1. We are a revolutionary youth organization
We are a group of young revolutionaries who want to study and apply revolutionary theory to make change of the condition of working class and oppressed people in the US. We want to mobilize, organize, and educate young students, workers, and the urban poor to combat increasing oppression and exploitation of the working people. During these battles, we want to popularize the understanding that all issues we see in our current society is the product of capitalist-imperialism, where the US is the biggest imperialist country in the world, who does not only exploit its own people, but carries out atrocities all around the world. It is an utmost corrupt and disgraceful system, and the only solution is to overthrow it. Therefore, we are for a violent revolution, organized by the most advanced section of the working class, that overthrows existing capitalist regime and establishes working class political power. Only when the working class has the power to govern themselves, with the guidance of it’s class ideology, Marxism, we can resolve all issues present nowadays. We don’t support changes that try to improve the current system without challenging it. Instead, we believe in making a strong stand against the system itself, as these changes only try to fit in without really solving the main issues. In the end, these attempts mend capitalism, and allow it to exploit and oppress people more.
2. We strive to create unity between students and workers
Our organization stresses the alliance between the progressive students/youth and the working class. As a student/youth based organization we stress the fact that it is the working class that can lead the revolutionary struggle to victory. If the student movement does not link itself with the workers’ movement then the student movement cannot progress beyond mere small reforms at individual campuses. We do not want to make a city of gold within a rotten society, we strive to transform society through a revolution led by the proletariat, led by an independent working class party. The working class are people who don’t own things to sell, except their ability to work or produce for someone else. If they can’t find a job, they’re under threat of hunger and deprivation. We recognize that the working class in the United States is both the base force (main class in support) of revolution and the leading force (the class that will lead the revolution).
The Revolutionary Student Union proudly upholds its goal of building the worker-student alliance as a crucial defining principle of our organization that differentiates us from every other national student organization. It is critical that members of RSU can mobilize themselves to further support workers struggles by attending and supporting strikes, pickets and other struggles of the working class, it is important that during these actions we uphold and propagate the ideology of the proletariat to the broad masses who will be in attendance. We find it to be of crucial importance that the RSU works alongside various revolutionary worker organizations and unions who are dedicated to advancing the class struggle. Many pre-existing student organizations uphold a student power based political line. Student power based organizations primarily focus on trying to achieve reforms based off of students’ day to day lives. There is nothing wrong with organizing students to mobilize them for reforms related directly to the campus but this becomes a massive error when organizations only participate in this type of work. Student power politics fails to properly politicize the student struggle and it fails to recruit future revolutionaries from the student movement. Members of student power-based organizations often end up leaving activism indefinitely after they graduate, because the organization they were involved with failed to properly engage them in political matters and remained isolated from other fronts of struggle. Student based organizations must realize that the exploitation of the working class is what causes misery in our society. Student power politics leads to the student movement ignoring the main force for revolutionary change: the working class. Student power politics must be combatted constantly so the student movement can finally uphold its role in the revolutionary struggle. We firmly maintain that our struggles are apart of the same fight for liberation and cannot be isolated from one another.
3. We uphold anti-imperialist principles
The RSU understands that the United States of America is an imperialist country that oppresses a majority of the world’s peoples and that it is our duty to oppose imperialism. Imperialism is the final stage of capitalism, and it encompasses the following 5 points:
1) Monopolies (Large corporate groups) play a large role in economic life
2) Finance capital (industrial & bank capital) create a financial oligarchy (rule of a small group) in the economy.
3)The exporting of capital to underdeveloped countries (i.e. setting up companies in countries that can be exploited for cheaper labor
4)International monopolist capitalist associations to manage these monopolies at the global level (i.e. International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, etc.)
5)The territorial division of the world via colonialism, and domination of countries economically to keep countries dependent on imperialist powers.
However we must realize that anti-imperialism does not and cannot constitute, by itself a political program for a mass movement capable of conquering state power. This means that although anti-imperialism is crucial to adhere to but we must be cognizant that anti-imperialism alone is not a comprehensive political program that can lead to the liberation of all peoples.
4. We uphold the principles of self determination and liberation for all oppressed peoples and nations.
We oppose all forms of national chauvinism and subjugation; we firmly recognize the importance of national liberation and solving the national question in the United States. The United States in particular still retains a number of colonial holdovers, including Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa, the Mariana Islands, and the Virgin Islands. In the United States, certain areas retain large Native American populations. These areas persistently struggle with high rates of poverty, domestic violence, and drug and alcohol abuse among a myriad of other issues. Furthermore, it will be imperative for us to take heed of the role of national minorities such as Chicanos and Black-Americans. It is key for us as revolutionaries to fight for the sovereignty of all colonized and imperialized peoples.
5. We are firmly dedicated to serving the youth of America through the mass line.
We uphold the principle of the mass line, meaning we uphold the principle of maintaining a direct line of communication with the masses, constantly exchanging and developing ideas. We use the mass line to propagate revolutionary ideas while simultaneously developing underdeveloped ideas from the masses (from the masses to the masses), it is through this mass line that we elevate the youth to a stage of revolutionary consciousness ready for proletarian revolution. We affirm the necessity of forging ties with progressive sectors of society (primarily the students) through the mass line. Within the youth of America the ideas of anti-capitalism are very relevant topics. 54% of America’s youth view capitalism in a negative light. This overwhelming presence of progressive elements is of great importance regarding the goals of our organization. We hope to form strong alliances with the progressive youth and develop and focus this anti-capitalist sentiment to revolution. We are sure that through the work of our organization we can unite (and broaden) the progressive sections of the students with the proletariat
6. We take a strong stand against all forms of modern revisionism.
Modern forms of revisionism come in various shapes and tendencies and are often found within organizations that claim to work for the people. However, these groups primarily serve the interests of the bourgeoisie, the wealthy class. They make false promises and engage people in activities like electoral activism and charity that don’t lead to a workers’ revolution. These opportunistic tendencies combine elements from different historical periods and mainly exist to support foreign imperialistic powers like China, Russia, and others. These organizations betray the class they claim to represent and promote revisionist ideologies, revisionist ideologies are the way the capitalist classes’ line of thinking infiltrates the revolutionary movement, the victory of revisionism means the victory of the capitalist class. While there can be some tactical collaboration with these groups in street protests and among the masses, they generally pose the second biggest challenge to the workers’ liberation movement.
7. We recognize the central role of revolutionary violence in making change
There are two types of violence in this world. 1) Reactionary violence, is violence perpetrated by the old government, and forces that rely on exploiting and oppressing the majority for their survival. Reactionary violence is enacted against the working class people and innocents are always murdered by it. In general, it tries to keep misery the norm of our society. 2) Revolutionary violence, this type of violence is wielded by the oppressed majority in seeking progressive changes and to defeat oppression and exploitation. We can see revolutionary violence being successful in every revolution, and everywhere there is reactionary violence, it must be fought with revolutionary force. Therefore, we see the use of revolutionary violence to create a new and better world a universal law of history: The working masses have only seen gains through revolutionary violence, this is how monarchies were ended, the eight hour workday was won, the weekend, etc., and this is how a bright future, where society is controlled by the vast majority rather than a small exploitative segment, will be made possible for us.
We believe, only with the use of revolutionary violence, organized and coordinated by the vanguard of the working class, can a working class revolution happen in the US, and take political power. We are for the arming of the masses in the towns, neighborhoods, and factories, to not only defend their rights and interests under capitalist system, but to advance to take back our power to govern ourselves. Only with a people’s war, guided by the ideology of the working class, and led by a independent workers’ party in this country, can working class power become a reality. As Chairman Mao Zedong said, “political power grows from the barrel of a gun”. We reaffirm the importance of revolutionary violence and war, that “only with guns can the whole world be transformed”.
8. We firmly uphold the principles of Women’s & LGBTQ+ liberation
From the removal of women’s bodily autonomy to the laws that are actively promoting the oppression that transgender and queer youth have been experiencing for decades; policies which directly lead to an increase in suicide and self harm among the queer community. The fight for liberation of women’s and queer people has been going on ever since the 1930s, and has been directly linked with the movement for revolution. The Black Panther Party and the Revolutionary Communist Party (although holding many erroneous lines on the Gay Question) organized with queer and women’s activists extensively during their revolutionary high tides. In the Philippines, revolutionaries have stood in solidarity with the LGBTQ community for decades; they performed gay marriages before the bourgeoisie were even considering to support such a movement. Revolutionaries internationally have unified and integrated the Queer and women’s movement with the worker’s movement, agitating proletarian ideology and developing their revolutionary consciousness.
If you or your organization agrees to the following eight points then you should join the Revolutionary Student Union to help further the revolutionary movement within the United States!
LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY STUDENT UNION!
UNSHACKLE THE YOUTH!
Revolutionary Student Union 
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