Uprisings and rioting that everybody says are so horrible, are the indispensable beginning of any revolution. Uprisings, whether in Watts or Chicago, are the way the mass responds to change when that mass does not have organization, does not have theory and does not have ideology. This first round is indispensable and welcome because it tells us something important is happening. The same thing will happen over and over and over again, however, unless the ideological, theoretical and political conditions of the masses change. I can assure you that if the response is simply a spontaneous uprising, that is all the state will need to consolidate a clamp down on the American people making it extremely difficult for them to move.
History creates the objective conditions as does new machinery, conquest, and revolution.
But the subjective response to the conditions depend entirely on the thinking of the people. If they do not respond correctly the cause is lost. The line of march is not mechanical or guaranteed in any sense of the word. Permission granted to reproduce, provided this message is included, the article is not changed, and no further restrictions are placed on its distribution. P.O. Box 477113, Chicago, IL 60647.