Oppressed Groups Organizing and Leading Their Oppressors

The campaign for women, with their relatively excellent state of organization in RC, to take the responsibility for organizing and leading a men’s movement of a comparable strength to theirs has begun. I think this must continue. It has made a good start.

I also call for the launching of two somewhat parallel campaigns. (1) I call for people of color, who are now increasing in strength and numbers in RC, to take on [undertake] the challenge of organizing and leading the white people in RC, particularly on the issues of racism and classism. (2) I also call for the working-class people in RC to begin to take responsibility for organizing and leading the middle-class and owning-class RCers.

These two situations are similar to the situation between the women’s movement and the men’s movement. The men have been confused (and still are confused in large measure) about the chronic patterns of sexism that have been installed upon them. They have needed help in having these pointed out and contradictions offered and insisted upon for them. The women, on the other hand, are completely and sharply aware of every male sexist pattern that walks by. They talk them over endlessly among themselves but for understandable reasons have not stepped forward until recently and said, “These are the things you must do to contradict your sexism, to discharge every remnant of it, and to clean up your membership in the human race.” This is starting to happen, and the parallel situation between people of color and white people and . . . between working-class people and owning- and middle-class people can be improved in the same way.

Harvey Jackins

From pages 182 and 183 of “Report to the Worldwide Leaders’ Meeting,” in An Unbounded Future

(Present Time 191, April 2018)


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