Revolutionary Worker #1148, April 28, 2002, posted at http://rwor.org
In May 1992, RCP Chairman Bob Avakian issued a revolutionary greeting to the people who rose up in the L.A. Rebellion. The following is the text of that message, which originally appeared in RW #657.
Message from Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA on the L.A. Rebellion.
Revolutionary Greetings to All the Sisters and Brothers Who Have Risen Up in Righteous Rebellion in L.A.!
This rebellion was the most beautiful, the most heroic, and the most powerful action by masses of people in the U.S. for years and years. It sent shockwaves throughout the U.S. and around the world, striking fear and panic into the oppressors and causing the hearts of oppressed people everywhere to beat faster with joy and hope.
This rebellion showed the tremendous strength of the oppressed people when they rise up against their oppression. It showed that the masses of Black people won't take this racist oppression and brutality any more, and that when they strike back against it, there will be people of all different races and nationalities who will join with them. It showed that the way the oppressed people can get out of the trap of fighting and killing each other is to rise up and fight the system.
This rebellion brought out more forcefully into the open that the U.S. is a society based on class exploitation, and it showed the tremendous potential of the proletariat, the exploited class of all races and nationalities, to unite all the "have-nots" and lead all the oppressed to make revolution, overthrow this "modern-day" system of slavery called capitalism and sweep away all forms of slavery and oppression.
Throughout history, whenever the oppressed have risen up, the oppressors have always reacted with the whip, the sword and the gun, and with vicious lies and slanders aimed at confusing and dividing the oppressed and making them feel "guilty" for daring to strike back at their oppression. There have always been those who claim to be "one of us'' and to be our "friends,'' who insist that we are "only bringing more suffering upon ourselves." But this is because the oppressors and those who suck up to them and serve them are scared to death of our uprising. They know they have done us wrong on top of wrong, they know that their whole system is built on doing murderous wrong to people all over the world--they know that once we are determined not to take this any more, that is the beginning of the end for them and their system.
Were some mistakes made in this rebellion--do we have things to learn? Of course. We have to learn how to identify the real enemy more clearly and how to fight back with even more powerful effect against that enemy--the system and its enforcers. We have to learn more clearly who all the victims of this system are and how to unite them in the most powerful way against this real enemy. And, most of all, we have to learn how to move on from rebellion to revolution--to the overthrow of this whole system and the building of a far better system.
But those who do not stand with our rebellion, those who try to stand in the way of revolution, have no right whatsoever to preach to us. We know that to put an end to injustice, to do away with all exploitation and oppression, we will have to pay a price. We are forced to sacrifice and suffer, just trying to survive under this system, we are bleeding and dying more every day that this system remains in effect. Now, with the L.A. rebellion, and all the righteous actions in unity and support, we have made a giant step toward overcoming all this; and whatever price we have to pay to carry this all the way, to make revolution and make a new day, it will be worth it.
Brothers and Sisters: Our Party, the RCP, is prepared and determined to stand with the masses of people in the fight against the system and to carry this fight all the way through, and not to sell-out or turn back, no matter what the enemy uses to come at us, whether it be bullets or bribes. We are willing and ready to take on the responsibility of building the revolutionary understanding, organization, and fighting ability of our class, the proletarians, and all oppressed people, so that we can move on to carry out the great transforming and cleansing process of proletarian revolution.
This system has seen its doom in our uprising, and it is time to be moving on to make that a reality-- to finish off and bury this system forever.
Glory to those who have risen up with fury--It is Right to Rebel!
Forward from rebellion to all-the-way-liberating Proletarian Revolution!
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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