Revolution #192, February 14, 2010
UNRESOLVED CONTRADICTIONS, DRIVING FORCES FOR REVOLUTION
Solid Core and Elasticity
In terms of the development of the organized communist movement, from now and looking to the future, there is another important question that I want to address: the relation between ideological unity and cohesion on the one hand and decentralization on the other hand—another expression of solid core and elasticity. This gets focused to a large degree around this contradiction: the need for, but at the same time problems related to, leadership. This has been a difficult contradiction for our movement, historically as well as in more recent times. Without going into great detail here, in a way that is neither necessary nor appropriate, and is not helpful to our cause, I do want to point to some recent negative experiences that our movement has undergone and to what lessons should, and should not, be drawn from this.
International Women's Day 2010: A Time to Act
Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution
March 8, International Women's Day 2010, is a time to act.
There are no more monstrous crimes committed anywhere in the world than those against women. There are no more righteous reasons to resist than the horrors women go through every day. And if this were the only reason—and it is not—these crimes alone would pose the need and demand for revolution.
Reporter's Journal from Haiti
In the last week of January a reporter for Revolution traveled to Port-au-Prince to investigate the causes and consequences of the earthquake in Haiti, and to talk to a wide range of Haitians about their experiences, their feelings and their thinking about what is known in Kreyòl as the "Katastrof." He stayed for one week in different encampments of people made homeless by the quake. He was able to tour a large part of the earthquake zone, including parts of the huge working class districts of Delmas and Carrefour, the suburbs of Pétionville and Kenscoff, the downtown business, residential and governmental districts, and the field-hospital-and-shantytown in the nearby town of Léogâne, which lost over 80% of its buildings and at least 20,000 people in the quake.
- Centerfold (PDF)
Waves of Struggle Continue in Iran
The struggle in Iran has continued to simmer and erupt. Iranian people—especially youth and women—took to the streets in protest at the end of December. And more protests are planned for later this month.
From the Burkha to the Thong:
Everything Must, and Can, Change!
We Need Total Revolution
A National Campus Speaking Tour by Sunsara Taylor
IF YOU ARE A WOMAN
YOUR BODY IS A BATTLEGROUND
Anywhere you look, women are being slammed backwards. In Bangkok and Bangalore and Moldova young women are stripped naked and sold across borders as sex slaves. In Indonesia and Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia women are shrouded in veils, kept as property, and even killed if they somehow “dishonor” their family.
Confronting Abortion Opponents at Roe v. Wade Events
On Friday, January 22, tens of thousands of anti-abortion protesters rallied in D.C., as they do every year on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion 37 years ago. Some 100 people, mostly women, countered them with a pro-choice event in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, going up in the face, literally, of being menaced, getting death threats, and being prayed at. They went face-to-face with young people—many bused in from Catholic schools—who have been brainwashed to believe that allowing a woman to choose whether or not to have a child is “killing babies.” One pro-choice high school student brought a home-made sign that said “Trust Women” on one side, and “Women Are Not Incubators,” on the other.
The Murderer of Dr. George Tiller:
Convicted… After Being Given a Stage to Justify Murder of Abortion Doctors
On January 29, Scott Roeder was convicted of the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the courageous doctor who provided abortions for women. Roeder gunned down Dr. Tiller in a church, shooting him in the head on May 31, 2009. A Wichita jury found Roeder, who confessed to the killing, guilty after just 37 minutes of deliberation.
The Toxic Message Behind the Tebow Super Bowl Ad
Super Bowl ads are notorious for degrading women who are routinely displayed nearly naked as objects for the gratification of men to sell beer, cars, and even more fundamentally this society’s view of the role of women.
Revolution Talk online–out in the world
SNAPSHOTS
Before the week of the big push to get the Revolution Talk online out in the world we made a plan for enlisting people in the effort. We talked about people we knew who had watched the video—either in the recent period when we have been going out with the statement—or even going back some years. And we added people we knew in different parts of the city, in schools and community centers who maybe hadn’t watched the Revolution Talk yet—but should—and who could get word of it out in key places.
People Speak Out Against Police Brutality
At the end of 2009, revolutionaries took this call to high schools and neighborhoods in the south Los Angeles area. They talked about why speaking out was an important form of resistance and standing up to all this abuse and repression. All these voices are of young people, Blacks and Latinos, men and women, who know first hand the epidemic of police brutality in the U.S. and who struggled through both their fears of retribution from the police for telling their stories -- and the pain of reliving these experiences.
Join special efforts to spread Bob Avakian’s Revolution talk during Black History Month:
Beginning today and for the next four weeks, new clips from Bob Avakian’s talk, Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About will be posted online at revolutiontalk.net and youtube.com/revolutiontalk. These will focus on the history and present day reality of the oppression of Black people, and the kind of revolution it will take to liberate Black people, as a part of emancipating all of humanity. This will be an important opportunity to introduce people broadly to Bob Avakian and all the answers posed in this powerful talk concentrating “the revolution we need and the leadership we have.” Everyone who wants to see this out there should begin now making plans to get these clips online—to campus list-servs, via email to Black studies or history profs, think about teachers you know who are in relevant academic associations, etc. Also, these should go out online to education and cultural blogs, and all over Facebook—talk with individuals you know about posting these on their FB pages every week or getting them out on other online social networks. Funds need to be raised for focused advertising.
In the first part of the nineteenth century de Tocqueville wrote volumes, which have been made famous, upholding the USA as a model democracy. Such a society, he said, with its extensive opportunity for individual enrichment and its large, prosperous, stable middle class, would be very resistant to revolution. But, he warned, if revolution ever did come to the USA, it would be in connection with the Black people. Today, 150 years or so after de Tocqueville wrote this, the masses of Black people are still enslaved, but that slavery has taken new forms—and the Black masses are in a different position too. They are now concentrated in the strategic urban cores in the U.S. and concentrated in the most exploited sections of the working class, with the least stake in upholding the system and preserving the present order. And they are joined in this position by millions of proletarians of other oppressed nationalities. In short, these special victims of U.S. imperialism are in a tremendously powerful position to play a decisive role in making de Tocqueville’s warning a reality—with world-historic consequences far beyond anything de Tocqueville could have imagined.
From BULLETS…From the Writings, Speeches and Interviews of Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, RCP Publications, 1985, pp. 171-172
See the DVD of the complete talk by Bob Avakian — Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About at revolutiontalk.net and selected clips at YouTube.com/revolutiontalk.
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:
- Sunsara Taylor
- Carl Dix
- Joe Veale
- "Next Stop Revolution"
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.
Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA
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Three Main Points
What do we in the Revolutionary Communist Party want people to learn from all that is exposed and revealed in this newspaper?
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The Objective Situation, the Bush Regime and the Bourgeois Elections |
An Assessment of the Momentum Towards War Between the United States and Iran: Causes and Potential Ramifications |
“The politics of the ‘possible’ is the politics of monstrosity. To adhere to, or acquiesce in, the politics of the ‘possible’ is to support, and actually to facilitate, monstrosity.” |
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Is it right to promote individual leaders? Check out... 1995 Leadership Resolutions on Leaders and Leadership: Part II: Some Points on the Question of Revolutionary Leadership and Individual Leaders |
"What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade on the other hand, are historically outmoded strata among colonized and oppressed humanity up against historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system. These two reactionary poles reinforce each other, even while opposing each other. If you side with either of these ‘outmodeds,’ you end up strengthening both." |
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