A Crucial Struggle in the Defense of Principle and Leadership Based on That Principle
There is a struggle continuing to rage with deep implications for the whole direction of things in this society. This week another internet news platform—VICE—launched an attack on Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights (RU4AR), with a particular focus on the fact that some of its members follow the author of the new communism and revolutionary leader, Bob Avakian (BA). If that sounds familiar, it’s because this article repeated the unprincipled, baseless and very dangerous charges against Bob Avakian previously aired in outlets as seemingly disparate as the more-or-less mainstream Daily Beast, The Intercept (which styles itself as “progressive”), and the Daily Caller (a straight-up fascist site begun by Tucker Carlson). While giving some space to some of the refutations from Sunsara Taylor—who is a follower of BA—as well as RiseUp leaders Lori Sokol and Merle Hoffman (who are not), it also detailed a number of anonymous charges from those they claimed had left RiseUp and even dug up one really foul and, yes, utterly invented, unsubstantiated and totally unverifiable attack dating from 1979. And through it all, the one theme pounded on was “cult.”
“Strangely enough,” none of these reporters at any of these outlets have thought to include any actual quotes from BA himself from articles specifically replying to the charges of “cult,” two of which were published in the past year and a half. ("Bob Avakian Answers Accusations of 'Cult': Ignorance, and Cowardice"; "Bob Avakian Speaks to 'Cult': A Ridiculous, Ignorant, and Irresponsible Accusation. We Are Applying a Scientific Method and Approach to Understanding, and Transforming, the World to Emancipate Humanity") Why do you suppose that might be?
Fighting Back
This barrage of attacks is one end of the struggle. Here it has to be said that there have been excellent and thorough refutations of the main lines of attack, both from RU4AR and from revcoms, including Sunsara Taylor. (For some of these replies go here, here, here, here and here.)
At the same time, there is—and there has to be—another side to the fightback: one of people who from a variety of perspectives see the danger bound up in the campaign of defamation and slander and who feel the need to take a stand against the attackers. Something is growing here that needs to be encouraged, given direction and organized. Last week we published an initial round of such statements; this week we are publishing more, from a wider range of sources and a wider range of concerns. This has to grow.
Here we want to highlight something that one person wrote last week: “[I]t’s important to immerse yourself in the knowledge of the movement of Bob Avakian and to support this leader. And to protect him at all costs. Protect him at all costs. Because they have killed enough of our leaders. So we have to form a strong web around him and protect him.” This is a correct and important sentiment. One big way to weave that web now is to spread these statements. Another important way is to take a stand, in your own words and in your own way, against the lies and worse that are being spread and share it with revcom.us and on social media.
The Crucial Fight Over Method, Principle, and Standards
There’s another struggle bound up in this—one over how we think about reality and how we sort through the real differences that inevitably come up in fighting for revolution. In this regard, we want to strongly call everyone’s attention to “Bob Avakian On Methods, Principles and Standards”—an excerpt from an interview from 10 years ago, What Humanity Needs: Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism, an Interview with Bob Avakian. BA in this interview discusses what it means to apply science to understanding and transforming society and, very importantly, what it means to have principled debate and struggle over different political analyses and positions… and what happens when principle is jettisoned or ignored. These are questions to wage real struggle over, right now; no one can stand aside. In this piece, BA’s method is as exhilarating as the conclusions he comes to—read it and spread it and discuss it. It stands in stark contrast to so much of what people are bombarded with in this society.
Waging this fight—for the methods, principles and standards that will enable people to get to the truth and that will prevent the rulers from stirring shit up and then utilizing the stigma and divisions they’ve fostered to carry out really foul stuff—has to be a critical part of what we’re doing. And getting into this piece—reading it and coming back to it, reflecting on it, talking about it with comrades and friends, spreading it to others—is invaluable and necessary.
The Struggle Over Leadership and the Times We Live In
This struggle over leadership is not some random occurrence. It takes place in a specific time and place—one analyzed in great depth in Bob Avakian’s extremely important talk, 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. This is a time of high stakes for everyone—one in which this empire is in significant trouble around the world, in which the old ways of ruling which people have been conditioned to accept are coming apart at the seams, and where the possibilities of either something even more horrific emerging out of that OR something indeed “truly emancipating” being wrenched out of it are very immediate, in ways that are truly unprecedented. At this moment, the danger of this leadership—BA—connecting with much broader numbers of people is something that haunts not only opportunists, but powerful sections on both sides of the ruling class.
It is not accidental that the flashpoint of this particular struggle has been the battle around the right to abortion. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, and all that it concentrates, is not simply a momentarily very acute contradiction. It is one that has ongoing, decisive bearing on the whole direction of things, including the prospects for something terrible, or for wrenching something truly positive and emancipating out of the continually intensifying contradictions. This is so because of the fundamental nature of what this concentrates—yes, the very real question of the enslavement of women... or a fight against this that can be of crucial importance for their real emancipation, and that of the masses of people overall. This would be true, even if the overturning of Roe were not accompanied, as it almost certainly will be, not only by continuing attacks on the right to abortion, anywhere/everywhere in this country, but also very likely attacks on LGBTQ rights, as well as other dimensions of this ongoing and escalating fascist juggernaut and the effective paralysis of the Democrats in the face of it.
For those now on the attack, the great “offense” of Rise Up—and of the revcoms within it—is that they reached out and have continued to reach out as widely as they could with the real terms of things: that this was a fight against female enslavement and the oppression of women, not some vague notion of “bodily autonomy”… that people need to tell the unvarnished truth about what this will mean and to risk something to sound the alarm and wake up others… that a wide range of people and political forces were needed in this fight… and that the fascist beast that others would prefer to turn away from or deny must be confronted, and the conciliation of the Democrats with that monstrosity called out, opposed, and ridden over.
In this issue, we highlight important developments in this struggle: the referendum in Kansas which upheld abortion rights and the law passed three days later in Indiana which eviscerated them, and the battle over what that means; and a very good segment from The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show on YouTube featuring a bold action undertaken in Los Angeles by Rise Up.
We also again highlight The RNL Show. We urge our readers to review Andy Zee’s commentary for the latest episode of the show and then rewatch the entire show with that in mind. Then work to spread this, joining with others if at all possible, to come up with creative ways to build the audience.
Finally, in addition to other important articles, we call your attention to an outrageous—and ominous—raid that took place against the Black nationalist organization African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Organization in St. Louis and St. Petersburg this past week.
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
* Bob Avakian On Methods, Principles and Standards: excerpts from What Humanity Needs: Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism, an Interview with Bob Avakian
* Countering the Attacks on Bob Avakian, the revcoms, and Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights
- Speaking Out in Support of Bob Avakian, the revcoms, and Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights
- Why Is the “Left” Red-Baiting Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights on the Eve of Fascist Destruction, by Paul Street
* The fight for Abortion rights
- What to Learn—and What NOT to Learn—From the Kansas Referendum on Abortion Four Points of Orientation
- Andy Zee interviews Victoria Eggers from LA chapter of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights & Vets Rise 4 Roe
- Fighting for the Right to Abortion: Sights and Sounds, July 31-August 6
* The RNL Show
* FBI Raid on the African People’s Socialist Party: A Chilling “Message,” an Act of State Repression
* More Thoughts on Bill Russell—Determined to Fight Against Racism.
* The Spread of Monkeypox: Global Inequality and the Vicious Insanity of Imperialism
* Check It Out: The Film Blue Bayou
* Brianna Marie Grier Has a Mental Health Episode… Pigs Arrive… She Ends Up Dead
* Donate to the Revcom.us Summer fund drive—$20,000 by mid-August!