Times Are A-Changin' for Cambridge's Den of Revolutionary Thought

George Bryant says he's seen a lot of change in the 20 years he's been selling little red books and people's histories at Cambridge's Revolution Books.

Mostly, he says, people these days are just less concerned about their government.

"There was a certain urgency about [politics] that's missing today," he says. "There's no one really clear [focus] today like nuclear war."

"In the years since the store opened, rent control has been abolished in Cambridge and an affluent new class of professionals has begun to move into the city. Bryant says that modern-day Cantabrigians live with little connection to politics.

"They're not happy but they don't see it in the same political terms," he says. "They're looking for something but they don't know what they're looking for."

According to another volunteer, Ben O'Leary, people "trying to figure things out" are among those coming to Revolution Books, literally around the corner from Harvard campus. O'Leary says Harvard Square customers include "radical youth to intellectuals and people involved in social movements and people who are curious."

Revolution Books, situated on Mass. Ave. and flying a red banner, is politically affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party which is part of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement.

O'Leary, one of the half-dozen volunteer employees who staff the store, says Revolution Books aims to promote Marxism, Leninism and Maoism.

The store has no manager and is run by "a collective," O'Leary adds.

O'Leary admits that juggling volunteering at the store with other, paying jobs can be taxing.

"It's a lot of strain on people," he says.

"[But] for five or six years now it's been a very big economic struggle, and the reason we're still here is that people came forward and donated books and money and time and energy."

Right on the front counter is a telltale sign of the store's precarious financial situation-a neon-hued can for donations.

"The can has been a permanent fixture," O'Leary says. "Something we hope to remedy in our 20th anniversary celebration."

Revolution Books is in the midst of a year-long fundraising campaign with a $20,000 target for May 1, the 20th anniversary date.

"The majority of people who support the store are people who don't have a lot of money," O'Leary says.

It's a struggle," says store volunteer Jane Sullivan. She adds that during some months, they do make the $1,800 needed to cover the rent.

"[But] we can't rely on sales," she says.

"We have to do benefits, programs, things of that nature."

Sullivan says some supporters don't even agree with the store's ideology, but donate to the store because they appreciate it as an alternative to mainstream bookstores.

The store is the only one of its kind in Cambridge and according to O'Leary, it has moved to five different locations in the course of its 20-year history in the city.

O'Leary says the store was located near MIT, on River Street, and then in the Garage building on JFK Street. O'Leary says the store left its last location to seek refuge from high rents.

The store, although politically affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist, Party, is financially independent, just like other affiliates in California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington State. O'Leary estimates that on a "good Saturday" the Harvard Square location attracts 40 to 50 people.

Sullivan points to the Square's history to explain the store's attraction. "People come here because it has a history of radical thought," she says.

Bryant says the store's location in Harvard Square is key to the movement's presence in political and academic debate.

"There's a more political discourse in these intellectual areas that we just want to be a part of," Bryant says.

Revolution Books' customers buy items ranging from a mouse pad labeled "Mao's Pad" to Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. Books in Spanish, French, Farsi, Chinese, Arabic and other languages are available.

According to O'Leary, top sellers include Phony Communism is Dead... Long Live Real Communism, by Bob Avakian, chair of the central committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the U.S.

Other favorite buys include Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

Revolution magazines with the slogan "Mao More Than Ever" line a top shelf. Another shelf is dedicated to the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution".

"One poster for sale features a B-movie-style monster picking up a police car, poised to devour it.

"Outraged by [Mayor Rudy] Giulani's police-state tactics, the lizard takes a stand on the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality," the caption reads. The store carries information about the October 22 Coalition, an organization which protests police brutality.

The store also rents videos and has a television and VCR which they use for movie showings. They recently showed "A Case of Reasonable Doubt," and HBO documentary about the controversial imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a radio reporter jailed in Pennsylvania for the murder of a police officer.

Additionally, the front window displays a "Free Mumia" poster. Revolution Books is one of very few bookstores to carry Abu-Jamal's book, Live from Death Row, O'Leary says.

Inside, almost the entire front display table is devoted to Abu-Jamal's case.

"People are active in different things today," Bryant says. "[But] even the death penalty-people don't necessarily think of it as political, but as humanitarian."

"The case around Mumia Abu-Jamal-it isn't in the same breath as what was going on the '80s. It represents the embryo of what could be. There's a certain feeling of alienation and cynicism that people themselves don't identify with the same political concerns."

Bryant says a lot of people are apathetic about the presidential impeachment trial. He says the anti-impeachment rally at Harvard was a step in the right direction.

"The people don't buy into [impeachment], but there's no real broad resistance...Those kind of battles generate more of a political consciousness. That's what it takes to bring out more political movements," he says.