death and Robespierre's thesistic Cult of the Supreme Being was promoted. Reliance on religion to rule is almost always reactionary. Watch out for it and oppose it."

"Bulgarian national resistance against Ottomon imperialism. Various incarnations of local committees, organized armed uprisings against imperial occupation. Central Revolutionary Committee organized for autonomy in some phases, for Balkan federation in others. Nationalism has been (and to some extent still is) a powerful weapon against imperialism. But can easily become reactionary without proletarian leadership."

"Islamic Revolution Committees in Iran. One of the organizations active in 1979. Eventually merged into the national police force. Good example of an utterly reactionary-fascist 'revolutionary' turn, complete with widespread massacre of leftists, attacks on womens rights and autonomy, promotion of a devastating ethnic/religious war and a disastrous economic policy to boot. The word 'revolutionary' is never enough; it can be used to excuse any number of crimes."

"Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico. 1860's... United effort of Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Dominicans to drive out Spanish imperialism. Provided weapons to Cuban revolutionaries. El Grito de Lares in 1868. liberated the city of Lares, declaring a Republic in the city. Committee eventually relocated to New York City and allied itself to the McKinley regime, leading to the US annexation of Puerto Rico in 1898. US is still there over 100 years later. Lesson learne😛 be very cautious about aligning yourself with one imperialist against another imperialist."

"Russia. Military revolutionary committees, commonly called 'revkom'. Created by Bolshevik party organizations to prepare for the October Revolution. Organized armed revolts and creation of local soviet power, starting with Petrograd on October 29th, reaching Odessa and the Caucaus by December and January. Trotsky referred to them as 'the legal Soviet organ of insurrection', an intriguing turn of phrase. Interesting strategically for their emphasis on 'turning' czarist military forces. Interesting politically in their emphasis on creating a new type of political power city by city, region by region. Revkoms evolved into provisional governments. In some cases they had significant local support and led a genuine insurgency; in other areas it was more or less a way to 'officially' invite the Red Army to take over."

"China. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the Party itself called for creation of revolutionary committees made up of equal representation from 'the people', the Army and the Party. This grew out of the Shanghai Commune uprising in 1967, when Red Guards and PLA units overthrew Communist Party bureaucrats and capitalist-roaders. 'The people' referred initially to the rebel peoples organizations known as Red Guards, but later came to include less radical citizens. The revolutionary committee approach spread to Fujian and Jiangxi, but eventually the PLA (Army) came to dominate the committees. By end of 1968 only 2 committees were headed by civilians, and eventually the committees became little more than an expression of Party authority, particular in factories. Abolished in 1978 by the post-Mao pro-capitalist government. An interesting legacy for the world revolution."

"Mexico. EZLN's clandestine revolutionary indigenous committee. Members are all anonymous, all referred to only as 'comandante', are known only by noms de guerre if at all, and never appear in public unmasked. All leading commanders are now women. Have been managing an autonomous zone of Chiapas since 1994, referred to as the Rebel Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities."



I would humbly add to PQ's notes that the Zapatistas recently published a series of textbooks in English on libertarian socialist principles of civil governance.


People of the Sun













For an alternative revolutionary narrative,
Arm the homeless,
Burn the prisons,
Until next time,
Slainte,
Drinks for my friends.