BIDEN, A DOORKNOB—
AND GOING THROUGH THE DOOR

by Bob Avakian

October 19, 2020 

It is crucial that there be a massive vote against Trump—which means voting for Biden. Now, a lot of people don’t like Biden, or don’t have any enthusiasm for Biden. That is certainly understandable. But it misses the main point: Voting for Biden is the only realistic way to vote against Trump. I have joked with people that, if a doorknob could defeat Trump in the upcoming election, voting for that doorknob would be better than voting for Biden, since the doorknob wouldn’t have all the negative things about it that Biden does. But the fact is that, in terms of the election itself, only voting for Biden, and not a doorknob, provides the means for handing Trump a decisive electoral defeat.

This is a way of emphasizing the important point I made in my August 1 Statement:

To approach this election from the standpoint of which candidate is “better” means failing to understand the truly profound stakes and potential consequences of what is involved. The fact is that there can be one—and only one—“good” that can come out of this election: delivering a decisive defeat to Trump and the whole fascist regime. Doing this would create far better conditions for continuing to wage the struggle against everything represented by the Trump/Pence regime and all the oppression and injustices of this system, and would be a great gift to the people of the world.¹

As a fundamental point of orientation, we need to quit looking to any of these politicians to end injustice, oppression, and the destruction of the environment. Oppression and exploitation, and the destruction of the environment—all this is built into this system of capitalism-imperialism that all these politicians represent. Let me say it again: In regard to this election, the only “positive” that can come out of this is preventing the further consolidation of the white supremacist, male supremacist, immigrant-hating, LGBT-hating, science-defying, climate-wrecking, nuclear annihilation-threatening, future-destroying fascist Trump/Pence regime. 

And that is a very important positive—it is, really, a matter of life and death.

At the same time, I have repeatedly emphasized that, given the fact that Trump is already stealing the election, through an ongoing rolling coup, simply relying on voting is very likely to lead to disaster. And this is why, while a massive vote for Biden is important, it is crucial that growing numbers of people—in the thousands now, and building to become millions—take to the streets around the country, and stay in the streets, day after day, taking up the call from RefuseFascism.org that the Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!² 

And, having prevented the catastrophe that would result from this regime remaining in power, we can carry forward the struggle to build for something very positive—revolution—to put an end to this system and bring a much better system into being.

1. Statement by Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution (emphasis in the original). This Statement is available at revcom.us.  [back]

2. In addition to his August 1 Statement, this point (on Trump’s ongoing moves to steal the election, and the need for mass mobilization demanding Trump/Pence OUT NOW!) is emphasized in a number of other works by Bob Avakian, including the important three-part series titled Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now! (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) which is also available at revcom.us.  [back]

CANDACE OWENS: SHAMELESS HYPOCRITE—
SUPPORTER OF WHITE SUPREMACIST FASCISM

by Bob Avakian

October 17, 2020 

The “Black conservative” Candace Owens, who is working for Trump and the Republicans, is a shameless hypocrite—and worse. She tries to give herself “cred” by talking about how prior generations of her family had to deal with segregation and discrimination, while she fronts for that fascist Trump, who openly, blatantly, promotes white supremacy and white supremacist violence. Among other overt racist acts, Trump insists on defending Confederate statues and other monuments to segregation, discrimination, Ku Klux Klan Terror—and slavery!

“Black conservatives,” like Candace Owens, want to “get in on” the “spoils” that come from this system’s plunder of people, here and around the world, and they desperately want to be accepted in the “high society” of the monstrous oppressors like Trump. These “Black conservatives” basically agree with the crude racism of their white fascist counterparts. Like “house slaves” living in the master’s house in old times, they fear that they will be “dragged down” by being associated with “those” Black people—those who are not “well behaved” and rebel against their oppressed conditions, especially those who dare to rise up against the brutality and murder of Black people by police. 

As I have said before:

Let the Candace Owenses of the world shuffle, scuffle and scratch for a share of the blood-soaked spoils of this system. For all those who hunger for a world without all the atrocity and terror, all the unnecessary suffering that is caused by this system of capitalism-imperialism, let us rise together to put an end to all this, in the only way it can be done: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!—a revolution not for revenge, or to “get ours” through the exploitation and degradation of others—a revolution for the emancipation of all humanity.*

Right now, as the immediate, urgent focus of the struggle against oppression and injustice—and to advance things toward the time when that fundamental revolution will be possible—let us mobilize in sustained, and growing, mass non-violent mobilization, day-after-day, powerfully giving expression to the unifying demand raised by RefuseFascism.org, that the fascist Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!

* It’s Not “The Democrats”—It’s the Whole System!, An Answer to Candace Owens and Other Black NAZI Demagogues. This article by Bob Avakian is available at revcom.us.  [back]