Page:Michael Velli - Manual For Revolutionary Leaders - 2nd Ed.djvu/70

 ''it. As followership demands only a passive appreciation of an idea, while membership demands an active presentation and defense, there will be ten followers for every one or two members at most. The follower is inclined to like a movement by its propaganda. The member is induced by the organization to help personally towards acquiring new followers who then, in turn, can be trained to become members. —The new role is made explicit by calling for members to develop themselves as organizers of a mass movement for change. —Therefore propaganda will have to see to it that untiringly an idea wins followers, while the organization has to watch most sharply that from the followers only the most valuable ones are made members. —The members have to develop a greater political consciousness and sophistication if they are to help provide leadership to the movement. —By doing this, we hope to move toward the development of a revolutionary party. We encourage revolutionaries in other areas to build collectives for this purpose.''

''he antitheoretical and pragmatic period of the movement's development—the idea of libertarian socialism which requires small, autonomous councils 'doing their own thing' without centralized controls—has ended. During that time many organizers believed that revolutionary theory would 'grow out of' practical struggles. —Those projects that remain and go forward are no longer experimental 'projects' but organizations with roots in their communities, a substantial measure of local support, and a fairly stable kernel of hard-core community people who share a radical analysis with the ex-students. —Mass meetings provide a place for new people to come and be organized (initially, at least) into cells. A second place for organizing new people and providing a positive presence are external educational meetings which deal with a wide range of subjects. —The answers constitute ammunition. —Most of the speakers need money for travel expenses and some want honorariums.'' These needs are created by the level of development of the productive forces and by the form of the social relations. In specific instances the weight of the productive forces or the social relations in conditioning an individual's needs depends on the individual's daily activity within the social division of labor. ''Don't be turned off by these facts. It is not difficult to get most schools to pay honorariums to speakers sponsored by campus groups, so don't be hesitant in asking. At any speech, large audience or small, someone should pass the hat. —For as soon as the distribution of labor comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a''