Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP,USA) revcom.us is a nationwide revolutionary communist party in the United States. Bob Avakian is the Chairman of the RCP, USA and has led the party since its founding in 1975. Avakian's body of work is taken by the RCP as its ideological and political foundation and framework. The party emerged out of the revolutionary movements of the 1960's and early 1970's in the U.S., drawing particular inspiration from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China and Mao Tsetung. The party's stated purpose is to lead the masses of people in making a revolution in the United States as part of revolutionary struggles worldwide, with the ultimate goal of communism—a classless world where exploitation, oppression, and all destructive divisions among people are eliminated and all people would be free to work together to build a global society for the benefit of humanity. The organization is actively involved in what it characterizes as "building a movement for revolution and building the Party as its leading core."

The main voice of the organization is its weekly newspaper Revolution/Revolución (formerly called Revolutionary Worker/Obrero Revolucionario, 1979-2005) which is published in English and Spanish, and has been published continuously since 1979. This newspaper as well as works by Bob Avakian, party publications, and information about the RCP's current political work can be found at the website revcom.us.

Political Overview

The need and possibility for revolution

According to the RCP, "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." The RCP strongly argues that revolution and communism are both necessary and possible. In the party's view the realization of the possibility of revolution and communism hinges on the people themselves, in their millions and tens of millions, becoming conscious emancipators of humanity. The party maintains that without the leadership of a vanguard communist party it is not possible to bring to life and give organized expression to the revolutionary potential of millions of people who are oppressed by what the RCP terms "the system of capitalism-imperialism."

Bob Avakian has made the analysis that capitalism was restored in the Soviet Union in 1956, and that in 1976 proletarian power was overthrown in the People's Republic of China, which led to the subsequent restoration of capitalism. Avakian and the RCP argue that these two events represented the end of an entire "first stage of communist revolution." In a body of work spanning more than 30 years, Avakian has examined this "first stage of communist revolution," summing up what he characterizes as the principally positive achievements of those revolutions, while learning from their negative experiences and mistakes. The RCP claims that Avakian's body of work represents "a new synthesis of communism." Their argument is that while Avakian has proceeded from the basic framework of communist theory, chiefly developed by Marx, Lenin and Mao, Avakian has recast and reenvisioned communism, and that this represents a major theoretical advance. The party holds that this "new synthesis of communism" creates a viable vision and a strategy for "a new stage of communist revolution" in today's world.

In 2010 the party published a Constitution For the New Socialist Republic in North America, claiming that this represents a basic model, fundamental principles and guidelines for the functioning of what they envision as the future socialist society and state in North America.

Communism as a science

The RCP views communism as an integral philosophy and political theory, a revolutionary political movement and an ultimate goal, but also as a living and continuously developing science. According to the RCP, communism provides an outlook and method of understanding all aspects of reality based on deep scientific investigation and practice and on the application of the scientific method. Avakian has emphasized that one of the defining features of the "new synthesis of communism" is that it has put communism on a more solid scientific foundation.

Internationalism

The RCP bases itself on what it calls "proletarian internationalism," a cornerstone of communist theory that in the view of the party has been further developed by Avakian. This theory holds that revolutions and revolutionary struggles in every country must take as their starting point the interests of all oppressed people the world over and must act on that basis; and further it stresses that this internationalist conception and orientation must be foundational to the approach to revolution, in specific countries as well as on a global basis. It argues that the overall development of revolutionary situations in given countries are more determined by changes on a world scale than by developments within specific countries. Further, this view acknowledges that successful revolutions will occur country by country and that socialist societies must first be built in particular countries, but argues that socialist countries must be built as base areas for world revolution and must actively promote world revolution. The party contends that as long as capitalist-imperialist relations and capitalist states remain and hold sway in the world, there will be a basis for capitalism to recreate itself and spread, and there will be a danger of capitalist restoration in socialist countries.

Strategic approach to revolution

The stated goal of the party is revolution in the United States as part of revolutionary struggles worldwide aimed at ending the capitalist-imperialist system on a world scale. The party argues that in advanced capitalist societies, such a revolution can only be made when millions and millions have awakened to political life and are involved in massive and sustained opposition to the capitalist-imperialist system; through this a "revolutionary situation" emerges which is defined by a major crisis in society and government where millions become convinced of the need for revolution, and then there is an actual struggle for power between those who want to move society forward to socialism and communism and the forces and supporters of the old order.

The party contends that the "potential for a revolutionary crisis lies within the very nature of this capitalist system itself—with its repeated economic convulsions, its unemployment and poverty, its profound inequalities, its discrimination and degradation, its brutality, torture and wars, its wanton destruction." The RCP's "Statement on the Strategy for Revolution" speaks to crises within the system—"sudden jolts and breakdowns in the 'normal functioning' of society, which compel many people to question and to resist what they usually accept. No one can say in advance exactly what will happen in these situations—how deep the crisis may go, in what ways and to what extent it might pose challenges to the system as a whole, and to what degree and in what ways it might call forth unrest and rebellion among people who are normally caught up in, or feel powerless to stand up against, what this system does."

Within these objective dynamics of the system, the RCP's strategic approach to making revolution is embodied in the recognition that "...the possibility of revolution will never really ripen unless those who recognize the need for revolution are preparing the ground for this politically and ideologically even now: working to influence the thinking of people in a revolutionary direction, organizing them into the struggle against this system, and winning growing numbers to become actively involved in building the movement for revolution." The party refers to this strategic approach as "hastening while awaiting" the changes in the objective situation which will make a revolution possible. The party argues that this approach is "....the key to breaking through the situation where there are not yet the necessary conditions and forces to make revolution, but those conditions and forces will never be brought into being by just waiting for them to appear."

With this as its framework, the RCP sees itself as actively building and leading a movement for revolution. As part of this, in its ongoing work and in various campaigns and initiatives, it actively mobilizes people under the slogan "Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution." It strives to unite broadly with many others with diverse viewpoints in strengthening resistance against what it sees as the never-ending outrages of the system (such as imperialist wars, police brutality and the mass incarceration of Blacks and other minorities, pornography and the degradation of women, and the ravaging of the environment) while working to transform people's thinking so that they increasingly come to see that the fundamental problem is the capitalist-imperialist system, and that the only solution is communist revolution.

For many years the RCP has spoken to what they refer to as the "two maximizings": developing resistance and revolutionary movement among those most severely oppressed by the system, while at the same time developing the same type of movement among those more privileged in society who themselves suffer in many ways by the workings of the system and are outraged by the many injustices of the system. The "two maximizings" refers to developing a "mutually reinforcing" influence and revolutionary dynamic between these two trends in society which the party views as having important implications for building a movement for revolution, and successfully making a revolution.

A hallmark of the RCP is the emphasis that it has placed on the historic and ongoing oppression of Black people and their potential in making revolution. Reflecting and underscoring this view, Bob Avakian has said:

There will never be a revolutionary movement in this country that doesn't fully unleash and give expression to the sometimes openly expressed, sometimes expressed in partial ways, sometimes expressed in wrong ways, but deeply, deeply felt desire to be rid of these long centuries of oppression [of Black people]. There's never gonna be a revolution in this country, and there never should be, that doesn't make that one key foundation of what it's all about.

The RCP considers the full liberation of women as a "touchstone" matter for the movement for revolution and among the ranks of the people more broadly. In its view, the struggle to emancipate humanity is bound up all along the way with the struggle to free women from millennia of oppression, and humanity cannot be free until women are liberated in all respects. It emphasizes that women have a tremendous role to play not only in making revolution but in making sure that this revolution does not stop short but instead continues until all oppression is uprooted.

The RCP speaks to "the truly urgent situation with the environment, and specifically the ways in which the capitalist-imperialist system is daily heightening this emergency, in which the future and fate of humanity really is at stake in a very direct and active sense."

Further, the party has stressed that it is wrong to limit a strategic view of the revolutionary process to only contradictions and issues in the political realm. Their strategy stresses the importance of recognizing that revolutionary transformation is a process which goes through "many channels"—that is, important questions of revolutionary transformation often are posed in the realm of the arts and science, in struggles around morality, and in other arenas; and that such issues can themselves become very prominent battlegrounds in society, representing acutely contrasting world views.

Pivotal to building a movement for revolution the RCP promotes what it refers to as the "two mainstays" of the party's revolutionary work, the ongoing and main ways to bring about the ideological and political basis for revolution. The first mainstay refers to "a culture of appreciation, promotion and popularization of what has been brought forward by Bob Avakian (BA) and what he represents;" and the second mainstay refers to the party's newspaper, REVOLUTION, which the RCP describes as the "hub and pivot"—and the scaffolding—of the movement for revolution.

Origins and early history

The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP) was founded in 1975 in a process initiated by the Revolutionary Union, a revolutionary group of the '60s and early '70s. Bob Avakian played a major role in the founding of the party and was elected as its first chairman. Avakian has been the party's leader from that time until the present and has been central to its theoretical and overall work.

The RCP took the name Revolutionary Communist Party to distinguish itself from the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA), which it considers "revisionist" for abandoning revolution and continuing to align itself with the Soviet Union after socialism was overthrown there in the mid-1950s and the USSR was transformed into a social imperialist state and superpower.

Along with many revolutionaries worldwide, the RCP was heavily influenced by the revolution in China and particularly the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) in China led by Mao. In the party's writings and speeches at the time, they pointed to the many achievements of revolutionary socialism in China—the collectivization of agriculture and industry, the elimination of the massive destitution and degradation that the Chinese people had suffered, the wiping out of illiteracy, and the great strides toward the liberation of women and the equality of nationalities. And they pointed to revolutionary China's support of and mobilization of the Chinese people to actively support revolutionary struggles all over the world as part of spreading mass revolutionary political consciousness throughout China and the world.

From the view point of the overall development of communist theory, the party has pointed to the significance of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which they described as Mao's attempt to deal with the challenges and problems of socialism as a transition from capitalism to communism—where socialism represents a giant step away from the oppression and exploitation of capitalist economy and class rule; but at the same time society still faces and must get beyond what they refer to as the "leftovers" and "scars," the remaining economic differences, as well as oppressive social relations and ideas and social differences, from the old society. Within these differences there was a basis to transform society towards communism, but there was also the real danger of going backwards to capitalism. Those high-ranking officials in the government and communist party (people like Deng Xiaoping) who represented a program which would take China back to capitalism were referred to as "capitalist roaders." The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was Mao's approach to and call for continuing the revolution; and it involved unleashing hundreds of millions of the Chinese people to debate and struggle over what course the society would take—forward toward communism or backward toward capitalism.

In the aftermath of Mao's death in 1976, forces led by Deng Xiaoping seized power and arrested and jailed the "Gang of Four," whom the RCP considered revolutionary communist leaders closely aligned with Mao. Avakian took the position, controversial at the time (including among many in the international communist movement), that this represented the culmination of a "counter-revolutionary coup" and that capitalism had then been restored in China—a major defeat for the Chinese revolution and the communist movement internationally.

In the wake of the events in China, there were splits in the international communist movement and this was manifested within the RCP itself. In 1978, a sizeable minority of the organization left the RCP in opposition to Avakian's analysis in regard to the events in China and in favor of what the RCP characterized as, in essence, trade unionism and reformist politics.

In January of 1979 the RCP called for a rally and march in Washington D.C. to politically confront Deng Xiaoping who was on a state visit to the United States to cement relations with the U.S. During the demonstration there was a confrontation which the RCP contends was a violent attack on the demonstration by the police. Many demonstrators were injured, some seriously. There were also many arrests. Avakian himself was arrested. He and seventeen others received severe multiple federal felony charges. After an extended legal battle and public campaign to drop the charges, the charges against Avakian were eventually dropped in 1982.

During this period the RCP confronted many arrests and repressive measures including government surveillance. In 1980, two weeks after having raised a red flag on top of the Alamo in Texas and amidst threats by the police, Damián García, a supporter of the RCP, was murdered as he was doing political outreach in a Los Angeles housing project. Throughout this period Avakian was targeted for government surveillance and harassment including by the FBI, and in 1981 Avakian went into political exile in France.

A Cultural Revolution Within the RCP

Avakian and the RCP openly write about and discuss the struggle within the organization over what is represented by Avakian's leadership and the new synthesis of communism. They characterize the situation that developed within the party over the whole period of the 1980's and 1990's as one where there were in effect two parties, representing two fundamentally opposed roads: On the one hand, there was the "official" line of the party and the ongoing development of that line as embodied particularly in Avakian's new synthesis of communism; but at the same time, there was increasing opposition to this new synthesis and the revolutionary communist line overall, which they attributed to abandoning the outlook and aims of the communist revolution and settling for reforms to the system of imperialism.

As the party's publications recount it, at the point where the continued existence of the RCP as a revolutionary organization was on the line, Avakian called for what he termed a "cultural revolution" within the party. An analogy was being made to the Cultural Revolution in China. According to the RCP, the focus of this struggle within the organization became whether or not to base the work of the party on this new synthesis of communism and on the importance of Bob Avakian's overall leadership itself. This "cultural revolution" eventually resulted in some members leaving the organization. The RCP has summed up that in its most essential aspect, this "cultural revolution" resulted in a "revitalization of the communist and revolutionary outlook, objectives, spirit and culture" of the party and a deeper unity around and appreciation for Avakian's leadership and the new synthesis of communism.

The Beginning of a New Stage of Communist Revolution

The RCP acknowledges that with the defeat of socialism in the Soviet Union and China the first stage of socialism came to an end, but insists that there is a basis to initiate a new stage of communist revolution. Through polemics, debates, and other forms, the party's orientation has been to vigorously challenge those who don't see revolution as the solution or have given up on the prospect of revolution. The RCP contends that with the advances in communist theory concentrated in Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism and the leadership of Avakian himself, there is a renewed and firm basis for initiating a new wave of revolution, if new waves of people—in the words of the RCP, "new initiators" of a new stage of communist revolution, especially among, but not limited to, youth—can be won to this revolutionary understanding and orientation and into the ranks of the party and the broader movement for revolution around it.

Website

Website for the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA: revcom.us

Selected Publications from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

• Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage-A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. (2009) ISBN 978-0-89851-006-5. Available as pdf at revcom.us
• Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). (2010) ISBN 978-0-8951-007-2. Available as html at revcom.us
• Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. (2008) ISBN 978-0-89851-001-0. Available as html at revcom.us
• 1995 Leadership Resolutions on Leaders and Leadership. Revolutionary Worker #825, October 1, 1995. Available as html at revcom.us
• "On the Strategy for Revolution," Revolution/Revolución #226, March 6, 2011. Available as html at revcom.us
• Revolution/Revolución newspaper. Available at revcom.us
• "The Oppression of Black People,The Crimes of This System and the Revolution We Need." Special issue of Revolution/Revolución. (2008). Available as html or pdf at revcom.us
• "A Declaration: for Women's Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity." Special issue of Revolution/Revolución. (2009). Available as html or pdf at revcom.us
• "State of Emergency, The Plunder of Our Planet, the Environmental Catastrophe, and the Real Revolutionary Solution." Special issue of Revolution/Revolución. (2010). Available as html or pdf at revcom.us
• "The Case of Israel, Bastion of Enlightenment or Enforcer for Imperialism?" Special issue of Revolution/Revolución. (2010). Available as html or pdf at revcom.us
• "From the Hellholes of Incarceration to a Future of Emancipation." Special issue of Revolution/Revolución. (2009). Available as html at revcom.us
• You Don't Know What You Think You "Know" About... THE COMMUNIST REVOLUTION AND THE REAL PATH TO EMANCIPATION:ITS HISTORY AND OUR FUTURE. (November 2013). Available as html at revcom.us. Also available in E-book form here.
• Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic Orientation. A Revolution pamphlet (reprints from Revolution newspaper), May 1, 2008. Available as html at revcom.us
• The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have: A Message And a Call, From the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. (2009). Available as html at revcom.us

Selected works of Bob Avakian

Film

"BA Speaks: REVOLUTION-NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live." Film of a talk given in 2012. Available as a DVD at revcom.us

Books

• BAsics from the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian (2011), ISBN 0898510104
• Break ALL the Chains! Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution (2014), ISBN 9780898510416
• Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World (2008), ISBN 0976023687
• Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy (2008), ISBN 089851004X
• From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist (2005), ISBN 9780976023623
• Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy (2005), ISBN 9780976023630
• Marxism and the Call of the Future: Conversations on Ethics, History, and Politics, co-authored with Bill Martin (2005), ISBN 9780812695793
• Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones: We Need Morality But Not Traditional Morality (1999), ISBN 0976023644
• Phony Communism is Dead ... Long Live Real Communism! - A Response to the Claims of the "Death of Communism" (1992, 2004), ISBN 0898511224
• Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That? (1986), ISBN 0916650294
• A Horrible End: Or, The End to the Horror? (1984), ISBN 0898510708
• For a Harvest of Dragons: On the "Crisis of Marxism" and the Power of Marxism Now More Than Ever - An Essay Marking the 100th Anniversary of Marx's Death (1983), ISBN 0898510651
• Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must and Will (1981)
• The Immortal Contributions of Mao Tsetung (1979), ISBN 0898510465
• The Loss in China and the Revolutionary Legacy of Mao Tsetung (1978), ISBN 0898510171

Interview

• What Humanity Needs: Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism, An Interview with Bob Avakian by A. Brooks, Revolution #267, May 1, 2012. Available as pdf at revcom.us.

Printed Talks

• Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon. (2010) Available in E-book form here.
• "Some Principles for Building a Movement for Revolution" (May 2010)
• "There is No 'Permanent Necessity' for Things to Be This Way - A Radically Different and Better World Can Be Brought Into Being Through Revolution" (March 2010)
• "Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution" (Fall 2009)
• Ruminations and Wranglings: On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning" (2009)
• "Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity" (2007), "Part 1: Beyond the Narrow Horizon of Bourgeois Right" and "Part 2: Everything We're Doing is About Revolution"
• "Bringing Forward Another Way" (2006)
• "The Need for Communists to be ... Communists (2005)
• "The Oppression of Black People and the Revolutionary Struggle to End All Oppression" (2007), Part 1 ,Part 2 ,Part 3, and Part 4
• "Views on Socialism and Communism: A Radically New Kind of State, A Radically Different and Far Greater Vision of Freedom" (2005)
• "The Basis, the Goals, and the Methods of the Communist Revolution" (2005)
• "The Coming Civil War and Repolarizing for Revolution in the Present Era" (2005)
• "On Truth ... On Knowing, and Changing, the World: A Discussion with Comrades on Epistemology" (2004)
• "Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism" (2002)