This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number Eighty-Seven

In Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and other countries in Asia, and other parts of the world, the demand for “servicing” of U.S. troops by prostitution has been one of the main driving forces of the sexual enslavement of millions of women and girls. This is the same U.S. military which has a terrible record of sexual assault against women in its own ranks! (For the full picture of the way this capitalist-imperialist system, and the U.S. above all, has institutionalized sex trafficking and the sexual enslavement of millions of women and girls, see the article at revcom.us by Raymond Lotta: The “Industrialization” of Sexual Exploitation, Imperialist Globalization, and the Descent Into Hell.)

At the same time, the U.S. military, along with the bloody “intelligence agencies” of this country, is responsible for the slaughter of millions of civilians just since World War 2—once again, in Korea and Vietnam and other countries in Asia, and in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

This same U.S. military is the world’s number one institutional consumer of oil, contributing in a significant way to the fact that the U.S. has, for decades, been the number one destroyer of the environment.

Right now the U.S. is arming and backing Israel in the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians, including more than 15 thousand children!—while millions of children in the world, under the age of 5, needlessly die every year because of starvation and preventable disease (as I have shown in my last message, more than 500 million children have died this way since the end of World War 2, in 1945), fundamentally as a result of the way the system of capitalism-imperialism, and above all the U.S., dominates the world.

All this is a big part of the foundation for what has been the “stability” of rule of this system within this country, with the illusions and delusions of far too many—and the “luxury” for some of “looking away” from very real horror.

Recently, in southern California, as members of the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity were out challenging people to get with the revolution— exposing the actual monstrous crimes of this system in Palestine (and elsewhere) and the need, and possibility, for revolution to sweep away this system— one woman responded by defiantly voicing this disgusting self-indulgence: “I choose not to think about what is going on there. I don’t want to have my light dimmed or lose my peace of mind. I am completely comfortable with choosing to tune it out.”

This is the attitude of the all-too-typical ACP (American Chauvinist Pig). To people who spout this putrid garbage, it needs to be bluntly said: You do realize that this makes you a truly despicable human being and reprehensible parasite—who should not even try to pretend to be a person with anything resembling decent morals.

But, as I have emphasized in message number Seventy-Five: reality is coming for the lies and illusions that far too many are caught up in—and indulging themselves in.

In the world as a whole, the very functioning of this system of capitalism-imperialism—including the actual policies of Biden and Harris—is leading to the accelerating destruction of the environment. (At revcom.us, there is extensive exposure of the actual policies, and the lies and misleading claims, of the Biden/Harris administration, regarding the environment.)

In arming and backing the actions of Israel, the U.S. government is not only enabling the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians but is also increasing the possibility of a war with Iran, and perhaps an even wider and more destructive war. At the same time, by massively providing weapons, as well as intelligence and strategic direction to Ukraine, the U.S. government, headed by the Biden/Harris administration, is already indirectly at war with Russia, while also making preparations for military confrontation with China —all of which could lead to world war, between nuclear-armed imperialist powers, with the possibility of wiping out human civilization as we know it.

Within the U.S. itself, the racist, woman and LGBT-hating, immigrant persecuting, science-denying, environment plundering, future-destroying fascism of Trump and the Republican Party poses a direct challenge to the unifying mythology of America as a land of freedom, equality and opportunity for all, and it is a direct threat to the “normal way” that this country has functioned, and the rule of the capitalist class has been held together, and exercised over the people, for generations, with the “peaceful transfer of power” from one section of the capitalist ruling class to the other, depending on the outcome of elections, accepted by both sides.

Besides the ugly truth of what Harris is really all about, there is the fact that, in the election this November (assuming it is held then), if Harris were to win the majority (not just in the popular vote but also the Electoral College count) it is almost certain that Trump and the Republicans would refuse to accept this, and things would likely be thrown into chaos and upheaval, even beyond what happened with the last presidential election (in 2020).

As I emphasized, in message number Eight:

The country as a whole is being torn apart by divisions that can no longer be covered over and things can no longer be held together in the way they have been for generations.

Everything will very likely be coming to a head and coming up for grabs this year, 2024, with the presidential election this year a sharp focus of the fight between the dominating ruling class parties—Democrats and Republicans—a fight that is very likely to break all out of the bounds of the “normal way” they exercise power over the people, and keep their whole murderous system going....

This kind of deep division—and especially this bitter antagonism among the powers-that-be—has not been seen in this country since the time of the Civil War way back in the 1860s....

This is not a time to be siding with one group of oppressors or another. This is a rare time—a very rare opening—a chance that may come only once in a lifetime—a chance to take advantage of the deep divisions among the ruling oppressors and go after their whole system, with the aim of bringing the whole thing down, and putting something much better in its place.

And in this light, to echo the important point I emphasized in message number Fifty-Eight: For those liberals and “progressives” who are willing to confront inconvenient but profound truths and can recognize that whatever “goodies” they get from this system are not nearly as important as the tremendous suffering and destruction caused by this system, worldwide—and the very real threat it poses to the future, and the very existence, of humanity—and for those who are not so “invested” in this system, but suffer terribly under its rule: there is the urgent need to be joining, and working actively for, the only real, positive alternative to this monstrous system—the emancipating revolution that is possible right in this time we are living in, now.

Soon, I will once again be getting into the crucial question of Black people and revolution.