In the conclusion of Organization Means Commitment, Grace Lee Boggs brings together many of the central ideas from the text: revolutionary theory must be practiced, cadre must be developed through disciplined collective struggle, and there is no blueprint for revolution that can simply be copied from another time or place.
Boggs argues that if revolutionary principles remain only in our heads, they turn into empty rhetoric. But if they are not grounded in dialectical principles and systematic reflection, organizations sink into routinism. The challenge is to constantly move between theory and practice, reflection and struggle.
She then turns toward the practical question: what should people actually do with these ideas?
Her answer is the formation of revolutionary study groups rooted in discipline, structure, criticism and self-criticism, ideological development, and long-term commitment. Not study for the sake of appearing informed, but study as preparation for revolutionary organization and protracted struggle.
A major point I try to clarify in this video is that revolutionary cadre is not the same thing as general political education or popular education. Cadre formation requires a different level of discipline, responsibility, structure, and commitment because its purpose is to develop people capable of sustained revolutionary practice over time. We need all these forms of education, but this is specifically about building revolutionary cadre.
Boggs also reminds us that every revolution is historically specific. We can study previous struggles and learn from them, but revolutions are always shaped by the unique contradictions, conditions, organizations, and people of a particular moment. There is no universal formula.
Ultimately, this section feels less like a rigid blueprint and more like a challenge: to engage in systematic reflection, collective struggle, and disciplined practice while constantly reevaluating the conditions around us. Not treating revolutionary texts like scripture, but using them as tools to think more seriously about what it actually takes to build lasting organization and transformation.
Organization Means Commitment - Conclusion
In the foregoing, we have outlined the fundamental dialectical principles and some of the most important concrete practices of a revolutionary cadre organization as a developing reality.
If the members of a revolutionary cadre organization are not constantly striving to internalize the dialectical principles motivating their practices, the organization sinks into routine-ism. On the other hand, if they are not constantly striving to externalize the dialectical principles in concrete practices, the principles turn into empty rhetoric.
Many of those reading this pamphlet may vigorously disagree with what it sets forth. Others may draw from it the conclusion that a revolutionary cadre organization is necessary if there is going to be a successful revolution in the United States. Not all those who arrive at this conclusion are ready to build or join such an organization. Some may be against revolution altogether. Others may say that they agree with the ideas theoretically, but that building or joining such an organization is a job for someone with more patience or a greater capacity to think more broadly.
If, on the other hand, some readers decide that they do want to commit themselves to collective and protracted struggle, they probably know one, two, or a few other people who have arrived at the same point.
These few people need some way to arrive at basic agreement on fundamental ideas and some knowledge of one another. One way to do this is to form a revolutionary study group in order to study previous revolutions and the specific contradictions in the United States which require resolution through revolution.
The study of the theory and practice of previous revolutions is for the purpose of learning from them what is and is not relevant to the specific contradictions of the United States, including the relevance of a party and cadre organization.
Through the study of previous revolutions, we can gain an appreciation for the ways in which revolutions have advanced the evolution of humankind, and therefore develop a profound conviction that our own revolution must also advance the evolution of humanity.
At the same time, through the study of previous revolutions, it should become clearer that every revolution is unique—the specific product of specific energies, specific masses, specific organizations, and specific leaders in a specific country under specific historical conditions developed over many years. Therefore, revolutions cannot simply be repeated in another time and place.
This general truth is of crucial importance in determining the specific contradictions requiring resolution in the United States—the first country in human history to face the problems posed by economic abundance, and the first people in human history to discover through lived experience that material well-being does not necessarily bring happiness. Therefore, we are the people with the responsibility of pioneering the revolutions of the twenty-first century.
In forming a revolutionary study group, the purpose, procedures, schedules, and responsibilities of each member should be clearly worked out and accepted by all participants at the first meeting. It is never a good idea to leave your purposes and procedures vague in the hope that this will keep some people around who might otherwise be scared off by a straightforward statement of goals and expectations.
Nine times out of ten, this kind of liberal attitude does not prevent people from eventually leaving. It only postpones the crisis and makes it more painful later.
A revolutionary study group should not be organized for the sake of study alone, but for the purpose of laying the basis for a revolutionary cadre organization. Therefore, participation in the group should be restricted to those prepared to do the systematic work required for such a study, including reading, leading and recording discussions, disciplined attendance at regularly scheduled meetings, criticism and self-criticism, over a period of approximately six months.
During this period, some members are bound to raise the question of getting involved in struggle around some burning topical issue.
This will be one of the group’s first tests as to who, if anyone, in the group really accepts the principle that “without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary practice,” and that without commitment to collective and protracted struggle, there can be no successful revolution.
Anyone who is not able to refrain from involving the group in topical struggles until it has at least worked out some minimum ideological understanding, some programs of its own, and some structure and standards, is not likely to be much good for the protracted struggle.
In this way, not only the material studied, but the way it is studied, is itself preparation for the organization of a revolutionary cadre.
