“Internationalism—The Whole World Comes First.”
Bob Avakian, BAsics 5:8
We begin this week with important and very positive news: We are publishing La Esperanza Revolucionaria, or in English Revolutionary Hope, a strategic statement on the need for revolution in Mexico from the Revolutionary Communist Organization of Mexico (OCR), or Organización Comunista Revolucionaria, México. You can read the entire book on this site, in either English or Spanish.
The book announces its analysis and its intentions in the subtitle:
New Possibilities Are Opening Up for Liberatory Revolution In the Midst of Acute Crises and Upheavals of the Capitalist System—It Is Urgent to Organize the Fight For Revolution
Think about how the U.S. and Mexico are so intimately tied together—with Mexico under the thumb of U.S. imperialist domination. Think about the 130 million people living in Mexico… think about the 11 million Mexican immigrants within the U.S.… think about people all over Latin America, and all over the world, who need to hear this news. Think about the many people who can be challenged and inspired by this and, among those many, those who can be won to come forward into this revolution.
Think about—imagine—the potential difference that could make.
And if you can, for even a minute, see the potential embodied in this statement, you will want to join us thinking of ways to get this out among these many who could potentially be very directly touched by this news—so many of whom lead lives of desperation, lives without hope. Take initiative yourself, and write to us with ideas about what to do.
The comrades in Mexico who have come out with this bold and substantive work have studied and applied the new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian, or BA. Indeed, they themselves have contributed important theory to the body of work of the new communism that can be read on the website Demarcations. Along with comrades in Iran, Colombia, Afghanistan, and other places, we are working in what must be above all an international struggle to emancipate ALL of humanity.
Internationalism is foundational to communism; that has been so since Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, the founders of communism, issued their call in 1848, “Workers of the World, Unite!” The Communist Manifesto boldly declared that the exploited and oppressed of the world recognized no boundaries. Instead, they had to see themselves as contingents in a worldwide movement. Today that movement must be one that aims to uproot all traces of the division between a handful of oppressor nations and the vast majority of oppressed nations, as part of getting to a whole different world, beyond borders, armies and nations themselves.
Today this foundation in internationalism has been qualitatively deepened, in both theory and basic orientation, by the work of BA. This work breaks with significant tendencies toward nationalism in the first stage of the communist movement. It goes further, and brings forward a new theoretical understanding of what it means for the communist revolution to be fundamentally a world process. So with this issue we are also posting some key quotes from BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, on internationalism to broadly popularize, along with some of the critical theoretical foundations of the new communism’s further advance on this question.
We are also posting a section with important documents and statements from some of the other revolutionary organizations that are applying and spreading the new communism—including the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist); Revolutionary Communist Group, Colombia; and the New Communism Movement of Afghanistan. These organizations carry out heroic work, often under extremely dangerous and difficult conditions—our hearts beat with theirs.
The principal duty of those of us who reside in the U.S. is to make revolution here, as part of our contribution to world humanity, and to support revolution around the world. The key to making good on that contribution lies in digging into—not just once but repeatedly—Something Terrible, OR Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution, from BA. The Mexican comrades in their new book speak powerfully of the potential impact of a revolution in the U.S. on their situation; in a very real way, there are great stakes tied up with humanity on whether or not we fully recognize and seize on this opportunity. If you are new to this site, read this work as soon as you possibly can. If you have read it before, read it again… and don’t just read it, reflect on it… discuss it… apply it.
Finally, Bob Avakian, and the work he has done, does not just “belong” to people in the U.S.; that work, the new communism he’s brought forward, is the “property” of people around the world. And this work is ongoing!! But the duty to defend this person so crucial to the future of humanity does disproportionately fall on those of us living in the belly of this monster. This past summer witnessed a serious escalation in attacks against BA—attacks that appeared in a coordinated manner and stretched across the political spectrum, reaching into major media outlets. Go here to learn about these attacks, and here to read letters from people from all walks of life who are defending BA, as part of a counteroffensive. And this week we again are posting new letters—letters to learn from, letters to spread.
We have many other important articles and features this week which you can see in our Table of Contents below. Especially see Andy Zee’s commentary from the most recent The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, on the urgent work of spreading this movement further, through the medium of the show.
We’ll close this week’s guide with this quote from Bob Avakian:
There is an urgent need for this new synthesis [of communism] to be taken up, broadly, in this society and in the world as a whole: everywhere people are questioning why things are the way they are, and whether a different world is possible; everywhere people are talking about “revolution” but have no real understanding of what revolution means, no scientific approach to analyzing and dealing with what they are up against and what needs to be done; everywhere people are rising up in rebellion but are hemmed in, let down and left to the mercy of murderous oppressors, or misled onto paths which only reinforce, often with barbaric brutality, the enslaving chains of tradition; everywhere people need a way out of their desperate conditions, but do not see the source of their suffering and the path forward out of the darkness.
Included in this issue:
* Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points
* Bob Avakian: A Radically Different Leader—A Whole New Framework for Human Emancipation
* REVOLUTIONARY HOPE: New Possibilities Are Opening Up for Liberatory Revolution In the Midst of Acute Crisis and Upheavals of the Capitalist System—It Is Urgent to Organize the Fight For Revolution, from the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico (English / Spanish)
* Bob Avakian and the New Communism on Internationalism
* Recent Statements From Revolutionary Communist Groups Around the World
* Latest letters/statements in support of Bob Avakian: “I love—yes, love—Bob Avakian and what he has created for humanity and the possibility of forging a whole new world”
* The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show
- Video: Opening commentary from Andy Zee
- Video: Bob Avakian—Dedicated to Revolution & Not Backing Down
- Video: Biden on Democracy, the Idea of America & the Semi-Fascism of Trump: What’s the Real Deal?
- Video: The Truth About Bob Avakian—People Refute the Counter-Revolutionary Bullshit of Haters
* On The Death Of Mikhail Gorbachev, Former Leader of the Soviet Union