Welcome to this issue of REVOLUTION. We welcome you at a serious time—a time when the world is closer to the abyss of nuclear war than it has been in many years. There is a hot war in Ukraine threatening to boil over. And there is an extremely dangerous conflict brewing between the U.S. and China over the island of Taiwan near China that could also end up engulfing the world in flames and ash.

At the same time, and in a dramatic counterpoint, the people of Iran—and especially the women of Iran—have been standing up in righteous rebellion and refusing to be put down by the clubs and guns of religious police.

Those two very different struggles—the fierce and dangerous struggles within the ranks of the exploiters and oppressors, and the struggle of the masses to get out from under all that—make up a key dynamic of our time.

This is the website where you can get the truth about all of it. The truth behind the lies of the imperialists. The truth about the struggles for liberation. And the truth about what people need to make revolution to finally get free.

This is the website of the new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian, or BA. This is the site where you can access and dig into his work and see why we call him the most important political thinker and leader in the world today. And this is the site where you can do all this at a time when the question of which way things will go in this country—toward something terrible, or something truly emancipating—is very acutely posed… a time in which the possibility of a real revolution is far greater than it is in normal times… and a time in which this site provides a crucial way to navigate through the complex uproar around us in a way to understand it, and to apply that understanding to building up the forces for an actual revolution at the soonest possible time.

So here is what’s happening this week:

The revolution this website works for is an internationalist revolution—that means we come at everything from the interests of the nearly 8 billion people on the planet, that we don’t look out at the world as “Americans” but as human beings working and fighting for human emancipation. And that in turn means that we not only expose and oppose our own rulers’ empire of exploitation, plunder and horror but we stand with and support our brothers and sisters around the world when they rise up against oppression, and especially those who are bringing the new communism to these struggles.

So, the first thing we want to tell you about is the inspiring upsurge in Iran. People have battled riot pigs and religious police for over a week as we go to press, in a struggle that is inspiring the whole world. The revcoms have written a statement supporting this and this is really the first thing to turn to. So go here to read that.

But we have a whole range of articles that lets you get deeper into what’s happening and the dynamics behind this. We feature an up-to-minute account of what’s been going on in Iran, and an easy-to-follow history that puts it in perspective. And we are proud this week to also feature statements (here and here) on the uprising from the revolutionary communists in Iran, the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist). It is a tremendous thing for there to be a vanguard aiming at real liberation, a vanguard wielding the science of the new communism, when the people go into struggle. There has been way too much blood spilled in vain, when people fight heroically but do not have the leadership they need, and so cannot in the end break through; so when they do have that leadership, we need to support and spread it. Finally, we report on a program held in New York City at Revolution Books supporting the Iranian people’s struggles against repression.

The second big thing is the war in Ukraine and the contention between the U.S. and China over the island of Taiwan. Both of these have heated up a very high degree in this past week, with new and dangerous developments you need to know about.

We are told that the war in Ukraine is a war of defense by Ukraine against unprovoked Russian attack. It is true that Russia launched this war. But that is not the whole truth, and that is not the deepest truth. As “Dragging the World Towards an Abyss—Troop Mobilizations, Military Offensives, Nuclear Threats: U.S./NATO and Russia Escalate Tensions in Ukraine” and “The “Made-in-the-USA” Offensive in the Ukraine Proxy War” prove and make clear, this is proxy war. That means that while the U.S. has not officially sent troops to Ukraine, they have aided the Ukrainian government with huge amounts of money, weapons, intelligence and strategic “advice” and have used the Ukrainian army to drain and weaken their Russian imperialist rivals.

We also examine the intensifying conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, an island that is officially recognized as part of China. Again, we ask those questions: What is happening? Why is it happening? And where do the interests of humanity lie? Go here and here to dig into the actual truth behind this extremely dangerous and escalating game of “nuclear chicken” in the South China Sea begun by the U.S.

Biden casts all this as a battle of “autocracy vs, democracy.” We call special attention to BA’s piece that cuts right through this bullshit with the actual truth. And while many see the horror posed by the Republican Party—which has become an outright fascist party—and the real and fierce differences they have with the Democrats, they don’t see that these differences are not over whether to defend the U.S. empire but how. In fact, most people have no idea that the U.S. has killed over 7 million people in defense of its empire since World War 2. Go here, here, and here to get the facts.

As our third focus, we call your attention to the ongoing battle around abortion rights and the call issued by Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights for action this coming Wednesday, September 28. Go here for the call to action. We are republishing “The Supreme Court Moves to End Abortion Rights: ‘Taking to the Streets,’ and Refusing to Let This Go Down,” an article from Bob Avakian published earlier this year that gets into why voting, and lining up behind the Democrats, cannot and must not be relied upon in this fight. And we are also including an article by radical writer and Refuse Fascism Editorial Board member Paul Street titled “The Post-Roe Horror Is a Bipartisan Production.”

Again, all this takes place at a rare time—a time in which revolution is much more possible than usual. It is a fraught time, but it is a time of extraordinary promise as well. But to actually see the promise beneath the horrors being threatened and carried out in this dangerous time takes science—the science of the new communism. The key thing, and the way to dig into the overall picture of this, is the extremely important talk given by Bob Avakian last year, 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. That puts everything into context and provides a road map for going forward. Go here for the audio, and here for the text.

Finally, the revolution we fight for is to get to a whole different world. Especially if you are coming for the first time, get into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America by Bob Avakian. And to get a living sense of the kind of world we are fighting for go here for a reprint of an essay by Bob Avakian, “Revolution, Roger Federer’s Tennis: What Do They Have to Do with Each Other? A Lot, Actually,” a reflection on the great tennis player who played his last professional match this past week.

Included in this issue:

* 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

* 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

* 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”

* Uprising in Iran

• THE WOMEN OF IRAN HAVE STOOD UP! THE PEOPLE OF IRAN ARE RAISING THEIR HEADS AND FIGHTING BACK AGAINST THE BATONS AND BULLETS OF THE IRANIAN REGIME! WE NEED TO STAND WITH AND SUPPORT THEM IN THEIR STRUGGLE! UNLEASH THE FURY OF WOMEN AS A MIGHTY FORCE FOR REVOLUTION, from the Revcoms
• The Burial of the Compulsory Hijab, the Burial of the Integration of Religion with the State Has Begun! Let's Finish It!, from the Communist Party of Iran (M.L.M.), September 23
• Compulsory Hijab and the Murder of Women: Key Tools of the Fascist Islamic Republic of Iran to Strangle the Whole Society, from the Communist Party of Iran (M.L.M.), September 17
• Iran’s Islamic Republic Sowed the Wind by Killing Mahsa Amini: NOW IT IS REAPING A HURRICANE OF REBELLION
• Courageous Uprising In Iran: How Did Things Get to This Point? Did the U.S. Have Anything to Do With It?
• NYC Protests and Revolution Books Program: Stand with Iran's Courageous People and Prisoners

* Escalating contention between imperialists

• Dragging the World Towards an Abyss—Troop Mobilizations, Military Offensives, Nuclear Threats: U.S./NATO and Russia Escalate Tensions in Ukraine
• Escalating with Tactical Nuclear Weapons—Climbing the Stairway Toward Oblivion
• “Legit Gangsters”—Gangsters with Nuclear Weapons, by Bob Avakian (watch/read)
• Biden Threatens China Again: Nuclear Chicken Intensifies on the South China Sea
• Republicans, Democrats and U.S. Crimes Against Humanity: A Chart

* The fight for abortion rights

• From Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights: Women’s Lives Are in a State of Emergency: #Green4Abortion on September 28
• The Supreme Court Moves to End Abortion Rights: ‘Taking to the Streets,’ and Refusing to Let This Go Down, by Bob Avakian
• The Post-Roe Horror Is a Bipartisan Production, by Paul Street

* Revolution, Roger Federer’s Tennis: What Do They Have to Do with Each Other? A Lot, Actually, by Bob Avakian

* A Call for Volunteers to Join with Revolution Books: At a Time of Great Danger and Revolutionary Possibility... Be Part of Something Truly Emancipating