Prisoner & Ex-Prisoner Write on Bob Avakian and on Science & Revolution... An Interview With Ardea Skybreak

July 15, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

We recently received the following letters through the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) on the book Science and Revolution: On the Importance of Science and the Application of Science to Society, the New Synthesis of Communism and the Leadership of Bob Avakian, an Interview with Ardea Skybreak.

These letters give a glimpse of the potential and transformative impact of this book, which needs to get out much more widely among all sections of society, to those incarcerated in its hellholes and ghettoized in its housing projects, to those standing up righteously against the injustices of this society such as the recent police murders and questioning why does this keep happening, to progressive artists and intelligentsia, youth and students, and the halls of academia.

Promoting this book and getting it widely known requires funds. Just among the prisoners alone, the demand is increasingly great, and funds are needed for subsidized copies.

One of the letters states, “Inside, I’ve enclosed the amount of $5 to help raise funds, so that the brothers and sisters still behind the walls can get their own copy of Science and Revolution by Ardea Skybreak. I don’t have a lot since I just recently got out of prison myself, but I think it’s necessary to contribute in any way I can. I hope others will also match my donation with whatever they can as well. If I can, I’m sure many others are in a far better position financially to do even more.”

Many others are, so let’s take up this challenge.

Donate to:

The BA Institute: thebobavakianinstitute.org

Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund: prlf.org

~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s imperative that this book get out far and wide, just like BAsics”

From an ex-prisoner in the Midwest

Announcing: The Launch of a Pathbreaking New Book from Bob Avakian

Get this book into the
hands of prisoners!

Here’s how. The publisher has a special offer: Buy one paperback for yourself from Insight Press, and buy a second book at 50% off for a prisoner and it will be sent directly to a prisoner. Total price for this offer is $25.50, plus $5.00 for shipping.

Contact Insight Press
info@insight-press.com
773-329-1669

I was fortunate to be one of the few brothers that the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) was able to lay this work on before I was released from prison. The fact that I had already became firmly grounded in approaching everything scientifically due to my reading of The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism, I already foresee the impact that her book Science and Revolution will have simply because I know how accessible her books are to the general reader. Not everybody has developed the capacity to break down complex subjects for the average Joe or Jane to understand and be persuaded by. But that’s one of the hallmarks of Ardea Skybreak that stands her apart from many. I remember actually advocating the Theory of Evolution after reading her book as if I too had went to college to be an authority on the subject. From those debates and dialogues, I actually convinced a number of my friends and associates in accepting the scientific validity of Evolution and our origins—not out of blind faith, but by assessing the evidence-based conclusions that were readily apparent after careful review.

Before I got out of prison, I remember giving a friend of mine a copy of Science and Revolution and he and I spending hours debating the scientific method. Although he didn’t become a dialectical materialist per se, I observed his consciousness undergo radical leaps where he began to even understand the scientific method even down to its philosophical level. It wasn’t unusual to walk by and hear us debating what was objective reality and what wasn’t. This is within the midst of a culture primarily concerned about getting high every day in prison or kicking it about who got whopped in another cell house the day before. And that’s big! Because for some people philosophy is just some obscure discipline that has no application to everyday life. It was something that people like Socrates and Plato did or intellectuals did today to intellectually masturbate and sound smart. But I’m sure my friend no longer compartmentalizes philosophy in that detached, unscientific manner any longer now.

I’m going to bring this letter to a close, but I think it’s imperative that this book gets spread far and wide just like BAsics ... just like The New Jim Crow. All of these sorta trajectory changing books have their place in shaping the consciousness of the masses; there’s interdependence between them that enables people to break with their former ways of thinking, behaving, and what they come to see as necessary for radical change to come about. Together they have the capacity to bring clarity to the movement and transform it into the material force it needs to become one day. This is all a part of “hastening while awaiting” the objective conditions.

Authored by Bob Avakian, and adopted by the Central Committee of the RCP

Do you know anyone else—any person or organization—that has managed to bring forth an actual PLAN for a radically different society, in all its dimensions, and a CONSTITUTION to codify all this? — A different world IS possible — Check out and order online the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).

Inside, I’ve enclosed the amount of $5 to help raise funds, so that the brothers and sisters still behind the walls can get their own copy of Science and Revolution by Ardea Skybreak. I don’t have a lot since I just recently got out of prison myself, but I think it’s necessary to contribute in any way I can. I hope others will also match my donation with whatever they can as well. If I can, I’m sure many others are in a far better position financially to do even more.

Well... I’m going to close, but I’m glad to see the PRLF still doing the same it did for me, for others.

In Solidarity,

“What makes BA so important is that he’s out the gates now...”

From a prisoner in California:

Just a few quick words to acknowledge receipt of Science & Revolution. Just got it today... you already know I’m in love with anything by BA and Skybreak. I’m sure your party has many BA’s—in training—and Skybreaks being molded as we speak.

But what makes BA so important is that he’s out the gates now and not only do we not need to reinvent the wheel in that regard, any person who calls themselves “conscious,” “progressive” or “revolutionary” is in violation of their own codes if they aren’t students of BA simply and precisely because he’s put forward concrete, realistic, morally sound & scientific ideas & programs...

So too w/Skybreak and just like BA she’s too heavy & has done too much work for anyone who claims to be thinkers, laymen scientists or revolutionaries are full of shit if they are not grappling w/this stuff. I do understand tho’ what she means when she says BA is miles ahead of EVERYONE ELSE.

ANYWAYS—they’re doin’ Ali’s funeral today. Loved how the crowd honored him during the procession but was heartbroken to see how the dogs pushed people out the street and stopped them from getting close to the hearse when it got to his ol’ house. They really showed they serve no purpose other than to oppress, hold down or back, and they are not the people’s police & definitely not the police for blacks.

But like I said it just shows that they serve & can serve no purpose. No one should get paid to oppress or hold the people back. No one should get paid to make sure people can’t mourn or celebrate the life of someone they love.