Page:Michael Velli - Manual For Revolutionary Leaders - 2nd Ed.djvu/86

 ''needed to survive and to create another battlefield of the revolution. A revolution is a war; when the movement in this country can defend itself militarily against total repression it will be part of the revolutionary war. —Out of this movement, revolutionary cadre must develop which will aid the development of the vanguard party necessary to lead the struggle for socialism. —This will require a cadre organization, effective secrecy, self-reliance among the cadres, and an integrated relationship with the active mass-based movement. Most important, there must be the same revolutionary mass base mentioned earlier, or (better) revolutionary mass movement It is clear that without this there can't be the practical experience to know whether or not a theory, or a leader, is any good at all. Without practical revolutionary activity on a mass scale the party could not test and develop new ideas and draw conclusions with enough surety behind them to consistently base its survival on them. Especially, no revolutionary party could possibly survive without relying on the active support and participation of masses of people. —The revolutionary principle must be that the majority of the American people can be won to the revolution—not suddenly, but if they can be brought to see an alternative to their layers of privilege. —Propaganda tries to force a doctrine upon an entire people; organization embraces in its frame only those who for psychological reasons do not threaten to become a brake to a further spreading of the idea. Propaganda works on the community in the sense of an idea and it makes it ripe for the time of the victory of this idea, while the organization conquers victory by the permanent, organic and fighting union of those followers who appear able and willing to lead the fight for victory. —That principle must not be obscured by a smug and incredibly elitist assumption that the movement is already the revolution—an assumption which contains contempt for the people who are presumably to fight a people's war. —When propaganda has filled a whole people with an idea, the organization, with the help of a handful of people, can draw the consequences.''

''n carrying out propaganda and trying to move the struggle to a higher level we are guided by Mao's strategic advice: The masses in any given place are generally composed of three parts, the relatively active, the intermediate, and the relatively backward. —Great respect must be paid, not only to new members, but also to possible adherents, to those who in Germany are termed mitläufer, in Italy simpatizzanti, in Holland geestverwanten, and in England sympathizers. —The leaders must therefore be skilled in uniting the small number of active elements around the leadership and must rely on them to raise the level of the intermediate elements and to win over''