In the summer of 2020, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian wrote: "Radical Change is Coming: Will It Be Emancipating, Or Enslaving—Revolutionary, Or Reactionary?"

The forces for the reactionary resolution to this question are on the march. The fascist Trump regime is ripping up what millions of decent people have held most deeply and dearly about what it means to be human: Is it dog-eat-dog, kill or be killed, or does it mean caring for each other? Should we drill-baby-drill and conquer the natural world for profit or have an appreciation and wonder for nature and its diverse ecosystems? Should we torture human intimacy into strict dark ages gender roles or let people love who they love? Should we enforce blind-faith lunacy and lies in the service of fascism or foster a spirit of critical thinking and scientific inquiry in pursuit of the truth?

All this is causing these millions to be agonized to their deepest core. 

Imagine... 

But as we unite to confront—and urgently move to defeat—the Trump fascist regime, very few can imagine the positive emancipating answer to the question Bob Avakian (BA) asked in 2020. And this needs to change. There really is a radically different and far better way the world can be.

And our unity and fighting spirit will be profoundly strengthened if we do so while opening up the biggest questions about this—over what is causing this fascism, and what kind of society we should be living in and fighting for. A vibrant spirit of discussion and debate—comparing and contrasting different views—is part of how we will learn, and it will contribute to raising people's sights. 

Because of the new communism developed by Bob Avakian (BA), there is a theoretical framework and concrete strategic approach for organizing society on a whole different liberating foundation. We can bring into being a society not based on vicious exploitation and oppression of people of the world, but based on people coming together in a coordinated and cooperative way to meet people's needs and provide the resources needed for the race-against-time in working to deal with the environmental catastrophe wrought by capitalism, and to uproot exploitation and oppression. And we can do this without "turning out the lights" on intellectual and cultural debate and dissent. We can do this in a society that actually and consistently upholds the rule of law, the presumption of innocence. and fosters a morality of humanity first.

Hard, but Liberating, Truths

In a time of darkness and danger, it is more urgent to raise our sights. And it is exactly in this moment of great upheaval, where great change needs to be envisioned and can actually be brought into being. 

As many people can see, Trump fascism hasn't come out of nowhere. There's been a rot in this society that Trump has taken advantage of—a long-standing and festering rot. Trump is, as the revcom.us poster says, "a thoroughly American fascist pig." What caring people haven't felt a deep disquiet about this society?! Why after a Civil War and heroic struggle over decades, can America not get beyond oppressing Black people, Native Americans and other people of color? Why after all this struggle, do women find themselves hated, demeaned and despised in every corner of society, unable to control their own bodies? Why after waves of scientists have sounded the alarm for years, is this country still fracking and burning fossil fuels?

So as we go forward—as we debate out what kind of positive vision we should be fighting for, let's recognize that not only is the "normal" not coming back, but we shouldn't want it to—it was a nightmare to begin with.

Even if they don't understand this scientifically, millions of people feel this. Millions have "lost faith" in the institutions of this country: They've witnessed a genocide fully funded and backed by this country for the last year and a half. They worry about having kids on a planet imperiled by capitalist-caused climate change. They worry about not being able to "make ends meet" in a country where millions are one crisis away from homelessness. Millions labor in soul-crushing, meaningless jobs. And many know the wealth and consumer goods in this country rests on the most vicious exploitation in sweatshops and mines—even if they refuse to confront what this really means for people, and why this is—consoling themselves with the lie that they can't really do anything about this. Because they think there is no alternative to this system, many just throw their hands up in despair—in a culture that fosters do-for-self cynicism.

But as Bob Avakian brings alive in his New Year's message, 2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror, "There is a whole new way to live—with a fundamentally different system."

He says:

This system is completely absurd—criminally, monstrously absurd—and completely outmoded: long past its expiration date, past the time when it can lead to anything positive for humanity—and, on the contrary, it stands as the direct barrier to the emancipation of humanity from all this madness, atrocity, and unnecessary suffering. The rise of fascism, in many other countries as well as in the U.S. itself, is a glaring sign of the thoroughly outmoded nature of this system and the heightened danger it poses to humanity as a whole.

We are now at the point where it is more and more urgently necessary to move beyond this whole monstrous system—beyond a situation where people are forced to struggle just for individual survival, with everyone compelled to be in competition and conflict with others, and the masses of people everywhere are chained down by outmoded oppressive relations, while the future, and the very existence, of humanity is increasingly endangered.

And it is possible now to move beyond all this.

Read that last paragraph again and think about that: moving beyond "a situation where people are forced to struggle just for individual survival..." 

What IF We Were NOT Set Against Each Other

If we weren't set against each other in that individual struggle to survive, think of the new ways that humanity—in all our diversity—can be relating to each other and the planet. In a society that fosters collectivity and community instead of every man for himself, at each other's expense. If we had an economy geared to meeting people's needs and enabling people to become fit caretakers of the earth instead of profit, profit and more profit for a small handful. 

If we had a society where people's potential was unleashed—to contribute to the greater good, to innovate to deal with the biggest problems of climate change, and disease (and not all the wasted resources that go into how to sell your products, or even sell yourself!). If people sought to learn from the sharp debate about the way forward with the institutions of society funding, and providing space for, that debate, instead of shutting it down or shunting it into the most meaningless margins of society.

This will be full of struggle and complexity and twists and turns, but it is possible to put an end to so much needless cruelty and immiseration—a society where people could actually breathe... a society that people would want to live in instead of this hellscape of capitalist misery.

The concrete framework for what this society could look like is laid out in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, written by Bob Avakian (BA). And BA brings this alive in a recent two-part Interview, Humanity Does Not Have to Live This Way!

Once Again on the Need to Dream

Bob Avakian often quotes from the singer John Lennon, who in his beautiful song “Imagine” sang about a different world that is possible. In it, he sang: "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." And as BA has added: This is not just a dream. There is the material basis in how society has evolved up to this point to make these dreams a reality!

Now is a time to dig into all this. To open up a real debate over the future. To spread Bob Avakian's work, the ongoing leadership he is providing through his social media messages and insist on a serious engagement. Pull people together—watch these Interviews, talk about them. Now is a time to build revolutionary community, sharing our differences, our questions, our dreams and aspirations for the world.

If you want to see a better world, you should contribute financially for BA's voice to reach others—reverberating throughout society. 

As part of the new communism, Bob Avakian has also been analyzing the rise of fascism in the U.S. and around the world for decades—including how it's rooted in the system of capitalism, with its foundation in genocide and slavery. This is gotten into further in the pamphlet titled TRUMP/MAGA FASCISM: What We’re Really Facing, Why, and What Must Be Done to Defeat It Before It’s Too Late. And he is digging into the principles and standards we need to unite across divergent political perspectives—with a spirit of broadness of mind and generosity of spirit—to wage the historic fight for the future that is on us if we are to defeat this fascism.

There are some who will attack this, and will attack BA in particular because he has been so outspoken, visionary and radical in the struggle against fascism, and the whole system. There are others who will argue with good intentions that now is not the time. But while we are uniting widely to defeat this fascist regime, overcoming divide and conquer, it is exactly the time to ask the sharpest questions and to hear each other out. For our part, we revcoms understand that this fascism arises out of this system of capitalism-imperialism which is also responsible for many other atrocities. And as I've spoken to here, we urgently see the need and basis for a whole different liberating system. We are eager to discuss and debate this—on a principled basis.

It is the fascists who believe in close-minded uniformity and shutting down debate. We should learn from our diversity, fostering debate, on a principled basis. An appreciation of the need for this kind of process is itself part of the new communism that BA has developed. And it is a process that we can all learn from—while we stand shoulder to shoulder, and work to make real the dreams of a better world.