RED: Breaking

Ground

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RED Alert Manifesto

The Radical Education Department is an autonomous collectivededicated to the construction of a radical internationalist Leftthrough the training and federation of its cultural warriors. Weasserttheseprinciplestobetheworthiestofbeingputtothetestofcollectivemobilization:

1. Despite their insidious claims to independent neutrality,cultural and educational institutions serve to reproducesocio-economic hierarchies and constitute crucialbattlefields for the perpetuation or transformation ofrelationsofpower.

2. The dominant educational system indoctrinates anddominatesby

• mis-educating the general public and imposingdisempoweringworldviews;

• transforming individuals into vocational cogs in thecapitalistapparatus;

• stratifying the population through institutionalizedclass warfare, which is often rendered invisible viamythsofmeritocracy;

• providing credentials and intellectual cover forworldwide capitalist oppression, as well as itstechnocratic,fascist,andracistapologists;

• providingresearchanddevelopmentforthelucrativebusinessofwarandecologicaldestruction;

• privatizing knowledge and subjecting it to acompetitiveexchangeeconomy;and

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• purposely misdirecting intellectual labor power orhitching it to the wagon of academic bureaucraciesandmarketimperatives.

It is therefore necessary to re-educate ourselves regarding itssordidhistories,socialfunctions,andcontemporarystruggles.

3. Wresting control over knowledge production from thecorporate elite entails transforming extant institutions,producing counter-institutions, and engaging in radicalmodes of guerilla education and cultural training bothwithinandbeyondacademicwalls.

4. Struggles against the exploitation, bureaucratization, andvocationalization of academic labor are at the forefront ofthebattleoverknowledgepower.

5. Againsttheprivatepropertyregimesimposedonknowledgeproduction by capital and its bureaucratic administrators,the radicalization of education requires socializing andcollectivizingboththeprocessofproducingknowledgeanditsproducts.

6. Transforming extant cultural and educational institutionsnecessitates direct actions that contest the policedhierarchies operative within them, not falling prey to theideologicaltrapssetbyfascistsandtheirliberalapologists,ifthesebeso-calledcivildiscourse,fairandbalanceddebates,freespeechorothersuchshibbolethsforpower.

7. Whereas the military-industrial-academic complex hasmilitant capitalist elites lavishly funding research anddevelopment efforts for global warfare, reactionary thinktanks and pseudo-intellectual ideologues, researchcollaborativesofandfortheradicalLeftcreatecommunitiesofalternativeeducationthatseektobenefitallbyprovidingverifiable–rather than ideological–accounts of history andsociallifearoundtheglobe,aswellasmobilizingknowledgeforegalitarianandemancipatoryends.

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8. Part of the project of radical education is learning andteachingthelonganddeephistoriesofleftstrugglesaroundthe world, including those around education, particularlybecause these battles have often been banished from thehistoricalrecord.

9. Recognizing the reactionaries’ strategy of divide andconquer, the project of radicalizing education works tofederate across struggles, including across the geographicandideologicalspanoftheglobalLeft,whichpositionsitself,bydefinition,againstcapitalism.

10. These tacticsmust bemobilized for the overall strategy ofconstructing and strengthening an egalitarian, anticolonial,ecological,anti-patriarchalandinternationalistLeft.

We issue this RED alert as a wake-up call to the necessity ofcollectively re-educating ourselves and taking action to createanotherworld,whichisnotonlypossible,butabsolutelynecessary!

—RD&ED,foundingmembersoftheRadicalEducationDepartment

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Why RED, Why Now?

The Radical Education Department organically grew out of ourorchestrateddirectactioncampaign,asNovaResistance,againsttheover-fundedandover-securitizedlecturebyracisteugenicistCharlesMurray at Villanova University in the spring of 2017 (click here toreadarecentpostaboutthisaction).However,itsroots,forsomeofus, stretchback further toouractivitiesatOccupyPhilly,aswellasourcollectivepublishingofOccupyPhilly:Machete.Inwhatfollows,IreflectonwhywedecidedtolaunchREDinthesummerof2017.

I have always strongly believed in the importance of collectiveorganizingandinstitutionbuildinginordertomaximizeouragencybyworkingwithotherstoconstructplatformsforthefuture.Inmyvarious experiences organizing and founding alternativeinstitutions,however,Ihavealsocometolearnthatmanyprojectsnever get off of the ground because they are all too quicklyensnared in the bramble of petty debate. This can include suchthings as individuals being more invested in their subjectivepreoccupations than in collective action or—particularly inintellectualcircles—thesophisticationOlympics,inwhichpedanticposturing and problematization exercise their domineering,dishearteningandimperialruleoveranythingpractical,tacticalorproductive. When a group of us came together so seamlessly tocontest the promotion of white supremacist misogyny and top-downclasswarfareonaconservativecollegecampus,itstruckmethatwehadthebaselineofsharedconvictionsthatwouldallowustomoveaheadproductivelywithotherprojects.

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Indeed,oncewestartedsharingideas,Ibecameconvincedthatourmodus operandi of diagonal or transversal organization was apowerful practical solution to othermodels I had encountered. Inmyexperience, if theverticalismofatop-downchainofcommandcan smother important ideas from below, the horizontalism à laOccupycansometimesfosteranendlessplethoraofideaswithlittleor no direction. Our decision to organize diagonally—by which Irefertoourconviction,forinstance,thataREDendeavorbedefinedas anything that at least twomembers agree on—meant that wecould do away with a single leader without bottoming out inobligatoryconsensus.Thisformoforganizing,whichoverlapswithsome of what I had been trying to thematize inmywritings andinterviewsontheNuitDeboutmovementinFrance,hasmeantthatwecanworkveryefficientlyandautonomouslywithoutneedingtoconstantlymeettodebateournextsteps.Itisanenormousboon,inthis regard, thatweareallon thesamewavelengthand trustoneanotherduetoouryearsofintermittentlyorganizingtogether.

Since we are all currently involved with institutions of highereducation,itmadesenseforustodoeverythingthatwecanwhereweare.Thefocusoneducation,however,Ithinkweallunderstandin thebroadestpossible senseof the term (like theancientGreeknotion of paideia): it is the collective process of forging acollectivity, by mutually fashioning its thoughts, feelings,representations,valuesandworldviews.Moreover,sincewearethebearers ofmyriaduniversity credentials, Iwas verydrawn to theidea that we could mobilize them in the name of radical socialtransformation.Insteadoftheanti-capitalistLeftbeingaffiliatedbythe propaganda machine with destitute, dirty and drug-induceddropouts, RED—whosemost powerful symbol to date is a radical“dressed to teach”à la JPS confronting Murray—can send a verystrongmessageaboutwhyweshouldallbeonthehardLeft.Forifwespendyearsseriouslystudyingthehistoryofthemodernworldwhile cultivating intellectual autonomy from the ideologicalincarcerationwithincapitalist thought factories,wewill reach thesameconclusion:anotherworldisnecessary!

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This focus on education goes hand-in-hand with communitybuilding and the development of an autonomous pedagogicalplatform. In fact, inmanyways, I understand RED as a collectiveprocess of self-education. In sharing our views with one anotherand a broader community, providing feedback on one another’sprojects, creatively brainstorming together, and so forth, we arecollectively teaching one another through the direct action ofproductivetheoreticalandpracticalexchange.Ratherthantryingtomake RED into an advertising campaign that simply garners asmanyvotesaspossible likeapoliticalparty, I takeitthatwehavefounded an organization in the best sense of the term: anautonomouscollectiveinvestedinself-educationinordertofosteraprocessofgroupsocialtransformation.Anorganization,wemightsay,“takesthelongwayaround”inthesensethatitisinvestedinadeepandlongprocessofautonomouspedagogicalmetamorphosisratherthaninthe“quickreturn”ofapoliticalpartythatmultipliesits followers as hastily as possible through thoughtless banner-wavingandpublicrelationscampaigns.

Therearealsoimportantconjuncturalelementsthatcontributedtothe founding of RED. One of these is the paltry response ofliberals—whoexerciseanunmeritedmonopolyovertheterm“theLeft” in theUnited States—to the election of awhite supremacisttrust fundbabyto theWhiteHouse.Oneof theways inwhichthesystem of pseudo-democracy works is by corralling theadministered masses into camps and determining their strugglesfor them. In theU.S., this tussle isdefinedasonebetween liberalsandconservatives,andthereisverylittleinquiryintowhythesearepurportedly the only two options. This is particularly importantbecausebothof thesecampsaredefendersof imperial capitalism,and themajor difference is in their public relations campaigns. If

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liberalswanttokeeptheglovesonandconservativestakethemoff,theybothagreethattheworldshouldcontinuetobeunremittinglypummeledbytop-downglobalclasswarfare.

In blindly accepting a marketing campaign intent on defining“resistance”as“oppositiontoTrump,”liberalsswallow—hook,lineand sinker—the bait tendered to them by pseudo-democraticadministered reality. They thereby contribute to the perpetuationoftheverysystemthatproducedthistrustfundbabyandsomanyothers that are intent on advancing the same basic project (theimperialrecordoftheClintonites,whichincludesObama,hasbeenwelldocumentedforanyoneinterestedinexaminingit).

Meanwhile, any position to the left of liberalism is violentlysubjected to the reductioadStalinum, as if opposing an economicand political system that is fast destroying the conditions ofpossibility of life on planet Earth was a form of bloodthirstyterrorism. This “blackmail of the Gulag” also eradicates—or, atleast,attemptsto—thememoryofanyradicalleftismirreducibletoStalinism, like theanarchist international, egalitarianSoviet socialprojects, the varieties of anti-colonial struggle, autonomousindigenous movements, radical ecological politics, and so forth.Unfortunately, however, the inter-generational assault on theacademy,markedbytheredandblackpurgesoftheMcCarthyera(that have never really ended), has assured that the universityserves its function of ideological social reproduction by beingdominatedbyconservativesandliberalswithlittleornoawarenessofthesehistories.

Inthissetting,ithasbeenparticularlyimportantforREDtolauncha frontal assault on the ideological pillars of liberalism, insofar asthey usually function in perfect harmony with the conservativeperpetuation or intensification of global structures of oppression.Alongwith theswordofdirectaction, then,wehave takenup thepenof intellectualguerillawarfaretosystematicallydismantlethepervasive but misguided practico-theoretical framework

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surrounding issues like free speech, direct action, violence andantifascism.

We are fully aware of the fact that pro-capitalist—and usuallyjingoist—liberalism has much broader support in the universityand the mass media, which inevitably restricts our audience.Politics, however, is not a popularity contest or an advertisingcampaign, despite what we are taught to believe. It is mostfundamentallyabouthowacollectivity forges itsownreality.Andwe,atRED,areinvestedinqualitativetransformation,notsimplyinanumbersgamethat isanotheroneof thebaitingmechanismsofadministered pseudo-democracy. Rather than reducing politics topanderingtotheideologicalmasses,inordertoguaranteethattheygetwhat the system tells them that theywant, it shouldbeaboutqualitativecollectiveeducationandsocialtransformation.

IthinkthatIcansafelyspeakforallofusatREDwhenIsaythatweare not simply opposed to the latest trust fundbaby in thewhitehouse. What we reject is the system that produced him, and somany others, and will continue to produce them if it is notdismantled.Astheetymologyoftheadjective“radical”suggests,theRadicalEducationDepartmentseekstogototherootofthecurrentcrisesand takepower intoourownhands, rather than remainingwithin the comforting illusion thatwe just need to elect differentmembersoftherulingclasstoadministerrealitytous.

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Educate to Liberate: A Conversation with the

Radical Education Department

Note from RED: This interview with RED originally appeared onCuttingClass.OurcomradesatCuttingClassareassemblingaseriesof interviewswithgroups that arepart of radical struggles againstandbeyondtheuniversity.Findoutmoreatcuttingclass.noblogs.org

CuttingClass:Overthenextfewdays,we’llbepublishingpiecesto highlight the work of some of the groups participating intheCuttingClasscounterinfonetwork.Wehopethiswillprovidesomeclarityonwhereourcrewsarecomingfromandhowthataffectsthewaywehaveorganizedthisproject.

We also hope that theseinterview questionscan provide atemplate for other autonomous groups to distill a collectiveunderstanding of their context andprojects. If your crew findsthese questions useful, write up a summary of yourconversations and send them our way as a form ofintroduction!CuttingClasscanbeyourplatform,andwe’d loveto publish an interview with your crew and startcollaborating—not just aroundCCbut also with any otherprojectsthattheseintroductionsmightincite!

Today’s featured organization isRED (Radical EducationDepartment),anautonomouscollectivebasedinPhiladelphia.

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Introduce your crew: what projects are some youworking on,howlonghaveyoubeenaround,whereareyoubased,etc.etc.

RED: RED—the Radical Education Department—is based inPhiladelphia and is made up of undergraduate and graduatestudents, contingent faculty, and full-time faculty.We grewout of“NovaResistance,”whichwasacollectivethatwehastilyformedtoplan a direct action in the spring of 2017 at VillanovaUniversity.We disrupted a talk by the eugenicist fake academic CharlesMurray,whowas invitedoncampusbyaKoch front-groupcalledtheMatthewJ.RyanCenter.Westormedthefrontoftheeventwithabanner,chantedandyelledtodisruptthetalk,andthen(whenweweretakenoutbysecurity)createdanimpromptu,radicalteach-indirectlyoutsidetheeventspace’swindows.

Footageofourdirectactionisembeddedabove.Wealsopreparedastatementabouttheevent,aswellasabroaderinterventionaimedatreframingthe“freespeech”debate.

From there, the core of Nova Resistance decided to look beyondresistance on a single campus. We formedREDto help build andconnectrevolutionarystrugglesacrossvariouseducationalsites,aswellas toadd to theeffortsof thosedeveloping tools to integrateantifascist resistance into a broader, positive project of socio-economictransformation(ourinitialmanifestocanbereadhere).

Our research and writing fights back against the liberal andconservative ideologies that demonize radical struggle, andwe’reaimingtocultivateconnectionsbetweencampusgroupsinordertosparkbroad,radical,multi-campusactionsinthefuture.Thatkindof project—involving revolutionary, federated students, teachers,and campus workers—can be a powerful tool, especially whenmergedwithoff-campusmovements.

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CC: What are some challenges you’ve faced (internal orexternal)?

RED: The biggest challenge has been an extremely practical one:lackoftimeandenergy.Ittakesalotoftimetobeanorganizer,andthere’s a lot ofwork that goesonbehind the scenes: sending andresponding to emails, posting to social media, coordinating withother groups, writing articles, providing feedback on work byothersinthecollective,etc.Itcanbeextremelyhardtofindtimetodoallofthiswhilealsodoingwhat’sneededtokeepupwithfamilyobligations and the mundane tasks of survival under neoliberalcapitalism.

We’vefoundafewwaystoworkaroundthisissue.

• A “core” and “periphery”: we’ve identified a few “core”membersable tomakemore timeandenergy commitmentthanothers.Thereshouldprobablybeatleasttwotothree,toallowfor“rotations”ofkeydutiesincaseoneofthe“core”is swamped. But it’s also crucial to keep thingstransparent—giving other trusted group members thechancetodiveinwhenevertheycan.

• Deadlines:It’softennoteasytomeetadeadline.Butsimplyhavingdeadlines(evenwhenwefailtomeetthem)iscrucialtohelpingkeeptheprojectmovingforward.

• Noshaming:Everyoneisbusy,anditisunproductivetostartguilting people who are doing whatever they can. In ourgroup, we all know that everyone has unique sets ofconstraints—some are parents, some are internationalstudents,othersareinatenuregauntlet,someareswampedin new graduate programs—and we are simply happy tohave anyone contributewhatever they can,whenever theycan.

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CC: What do you think some of the major limits, and major,untappedpossibilitiesforradicalcampusorganizingaretoday?Howcanweaddressthoselimitsandrealizethosepossibilities?

RED: History shows how much power on-campus struggles canhave—likeinMay‘68andinthemassive2007uprisingofCanadianstudents.Andradical,on-campusstruggleshaveexplodedinrecentyears,especiallyanti-racistandanti-fascistmovements.Nowisthetime to start thinking seriously about how to make connectionsacross campuses and between campuses and the streets, all thewhilehelpingpushthingsfurtherleft.

Butwhetherthey’reoncollegecampusesorbeyond,radicalgroupsare often deeply disconnected from one other, so that we’reworking without a common strategy. This doesn’t just mean afractured and weak Left. It also means we can’t learn from theaccumulatedknowledgeandexperienceeachgroupcarrieswithinit.

Evenwhenwedoworktogetherinlargergroups,wetendtobeinreally unstable, “umbrella”movements (think of Occupy or large-scale studentmarches) that fracture and disappear fairly quickly,especiallywhenthey’repressuredbyauthoritiesorthestate.

Allthisraisessomekeyquestions.Onaparticularcampus,whatarethe best ways to break down the boundaries between the mostradical students, faculty, and staff? How can we help build adurable,cohesive,andtrulytransformativemovementacrossmanycampuses? How could thatmovement bridge on- and off-campusstruggles?

People are answering these questions in some interesting andimportant ways—for example,Cutting Classis a model for howdifferentgroupscanlearnfromeachotherandcoordinatewithoneanother.

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But to help further provoke that conversation, here is a potentialstrategic framework designed to link and amplify radical leftiststrugglesoncollegecampuses:

• Recruitingthemostradicalmembersfromthemostradicalanti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-patriarchy movements on campus into a smaller,preliminary,central“spokescouncil.”

• From here, coordinating ways that the several groupsinvolved can stand in radical solidaritywith one another’sgroups.Thecouncilcould,moreover,serveasaspurtopushthe relevant groups as far left as possible. (As the relevantgroupsinquestionbecomemoreconsistentlyconnectedandcoordinating, the central council should open itself todemocraticcontrolbythebodiesinvolved).

• Atthesametime,thiscouncilwouldprovideabasistoeasilycoordinate actions across campuses. As communicationsincrease between radical campus groups, it becomespossible to generate highly coordinated, radical, multi-campusactionsregularlyWiththiscouncilframework,we’dhave a tool tomore easily coordinate on-campus struggleswith off-campus struggles by feminists, anti-racistmovements,workers,etc.

• Morethanthis,linkingon-andoff-campusmovementscouldput some helpful resources in the hands of people outsidethe university who could use them (e.g., college printers,since some faculty get unlimited free printing; abundantmeeting spaces; plenty of computer labs with internetaccess;placestoholdconferences;etc.etc.)

• Thisstrategyentailsitsownresearchengines(whichwouldneed to tap into the ideas of both on- and off-campusmovements).Weneedresearchto:

o Re-learnwhatworked, andwhat didn’t, in previousmovements

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o Analyzetheuniversitysystem,andhowitfitsintotheglobal capitalist system—to find “weak points” toattack

But again, this is just a suggestion thatwehopewill spur furtherdiscussion. The strategy we’re proposing here could and shouldundoubtedlytakeondifferentformsindifferentcircumstances.Butthe central feature is the establishment of strong, highlycoordinated networks of allies invested in revolutionary leftistorganizing.

CC: How does your project connect with/support radicalmovements in your city and beyond? Are there goodrelationshipsworthmentioning?Badones?

RED: Building connections locally and beyond—but especially inPhilly—is amajor focus forREDright now.We’re something of anewgroup,sowe’reatthebeginningofthatproject.

Still, in mid-March we’re hosting an event at the anarchist,volunteer-run bookstore, the Wooden Shoe, on “AntifascistEducation.” Ania Loomba, who has been involved with theUniversity of Pennsylvania’s chapter of the Campus AntifascistNetwork,willparticipate,aswillKempster(Ghani)Songster,oneoftheco-foundersof theRedemptionProject.We’realsocreatinganinterviewserieswithsomeofthemostinterestingradicalgroupsinthe Philly area that we can find (to appear soon). First up is aninterviewwithsomeoneinthePhiladelphiachapteroftheanarchistBlack Rose/Rosa Negra federation. We are also in touch withactivists who were targeted in the infamousMOVEbombing inWestPhilly.

Moreover, we’re emphasizing the need foraninternationalperspective, which is absolutely essential forunderstandinghowcapitalworks.Oneofourmembersconnectedwith an activist in the recent Iranian protests—Rahman Bouzari,

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who just published a piece on the events inCounterpunch—andwe’llberunninganinterviewwithhimandotheractivistssoon.Wewould like our platform to allow local, national and internationalstrugglestobenestedtogethersothatit’sclearthat—eventhoughwearebasedinPhiladelphia—thatourstruggleisglobal.

CC:Whataresomeshortandlong-termobjectivesyourcrewhasbeenworkingtowards?

RED: Based on what I’ve said above, I think there are a few keytasksforaradical,campus-basedmovement:

• Building leftist spokes-councils on college campuses,madeup of members of the most radical feminist, worker, anti-racist, etc. groups on campus and pushing campus liferadicallyLeft.

• Connectingthoselocal,radicalcouncilsacrosscampusesviadirect, coordinated actions, speaking events, publications,andsoon.

• Connecting those local councils to feminist, worker, anti-racist, etc. movements off-campus: coordinating actions insolidaritywiththosemovements;puttingtheresourcesofacollege(printing,meetingspaces,etc.)intheirhands,andsoforth.

CC:Whatisyourrelationshiptotherestofthecampusleft?

RED:We’restillatthebeginningstagesofbuildingtheconnectionsweneed,andsomeofusarestrugglingwithstudyingorteachingatconservativecampuses(we’vewrittenaboutorganizinginthiskindof climateelsewhere). However, we are developing someinteresting connections. One of our members has close ties withUnitedStudentsAgainstSweatshops,whichcan,wehope,beanallyin the future; and we’re beginning to connect with the CampusAntifascist Network at theUniversity of Pennsylvania. One of our

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membersteachesatGraterfordPrisonandisconnectedtovariousactivistnetworkaroundprisonabolition.

Westillhavealottodo,buttheworkcontinues!

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RED Year I: What Is Done

and to Be Done

REDwasfoundedapproximatelyoneyearago,andithasdevelopedinmyriadunforeseeableandexcitingways,whilealsoconfrontingobstaclesandlimitationsalongtheway.ByprovidinganoverviewofwhatIconsidertobeoursuccesses,aswellasanoutlineofgoalsfor the coming year, it is my hope that I can contribute to theautonomous process of collective education that is cruciallyimportant to the revolutionary Left. Just as we have learned andcontinue to learn from so many of the radical groups at workaroundtheworld,Ihopethatotherscantakeinspirationfromourmodel,andalsohelpusreachourgoalsforREDYearII!

DoingSomethingwithNothing

ThebasisforRED’ssuccesstodateistherecognitionthatyoucanmake a significant political impactwith limited resources and nomonetarysupport.Wehave,sincetheverybeginning,beenasmallgroup,andeachpersonhascontributedaccordingthetheirabilitiesand what their time commitments allow. Everything has beenextremelyshoestring,butthereisacommonegalitarianenergyandanti-capitalist drive that invigorates us to pick up the RED torchwheneverwecanfindtime.Thismeans—anditwasan importantlessonforallofustolearnexperientially—thatanytinygroupofafewpeoplecandive inandgetthingsmoving.There isnoneedtowaitarounduntilthetimeisripe,therevolutionisonourdoorsteportheEstablishmentpushesthingstoofar.Thetimeisnow!

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In thecomingyear, itwouldbegreat ifwecould finda fewmorededicatedtorchbearers.Attimes,wehavebeenspreadtoothin,andit is important for our group tomaintain a stable core, aswell asconcentriccirclesofdedicated,aswellasmoreorlessintermittent,collaborators.Someofourearlymembershavehadtostepbackfornumerous reasons, but others are also stepping up. We lookforward to integrating them into RED and building up ourconcentriccirclesofcollaborationinthecomingyear!

AFocusedOrganizationNotaPoliticalParty

Weknewfromtheverybeginningthatwedidnotwanttodevelopamass organization, andwe conceive of our rolemore as a radicalgroupuscule that can push the envelope, work more flexibly andinterveneincisively,whilesimultaneouslyworkingwithandacrossother groups. Our mode of organization is neither strictlyhierarchical, nor is it purely horizontal, as we discussed here. Inordertomaximizetheautonomyofourmembers,wedecidedthatREDactivitieswouldbethosesupportedbyatleasttwomembers,whichdoesnotrequiregroupconsensusorasingleleader.

Aswedevelop,wewouldliketoshoreupandclarifyourmodesoforganizationbasedonourexperiencesthusfar,andalsoinordertofine-tuneourdecision-makingprocess.It isadelicateoperationtomove beyond the extremes of verticalism and horizontalism, andmany of us are convinced that this is an extremely importanttactical shift that needs to be further theorized and put intopractice.GivenourpastexperiencesinvariouspoliticalgroupsandinOccupy,werecognizetheenormousstrengthsofthistransversalmode of organization and would like to be able, throughexperiential knowledge, to be able to model it for other groups,while also continuing to learn more about all of the interestingorganizationalmodelsthatarealreadyinpractice.

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AThinkingTank

Asarevolutionaryleftistorganization,oneofourprojectshasbeento function as a research collaborative that collectively producesinformative and insightful articles on contemporary politics andorganizing.We have successfully forged collaborationswith someof the most important venues for the radical intelligentsia andgeneralpublic(suchasCounterPunchandTruthout)aswellasforactivist communities (such as It’s Going Downand Enough IsEnough), which has allowed our articles to circulate in muchbroadercircles.Thecontentthatwehavecollectivelyproducedhasarguablyhadan impact inat least twoways.Ontheonehand,wehave diagnosed and conceptually dismantled the standard liberalframeworkusedtomakesenseofcontemporarymediadebatesonsuchthingsasviolence,antifa,directactionandfreespeech.Ontheother hand, we have increasingly been invested in asking andproviding responses to timely tactical questions of organizing,encouraging our readership to always be thinking about howwecanmove our actions to the next level (see ourwork on anti-ICEmobilization, radical struggle in Philadelphia,insurrectionarycouncilism, the insurrectionary campus, antifa on aconservativecampusandpopular-frontantifa).Itisverydifficulttoknow how much of an impact these interventions have had, butthey have at the very least been extremely helpful for our ownpolitical education, and they have led to a series of productivediscussions and interviews (like ourdiscussionsof revolutionarystrategyonIGDandonviolenceandantifaonKPFA).

In the coming year, wewould like to continue doing this kind ofwriting, while also adding additional fronts of struggle andconnecting to new publication venues and audiences across thehard Left. Our recent launching of a zineprojecthas successfullybroughttogethersignificantvoicesontimelyissues,andwewouldlike to continue to develop our zines, whichwill include printinganddistributingthemfreeofcharge.Wehavealsobegundiscussingthe possibility of launching RED press with short booklets, and

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many of us are invested in the long-term project of seizing themeans of intellectual and cultural production. In this regard, wewould also like to develop the aesthetic contributions to RED bycollaborating more with artists and creative cultural producers,whichwillalsoallowustoreachdifferenttypesofaudiences

RevolutionaryCoalitionBuilding

REDisnotcommittedtoasingleparty line,andmostofuswouldidentify—or be identified—as anarchists, communists orrevolutionary socialists (or some combination thereof). This hasallowedustoworkbroadlywithnumerousothergroupsinordertoavoidthesiloingthathassometimesplaguedtherevolutionaryLeft.Some of ourmost successful public events have brought togetherpeoplewhoworkwith various different groups in order to sharetheir experiences and brainstorm about the most productivemodels for future collective work. We have also enjoyed theopportunity to serve as aplatform for activists around theworld,andwehavedevelopedtiesovertimewithlike-mindedgroupswithwhichwehavebeguncollaborating,suchasCuttingClass.

In REDYear II,wewould like to see our project of revolutionarycoalitionbuildingdeepenandexpand.TakinginspirationfromFredHampton andother radical organizers,wewould like to establishinnovative but workable frameworks for coordinating betweendifferentradicalgroupsinsuchawaythattheycanmaintaintheirautonomybutmaximizetheirimpactbyworkingwithothers.MuchofthisworkwillbelocaltothePhiladelphiaarea,asweexploretheoptions for creating umbrella structures, but it will also involvegreatercoordinationwithothergroupsaroundthecountryandtheworldformoreexpansivemodesofsolidarityandsupport.

DirectAction

REDemergedoutofdirectactionand the joyofworking togetherforacommoncausewhenyouhavetoputsomethingontheline.It

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has continued to be important as an intermittent reference pointfor our struggles, but we have been less successful on this frontlargely due to time constraints and a concern for avoiding unduepenalization.

Direct action is an area where we really need to develop ourstrengthsbytappingbackintosomeofourearlierworkandfindingthe time to make incisive and important interventions thatnonethelesskeepourmemberssafe.Inthecomingyear,wewouldliketodevelopourabilitiestoimmediatelybepresentonthesceneforimportantissuesinourarea,followingtheleadofourfriendsatthePhilly Coalition for REAL Justiceandothers.Wewould alsoliketobemoreproactiveinplanningaheadforimportantmomentsand organizing significant contributions on the part of RED. Thiscanrange fromparticipating inmajormarchesorevents likeMayDay to making contributions to the latest flashpoints of struggle,suchasanti-ICEorganizingortheprisonstrike.Finally,weplanonlaunching a guerilla education series that will bring radicaleducation to the streets and corporate universities in and aroundthe Philadelphia area. We are looking forward to blowing someminds!

Internationalism

RED has always recognized that the struggle against globalcapitalism needs to be international, and many of our groupmembersworkacrossvariousgeographicregions.Wehavedrawnon these experiences in myriad ways and made some importantconnectionstogroupsabroad.However,thisisalsoanareawherethisisampleroomforgrowth.

In developing our international connections, we would like tocollaborateandcoordinatemorewithotherradicalgroupsaroundtheglobe.Wewouldalso like to forge connections to someof themost important referencepoints for radicalLeftorganizing inourconjuncture, such as the ZAD in France and the Zapatistas in

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Chiapas. This will allow us to learn more from their experiencesandalsohelpusspreadtheirmajorworktoevenlargeraudiences.

Enavant!

It is remarkable for us to be able to celebrate so manyaccomplishments by such a small organization with no financialresources, which speaks to the radical anti-capitalist spirit thatanimates us. There is, however,muchwork to be done, and REDYear II will require energy, commitment and creativity. We areexcitedtomoveforward!

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PublishedbytheRadicalEducationDepartment(RED)2019radicaleducationdepartment.comradicaleducation@protonmail.comNotes:Manythankstothecomradesinconversationwithwhomtheseideasdeveloped,andtoCuttingClass,whofirstpublished“EducatetoLiberate.”