we should not permit ourselves to be placed on the defensive. We should recognize that repression itself will bring us new allies offended by the erosion of accustomed freedom, and that the urgent task of our movement is to work directly with those who have rebelled. —If any such movement is to succeed, it must develop a long-range perspective that will aid in building a constituency.
For us being a revolutionary means working to build radical constituencies acting in their own self-interest This is the basis, the possibility, for creating major social change here in America, and providing breathing room for revolutionary movements around the world. —But the beginning constituency for such a movement is among those who have no real organization to define them politically. —We see two general types of potential constituencies that should be analyzed and explored as potential components in a new radical coalition, or ideological center. First are class or social groupings: students, industrial workers, urban poor whites and working poor, the aged. The second type of constituencies are those built around issues or areas of social concern. —Workers and lower middle class people are the groups that need to be 'radicalized' and brought around to our viewpoint. Why is it important for professional radicals to consider these people? —The most sublime theoretical insight has no value and no purpose unless the leader moves the masses toward it. —Pragmatically, the reasons are very clear: They are the common Americans, and without at least their support we cannot build a democratic movement —We do not know that all, or any, of these groups will be sources of radical consciousness. Certainly they will not be if left to chance. Before such groups are abandoned to continued manipulation and use as producers or consumers in our welfare state, we should at least examine the possibilities for organizing them and developing a radical consciousness among them.
The problems the middle class faces are distinguished by alienation, powerlessness, psychological repression, and their being manipulated by forces which too often seem (but never really are) impersonal. The key concept here, I think, is powerlessness and the lack of a feeling of integrity of one's self. Our task is to organize these people around these issues for two reasons. First, because to a great extent they are the future society—the wave of the
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