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Revolution #258, February 5, 2012
BOB AVAKIAN ON "TEBOW-MANIA," "HIGHER POWERS" AND "AMERICA'S GAME"
TIM TEBOW AND THE "TUCK RULE"
Editors' Note: The following is part of a major interview that was recently conducted with Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Given its timeliness, this part of the interview is being published now (see also the article in this issue, "Tips for Tim Tebow," written by Bob Avakian to accompany this excerpt from the interview). We are looking forward to publication, in the near future, of other parts of this interview, and the interview in its entirety.
TIPS FOR TIM TEBOW
Tim Tebow, quarterback for the Denver Broncos in the National Football League, is being widely, and seemingly endlessly, promoted—as an icon not only in the realm of sports but much more broadly. I have followed sports, including football, for many decades now, and I cannot recall ever witnessing anything like this. In a highly orchestrated and concentrated campaign, Tebow is being held up as a “worker of miracles” on the football field but, more than that, as a “role model” and moral standard-bearer.
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BA Everywhere—and the Importance of Distributing BAsics Far and Wide
BA Everywhere… this is a campaign aimed at raising big money to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works throughout society, to make BA a household word. Success in this campaign can effect a radical and fundamental change in the social and political “atmosphere” by projecting the whole BA vision and framework into all corners of society where it does not yet exist, or is still too little known, and getting all sorts of people to engage and wrestle with it.
BAsics Bus Tour Departing from Los Angeles on February 7
Picture this scene:
A bus rolls up to the entrance of a local college or into a high school parking lot. Or it pulls into the center of town and sets up big displays. Or maybe it appears at a club where the youth hang out or a neighborhood church where progressive people go. Or a homeless encampment of people driven into the hidden corners of society because they no longer have anywhere to live, or a place where farmworkers gather before heading out to another day of field work under the pounding hot California sun.
Everything You’ve Been Told About Communism Is Wrong:
Capitalism Is a Failure,
Revolution Is the Solution
Editors’ Note: Revolution is serializing an important speech given by Raymond Lotta during his national campus speaking tour in 2009-10. This version of the speech given at Harvard University in April 2010 has been slightly edited and footnotes have been added for publication. Parts 1 and 2 have been published to date.
Part 2: Lies and the Methods Behind the Lies
There is one small problem with this "conventional wisdom" about communism. It is built on the wholesale distortion of the actual history of socialist revolution; it is built on outright lies.
A Call for Marches and Protests for March 10 & 11 to Mark International Women’s Day 2012
End Pornography and Patriarchy:
the Enslavement and Degradation of Women
We are told that “equality for women has been won” and that “there are no limits to what girls can achieve.” BULLSHIT!
This information is from The World Can’t Wait:
Saturday, February 4
Day of Mass Action to Stop a U.S. War on Iran
NO war! NO sanctions! NO intervention! NO assassinations!
In many ways, U.S. war on Iran has already begun.
The United States and Israel, both of which have nuclear weapons, say they will stop at nothing to keep Iran from having a nuclear program, even though the U.S. Secretary of Defense says Iran won’t have nuclear capability anytime soon.
MASS INCARCERATION + SILENCE = GENOCIDE
Revolution Books New York City Presents:
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 4 PM
Riverside Church, Assembly Hall, 490 Riverside Drive New York, 10027
Enter on the Claremont Avenue side between 120th and 121st Streets
#1 train to 125th or 116th Street
On Saturday, February 18 at 4 pm, Carl Dix will give an important talk on mass incarceration, where it comes from, where it's taking things if the current trajectory of U.S. society isn't radically changed, what needs to be done about this, and what all this has to do with the revolution we need.
Newt Gingrich and the
Genocidal General Andrew Jackson
Editors’ note: The following article from a reader notes how Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich cited Andrew Jackson as a model, and then delves into the role that Jackson played in America’s bloody history. While we are not able here to analyze the Gingrich phenomenon in any depth, it should be noted that he is playing a particularly vicious role in the Republican presidential primaries and the overall climate of official politics. He has spewed out, on national media, blatant racist talk: declaring that Black people should “demand paychecks and not food stamps,” that Black kids should be put to work as school janitors because “they have no habit of working,” that Palestinians are an “invented” people, and so on. There’s also his arrogant bully posturing that exudes white privilege, and violent rhetoric about killing America’s enemies.
Hundreds Arrested as Police Attack Occupy Oakland
On January 28, more than 1,000 Occupy protesters and supporters marched through downtown Oakland and then attempted to occupy a long-vacant building, with the aim of turning it into a community center. The police responded viciously with tear gas, flash grenades, rubber bullets, and mass arrests. The police announced they made nearly 400 arrests. Check revcom.us during the week for further coverage.
The notion of a god, or gods, was created by humanity, in its infancy, out of ignorance. This has been perpetuated by ruling classes, for thousands of years since then, to serve their interests in exploiting and dominating the majority of people and keeping them enslaved to ignorance and irrationality.
Bringing about a new, and far better, world and future for humanity means overthrowing such exploiting classes and breaking free of and leaving behind forever such enslaving ignorance and irrationality.
Bob Avakian,
Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
BAsics 4:17
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"...officials in some states study the reading scores of fourth-grade boys in the inner city to know how many prison cells to build."
"...officials in some states study the reading scores of fourth-grade boys in the inner city to know how many prison cells to build."
I read this recently in an L.A. Times page-two column by Sandy Banks, who was interviewing a 92-year-old retired judge. It made my skin crawl—and it still does. Here it is—made into an institution—vicious, calculated, cold-blooded criminalization of Black and Latino children by the "injustice" system. Talk about the "school to prison pipeline"—Isn't this an expression of the "slow genocide" that Carl Dix has been speaking to in his campus tour with Cornel West?
BIRDS CANNOT GIVE BIRTH TO CROCODILES, BUT HUMANITY CAN SOAR BEYOND THE HORIZON
We are building a movement for revolution…
That movement needs a website…
We need your help to make it happen
This is a world crying out for revolution. Over a billion people on this planet live on less than $1 a day. The earth’s critically endangered ecosystem is under profit-driven assault. In one form or another, everywhere in this world women are degraded as commodities. Creativity is marginalized, coopted, or squashed. And killer police and unjust wars serve and protect all this…
COMMUNISM: THE BEGINNING OF A NEW STAGE
A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Available in English, Spanish, Turkish, German, and Farsi from RCP Publications, P.O. Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 $5 + $1 shipping.
A new draft translation in Arabic is now available online at revcom.us
The first Arabic draft translation is still available also.
We envision a movement of people working to produce high-quality accurate translations in many languages which can then be distributed around the world on the Internet and in print. We invite your comments. Send them to RCP Publications, Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654 or rcppubs@hotmail.com.
Some Principles for Building A Movement for Revolution
In each issue of Revolution, you'll find "Some Principles for Building A Movement for Revolution," by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. The events covered in this issue of Revolution demonstrate the critical importance of these principles, and of proceeding from them.
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Support... Sustain... Revolution
In this world of unjust war, unbearable suffering and environmental catastrophe… in these days of discontent, upheaval and questioning… it is critical that this newspaper—Revolution—publish! And that it continue to improve its content and look, and expand its readership.
A Statement from the
Revolutionary Communist Party
ON THE STRATEGY FOR REVOLUTION
Under this system of capitalism, so many in this society and so much of humanity are forced to endure great hardship and suffering, exploitation, injustice and brutality, while wars and the ongoing destruction of the natural environment threaten the very future of humanity. In the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) our Party has set forth an inspiring vision, and concrete measures, for the building of a new society, a socialist society, aiming for the final goal of a communist world, where human beings everywhere would be free of relations of exploitation and oppression and destructive antagonistic conflicts, and could be fit caretakers of the earth. But to make this a reality, we need revolution.
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THERE IS NO "PERMANENT NECESSITY" FOR THINGS TO BE THIS WAY
A RADICALLY DIFFERENT AND BETTER WORLD CAN BE BROUGHT INTO BEING THROUGH REVOLUTION
One of the more important statements in the Manifesto from our Party (Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage) is the quote from Marx: "Once the inner connection is grasped, all theoretical belief in the permanent necessity of existing conditions breaks down before their collapse in practice." This is not just a matter of abstract theory—it has a broader effect. That belief weighs heavily on people who don't like the way things are—they are weighed down by a belief in the "permanent necessity of existing conditions." Over and over we are confronted by the fact that people can't see beyond the way things are now.
What Is Communist Revolution?
It is this system that has got us in the situation we’re in today, and keeps us there. And it is through revolution to get rid of this system that we ourselves can bring a much better system into being. The ultimate goal of this revolution is communism: A world where people work and struggle together for the common good…Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings…Where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.
This revolution is both necessary and possible.
Who Is Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party?
In Bob Avakian, the Chairman of our Party, we have the kind of rare and precious leader who does not come along very often. A leader who has given his heart, and all his knowledge, skills and abilities to serving the cause of revolution and the emancipation of humanity. Bob Avakian came alive as a revolutionary in the 1960s—taking part in the great movements of those days, and especially working and struggling closely with the most advanced revolutionary force in the U.S. at that time, the Black Panther Party. Since then, and while many others have given up, Bob Avakian has worked and struggled tirelessly to find the way to go forward, having learned crucial lessons and built lasting organization that could continue the struggle, and aim to take it higher, while uniting with the same struggle throughout the world. He has kept on developing the theory and strategy for making revolution. He played the key role in founding our Party in 1975, and since then he has continued the battle to keep the Party on the revolutionary road, to carry out work with a strong revolutionary orientation. He has deeply studied the experience of revolution—the shortcomings as well as the great achievements—and many different fields of human endeavor, through history and throughout the world—and he has brought the science and method of revolution to a whole new level, so that we can not only fight but really fight to win. Bob Avakian has developed the scientific theory and strategic orientation for how to actually make the kind of revolution we need, and he is leading our Party as an advanced force of this revolution. He is a great champion and a great resource for people here, and indeed people all over the world. The possibility for revolution, right here, and for the advance of the revolution everywhere, is greatly heightened because of Bob Avakian and the leadership he is providing. And it is up to us to get with this leadership…to find out more about Bob Avakian and the Party he heads…to learn from his scientific method and approach to changing the world…to build this revolutionary movement with our Party at the core…to defend this leadership as the precious thing it is…and, at the same time, to bring our own experience and understanding to help strengthen the process of revolution and enable the leadership we have to keep on learning more and leading even better.
Works by Bob Avakian (PDF)
Now available
The Ascendancy of Obama
and the Continued Need
for Resistance and Liberation
A Dialogue between
Cornel West and Carl Dix
This historic event took place in Harlem, N.Y. on July 14, 2009
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Video Available!
- Rough cut of the video without the audience Q&A
- Rough cut of the of the Q&A that followed the dialogue
- Click here for the audio only of the July 14 dialogue (mp3)
- Watch the Youtube video announcement of the July 14 dialogue
- Response to Obama's "No Excuses" speech at NAACP convention by Carl Dix (Part 1 / Part 2)
Go to YouTube for these must-see videos:
Inaugural issue now online! demarcations-journal.org
Demarcations
A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic
Demarcations: A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic seeks to set forth, defend, and further advance the theoretical framework for the beginning of a new stage of communist revolution in the contemporary world. This journal will promote the perspectives of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
¡FUERA CON TODOS LOS DIOSES! Desencadenando la mente y cambiando radicalmente el mundo
AWAY WITH ALL GODS! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World
Is believing in gods actually harmful? How has Christianity for centuries served as an ideology of conquest and subjugation? Why is the "Bible Belt" in the U.S. also the "lynching belt"? Why is there a rise of religious fundamentalism throughout the world? In the intensifying conflict between U.S. imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism, is the only choice to take one side or the other? Why is patriarchy and the oppression of women foundational to so many religions? Can people be good without god? These are just some of the questions explored in this provocative work by Bob Avakian.
