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Two days after the election of Donald Trump, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian said:

This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination.

As we face the extreme danger of an all-out fascist America...  on top of environmental devastation... genocide... the danger of nuclear war. This is why Bob Avakian has also said:

We can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity... humanity does not have to live this way!

I'm writing to ask you to donate to getting Bob Avakian's voice and this message in front of millions now!

Bob Avakian (BA) has analyzed that "This election brings out sharply that there really are 'two countries' within this country." That this is a "fundamental division that has existed since the beginning of the so-called 'United States' of America, with its foundation in slavery and genocide..." And that "This division into 'two countries' can find no good resolution under this system."

The fascist side of this divide is unleashed and on the march—itching for their time of open white supremacy, hurling women and LGBT people backwards, ethnic cleansing through mass deportations, theocratic rule and rule through open violence and terror. But we—the decent people who care about humanity and the future—cannot hand these fascists the future.

Through his social media platform, @BobAvakianOfficial, he breaks down why "so long as things are on the terms of this system—and limited within the confines of this system—the fascists will have initiative which decent people cannot have." He is challenging people to "look seriously for solutions outside and beyond this system." He is the only leader in this country even talking about making a real revolution. A leader with a whole new framework for human emancipation. 

Donate to the Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere.

We are raising $25,000 by Giving Tuesday, December 3, to fund an online advertising campaign to reach millions with Bob Avakian's voice. Introducing people to what BA is breaking down can change what people are thinking and what they are debating at this turning point in history.

Bob Avakian goes up against the idea that people should hunker down to try to weather this fascism, just trying to take care of their friends and neighbors... he answers why it is deadly to rely on the Democratic Party, a party of war crimes which is actively facilitating this fascism... and he challenges the notion that people should keep trying to make this system work—an outmoded thoroughly oppressive system that has given rise to this fascism and so many other atrocities. 

The fact is that a radically different, and far better, society is possible. BA has authored the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America which provides a concrete blueprint and sweeping vision for a whole different way society can be organized, a society on the road to real emancipation for humanity here and around the world. 

At this urgent hour, these are the questions people need to be debating and discussing throughout society. Your donation will help make this possible—introducing people broadly to Bob Avakian's revolutionary voice and vision. It will help shatter the lie that there is no alternative to this system. With the whole future on the line, your donation will help raise people's sights.

The election of Trump, the extreme danger this poses to humanity and the planet, and the total illegitimacy of the system that's given rise to this fascism underscores the urgent need for Bob Avakian's revolutionary voice, leadership and vision to be impacting all of society through the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere. Doing this on the scale necessary will take serious funds for a promotion and advertising campaign which can reach many millions—quickly—and which can interpenetrate with a national grassroots movement.

We are entering the holiday period when millions of decent people, people who want a just world, will be agonizing about what the future holds—they are making decisions about what to do and what to support in this incredibly dangerous system. The Democratic Party and the mainstream forces of this system are working overtime to normalize this fascism and keep people's thinking and actions confined within this system. And Trump and the MAGA fascists are puffed up, making clear they are going fast and hard with their fascist agenda. 

What the decent people do depends on what they understand—and where their sights are raised to.

Through his social media messages, Bob Avakian (BA)—revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism—is bringing powerful clarity in a time of real disorientation, and demoralization. He is struggling for people  to "look seriously for solutions outside and beyond this system," bringing a hard-core revolutionary understanding. And he is fighting for a whole different way the world can be, concentrated in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America which he has authored.

Raising people's sights, and shaking them awake, requires serious fundraising—and your generous contribution.

By “Giving Tuesday,” December 3, we aim to raise $25,000 for the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere. 

Start reaching out to people now—asking for donations, but also asking them to reach out to others they know. This message needs to get in front of groups of people—ask them to pull people together, play some of the social media messages from Bob Avakian and make a basic fundraising pitch. (If you want a representative of the Campaign to come make the case in person or via zoom, write to us at info@bobavakianofficialeverywhere.org.) 

People are going to have a lot of questions. Good! 

The main thing is, while they're engaging Bob Avakian's social media messages, digging into their questions and differences, there is an urgent need to break open this debate throughout society. A big part of the weight that people are feeling is not just the extreme fear of the fascism, but the profound weight of low dreams—of thinking that this system is all that is possible. This is wrong! And this is why they need to get introduced to what Bob Avakian is saying about the possibility of a whole different way society can be organized.

Many people and organizations are preparing to fight the Trump regime in the courts or trying to figure out how to provide social services to those under attack. Some of this is important—but the question is not how can we survive fascism, the question has to be how to defeat it?! And even more fundamentally, how to bring a whole different, and far better, world into being?

In his message Revolution #102, “Two Countries” Within This Country—And The Whole Damn System’s Got To Go! This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination, Bob Avakian makes the case why it is that "so long as things are on the terms of this system—and limited within the confines of this system—the fascists will have initiative which decent people cannot have." He digs into why this is so.  And then goes on to powerfully argue:

It is time, and urgently so, for the only positive, revolutionary resolution of all this: time to resolve this fundamental divide by finally and decisively defeating the fascist “country”—and doing so as part of putting an end to this whole system which has given rise to this fascism, along with all its other atrocities.

The fight that Bob Avakian is waging, that "[t]hings must no longer remain, and continue to be confined, on the terms and within the limits of this system and its ruling class..." is urgent. And it needs to reverberate throughout society.

Most people who contribute are still going to be learning about BA and working through their own questions about a real revolution and the new communism. But again, the key thing is do they want this voice and this debate to reach others? And do they see the urgency of breaking this open now.

Start making plans and reaching out to people now. Talk with people about asking for funds from their friends and family, and set goals together. Two essential points in fundraising: 

1. If you don't ask for a donation, you will not get a donation.

2. For every person who decides to give, a lot of people will decline (at least the first time around). So this means you have to ask a lot of people—reaching widely and broadly.

If people decline to give a contribution, ask them why so that we can learn from this. Send your thoughts, questions and experience to info@bobavakianofficialeverywhere.org.

On #GivingTuesday itself, we'll have live updates throughout the day, so build up the following and anticipation now. 

This Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere is a battle—it means waging a sharp struggle with where people are at, and where they are being led to go by the dominant forces in this system. It means struggling against this system's brainwash. It means fighting for people to really hear what Bob Avakian is saying—to engage it deeply, and to think about what difference it will make if these questions are opened up in society now. 

Giving Tuesday (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) is a day when people around the world donate millions of dollars to charities and non-profits. It was formed as a response to the consumerism of Black Friday, and has a certain focus online. The organizers of the day itself call for "radical generosity." So what better way to mark this day than donating to spreading the most radical voice on the planet, @BobAvakianOfficial? 

Stay tuned for materials to take part. Start making plans of who you want to reach out to, and who you can work with for fundraising projects. Send us your ideas and plans! And we can share them here so that across the country, we can learn from each other. Write to us at info@bobavakianofficialeverywhere.org.

This past week Trump released the names of about 20 people he plans to place in his cabinet or in other key positions of authority when his regime takes power on January 20. 

A lot can be said about this repugnant assembly of white supremacists, Christian fascists, male supremacists, war mongers and xenophobes (people who hate “foreigners”). But the essential thing to grasp is that Trump is pulling together a crew of loyal lieutenants to implement his nightmarish fascist program in the U.S., and to reassert even more violently the U.S.’s dominant position in the world as a whole.

In this and coming articles we will focus on different components of this program, starting with Trump’s plans for major attacks on millions of immigrants.

Assembling an Anti-Immigrant Hit Squad

Let’s start with a basic truth from revolutionary leader Bob Avakian : 

Why do people come here from all over the world? Why? I’ll tell you why. Because you have fucked up the rest of the world even worse than what you have done in this country.

As a result of over a century of U.S. capitalism-imperialism plundering their homelands, millions of ordinary hard-working people see no future there. (To get some sense of this, go here, here, and here—and to other articles in the revcom.us American Crime series.) They cannot feed their families, cannot keep their kids safe from criminal gangs. So people grab what they can carry, clutch their children by the hand or in their arms, and flee for their lives, taking a dangerous, months-long journey, stalked by violence all the way, hoping to find safe haven in the U.S. 

Instead, the door to safety is slammed in their faces by the rulers of this country! They are met by more violence, from Border Patrol and ICE, vigilantes and gangs. They are forced back into squalid refugee camps in Mexico, once again at the mercy of gangs and corrupt officials, told to “wait your turn,” sometimes for years.

These are the people Trump demonizes as “rapists” and “criminals” from “shithole countries,” accuses of stealing and eating American’s pets, and blames for every problem that American capitalism creates here, from rotten schools to inflation. He blasted out the fascist claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our country, echoing Hitler’s language. And far too many oppressed people in the U.S. have gotten sucked into this poisonous bullshit, trying to get a step up by stepping on our vulnerable brothers and sisters, instead of welcoming and defending them.

Whipping up his supporters  during his campaign to demand action to protect the country from these “invaders” has laid the basis for the Trump regime to go full out in rounding up and terrorizing immigrants and their families. Now Trump has assembled a hit squad to go after immigrants in a massive way. Their stated goal is to deport 11 million undocumented people—millions each year—and at the same time to seal the border to prevent any new immigrants from entering.

Here are the three people who are being put in official positions to carry out Trump’s plan:

• South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. As head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Noem will be in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its 20,000 agents and staff, and of 20,000 Border Patrol agents. ICE is the main enforcer of deportations outside the border regions; it operates out of 400 offices nationwide. Trump’s plan is not just trying to seal the border and go after recent immigrants who are still in the border area—immigrants will be hunted throughout the U.S., even if they have lived here for decades, settled down, raised families.

  Noem’s home state is over 1,000 miles from the southern border, and immigrants are less than five percent of its population, Yet Noem has made whipping up fear of immigrants a central part of her political persona. She talks about the border being “a war zone,” and she has deployed South Dakota National Guard to support fascist militarization of the Texas border five times. She even offered to supply razor wire to maim desperate families seeking safety.

• Stephen Miller, former Trump senior policy advisor. In a 2023 interview with the New York Times, Miller said that he had been working for two years on a detailed plan for deporting millions of people each year, without hearings or other due process. Miller's plan also specifies rounding up undocumented immigrants already in the United States and detaining them in camps before they’re expelled from the country.¹ 

  Miller said this plan would require not only ICE agents but also local police and state National Guard troops. As Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Miller will have broad access to federal power that could facilitate that. And Miller says: “Any activists who doubt President Trump’s resolve in the slightest are making a drastic error: Trump will unleash the vast arsenal of federal powers to implement the most spectacular migration crackdown.” 

• Tom Homan is an anti-immigrant pig to his very core. Homan’s exact powers and duties as “border czar” are not yet clear. But what is clear is that this former cop, Border Patrol agent, ICE agent and acting director of ICE (2017-2018) has vowed to “run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.”²

  Homan is considered the “architect” of the family separation program during Trump’s first term, which ripped thousands of children out of the arms of their parents. And Homan still defends it: “I don’t give a shit, right? Bottom line is, we enforced the law.” Those who crossed the border “chose to separate themselves.” Asked if there was a way to deport 11 million people without again separating families, Homan shot back, “Of course there is—families can be deported together.” And what if local governors or mayors don’t want mass deportations in their cities/states? “If you're not going to help us, get the hell out of the way—because we’re gonna do it.”

Immediate Targets: DACA and TSP

This industrial-scale crime against humanity will not happen all at once. There are different fronts that may be moved on to accomplish a bold and vicious opening salvo. Homan, Trump and others have said that initial moves will include canceling Temporary Protective Status (TPS) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Under TPS, immigrants in the U.S. whose home countries are too dangerous to return to are allowed to legally stay, and get work permits, until conditions change. If TPS is cancelled, about a million people from 16 countries (most from Haiti and Venezuela) would instantly become illegal, unable to work, and hunted for deportation. Many people with TPS are part of mixed-status families, and so would be ripped away from their children and other loved ones. Some have said that returning home under current conditions "would be a death sentence."

DACA grants temporary legal status to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have grown up and established lives here. About 3.6 million people are eligible for DACA; many of them have never visited their home country and don’t know anyone there. Some don’t speak the language. If DACA is canceled, they could be deported to what is essentially a foreign country to them. And again, huge numbers are now married to and/or have children who are U.S. citizens.

What About the Democrats?

In 2020, especially in the wake of public outcry and protest against Trump’s “family separation” policy, the Democrats tried to posture as “compassionate” towards immigrants in contrast to Trump’s inhuman cruelty. But by the end of the 2024 campaign, Kamala Harris was attacking Trump from the right. According to National Public Radio, Harris said, “I went after transnational gangs, drug cartels and human traffickers that came into our country illegally. I prosecuted them in case after case, and I won. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk.” She also bragged about a “tough on the border” bill that the Democrats had pushed that would have beefed up the Border Patrol and enabled Biden and Harris to “shut down the border.” In other words, she reinforced the fascist view that most immigrants are dangerous criminals, and insisted that only she was serious about stopping them.

This is another illustration of the fact that the Democrats can’t fight fascism the way it needs to be fought. For one thing, they were all-in on the devastation done by U.S. imperialism in the past in Latin America and elsewhere that is driving mass migrations of desperate people. And there is no way for their profit-driven system to repair or undo that, or even stop doing it going forward. And they also do not want to challenge the American chauvinism and white supremacy at the core of the anti-immigrant movement, which again, the Democrats are neck-deep in themselves.

This can only be solved by a socialist system, as envisioned in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian. That Constitution makes the point that immigrants will play a big role in making the revolution that brings a socialist society into being. And it stresses that “The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic.” And the new socialist republic will not only end the predatory reign of U.S. imperialism over oppressed nations, which has given rise to “the immigration crisis,” but also encourage and give support to revolutionary struggles around the world, which will enable the masses to repair the damage done by imperialism and build livable societies. 

What Is Needed NOW!

No one should go along with, and every decent person should oppose, the attacks on immigrants: calling out anti-immigrant bullshit from whomever, whenever, wherever… defending immigrants vigorously when they are under attack… and mobilizing in many different ways to defeat Trump’s plan for mass deportations, which may well barrel down on people blitzkrieg-style once Trump takes office.

BE READY! But even more important, join with the revcoms (revolutionary communists) in taking up the revolutionary struggle to defeat this fascist regime as part of fighting for a real revolution and a whole new and better world.

In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.
A Better World IS Possible.

The Existing Capitalist-Imperialist System And Institutions Of Government In This Country Must Be Abolished And Dismantled—And Replaced By A New, Socialist System Based On The CONSTITUTION FOR THE NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN NORTH AMERICA.

The situation in north Gaza right now is worse than it has been at any time in Israel’s 13-month escalated genocidal assault. And the U.S. continues to fund and arm that genocide. 

Grieving Survivors in North Gaza: We Are the Ones Who Are Dead

Israel is dropping U.S.-supplied bombs and missiles on civilians who are in the most desperate, apocalyptic conditions. People are starving. People are without shelter. Israel and its godfather, the United States, have all but abandoned the pretext (pretended explanation) that this is about “targeting Hamas.”

Watch the following video. It shows the aftermath of an Israeli attack in the city of Jabalia, in north Gaza on November 10. Israel killed 36 members of the same family. The dead included a 70-year-old man and an 8-year-old girl. The girl had written “Noor, the love of Dad and Mum” on her arm so she could be identified if (and when, as it turned out) she was killed. 

The attack that killed Noor and dozens of others came with no warning at 6 am, as people were waking up. It hit a civilian home. It felt like an earthquake. Bodies were blown apart, and pieces of human bodies were scattered under rubble. People dug through the wreckage with their bare hands to recover bodies. 

Don’t turn aside, watch:

Grieving survivors said, “We are the ones who are dead.”

Starvation with the Aim of “Eradicating” the Palestinian People

A November 10 report from the UN-sponsored relief agency ReliefWeb sketches an overview of Israel’s use of starvation to exterminate the Palestinian people in north Gaza. ReliefWeb reports that over a little more than a month, Israel bombed hundreds of homes and shelters in north Gaza, killing approximately 1,900 Palestinians and injuring over 4,000 more. ReliefWeb reports that Palestinians trapped in north Gaza are “deliberately and continuously bombed, and are without food, water, and medical supplies.” And ReliefWeb reports, “Anyone who tries to flee in search of these necessities is targeted by Israeli drones and killed.”

And the report poses this challenge: “Since Israel has been committing the crime of starvation and using it as a means to carry out its genocide against the Palestinian people with the goal of eradicating them, the world is accountable for the famine crisis that Israel has caused in the Gaza Strip.” (See “As Israel insists on using starvation as weapon, famine in northern Gaza must be officially declared.”)

The world is accountable. Hold that thought. What are the implications of that for those of us living in the belly of the beast that sits atop, dominates, and rules that world? I will return to that.

Killing Journalists to Cover Up Genocide

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 129 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli genocide. Other credible estimates say the death toll is much higher, at 188. In the first 10 weeks of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, more journalists were killed than had been killed in any country over an entire year.

But as Israel’s genocide intensifies in northern Gaza, the situation has become even worse. Israel has explicitly put a target on the backs of several of the remaining Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza, charging they are associated with Hamas without providing any credible evidence. The CPJ said in a statement following the accusations that Israel had “repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.”

In an op-ed in the New York Times, journalist Kavitha Chekuru points out: “The timing of the accusations against the six is impossible to ignore, coming during one of the most intense and devastating phases of Israel’s war in Gaza yet. Israeli officials have ordered about 400,000 people to leave their homes in the north, with no true guarantee of safety or return. The entire population is at risk of starvation, and each new statement from U.N. officials and the few remaining doctors there is increasingly dire. With Israel continuing to bar foreign media from entering Gaza independently, the burden of documenting this war has fallen almost entirely to Palestinian journalists. With every journalist killed, another voice is silenced, and the world’s window on Gaza becomes even smaller."

U.S. State Department Finds "No Violation" in Israel's Starvation by Genocide 

On October 13, the Biden-Harris administration supposedly gave Israel a “warning” that it might suspend military aid to Israel if Israel did not begin to allow at least food aid into northern Gaza within 30 days. It set a minimum requirement of 350 aid trucks a day going into Gaza. 

After 30 days, Israel reported allowing twenty-two aid trucks a day into Gaza. And relief agencies report that even those were essentially derailed and turned over to looters by the Israeli army when they entered Gaza. 

When asked about this at a press conference on November 14, U.S. State Department spokesman Verdant Patel said that the State Department had “not made an assessment… that the Israelis are in violation of U.S. law.” In the obfuscating (cover-up) language of double-speak and double-negatives, the State Department basically said: no, Israel is not allowing aid in. And yes, Israel is starving people to death. But, so what? Did you think we were serious?

Needed More Than Ever: STOP the GENOCIDE in GAZA

Unconstrained mass murder of civilians; terrorism by any definition. Starving the civilian population of Gaza to the point of death; terrorism by any definition. Systematically and openly targeting journalists who are exposing this to the world. And then finding that none of this is a reason to stop sending bombs, missiles, and intel to make it all happen.

And this is under the Democrats, who shed crocodile tears about the deaths and destruction while they enable it, but who are now pledging and working to hand off all this to fascists who care even less about covering up these crimes! For the entire ruling class (both the MAGA fascists and the “traditional” imperialist Democrats), Israel is a rabid attack dog whose existence is critical to their domination of the Middle East, and the world.

That’s America! That’s this system at work. If enabling Israel’s crimes against humanity was the only thing wrong with this system, that would still be reason enough to overthrow it and replace it with something much different and better—what is outlined in We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System. But this is the way this system has worked since its beginning in genocide of native people and slavery, and through world wars, use of atomic bombs, and genocidal wars from Indochina to Iraq. 

There is no hyperbole or rhetoric in this from revolutionary leader Bob Avakian: 

We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.

Elsewhere in this issue I report on an intensification of the U.S.-Israel genocide against Gaza. Now a fascist regime is coming to power that promises even worse genocide in Gaza. Worse than under the Democrats! And remember, despite their endless ritual of never-enforced “warnings” to Israel to dial down the genocide, the Democrats are all-in with Israel. 

Genocide with the Democrats, or with the fascists? How can anyone in good conscience accept these “choices”?! Or accept the legitimacy of the election of a fascist that resulted?!

In the lead-up to the election, revolutionary leader, author of the new communism Bob Avakian (BA) did a lot of analysis of what was actually represented in the election. In his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #101, he boiled it down to this:

When these are the “choices” offered by a system, it is time to recognize that this system is a thoroughly rotten, monstrously criminal, massively destructive, thoroughly outmoded system (long past the time when it can represent anything positive).

It is time to look seriously for solutions outside and beyond this system.

It is time for a revolution to overthrow and uproot this whole system and bring into being a fundamentally different and much better system.

There Was No Choice in this Election That Would Have Made Any Difference for the Better

Millions of people inside the U.S. are heartsick and outraged that this country is enabling a genocide in Gaza. Many looked to this election, in one way or another, as providing a channel to at least mitigate that. They were wrong.

Some people thought that a big reason Democrats were enabling Israel’s genocide was the influence of Republican megadonors in funding pro-Israel candidates in Democratic Party primary elections (the “Reject AIPAC” campaign). 

Some thought that voting for “uncommitted” delegates to the Democratic National Convention would compel the Democrats to impose a ceasefire, if only in order to attract enough votes to win the election. 

Some people even thought that maybe Trump, for his own reasons, might rein in Israel. 

But the reality is, support for Israel from the whole spectrum of ruling class politics is not a product of how people vote but the needs of this system. And no choice in this election would have made any real difference. 

The Democrats Did What the Democrats DO

Look at what the Democrats actually did. They refused to let any Palestinian say anything from the stage at their national convention, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people voted for “uncommitted” delegates as a protest against the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel. 

The “Reject AIPAC” effort called on the Democratic Party to reject moves by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to oust elected Democrats who criticized Israel. Harris refused do that and has close relations with AIPAC.

Biden and Harris refused to enforce any of their “warnings” to Israel and impose a ceasefire in Gaza, even when that might have made a significant difference in the vote in Michigan, which was considered one of the “swing” states that Harris had to carry in the election. 

When given a chance to differentiate herself from Genocide Joe, Kamala Harris said in an interview that “there is nothing that comes to mind” that she would do differently than Biden! 

And the Democrats stayed all-in on backing Israel, even though that likely left a big chunk of the “youth vote” alienated and on the sidelines in the election.

For the Democrats, maintaining this system of global exploitation and oppression, with Israel being a key link in that chain, is more important than even winning an election! 

Trump Is a Genocidal Fascist 

And if anyone thought that for whatever reason (like his differences with the Democrats over Ukraine or his reported personal beef with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu) Trump would pull the plug on U.S. backing for Israel’s genocide, look what he has done already, even before he is in power!

Trump told Israel to “finish the job” in Gaza, with the implication that means do away with pretending to protect Palestinian civilians. And he has signaled how his regime will deal with the Palestinians by appointing Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is part of a religious cult that sees the existence of Israel with the borders promised in the Bible as necessary to bring about the second coming of Jesus and the violent destruction of most of humanity. He denies there is even such a thing as the Palestinian people!

Israeli “settlements” in the West Bank region of Palestine are essentially armed camps encircling and isolating Palestinian communities, cities, and farms and a people who have lived there for hundreds and hundreds of years. Many Israeli “settlers” are paramilitary terrorists. The settlements are illegal under international law as they were seized and occupied by Israel in war. On the eve of the first Trump administration, Huckabee visited one settlement (he has visited Israel more than 100 times!) and said: “There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It's Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement. They're communities. They're neighborhoods. They're cities. There's no such thing as an occupation… The Jews are the occupants.” 

This is more than genocide enabling, this is genocide inciting. And it has been taken as such by the most hardcore and high-ranking Jewish-supremacist fascists in the Israeli government. They have declared that now is the time to openly annex the West Bank into Israel in defiance of international law and the existence of the Palestinian people there.

Under the Democrats, student protesters have been persecuted, faculty fired, protesters brutalized by police. The Democrats joined right in with the MAGA fascists to brand protest and dissent against Israel’s genocide in Gaza as “anti-Semitism.” 

Trump promises worse. Speaking to donors during the campaign, Trump declared, “Any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.” And the election of Trump has ripped off the cellar door, setting loose a rabid social base of revenge-lusting, dark-ages racists, woman and LGBT haters, and immigrant haters. Zionist thugs are right at home and right in the mix with these MAGA Nazis.

It’s the SYSTEM

Again: there was nothing good that could have come out of this election for the Palestinian people (or for that matter, for humanity).

Why? In his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #7, Why is the U.S. supporting Israel's genocide of Palestinians (posted before Biden was pushed out and replaced by Harris), Bob Avakian (BA) poses, and answers, the essential question that is covered over by the way this system has operated and programmed people to “think”:

Why is Biden, and basically the entire government and ruling class of the U.S., supporting Israel in carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people, before the whole world? Here is the answer to that crucial question:

This is not because of “the power of the Jewish lobby”—or because of some ignorant, ridiculous and outrageous notion that “Jews are controlling everything.” It is because Israel plays a “special role” as a heavily armed bastion of support for U.S. imperialism in a strategically important part of the world (the “Middle East”). And Israel has been a key force in the commission of atrocities which have helped to maintain the oppressive rule of U.S. imperialism in many other parts of the world.

And BA goes on to say:

It’s the system! The system of capitalism-imperialism that Biden serves. The system he has to serve—the system that anybody and everybody has to serve if they want to hold office, and especially “high office,” like president, within this system. That is why Biden is doing what he’s doing—what all these politicians are doing—above and beyond their more narrow personal interests.

It’s the system! This system of capitalism-imperialism that embodies and enforces white supremacy, patriarchal male supremacy and other brutal oppression—this system resting on ruthless life-stealing exploitation of masses of people in this country and literally billions of people worldwide, including more than 150 million children—all enforced with massive violence and destruction, of people and the environment, posing a very real threat to the future and the existence of humanity.

This system that needs to be overthrown at the soonest possible time, through an actual revolution.

Casting Away Illusions Opens the Door to the REAL Solution

It won’t work to try to “use this system” to stop genocide in Gaza. Or for any meaningful change for the better. People tried that last election. I just surveyed the “result.” And I quoted BA to get to the heart of why that was the case and what needs to be done.

But there is a fundamental unity and positive synergy in fighting to stop the most egregious crimes of this system with a cutting edge of building a movement for revolution. Like THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity says: Fight the power, and transform the people, for revolution.

In his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #33, Bob Avakian points to powerful and inspiring elements of the uprisings of the 1960s that are extremely relevant to right now, and in particular extremely crucial to those determined to stop the genocide in Gaza, if we are to get to the root of where this horror comes from, and bring about real change. And in that social media message, BA breaks down what we revcoms are doing in this and other struggles:

In taking part, together with others, in protests and resistance against injustice and oppression, we have two basic objectives: To unite all who can be united, in the broadest possible way, on the most principled basis, in the struggle against this injustice and oppression. And to put forth, encourage broad discussion and debate around, and win as many people as possible to, our understanding of the fundamental cause of all this injustice and oppression and what is necessary to put an end to it, and uproot the basis for it: our scientific understanding that all these injustices, all this oppression, is fundamentally rooted in this system of capitalism-imperialism, and—while resistance against this is very important—it will require a revolution to overthrow this system, and bring into being a fundamentally different and truly emancipating system, in order to actually eliminate and uproot all this injustice and oppression.

Right now is the moment to start following BA’s social media messages. And spread them everywhere, including far and wide among those who have been active in struggling to stop Israel’s genocide and free Palestine.

A family of Shi’ite Muslim tobacco farmers from southern Lebanon is forced to flee Israeli threats and bombs. They’re one of the hundreds of thousands of families who’ve been displaced by Israel’s murderous assault on Lebanon. They find shelter in the northern town of Aitou, far from the fighting in the south. But on October 14, their house was targeted and bombed by Israel. The whole family was killed. 

Many Lebanese had been helping their compatriots in distress, whether they were Shi’ite Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Christians, Druze or from other groups. But now Israel’s indiscriminate bombings—especially of Shi’ites, the section of Lebanese society Hezbollah has its roots in—have spread fear and distrust. Israel has forcibly displaced over a million Lebanese, and now the Zionist state is making other Lebanese afraid to help them.   

This is just one dimension of the criminal war Israel is waging in Lebanon—with full U.S. backing. 

The Israeli-U.S. Means of Fighting Are Illegitimate and Criminal

Israel is indiscriminately bombing cities, suburbs and villages in Lebanon—using U.S. bombs and planes. It’s murdering whole families or bringing down entire apartment buildings, killing 3,452 people and wounding 14,599 others so far, most of them civilians. Many urban areas look like canyons of devastation, with bombed-out high-rise apartment buildings lining rubble-filled streets. In one 24-hour period (November 16), Israeli attacks killed 59 people and wounded another 182 across Lebanon.

These are war crimes and forms of collective punishment that target wide sections of the population—not just Hezbollah’s military personnel. Israel is carrying out massive destruction of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure—destroying dozens of towns and villages and damaging or destroying over 100,000 homes, all making it difficult if not impossible for millions to live. The World Bank estimates that Israel’s attacks in Lebanon have caused $8 billion in damage. 

A few examples from just this past week:  

• Sunday: an Israeli strike killed 23 people, including three children in the northern village of Almat.
• Monday and Tuesday: Israel demanded that people evacuate more than 30 towns and villages in southern Lebanon. 
• Tuesday: Israeli struck 100 targets across Lebanon, killing at least 30 people, with missiles rained down on the neighborhoods south of Beirut after Israel demanded 11 buildings be evacuated. “Plumes of thick, acrid smoke rose above the skyline of the Lebanese capital after a heavy wave of missiles shook the area, sending schoolchildren running for cover miles from the blasts as Israeli surveillance drones buzzed overhead,” according to one report.
• Thursday: Israel attacked the Ghobeiry and Burj al-Barajneh neighborhoods south of Beirut—home to some 700,000 people but now largely empty because of Israel’s assault. Whole residential buildings were leveled. Across Lebanon, at least 37 people were killed, including 12 emergency rescue workers in Baalbek, killed when Israel targeted the city’s civil defense center.

The Israeli-U.S. War Aims Are Illegitimate and Criminal

Think about the parents whose children have been traumatized—or killed—and think about the children who’ve lost parents. This is happening every single day in Lebanon thanks to Israel and the U.S. And now Israel’s defense minister has declared, “In Lebanon, there will be no cease-fire and there will be no respite” and that Israel will continue to hit the country “with full force.”

And if that’s not enough, the carnage in Lebanon is escalating the danger of a wider, regional war that could draw in other global powers and could even spiral into nuclear conflict. 

None of this would be happening without the United States—the country you live in. If children being slaughtered, families being forced to leave their homes and losing everything, and hospitals being deliberately destroyed fills you with sickness and rage, then you need to muster the courage and determination to do three things. 

First, find ways yourself and join with others to visibly and vocally oppose the illegitimate Israeli-U.S. war in Lebanon and genocide in Gaza.

Second, dig into Israel and Palestine, the Middle East and U.S. Imperialism, the Revolution Humanity Needs: A selection of writings from Bob Avakian on why these unjust wars of empire keep happening, particularly in the Middle East. 

Third, and most important, dare to dig into what it will actually take to end these endless wars. And you can’t seriously do that without answering the challenge revolutionary leader Bob Avakian posed in his social media messages @BobAvakianOfficial:

So, those of you who are not afraid of the truth: Get ready for messages coming at you, bringing the reality of what is going on in the biggest and deepest dimensions—and most of all the reality of the revolution we urgently need, the revolution we have a real chance to bring about, right in this country, right in this intense and momentous time we are living in now. (@BobAvakianOfficial, REVOLUTION #1)

The music video “Khamooshi (Silence)” by Iranian singer-songwriter Mehdi Yarrahi¹ powerfully rips through the anguish many feel as people in Iran commemorate the two-year anniversaries of those murdered by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) theocratic regime during the Woman, Life, Freedom (WLF) uprising. It coincides with the fifth anniversary of “Bloody November,” in which 1,500 protesters were murdered in just days in November 2019. In the U.S., the lyrics feel oddly pointed as people are reeling with a mix of grief and outrage after the election of fascist Donald Trump amid the U.S.-backed Israel’s sickening genocide in the Middle East and wider war threats. Yarrahi’s call to not “sit safely on the shore” is right on time.

This past week, several courageous actions by political (and other) prisoners in Iran have put into practice the “cry [that] might shatter the chains” by shattering the silence enforced by prison walls.

Listen to the sound of women in Evin Prison’s yard chanting, singing and banging to protest the death sentence of Varisheh Moradi issued on November 10. She is an activist of the Kurdish oppressed nationality who was convicted, after months of torture and isolation and without legal representation, of “armed rebellion” solely based on her alleged affiliation with a Kurdish opposition party. Moradi was one of seven Evin women prisoners who signed a recent letter protesting the death sentence of Pakhshan Azizi (see IEC November 11 update)

Some of the chants are: "Varisheh Moradi must be freed,” “Pakhshan Azizi must be freed,” "Down With The Execution Regime," "Kurdistan, Grave of Fascism" and “Woman, Life, Freedom.” This was followed on November 16 by a letter from the “Women’s Ward of Evin Prison”² (notably, not limited to the political prisoners’ ward), which concluded:

We, the women imprisoned in Evin, strongly condemn the hostile, shameless, and extrajudicial practices of the judiciary aimed at suppressing political, civil, and ideological activists. We oppose the death penalty and demand the abolition of all death sentences issued against prisoners across the country.

We call on all people of Iran—legal experts, political and civil activists, labor and women’s rights advocates, students, professors, and others—to actively respond and prevent any of the condemned prisoners, including Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi, from falling victim to the Islamic Republic’s vendetta against the freedom and equality-seeking movement of the Iranian people.

On Friday, November 15, male political prisoners in Ghezel Hesar Prison held a special ceremony to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the powerful November, or “Aban” uprising in 2019. Their chants were also recorded on cell phone (the interruptions from a mechanical female voice announce that the call is coming from Ghezel Hesar Prison) and posted on the Bidarzani Telegram channel, and reposted on Instagram by @Mansoureh.Behkish of Mothers of Khavaran. She reported, “They chanted against the rule of the Islamic Republic and what they called ‘dictatorship of Velayat Faqih [the absolute (Islamic) judge]’… and “Aban continues, even if bullets rain on us day and night!”

The weekly “No to Execution Tuesdays” hunger strike of prisoners entered its 42^nd week, now in 25 prisons across Iran. The collective determination shown by the prisoners in the face of dire conditions is a clarion call to a very dangerous world to stand with them, to stand up with dignity for justice, and to follow their example in righteously fighting for a better world. 

“Ekbatan Boys” Sentenced to Death to Punish a Whole Rebellious Neighborhood

On March 8, 2023, International Women’s Day, six hijabless teenage girls in the Ekbatan neighborhood of Tehran, Iran’s capital, danced to a song by Nigerian artist Rema. Their TikTok of this fun, defiant act went viral and they were detained by Iran’s draconian “Morality Police” and forced to issue a public apology. Ekbatan has a reputation for such rebel youth who dwell in this massive housing complex.

On November 13, 2024, six young men known as the Ekbatan Boys were sentenced to death in a blatantly unjust process aimed at extracting revenge against the WLF uprising. They were convicted in the death of paramilitary agent Arman Aliverdi for spying during a protest although no concrete evidence points to their guilt.

Their lawyer, Babak Paknia, noted that all of the accused were tortured, and they insisted that any forced confessions were false, while he himself was barred from the courtroom in a legal process outrageously tainted even by the low-bar standards of the Islamic Republic. The original judge in the case had refused to deliver a death sentence, so he was summarily replaced by two other judges with no knowledge of the case, who quickly issued the death sentence the regime required to take revenge on these young men for the protests.

During the height of the WLF uprising, marches broke out practically every night in Ekbatan, and shouting of slogans from the high-rise windows was a constant. The regime’s Basij paramilitary agents continuously beat and arrested the protesters, shot into windows and trashed buildings. On the night of October 28, 2022, five Basijis were sent in to identify leaders and were beaten by unarmed protesters. One agent, after being beaten, fled the scene and was later stabbed by unknown assailants. Fifty residents were arrested in a dragnet and 14 indicted. None of the convicted were proven to be involved in the stabbing, only to have been present in the vicinity of the protest.³

“Bravery is contagious”

This was a sentiment shouted by crowds on the streets during the monthslong WLF uprising of 2022-2023. Throngs of women also chanted “Bring on the fight, we are all Mahsa” referring to Mahsa Jina Amini who was murdered by Iran’s theocrats for “improper hijab” in September 2022. This powerful uprising against women’s oppression is captured in the Frontline documentary “Inside the Iranian Uprising” that was screened on Friday, November 15 by the Sensible Cinema of the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco with IEC participation. We encourage others to continue circulating this film along with “Coup 53” that documents the treacherous role of the U.S. and its CIA in the history of Iran that laid the groundwork for the rise of the capitalist theocracy that is the Islamic “Execution Republic” of today. Films, books and other important resources to understand this history and background to the long struggle of political prisoners, and of women, in Iran can be found on our website’s resources page.

Let the bravery of all Iran’s political prisoners, especially the fierce women resisters of Evin Prison, be heard around the world. Let their bravery be a contagion that spreads around our world with the requisite urgency. 

We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! We say to the U.S government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!

On November 16, the Christian fascist organization, Men's March to Abolish Abortion staged a rally outside of Boston Planned Parenthood and attempted to march to downtown Boston. The two hundred anti-abortionists were met halfway by hundreds of angry counter-protesters, mainly youth but also older folks who blocked the streets and forced the fascists against the wall of a hotel. Members of THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity were part of the counter-protest, wading into the crowds, leading chants and distributing hundreds of copies of @BobAvakianOfficial, REVOLUTION #102, "'Two Countries' Within This Country—And The Whole Damn System's Got To Go! This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination."

The remnants of the fascist rally were only able to proceed after dozens of baton-wielding Boston cops cleared a way, but the counter-protesters continued to challenge and disrupt the Christian fascists till the end of the day.

The PBS series “American Experience” recently aired a documentary titled American Coup: Wilmington 1898. Voted In, Terrorized Out. You can watch it online here. The documentary, direct by Brad Lichenstein and Yoruba Richen, tells the story of the carefully orchestrated violent insurrection, political coup, and bloody massacre of 60 Black people in Wilmington, North Carolina's largest city, in 1898. 

At that time, Wilmington had a thriving Black middle class, and three of the city’s aldermen, as well as many other city officials, were Black. This situation was intolerable to the white supremacists. Whipping up racist fears, white supremacists organized and mobilized an uprising that used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s elected, multi-racial government. Black residents were murdered and thousands were banished. Like the 1921 massacre of Black people in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and many other horrors, the story of what happened in Wilmington was suppressed and lied about for decades. You can get a fuller account of what happened in Wilmington and the circumstances surrounding it in a letter from a reader at revcom.us on the book Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino.

As I watched the PBS documentary, this line from Bob Avakian’s recent social media message Revolution #102 (“Two Countries” Within This Country—And The Whole Damn System’s Got To Go! This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination) jumped out at me: 

As I have said before, there is a direct line from the pro-slavery Confederacy, at the time of the Civil War, to the fascism of today, with its determination to make America once again openly, aggressively white supremacist, male supremacist, and anti-LGBT people.

That “direct line” clearly passes through the Wilmington coup. 

The documentary is narrated by numerous historians, including David Zucchino. They are joined by descendants of Black businessmen in Wilmington at the time; the editor of the Daily Record, a Black-owned daily newspaper; and descendants of some of those white supremacists who organized and carried out the massacre and coup. 

I encourage readers of revcom.us to check out American Coup: Wilmington 1898. 

“Besides the fact that he is the only leader in this country who is talking about a real revolution—and besides the fact that he is actually leading the process of actively working for that revolution—what Bob Avakian (BA) has done, with the development of the new communism, is of world historic importance. It is, in fact, a whole new framework for human emancipation. No one else has done what BA has done.” 

In the Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the sixth one states that while BA is Chairman of the Party, he is “greater than” that. It goes on to say, “As we have emphasized, the leadership of BA and the new synthesis of communism that he has brought forward provides the theoretical framework, the scientific method and approach for a whole new stage of communist revolution, not just in this country but in the world as a whole.” BA is not just solving tactical problems or things encountered “on the way,” but BA has actually envisioned what the new socialist society would be based on and tackled the contradictions involved in moving a socialist society toward communism—without putting a gun to people’s backs. This is the historic contradiction and because BA has solved it with the new communism, we can actually say humanity has the understanding to get to a world without exploitation and oppression, to a conscious and voluntary association of human beings solving the problems of society and engaging in debate, creative and scientific activities, enriching humanity materially, socially, intellectually and spiritually in a materialist sense. 

This new communism is not just for making a revolution here in the U.S., but rather a huge leap in understanding for all of humanity and how to get free—which will have to be applied in any given country but with the understanding and synthesis that everyone making a revolution in this world will have to “go through” in order for it to be a truly liberating revolution and new society. Leading comrades and revcom.us have been stressing the importance of this dimension of BA’s importance. In contrast, too many of us get pulled to just seeing this as immediate guidance for the revolution right now and not continually going back to the huge leap the new communism is for all of humanity, a rupture in human understanding of how humanity could actually get to a world beyond the 4 Alls.⁷

It is not “human society over here” and then “communism and BA over there,” basically just another way among many of looking at the world in the mix, something we think is right, just and moral, but no real basis to be able to win people over from how they understand the world currently. BA and the new communism is not “our thing,” he is not “our guy.” BA has studied and drawn from all of human society, summed up the revolutions of the 20^th century that the masses of people have made, and synthesized all of this into a leap in human understanding for all of humanity.

Gaining the urgently needed adherents and followers of BA and this understanding is NOT convincing people that “we are ‘fine fellows’ and we have their best interests at heart,” that “we agree on so much” and so they should really just get organized with us, that there is a place for them in this revolution without their having to change at all, and sooner or later they will realize that BA is really right and they should listen to him… and by the way, “just ignore those people calling this a cult, they don’t want revolution and you can see for yourself how nice we are.” 

NO! Instead, we have to pose the contradictions very sharply to people very broadly, calling forward the people who are not going to go along with the horrors and are willing to get out of their “comfort zone,” that in order for this revolution to actually happen, and for a new world to be forged, THEY actually have to become followers of BA, the leadership that makes this possible. We have to engage in ferocious struggle with them and win them to feel compelled to themselves get into BA, and to spread this leadership to others. And we have to apply this in what we are doing NOW.

We have to confront that all too often the “fine fellows” model is our criteria and we fail to intervene to repolarize for revolution, to sharpen up the contradictions. The “fine fellows” model keeps pulling us to struggle with people to take up something lesser than what this actual revolution requires. 

Taking on the other programs and outlooks is not an abstract question, just in the realm of ideas. One example: At the event at Symphony Space a couple of weeks before the election, Margaret Atwood and Min Jin Lee were not only enthusiastically calling on people to vote for Kamala, but they were explicitly shaming people who are refusing to do so because of the genocide in Gaza Kamala Harris is gladly supporting. They were blatantly acting as “willing accomplices in the crusade of U.S. capitalism-imperialism to remain the world’s number one exploiter, oppressor and plunderer of people and the environment, even at the cost of risking the future, and the very existence, of humanity.” (REVOLUTION #79)  If we haven’t internalized this crucial point, and even more, if we don’t seize every opportunity to call that out in the sharpest way we possibly can, to make people confront what they are signing up for even when they “hold their noses” and vote for Kamala, yes to break the “unity” with some of these individuals and “force the issue” with them—then we are acting on a different strategy which is NOT what BA is modeling, leading and struggling with us to carry out. And what he is doing IS the only strategy that will actually lead to being able to seize an opening and fight for millions to take up revolution, nothing less, and the whole future that BA has made possible through forging the breakthrough of the new communism.

We have to open our eyes and the eyes of others to what is a truly very liberating fact—that BA has forged a strategy to make this revolution, to bring into being a whole different future for humanity, and he is giving us all on-the-ground leadership right now to carry out that strategy, to fight to repolarize for that revolution and to win people to the kind of revolution—for the emancipation of humanity—which is what is urgently needed and possible in this rare time. If we truly believe this, the “simple” in some ways, then we can work on the more complex presentation and struggle with people; but if we don’t get, and put forward, the simple, working on the complex will just turn into conciliation and “explanations.”

These two strategies—the “fine fellows” approach vs. the one of struggling sharply with people over the truth—have to be sharply posed, and we have to confront that this is NOT consistently, and therefore fundamentally, what we have been proceeding from and/or leading others to proceed from, or the guidance wouldn’t be struggling with us around these questions. The “Why Is Bob Avakian So Important?” paragraph is giving us guidance on what to focus on and how. We do have to accomplish all the many tasks before us, but not as something short of actually engaging in what is needed—the ideological struggle with people in the situations we find ourselves in, and the crucial factor of BA’s leadership—not just in “good discussions amongst ourselves.” We have to be steeped in these social media messages, where BA is actually dealing with the reality that people themselves need to confront, and transform, and why that is possible. We have to be able to wield these messages with scientifically grounded confidence that this revolution is actually in the interests of the vast majority of people and that people can change their thinking and what they do based on that. They can be won to what is in the interests of humanity—through struggle.

We can’t mystify this either, thinking that there will be a “better time” to take this up. People say, “I agree with everything you say.” Do we call on them to donate and be part of raising funds with others to spread @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere? At events, do we ask people to raise their hands if they are going to donate, to come out with THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity at this time and place, or to volunteer at Revolution Books at a specific time, etc.? This is often where the struggle can open up and the struggle that is needed can happen. We are looking to repolarize for revolution, to sharpen the contradictions and not soften the edges. We need to bring forward the thousands now to be the leaders based on and rooted in the new communism, not proceed from uniting with those who hate this shit full stop. There is not a formula, a boilerplate, a way to proceed that is the thing to do in every moment, but there is a basic method and approach BA is modeling which we need to consistently take up. 

Right now, in this political and ideological terrain, we have to fight to bring forward firm fighters for this revolution, this leadership of BA, this liberating future which is possible because of the new communism, while we are spreading the @BobAvakianOfficial messages to millions, “planting seeds for when all the other solutions are increasingly found to be wanting and the social cohesion of society is reaching the breaking point. And the messages at @BobAvakianOfficial, along with the BA Interviews, can give people in their millions a real sense of WHO this person is and what he stands for, when ‘who you gonna follow?’ suddenly becomes a life and death question for millions.” (From “The Time Is Now!,” a letter from Lenny Wolff)

U.S. imperialism has begun a new round of criminal wars against the people of the Middle East, and Iran is in the midst of it. The U.S. wars in the Middle East are a continuation of its policy of imperialist oppression against the people of this region. 

While oppression is imperialism's permanent and structural relationship with countries of the “Third World,” at times it takes the form of more direct interventions that range from military coups to reshuffling a regime, to outright military aggression. Imperialism has the permanent necessity to impose “national” subjugation, because dominating countries and their huge populations of oppressed people is a vital and strategic component of the imperialist capitalist system, and an integral part of its metabolism. 

Different classes and strata in the dominated countries have varying reactions to this subjugation. Too often in response to this oppression, the masses of the people chase after this or that political trend which claims to fight against imperialist oppression, unaware that the platforms of those trends will never lead to liberation from this subjugation. 

Today, we are at a critical juncture in the history of Iran. The oppressed and exploited strata of our society, the workers and toilers, and the middle strata of society—especially the students—must be aware of, and be able to identify, which “paths” or political platforms can lead the struggle against imperialism to achieve real liberation from this system, and which cannot. Theory and historical experience have proven that there is only one platform that can create a force able to pave the way for liberation from this imperialist oppression: and that is to advance the anti-imperialist struggle in the framework of a communist revolution for the establishment of a socialist state and society. At this historical juncture, any underestimation of this path and its road map will, once again, result in the destruction of the actual and potentially progressive forces in society. 

The misfortune of the Iranian people is that, at this juncture, Iran’s ruling regime is also under attack by the [U.S.] imperialists. So, on the one hand, the regime whose 45-year rule has been drenched in the blood of the masses, is now shamelessly trying to win the support of these same masses by fomenting a sense of reactionary nationalism. And on the other hand, the U.S. and Israeli imperialists are attempting to capitalize on the Iranian people's hatred of the IRI [Islamic Republic of Iran] to gain support for their crimes in the Middle East, up to and including any attack or possible war they may start against Iran. In contrast to these two death traps, there is but one emancipatory program and path before us, that has two decisive and inseparable aspects: to overthrow the IRI and to wage a fierce struggle against imperialist oppression. 

The contradictions between U.S. imperialism and the IRI should never hide the reality that the domination of Iran—implemented through covert schemes, economic bullying, military attacks, and invasions by the U.S. and other powers—has been deeply woven into the fabric of global imperialism for more than 100 years. This relationship and history is the main factor underlying any war that may be started by U.S. imperialism in Iran, whether directly or through its proxy, Israel. 

Throughout the entire post-World War II period, the U.S. has been involved in all the political events that have shaped the situation in Iran. For example, one of the major concerns of the United States was the suppression of peasant uprisings. (This is documented in the book The Revolt of the Shekaryan Peasants, 1952-1953 by Amir Hassanpour). Another example of U.S. involvement is the coup against [elected Prime Minister] Mossadegh. The real motive behind this August 19, 1953 coup was spelled out in a CIA document: “[to] bring about the fall of the Mossadegh's government and replace it with a Western-oriented government to be led by the Shah with [General] Zahedi as prime minister.” The 1953 coup paved the way for the U.S. to become the dominant force [in Iran]. In the wake of the 1953 coup, all of Mossadegh's plans for nationalization [of the oil industry] were halted, and then cancelled. The U.S. oil giants took over Britain's seat at the banquet table, feasting on its plunder of Iran, and reaping huge profits. This coup also announced that the U.S. was now the biggest imperialist bully in the Middle East, and served as a warning to other regimes in the region. The establishment of the colonial state of Israel in the Palestinian territories served the same purpose.³

The U.S. played an important role in crushing the revolutionary uprising against the [Mohammad Reza] Shah's regime. Alarmed by the rise of political struggles against the Shah's regime that culminated in the 1978 uprising, U.S. imperialism, together with the Group of Seven industrialized countries of the West, paved the way for the Islamic fundamentalists’ rise to power, with Khomeini at the helm. These imperialists could see that the Shah’s regime was no longer able to safeguard their dominance in the Middle East, and decided to instead entrust the Islamic fundamentalists with Iran’s state structure, economic infrastructure, and the military and security backbone that they built up under the Shah. They regarded the Islamic fundamentalists as allies because they were as committed to the murder of communists and the suppression of uprisings by workers and peasants and women, and movements of students, intellectuals and oppressed nationalities, and they would also present a barrier to the expansion of Soviet imperialist interests, which were challenging U.S. dominance in the Middle East. 

The Islamic fundamentalists, led by [Ayatollah] Khomeini, quickly unleashed a bloody slaughter on the masses of every strata, even showing no mercy to the Soviet-affiliated trend [e.g., the Tudeh Party] that had “pledged its loyalty” to the IRI. Everyone knows this history. Not only did the IRI not break with the global capitalist system, but it also integrated Iran more deeply into it, and increasingly established and consolidated itself as the state of the big capitalist class, dependent on the global capitalist system. 

In spite of all this, it was never acceptable to the U.S. that the IRI won legitimacy by presenting itself as “anti-American.” Nor was it acceptable that the IRI acted to strengthen the Shiite fundamentalist forces in the countries dependent on the U.S. Most unacceptable to the U.S. was for the IRI to target Israel—the U.S.’s principal military garrison in the region—as “usurping Islamic lands.” On top of that, over the past ten years, [Iran] has been moving towards an alliance with two of [U.S.] rivals, the imperialist powers of China and Russia.

Harmful and Retrograde Political Polarization

The contradictions between the IRI and U.S. imperialism has intensified at various times, causing U.S. imperialist wars in the Middle East to expand to encompass Iran. Today, we are at another such juncture. These contradictions have always been a source of confusion among the masses of people about the nature of the IRI and the nature of U.S. imperialism and, more significantly, confusion among the intellectuals and various political trends. Some have seen the IRI as a wall of “resistance” against imperialist oppression, while others see U.S. imperialism and other Western imperialist powers as purveyors of “democracy” and a source of “freedom and prosperity.” The relative influence that one pole or the other among the masses of the people has fluctuated over time, and the fluctuations have occurred among intellectuals and political activists. 

Specifically, hoping that the imperialists would get rid of the IRI was a powerful trend during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, and even before that—not only among the angry masses but also among human rights activists and various social movements (to say nothing of those political currents affiliated with Western imperialists such as the Reza Pahlavi [son of the former Shah]). With the onset of the genocide in Gaza and Israel's attacks on the Islamist forces of Hezbollah in Lebanon, we see that there are many among the masses of people who support Israel and the U.S. and want them to “attack Iran.” 

On the other hand, among the students and democratic intellectuals, a tendency to ally with the “anti-imperialist resistance” of the IRI, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon is becoming consolidated, as reflected in the “Collective Call to Action: Against the ‘New Order’ Being Imposed on the Middle East.”⁴ Here, we are not talking about the [state actors] of the “Axis of Resistance,” but about a “national consensus” being forged between a section of political activists and intellectuals opposed to the government, the “Axis of Resistance,” and reformists within the government, that is reflected in the “Collective Call to Action,” which the regime is touting and circulating in the state-sponsored media. 

Simply put, both the imperialists and the IRI are endeavoring to win the support of society’s intellectuals and opinion makers. This has resulted in a polarized political alignment that works powerfully against the interests of the people, and against the kind of future that is the shared aspiration of many of the same democratic intellectuals who signed the “Collective Call to Action.”

In the history of the Middle East, and the “Third World” in general, resistance to imperialist oppression, coups, and imperialist wars, even when it was progressive, has been doomed to fail. For example, in Iran, the target of the imperialists’ 1953 coup d'état was the resistance of the National Front government of Dr. Mossadegh, whose platform was to achieve a nationalist capitalist society that would operate within the West’s imperialist capitalist system. The Vietnam War [of liberation against the U.S.], led by the Vietnam Workers Party and Ho Chi Minh, had a revolutionary character. Although that party and its leaders were not revolutionary communists, they were allied with [then revolutionary] socialist China. Nonetheless, despite immense sacrifice by the masses of people, the goal and framework [of the Vietnam Workers Party] resulted in the creation of a society dominated by and dependent on the global capitalist system, and reproducing those social relations. In Chile, the target of the U.S. coup d'état was Dr. Allende, who was assassinated while resisting. Like Mossadegh, Allende and his platform were not able to confront the U.S. and break with the imperialist capitalist system. All these resistance struggles were progressive but did not have the revolutionary goal of totally rupturing with the imperialist capitalist system and with the capitalist class in these countries that is dependent on the system of imperialist capitalism. It is enough to look at the horrific oppressive societies created by the “anti-colonial fighters” in Africa and the Middle East to see that this assessment is also true of the post-World War II anticolonial struggles overall.

The only anti-imperialist resistance that was carried out on the basis of a revolutionary platform and succeeded was the Chinese Revolution [led by Mao Zedong] which was carried out on the basis of the goal of establishing a socialist society, with a strategy able to achieve this goal, and a [communist] leadership for this goal. It proved that liberation from imperialist oppression, in this era, is only possible on the basis of the strategy of the communist revolution and the creation of a socialist society.

What Is to Be Done? How to Open the Way for a Real Revolution?

Changing people's thinking about all of the above facts, at a scale of millions, is a matter of the primary and foremost importance. The people must be warned against lending any support to the crimes being committed in Palestine and Lebanon by Israel and the U.S.—without being influenced by the hypocritical tricks of the IRI, and without retreating from criticizing the reactionary outlook of Hamas and Hezbollah, without retreating from the goal of overthrowing the IRI. The people must be frankly spoken to: If you are not sickened by every massacre in Gaza, you must be told to wake up! Gaza is not very far from Tehran. But even if it happened to be in Latin America (and not the Middle East), it is better for us—and the rest of the world—to know what is getting cooked in the boiling pot of this capitalist-imperialist system. The imperialism of the U.S. and Israel will come for all the people, everywhere in Iran. And by then it will be too late to understand the reality of this world and try to save not just the Iranian people, but all of humanity, from this absolute horror. 

Joe Biden is one of the most criminal presidents in U.S. history. He has deliberately allowed Israel complete freedom to slaughter the people of Gaza. In the space of a year, he has provided Israel with 50,000 tons of lethal weapons and more than 70,000 tons of bombs in order to advance the massacre of the people of Gaza. Imperialism means sucking the last drops of life from billions of working people throughout the world; it means using violence and brutality to suppress the anger of this oppressed and exploited humanity. The cruel, ruthless and rotten nature of the IRI is a small sample of what imperialism produces. The violence and cruelty of imperialism ranges from the establishment of repressive regimes, to mass murder with the most advanced weapons of mass slaughter, to reducing big cites to a pile of dust and twisted metal in which even rats won’t nest. Of course, they also make empty promises that they—after, yes, leaving behind scorched earth, dismembered bodies, and homeless and displaced people—will bring “prosperity” and “democracy” to those who survive. The bragging of IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] commanders and the disgusting posturing of [Ayatollah] Khamenei's fascist disciples who cheer the IRI for launching dangerous missile barrages, the rotten mullahs who have gassed school girls with chemical bombs now say, “So what if half of the world's people die!” This is infuriating and hateful, and so is its mirror image—the ignorant celebration and foot-stomping in support of Israel's crimes. The people should be told: This kind of sentiment and ideology is worthy of your oppressors, not you! Launching a mass and serious movement against the warmongering of Israel and the U.S., and any move of the IRI to enter a war with Israel and the U.S., must be accompanied by the exposure and criticism of all the cultural and superstructure manifestations of the actors in this war. In this regard, the policy of the IRI in “supporting the Palestinian people” should be exposed, including how it has turned the aspirations of an oppressed colonized nation into a gambling chip that it leverages to expand its influence in the region and compete for power with its counterparts in other Islamic countries. Down with this kind of rotten and reactionary “resistance"!

Criticism of the “Anti-Imperialist” Tendency that Pours Gasoline into the IRI's Gas Tank

The intellectuals opposed to the regime, whose anti-imperialist tendencies are within a narrow nationalist framework (reflected in the “Collective Call to Action: Against the 'New Order' Being Imposed on the Middle East”) must be warned that they cannot be anti-imperialist yet remain silent in the face of the reactionary content of the resistance waged by the IRI and its proxies in the “Axis of Resistance,” especially Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This silence on the part of the Iranian intellectuals is very harmful to the people of the world and is a betrayal of the Palestinian people and of those who see the reality of Israel's oppression and occupation.

They consider it impossible to create a revolutionary leadership and to rely on genuine mass initiatives at the heart of the Palestinian movement. They resort to what exists, i.e., to the reactionary “Axis of Resistance” trend, whose godfather is the IRI, and which has today become a pawn on the chessboard of Chinese and Russian imperialists in their competition with U.S. imperialism. Issuing this kind of “Call to Action” is to enlist in the very strong anticommunist current prevailing among the world's intellectuals, and to enter into the fatal dichotomy of  imperialism/Islamic fundamentalism, rather than to break with this dichotomy. 

Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Taliban, and the fake “resistance” fronts formed here and there by such forces, must be exposed. We must demonstrate how the ideas, values, and relations that they defend and represent are in direct opposition to the interests of the masses of people, just as we do about imperialism. These reactionaries and their power bases must be overthrown, because they, like Israel, are pillars of the ruling order.

Everywhere, the [current] polarization acts in the interest of reactionaries, in Iran, Europe, the U.S. and so on. It is reactionary [interests] that are polarizing the people. Many intellectuals and those who really want to fight against global capitalism and its crimes succumb to supporting the status quo. The reason is that they only see what “is” and not the potential at the heart of the situation. Disrupting this situation requires a great war of ideas. We must fight for a line that realizes the emancipatory potential. This potential is not at all obvious, and requires intervention with a correct political and ideological line: one that scientifically reflects the reality of the situation and a political strategy that will open the way for a real revolution. With regard to this “line” and its theoretical backing (the new communism [developed by revolutionary leader Bob Avakian]), a great struggle must be waged in order to produce a force in society that is able to confront the horrors that are coming, and out of which it is possible to wrench a fundamentally different future for the people of this society, the Middle East, and the world.

A worldwide criminal competition race is underway, and it is up to us to stop it. All of the intellectual and political frameworks that have been produced by the ruling system must be discarded, and fast. We say again, times a million: The only way to end this terror is through a communist revolution.

In a recent show of support for Palestinians and protest against the U.S.-Israel genocide in Gaza, Azeez Al-Shaair, pro football player for the NFL Houston Texans, wore cleats in a game with the words “Free” with the colors of the Palestinian flag on one side. On the other side, there were facts like  “AT LEAST 41,788 Palestinians killed,” “10,000+ estimated to be under the rubble,” and “96,794 wounded”—pointing to the horrific and ongoing toll of the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide. 

Al-Shaair is a member of the Athletes for Ceasefire movement. He said that he “uses his voice to advocate for the voiceless.” He is among the more than 300 athletes worldwide who have signed a powerful statement calling out Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The effort has been led by John Carlos, who raised a clenched fist in a Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in a defiant protest against the systematic oppression of Black people in the U.S.

The statement reads:

We call for HUMANITY, Empathy and an Immediate Ceasefire.

In the wake of an unfolding genocide in Gaza, as described by countless legal scholars, human rights experts and international organizations across the world. We, as athletes, recognize our moral responsibility to utilize our platform for a higher purpose: to save human lives and to raise awareness about this ongoing tragedy.

WE CALL ON PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN TO CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE.

And to redirect those resources to address pressing domestic needs such as education, healthcare, and helping the unhoused.

We are unable to turn a blind eye to the devastation being inflicted on civilians, especially children, in the Gaza Strip, through bombing campaigns funded in part by the U.S.

OUR DECISION TO VOICE OUR CONCERN STEMS FROM A COMMITMENT TO JOIN ALL THOSE SPEAKING UP FOR LIFE AND DIGNITY.

We acknowledge the right of the Palestinian people to live in peace and security. As professional athletes, we underscore our shared humanity, and advocate for a path that respects all human life, regardless of religion or ethnic background. In signing this letter, we continue a long legacy of athletes speaking up for the human rights of all people, such as Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith who raised their fists at the 1968 games in part to demand that apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia be held to account. We stand in the proud tradition of "The Greatest" Muhammad Ali who stood for Palestinian freedom throughout his life both in word and deed.

WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF THESE GIANTS IN OUR EFFORTS TO KEEP THIS TRADITION OF ATHLETE OF CONSCIENCE ALIVE.

Aside from Carlos and Shaair, those who have signed that statement include Kenny Stills (NFL, retired), Etan Thomas (NBA, retired), Michael Bennett (NFL, retired), Abdi Abdirahman (track and field, five-time Olympian), Abdihamid Nur (USA track and field); Krissy Gear (track and field, HOKA NAZ Elite), Eric Kendricks (NFL), Donté Stallworth (NFL, retired), Ryan Grant (NFL, retired), Natasha Cloud (WNBA), Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (NBA, retired), Muhumed Ahmed (Olympic silver medalist, track and field), Nikki Hiltz (track and field), Marielle Hall (Olympic track and field), Layshia Clarendon (WNBA), Darrell Hill (USA Olympic track and field).

There is great need for voices of conscience like this as part of the struggle to put an end to Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people.