On the Release of Issue #4:
From the Editors of Demarcations

Updated June 1, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

As the centerpiece of this issue, we are pleased to publish as our lead article a polemic submitted to Demarcations by Ishak Baran and KJA: “Ajith—A Portrait of the Residue of the Past.” Baran and KJA are adherents of Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism, and their article is a very important contribution to the response to Against Avakianism by Ajith. (At the time this was published, Ajith was secretary of what had then been the CPI (M-L) Naxalbari.)

The focus of their polemic is philosophy, specifically epistemology (the branch of philosophy concerned with issues of knowledge and truth) and methodology. This is a topic that at first sight might appear abstract and distant from the urgent problems of today’s world. But these philosophical issues have everything to do with putting an end to the madness and horror of our times—with the ability of oppressed humanity and all who yearn for a world worthy of our humanity to understand the world (that is epistemology) precisely in order to change it (through revolution).

Demarcations has previously published a number of articles that speak to and refute different dimensions of Ajith’s attack on the new synthesis of communism that Bob Avakian has brought forward and that provides the theoretical framework to initiate a new stage of communist revolution. To understand the larger backdrop of this sharpening debate in the international communist movement, and a listing of the articles in response to Ajith’s attack on the new synthesis, readers should look at our Editors’ Note of September 2, 2014.

• We are excited to announce that Phoneme Books of Delhi, India has republished Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That? by Bob Avakian. This is a welcome event. It brings Avakian’s 1986 text—the most comprehensive Marxist treatment of democracy—to a much wider audience in India and elsewhere. For this new printing from Phoneme, Raymond Lotta has written a special introduction, which we are making available in this issue of Demarcations.
• In this issue, we also feature an excerpt from a 2009 talk by Bob Avakian, Ruminations and Wranglings: On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning. 2009.

There is rich analysis here that takes in issues of how different classes and social forces approach and understand the problems of the world and how to solve them. Avakian discusses the sweep of communist revolution as a “total revolution”; that there is a social base for this revolution in today’s world; and the challenges of leading a complex revolutionary process that involves the interplay of and struggle between different outlooks, lines, and programs representing different classes and class interests.

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