On October 18, Revolution Books, Berkeley, and The Bob Avakian Institute co-sponsored an important program to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement which shook Berkeley and sent shockwaves across the country.

Everyone who came received a copy of the new pamphlet issued by The Bob Avakian Institute, “Reflections on the Free Speech Movement” by Bob Avakian. Nearly every seat in Revolution Books was filled, and most who came stayed for the rich discussion at the end. In addition to footage from the actual events, there was an illustrated  playing of Bob Avakian reading his own recollections from his memoir, From Ike to Mao, and Beyond. The event featured speeches from Waldo Martin, UC Berkeley professor of History, author of Black Against Empire on the Black Panther Party, and David S. from THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity. The conception and spirit flowed from key principles Bob Avakian draws in his social media dispatch @BobAvakianOfficial, REVOLUTION #80—which was played for the audience—where he draws from the experience of the Free Speech Movement important principles crucial for campuses—and beyond—today:

In the midst of these heavy times, it is important that the basic principles that characterized the FSM be actively popularized, struggled for and applied: the bedrock stand of refusing to go along with injustice and putting yourself on the line to oppose it, without being derailed by the hypocritical maneuvers, or shrinking in the face of the repressive measures, of those wielding unjust power; the largeness of mind and generosity of spirit that leads to uniting all who can be united in the fight against injustice, with the orientation of valuing and encouraging critical thinking, with open-minded debate over the road forward and the biggest questions related to changing the world.

In his speech, David drew from Bob Avakian’s “Reflections on the Free Speech Movement,” in particular how Bob Avakian connects important principles he draws from the FSM experience to the new communism he has developed. As David pointed out, “It’s ‘common wisdom,’ among academia and democratic critics, that communists can only achieve their goals through brutal suppression of individual rights. Yet, the principles and spirit that are incorporated into the guiding principles of the new communism that Bob Avakian has developed give much fuller expression to dissent, critical thinking and creativity than any of even the best capitalist democracies or even the previous socialist societies that existed for some time.” And David gave the audience a vivid picture of the whole new way to live under a fundamentally different society brought about through an actual revolution, based on the new communism and Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian.

Waldo Martin, as someone who has devoted a lot of his work to the history of the Civil Rights and Black Power movement, brought to the audience the important relationship between the struggle for Black people’s rights, especially in the South, and what developed as the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley. He noted that many of the activists at Berkeley in the fall of 1964 had been involved in the Mississippi Freedom Summer just months before that fall semester. And he stressed how significant it was that what they learned from that experience motivated them in their determination to not be prevented by the University from bringing that struggle to the campus.