A May 1st, 2025 message from the OCR

The horrors that come from this horrible system, in just the last few years, let alone throughout the longer history of capitalism-imperialism, should be enough to convince you to devote your life to revolution. The US-Israel genocide of the Palestinian people has destroyed entire bloodlines of families and made the images of children killed by bombs and bullets the norm on our social media feeds. Those who rightfully speak out against this genocide inside the US have been brutally repressed, with riot cops sent to quell student protesters and some dissidents now facing deportation. Droughts, wildfires, and devastating storms have killed and displaced people around the world, and it’s no secret that these are not just natural disasters, but the result of climate change caused by capitalism’s quest for profits from industrial production at the expense of the natural environment. Civil wars in Congo, Sudan, and elsewhere, which have their roots in colonialism and are fanned by contemporary capitalism’s drive to exploit resources, slaughter civilians and leave refugees expelled from their homes, impoverished, and on the run from violence. Migrants seeking to escape poverty, exploitation, and violence risk death on the journey across the Darién Gap or the Mediterranean Sea, only to be locked up by immigration authorities, deported, or forced to hustle and be exploited to survive. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the masses of people continue to be viciously exploited to make the electronic gadgets, mine the minerals, sew the clothes, pick the crops, and produce the consumer goods that make massive profits for imperialist bourgeoisies—most especially the US bourgeoisie—and provide a small minority of the world’s population with luxurious, leisurely lifestyles.

In the US, the police keep the boot of this fucked up system on the neck of the oppressed. Black, Latino, and Indigenous youth are stalked and harassed by the police, criminalized, and thrown into prisons to rot, with increasingly more being killed in these prisons by the guards who lord over them. In 2024, the police killed more people than any other year in the past decade, and they do so with impunity, in the vast majority of cases getting away with murdering people in cold blood without the punishment they deserve. The 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade stripped millions of women of the legal right to abortion, a blatant reassertion of patriarchal dominance and authority over women and their bodies, as women face harassment, abuse, rape, and murder on a daily basis. Transgender people have become a prime target for the most reactionary sections or the bourgeoisie, with fervent attacks on trans people and especially trans youth that range from discrimination to violent assault to the banning of gender-affirming care. Proletarian families are facing intensified poverty, with rising rents and evictions, stagnant wages and unemployment while the price of daily necessities increases, less and less access to food stamps, welfare, and social services, and the homeless are being criminalized, kicked out of the tents and off the benches where they sleep. More and more people are disposable to this system.

We could go on further about the immiseration of the masses, in the US and especially in countries oppressed by US imperialism. But the conclusion we must draw is that US imperialism, and the whole global system of capitalism-imperialism, must be overthrown by the masses of exploited and oppressed people. The Organization of Communist Revolutionaries (OCR) was formed for exactly that purpose.

The OCR was started by a few veteran communists over five years ago, and has been recruiting the next generation of communist leaders from among those determined to end this horrible system. In our short existence, we’ve linked up with and organized in class struggle sections of the proletariat—the exploited and oppressed class—in the US, fought hard against the horrors of capitalism-imperialism, and worked to develop the strategy and tactics to make revolution against the most evil empire in human history. As a small organization of the hard-boiled, we’re punching well above our weight and proving our commitment to the masses and to revolution. But to up our game, deliver bigger blows against the system, and bring forward the masses to deliver a knockout punch to US imperialism, we need more cadre. We need more people to commit their whole lives to revolution, and to get behind a strategic plan and into a disciplined, collective organization that can lead that revolution. We need you reading this to study the OCR’s politics, join its efforts, and take the leap of joining the OCR itself.

Joining a communist organization, committing your life to the revolution, will always be a bit of a leap of faith, as there are no guarantees that we will win, or even that the organization you join will stay on the revolutionary road. On the occasion of May 1^st, international workers day, a revolutionary holiday of the international proletariat, the OCR has decided to put forward this call to join us, as well as several other documents that address our organization’s history and future trajectory; religion, spirituality, and OCR membership; our own weaknesses and our struggles to overcome them; and the state of the international communist movement. We’ve written these documents in part to demystify, as best we can, the leap of faith that joining the OCR entails and how our organization functions. Over the last few years, we’ve also put out a number of training manuals for communist cadre, in addition to our Manifesto and Membership Constitution and our summation of the communist movement in the US, all to unify a revolutionary movement around solid principles and sound strategic thinking.

To further demystify the OCR, to put a more personal touch on it, and to inspire you to take the leap of joining us, we are publishing, below, a series of excerpts from applications to join the OCR. These excerpts concentrate the dedication and commitment of our cadre to the masses, their selfless spirit, the reasons they decided to subordinate their lives to making revolution, and some of the struggles they’ve went through to get there.

Many of the below excerpts make reference to the journal kites. The predecessor to the journal Going Against the Tide, kites was initiated by the OCR and Revolutionary Initiative in Canada, and played a pivotal role from 2020 to 2023 in delineating revolutionary communist ideology and politics from the Left and postmodernism and attracting an initial, small wave of cadre to the OCR and training them up. Whereas kites called for a revolutionary movement in the US when none existed, Going Against the Tide, initiated in Summer 2024, is the theoretical and analytical center of an existing revolutionary movement—albeit a small one—and is training its readers in the communist outlook through analysis of key questions and events and publishing training manuals and documents from the OCR. Articles from kites, still deeply relevant to the strategic challenges of making revolution, can be found in the library section of Going Against the Tide‘s website, goingagainstthetide.org.

With that explanatory note in mind, here are some excerpts from applications to the OCR.

* * *

[When] I read my first kites article, “Revolution Has Vanished,” from the first paragraph I knew it was something different. I devoured the criticisms of Pac-Man schemes that I had grown critical of, albeit from the perspective of “these will never be enough to ensure the material needs of everyone are met,” not rooting out commodity relations and building communist society. At least that wasn’t my perspective quite yet.

As I read through every article from issue #1 on, I became keen on meeting up with other people who read kites and take seriously the calls the journal makes to readers. Every article felt like it was hitting me over the head: you can’t just read these and stay on the sidelines, or hopelessly trying to salvage your red charity group with unserious petty-bourgeois “activists.” But I was hesitant to reach out because I was self-conscious of how politically inexperienced I knew I was…

…After meeting another kites reader, I threw myself into the work of the organization I was invited to check out. The lack of experience remained a challenge, and there were a number of errors I made in the first few outings in my agitation and interactions with the masses. I was challenged by other members of the group in these moments to think about what was incorrect about what I said or did and how to go about it differently. I felt deep relief to have finally found some people who were by all appearances serious about training themselves and others in class struggle.

Nothing transformed me more than going to the masses… I quickly learned their struggles, worked to mobilize and form a mass organization, and formed relationships with those wanting to fight what they’re up against. I met dozens and dozens of people with each passing month and got to a point of making and receiving phone calls and texts from people we had met on most days of the week. I welcome the organization’s tasks as it felt that every minute spent was furthering our work as a group. The challenges only continued and at times increased, including struggling to juggle personal responsibilities and a job, along with not knowing how to describe to friends and family how my politics had shifted over the past year and a half…

…I know that despite only being several months in that I cannot look back, and I can’t fall back on the emptiness and alienation of a petty-bourgeois lifestyle. I want to betray my class and get others to do the same. I wish to be part of a collective that holds itself to the most serious standard in making revolution and helps its members become capable revolutionaries. I aim to make the plight of the masses my constant companion and dedicate myself to plain living and hard struggle.

* * *

In joining in on this work and talking to the [particular section of masses they were assigned to], I had finally put some of the theoretical pieces together in my head on the necessity of mass organizations and putting class struggle and politics at the forefront of my political work. For the first time, I had found people willing to speak with the masses and get serious about organization. It has been humbling, but more so it has been transformative in the sense that there are clear cut steps to take and I’m finally a part of a collective that aims to help not only answer the burning questions I’ve had surrounding society and the state of the world but help me with questions regarding who I am and what I aim to do with my life. The answer is clear cut: I want to dedicate my life to toppling US imperialism and the global capitalist system that has left me and my people in destitution, confusion, and mental and physical illness since its inception and to create a new world centered on our love for one another and collective strengths to solving any issue we confront. I’ve had a turbulent life that has informed a lot of the issues I’m dealing with. But it also has led me to discovering folks who want to really change the world for the better and who aren’t afraid to do so together. I hope these words have demonstrated why I have reached out to offer my service to the masses in overthrowing this fucked up system.

* * *

You all are the only serious entity I’m interested with. You’re actually serious about getting the tasks and work done, things are done in days not weeks. You’re also serious about reading, developing, and applying theory, and in a way that I and the masses understand. When it gets tough or a difficult question cannot easily be answered, y’all struggle through it to get an answer/idea, you put it to the test, refine it; y’all do what you say, and seek to improve it. Everything has a direction, nothing is done just to do it. I don’t feel isolated around y’all—people who dedicate their lives to this—and it pushes me to do more. Despite all this great stuff, you say at the end of kites #8 “we don’t claim to have all the answers” but also “it’s your responsibility to develop your disagreements and reach out.” Other groups are too arrogant, however, and don’t do shit, meanwhile y’all do so much yet are more than they are.

I see myself growing with y’all, I see my people and the masses we work with growing with y’all and benefiting from my involvement, and I hope to improve this group best I can. Y’all have the work down, the spirit down, I’m ready, this process you put me on since [we met] worked greatly and transformed me into who I need to be to be eligible to join; keep doing it with future applicants.

* * *

…I had a stint of social investigation in a proletarian neighborhood, talking to immigrants about their living and workplace conditions. I lived in this neighborhood during my elementary and middle school years and every morning I saw men lined up on the street hoping to get picked for a day of construction work. On our block I had witnessed ICE raids and violent arrests. But my understanding of these conditions at the time was limited to what I heard from the adults around me. Their comments were often based on stereotypes even though they were Latino immigrants themselves.

…A reading group of the journal kites we were a part of was brief when it became apparent none of the other participants intended on doing anything in the real world. The desire to put what we were reading into practice is part of what made the OCR appealing to me…

It’s impossible to forget the things I’ve learned from the people we’ve met but what has stuck with me the most is their strength and willingness to fight despite all odds being stacked against them. Every time I have felt overwhelmed by the difficulties in my own life and have found myself using this as an excuse to not commit to this work, or convinced myself I am incapable, it is the resilience I’ve seen in the masses that continues to motivate me. After feeling isolated and lost my entire life, never being able to shake off the feeling that something is terribly wrong with the world, I’ve never felt more in touch with my humanity than I have doing this work. I want to join the OCR because I want to dedicate my life to serving the people in the highest form possible…

The OCR is the only organization I have recognized as being serious about making revolution. Throughout my time with the organization, I have learned the importance of continuously pushing to advance our work, but in order to take on the role of someone able to continue to push things further toward our ultimate goal, I feel I need a higher level of collectivity. I feel confident that joining is a necessary leap toward my becoming a revolutionary and I am willing and prepared to transform myself.

* * *

I began to reorient my life to learning about politics and getting involved with organizing in order to put an end to calamities that I realized were the norm under capitalism. At the time, this meant majoring in the social sciences and joining student organizing groups. In these groups, we organized some events that connected liberal nonprofits with students. We began organizing around divesting our school’s endowment fund from fossil fuels and weapons manufacturing. Though I dedicated lots of time to this work, it was largely pointless. We had tactics such as flyering students, holding educational events, and doing symbolic protests and a goal, divesting the school’s endowment fund, but not a strategy to get there or organizational structure to sustain this work. There was no analysis or attempt to tie this work, if it could even be tied, to a broader revolutionary movement, despite that word getting thrown about a fair amount…

I want to be a member of the OCR because I think proletarian revolution is the only way that dignified conditions can be brought about for the majority of people on the planet. I believe the methodology and strategy laid down in the OCR Manifesto are sound ways of achieving this goal. Particularly, I believe a vanguard party, operating under democratic centralism, is capable of forging a revolutionary people that can, under the leadership of the party, bring about socialism and pave the way for a classless moneyless society free of commodity relations. The OCR is the only group to my knowledge that is carrying out tasks and making plans to achieve this goal. I care deeply about people, I long for a world in which they majority of us are not subjected to “poor butchered half lives.” I want to be a part of the organization seeking to end exploitation and suffering.

* * *

We got through kites #8 together as a small group, and for me, that was truly impactful. As we got through, I realized how divorced I was politically from the masses and that I had really never done the work of a communist even though I had identified as one for so long. For me it was a sobering moment, the understanding that we need to be serious about revolution, build a party that can lead that effort, go to the masses and not the Left with these politics.

It was then at this time I joined the [activist organization under the OCR’s leadership]. Having spent time going to the masses, working with serious revolutionaries who are disciplined and dedicated, I feel like I have seen the politics I had been reading behind closed doors come to life through practice. Continuing to work with your member, talking with them and learning from them, continuing to study kites, I feel like I am in unity with the OCR and that our most pressing issue today is to build a Communist Party that can lead the proletariat to the seizure of state power through revolutionary civil war.

Like I said, I feel like my biggest takeaways from my past is a political maturity, understanding that Maoism is not just dogmatically agreeing to words in a book, but an actual political practice and how you make things happen. I held bad views about the masses, thinking they needed a bag of food to be won over to revolution, rather than talking to them about these things, if I even went to the masses at all. I didn’t know how to properly struggle with comrades or the masses about bad ideas and was beholden to identity politics, thinking this was somehow a way to uphold the oppressed. I saw politics as a purity contest rather than what was proven in practice. I didn’t understand criticism/self-criticism, seeing this as a solely individual act rather than how a collective group moves forward, leading to arrogant boastings on social media rather than critical summations. I think, too, through reading kites journal and kites #8 specifically, I realized how eclectic my politics were and how unclear the theory in my head was. kites has helped me gain a lot of clarity and I want to continue to understand this theory through collective study and struggle.

* * *

I was open to communism in the first place through liberation theology and my childhood understanding of Jesus Christ’s execution as god’s way of showing that “god is on the side of the poor.” I no longer understand communism in this way, of course, but I do derive a lot of comfort and resolve from a spiritual concept of the interconnectedness of all things, the inevitability of change and development, and the power of the most oppressed and exploited people to wield change. I attend church and find in it both personal social/emotional support and, sometimes, an opportunity to approach other proletarians in a thoughtful, collectively-oriented setting about matters of moral imperative. In the course of becoming a dialectical materialist, I’ve increasingly understood there’s an unavoidable conflict between materialism and religious faith, and I’m open to the possibility that my personal spiritual practice may hamper my ability to be a revolutionary communist… Where I’m at right now is a spiritual faith that exists alongside a stronger and more relevant devotion, to communism…

…I reconnected with some comrades who turned out to be studying kites several months ago, just as I was casting around for viable ideological footing, and revolutionary leadership…and even got to travel with them to help do some social investigation in another city, and you better believe it was refreshing to knock on some doors with real comrades. I really can’t overstate the impact kites has had on my ability to take initiative and really start to transform all these disparate lessons of the past few years. Above all, I’m fired up by the idea of recommitting to actual revolution (as opposed to incremental reformism), and of being principled enough to reject dogmatism and be flexible and curious in outlook. This strikes me as a really living application of dialectical materialism. The calls for social investigation and integration with the masses have also resonated with me... I thought of reaching out to the OCR pretty much as soon as I was aware that this was one of the entities behind the journal, so the opportunity to apply is very exciting. I lack a lot in terms of correct historical knowledge, and I know I carry some insidious remnants of my [previous political involvement with Leftist organizations] along with me, but I also know I’m eager to undergo some rigorous and continuous ideological remolding. I don’t care about calling myself a communist as much as I care about really living as one; I am ready to learn and fight and willing to sacrifice.

* * *

I think there were two main experiences that helped my process to becoming a communist… The second experience was when I was working in an organization that relied heavily on politicians. We had helped to mobilize an impressive number of everyday people who took time out of their busy lives and arranged transportation to come testify in favor of [legislation concerning evictions and rent regulation]. The majority of the politicians they testified to were landlords. I feel in my heart that I betrayed the people I asked to come do this. Ultimately the [legislation] wasn’t passed, but even if it had been, there would have been no guarantee that it would have lasted through the next legislative session without being reversed. That experience made me decide that I cannot in good faith ask people to come out in support of these temporary, piece-meal non-solutions. That was when I realized the system is not meant to be reformed in any meaningful way…

…I also feel a moral obligation to join [the OCR] as a US citizen. By existing in this country, I’m complicit in genocide and the pillaging, plunder, and exploitation of the majority of people on this planet and the places they call home. The only way I can imagine continuing to live is by decisively and actively working to bring the US empire’s downfall.

* * *

I want to be a member of the OCR because I don’t see anything else to commit my life to. I see friends and family members around me living petty-bourgeois existences off the backs of the colonized people around the world and not questioning it. Or if they do question it, it is to a limited or confused extent that still justifies their petty-bourgeois choices and experiences. They might see people struggling and think of how awful capitalism is, but would prioritize their own comfort and livelihood over the oppressed people of the world. There is nothing good about that existence; in fact, it is a sick existence that is frustrating and feels disgusting to be around when I think about it. I want to be a person that stands with the people of the world against US imperialism and builds fighters and leaders to fight for a dictatorship of the proletariat.

* * *

[At first] I wanted to join and become a professional revolutionary because I hated the system. But now I feel like I have more love than hate. I want to see homeless people, unemployed people, victims of police brutality, and the people across the world living the best life possible and to see them speak out to change the world. When they come together it’s inspiring and a reminder that we can win. When the families of the victims of police brutality relate to each other, cry together, and talk about how they hate the system, it makes me want to make this happen everywhere.

* * *

What motivated me to take up this work and what attracted me to these politics is the conviction that the world is in an insoluble crisis, with climate change, pandemics, and the onslaught of capitalist exploitation turning the world into a living nightmare for the vast majority of people. I learned that there was a real alternative—socialism and communism—and that the only way for it to come about was for people like me to devote their lives to struggling for it. These two realizations made me understand that I could not continue my vapid petty-bourgeois existence and ignore the plight of the rest of the world. Fuck my class, I won’t even have a planet to live on if we don’t fix this shit!

The idea of becoming a professional revolutionary is in one sense scary, because it requires the willingness to sacrifice comforts and independence in favor of struggle and discipline, but also liberating, because you can wrench yourself from the path laid out for you by this society and forge a new path. But I feel that I have no choice: we have a world to win and a world to lose. Living in the belly of the imperialist beast, which is committing a genocide against Palestinians, I have no choice but to sacrifice my class interests and do what needs to be done to advance the revolution. Doing this work has been extremely rewarding for me, and I’m determined to follow wherever it leads me, whether that be the hood, the agricultural fields, or the factories. There’s nothing more energizing than seeing the enemy stumble and fall, and seeing the masses raise their gaze from the ground to the mountain, and yearn to do battle with the enemy.

I understand and expect that this work often leads to either a prison cell or a coffin. Well, I spent a night in one of those, and it wasn’t too bad. It’s worth it if that’s what it takes to turn this society upside down. If I go to prison, I’ll organize my fellow inmates to break out, and if, inshallah, we reach socialism in my lifetime, I’ll fight to push it towards communism. Well, that’s my rap.

How do you join the OCR?

If you’re inspired by the preceding excerpts from applications to join the OCR, if you want “to be such a person” and dedicate your life to the masses and revolution, then you should apply to join the OCR. Just know that what you’re signing up for is not an easy life, but one full of selfless commitment, hard work, and subordination to a strategic plan and the collectivity carrying it out. Before you apply, you need to study the OCR’s ideology, political line, and organizational functioning, as concentrated in our Manifesto and Membership Constitution, and be sure you agree with it wholeheartedly, and prove, in practice, that you are capable of being a communist cadre. That latter part takes at least six months of political work under the OCR’s leadership, especially focused on going to, integrating with, and organizing proletarian masses.

If you’re already working under the OCR’s leadership and want to take the next step, you should talk—in person and without phones or any devices that can record—to a “connected guy” (to use the deliberately vague mafia lingo), let them know your interest in joining our organization, and discuss what you need to do to start a recruitment process. If you have no connection with the OCR but want to commit your life to revolution, then you should immediately start not just studying our documents, but applying them in practice, most especially by going to the masses, and ideally with a crew of people who are on the same page as you. While you do that, you should find a way to connect with people and political work under the OCR’s leadership, without discussing OCR membership over email or phone (even if it’s an encrypted communication). If you can’t make such a connection, then you can email us at our public email address, ocrev@protonmail.com, and let us know, in general terms, what you’ve been up to in political practice and what you think of our politics, without discussing membership over email.

You should know up front that OCR membership is at this time entirely secret, and cannot be discussed with anyone besides the delegation assigned to your recruitment process. Unlike Leftist organizations, you cannot join the OCR via the internet. If you have been part of Leftist organizations and online Leftist culture, you should know that the OCR functions nothing like the Left, including Leftists who talk about democratic centralism. As a reference point for how democratic centralism works, watching The Sopranos is far more helpful than learning from the Left. In fact, if you have experience in the Left, to make yourself fit to join the OCR, you will have to treat yourself like a stage 3 cancer patient and thoroughly purge yourself of Leftist thinking and ways of functioning—the ideological and political equivalent of cutting out tumors, getting a blast of radiation, and then having ongoing chemotherapy.

Putting aside all those caveats and explanations of what it takes to be ready to apply, it comes down to this: if you’re for real about dedicating your life to revolution, then the OCR is the organization for you. But a heads up before you put in an application to the OCR: we’re fucking nuts. The chances of winning a revolutionary war against the most powerful empire in history are tiny, and we’ve decided to bet our lives on those odds. We hate the capitalist order and love the masses so much that we think even the slightest possibility of overthrowing this system is worth dedicating our lives to. And we’ll go up against everything the ruling class can throw at us, as well as all the grifters and opportunists out there, in a relentless drive to build the subjective force necessary to make revolution. The potential of prison time or even death doesn’t phase us. At the end of the day, we simply could not live with ourselves if we didn’t devote everything we can to getting humanity beyond exploiters and exploited, oppressors and oppressed, to a world where we collectively flourish together: communism.