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How can there be revolution in a world where revolution has been written off? In a world where so many of our comrades have suffered from lowered sights or settled for isolation and orthodoxy? How should our generation understand this society we are a part of, and what future possibilities lie within it? How can radical people chart our still-uncharted course, and learn to act in ways that are both deeply radical, but shockingly undogmatic at the same time?

From the perspective of our collective, we know that we do not have the answers, but we would like to begin a study group to make whatever contributions we can to understand these questions. We want to join in with others to listen and learn... and contribute to a process of reconceiving revolutionary theory. Instead of narrow frameworks and knee jerk responses, we want create a space where the exploration of ideas, including ideas we are not always comfortable with, is able to develop. We want this reconception to shape our new revolutionary practice, as the larger revolutionary movement itself begins to be refounded.

For our first study piece, we would like to study Baburam Bhattarai's "A State of a New Kind." This piece is an expression of much of the creativity and breaks with dogmatism of the Nepali communists, and was the center of a great deal of controversy among leftists, including dogmatic and sectarian attacks from the RCPUSA.

We invite our sisters and brothers to join us Sunday, January 17th, 7PM at Diedrich Coffe (4005 Montrose Blvd., between Richmond and West Alabama). For more info, contact thefirecollective (at) gmail (dot) com.

It has been nearly four months since the formation of our collective. In this time, we have committed ourselves to contributing to rethinking communist politics, and experimenting with new forms of radical practice. We have tried to remain humble, and acknowledge that we are but one collective contributing to a much larger process. Our collective has grown, as has our collectivity.

Thus far, our collective has functioned in a way that has been highly informal. However, we have begun to take on more practice and engage in more theoretical work. And at this point, it is necessary that we find forms to give expression to our collectivity, our undogmatic approach to theory, and our desire to launch and join others in radical practice.

For this reason, we would like to begin holding public meetings which can both discuss the work we are all doing in a more systematic way, to create a space for us as a collective to listen and learn from others, and to help others who are interested in getting involved with us to find ways to do that.

We would like to meet up at Bohemeo's (708 Telephone Rd) on January 3rd at 1PM. We invite all of our sisters and brothers to come! :)

The following originally appeared live on the Green Party's television show, GreenWatchTV. We have slightly editted it for clarity. Special thanks to the Harris County Green Party for hosting us!

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Ernesto Aguilar and Eric Ribellarsi from our collective will be appearing live on the Green Party Houston's television show, GreenWatchTV to discuss revolution in Nepal, the Lalgargh rebellion in India, and the massive state repression in India called "Operation Green Hunt." We invite everyone to tune in and feel free to call in during the show with comments, questions, and criticisms at 713-807-1794.

The show airs Wednesday from 9-10PM in Houston on Comcast 17; TVMax 95; Sudden Link 98; and Phonoscope 75.

The show can also be streamed online live here. After the show airs the video should also be available here.

Special thanks to the Green Party for hosting us, and see you soon!

The following podcast is based upon an interview originally aired of KPFT (Pacifica Houston). For now it is an MP3, full podcast feed coming soon!

Ernesto Aguilar and Eric Ribellarsi discuss the communist refoundation process, economic struggle, Capitalism: A Love Story, the Kasama Project, Nepal, and the new FIRE Collective. Hit us back with your thoughts and feedback!

Download MP3

Some thoughts from the FIRE Collective on our revolutionary work for this period

We lack... motion
When the day is over - Hey! - the doors are locked on us
Money buys the access - and we can't pay the cost
And how can we expect anyone to listen if we are using the same old voice?
We need new noise - new art for the real people
-REFUSED

TREE-lead-480Our collective is at a new beginning, and that new beginning needs a vision for how we plan to move forward, how we're going to develop and dance to this new beat. Here, we would like to propose a few ideas for revolutionary work in a time when we do not have the kind of serious revolutionary organization that will be needed.

Many comrades are currently talking about developing 'revolutionary work in our time.' But the question is still there to be answered: what kind of work do we need in this period, anyway? Should we really just jump into mass work right now without any sense of where we're going? Or is the other extreme of doing only theoretical work without any revolutionary practice correct? We could take the road that some groups are on, and engage in hollow sloganeering and artificial self-promotion, insisting that we have the answers and the problem is that other people aren't following us. But really, we don't think these roads represent the kind of work we should go with if we really want to contribute to the revolutionary process (For more on what we mean by "revolutionary process," see the Our Declaration to Our Generation) as best we can. We feel that our revolutionary work should involve a back and forth process of struggle and practice on the one hand, and conception and re-conception of our revolutionary theory on the other.

So instead, we'd like to propose some areas of praxis in this period:

  • We need to contribute to the process of theoretical conception and re-conception, both as individuals and as a collective. This will involve participating in the debates and struggles that are going on in society (from campuses, to inside mass struggles, to leftist conferences, to the Internet, etc.), listening and learning from them. Let's form revolutionary study groups, develop new revolutionary theory, jump into the debates of the leftist forums and blogosphere. Let's learn from our brothers and sisters, and make trouble for the system alongside them. We need to contribute the new ideas we are developing to this overall process on everything from revolutionary strategy to thoughts on understanding the forms of oppression of this society. As we are learning, we should try to identify both new and existing openings for practice that would advance the revolutionary struggle.

  • We would like begin our revolutionary practice around the concept of internationalism, and in particular, solidarity with the revolutionary struggles happening in Asia. From Nepal, to the Philippines, to India, we need to both popularize and defend these revolutionary struggles. This is an area that is a huge source of revolutionary inspiration for people who have never seen communist revolution in their lifetimes, an example of how another world is possible, and also an upsurge that has been sadly neglected by most of the existing 'Left.' We feel that these struggles of people in the "Third World" have a particular importance in a society like this, where so many millions of people are forced from their homes to live in the very country that made their homes unlivable. We want to raise awareness about these revolutions in many different spheres, and reach out to these oppressed immigrant communities who have been so ignored by the existing 'Left,' and actually learning from them. This work will be very different from the work movements before us have done, and we will have a lot to learn as we go.

  • The other area of concentration that we'd like to propose is getting involved with the student movement. In the last year alone, we've seen multiple campus occupations (for example, the NYU and the New School occupations where students seized control of those campuses in opposition to the wars of U.S. imperialism among other things), and many new student activist groups are popping up all over the country. Houston hasn't had the same kind of student movement, but we believe through the work of many committed college and high school student activists across Houston, a new student movement is beginning to emerge, and that this is something we really should try as best we can to contribute to.

We're conceiving of our theoretical work, our internationalist work, and our campus work as all overlapping in the coming period. And we see these as part of a backand forth process of practice and re-conception to contribute to the broader revolutionary process in society.

None of this should be set in stone, and we should be learning from our new revolutionary work, constantly discovering and re-discovering our way forward as we go. We need to be open to be ready to have "firm strategy and flexible tactics (See for example: Overcome the challenges to achieve the outstanding victory! or the CPN(M) response to the RCP, USA's critique) like our comrades in Nepal have called for. In other words, we should be firm in our commitment to the revolutionary strategy that we develop at each stage of the revolutionary process, but we should have the ability to maneuver and step outside the bounds of "traditional communist work."

An
d while we should be ready to change our direction at various points, we also shouldn't drop our previous work for the revolutionary equivalence of "get-rich-quick" schemes like some other groups have. The idea of jumping from task to task like beheaded chickens, constantly abandoning our previous work and acting as if the sky is permanently falling is not something that contributes in any meaningful way to a revolutionary future... Let's maneuver keeping in mind our previous work, acknowledging our weaknesses and strengths, while at the same time analyzing the society we are in and the storms that are coming, and contributing to the revolutionary process based upon that.

We have a lot to do, in both theory and in practice, and new storms are certainly coming. Let's go forward on this new road!

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