What is the Revolutionary Student Union? 

The Revolutionary Student Union is an organization of student revolutionaries dedicated to developing the struggle for revolution and the class consciousness of the youth in the US, who are in dire need for a true revolutionary organization. We hope to advance the revolutionary movement in America and help open the gate for a new era for struggle.

How was the Revolutionary Student Union established?

The Revolutionary Student Union was established through investigation into the student movement and general revolutionary situation in America. We saw the need for a new organization dedicated to the revolutionary youth’s struggle.The movements in America who claim to serve the youth provide nothing to the genuine struggle for the liberation of the working class and instead only perform isolated student organizing instead of using student organization as a tool to serve the working class and their struggle for emancipation. We hope to rectify this error and move forward from the flaws made by the current student organizations. 

What are the main goals and aspirations of the Revolutionary Students Union?

We hope to establish ourselves as a strong revolutionary force within the youth of America. This is a hefty goal and it cannot be achieved without genuine social investigation and mass work which heightens the contradictions in America. Some examples of what we believe to be genuine revolutionary organizing are propagating anti-capitalist ideas through studying the science of revolution, through this we can mold the youth to serve the process of rebuilding the revolutionary movement in America, leading campaigns for local, national, and international issues pertaining to the struggle of the youth and the working class, involving the youth in mass work, and leading self defense courses. 

Please inform our readers on the current state of the Revolutionary movement in the U.S and what has been happening with it in the recent years

With the degradation and subsequent collapse of the revolutionary movement in America, it is our task as socialists to rebuild the movement from the ground up and learn from the erroneous choices that led to its degeneration. The failures of the former movement still weigh down on the movement in America today, as we speak revolutionaries in the US are decentralized and without a proper organization to unite around and in order to move forward we must correct this error and begin to rebuild the revolutionary movement while correcting the flaws of the former attempts at revolutionary struggle. The issue of not taking into account the experiences of the revolutionary organizations in America in the 20th century caused major issues within the old movement and led to them repeating many of the same errors which plagued these movements like adventurism.

What is the current task of revolutionaries in the U.S?

Revolutionaries in the United States have lacked a genuine Communist party since the late 1930s, the current task of all revolutionaries within the US is to work towards the reconstitution of the Communist Party of the United States. The current “C”PUSA does nothing but tail the imperialist Democrat Party and provides nothing to the revolutionary movement in America. Reconstituting a genuine Communist party is of the utmost necessity as the party will lead the revolutionary movement in the construction of the 2 other instruments (the People’s Army, and United Front) and the only way to achieve revolution is through the party leading the revolutionary struggle. 

Please explain the rich history of the U.S student movement in the second half of the 20th century, what is its relation to the Revolutionary movement and why didn’t it transform into a truly revolutionary movement

The origins of the modern student movement can be found in the revolutionary tide of the 60s. With increased access to higher education in mostly western countries after the second World War leading to an increase of political consciousness, a revolutionary fire among the youth was sparked in response to the civil rights movement, the increased popularity of nationalist movements among racial minorities, the wars of national liberation in Algeria, Cuba, and Vietnam, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. The main force behind this was the Students for a Democratic Society, a formerly liberal student organization that had by the mid 60s turned radical. These students, mainly through the SDS, had extremely revolutionary potential and were in some ways connected to other revolutionary groups such as oppressed nationalist movements and party-building projects, but ultimately functioned primarily for their own means, representing a student syndicalist line. The 60s wave of mass student radicalism fizzled out by the mid 70s, with only the most advanced sectors carrying on the torch of revolution such as the Revolutionary Union, October League, and Guardian Clubs. Fundamentally the Achilles heel of the former student movement was a lack of connection to broad revolutionary practice and a near complete isolation from the majority of the American proletariat.

What is the significance and importance of student organizing within the revolution, how does it change as revolution advances?

Mao said, “The world is yours, as well as ours, but in the last analysis, it is yours. You young people, full of vigor and vitality, are in the bloom of life, like the sun at eight or nine in the morning. Our hope is placed on you. The world belongs to you.” Students represent a critical sector within society that revolutionaries must win over in order to achieve victory. Universities across the world serve as trenches of combat; they are breeding grounds for revolutionary ideas. With that said, however, academics who distort revolutionary philosophies are also highly prevalent across these various universities. Students, due to their unique social position, are highly malleable in their views and, when organized correctly, can serve as an instrument for advancing working class political power. Revolutionary students, through social investigation and mass work among the most marginalized and poorest sections of the working class, assist in furthering the revolution. As this revolution strengthens, worker-student unity advances greatly; this coincides with rising class consciousness among both.

What are the pitfalls and limitations of student organizing? What are some of the errors you have observed in the left’s approach to student organizing, particularly in the first world?

Contemporary student organizing in the US is plagued by a multitude of issues, we go in further depth on the issues faced by the student movement in our political line document which can be found on the RSU website. But we will give a brief overview of them: The American Student Movement (ASM) deals with issues such as student power politics, which is a reformist tendency that only focuses on the student struggle for reforms, isolating themselves from any other form of struggle student power demands are primarily focused on an individual school. Student power politics leads only to the student movement becoming isolated from the workers’ movement and impotency in student organizing. Students should not solely focus on student issues or reforms to the education system, a revolutionary student movement must be forged by forging a worker-student alliance and tying together other non-student struggles. Student power politics is just one of many issues facing the student movement, another pressing issue is that of right opportunism. Many self proclaimed “Communist” or “Socialist” organizations uphold a student power line and isolate the student struggle from the worker struggle.

What examples of student organizing within historical/ongoing people’s wars have you studied? What can you tell us about these organizations?

Within the ongoing people’s wars raging all throughout the world, student organization exists to serve the armed struggle and to break the chains of capitalism, when we contrast this to how student organizing operates within America today we can see that the current state of the student movement does not exist to serve the revolutionary struggle nor to smash the old world and build the new. Student organizing must exist in service to the workers struggle, without this it cannot properly serve the revolution, since isolated student organizations cannot bring about the revolutionary change needed to end capitalism and usher in the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. In India we have the RSF which exists to serve the armed struggle and build revolutionary fighters through political education. This is an example of proper student organizing which actually serves a revolutionary purpose unlike what we see today in many of the imperialist nations. In Peru we saw that the youth formed a very large part in creating the basis for the party and the people’s army which after armed struggle was initiated student organizers became a large base in which red fighters were recruited. Within universities we have seen that they are areas with huge revolutionary potential, the TKP/ML was entirely formed through a student union at Ibrahim Kaypakkaya’s university which later went on to lead people’s war against the fascist Turkish state. Within the context of state repression we can see that universities can serve as revolutionary base areas where the party can build new power and usher in the armed struggle.

Do you have any remarks you would like to add?

The RSU sends warm greetings to Maoist Centre Britain and we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors. The RSU would also like to add that they are going to be attending the Anti-Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) summit in San Francisco from November 11-12.

LONG LIVE THE  REVOLUTIONARY STUDENT UNION!

UNSHACKLE THE YOUTH!

RECONSTITUTE THE CPUSA!