🎤 A Revolutionary Convention

I have been asked to say something about the Rev21 online convention this coming May.

I can think of no more important place to start than the recent report by the UK insurance industry, warning that we are heading towards four billion deaths in the middle decades of this century unless we force states to slash emissions.

We all knew such announcements were coming. The facts have been shouting at us for years. And we also know we cannot fully imagine the reality of such a development. But we don’t need to. We simply need to know that there is an absolute imperative to act.

But ‘act’ is just an empty phrase—a convenient displacement for our continued failure to do what has to be done. That means enacting popular revolutions as the inevitable ruptures hit our societies. Not just acting then, but taking emergency action.

In other words, walking our talk. Acting as if the truth is real.

Emergency action always demands that we act together. And this is what has not been happening. People are doing their own thing—their own little campaign, writing their book, doing their networking. Their this, their that.

In no way is this emergency action. It is a continuation of the neoliberal culture that has destroyed our movements’ and organisations’ ability to unify. For 30 years now, it’s been the same old divide and rule.

What we need, then, is to come together. To meet up, to listen, to learn from each other.

This is what this Rev21 gathering is all about—people unifying across their cultures, networks, and movements.

There are three simple rules here:

• First, we remove obstacles to understanding the need for revolutionary change. We must face our denial of the critiques of modernity/coloniality with sobriety, maturity, discernment, and responsibility.
• Second, we understand that we need revolutionary change. Nothing less is going to save us in the time we have left.
• And thirdly, this revolution has to be a real revolution—rather than a continuation into hell with just a new setup in charge.

Any real revolution has to be based on dignity and respect—towards each other, towards the public, and towards our opponents.

For a genuine mass people’s movement to bring our communities onto the streets—the young and the old, the strong and the vulnerable—it has to be nonviolent.

And within this basic framework, 100 flowers can bloom. Meaning we are not just going to hear from the great and the good. Rather, we are going to be inspired by their words, then connect with each other, plan, and grow our networks—whether through mutual aid, direct action, assemblies, or elections.

For Rev21 Conventions, this concretely means:

• Minimal Q&A sessions. Instead, we will have breakout rooms to talk with each other.
• People can initiate their own workshops, briefings, and planning sessions, so we become more skilled, more resilient, and more effective.
• And we will keep repeating these conventions. We’ll do another one in October, then again next year, and the year after. Each time expanding, developing, and regionalising.

As we do this, we will build the connections for the new global movement we all know we need. Where we, the people, act through a multitude of pathways—autonomous but coordinated—ready for what is to come, whatever that may be.

That is what this is all about. Being together.

So please, bring people with you.

You know it’s going to be good.

Roger Hallam, March 2025. Hollesley Bay Prison, UK.