Today, we celebrate International Women’s Day, 2024. We are in these streets to say NO! to the patriarchal degradation, dehumanization, and subjugation of all women everywhere, and all oppression based on gender or sexual orientation!

I want to start with a shout-out to the women all over the world who are rising up and fighting back. In particular, I want to recognize the brave women of Iran. They defied terror and brutality two years ago to stand up after Iran's “morality police” viciously murdered Mahsa Jina Amini for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly. We stand with all those who have been imprisoned and tortured in the vicious repression that followed. And a special shout-out to our comrades in Iran who are fighting to apply the new communism forged by Bob Avakian in those very difficult circumstances so that this fury can be called forward once again and go all the way to a real revolution.

This IWD, 2024, I call on each of you to step into the revolution here—to join with the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity to declare: We Need And We Demand A Whole New Way To Live, A Fundamentally Different System. We need and we demand a revolution!

We refuse to accept a society and a world where women are degraded as “bitches” and “ho’s.” Where women are catcalled and harassed just for walking down the street. Where women are beaten and humiliated and sexually assaulted in their own homes. Where women are discriminated against from the board rooms to the stockroom, from the fields to factories, while sweeping the floors and serving your food.

We refuse to accept a world where women are killed by the thousands—from Latin America to Africa to Europe and right here in the U.S.—just for being female. Where women are sold into sexual slavery by the millions. Where women are brutally degraded in the multibillion dollar porn industry. Where the minds of men and boys are poisoned to see women as mere objects of conquest. Where women are forced under the headscarf. Where women are shamed if they have sex. Where women are forced to have children against their will.

We refuse to accept a world where through all of this violence and degradation, all this insult and oppression, on top of it all women are told to swallow their anger, to smile, to be pleasant, to obey and submit.

No. Bob Avakian, BA, the revolutionary leader who has forged a whole new framework for human emancipation, what we call the new communism, has said:

Even with all the ways that the heavy chains of hundreds, and thousands, of years of oppressive tradition weigh down on the masses of people—and place a heavy burden particularly on the half of humanity that is female—there is a deep yearning to be free of all this, which not only leads to imaginary hopes of supernatural salvation but also erupts in unrestrained fury right in this real world. And that fury needs to be fully called forth, given a scientific, revolutionary expression—focused toward the emancipation of all the oppressed and exploited of the world, and ultimately all humanity—directed to fighting against the fundamental source of all the suffering: this system of capitalism-imperialism, with its suffocating and brutal, patriarchal male supremacy, along with all its other outrages. This takes on even more powerful meaning and urgent importance in the current situation in this country (and others), where the forceful assertion of raw misogyny (hatred of women) and patriarchal subjugation of women is becoming more blatant and unbridled, focused to a significant degree now in the escalating moves to even further deny women control over their own lives and their very bodies, with the right to abortion, and even birth control, being brought under mounting attack. Right now, this slogan and call needs to be taken up broadly and made a powerful material force: Break the Chains, Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

Since BA said this in 2021, the Supreme Court ripped away women's right to abortion. They told women, and backed it up by law, that their hopes, their desires, their plans for their lives, their accomplishments, their safety, even their very lives matter less than their ability to make babies. Forcing women to have children against their will is enslavement. Already, this is going on in 22 states.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade came as a shock to millions in this country. But it wasn't a shock to the Democrats. It was clear this was coming. I personally have been involved in fighting against this for 30 years—since I was a teenager and these fascists were blowing up abortion clinics and murdering doctors. This entire time, the Democrats were compromising and conciliating with these fascists. They sought “common ground.” They demobilized women. Then, when Roe was directly on the line, I spearheaded Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights. We led tens of thousands of furious women and others into the streets to fight against this. Where were the Democrats? Not only were they NOT on the front lines, they were behind the scenes scheming to keep women out of the streets, and some were outright sabotaging those of us fighting back.

And now, Biden and the Democrats want to pose and posture as champions of women. Don't let them play you again. Don't fall for it! Not this time!

Instead, be part of unleashing the pent-up fury of millions as a mighty force fighting against this assault and building up the strength for a real revolution. This is what we are doing today and this is what the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity is working to do every day. It's why you should join it.

Now, if you do not know why we need a revolution—why this is the ONLY way out for humanity... and if you don't understand how this revolution could be made, not in some far-off time, but in the time we are living in now... then you don't know what you need to know. And there is nothing more important you could do than finding out these truths that the powers that be don't want you to know.

This means getting deeply into the powerful social media dispatches that Bob Avakian has released. It means getting into the Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show. Bob Avakian breaks it down so that everyone can understand.

BA brings alive how we are living in an extremely rare time when this revolution is actually possible. The old order is rapidly being shredded apart. The rulers are at each other's throats. The deep divisions stretch through the population of this country—over abortion, over trans rights, over the role of the police, over Gaza, over climate change, over the separation of church and state, and the peaceful transfer of power... and all this will only get more combustible, more out of bounds as we go through the 2024 elections, if there even are elections. These are real and could lead to real explosions, even armed clashes… but these are divisions over how to rule this system and not over what the masses so desperately need: a whole new way to live, a fundamentally different system.

Now is not a time to choose between the “lesser of two evils” or to fight to preserve what has been. This is not a time to side with Biden just because he claims he'll stand up for women's “choice.” No! 

I already called out the bullshit lie of the Democrats posturing and posing as champions of women. And the same applies with regards to LGBTQ people and Black people and immigrants. Beyond that, these Democrats and these Republicans both represent this same system of capitalism-imperialism. This means child slaves in Congo mining the coltan that make our phones run. This means invasions and occupations to dominate peoples and resources from Iraq to Vietnam to Gaza today. This means global networks of exploitation and plunder. And today, this means the intensifying risk of nuclear war that could destroy human civilization.

So, again, we must not side with either section of the rulers. Instead, we must seize on their divisions to bring down their whole system of capitalism-imperialism and bring into being a radically new system and way to live.

So open up your phone right now—on Instagram or FB or whatever your favorite social media—and follow @BobAvakianOfficial and dig into this—and spread it.

“Oh, but you are going to come out and tell me to listen to an old white guy?! On International Women's Day, no less!”

This is not serious. Yes, I am going to tell you to follow this old white man because no other leader has forged a vision, written a Constitution, and developed a strategy for how a real and truly liberating revolution can be made. If all you want to do is wear a “girl power” T-shirt or get a few women in positions of power within—or even atop—this monstrous system, then you don't need BA. He can't help you do that. But if you want to break ALL the chains. If you want to get ALL of humanity free. If you want to understand the new ground that's been broken on how decisive the fight for women's liberation is to the fight to end all oppression. If you are not afraid of the truth and want to make your life count, really count, then you will get serious and follow BA and fight for others to do the same.

“But I am just one person. I can't change anything by myself.”

True. But by coming together with others, joining the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity, you can be part of changing everything—and soon.

Right now and in the weeks ahead, as the situation intensifies and the normalcy of daily life is increasingly shattered, it will make all the difference if millions of people see an organized revolutionary force of thousands rooting themselves in the morality and vision of the Points of Attention put forward by the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity. It will make all the difference if they see thousands standing up and defending people against illegitimate attacks on their rights and very lives as part of building up the strength to make revolution. It will make all the difference if they see thousands studying BA's world-class leadership and spreading it to others.

This is because, in a time like this, thousands can win millions to revolution. And with millions, there is a real possibility for this revolution to win.

This is why I am calling on you today to join the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity. Start working with us now to bring forward these thousands. In this historic turning point, this is the most meaningful thing you can do with your life. It starts with you… and you... and you... and each of us together and goes forward from here.

BREAK THE CHAINS! UNLEASH THE FURY OF WOMEN AS A MIGHTY FORCE FOR REVOLUTION!