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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 19. July 31, 1974

Rewi Alley

Rewi Alley

Right to Rebel

It is right to rebel
if the cause is right;

to rebel against
the decay of the old
and its tyranny.

This is good.
To rebel simply for the sake
of rebellion, which soon
turns to a self-consuming chaos
is of use to the enemy alone,
whose best paid agents work
to divide, disrupt, and rule.

Today, the old exploiters
get scared; for a whole world
of youth is in rebellion
though often still groping
for a way.

Revolutionary fire
is too precious a thing
to let flare, then burn out,
leaving cynicism in its wake.
Rather must youth keep it stoked,
burning away all that is evil,
keeping warm all that is good,
reducing to ashes tabus that cover
truth with gaudy trappings —
truth that is most beautiful
most real, when cleanly naked
with nothing to hide.

Youth, gallant, fearless,
impatient youth, can only
be truly effective when
it passes on its fire to those
who make and create when it
can forget self in [unclear: sacruice],
can analyse the forces that stand
against it; learns to know who are the friends,
who enemies, so that it can make
each and every blow for a new day
truly count

Peking, October 25th, 1969.

Thoughtful Rebels

A volcano erupting
does not stop to think;

but the rebel
who boils inwardly
as he sees scamps
and loafers so carelessly
dissipating the wealth
he and his fellows have made,
needs to be thoughtful
in his passion.

For the revolution is no wild,
mad thing; but a movement
of working people, in which
emotions are controlled and made
fight intelligently for an end.

The passion is precious;
elan must be sustained,
youth supported, encouraged.
Rebels must not degenerate
into tea-house groups
where tall tales are told,
gossip exchanged—a sphere
to develop a specious liberalism,
a cosy corner for operators
who cunningly plan
to horn in on the success
of a fighting people.

Revolution means rebels
must study the problems
of peoples: what moves them;
how may they take the power
that is truly theirs. It means
ever broadening understanding.
For the world is ours, and we
must learn to know it well,
so that we may command
our heritage.

Hangehow, October 27th, 1969.

Work—with Whom?

Artwork of female warrior with swords

Yes, we will
work together
with the workers
of the world
but not
with the money lush,
the hooligans, thieves.
pimps and pigs of the old order.

Big stuff
to work together
with those who
really serve the people
but sad stuff
to do it with the gang
that battens on you, cheats you,
instils racism into you, herds
your sons into wars to enforce
its steals, always trying to divide
and rule.

Sure, we can build
a new world if we
work together
sweat running in one stream
into the good earth
that supports all.
But how
can the understanding worker
work together with
the lords who would
take the whole wide world as theirs,
with all there is therein,
just because, as they have the nerve
to say, they "need" it?

Work together, you peoples,
in passion and struggle,
don't just ride along with life,
put thinking into action,
fight to toss off the old
joyously and in unity,
bring in the new.

Peking, September 6th, 1969.