Rick's Proposal (Annotated)

I spent the entire day practically on the phone with the center, and members of the district, and our new candidates

And I have come up with a general plan of action for our DC meeting ahead of time I encourage everyone to read it and then make suggestions during the meeting so we can save some time

Steps to move forward:

Rectification of Problems of the District and DC: #

1.) DO: The DO has to go through the workbook recommended by comrade JO, The DO has to present a thorough analysis within a set time frame of 2-3 weeks. Upon completion of the analysis he must instill in himself a rigorous self discipline to which he must adhere to.Rick refers to himself as “the DO” in third person throughout the proposal he wrote. We’re not sure why.

i.] This entails good comradely behavior with all members of the organization, and fraternal relationships with the mass membership, as well as past members

ii] To maintain an even temper and forego all rash and hasty behavior when criticisms are presented against him

iii] To not present immediate responses to criticisms but to take the criticisms, analyze the political points and make necessary changes if they are valid and have merit

iv] To assume criticisms are made in good faith but to also further analyze the granular truths of the basis of the criticisms made

Self Criticism: The DO must present a thorough self criticism of his past behaviors to the degree that it is merited

a.) slapping the table during the meeting with Anansa and Justin based on an emotional reactionThe incident we describe here.

b.) yelling at JO because it was assumed that they were making a bad faith argument

c.) assuming that Alpharius was acting in bad faith because of his proximity to Tequila Sunset and thereby a lack of faith in his person

d.) mode of presentation of the arguments to the Nova which seemed like the DO was shutting down a conversationWe describe incidents C and D here.

2.) DC: The constituents of the DC must relay important discussions to the unit members i.e meeting minutes/important discussions and decisions made by the DC at the Unit meetings on a regular basis without fail. Failure to not relay this information gives credence to the idea that the DC operates as a black box. We have to struggle against that particular idea.Note the framing. According to Rick, the DC needs to struggle against “the idea” that they are a black box, not actually stop being a black box. A solution to this at a earlier time was presenting the meeting notes from the DC meeting into the Serious chat. The particular problem in this case being that constituent members of the district do not read the minutes, it is also unsustainable and taxing to make notes of this nature regularly and then present them into a chat.It’s not that hard. It is best to create a summary of most salient points and present them to the units collectively on a regular basis.

Self Criticisms of DC members: To make criticisms of themselves regarding not being able to take full leadership of the collapsing district at decisive moments.The issue is not that that the DC members were not “able to take full leadership,” the issue is they perpetuated a cover-up.

3.) The methods of CSC: We will redistribute the document on CSC, from the cadre handbook to reaffirm accurately the correct methods of conducting CSC

Utilization of the case analysis of Minneapolis wherein some of their district members had conducted a mini- campaign against their leadership for improper conduction of CSC.

The particular case example highlights that the DC members conducted an experiment where they went to the immediate district meeting and conducted a CSC session where they themselves did not speak, but allowed criticisms to lodged against themselves. And after a week of analysis they evaluated the criticisms and responded as needed.

In the cadre handbook it mentions that we need not respond to criticisms when they are made immediately but to take the time to analyze those same criticisms over the course of some time and then either make necessary changes or respond and struggle against the political basis of the criticisms ( non-political criticisms i.e treating CSC as a therapy session)

4.) Chats: Through the dissemination of information through unit chats, the Reliance of district chats with diminish overtime. Logistical information can be posted to the chat descriptions of the unit chats, such as important meeting dates etc This is the district implementing rules to regulate horizontal communication, mirroring what is already in place at a national level.

The district wide chats should not however be deleted immediately, this will be viewed as a “crackdown” on “free flowing ideas” and further inflame the situation.Why are these in scare quotes?

In the vacuum of the district wide chats, it is a real possibility that district members will reach out to each other on a one on one basis and connect to DC members further and come to district meetings more often

5.) Check-ins: The DO and the remaining DC should opt for cross unit heart to heart conversations with district members who are not necessarily in their own units to completely eradicate hostility against the members and the leadership of the local organization Not to build trust, but to “completely eradicate hostility.”

What we will not do #

Two broad errors:

1.) Leaving the organization: squarely an ultra left error ( “to become more revolutionary”), we must stay and struggle

2.) Flippant elections: Rightist error (" an election will fix everything" as a concessionary solution)

Correct path: The only solution is to stay in the organization and struggle through the internal contradictions, this is in some ways a new situation but in other a reflection of the past and we have to analyze this current time for other districts who will also face same problems ( this is part of the take ways from several members of the center)

In my conversation with Tom, he listened to how I phrased this current situation and revealed that during the time of collapse of the Soviet Union, groups across the world and particularly the US went through these similar processes, in three particular ways:“Revealed.” Tom shared standard left history; Rick heard divine wisdom from the burning bush that he must bring down from the mountain to Dallas.

Rightists: Gave up on revolution and became Social Democrats

Ultraleftists: formed groups that collapsed and newer groups from those older groups due to a failure of the ability to conduct internal dialogue, and struggle ( third worldists)

The correct path: Those who reaffirmed to Marxism Leninism, conducted internal dialogue and internal debates through proper methods of CSC The correct path is one that incidentally means you stay in FRSO and keep paying dues.

What we should do: #

We must promise elections but not give into ultra democracy and ask for immediate ones, especially when the DO elections occurred earlier this year.

Taking the case example again from Minneapolis, the DO elections should not happen in 2026 but in 2027, and the DO should be evaluated through this entire period because whoever will take over will inherit problems and an incomplete vision. Stopping a project midway in the between the Congress period, at a time of shortage of hands and experienced people, and external conditions due to Trump will further hamper this situation.Andy Koch on behalf of the Center informed us that yearly elections are “national practice.” Rick was elected in 2025 and over half of the District resigned under his leadership. Yet he feels the solution is to cancel the 2026 election and extend his tenure by a year.

The SC is going to come up with a overall strategy for districts as a 2 year plan and we should adhere to this, the DO should be given adequate time to learn all the skills to be a good DO. Foisting the role on to another inexperienced person will create newer and worser problems.Worser is not a word.

The DC too must be given grace and patience as well. The DC must be allowed to conduct the processes necessary for self correction and rectification to further improve the leadership skills of its own constituent members. Patience must be the order of the day in order to properly succeed in revolutionary tasks.