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Articles in this issue (scroll down or click to read article below):

  • BOB AVAKIAN REVOLUTION 107: A Special Holiday Message, 2024: God-Damn the Trump/MAGA Fascists, Every One!
  • BOB AVAKIAN REVOLUTION #106: Defend the Rights and Lives of People Targeted by Trump/MAGA Fascism. Take the Offensive in Opposition to This Fascism And The System That Has Given Rise to This Fascism.
  • Update #18 from the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere

    All Out to Meet the Goal for Giving Tuesday

    "There is no better way to change the world than to give to spread @BobAvakianOfficial."

  • Reports from the Field

    NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO GET @BOBAVAKIANOFFICIAL EVERYWHERE
    Real-Time Leadership for Real Revolution In This Time 

  • Updates from the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere  
  • Trump’s Cabinet: Forging the Fascist Machine 

    Part 3: Pete “Pig-of-Death” Hegseth: Trump’s Christian Fascist, Crusade-Loving, Armageddon-Mongering Nominee for Defense Secretary

  • Biden, Netanyahu Announce Lebanon Ceasefire…Then They Bare Their Bloody Fangs
  • Holiday Fundraising Bazaar in Chicago
  • New York Times Enables Israel’s U.S.-Backed War Crimes and Whites Them Out
  • NYC: Successful Bake Sale Raises Close to $1,200
  • Rashid Khalidi: This is “Worse” than the Nakba An Israeli Holocaust in Gaza—What Are WE Going to Do Now? Part 2
  • What Is Most Important About Bob Avakian's Leadership?
  • Los Angeles: THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity Defends Immigrant Day Laborers Against Trump/MAGA Fascists
  • Why Bob Avakian Is So Important
  • Readers’ Corner
  • Donate To Get Bob Avakian's Message Out There: Science, Daring, Hope... In The Face Of Fascism
  • From the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC)

    Iran’s Prisoners Daringly Unite to Defend Fellow Prisoner Narges Mohammadi and Those Facing Execution
  • International Day Of Protest For Palestine
  • Report from Dr. Adam HamawyAmerican Surgeon Who Served in Gaza

    Tuesday • December 3 • 6 pm (sharp)

    Revolution Books
    437 Malcolm X Blvd/Lenox Ave. @ 132nd St., 
    New York, NY 10037

    Event will also be livestreamed: YouTube.com/RevolutionBooksNYC

  • BOB AVAKIAN 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 REVOLUTION #103: Why Democrats are aiding and facilitating fascism, what this shows about this system, and what decent people need to be doing
  • BOB AVAKIAN REVOLUTION #104: How can I talk seriously about a revolution when the fascist Trump just got elected?
  • BOB AVAKIAN REVOLUTION #105: NO: Accepting, and Refusing To Resist, This Trump/MAGA Fascism, Will NOT Make Things “OK!”
  • FASCISM AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM

    Why the “Mainstream” Representatives of This System Cannot Fight the Fascists the Way They Need to Be Fought—and Why This Fight Needs to Be Waged as Part of Fighting to Abolish This Whole System

  • From the Revcoms (Revolutionary Communists)

    REVOLUTIONBUILDING UP THE BASIS TO GO FOR THE WHOLE THING, WITH A REAL CHANCE TO WIN:STRATEGIC ORIENTATION AND PRACTICAL APPROACH
  • Two Timely Excerpts from SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, by Bob Avakian
  • REVOLUTION: A REAL CHANCE TO WIN

    Part 1: We Are Serious

  • REVOLUTION: MAJOR TURNING POINTS AND RARE OPPORTUNITIES

    Or... Why did Lenin talk about World War 1 as a “stage manager” of revolution?...

    And why did Mao say, We should thank Japan for invading China?

  • Thanksgiving? Genocide Then & Now. We Need Revolution!

    Episode 224 of The RNL — Revolution, Nothing Less! — Show

  • From Atash/Fire #157, Journal of the Communist Party of Iran, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist

    A Call to Afghan and Iranian Students and Intellectuals Living in the U.S.

    December 2024

  • VIDEO

    Christian Fascism, A World in Turmoil And the Revolutionary Leadership of Bob Avakian

    Episode 225 of The RNL — Revolution, Nothing Less! — Show

  • The Blood-Drenched U.S.-Israeli “Ceasefire” in Lebanon
  • ARTICLE:

    BOB AVAKIAN 
    REVOLUTION 107: 
    A Special Holiday Message, 2024: 
    God-Damn the Trump/MAGA Fascists, Every One!

    This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION, number 107—a special holiday message, 2024:

    God-Damn the Trump/MAGA Fascists, Every One!
    And God-Damn Everyone Who Tells Us to “Get Along” And “Play Nice” With These Fascists!

    With people who support Trump, nothing good can come from trying to “understand” them on their own terms. No matter who they are—and no matter what reason or rationalization they give for doing so—they are supporting fascism, with everything that means. (In a number of previous messages, most recently in message #105, I have laid out very clearly what it means—the very real horror of this fascism—on top of the ongoing horrors perpetrated by this system of capitalism-imperialism as a whole.)

    Unless and until people who have supported Trump admit they are wrong, and face up to what they have done in supporting MAGA fascism, there can be no principled way to “get along” with them; and, instead, in any involvement with them, they need to be sharply confronted—called out and firmly held to account for the fascism they have responsibility for supporting and enabling.

    Once more: This is not a time for demoralization or despair—and it is definitely not a time for completely wrong-headed and extremely harmful attempts to find “common ground” with fascism and those who support it.

    What is needed is an offensive orientation in challenging this fascism—bold defiance and a determined refusal to go along with any of this—now, and in an ongoing way.

    And: This is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination in the face of this fascism, and the whole system that has given rise to this fascism, along with all its other atrocities (atrocities which I have shined a light on through these messages as a whole, and which are analyzed extensively and in depth in the American Crime series at revcom.us).

    As I have emphasized many times, it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way—a radically different and far better world really is possible. This is also spoken to very clearly in the Declaration at revcom.us: WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM.

  • ARTICLE:

    BOB AVAKIAN 
    REVOLUTION #106: 
    Defend the Rights and Lives of People Targeted by Trump/MAGA Fascism. Take the Offensive in Opposition to This Fascism And The System That Has Given Rise to This Fascism.

    This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 106. 

    IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA! 

    THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS ROTTEN AND ILLEGITIMATE—WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM!

    In my last message (#105), I answered arguments that are too often raised to justify capitulating to and going along with Trump/MAGA fascism. The fact is that Democratic Party functionaries—and other “liberal” representatives of the ruling class—will approach things on a fundamentally wrong basis: on the terms of what serves this murderously oppressive system of capitalism-imperialism (which they call “democracy”) and the literally genocidal American empire (which they call “the free world”). This must not be allowed to set the terms, and the limits, of the struggle—against this Trump/MAGA fascism, and against the system that has given rise to this fascism, along with all its other atrocities.

    Liberals (and “progressives”), who are not part of the ruling class, can play a significant role in building broad unity against this fascism, and in searching out the answer to what has given rise to this fascism, and what is the solution to this—but, at the same time, these liberals and “progressives” need to open their minds, be willing to honestly engage ideas and solutions that are outside of and beyond the confines of this system, and strengthen their backbones for the fight that is necessary.

    From the time of the outcome of the election, beginning with my message #102, I have emphasized: This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination; and what is needed is bold defiance and a determined refusal to go along with any of this—now, and in an ongoing way.

    IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA! is not an empty slogan—or merely some kind of general statement of opposition—it is an active orientation for building mass opposition and resistance to Trump/MAGA fascism

    In its most important dimension, this means uniting all who can be united—mobilizing people growing into the millions, and ultimately tens of millions—in protest and resistance against this fascism.

    At the same time, an important part of this will involve defending people against attacks on their rights and even on their very lives. This defense will need to involve many different dimensions: legal and political defense—and defense against attempts to carry out physical attacks on people who are targets of this fascism.

    As I emphasized in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”:

    There is plenty that needs to be done, and urgently, which requires real boldness and heart, to stand up against the fascists, and any other oppressive force, in their moves to threaten and intimidate, brutalize and even murder people. Let me make clear that I am not calling for launching unprovoked and unjustified attacks on anybody; but there is a right, and a need—and there is the responsibility—to defend the people who are oppressed and brutalized under this system, and those who represent and stand for what is right, and are being attacked because of that.

    Now, with the re-election of Trump, the MAGA fascists are pumped up, feeling they have powerful backing to intimidate and attack immigrants, women, LGBT people, Black people and others who are targets of this Trump/MAGA fascism. Those who recognize the importance of defeating this fascism, need to have an offensive orientation in challenging this fascism, while defense is built against attacks by these fascists.

    As we revcoms (revolutionary communists) have made clear in the Declaration WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM: “So long as we are still living under the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, we will defend people against attacks on their lives and on the rights that are supposed to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.”

    At the same time, this Declaration goes on to make this crucial point: 

    we need a whole different system, with a whole different Constitution—the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America—which will provide much greater rights for the people, including the basic right to have the fundamentally determining role in a new society and government whose purpose and goal is to eliminate all exploitation and oppression, everywhere.

    This flows from the understanding that is concentrated in the second slogan I included at the start:

    THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS ROTTEN AND ILLEGITIMATE—WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM!

    For very good and important reasons, I have repeatedly emphasized this: It is this system of capitalism-imperialism that has given rise to this fascism, along with all its other atrocities. It is this system that must be swept away through a revolution that millions are won to actively fight for, with many millions more supporting this emancipating revolution.

    The basic approach to building for and then carrying out this revolution is set forth in the important document at revcom.us: Revolution—Building Up The Basis To Go For The Whole Thing, With A Real Chance To Win: Strategic Orientation And Practical Approach. With regard to what needs to be brought into being, with the defeat of, and in place of, this system of capitalism-imperialism, this document refers to the following, from the Declaration “We Need And We Demand”:

    The Existing Capitalist-Imperialist System and Institutions of Government of 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.

    “Building Up The Basis” goes on to make the very important point that the Declaration “We Need And We Demand” provides a basic summary of fundamental principles and specific goals of the revolution and the new society and way of living we are working for, as set forth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. And this Declaration:

    needs to be very broadly distributed and popularized, among millions of people, in all parts of the country, now and throughout the development toward a full-out crisis. It needs to be driven home very clearly how the new socialist Constitution provides the foundation, the framework and practical guidelines for a radically new, emancipating system, really enabling and empowering the masses of people to move to abolish inequality and discrimination, oppression and exploitation, and to provide powerful support for revolutionary struggles throughout the world striving for the same goal, while also moving quickly, systematically and effectively, to address the already acute and fast accelerating environmental crisis, with the aim of bringing into being a world where humanity can truly be fit caretakers of the Earth.

  • ARTICLE:

    Update #18 from the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere

    All Out to Meet the Goal for Giving Tuesday

    "There is no better way to change the world than to give to spread @BobAvakianOfficial."

    Contribute towards the $25,000 goal to get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere. "Humanity does not have to live this way"

     

    "There is no better way to change the world than to give to spread @BobAvakianOfficial. I imagine millions of people waiting every day for the next social media message from Bob Avakian for his leadership, challenging us to think deeply, debate openly, and be part of emancipating all of humanity. To make this a reality, I am giving 2 weeks’ pay to help make this happen."

    This is the statement from one of the generous donors contributing to a matching challenge of $3,000 toward the $25,000 goal for Giving Tuesday. 

    We need to raise $15,967 more to meet this goal. This presents us with a great need... and very real openings. Millions are agonized, feeling a deep disquiet and existential concern about the future. And the lying politicians and media mouthpieces of this system are working overtime to spread delusions and lies—trying to minimize the real danger of what we face, and keep people thinking and acting within the terms of confines of this system.

    —In his brief commentary from The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, Lenny Wolff reaches inside these people and makes the argument for why they should dig into and donate to this campaign. This needs to spread everywhere in these next 48 hours.

    While we have learned some things from our initial outreach nationally, the main thing is that we are still not getting this request in front of enough people—via email, social media, text messages and among crowds. So in these next two days, brainstorm with your friends about how to reach lots and lots of people very broadly.

    In order to make our goal, we need about 200 more new donors—some of these donors will give $5 and others will give $50 or even $500. Every dollar counts. And the more people contributing at any level, the greater will be our strength and reach. 

    —The most powerful argument for why people should give to this campaign is in the social media from Bob Avakian himself. People need to hear the sharp challenge from the revolutionary leader in Bob Avakian—on all his social media, and especially his post-election messages #102-106. Just looking over the titles—and going over these with people considering to give—can open up a whole different discussion about what's needed right now, and why they should contribute.

    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.

    REVOLUTION #103: Why Democrats are aiding and facilitating fascism, what this shows about this system, and what decent people need to be doing.

    REVOLUTION #104: How can I talk seriously about a revolution when the fascist Trump just got elected?

    REVOLUTION #105: NO: Accepting, and Refusing To Resist, This Trump/MAGA Fascism, Will NOT Make Things “OK!”

    REVOLUTION #106: Defend the Rights and Lives of People Targeted by Trump/MAGA Fascism. Take the Offensive in Opposition to This Fascism And The System That Has Given Rise to This Fascism.

    —Giving Tuesday is the day that kicks off year-end fundraising—where more than 25% of yearly contributions occur. This is mainly an online/social media event. So stay tuned on Giving Tuesday itself where @therevcoms will be doing a series of social media lives (on Instagram, Youtube and TikTok). We'll update people throughout the day, make the case for what difference your funds will make, and you'll hear from people across the country about why they are giving and raising funds, and what this fight for mass impact with Bob Avakian's social media will mean in opening up the possibility of a whole different world. 

    In addition to donating, anyone who has a social media presence can help build momentum and an audience by reposting @BobAvakianOfficial's social media messages, and making a case for why other people should contribute and tune in.

    —Finally, check out and spread the splash page on BobAvakianOfficialEverywhere.org which makes the case for why you should contribute, and where your funds go. 

  • ARTICLE:

    Reports from the Field

    NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO GET @BOBAVAKIANOFFICIAL EVERYWHERE
    Real-Time Leadership for Real Revolution In This Time 

    Updated

    The revcoms have launched a MAJOR national campaign to get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere. To raise tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars... to garner tens and hundreds of thousands of followers... to reach millions. 

    On this page, people write about their ideas and experiences, and what they have learned. Send your posts to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.

    Read more
    Close

    NYC: Successful Bake Sale Raises Close to $1,200

    Baking sweet potato pies to raise funds to get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere.

     

    Baking sweet potato pies in New York City to raise funds to get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere.    Photo: @RevComCorpsNYC

    A successful fund-raising Bake Sale was held by the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity in New York City. We raised more than $1,194 to promote and spread @BobAvakianOfficial Social Media Everywhere. The effort featured "Lovette's Southern Styled Sweet Potato Pies" and other baked goods that were donated by people who have been working with the Revolution for a long time and others who are only beginning to learn about the leadership of Bob Avakian through these social media messages. Read more >>

    Holiday Fundraising Bazaar in Chicago

    From a revcom:

    Woman at fundraising table

     

    THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in Chicago held a holiday bazaar with a wide variety of items. We raised $197 on a bitter cold day. A donor gave the following message: "Going into the New Year with Trump and Project 2025 is going to force people to realize that they need the leadership of Bob Avakian." Read more >>

    November 23, 2024

    Making Plans to Reach the $25,000 Goal

    A few of us in NE Ohio and Detroit had a brief zoom discussion of Update #16 from the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere and then made plans to help reach the $25,000 goal by December 3. In the discussion we especially dug into the sentence, "What the decent people do depends on what they understand and where their sights are raised to.” Several people thought the report from LA summing up the dinner sale was especially helpful in demonstrating ways that right now people can step into plans for raising critically needed funds. Someone fairly new to following BA brought the discussion back several times to what a difference it makes when people can come to see that a whole better system is possible and excitedly took on a lot of responsibility for carrying out the plans we united on.

    We decided to do an online holiday rummage sale and set a goal of $500 to $1,000 by Dec 3. We immediately posted an announcement for it on FB marketplace and will shortly post one on Craigslist. We've gotten out a couple hundred texts to people we’ve met through the course of broadly spreading the revolution, and we intend to send 100 or so more texts. We’re calling on people to volunteer to help and to donate usable items and crafts. 

    Everyone who purchases something will also get We Need and We Demand and BA's message REVOLUTION #102.

    In addition to the rummage sale, some of us are reaching out broadly by phone and email with the new fundraising letter for the $25,000 drive. 

    October 29, from a Reader

    Opening the conversation with a challenging message from Bob Avakian

    I set out to raise money for the @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere campaign from “new” people, people who had either never donated to the RCP or Bob Avakian, or had not done so for some time. To get my feet wet, I made a short list of half a dozen people and sent personalized versions of the template of a fund-raising letter, which is a great start because it’s so short, and to the point of WHY their donation is critical NOW. We all need to reach far beyond people who’ve already been donating generously, and there’s every basis for people to appreciate the need for this revolutionary leader to reach millions, now, quickly, who may not have seen or valued that as urgently in the past. And by asking, we’ll at least find out more. Why should we be afraid of a “no?” I read a piece by a professional fundraiser for non-profits who said you should get nine negative responses for every positive one if you’re reaching out broadly. And if we really grasp that literally millions of people hate what this is country is doing and what they see in the world every day but have no clue that there is a way out, we have every reason to take her words to heart and get going. 

    In the first round, two people I asked have said "yes" and donated for the first time and one person said "no."  I haven’t connected with the others, yet. I’m collecting more emails for the next round of outreach while I pursue them. 

    Read more

    One person who donated for the first time is a liberal with a lot of anti-communist views whom I had previously shared the clip from BA's interview on the RNL Show about his denunciation of the "ends justifying the means" and why that approach has absolutely no place in the revolution or revolutionary socialist society.  She was shocked, at both his outlook and his nuanced approach. When I spoke to her recently we were talking about her friends who canceled their subscription to the Washington Post because Jeff Bezos, the Post’s billionaire owner, refused to publish an endorsement of Harris. She was debating how to protest that decision. I said: donate to a movement that’s not just independent, it’s dedicated to ending the rule of billionaires and their capitalist system over our whole damn world. And she said: good idea! This wouldn’t have happened without our earlier discussions, but I wouldn’t have asked her to donate with my old approach either. After our conversation, I sent her a link to the new @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere website for a better understanding of the campaign.

    The other person who donated $100 is someone I worked with many years ago and have stayed in touch with loosely over the years, a bit more in this election season. I asked for $200 and he donated $100 for now. He isn’t on social media much but he does subscribe to BA on Substack and was familiar with many of his dispatches, but he hadn’t seen the new website and didn’t understand the urgency of the @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere campaign. When I told him about the campaign updates, he was really excited about the measurable impact of his donations and, even though his monthly commitment is smaller than I requested, he’s now an active part of this movement and sees himself as such. 

    One person who gave some time ago replied to my email that they didn’t have time to talk and won’t give money now anyway because they “hold out little to no hope” that masses of people will rise up in a sustained way if the Trump fascists try to seize power, which they think is a strong possibility. This person conceded that they’d only “skimmed” what BA’s been writing, and are almost completely unaware of what we’re doing. I replied that they need to subscribe to BA’s Substack (they’re not on social media), listen to REVOLUTION #88, and check out the new website to get a flavor for the bold, creative campaign that’s already touching many thousands of people. And however pressed for time a person may be, it only takes a minute to donate $100 (including the links). They did thank me for keeping in touch so I said I’ll be back soon. 

    This is truly just skimming the surface in one corner, and in each case it was introducing a challenging message or clip or quote from BA himself that busted people out of their assumptions and at least opened up a conversation. But we need so much more money to begin to meet the needs of the hour! I hope this encourages you to do much more, and better.

    A Reader 

    Close

    Follow Up With People Who Received the Fundraising Letter for the Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere: 

    I spoke with an attorney I have known for decades, a Black criminal defense attorney. He went to the revcom.us website while we spoke and said that he has from time to time read Revolution which he receives via email. He saw REVOLUTION #91 from BA “A Profound Fight for the Soul of Black People: A Defeated People—Or, A Revolutionary People?” and said he wants to read that. We talked about what time it is now for humanity, the horror of what is happening in Gaza, the elections, the forces driving millions of  people from their countries who struggling desperately to come north. He said he is glad that BA is out there in this way with his social media. He said he would like to help and wants to be a part of this. He doesn’t have a lot of money right now but said he will make a contribution. 

    I also talked to another old friend who spent some time talking about some difficulties his family is going through and brought it back to the kind of fucked up system and society we live under which creates these horrible traps for people. He spoke of how the series from BA “A Profound Fight for the Soul of Black People: A Defeated People—Or, A Revolutionary People?” was something that really resonated with him. He feels it is so important that people understand the reality of a defeated people and how this can change. I said that just by yourself you can't change things but together with others and the leadership BA is giving, we are working together to transform all of this through revolution—and that the world could be a whole other way. I talked about the importance of making the largest donation that he can—he said it may be a very small donation but he would look at the letter and he will try to figure that out, and other ways that he can participate in the campaign.

    Aguas Frescas Fundraiser in Los Angeles

    Revcom Corps sells agua fresca at CicLAvia.

    The REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity took up a project to raise $300 towards the $20,000 goal for the campaign to put @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere. We put a call out for ingredients to make the Aguas Frescas, a few people went out to a local farmers' market and shared the list of ingredients to vendors who donated all the ingredients. Some listened to the message #88 and others who were familiar with the revcoms were happy to contribute to the fundraiser. A supporter volunteered to take all the ingredients and make the Aguas. The REVCOM CORPS organized a contingent out at CicLAvia which is an event that closes streets down for miles, for people on bicycles. We had a crew of revcoms in our “Revolution Nothing Less” T-shirts, with signs of “Stop following the B.E.B, Start following @BobAvakianOfficial” on our bikes, and had a loud speaker playing the messages from BA.

    We had a hub where we raised $345, sold out our Aguas Frescas, and met some people who were happy to link up with the revolution, people who expressed being glad to meet us because the “solutions” they were being told to follow, were not commensurate with the situation beginning to unfold, and were eager to go engage the messages from Bob Avakian.

    Press Release, October 9, 2024:

    Revcoms Disrupt Springfield, Ohio City Commission Meeting

    For two days, a digital billboard travelled through the streets of Springfield OH with this message from the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian: 

    Why do people come here from all over the world? Because the U.S. has messed up the rest of the world even worse than what they’ve done here!

    Rafael Kadaris, from the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity, disrupted fascist lies at the Springfield, OH City Commission Meeting:

    Tweet URL
    Read more

    And see this post on @therevcoms with how people in Springfield responded:

    Tweet URL

    Kadaris said "Donald Trump and JD Vance are spreading fascist lies about immigrants, threatening mass deportation. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden don’t use the same ugly language, but have deported more immigrants than Trump and just announced they will not extend temporary legal status for 530,000 migrants. Up against all this, we are bringing the truth from Bob Avakian.  Now is not the time to choose between oppressors, now's the time to get organized for revolution." 

    Bob Avakian says in his media message, “Revolution #26: Crime and Anti-Immigrant Racism

    “Why are these fascists so aggressively spreading racist anti-immigrant hysteria—and why should any decent person get played by this? Who, and what, is really responsible for the terrible situation that people are facing today? Hint: It is not immigrants. It is the system, the ruling class of this system, and the politicians of both ruling class political parties, Democrat as well as Republican.”

    Bob Avakian is a revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism.  He has authored the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic In North America.  In regular messages on social media, from @BobAvakianOfficial, he is providing real-time leadership in a rare time when revolution is more possible.

    Close

    "Revolution - Nothing Less! Bake Sale" in Harlem

    Revolution Books NYC Bake sale for National Campaign to get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere

     

    The RevCom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity held a successful "Revolution—Nothing Less! Bake Sale" to raise money for the Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere and Revolution Books NYC. We had a lively scene in front of Revolution Books with people stopping to buy desserts. Three people and a dessert business that had never donated before made brownies, bundt cake, and chocolate chip cookies. One of the three is a 12-year-old who had only recently been introduced to the revolution. Another seven people, including long-time supporters and revcoms, made an array of desserts. One of the organizers of the bake sale made cookies with “BA Speaks,” “RNL” ("Revolution—Nothing Less!”), a design of “Break the Chains” and other designs. In less than four hours, $390 was raised, surpassing our goal of $300. 

    Revolution Books NYC Bake sale for National Campaign to get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere

     

    Read more

    One of the organizers of the bake sale cut up cookies and other desserts and told people walking past us to sample the goodies and donate to the “Revolution—Nothing Less!” bake sale. Many of them ended up buying something. Some people took a seat to watch the series that Bob Avakian is running on his social media, A Profound Fight for the Soul of Black People: A Defeated People -- Or, A Revolutionary People? This opened up deep discussion, questions and debate.

    Close

    A Fight for the Walls with @BobAvakianOfficial Up Against the BEB

    A few of us went to the opening night of a progressive gallery with an exhibit on political and social injustices. But we knew from some of the artists participating that there was going to be an emphasis on channeling people into the BEB—Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit. 

    September 29, 2024 - Los Angeles - Fight for the Walls with @BobAvakianOfficial up against the BEB

     

    In addition to reaching the crowd, we postered the area with the revcoms’ translation of @OBEY’s Kamala Harris poster: 

    We posted those along with poster “Stop following BEB. Start following @BobAvakianOfficial” on four spots right where people were entering and leaving.

    Read more
    2024-09-19 Revcom translation of Kamala Harris OBEY poster

     

    Revcom translation of Kamala Harris OBEY poster   

    The posters immediately became a sharp dividing line. As soon as we turned around from putting up the last one, we saw a man holding a crumpled poster. He said he had taken it from an eight-year-old girl who tore it down saying, "They’re communists and they want to destroy America." But he argued that he doesn’t think anyone should be tearing down posters that they don’t agree with. (He is actually a professor at a local university who said this semester on campus is “like an armed camp” with security who check for campus ID at every entrance—and hates to see this kind of shutting down of needed debate and dissent.) He signed up to talk more about the Campaign to Spread @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere.

    Stop Following BEB - Start Following @BobAvakianOfficial

     

    We were just there for about 30 minutes and raised $40. (We probably could've raised more but it was a chaotic scene!)

    Minutes after leaving, one of us went back to take a picture and all the posters telling the truth about Kamala had been torn down. Two people came up asking for some—they thought Kamala and Trump were both horrible and were searching for something that was not channeling people into the elections. They got Kamala and BEB posters (they wanted to distribute in their city), made a donation and said they would scan the QR code to hear Bob Avakian on social media.  

    This was just a beginning sense of what could be unleashed by presenting a clear view of what the actual reality is of the choices in the BEB, amidst a lot of searching, agonizing and head-in-the-sand delusions.

    We're going back today to put more posters up—sharply speaking the truth, and driving people to check out what Bob Avakian is saying about the need, and potential, for a real revolution in this time.

    Close

    Lighting Up the Night With @BobAvakianOfficial
    from a few revcoms in LA

    People came from across SoCal to attend the opening night of the protest art collective Indecline's first solo gallery show in downtown LA.  The revcoms had a broad impact on this crowd—introducing people to Bob Avakian's voice and leadership, straight up—distributing hundreds of copies of Bob Avakian's social media message, REVOLUTION #81: Why I Am Not Running for President. 

    Tweet URL
    Read more

    The audience was mainly a punk and street art scene—anti-fascist and anti-Trump but largely tuned out and/or cynical about the possibility for fundamental change, but very open to hearing an argument about real revolution. 

    This crowd is attracted to the creative and satirical way Indecline's art creatively challenges the status quo.  (And the art itself was interesting and in-your-face but worth a reflection in its own right.)

    Using a car battery, a loud speaker, and projecting a few illustrated video excerpts from Bob Avakian's message from the roof of a pick up truck got people's attention in a way just flyering would not have done.  This was a great thing to do!  There really is nothing like getting Bob Avakian's voice in front of people—straight and direct with so much sharpness and undeniable hard hitting revolutionary substance. 

    About 85% of the crowd (approximately 850 people) got the flyer for REVOLUTION #81, many read it in line and stopped to talk, ask questions or responded to the call to be recruited into this revolution. 

    We were arguing for people to follow, and donate to have an impact with @BobAvakianOfficial and this social media message.  And a few people did donate.  But we summed up that we needed to make the call for funds even sharper.  There were a couple times in the night when a long line amassed out front and we should've concentrated our forces right then and there—with an ideological challenge on where people spend their money, and why giving to the campaign to spread @BobAvakianOfficial is the most important thing to spend money on.  This wasn't a monied crowd, but we think could've opened up the debate even more.

    Close

    Open Mic Night in Chicago

    REVCOM CORPS Chicago Open Mic Night to raise funds for getting @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere

     

    REVCOM CORPS Chicago Open Mic Night to raise funds for getting @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere    REVCOM CORPS Chicago

    THE REVCOM CORPS Chicago hosted an open mic night, after weeks of work and leaning into the controversy and raising funds. This Future People Open Mic Night brought together about two dozen people from all over Chicago. The MCs opened up with the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere, and a playing of Bob Avakian’s spoken word piece "All Played Out" started off the night. A mix of revcoms and others preformed, with powerful spoken words pieces and some really good singing. We were able to just about meet our fundraising goal of $1,000—just $10 short. We ended the evening with the new "Welcome To The Revolution" album from the revolutionary band Outernational. It was a really important and inspiring night, connecting new people with this revolution and the leadership of Bob Avakian.

    Cleveland: how we fundraise with bake sales to get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere

    Driving People to @BobAvakianOfficial on Los Angeles Freeways

    Freeways have a special meaning in Los Angeles—a huge city of 3.8 million with the busiest freeways in the country.  “Rush hour” is an all day thing and part of the life in the city.

    People in this city got inspired to reach those millions.

    Banner for @BobAvakainOfficial hanging on the Santa Monica Freeway near Downtown Los Angeles, September 20, 2024

     

    Banner for @BobAvakianOfficial hanging on the Santa Monica Freeway near Downtown Los Angeles, September 20, 2024    Photo: revcom.us

    Read more

    As one dimension of the national campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere, a small team, including new people inspired by this plan, created simple 4’ x 4’ freeway overpass boards with the simple slogan “Bob Avakian Official—Leadership for a Real Revolution In These Times.” They made sure these would be inexpensive and easy to make and also weatherproof and unmissable!

    Sign being posted in Los Angeles for Bob Avakian Official

     

    A photo of the stencil for freeway signs for @BobAvakianOfficial    Photo: @Revcomcorps_LA

    And the impact?  One of the signs that stayed up for 5 days was seen by well over 100,000 people.  Multiply this by the dozens of overpasses that radiate from the city center. 

    And there was an immediate response from friends and family and political contacts – people reaching out with “I saw the Bob Avakian signs today…”  At least one person felt compelled to take a picture of the signs and tweeted about it—with a snarky tone, but still spread it further.

    These can also be posted on city streets in a way that can impact important communities. 

    To learn more about how you can do this in your city contact us at RevcomCorpsLA@gmail.com.

    Spreading @BobAvakianOfficial In the Silverlake district of Los Angeles

     

    Spreading @BobAvakianOfficial In the Silverlake district of Los Angeles    Photo: @RevcomCorps_LA

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    Detroit - Signing people up to @BobAvakianOfficial

    There was a Ribs R&B festival in downtown Detroit last weekend [August 10]. We decided to focus on urging people to subscribe on the spot to @BobAvakianOfficial. We didn't have a lot of time to be there, but we made up a mini-table with posters with QR codes and got out the flyer "...those of you who are not afraid of the truth..." Many people related to the question "If you have thought about revolution but you say: 'this could never really happen--we could never win'..."''

    In a short time eight or nine people subscribed on the spot. This is a photo of one person.
    Taking call to signup for @BobAvakianSocial to Ribs & R&B event in Detroit

     

    August 10, 2024. Taking call to signup for @BobAvakianSocial to Ribs & R&B event in Detroit    Special to revcom.us

  • ARTICLE:

    Updates from the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere 
     

  • ARTICLE:

    Trump’s Cabinet: Forging the Fascist Machine 

    Part 3: Pete “Pig-of-Death” Hegseth: Trump’s Christian Fascist, Crusade-Loving, Armageddon-Mongering Nominee for Defense Secretary

    On November 12, Trump announced his selection of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of “Defense,” to head America’s massive military machine. Before we get into Hegseth, here is a crucial understanding about the oppressive system we live under, from Bob Avakian in his social media message REVOLUTION #105, “NO: Accepting, and Refusing To Resist, This Trump/MAGA Fascism, Will NOT Make Things “OK!”:

    Teaser REVOLUTION 105

     

    Despite constant attempts to mislead people away from a true, scientific understanding of this, the rule of the capitalist class, in any form, is actually a dictatorship: it is the monopoly of political power by the capitalist class—and in particular its monopoly of “legitimate” armed force and violence, by its police and military. This dictatorship is based on the domination of the economy by the capitalist class: its ownership and control of what is produced, how it is produced, how goods and services are exchanged (sold) and the profits that come from this.

    In the “democratic” form of this capitalist dictatorship, people are, to varying degrees, allowed certain rights, and the “rule of law” is applied as a general principle, even while all this is based on, confined within, and conforming to the rule of the capitalist class and the oppressive relations of the capitalist system. (In today’s world, this is the system of capitalism-imperialism. Capitalism-imperialism refers to the fact that capitalism has, for some time, been an international system of exploitation and oppression.)

    In the fascist form of capitalist dictatorship, the “rule of law” is essentially what the fascists say it is, and the rights of people are more or less openly limited to what is allowed by the fascists, while such rights are only extended to those who go along with the rule of the fascists.

    All this makes Trump’s selection of Pete Hegseth to head the military machine at the heart of this dictatorship extremely serious. 

    Trump said after naming Hegseth, “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice—Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.” 

    Let's translate this:

    By “Our Military will be Great Again,” Trump means organizing and unifying the armed forces on a fully fascist basis—male-supremacist, white-supremacist, ultra-nationalist, openly aggressive and terroristic. 

    By “America’s enemies,” Trump means anyone living in the U.S. who opposes the fascists, and any group or country in the world that gets in the way of or challenges U.S. economic and political domination.

    By “America will Never Back Down,” Trump means unleashing this increasingly Nazified armed force against these “enemies,” at home or abroad—with China especially being identified as the enemy that must be defeated. 

    Think about it: Pete Hegseth is being put in command of the most powerful military in the world, and tasked with transforming and leading it as the “iron fist” enforcing fascism “at home” and U.S. domination around the world. 

    Let’s look deeply at what “qualifies” Hegseth for this crucial position.

    Pete Hegseth—100% Christian Fascist

    Hegseth is a Fox News “personality” and a military veteran whose first post was as a guard at the U.S.’s Guantanamo torture camp. And he was part of the U.S. war crimes machine in Afghanistan and Iraq. But what is most important about Hegseth is that he is a straight-up Christian fascist. 

    In his 2022 book Battle for the American Mind, Hegseth yearns to turn the clock back to the 1500s in Europe when large parts of society believed that “Truth was discoverable through God’s revealed word (the Bible) and His revelation.” He sharply criticizes the Enlightenment movement of the 1700s, which spread the understanding that we figure out what is true by studying what is happening in the real world and then applying reason and logic to analyze it. Or, in other words, science!

    To Hegseth, this is where everything started to go bad. “God’s word” was no longer at the center of human thought and action. In his view, this “problem”—helped along by a “plot” by “Marxists” and “Progressives”—grew worse and worse, and after 200 years has finally “metastasized” (like cancer) and taken over American society, leaving it on the brink of catastrophe, and needing to be rescued by a Christian reconquest.

    Recohering the U.S. Military on a Fascist Basis

    The U.S. military is central to the economic and political power of the U.S. imperialist system, but there are sharp contradictions that run through it. First, the military is basically “cohered” (held together) by loyalty to one’s squad and comrades, and secondarily also through patriotic belief in the “freedom and equality” supposedly guaranteed by the Constitution. But it is also saturated with the male supremacy and white supremacy that this country was built on. At the same time, nearly half the military is made up of Black, Latino and other oppressed nationalities. These contradictions can undercut the “coherence” and fighting capacity of the military—and in periods of intense crisis can lead to serious splits in the armed forces as began to happen toward the end of the Vietnam War and as top commanders feared could happen around the uprising in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd. 

    In recent decades, the U.S. rulers have leaned towards handling these kinds of problems with modest concessions to oppressed groups—promoting more Black people and women, “allowing” gay people to openly be who they are, and so on. But the fascists despise these measures. And they couldn’t utilize them even if they wanted to, since “concessions” like this are completely at odds with their whole agenda of reasserting open white supremacy and male supremacy, not to mention “god-ordained” sex and gender roles. Their plan is to cohere around religion, patriotism and fascism, to recruit more people on that ideological basis. And to the extent they “allow” women, gay people, and others in the military, it will be on an openly subordinated and humiliating basis. 

    This approach is revealed in the following disgusting and bigoted remark from Hegseth: 

    For the past three years, the Pentagon… has embraced the social justice message of gender equity, racial diversity, climate stupidity, vaccine worship and the LGBTQA+ Alphabet soup in their recruiting pushes. 

    Only one problem: there just aren’t enough trannies from Brooklyn or lesbians from San Francisco who want to join the 82nd Airborne. Not only do the trannies and lesbians not join, but those very same ads turn off the young, patriotic Christian men who have traditionally filled our ranks. (emphasis added)

    Speaking of senior officers who supported or went along with “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion)1 programs, in 2023 Hegseth wrote, “The next president of the United States needs to fire them all—or at least most of them—and install leaders with real fidelity to the Constitution.” Trump is reportedly preparing an executive order to facilitate this as soon as he takes office.

    An Ardent Champion of War Crimes and War Criminals

    A dense column of smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over Nagasaki.

     

    The U.S. is the ONLY country that has ever used nuclear weapons in war.  Here, a dense column of smoke rises more than 60,000 feet into the air over Nagasaki, August 9, 1945.    Courtesy of the National Archives.

    Despite the fact that the U.S. military carries out massive war crimes and that this is integral to how it fights wars, and despite the fact that it has worked to cover up its own war crimes, it has at the same time pretended to be a fighting force that respects the rule of law. This is bullshit, but it has meant that when certain crimes, like the open slaughter of defenseless civilians, are dragged out into the light of day, at times the U.S. military has been forced to prosecute individual soldiers or officers. 

    But even this is too much for Hegseth. Near the end of Trump’s first term, six Navy Seals had turned in a senior member of their squad for repeated atrocities, including intentionally shooting civilians and stabbing to death an unarmed, wounded and medicated prisoner. Hegseth used his Fox News platform to launch a loud campaign for pardons for the accused Navy Seal officer and three other convicted U.S. soldiers, denouncing their prosecution as “Monday morning quarterbacking” that would be “deadly” for U.S. military operations. 

    Trump pardoned them.

    Villagers massacred by U.S. Army troops at My Lai in Vietnam, March 16, 1968.

     

    Villagers massacred by U.S. Army troops at My Lai in Vietnam, March 16, 1968.   

    Hegseth has written that rules of war are “why America hasn’t won a war since World War II.” He says that “We are just fighting with one hand behind our back—and the enemy knows it… If our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, aren’t we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?!” 

    Victims of death squad in El Salvador, 1981

     

    1981—Death squad victims in San Salvador, El Salvador. In a 12-year war beginning in 1980, right-wing governments backed by the U.S. killed and tortured more than 70,000 people, in a country with a population of about six million.   

    Hegseth proposes this approach to enemies instead: “If you surrender, we might spare your life. If you do not, we will rip your arms off and feed them to hogs.”

    All this points to a U.S. military relying even more heavily on terror, torture, and wanton slaughter, and completely unrestrained by international law or “public opinion.”

    Who Are the Targets of the Fascist Military?

    First, there are the enemies “at home.” Trump wanted to unleash the military against George Floyd protesters—“shoot them in the leg.” He has said that he wants to invoke the Insurrection Act on day one of his upcoming term, which would allow him to use the U.S. military to attack protests against his regime. And Trump and members of his administration insist that they will deploy the U.S. military to help carry out the mass deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants. (On November 8, Trump reaffirmed that he “will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”)

    Hegseth has gone even further in his eagerness to wield what he describes as “the only powerful, pro-freedom, pro-Christian, pro-Israel army in the world.” In his book American Crusade, he writes, “In more ways than you can imagine, leftists have surrounded traditional American patriots on all sides, ready to close in for the kill: killing our founders, killing our flag, and killing capitalism.” He describes “irreconcilable differences between the Left and the Right in America leading to perpetual conflict that cannot be resolved through the political process.” (Emphasis added.) While claiming he’s not calling for violence, he telegraphs the opposite: “Our American Crusade is not about literal swords, and our fight is not with guns. Yet.” (Emphasis Hegseth’s)

    Preparing for War with China

    For a number of years, the whole U.S. ruling class (fascist and “mainstream” sections) have been united in viewing China as the main threat to U.S. imperialist global domination and have been preparing for war. 

    To take one dramatic example, in 2024, the Biden administration called for a 31 percent increase in spending on nuclear weapons programs with an eye to China’s increasing nuclear capacity.2 

    The fascist position is even more aggressive and explicit. Hegseth says that China is “building an army specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America.” And that “They have a full-spectrum long-term view of not just regional but global domination… The only way they can implement a structure that can serve them is by defeating us.”

    Project 2025 (a game-plan for the initial six months of fascist consolidation drawn up by forces close to Trump) says straight out that Army school courses need to “concentrate on preparation for large scale land operations that focus on defeating a peer threat.” And in case anyone is unsure who that “peer threat” is, Project 2025 says that “U.S. defense strategy must identify China unequivocally as the top priority for U.S. defense planning.”

    What Is Needed NOW!

    It’s important that people get real! Fascism is not (as Bob Avakian pointed out recently) “a ‘swear word’—or just some kind of negative label to put on your opponent in the course of an election.” It is a marked change in the form of rule capitalism-imperialism, bringing with it even worse horrors. 

    At the same time, all of these dramatic changes can serve to shock people, and reveal the ugliness at the heart of this system and this country that has given rise to and nurtured this fascism. AND, every one of these moves—imposing Christian fascism; open white supremacy and male supremacy; firing generals; putting federal troops on the ground in the U.S.; moving ever closer to war with China—is going to be fraught with danger for the regime and for the system itself. Every one of these holds the possibility of sharpening conflict both within the ranks of the ruling class, including within their core institutions, and between the fascists and the masses of people. All of these can be potential openings for people to sharply challenge this system and the misery it inflicts.

    To quote Bob Avakian, "This is not the time for demoralization and despair, it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination."

    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.

    Crusader Wannabe with Holy War Plans

    Hegseth doesn’t just want to go back to pre-Enlightenment times—he is even more inspired by the first Christian crusade… in the 11th century. This was during a long period in European history during which the Catholic Church had nearly absolute power over society, when “heretics” and “witches” were routinely tortured and burned alive, and when the desperately poor, sick and ignorant peasantry making up the majority of society—and providing for the immense wealth of the Church and other powers—were kept in line by the teachings of the Bible and the promise of a better world after death if they would submit to oppression while they lived. Good times! according to Hegseth.

    Hegseth’s 2020 book American Crusade has a chapter called “Make the Crusade Great Again.” With religious zeal, Hegseth captures the “excitement” of a moment when Pope Urban (in Italy) decided Christians should wage war with Islamic powers over control of Jerusalem (in Palestine): “The pope, the Catholic Church, and European Christians chose to fight—and the crusades were born.” And “Pope Urban II urged the faithful to fight the Muslims with his famous battle cry on their lips: ‘Deus vult!,’ or ‘God wills it!’” 

    And off they went, setting off centuries of mutual slaughter. (On their way, these “Crusaders” attacked Jewish settlements, killing thousands of innocents.)

    Hegseth doesn’t just write about this—he has “Deus Vult!” tattooed on his shoulder. (“Deus Vult!” tattoos are widely popular among white supremacist groups. Hegseth denies any connection to them.) And even worse, he envisions the war on “leftists” in the U.S. as a modern-day Crusade. In American Crusade he writes: “This time in our history calls for an American Crusade. Yes, a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.”

    We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, a Fundamentally Different System

     

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. DEI is broadly used by fascists to describe any effort to mitigate the blatant white supremacy, misogyny and anti-gay ideas and practices that are at the heart of U.S. institutions and culture. Programs that called for giving particular consideration to groups that have been historically—and continue to be—discriminated against in regard to opportunities for education and jobs were a concession made to the earth-shaking struggles of the 1960s and early 1970s of Black and other minority peoples and women. These programs—along with teaching even just some of the true history of the U.S., especially regarding the crimes of the enslavement of Black people and the genocide of the Native American Indians, along with the ongoing and “modern” forms of oppression rooted in those original crimes—have been a huge target of the fascists in those states in which they have already ascended to power and are now on the chopping block nationwide.  [back]

    2. The MAGA fascists’ main difference with Biden (and Obama and Bush) is that these other administrations got caught up in the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, weakening the focus on China. (This Trumpist opposition to certain wars is sometimes mistaken by naïve people as Trump being “anti-war” or “isolationist.” Nothing could be further from the truth.) [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    Biden, Netanyahu Announce Lebanon Ceasefire

    …Then They Bare Their Bloody Fangs

    Lebanese woman with photo of her father from the rubble of her destroyed house in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, November 28, 2024.

     

    Lebanese woman with photo of her father from the rubble of her destroyed house in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, November 28, 2024.    Photo: AP

    On Tuesday, November 26, President “Genocide” Joe Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (aka Netan-nazi) announced a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a reactionary Islamic fundamentalist organization backed by Iran. The two had been fighting since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched rocket attacks against Israel in retaliation for Israel launching its genocide in Gaza. Israel responded with missile strikes of its own, and then launched an all-out war on September 17 of this year.3

    The ceasefire, which took effect on November 27, calls on Israel and Hezbollah to halt their attacks. Israel’s military, which invaded southern Lebanon, is to withdraw over the next 60 days. Hezbollah, whose forces have long dominated and operated in southern Lebanon, would move some 18 miles north, away from Lebanon’s border with Israel. (Israel is not required to move its forces away from its border with Lebanon.) Lebanon’s U.S.-backed army and some UN forces would deploy to the border areas of southern Lebanon with the task of preventing Hezbollah from returning. The U.S. and Israel would oversee the implementation of the agreement, along with France and other countries.

    A Ceasefire to Lock In Gains and Prepare for Even More Horror

    Lebanese man searches his home, destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Baalbek, November 28, 2024.

     

    Home of Lebanese family, destroyed in Israeli airstrikes in Baalbek, November 28, 2024.    Photo: AP

    The people of Lebanon urgently need an end to Israel’s onslaught, which has killed nearly 4,000 Lebanese, wounded more than 16,500 and wreaked enormous devastation. But Netanyahu and Biden’s remarks made it clear that this “ceasefire” had nothing to do with ending the horrors of war in Lebanon or anywhere else in the Middle East. 

    Just the opposite. The ceasefire is designed to legitimize Israel’s mass murder and lock in its military gains in Lebanon, advance its genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian West Bank, and—very ominously—pave the way for more U.S.-Israeli wars and atrocities across the region. 

    Biden Piles on the Bullshit While Netanyahu Goes for the Jugular

    After a war-mongering defense of Israel and condemnation of Hezbollah, Biden uttered a few deceitful words of “hope,” declaring that this ceasefire agreement “reminds us that peace is possible. Say that again: Peace is possible.” 

    In Israel, Netanyahu didn’t bother with the “peace talk.” He went right for the jugular, issuing a bloodcurdling call to Israelis to seize this moment of military dominance to expand its seven-front “War of Redemption”4 across the region, and explaining why this “ceasefire” was key to doing that.5

    • Netanyahu promised to continue Israel’s genocide in Gaza and to “obliterate” Hamas, and to step up Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the West Bank as well, declaring “we are taking out terrorists, we are destroying terrorist infrastructure and we are operating in all of the terror strongholds. There is no place out of our reach.”
    • He hailed Israel’s decimation of Hezbollah and its indiscriminate bombings of apartment buildings and the slaughter of Lebanese civilians, declaring “we have brought down dozens of terror high-rises in Beirut's Dahieh. The ground in Beirut is shaking.” 
    • He praised Israel’s attacks on Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.6

    Netanyahu’s Three Murderous Reasons

    Truck damaged from Israeli airstrike in front of part of the Roman temples of Baalbek, November 28, 2024.

     

    Truck damaged from Israeli airstrike in front of part of the Roman temples of Baalbek, November 28, 2024.    Photo: AP

    Then Netan-nazi spelled out three reasons that this ceasefire would further Israel’s regional war objectives (including because if Hezbollah even tried to rearm itself, Israel would attack—as it already has several times at this writing): 

    • “The first reason is to focus on the Iranian threat, and I won't expand on that.” 

    Moments earlier Netanyahu had called Iran “the head of the octopus”—the main source of opposition to Israel and the U.S. in the region. “I am determined to do anything needed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That threat has always been my top priority and is even more so today… For me, removing that threat is the most important mission to ensure the existence and future of the State of Israel.” 

    First off, it has to be noted that Israel already IS the only nuclear-armed power in the Middle East. Though it has refused to confirm or deny it, Israel is generally thought to possess between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons.

    Even more important, this statement amounts to a very ominous threat, especially given that this year, for the first time, Israel and Iran have openly and directly attacked each other. Now Israel has crippled two armed forces that Iran had relied on as a buffer against Israel—Hamas and Hezbollah—and this presents a much clearer path for major escalation against Iran, if Israel should so choose. We should note as well Israel’s history of taking advantage of the “transition period” between different U.S. presidential administrations to launch major aggression.

    • “The second reason is to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks.” He talked of delays “in weapons and munitions deliveries,” which would soon be resolved, giving Israel “more strike force to complete our mission.” 

    In other words, the ceasefire would help Israel prepare to escalate the broader regional war it’s been fighting. 

    • “And the third reason for having a ceasefire is to separate the fronts and isolate Hamas.” 

    Hezbollah’s decision to agree to this ceasefire—after promising it would keep up its rocket attacks as long as Israel was assaulting Gaza—means that Israel now has more freedom to continue its campaign of genocide in Gaza and its simultaneous brutal, ethnic-cleansing onslaught in the West Bank

    “I promised you victory, and we will achieve victory,” Netan-nazi declared. “In the past year, we turned the tables. We were attacked from seven fronts and we fought back with might. We are changing the face of the Middle East.”

    This is a warning, not rhetoric. It’s a declaration of the massive, reactionary violence Israel is preparing to unleash—with full U.S. backing—in an attempt to take down any obstacles and take U.S.-Israeli dominance of the Middle East to a whole other level—a dominance which is key to the global power and functioning of U.S. capitalism-imperialism, and to Israel’s stability and regional hegemony.

    Biden Plays Godfather to Israel’s Genocide, Mass Murder and Regional Ambitions

    Biden for his part once again dispelled any illusions that the U.S. imperialists aren’t fully behind Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its murderous rampage in Lebanon, its assaults on Iran and its allies, and its plans to reshape the region. 

    • Biden condemned Hezbollah as a “terrorist” organization seven different times while praising Israel’s campaign of terrorizing literally millions of Lebanese.7  
    • Biden welcomed Israel’s indiscriminate assassination campaign against Hezbollah leaders, posing ghoulishly, “How many of Hezbollah’s senior leaders are dead, including its longtime leader Nasrallah?”
    • Biden called for continuing to carry out U.S.-Israel’s war aims, declaring Hezbollah “will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again.” And he explicitly gave Israel permission—under this so-called ceasefire— to attack inside Lebanon if it felt the agreement was being violated.
    • Biden claimed the ceasefire deal “heralds a new start for Lebanon.” He means a major push by the U.S. and Israel to diminish or destroy Iran-backed Hezbollah, and bring the country under the control of pro-U.S. and pro-Israel forces. This includes building up the U.S.-backed Lebanese Army (which has received over $3 billion in U.S. military aid since 2006) to play a key role.8

    Bob Avakian: “What more do you need to know, to say this whole damn system’s got to go?!”

    This ceasefire, and Netanyahu and Biden’s remarks—with the open threat of even worse war beneath the talk of “peace”—underscore the urgency of the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian’s warning in in his social media message @BobAvakianOfficial REVOLUTION #99:

    Now this support for Israel in carrying out wanton slaughter has been extended to involve Lebanon and other countries and people in the Middle East—including Iran. This is heightening the danger of a wider and even more destructive war.

    And let there be no doubt or confusion about this: The responsibility for the serious escalation of military conflict in the Middle East, and whatever results from this, lies with Israel—and the U.S. government, which continues to fully back Israel.

    What more do you need to know, to say this whole damn system’s got to go?!

    Palestine, Israel, U.S. Imperialism and Revolution

     

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza followed Hamas’ reactionary attack of October 7, 2023, which killed nearly 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, injured many others, and took another 254 hostage. Hezbollah vowed to continue its attacks as long as Israel was assaulting Gaza. These attacks did do some damage, but they did not appreciably hobble Israel’s capacity for raining down terror on Palestinians in Gaza. Overall the “war” between Israel and Hezbollah in the north was a sideshow—until Israel escalated it into all-out war on September 17, 2024.  [back]

    2. In announcing the ceasefire, Netan-nazi called Israeli attacks on Iranian backed forces a "seven front... War of Redemption." He was talking about Israeli attacks on Iranian aligned forces in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and Iran itself. And he included as two of those "fronts" Israel's genocidal slaugher in Gaza and the West Bank regions of Palestine.  [back]

    3. Binyamin Netanyahu, Address to the Nation on a Prospective Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire AgreementNovember 26, 2024  [back]

    4. Israel has also stepped up its attacks in Syria, and now reactionary Islamic Jihadist forces, some of whom have previously been supported by U.S. allies in the region, have launched a new offensive against Syria’s Assad regime, an ally of Iran. Stay tuned to revcom.us for coverage.  [back]

    5. Remarks by President Biden Announcing Cessation of Hostilities Between Israel and Hezbollah, White House, November 26, 2024. [back]

    6. Biden also touched on other U.S. imperialist objectives in the Middle East, including brokering an anti-Iran alliance between Israel, the U.S., and Saudi Arabia.  [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    Holiday Fundraising Bazaar in Chicago

    From a revcom:

    THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in Chicago held a holiday bazaar with a wide variety of items. We raised $197 on a bitter cold day. A donor gave the following message: "Going into the New Year with Trump and Project 2025 is going to force people to realize that they need the leadership of Bob Avakian."

    Chicago bazaar to raise funds for @BobAvakianOfficial

     

    Crochetted hats to raise funds to spread @BobAvakianOfficial.    Photo: revcom.us

    Chicago bazaar to raise funds for @BobAvakianOfficial

     

    Chicago sells cupcakes to raise funds for @BobAvakianOfficial.    Photo: revcom.us

    Chocolate fudge bread to sell for @BobAvakianOfficial fundraising bazaar.

     

    Chocolate fudge bread to sell for @BobAvakianOfficial fundraising bazaar.    Photo: revcom.us

    Sweet potato pie for @BobAvakianOfficial

     

    Sweet potato pie for @BobAvakianOfficial    Photo: revcom.us

  • ARTICLE:

    New York Times Enables Israel’s U.S.-Backed War Crimes and Whites Them Out

    Palestinian children queue for food at a center in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 28, 2024.

     

    Palestinian children queue for food at a center in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 28, 2024.    Photo: AP

    A headline in the New York Times on November 30 reads, “Israel Accuses World Central Kitchen Worker of Role in Oct. 7 Attack.”

    Actually, Israel assassinated three World Central Kitchen (WCK) employees while they were trying to distribute food to desperately starving people in Gaza. WCK reported that two other people in the car were also killed, for a total of five people murdered by Israel.

    Israel only accused one of them of having anything to do with Hamas’s October 7 attack on people in Israel. The family of the accused man told Al Jazeera that he was just an aid worker, not a member of Hamas.

    Liars and Murderers

    Israel has an endless record of assassinating medical professionals, aid agency workers, and reporters. It recently outlawed the main UN agency that the people of Gaza depend on for what little aid is available. And Israel has an endless record of wildly exaggerated, unsubstantiated, and completely lying accusations to justify these attacks.9

    Only deep into the New York Times article did it even mention that in early April, an Israeli air strike killed seven World Central Kitchen workers. That time, Israel called the killings a “mistake.” Those aid workers were traveling on a route approved by the Israeli military, in a clearly marked convoy. After a pause in their work, World Central Kitchen returned to Israel only to be targeted for another massacre. And this time Israel is not claiming that war crime as a “mistake.”

    Only at the very end of the article did the Times note that Israel has banned the UN agency that does the bulk of aid distribution in Gaza because a handful of the 13,000 aid workers were found to have possibly participated in October 7.

    The New York Times along with the U.S. State Department, and all the major institutions that serve this system, channel Israel’s lies. Not because the “Israel lobby,” or other forces have “corrupted” them, but because Israel is an essential enforcer for U.S. domination of a world of exploitation and oppression, in the Middle East and beyond.

    Meanwhile, here are crimes against humanity by Israel, armed and funded by the U.S., that the New York Times buried this past week. 

    On November 30 Alone: Israel Killed Dozens of Palestinian People in Gaza 

    In one day, Israeli U.S.-supplied bombs rained terror and death all up and down the tiny Gaza strip. Among the victims:

    • An Israeli air strike in Gaza City in the north killed 17 people, including Ahmad Faisal Isleem al-Qadi, who worked for the British charity Save the Children. Save the Children denounced his killing and said he had “shared his dream” with his co-workers of rebuilding his home that was destroyed in a previous Israeli air strike. And that “Ahmad … will be remembered for his determination to help others, for his pride in his daughter, and for his ability to brighten others’ days.”
    • More than 40 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. The bombed house belonged to the al-Araj family in the Tall az-Zaatar neighborhood. A distraught Palestinian resident, Mohammed al-Zaytouniyeh, said, “Residents are being bombarded. Explosive barrels are thrown down at them, at their houses, markets, streets, shelters, schools… There is no safe place. Where should these displaced people go?”
    • In the Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, Israeli air strikes killed six Palestinian civilians and wounded several others.
    • Twelve people were killed by Israeli bombs while waiting for food aid in Khan Younis in central Gaza. Israel has been blocking nearly all food from getting into northern Gaza for over a month. Desperate hunger is now spreading throughout central and southern Gaza.

    “Starvation… is the Goal”

    Palestinians gather to get food at a distribution center in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024.

     

    Palestinians gather to get food at a distribution center in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 29, 2024.    Photo: AP/Abdel Kareem Hana

    On November 30, Nour Elassy, a poet and writer based in Gaza wrote in Al Jazeera: “Starvation is destroying our bodies and our minds, incapacitating us. And this is the goal.”

    For over a year now, my family and I have been displaced from northern Gaza to Deir el-Balah in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Throughout this time, we, along with the rest of Gaza’s population, have lived every type of torture imaginable and unimaginable. One of them is hunger.

    Gaza is now fully dependent on food aid10 .… Since last year, the Israeli army has made sure to destroy food stores, markets, warehouses storing foodstuffs, farms and fishing boats. It has eliminated police forces securing aid delivery and distribution, thus ensuring that aid is looted before it reaches those who need it. For a while now, we have been buying “aid” food, not receiving it for free....

    We were barely scraping by when the situation took a sharp turn for the worse in October. What began in the so-called “disaster zone” of the north has expanded to the rest of the Strip. Israel’s nutritional terrorism has struck the whole of Gaza…. Starvation is destroying our bodies and our minds, incapacitating us. And this is the goal.

    November 29: Israel Kills Kamal Adwan Hospital’s ICU director

    An Israeli drone killed Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlout, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, as he was passing through the gate of the besieged hospital in northern Gaza. No mention in the New York Times. Watch this for the story:

    A Powerful Graphic Exposé by Forensic Architecture

    A powerful October 25, 2024 interactive graphic produced by the journal Forensic Architecture draws on hundreds of pages of data to document how, in the time since October 7, 2023, Israel has systematically, step-by-step, turned Gaza into a horrifically packed death camp:

    "A Cartography of Genocide: Israel's Conduct in Gaza Since October 2023" a graphic map of Gaza

     

    Click image, then "Play Video".
         Credit: forensic-architecture.org

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. For example, Israel is targeting several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza, claiming they are associated with Hamas. The Committee to Protect Journalists responded, “Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence.” 

    On August 26, Human Rights Watch reported, “Israeli forces have arbitrarily detained Palestinian healthcare workers in Gaza since hostilities began in October 2023, deported them to detention facilities in Israel, and allegedly tortured and ill-treated them, Human Rights Watch said today. The detention of healthcare workers in the context of the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on hospitals in Gaza has contributed to the catastrophic degradation of the besieged territory’s healthcare system.” [back]

    2. Before October 7, Palestinian people in Gaza survived on extremely limited food aid and creative and courageous efforts to farm, fish, and produce fruit, eggs, meat, and other food. They often did so literally under fire from Israeli troops. After October 7, Israel systematically destroyed Gaza’s agriculture and fishing, along with choking off outside food aid.  [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    NYC: Successful Bake Sale Raises Close to $1,200

    Baking sweet potato pies to raise funds to get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere.

     

    Baking sweet potato pies in New York City to raise funds to get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere.    Photo: @RevComCorpsNYC

    Lovettes southern sweet potato pie fundraiser ad

     

    Watching @BobAvakianOfficial messages at Revolution Books NYC.

     

    Revolution Books, NYC.    Photo: @RevComCorpsNYC

    A successful fund-raising Bake Sale was held by THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in New York City. We raised more than $1,194 to promote and spread @BobAvakianOfficial Social Media Everywhere. The effort featured "Lovette's Southern Styled Sweet Potato Pies" and other baked goods that were donated by people who have been working with the Revolution for a long time and others who are only beginning to learn about the leadership of Bob Avakian through these social media messages.

    The bake sale was held at Revolution Books in Harlem at the same time as the Revolution Books Soup sale, to raise money for Revolution Books. It was a lively and energetic day with several viewings of Bob Avakian's social media messages Revolution #104 and Revolution #103 along with viewings of the previous RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show that featured BA responding to a question about what would happen in the days, weeks and months following the revolution in this country. Some comrades sold pies to a bunch of people in their apartment building while engaging them in the social media messages. Throughout the day, people were dropping by to both deliver and purchase baked goods and hang around and take part in the lively political struggle and debate.

  • ARTICLE:

    Rashid Khalidi: This is “Worse” than the Nakba 
    An Israeli Holocaust in Gaza—What Are WE Going to Do Now? Part 2

    November 27, 2024: Palestinian looks at destruction of homes from September Israeli airstrike on city of Hebron.

     

    November 27, 2024: Palestinian looks at destruction of homes from September Israeli airstrike on city of Hebron, in the West Bank.    Photo: AP

    In a recent interview, Palestinian historian and Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, was asked, “We've been witnessing a genocide in Gaza for over a year now. Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, with some estimates suggesting the numbers are considerably higher. Over a million people have been displaced…. Where does this moment stand in [the] history [of the Palestinian people]?”

    Rashid Khalidi replied, “It's a continuation of the Nakba, of ethnic cleansing but it's actually worse than any of the episodes that I can think of. A larger part of the Palestinian population was displaced in 1948 during the Nakba but what has been done during this genocide in terms of the punishment that the civilian population is being exposed to is actually worse than any phase that I can recall of Palestinian history.”

    “Worse.” We need to confront that, and act accordingly.

    Worse than the Nakba… a Holocaust

    The Nakba refers to the founding of Israel in 1948. In Arabic, nakba means "catastrophe." Villages were destroyed. Residences and apartments were blown up at random to create panic. Israeli forces used rape3 as a weapon of war. Libraries and museums were looted. Cities with Arabic names were renamed with Hebrew names. More than 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homeland. 

    By standards established as international law after World War 2, the Nakba was a historic crime of genocidal ethnic cleansing. It is impossible to credibly denounce genocide and ethnic cleansing, without including Israel.

    In the Nakba, 15,000 people were killed. 

    In Israel’s over-one-year-long slaughter in Gaza, the official death count is three times that, nearly 45,000. But an October 22 letter to Biden and Harris from American medical professionals who served in Gaza projects a much higher death toll. An appendix to their letter takes into account the impact of disease, undocumented deaths, and fatal injuries. Based on that, the letter concludes: “It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population.

    What’s going on now is a whole other level of crime. And it demands comparison to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jewish people in Europe. 

    From the 1930s until the end of World War 2, the Nazis systematically slaughtered millions and millions of Jews in Europe. They essentially destroyed every trace of a people who had lived in Europe for a thousand years. This was the Holocaust. It unfolded over almost a decade. And the world essentially stood by. That can never be permitted to happen again.

    But what Israel, backed by the United States, is carrying out, before the eyes of the world, is another Holocaust

    This demands a response that is commensurate, on the level of the horror itself. I’ll get to that. But first, additional evidence beyond what was in An Israeli Holocaust in Gaza: What Are WE Going to Do Now?

    A Year of Turning Gaza into a Death Camp

    Following are a few of the findings of a report submitted to the UN by the Secretary General of the United Nations on September 20, 2024, on Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People in Gaza and the West Bank region of Palestine.

    Some of what is detailed in the UN report has found its way into mainstream news. Most of it has been completely whited out, buried, distorted, or presented as “one-off” incidents in the context of Israel “defending itself.”

    The September 20 UN Report documents that:

    • Israel has dropped tens of thousands of tons of bombs on tiny Gaza (141 square miles, about a quarter the area of New York City). In addition to killing more than 100,000 Palestinians, the resulting “debris (including from infrastructure, unexploded ordnance, munitions, white phosphorous, industrial and medical waste, and human remains) releases extremely high levels of carcinogenic [cancer-causing] asbestos and other hazardous substances.”
    • Soon after October 7, 2023, Israel “ordered 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to evacuate southward within 24 hours.” Israel has driven more than 90 percent of the population from their homes. And “It is impossible to conceive of any durable solution” to the mass displacement of Palestinians given Israel’s systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, atop the immense psychological toll the conflict has taken on the people of Gaza.”
    • Credible media reports [several are cited in the UN report] indicate that the Israeli military uses artificial intelligence (AI) to destroy whole apartment buildings at times when the most innocent civilians will be killed, while creating a pretense (false excuse) that a noncombatant Hamas member was sleeping in one of the apartments.
    Family displaced from northern Gaza, in their tent  in Deir al-Balah. Gaza Strip, November 30, 2024.

     

    Family displaced from northern Gaza, in their tent  in Deir al-Balah. Gaza Strip, November 30, 2024.    Photo: AP

    • Israel has “intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.” Israeli officials have openly said, “The international community is warning us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this […] After all, severe epidemics […] will bring victory closer.” [emphasis added] 
    • Israel’s genocidal slaughter targets women and children. “Pregnant women, in particular, have been prevented from obtaining necessary nutrition, care and emergency obstetric services… many face childbirth under horrific and unsanitary conditions, increasing medical complications and maternal deaths. The war’s psychological impact has also caused a rise in stress-induced miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births. In addition, pre-existing malnutrition among pregnant women significantly worsened due to catastrophic levels of food insecurity, heightening the risks of disease and death.”
    • Israel has carried out “unacceptable and unconscionable arrests, incommunicado detention, and alleged ill-treatment of healthcare workers.” And mass detentions, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance of possibly thousands of Palestinians from the north of Gaza. 
    • As early as July 2024, the Secretary General of the UN warned that “nowhere was safe in Gaza and that everywhere was a potential killing zone.” [emphasis added]

    These crimes go even beyond genocidal ethnic cleansing and apartheid oppression. This is a Holocaust. And all of this is armed, funded, defended, and all-around enabled by the United States.

    A Holocaust Is a Holocaust and Must Not Be Repeated

    In the Nazi Holocaust, far too many “Good Germans” were disgusted by what was going on but shamefully averted their eyes. As the Holocaust unfolded, and while there was a better chance to stop it, too many stood by silently. There was also courageous resistance, but that resistance was not sufficient, and not guided and framed by what it would have actually taken to STOP the Nazis and their genocide against the Jews (and other horrific crimes against humanity).4

    Defenders of Israel claim that it is morally unacceptable to compare what is going on in Gaza to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews in Europe. They claim making that comparison disrespects or trivializes the crime of the millions of Jews wiped out by the Nazis. 

    Just the opposite is true! It does an unconscionable disservice to the memory of those killed in the Holocaust to use their memory to commit another Holocaust. And I am one of those people from a Jewish background who has enough moral integrity to insist that NEVER AGAIN MEANS NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE

    So What ARE We Going to Do NOW?

    Because this is even more relevant now, I’m going to repeat the challenge I posed at the end of the piece An Israeli Holocaust in Gaza: What Are WE Going to Do Now?:

    What needed to happen as the Nazi Holocaust unfolded, and what needs to happen here and now in relation to Gaza, is resistance aimed at STOPPING a genocide... resistance that grows deeper and broader in the face of repression... resistance where people are opening up serious debate about the source of the problem and the solution.

    And ultimately and fundamentally, what is needed is a revolution to overthrow the capitalist-imperialist system that is driving this U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinian people.

    This challenge is particularly urgent now as we confront the coming to power of a fascist regime in the U.S., with Trump urging Israel to ignore world outrage and “finish the job” in Gaza.

    There is a basis for an actual revolution in the very workings of this system that have brought us to this time and place. And a blueprint for a radically different and better system. One dimension of that fundamentally different system is that, instead of enforcing exploitation and oppression throughout the world, it will “support people throughout the world fighting for the goal of emancipation.” 

    You will find the science behind all this in the work of Bob Avakian (BA). (You can start with A basic introduction: Real Revolution, In This Time: What the Powers-That-Be Don't Want You to Know in BA’s social media messages.) And thanks to decades of work, and ongoing timely leadership from BA, there is a scientifically based strategy and path for that revolution in these dark times.

    Start to get with that by following and spreading the social media messages from Bob Avakian @BobAvakianOfficial on any social media platform.

    Follow Bob Avakian (BA) on social media!

    @BobAvakainOfficial 1-11 playlist

     

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. Repeated instances of Zionist Israeli forces raping Palestinian women during the Nakba are documented in Ilan Pappe’s book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which draws on first-hand Zionist sources. [back]

    2.  You can get a feel for how Germans could literally smell the stench of dead bodies coming from the Nazi concentration camps but went on with their “normal lives” in the film The Zone of Interest (see a trailer and description in a Check It Out at revcom.us). Another “Check It Out” at revcom.us, Swing Kids, The White Rose and Sophie Scholl, introduces three movies that portray different forms of resistance to the Nazis.  [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    What Is Most Important About Bob Avakian's Leadership?

    Several weeks ago, revcom.us published the following statement:

    We will never succeed in having a real revolution in this country—certainly not one really worth having and that is truly emancipating for the vast majority of people—unless and until millions of people are won to become conscious followers of Bob Avakian and the new communism he has developed as the pathway and blueprint for the emancipation of all of humanity.

    There are several important things in this crucial and true statement, but I want to start with what is the most important (and what is, at the same time, still the least understood and appreciated) part of that statement. The most important part of that statement is not merely or absolutely that there couldn't be a revolution without BA, but that any revolution that is not led by the new communism Bob Avakian has forged wouldn't lead anywhere good. Simply put: There is no road to human emancipation without Bob Avakian's new communism. There is no way to continue to understand and change the world in the fundamental interests of humanity as a whole, to overthrow and defeat the old order and build a new society and system that enables people to uproot and overcome all forms of oppression and exploitation, and do so in a way that unleashes and increasingly involves and relies on the masses of people in this process.

    It is also true that it is unlikely in the extreme that there will be any kind of revolution here without Bob Avakian. And this matters tremendously! But, again, what matters most of all—and the context in which it is worth it and a really great thing to have a leader who can chart the road to making revolution—is that we now have what we need to be able to carry that revolution forward to the achievement of the “4 alls.”1 No revenge. No political truth. No “ends justify the means.” No elevating the needs of one socialist country—or even the fight for revolution in one country—above the world revolution, while still appreciating and fighting for the difference a revolutionary advance anywhere can make, not just in that particular country but for the whole world process of emancipating all of humanity everywhere. No letting short term goals, even really profound needs of the people and of the revolution eclipse (and be pursued in ways that work against) the ultimate goal of human emancipation. Most of all, an epistemology2 and a thoroughly scientific method that is leading and being popularized and fought for that recognizes that truth is objective, is what corresponds to objective reality, and that there is a method for determining and acting on what is true while continuing to learn from and sift what comes forward from every quarter.

    Without the new communism that Bob Avakian has forged being taken up by millions and applied, there is no advance to a new epoch free from classes and exploitation and oppression, no end to the long dark night of humanity being divided into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, oppressors and oppressed. This needs to be known and fought for very, very broadly throughout society and the world—and it needs to become a “settled question” within the ranks of the movement for revolution (even as this will need to be continually deepened over time). This new communism is the basis on which to win the “battle of possibilities” with millions and millions, lifting their sights as a crucial dimension of winning them to come forward to fight for and support this revolution.

    It is also true that, totally connected to what he has forged in the new communism, Bob Avakian is leading today in a way that is unparalleled in the world and decisive for the advance of revolution here. BA is applying the scientific approach and the strategy he has forged and he is carrying out strategic commander leadership that is piercing the fog and the appearance of permanent (and permanently descending) horrors of this system of capitalism-imperialism—pointing to the need, the basis, and the pathways to advance to make an actual revolution in this time. Bob Avakian is bringing alive—through the incredibly visionary and concrete Constitution for the New Socialist Republic In North America that he authored and through his ongoing social media dispatches and in other ways, the reality of a whole different, truly emancipating way we could be living with a new, revolutionary socialist system. 

    Bob Avakian is taking on the parasitic avoidance of all this by those with more material privilege in this country, the nihilistic self-destructive reveling in this system's ways of thinking and religious slavishness by way too many who are catching the hardest hell, and other ways that people who need to be part of this revolution are being kept away from it. All of what BA is doing everywhere through @BobAvakianOfficial is providing crucial leadership for how a growing movement for revolution needs to be oriented and carrying out revolutionary agitation and organizing serious resistance to the rising fascism and fight to bring down the system that gave rise to it and bring something much better into being. There is a tremendous school of method and training in the science of the new communism that Bob Avakian is modeling at @BobAvakianOfficial every week.

    It is for all these reasons that the campaign to promote Bob Avakian's leadership and his social media truly is the most important thing we have to fight through on and take to a whole, much higher and more impactful level—with regard to repolarizing all of society for revolution, drawing forward the forces for revolution, and training the strategic commanders and new communists necessary to lead a successful revolution and carry it forward to lasting emancipation.

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1.  The “4 Alls” refers to overcoming all classes and class divisions of society... all of the enslaving relations of exploitation that come from the capitalist-imperialist mode of production... all the social relations that correspond to those relations... and all the ideas that reflect and reinforce those exploitative and oppressive relations throughout the world.  [back]

    2.  Epistemology refers to theory of knowledge—to an understanding of how people acquire knowledge, what is the nature of truth, and how people come to know the truth.  [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    Los Angeles: THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity Defends Immigrant Day Laborers Against Trump/MAGA Fascists

    Since the election of Trump, fascists in Southern California have been organizing "Trump Trains" for a "victory lap" around LA. These are truck/car caravans flying MAGA and American flags and cruising “blue” areas—hurling taunts and threats at women and the LGBTQ community.

    Michelle of Revcom Corps LA agitates in defense of immigrants rights

    Noche Diaz and the Revcom Corps LA protest for immigrants rights.

    On November 30 they called for a caravan to begin at a Home Depot where dozens of day laborers gather daily to look for work. The day laborers from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Venezuela and other countries are anxiously facing the promise the Trump administration is making to deport millions of immigrants. 

    Reaching out to different organizations about building mass opposition and resistance to this Trump/MAGA fascism, we raised the two slogans: “In The Name Of Humanity, We Refuse To Accept A Fascist America” and This Whole System Is Rotten And Illegitimate—We Need And We Demand: A Whole New Way To Live, A Fundamentally Different System.” THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity stood strong in opposition to the Trump/MAGA fascist shit show. 

    In his social media message Revolution #106, Bob Avakian puts out a broad call to "Defend the Rights and Lives of People Targeted by Trump/MAGA Fascism. Take the Offensive in Opposition to This Fascism and The System That Has Given Rise to This Fascism." This was our orientation for the day and what we were manifesting and prepared to do. As soon as we got there, fascists were going up to the day laborers and harassing them and trying to provoke them. THE REVCOM CORPS marched up and stood in a line between the fascists and the day laborers. We stood as a serious disciplined force, not engaging the fascists, and linking arms when they threatened to get through the line—making clear we were not going to allow them to intimidate, harass or physically assault anyone. 

    Through the day there were customers of the Home Depot who hate this Trump/MAGA fascism who were taking materials including the broadsheet “We Need and We Demand A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System, and some got out of their cars and stood with us. At the end of the day, some of the day laborers listened to a short presentation from the revcoms and gave feedback—with people expressing how proud, grateful and happy they were to have witnessed THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in action—how we did not allow ourselves to get provoked but also did not back up even a step in our opposition to the fascist freak show that was trying to intimidate people. 

    Many more people need to join with THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity and be part of defending the rights and lives of people targeted by these "MAGA" fascists!

  • ARTICLE:

    Why Bob Avakian Is So Important

    Editors’ note: Revcom.us has been running the piece “Why Is Bob Avakian So Important?” over the past several weeks. The following comment was sent in by a comrade. This was written a week before the election, but remains very relevant in its main thrust. The comrade begins by quoting the piece itself.

    “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 emancipationNo 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.3

    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 20th 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)

    Get @BobAvakianOfficial everywhere!

     

    The Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity.

     

    Revcoms Declaration: We Need and We Demand...

     

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1.  The “4 Alls” refers to overcoming all classes and class divisions of society... all of the enslaving relations of exploitation that come from the capitalist-imperialist mode of production... all the social relations that correspond to those relations... and all the ideas that reflect and reinforce those exploitative and oppressive relations throughout the world.  [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    Readers’ Corner

    Readers Corner

     

    Readers’ Corner highlights views that you, our readers, send us on the big questions about making revolution. Questions about building the movement for an actual revolution. Or responses to, and thoughts provoked by, the social media messages from Bob Avakian—the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism. Thinking and questions you may have on other important documents from Bob Avakian (BA) and the Revcoms. As well as reflections on the new communism brought forward by BA, both overall and in relation to the urgent moment at hand. Now especially is a time for collective scientific grappling.

    Please send these to revolution.reports@yahoo.com. If your submission isn't reposted, it will still feed into our overall enriched understanding of what questions we should be speaking to.

    * * * * *

    What Is Most Important About Bob Avakian's Leadership?

    From a reader

    Several weeks ago, revcom.us published the following statement:

    We will never succeed in having a real revolution in this country—certainly not one really worth having and that is truly emancipating for the vast majority of people—unless and until millions of people are won to become conscious followers of Bob Avakian and the new communism he has developed as the pathway and blueprint for the emancipation of all of humanity.

    There are several important things in this crucial and true statement, but I want to start with what is the most important (and what is, at the same time, still the least understood and appreciated) part of that statement. The most important part of that statement is not merely or absolutely that there couldn't be a revolution without BA, but that any revolution that is not led by the new communism Bob Avakian has forged wouldn't lead anywhere good. Simply put: There is no road to human emancipation without Bob Avakian's new communism. There is no way to continue to understand and change the world in the fundamental interests of humanity as a whole, to overthrow and defeat the old order and build a new society and system that enables people to uproot and overcome all forms of oppression and exploitation, and do so in a way that unleashes and increasingly involves and relies on the masses of people in this process. Read more

    * * * * *

    Why Bob Avakian Is So Important

    From a reader

    “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 emancipationNo 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. Read more

  • ARTICLE:

    Donate To Get Bob Avakian's Message Out There: Science, Daring, Hope... In The Face Of Fascism

  • ARTICLE:

    From the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC)

    Iran’s Prisoners Daringly Unite to Defend Fellow Prisoner Narges Mohammadi and Those Facing Execution

    Revcom.us editors’ note: We received the following from the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now (IEC). Translations from Farsi are by IEC volunteers.

    The 10th birthday I spend away from your embrace, confined in this prison of religious tyranny…My dearest Ali & Kiana….Remember, we stand with millions, enduring and resisting religious tyranny, hoping for a brighter future. Happy Birthday, Mom. 
    Narges Mohammadi, letter to her children on the 18th birthday of her twins.
    Evin Prison – Tehran 27th Nov 2024

    Either life should be lived nobly and meaningfully or it should never be lived. And it is impossible to create such a life without resistance.
    —Varisheh Moradi, Evin Prison

    Barely two days after surgery for a cancerous bone lesion on her leg, Narges Mohammadi was sent back to a crowded cell against her doctor’s advice. She was barely conscious, with practically no access to further medical treatment, as part of the theocratic regime’s vindictive treatment of her. Mohammadi was awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize.

    Two women on indefinite hunger strike in Evin on medical furlough.

     

    L-R: Vida Rabbani, Motahareh Goonei, two women on indefinite hunger strike in Evin for medical furlough for Narges Mohammadi and Varisheh Moradi.     Graphic: @narges_mohamadi_51

    Since then, two women continue on indefinite hunger strike in the Women’s Ward of Evin Prison in Iran, demanding a medical furlough and urgent medical treatment for their wardmates Narges Mohammadi and Varisheh Moradi.9

    Breaking News!

    @OfficialToomaj reported on December 1 that Iranian rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi has finally been released “after 753 days of cruel, unjust and undocumented re-incarceration... he returned to the arms of his big family.... We will wait for the end of all cases and false accusations and the complete and unconditional release of Toomaj.” For background on Toomaj and links to his music videos subtitled in English, see our #FreeToomaj resources page.

    Toomaj has been released from prison. This image of him before his arrest.

     

    Photo is prior to his arrest, posted by @OfficialToomaj.     Graphic: IEC

    Last week he had completed the one-year sentence for a bogus charge of publishing a diss track while in prison, but was not released due to alleged intervention from the state security apparatus, provoking widespread outrage. His release is a victory for the people of the world who have fought to defeat his death sentence and now for his release. On December 3 he will celebrate his birthday outside of prison for the first time in three years. Happy 34th birthday to a courageous resister of the world.

    Why Do Iran’s Theocrats Hate and Fear Narges Mohammadi and Those Like Her?

    In Iran and parts of Europe, Narges Mohammadi is widely known, rightly beloved as an inspiring example and symbol of unrelenting resistance against the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and the hope for a better world among millions. She is known for defending the rights of others, such as her letter sounding an alarm about the life threatening situation for her cellmate Nahid Taghavi. 

    An IEC statement following her 2023 Nobel Peace Prize award, titled “Uncompromising Voice of Political Prisoner Narges Mohammadi Must Not Be Silenced – Be Her Voice Now,” is still very relevant even if some details have changed.

    For some 30 years, Narges Mohammadi has been a fierce, courageous and selfless fighter against Iran’s Islamic Republic (IRI) – a misogynist theocracy. Over these years she’s been arrested 13 times, convicted in sham trials five times, and sentenced a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes (i.e., whipping). She’s now serving a 10-year sentence for “anti-state propaganda” in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. Yet repeated imprisonments and torture, and tremendous personal sacrifices, even a heart attack in prison, haven’t stopped her. She’s continued to fight for Iran’s people, especially women, vigorously opposing the IRI’s medieval mandatory hijab law requiring women to cover their hair and bodies, as well as the sexual assault and harassment women face under the regime’s patriarchal rule. She’s been organizing prison protests and workshops, issued statements and articles, even written a book, White Torture, on the solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, and other forms of torture and abuse Iran’s prisoners suffer.

    Motahareh Goonei, Narges’ cellmate on hunger strike in Evin (a dentistry student expelled from Tehran University and sentenced to one year in prison for protesting the death sentence of rapper Toomaj Salehi), wrote:

    In Evin Women’s Ward, four prisoners are over 70 years old, and more than 18 are over 60.… Daily life for them is extraordinarily difficult and exhausting. As a doctor in prison, I have witnessed the inappropriate and unprofessional actions of the medical staff, who are often incapable even of basic care such as wound dressing—[T]he deliberate denial of timely medical care, coupled with the deplorable state of prison healthcare facilities, has weaponized medicine as a tool of torture—ultimately amounting to ‘enforced death’ for prisoners.

    Goonei, and the other Evin wardmate on hunger strike, Vida Rabbani (a journalist sentenced to 11+ years for “assembly and collusion against national security” and “propaganda against the state” for her support of the Woman, Life, Freedom Uprising), called attention to the prison’s denial of treatment for wardmate Varisheh Moradi. Moradi suffers from intestinal bleeding after her 20-day hunger strike in October against the death sentences issued to other activists. On November 10, she herself was sentenced to death for “armed resistance” after a “trial” without evidence or legal representation. It was based only on alleged membership in a Kurdish opposition party. As she wrote, “I am accused of ‘rebellion’ simply for being a woman, a Kurd, and seeking a free life.”10

    This has been and is my life philosophy, that either life should be lived nobly and meaningfully or it should never be lived. And it is impossible to create such a life without resistance. So we must be able to live the resistance – whether behind the walls of Evin or in the world outside the prison.

    Chanting from inside Evin Women’s Ward: Audio captured on cellphone and posted on the Instagram and X feeds of Evin prisoner Golrokh Iraee.

    Free Mehran Raoof and Nahid Taghavi! “Getting to a better world that is fit for humanity”

    Iran political prisoners: L-R Mehran Raoof, Nahid Taghavi.

     

    L-R Mehran Raoof, Nahid Taghavi.     Composite: IEC

    Recently in England (UK) there have been renewed calls for negotiations to release British dual-national citizens imprisoned in other countries. In this context, there are some reports that UK officials have raised the case of British-Iranian activist Mehran Raoof with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Guardian reported:

    In October 2020, Mehran Raoof was arrested in Tehran. The following year, the British-Iranian trade unionist and labour rights activist was sentenced to over 10 years’ imprisonment on national security-related charges. For years until his arrest, the former teacher from north London had divided his time between the UK and Iran, teaching English, meeting other labour and women’s rights activists and helping them translate materials from and into English.

    He says he was not told of the reasons for his arrest or the charges against him at the time, and was denied legal access until the day of his trial. He was convicted of “forming a group of more than two people with the purpose of disrupting national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system”, and remains incarcerated in Iran’s notorious Evin prison….

    Of multiple defendants “convicted” in this particular trial, only the two, dual nationals Mehran Raoof and Nahid Taghavi (currently on temporary furlough), are still subject to prison orders, although they have served more than one-third of their sentences, at which point it is common for prisoners to be conditionally released.

    In April 2023, Mehran Raoof managed to smuggle out a letter of protest, only published in full in English by IEC. In it, he embodies the brave uncompromising position for which he is being isolated and punished:

    [D]epriving prisoners with dual citizenship of their rights is a way the government sends a message to Iranian nationals with dual citizenship in the Diaspora: to expect severe consequences if they engage in political activities, so better not get involved in political activities—and if they do, they should not come back to Iran.

    My name is Mehran Raoof, Iran’s national identification number 7789, born in [the Kurdish city of] Kermanshah, fluent in the Kurdish, English and Persian languages, with a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, and a Master's degree from Polytechnic of Central London. I am charged with being a sympathizer of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist), because of participating in promotional activities and for translation and publication of certain books and the works of Bob Avakian.

    The Communist Party of Iran [MLM] and its website [cpimlm.org] offer a program to solve what ails society — discrimination, inequality, the oppression of women, exploitation, etc. They challenge society’s oppression of working people and its inequalities. They criticize and oppose the capitalist system in general. They critique other ills in society [that flow from capitalism] such as poverty, unemployment, the imperialist wars of aggression, the destruction of the environment, etc. They believe in scientific analysis and scientific methods in education and to solve the running sores of this society.

    I'd like to add that my aspiration and goal in life has been to work to serve the people, and putting effort into reaching [them] and introducing [them to] a better world that is fit for humanity, free from oppression, exploitation and corruption, a society free from environmental pollution, free from disease and futile wars. In solidarity with the widespread uprising by the people, we demand the unconditional release of all political prisoners.
    —Mehran Raouf, Evin Prison, early April 2023

    Continued Importance of IEC – Donate and Join Us

    As Iran continues to execute its prisoners at world record rates11 (stats for 2023 and 2024), launch draconian attacks on hijab-free women, and terrorize its own people to regain legitimacy lost by the powerful Women, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022-2023, it is more important to stand with the resisters named above and so many thousands more who are unnamed.

    The brave resistance by Iran’s political prisoners continues to be a beacon of hope in a world which, if looked at only on the surface, may appear minor in the midst of an unrelenting genocide and threat of wider war in the Middle East and in the wake of the U.S. election of a fascist in the world’s most powerful superpower.

    Iran poses as the leader of an “axis of resistance” – but its (very limited) resistance to U.S. imperialism (and Israel) serves only to advance Iran’s own theocratic state interests and its regional power ambitions. It is right to rebel against Iran’s extreme theocratic patriarchy and dark ages capitalism – as its political prisoners are doing. Iran is not a liberating alternative to imperialism, Zionism and other historically obsolete socio-economic systems – just as it is right to rebel against imperialist (US/UK/Europe/NATO) and Zionist genocide. People are being played like unwitting ping pong balls bouncing between these outmoded, oppressive systems instead of taking the high, hard and ONLY road to bringing forward a liberatory way out of the madness. Supporters and participants in the IEC have diverse progressive left leaning views of what this other way is – but we unite on the need to discuss and debate and fight for a better future as we join together to support Iran’s righteous political dissidents, especially the indomitable women of Evin prison. 

    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!

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1.  In addition to the women prisoners’ hunger strike, a letter from 40 organizations called for Narges’ immediate medical furlough. “She suffered multiple heart attacks while imprisoned before undergoing emergency surgery in 2022, the letter says. In November of this year, her lawyer announced that doctors found a bone lesion that they feared could be cancerous, sparking the surgery she underwent on Thursday. ‘Years of imprisonment and months of solitary confinement have severely compromised Mohammadi’s health, leaving her with multiple serious conditions that cannot be addressed through a short, incomplete hospital visit.’” Concerns Grow for Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Narges Mohammadi’s Health in Iran, usnews.com, November 19, 2024.  [back]

    2.  Death Sentence Against Woman Kurdish Activist Continues Iran’s Campaign of Terror to Silence Dissent, iranhumanrights.org, November 12, 2024.  [back]

    3.  The Abdorrahman Bouromand Center reports 790 executions so far in 2024, with 134 of those in November alone, following 811 executions in 2023. Human rights organizations’ estimates differ slightly because they are based on research of press reports and individual contacts; most are not reported by official agencies.  [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    International Day Of Protest For Palestine

    Over the weekend of November 28-December 1, the struggle to stop the genocide  in Palestine continued in cities across the U.S. and worldwide. The New York City Macy’s Thanksgiving parade witnessed an inspiring disruption, and the news of the protest hit the airwaves around the world. Major cities like Stockholm, Sarajevo, London and Madrid, Barcelona and Seville in Spain witnessed large-scale rallies with participants condemning Israeli actions and their governments’ complicity. Here are just a few of the pictures of New York City and other protests in the U.S. and internationally. While these protests matter, they are not enough. The whole world should be rising to demand an END to the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. 

    In the U.S.

    New York City

    Pro-Palestinian protester disrupt Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade, Nov 28, 2024

    Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupt the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, November 28, 2024.

    Boston
    Tweet URL
    Chicago

    #BlackFriday: Boycott Apple!—Chicago Black Friday demonstration, November 30, 2024 

    Austin, Texas
    Tweet URL

    Around the World

    Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Tweet URL
    Warsaw, Poland
    Tweet URL

    Tokyo, Japan

    Tweet URL
    Mexico City, Mexico
    Tweet URL
    Cambridge, U.K.
    Cambridge, England:  graduations scheduled to take place in Senate House November 30, 2024 were moved after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the lawn.

     

    Cambridge, England:  graduations scheduled to take place in Senate House November 30, 2024 were moved after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the lawn. No normalcy during genocide’, say Cambridge for Palestine. Photo: Ami Khawaja

  • ARTICLE:

    Report from Dr. Adam Hamawy
    American Surgeon Who Served in Gaza

    Tuesday • December 3 • 6 pm (sharp)

    Revolution Books
    437 Malcolm X Blvd/Lenox Ave. @ 132nd St., 
    New York, NY 10037

    Event will also be livestreamed: YouTube.com/RevolutionBooksNYC

    “In other war zones, civilians get injured, but it has been a small portion of the casualties… [in Gaza] over half of the people that I saw were children.”

    – Dr. Adam Hamawy

    International medical workers entering Gaza, May 2024,

     

    International medical workers entering Gaza, May 2024. Dr. Adam Hamawy is third from right.    Photo: Special to revcom.us

    Dr. Adam Hamawy has been volunteering for various humanitarian missions for wars and natural disasters over the past thirty years. He is one of 99 American physicians and nurses who served in Gaza this year, who sent an open letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris.

    The letter ends, “Every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our bullets.” That letter documented that “It is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza’s population.”

    Dr. Hamawy has been interviewed by CNN, the Washington Post, PBS and other media. His presentation and Q&A at Revolution Books will draw on his experience in Gaza from a unique perspective of having been in other war zones around the world. This will be a precious opportunity to experience and learn from a close-up and visceral picture of what is going on Gaza.

    Dr. Hamawy will include a presentation of photos of his experience.

    The event will be hosted and moderated by Alan Goodman. Alan is a revolutionary communist and a correspondent for revcom.us, writing about Palestine, Israel, and the role of U.S. imperialism. In 2008-2009, he covered and participated in the Gaza Freedom March that attempted to break the blockade of Gaza at the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

    Spread the word now! Bring your friends, classmates, your colleagues, and everyone who needs to more deeply understand, feel, and act commensurately in response to the towering war crimes U.S. bombs, war planes, financial support, and diplomatic backing of Israel inflict on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

     Tuesday • December 3 • 6 pm (sharp) 

    Revolution Books, 437 Malcolm X Blvd/Lenox Ave. 
    @ 132nd St., New York, NY 10037

    Email: revbooksnyc@yahoo.com  •    Phone (212) 691-3345

    This special program is co-sponsored by Revolution Books and the website revcom.us.
    Donation suggested: $5-10.
    Most events at Revolution Books are co-sponsored by the Revolution Books Educational Fund (RBEF)—a 501(c)3 tax-deductible entity
  • ARTICLE:

    BOB AVAKIAN 
    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.

    This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 102.

    This election brings out sharply that there really are “two countries” within this country.

    This, in a real sense, is an extension of a fundamental division that has existed since the beginning of the so-called “United States” of America, with its foundation in slavery and genocide—a division which has never really been resolved throughout the history of this country—not through the Civil War in the 1860s, and not through changes that were brought about through the 1960s and in the years following.

    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.

    This division into “two countries” can find no good resolution under this system. The election of an outright fascist, Donald Trump, as the head of this system is a powerful demonstration of this.

    There can be no good resolution under this system because, despite the false promises and lies of the “mainstream section” of the ruling class (represented by the Democratic Party) the whole system rests on ruthless exploitation—and oppression based on race, sex and gender, the plunder of the environment and of people throughout the world, as well as the devastation of war—all this is built into the ruling system of capitalism-imperialism.

    One “country” within this country—those who support fascism—demand and celebrate this oppression and madness. 

    The other “country” wants an end to this oppression and madness—but there can be no end to it, under this system.

    And 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.

    Why? Because fascism is one way this system of capitalism-imperialism can be ruled and function, and there is a powerful section of the ruling class that is determined to impose this fascism. But putting an end to all the injustices that decent people want to see ended cannot happen under this system. And, although there is a section of the ruling class that opposes this fascism, this opposition is always on the terms and within the limits of this system. There is no part of the ruling class that will risk the kind of upheaval that will be necessary to defeat this fascism; and no part of the ruling class that will seek to bring about an end to the monstrous atrocities and profound injustices which are built into this system and which this system cannot do without.

    And that is just the point: Things must no longer remain, and continue to be confined, on the terms and within the limits of this system and its ruling class.

    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. (And, as for people who actually have been misled into being part of the fascist “country”: decisively defeating this fascism, as part of doing away with this whole system, will provide the best means for jolting awake those misled people and winning them to become part of a revolutionary and emancipating resolution to all this.)

    As I said at the beginning: This is not a time for demoralization and despair, resulting from accepting things on the terms of this system.

    This is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination—a time to finally bring about a decisive, emancipating, revolutionary resolution to this conflict which, in a very real sense, has marked the “United States” from the time of its founding in slavery and genocide to the time, today, when it is the world’s most deadly and destructive oppressor, dangerously threatening the future, and the very existence, of humanity.

    Time to take up and fight for what we revcoms (revolutionary communists) have clearly put forward in WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM:

    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.

  • ARTICLE:

    BOB AVAKIAN 
    REVOLUTION #103: 
    Why Democrats are aiding and facilitating fascism, what this shows about this system, and what decent people need to be doing

    This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—Number 103.

    After calling Trump a fascist, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden and other leading Democrats are now busy bragging about how they are upholding “the peaceful transfer of power,” are helping Trump with his “transition” to power, and they hope he will succeed as President! This is a repeat of what the Democrats did in 2017—even after they kept insisting this time that a Trump presidency now would be far worse than the first time around.

    Once more, the Democrats themselves are driving home the crucial point I have repeatedly emphasized (for example, in my article FASCISM AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM, available at revcom.us): The Democrats, and the “mainstream” section of the ruling class that they represent, cannot fight the fascists the way they need to be fought—and this fight needs to be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole system.

    Fascism is not a “swear word”—or just some kind of negative label to put on your opponent in the course of an election. Fascism, as represented by Donald Trump, is a white supremacist, male supremacist, anti-LGBT, immigrant-hating, aggressively environment-destroying, anti-scientific, religious fundamentalist fanaticism, determined to use the power of the government to forcibly compel obedience to its dangerous and destructive lunacy, and to viciously persecute those who oppose or resist. And, now that the election is over, here are the leading Democrats anxious to cooperate with and assist the fascist Trump!

    For the Democrats, the “stability” of the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, even in the form of fascism, is more important than actually defeating fascism.

    Yet another glaring demonstration of the reality that this whole system, and every part of its ruling class, is completely rotten, criminal and thoroughly illegitimate!

    As opposed to what the Democrats are helping to impose on people, what is needed is bold defiance and a determined refusal to go along with any of this—now, and in an ongoing way.

    As I said in message #102: This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination.

    There will definitely be a need to defend the rights and the lives of people who are the targets of this fascism. At the same time, in the face of this fascism and those who are its supporters, there should be no defensiveness, but instead a firm stand of defiantly opposing everything they are about, and everything they do in moving to carry out this fascism.

    As for people who voted for and back Trump: regardless of the reason, or rationalization, they give for doing this, the fact is that they are supporting fascism, with everything that means. And it is necessary and crucial to consistently and actively take the offensive against this. (This definitely goes for those “bros” who are openly trumpeting rape culture, assaulting women and girls with the depraved chant: “Your body, my choice!” And it goes for every other putrid expression of this fascism.)

    Even more fundamentally, as I have consistently emphasized: This fascism is rooted in the very soil of this system in this country, and more and more people need to be won to recognize, and act on the understanding, that the fight against this fascism needs to be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole system, through an actual revolution.

    Coming Soon: How can I talk seriously about a revolution when the fascist Trump just got elected?

  • ARTICLE:

    BOB AVAKIAN 
    REVOLUTION #104: 
    How can I talk seriously about a revolution when the fascist Trump just got elected?

    This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 104.

    Right after the election, one of the revcoms wrote up these very important points of orientation that speak to this question:

    To those who might say, “Trump just won in a landslide, how are you going to win people to revolution?”—the answer is: A) Because it’s not the same people; B) There are still tens of millions of people vehemently opposed to fascism; and C) We don’t need to win over the majority of  people to be actively involved in this revolution.... we need to win over thousands in order to reach, influence, and lead millions.

    The first point (A) is another way of getting at the crucial reality that I emphasized in my message #102: There are “two countries” within this so-called “United States.” Contrary to what is constantly being declared, including in the “mainstream” media, the “American people” did not vote for the fascist Trump. Basically, of those people who voted, half voted for Trump and fascism. At the same time, the other half voted against Trump and (as emphasized in point B above) there are huge numbers of people who are “vehemently opposed” to this fascism. Once more: “two countries” within this so-called “United States.”

    This division cannot be covered over and cannot be resolved, in any positive way, within the confines of this system of capitalism-imperialism.  And:

    So long as the horizons of people are limited to what is possible within the confines of this system—so long as people believe that the only “realistic choices,” in terms of the direction of society, involve supporting one or another ruling class party of this system (Democrat or Republican)—the result will be a continuation of horrors.

    To refer back to my message #101: When this system presents us with the “choice” between a lunatic racist, woman-hating, all-around fascist (Donald Trump) and a genocidal war criminal (Kamala Harris), 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. (And in case people are not paying attention, the Biden/Harris administration is continuing to give full support—providing arms and backing—to Israel as it even further intensifies its genocide in Gaza and its massive slaughter and destruction in Lebanon.)

    As I emphasized in message #102: 

    That is just the point: Things must no longer remain, and continue to be confined, on the terms and within the limits of this system and its ruling class.

    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 is a need, and there is a basis, to bring forward a hardcore force of revolutionaries who have broken fundamentally with this whole system, which has brought forth this fascism, along with all its other atrocities. People who have gained the scientific understanding—and, on that basis, have the heart and determination—to make the sacrifices that are necessary not only to give leadership and direction to the determined resistance that must be built against this fascism, but also to win continually growing numbers of people to actively work for the revolution that is urgently needed to finally do away with this whole monstrous system.

    This relates to the important point C. Revolutions do not come about with all of those who want a positive radical change actively involved in fighting for that revolution, while all those who oppose that positive radical change are actively fighting on the other side.

    Instead, on each side there are the backbone forces directly involved in the fight, while greater numbers of people support one side or the other, or have a position of “friendly neutrality” toward one side or the other (while some try to “sit it out” or go back and forth between one side and the other).

    In this country that would mean (as stated in point C) winning over thousands in order to reach, influence, and lead millions to be actively involved in the revolution—with many millions more supporting or at least sympathizing with the revolution. (Yes, that includes winning over some people from the other side, through the course of the revolution—winning them over on the basis of the strength, determination and resoluteness of the revolutionary forces.)

    In the context of this all-out revolutionary fight, what have been the dominant institutions of this system are likely to split and break apart in significant ways, with the prospect of winning significant numbers to the revolution.

    In order to have a real chance to bring this about, it is necessary to sharply expose and actively oppose not only the fascism spearheaded by Trump, but the whole putrid system out of whose rotting soil this fascism has grown.  As I also emphasized in message #102, this means “finally and decisively defeating” this fascism—“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” (atrocities which are built into this system; atrocities which I have brought to light through these messages as a whole, and which are analyzed extensively and in depth in the American Crime series at revcom.us).

    I will end, for now, with this basic point, drawing from crucial history of this country:

    Leading into the Civil War in the 1860s, the election of Lincoln as President was the “last straw” that propelled the slave-owners in the South to break with the “United States” and wage war to maintain their slave-based Confederacy. Today, for those opposed to slavery and oppression in every form, this election of the fascist Trump must be the “last straw” which propels a revolutionary struggle to break with, and bring down, this whole system which, as I have shown over and over again, rests on ruthless exploitation and murderous oppression, and which has now given rise to this fascism, as the direct political descendant of the slave-owning Confederacy.

  • ARTICLE:

    BOB AVAKIAN 
    REVOLUTION #105: 
    NO: Accepting, and Refusing To Resist, This Trump/MAGA Fascism, Will NOT Make Things “OK!”

    This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number 105: answering some big questions, and refuting dangerously wrong arguments.

    First, this basic question, which many people are not clear about: What is fascism—and what specifically is this Trump/MAGA fascism?

    Fascism is the open, undisguised dictatorship of an oppressive system. Trump/MAGA fascism represents the open, undisguised dictatorship of the system of capitalism-imperialism that rules in this country—the country that is the world’s most powerful capitalist-imperialist plunderer of people and the environment.

    In my messages numbers 82, 83 and 84 I go into this more extensively, but to summarize here some crucial points:

    Despite constant attempts to mislead people away from a true, scientific understanding of this, the rule of the capitalist class, in any form, is actually a dictatorship: it is the monopoly of political power by the capitalist class—and in particular its monopoly of “legitimate” armed force and violence, by its police and military. This dictatorship is based on the domination of the economy by the capitalist class: its ownership and control of what is produced, how it is produced, how goods and services are exchanged (sold) and the profits that come from this.

    In the “democratic” form of this capitalist dictatorship, people are, to varying degrees, allowed certain rights, and the “rule of law” is applied as a general principle, even while all this is based on, confined within, and conforming to the rule of the capitalist class and the oppressive relations of the capitalist system. (In today’s world, this is the system of capitalism-imperialism. Capitalism-imperialism refers to the fact that capitalism has, for some time, been an international system of exploitation and oppression.)

    In the fascist form of capitalist dictatorship, the “rule of law” is essentially what the fascists say it is, and the rights of people are more or less openly limited to what is allowed by the fascists, while such rights are only extended to those who go along with the rule of the fascists.

    As I made clear in my 2017 speech about the first Trump regime (The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!available at revcom.us), the program and policy of Trump/MAGA fascism is:

    relentlessly assaulting civil rights and liberties and openly promoting bigotry and inequality; acting with callous disregard or cold-blooded malice toward those they consider inferior and a drain or stain on the country; on a mission to deny health care to millions who will suffer and many who will die without it; crudely degrading women, as objects of plunder, breeders of children without the right to abortion or birth control, subordinate to husbands and men in general; defying the science of climate change, attacking the science of evolution, and repudiating the scientific method overall... intensifying state terror against Muslims, immigrants and people in the inner cities; unleashing and giving encouragement and support to brutal thugs spewing vile “America First,” white supremacist, male supremacist and anti-LGBT venom—a regime that boasts of all this and declares its intention to do even worse.

    And, although, in the recent election, Trump posed as some kind of “anti-war” candidate, during his first time in power he ordered a number of acts of war—and he threatened more than once to use nuclear weapons.

    Now, with Trump coming to power again—having learned from his previous experience, having “vanquished his enemies” electorally, and moving to do so in the legal arena, with the vengeance he has openly proclaimed—Trump will be determined to do far worse.

    As I emphasized in Hope For Humanity On A Scientific Basis (also available at revcom.us), while capitalist dictatorship in any form is very oppressive of the masses of people, and needs to be overthrown, an overt fascist dictatorship will mean that the oppression, atrocity, plunder and destruction that is built into this system will be carried out more openly and aggressively, without the usual pretense of rights for the people or concern for the environment.

    All this is the answer to those who, in one form or another, argue for going along with this fascism, or “playing by the rules of this system” in opposing this fascism—when it is this system that has given rise to this fascism, along with all its other atrocities.

    As I spoke to in message #103, the leaders of the Democratic Party, after finally feeling compelled to speak to the reality that Trump is indeed a fascist, are now aiding and facilitating this fascism.

    Some who are tied to, or resist breaking with, the Democrats, and the system they represent, make this argument: “We are going to be ok. We survived Nixon and Reagan, and we can survive Trump.”

    This ignores the very important reality that what is represented by Trump/MAGA fascism, especially this time around, is in a whole different dimension, and on a whole other level, than what was involved with Nixon and Reagan.

    It is crucial to understand this analysis from my speech The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!: Nixon represented a move of the Republican Party in the direction of fascism, and with Reagan there was a further move in that direction. And, after George W. Bush took things still further in a fascist direction, the Trump/Pence regime, which came to power in 2017, made the leap into all-out fascism.

    Now, with Trump coming to power again, after his loss—and his refusal to accept his loss—in 2020, there has been another major, qualitative leap: fascism with a vengeance, making clear that it will not accept any limits or restraints on this fascism.

    Trump is determined, and already making preparations, to carry out his horrific fascist program. Only determined resistance, involving growing numbers of people and becoming truly massive, holds the possibility of creating a situation in which he will be prevented from doing so.

    All this is the answer to the perverted argument that Trump won the election this time, so “in the name of democracy,” we have to accept the results and let Trump carry out his program. Well, Hitler also came to power through the “normal, legitimate” processes of democratic (“Weimar”) Germany in the 1930s, so should people have accepted that—with all the horrors it involved?!

    If, in this country today, the fascist Trump is coming (or returning) to power as a result of the “normal” processes of this system, that does not make this fascism legitimate and something people should accept—instead it reveals the thoroughly rotten and fundamentally illegitimate nature of the system of capitalism-imperialism as a whole.

    This powerfully demonstrates that, while a determined fight must be waged against this Trump/MAGA fascism—uniting all who can be united in this fight—in order to uproot the basis for this fascism, along with all the other atrocities of this system of capitalism-imperialism, it is necessary to finally abolish this system, and bring a much better system into being.

    Coming Soon: Defend the Rights and Lives of People Targeted by Trump/MAGA Fascism. Take the Offensive in Opposition to This Fascism And The System That Has Given Rise to This Fascism.

  • ARTICLE:

    FASCISM AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM

    Why the “Mainstream” Representatives of This System Cannot Fight the Fascists the Way They Need to Be Fought—and Why This Fight Needs to Be Waged as Part of Fighting to Abolish This Whole System

    In relation to the election—and the larger conflict it is part of (and concentrates now)—the striking fact that the “mainstream” ruling class cannot fight the fascists in the way they need to be fought has found expression again in relation to the comment by Biden that the actual “garbage” is Trump’s supporters. (This was in response to the recent Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, and specifically the racist “joke” by a “comedian” that Puerto Rico is a floating island of garbage.) The way the Democrats have allowed themselves to be put on the defensive about Biden’s remark, and the “mainstream” media have to a significant degree played into the fascists’ hands in how they have covered this: All this sharply highlights the basic point that the “mainstream” imperialist ruling class representatives cannot fight the fascists in the way they need to be fought.

    Here these “mainstream” forces (including the New York Times) are finally acknowledging, and emphasizing, that Trump is an actual fascist (and Trump’s former Chief of Staff General Kelly, in his interview with the Times, even gave a fairly accurate characterization of the content of fascism) but then these “mainstream” forces become defensive—refusing to follow through on the logic: If Trump is a fascist, which he clearly is, then his supporters are supporters of fascism, and that means they are truly despicable people.

    As I made clear in my social media message REVOLUTION #98 (@BobAvakianOfficial),

    Don’t bother with that bulls**t that the basic reason why people support Trump is because they are having a hard time economically, and so on. In fact, many Trump supporters are well-off economically (and some are very rich). But even for those who are having a hard time economically, the really relevant question is: why do they support the all-the-time-lying, ignorance-promoting, racist, misogynist (hater of women) and all-around fascist Donald Trump? The answer can only be that, at the very least, they find nothing wrong with racism and misogyny—which makes them misogynists and racists (what a terrible irony for those Black people and other people of color who support Trump!). Just like those who supported Hitler and the Nazis in Germany, they support a fascist because fascism appeals to them.

    Would, or should, anybody be defensive about saying that those who supported Hitler were despicable people?!

    But the “mainstream” politicians, media, commentators, etc., cannot follow this logic to its logical conclusion. Biden immediately “clarified” his comments to indicate he was just talking about that “comedian” who made the racist “joke” about Puerto Rico (and racist “jokes” about Latinos in general—and about Black people). And, again, the “mainstream” media allow Biden’s comment to become something that puts the Democrats on the defensive.

    The Democrats cannot break free of the line—continually voiced by Barack Obama for 20 years, and by others—that “we are all Americans” and the problem is that Republicans, and now especially Trump, are “dividing us” (“the American people”). The Democrats (and their “surrogates” in the media) are allowing themselves to be put on the defensive when Trump spokespeople make the argument that, after all, Trump supporters are “half the country.” The Democrats (and other representatives of the “mainstream” section of the ruling class) cannot recognize, or acknowledge publicly, that there is a whole mass fascist phenomenon in this country—of which, as I have said, Trump is both an expression and a driving force. The Democrats cannot deal with this correctly because, in the framework of elections, they think it is a losing strategy to do so (allegedly alienating those largely mythical “undecided voters”). And, for more fundamental reasons, the Democrats (and the “mainstream” section of the ruling class overall) cannot do so because to acknowledge that essentially half the country is fascist blows apart the whole “shining city on a hill” and “leader of the free world” mythology, which is crucial for the way they seek to hold the country together and project its power in the world.

    The actual, larger and more fundamental dynamics are (as I pointed to, for example, in my 2017 speech The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!) that the current polarization is basically an extension of the polarization that led to the Civil War in the 1860s. And, as I have also pointed out, the outcome of the Civil War—with the defeat of the Confederacy and the formal ending of slavery—was in decisive ways substantially reversed with the ending of Reconstruction in the 1870s, which basically paved the way for an unreconstructed South to “rise again,” not only in the sense that essentially the same kinds of forces that led the slave-owning Confederacy dominated in the South itself, but also in the sense that they increasingly exerted disproportionate power in the country as a whole. All this is a big part of the historical background and basis for the strength of fascism in the U.S. today.

    The fact that, in today’s situation, the fascists have been able to win a section of people, and in particular men, who are themselves victims of white supremacy—this is to a large extent due to the role and impact of male supremacy. In this regard, there is the fact that in the historical development of this country, male supremacy—rationalized to a large extent on the basis of a literal reading of the Bible—has been closely interwoven with white supremacy. It is in those parts of the country—especially but not only the South—where white supremacy has historically been, and remains today, most overt and openly aggressive, that this is also true of male supremacy. Look, for example, at the states where draconian, severely restrictive and repressive bans on abortion have been enacted, especially after the fascist-dominated Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade: to a large degree, this is the old Confederacy (and, to use the parlance of the times, “Confederate-adjacent” areas).

    But now, unlike in the time of the Civil War (and the end of Reconstruction) the U.S. is not a country with relatively limited impact in the international arena: Through the course of a number of “cycles,” or spirals, of world events, particularly involving two world wars, the U.S. has emerged as the world’s most powerful imperialist country, and the greatest plunderer of people and the environment. Of even more fundamental and decisive importance, as I emphasized in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”:

    This is not the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, when the goal of those fighting against injustice was to abolish slavery, and—in terms of who ruled society—the only possible positive outcome was the consolidation and strengthening of the rule of the rising capitalist class centered in the North. That time is now long gone. And this system of capitalism, which has developed into a system of worldwide exploitation and oppression, capitalism-imperialism, is long outmoded—long past its expiration date, long past any circumstances where it could play any positive role. The goal now must precisely be getting rid of this whole system of capitalism-imperialism.

    All this relates to the critical point that the “mainstream” representatives of the ruling class cannot fight the fascists in the way they need to be fought. And this has very important implications precisely with regard to the fact that the fight against this fascism must be waged, not to maintain (or restore) this system of capitalism-imperialism, as it has imposed its domination over people, here and throughout the world, for generations—but, instead, this fight must be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole monstrous system. This is of strategic, and very immediate, importance in the current situation where the contradictions and conflicts in the country overall, and within the ruling class, are deep-seated and intense, and cry out for resolution, but can have no good resolution within the framework and confines of this system.

     

  • ARTICLE:

    From the Revcoms (Revolutionary Communists)

    REVOLUTION

    BUILDING UP THE BASIS TO GO FOR THE WHOLE THING, 
    WITH A REAL CHANCE TO WIN:
    STRATEGIC ORIENTATION AND PRACTICAL APPROACH

    If you don’t understand why we need a revolution, and how that revolution could be possible, then you dont know what you need to know.

    Fundamentally, people cannot imagine this because they are not approaching things with a scientific outlook and method.(Bob Avakian, revolutionary leader, author and architect of a whole new framework for human emancipation: the new communism).

    We Are Serious: We Are Working for a Real Revolution and a Whole New, Emancipating Way to Live.

    We are applying the scientific analysis and the strategic approach in the major work by Bob Avakian, Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating, which can be found at revcom.us. Here is the heart of what is brought to light in that work. 

    First of all: We live under a systemthe system of capitalism-imperialism (capitalism is an economic and political system of exploitation and oppression, and imperialism refers to the worldwide nature of this system). It is this system which is the basic cause of the tremendous suffering that people, all over the world, are subjected to; and this system poses a growing threat to the very existence of humanity, in the way that this system is rapidly destroying the global environment, and in the danger of war between the U.S. and its rivals in Russia and Chinaall nuclear-armed capitalist-imperialist powers.

    All this is reality, and no one can escape this reality. Either we radically change it, in a positive way, or everything will be changed in a very negative way. Changing it in a positive way means making revolutiona real revolution, to overthrow this system of capitalism-imperialism and replace it with a radically different and emancipating system, a whole new way of organizing society.

    And this is crucially important: This is a rare time when a revolution to overthrow this system of capitalism-imperialism, and bring something much better into being, is not only urgently necessary but is more possibleand this rare time must not be squandered (wasted, thrown away) but must be actively seized on to build up the basis and the forces for revolution, and then carry the revolution through.

    With all the chaos and madness in the worldwith this systems accelerating destruction of the environment and the way it is heightening the danger of nuclear war that could wipe out human life as we know it... with all the craziness in this country, continually disrupting the normal way things have been... with one part of society and one governing party (the Republicans) now made up of fascists determined to crush any opposition to them and their blatantly racist, anti-immigrant, woman-hating, anti-LGBTQ, environment-plundering program and anti-scientific lunacy, that they claim will make America great again... with the other ruling class party (the Democrats) seeking to maintain this horrific system in the traditional form in which it has existed for generations, and has caused so much suffering for the masses of humanity, while the Biden Democratic administration is adopting policies that accelerate the destruction of the environment and acting in ways that heighten the danger of nuclear war... and, very importantly, with these ruling powers deeply divided among themselves, and those divisions becoming sharper all the time, so that they can no longer rule in a unified waywith all this, things that have gone on in more or less the same way for years, and decades, can suddenly and dramatically change, in months or even weeks.

    All this is heading toward, and could soon become, an all-out crisis in this country, with the very nature of society, and how it is governed, being directly battled out in a way that hasnt happened since the Civil War in the 1860s. This could lead to something even more terrible than normal life under this systemmaking life even more unbearable, or even impossible, for the masses of people everywherebut there is also this very important positive potential: In this situation, the forces for the revolution that is urgently needed could grow, quickly, from small numbers to thousands, and then millions, and get in position to go for the whole thingIF the revolutionaries have been getting out the message broadly among the people, shining a light on the deeper reality of what is happening and why, bringing out that there IS an alternative to living this way, and struggling with people to break with all their wrong ways of thinking and get with the revolution.

    And that is what we are determined to do. 

    Here is how we are working to make this real. And if you can’t stand this world the way it is and where it is now headed, then YOU need to become part of working to make this real—to seize on this “rare time” to put an end to this capitalist-imperialist system that we are now forced to live under, with all its madness and destruction, and bring something much better into being, for people everywhere and for future generations.

    1. A Fundamental Point of Orientation, and Practical Guidance: 

    Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force.

    Think of the millions of people, of all races and genders, who rose up with righteous anger, all over the country, in 2020, when the murder of George Floyd by a heartless pig was just too much—something which was not an “isolated incident” but a concentration of the way the police in this country continually carry out cold-blooded murder of people, especially Black people, Latinos, and Native Americans. This uprising in 2020 was powerful and inspiring (so powerful that even some big-time capitalist exploiters and ruling class politicians had to “take a knee” pretending to be with the massive protests!). But there was a big problem: people were divided and pitted against each other by “identity politics” and misled into a dead-end by completely unrealistic demands like “defund” or “abolish” the police—which could never happen under this system. Many became discouraged, disoriented and demoralized, when murder by police kept happening, over and over again, with the fascist Republicans calling for even more brutal action by police, while Biden and the Democrats doubled down on funding the police and backing them in violently “serving and protecting” this system of murderous oppression. The real lesson is not that nothing can change but that we need a revolution to get rid of this whole system. 

    Think what could be possible if millions were mobilized into the streets again—not just to express their anger, but with the understanding and determination to do what needs to be done to really put an end to police terror and murder, to white supremacy, male supremacy and gender oppression, and to all the inequality, discrimination, exploitation, plunder and destruction of people and the environment that is built into this system of capitalism-imperialism—to put an end to all this in the only way it can be done: by putting an end to this system itself, and bringing something much better into being.

    2. In the circumstances of all-out crisis, when the whole direction of society is being called into question, there would be different trends and organized forces seeking to take things in different directions. There would be the fascist Republicans, aiming to seize (or consolidate) power, in order to bring about a more blatant form of oppressive and murderous rule, without the usual disguise of “democracy, with liberty and justice for all.” There would be those, like the leaders of the Democratic Party, trying to maintain (or restore) this monstrous system of oppression in its more “traditional” form. There would be masses of people in favor of some kind of basic change in a positive direction, but with different ideas about what that would mean. And there would likely be some organized forces claiming to be aiming for some kind of “progressive” change—even some calling themselves “revolutionaries” or “socialists”—when in fact their programs would only reinforce, and keep people locked into, the existing system.

    The people who are won, in increasingly greater numbers, to the actual revolution that is urgently needed, must be led to have a clear understanding of the need, and be in position, to wage a powerful struggle to determine the whole direction of things in the midst of such an acute crisis, in order to carry things forward toward the only real positive solution: a truly emancipating revolution.

    EVERYTHING THAT IS DONE, FROM HERE FORWARD, MUST BE ORIENTED TO CREATING THE BASIS FOR THIS.

    3. We are working every day to win growing numbers of people to understand the urgent need and possibility for revolution and to become an organized force that can shake up the whole country—waking people up and changing the way they think about things... working continually to gather forces and build up the organized strength of the revolution... working to powerfully impact the development of things in such a way that a situation can come about where there could be an all-out fight for revolution, with a real chance to win.

    In all that we are doing, all the struggle we are waging, we are applying the overall approach of Fight the Power, and Transform the People—for Revolution, with the aim of achieving the three prepares: prepare the ground (the situation in society), prepare masses of people, and prepare the leadership, for the all-out revolutionary struggle.

    We are uniting with and mobilizing people to stand up against the injustices and outrages constantly perpetrated by this system, defending people from attacks on their rights and their lives, and waging fierce struggle to break people out of the bullshit ways of thinking and acting that they are caught up in, winning them to become revolutionary emancipators of humanity. 

    With “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating” as the basic guide, and utilizing the YouTube RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show and the website revcom.us as key resources, we are organizing people to grapple with why an actual revolution is urgently necessary and more possible now, what such a revolution involves, and what kind of society this is aiming for—involving them in the process of building for revolution, in an organized way, and enabling people in parts of the country where the revolution does not yet have an organized presence to link up with others and become part of this revolution. (This is spoken to further in Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points, which can be found at revcom.us.)

    We are spreading far and wide the inspiring vision of how much better life could be, for the great majority of people, if millions of people got behind this revolution and carried it through—making it possible to restructure all of society on a completely different foundation, with a radically different economic system (mode of production) and emancipating relations among people, as spelled out very concretely in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, written by Bob Avakian. 

    In an all-around way, and especially in broadly promoting what are truly extraordinary Interviews with Bob Avakian on The RNL Show, we are doing the necessary work and waging the necessary struggle so that masses of people know about and get with the leadership we have in Bob Avakian: learning about the inspiring vision and concrete blueprint for a radically different, emancipating society he has brought forward, following the concrete guidance he is providing, taking up and applying the scientific method and approach of the new communism he has developed, in order to really make revolution and finally get free. Bob Avakian is completely different than the endless stream of bourgeois (capitalist) “leaders” who are put forward, and others who cannot see, or will not look, beyond the confines of this horrific system. He is hard-core for revolution, with a largeness of mind, generosity of spirit, and lively sense of humor—all of which shines through in these Interviews.

    Through actively taking part in the tremendous radical upsurge of the 1960s and being strongly influenced by the Black Panther Party and other revolutionary forces in that time—especially what was at that time a revolutionary, socialist China—Bob Avakian became a determined revolutionary communist; and he has continued to dedicate his life and devote his efforts to developing a scientifically based theory, strategy and program for revolution whose fundamental goal is freeing people everywhere from every form of oppression. He embodies this rare combination: someone who has been able to develop scientific theory on a world-class level, while at the same time having a deep understanding of and visceral connection with the most oppressed, and a highly developed ability to “break down” complex theory and make it broadly accessible.

    A leader like this has never before existed in the history of this country. Having a leader like this is a rare and precious thing for the masses of people who are so terribly oppressed under this system. It is a powerful positive factor for the revolution that is urgently needed, with the goal of ending all oppression and finally bringing about the emancipation of humanity as a whole.

    4. We have issued a bold Declaration, WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM, which raises this demand: 

    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.

    That Declaration provides a basic summary of fundamental principles and specific goals of the revolution and the new society and way of living we are working for, as set forth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. The Declaration needs to be very broadly distributed and popularized, among millions of people, in all parts of the country, now and throughout the development toward a full-out crisis. It needs to be driven home very clearly how the new socialist Constitution provides the foundation, the framework and practical guidelines for a radically new, emancipating system, really enabling and empowering the masses of people to move to abolish inequality and discrimination, oppression and exploitation, and to provide powerful support for revolutionary struggles throughout the world striving for the same goal, while also moving quickly, systematically and effectively, to address the already acute and fast accelerating environmental crisis, with the aim of bringing into being a world where humanity can truly be fit caretakers of the Earth.

    5. As a crucial part of the three prepares, the revolutionary communist leadership for the revolution, based on the new communism, must be greatly strengthened, with the Revolutionary Communist Party systematically built up as the overall leadership, with a growing core of strategic commanders of the revolution and the expanding ranks of the Party clearly oriented, prepared and organized to lead the whole revolutionary process.

    6. Throughout the period leading to an all-out crisis, mass organization for defense against unjust attacks on people’s rights and their lives, by oppressive and murderous thugs, in and out of government, must be built up, throughout the country, on the basis of the Points of Attention for the Revolution, which you can also find at revcom.us. This mass organization for defense needs to be developed as part of the overall process of carrying out the three prepares.

    In order to achieve the fundamental goal of sweeping away this system of capitalism-imperialism and replacing it with a new socialist system based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, as things clearly approach an all-out crisis, with millions won to the revolution, it will be necessary and critically important to transform this mass defense organization—and to steel, strengthen and rapidly expand its ranks—so that it is developed as a disciplined revolutionary force, throughout the country, that is oriented, prepared and led to strategically defeat the armed enforcers of this system, as well as fascist thugs and other murderous reactionaries, who are attempting to violently crush the revolution.

    All this is based on the understanding that the fundamental source of violence in the world is the system of capitalism-imperialism; that by far the greatest perpetrators of unjust violence are the ruling classes of the capitalist-imperialist powers, most of all in this country—and that the fundamental reason why the abolition of this system cannot be achieved peacefully is because of the nature of this system itself, and the fact that those who rule it would never allow their system to be swept away without attempting to violently suppress and crush any such attempt. 

    A serious, scientific approach to how such a disciplined revolutionary force could actually succeed in defeating the unjust violence of this system’s armed enforcers (and others seeking to crush the revolution) is spoken to in a series of articles by Bob Avakian, REVOLUTION: A REAL CHANCE TO WIN, also available at revcom.us. What is put forward in these articles needs to be broadly promoted, discussed and debated, among masses of people.

    7. Large parts of the major institutions of armed enforcement of the currently ruling system are made up of people drawn from the bitterly oppressed in this country. With the immediate approach of an all-out crisis, an appeal should be made to those who have been part of these institutions to join with the masses of people in the struggle to achieve this fundamental and urgently needed demand: to dismantle the existing system and institutions of government—to be replaced by the implementation of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

    To those who have been part of the system of government which is to be abolished and replaced: an offer of amnesty should then be made, except for those who have been the key decision-makers and those who have been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

    8. At the same time, it will be important to continually increase and more powerfully organize the broader ranks of the millions demanding the dismantling of the existing system and institutions of government and the implementation of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. This revolutionary people, of millions, would need to be mobilized and wielded in such a way as to make clear that it is going for a complete, revolutionary change—that it will not back down from this goal and accept anything less. In this way, it would constitute a powerful pole attracting and drawing forward even broader numbers of people from all parts of society—and it would pose a definite challenge and call to people everywhere in society, including in all the existing institutions of this system, to come over to the side of the revolution.

    This will also strengthen the basis to provide powerful support for, and to continually expand, the organized, disciplined revolutionary force oriented to bring about the victory of the revolution through strategically defeating the unjust violence of the ruling institutions and armed enforcers of this system, as well as fascist thugs and other murderous reactionaries.

    9. This overall strategic approach must also be sharply posed directly against the BEB (Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit) of this capitalist-imperialist system, and in particular the BEB leading into the 2024 presidential election—all of which serves to keep people chained to this system. Here is a crucially important guideline from Bob Avakian that has special significance now: When conflicts among the different sections of the bourgeois (capitalist) ruling class become so deep and hostile that they are no longer able to rule in the “normal way” they have for generations, “that is a sign of extremely deep and acute cracks and fissures in the entire established order; and such a situation must be seized by the oppressed not to side with one section of the bourgeoisie against another ... but instead to rise in revolutionary struggle to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie altogether.”

    10. Popularizing the strategy is an important part of carrying out the strategy. The strategic orientation and practical approach outlined here needs to be boldly put forward and broadly popularized, among masses of people, now and throughout the process of carrying out the three prepares: making clear that this is aimed at achieving the profoundly, and urgently, needed revolution, fundamentally through the mobilization of millions and millions of people around this basic demand: to dismantle the existing system and institutions of government—to be replaced by the implementation of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

    Popularizing this, now and in an ongoing way, throughout the period of working to achieve these objectives, will strengthen the basis for masses of people to see, concretely, that there is a definite strategic orientation and practical approach to bringing about the necessary revolution, and what their role can be, and needs to be, in all this. It will strengthen the basis to engage in more focused struggle with people about the possibility—as well as the urgent need, and the truly emancipating potential—of this revolution.

    ACTIVELY CARRY OUT THIS STRATEGIC ORIENTATION AND PRACTICAL APPROACH TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION IS MORE POSSIBLE!

    BUILD UP THE ORGANIZED FORCE OF THOUSANDS, AND THEN MILLIONS, OF REVOLUTIONARY EMANCIPATORS OF HUMANITY PREPARED TO GO FOR THE WHOLE THING!

  • ARTICLE:

    Two Timely Excerpts from SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, by Bob Avakian

    Bob Avakian at Interview smiling.

     

    The reality now is that the fascist section of the ruling class, represented by and concentrated in the Republican Party, is actively and aggressively engaged in a “two-pronged” move to achieve and consolidate fascist rule. These “two prongs” are: corrupting and controlling the electoral process and key government institutions; and the threat and use of violence, including through the mobilization of violent mobs. These fascists are, for now, relying mainly on the first, but with the second (violence) as an “accompaniment” to this—which could become their main means, if that proves necessary for them. In any case, if they succeed, the full power of the government—including the executive power of the presidency, the courts and legal apparatus, the prisons, as well as the police and the military—will be wielded to crush any effective opposition to fascist rule and to forcefully impose its program of “restoring” America to its mythological “greatness” on the basis of aggressive white supremacy, crude and brutal male supremacy and suppression of LGBT people, xenophobia (hatred and persecution of foreigners and immigrants, particularly from what Trump infamously referred to as “shithole countries”), forceful assertion and chauvinistic trumpeting of American dominance and “the superiority of western civilization,” along with willful rejection of science and the scientific method, especially where it would interfere with unrestrained plunder of the environment, as well as people.

    ***

    [T]hese observations of mine, from a number of years ago now, not only have great importance in general and at all times, but are especially important now:

    The religious fundamentalists, of various kinds, make a point of recruiting in the prisons, and they come with a heavy ideological message.... It is not at all the case that people can only “lose their religion” by replacing it with another religion in some form. But there does have to be another explanation about the world and existence and why this is the way it is, and how it could be different.... If you want to rupture people out of shit, not only stuff that lands them in prison, but the daily shit they are caught up in, in the society, you have to have a really strong hardcore ideological thing to bring to them.... [I]t has to be coherent and systematic. It has to explain the world—and in our case we can actually explain it in a scientific way. That’s an advantage of communism over religion, even though religion has certain short-term advantages.... But we have the advantage of actually being able to make reality make sense for people. That’s a very powerful thing.

    We should not underestimate the importance, not only with prisoners but in general, of doing a lot of ideological work to really enable people to see the world in a wholly different way—really the way it is. To take the pieces of this puzzle that are all out of whack and don’t fit together—it’s like looking through a weird kaleidoscope the way most people see reality. And then it’s misinterpreted for them by all these different bourgeois and reactionary ideologies and programs, and so on, including various religious views. But communist ideology and its application to the world is a way of taking reality and having it make sense for people.

    At the same time, winning basic people, and in particular the youth, to revolution also requires making further critical breakthroughs in what I have called the “George Jackson question”—the problem sharply posed by George Jackson, a prisoner who became a militant revolutionary associated with the Black Panther Party during the upsurge of the 1960s, and who grappled deeply with the question of revolutionary possibility, before he was assassinated by the authorities. To a slave who does not expect to live beyond tomorrow, Jackson said, the idea of gradual change, and revolution in some far-off future, has no meaning and no appeal.

    This takes on particular and special meaning in a rare time like this—a time when revolution could actually be possible, exactly not in some vague far-off future, but through the swirl of the sharpening events and conflicts that are happening right in this present time.

    Here, again, is the decisive question of how much the organized forces of revolution are built up and have an impact on all this, in the direction of the revolution that is so urgently needed.

    To appeal to masses of people, and in particular basic youth, the revolution must become a growing, organized, disciplined, bold and fearless force which, through its scientifically based method, its sweeping vision, its emancipating program and goals, and its actions, is an increasingly powerful pole that will attract these youth—and fighters for revolution from all parts of society.

    There is plenty that needs to be done, and urgently, which requires real boldness and heart, in working for this revolution: powerfully spreading the word about this revolution, challenging people to get into this revolution, recruiting and organizing them into this revolution—going up against and breaking through all the bullshit that people are caught up in that goes against their own real interests—doing the work that needs to be done to transform people’s thinking, and their actions—standing up against the forces oppressing the people, waging the fight that needs to be waged against the atrocities of this system—doing all this to get ready, and to have the basis, to wage the all-out fight to finally overthrow this system, as soon as the necessary conditions for that have been brought into being.

    And, as the revolution grows in this way: There is plenty that needs to be done, and urgently, which requires real boldness and heart, to stand up against the fascists, and any other oppressive force, in their moves to threaten and intimidate, brutalize and even murder people. Let me make clear that I am not calling for launching unprovoked and unjustified attacks on anybody; but there is a right, and a need—and there is the responsibilityto defend the people who are oppressed and brutalized under this system, and those who represent and stand for what is right, and are being attacked because of that.

    In the six Points of Attention for the Revolution—which are basic principles that the Revolution Clubs, a key form of organization for this revolution, base themselves on and fight for—the final point is this:

    We are going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way beyond the destructive, vicious conflicts of today between the people. Because we are serious, at this stage we do not initiate violence and we oppose all violence against the people and among the people.

    Yes, this is something very serious: going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way. And, yes, a big part of this is overcoming how people who are already messed over, in so many ways, by this system, get caught up in yet another way this system messes them up: fighting and killing each other. This needs to stop.

    But it doesn’t need to just stop. People who have been caught up in this need to become part of something really positive—they need to become part of the forces for the revolution that is so urgently needed now.

    The frustration and anger that so many feel, especially so many basic youth, because they can sense that life under this system has nothing good for them—that, from the time they are born, they are locked down and surrounded by forces that regard and treat them as alien objects of fear and hatred—and that those with power look at them as scum who deserve nothing more than a boot up the ass and a bullet in the brain—this frustration and anger needs to be redirected to fighting the system that treats them this way, and has robbed them, and so many like them throughout the world, of a decent life and a decent future, or any future at all.

    Once more, there is plenty that calls, urgently, for great courage and boldness in doing what needs to be done: to be part of rising up against this system and getting ready to go all the way with revolution as soon as the time is right—and, as an important part of that, supporting, and defending, people who are constantly being subjected to unjust attacks on their rights and their very being.

    There are the continuing attacks on people and movements that are rebelling against racist oppression.

    There are threats against, and physical attacks on, health care officials and providers, local government officials (and their families!), as well as employees in stores, and so on, when they are advocating and implementing much-needed and life-saving measures, such as mask and vaccination mandates to deal with the continuing COVID pandemic. There are attacks on school board members not only for adopting these basic health measures but also for things like approving the teaching of some truth about the white supremacy that has always existed in this country, or allowing rights for trans people.

    There are the threats, harassment and attacks on women seeking abortions, and on clinics and medical personnel working to provide those abortions, along with the escalating assault on the right to abortion by the Republican-fascist party, and those it has placed in the courts.

    There are brutal and often murderous attacks on LGBT people.

    There are continuing moves, including with the threat or use of violence, to once again prevent Black people and other oppressed people from even exercising what are supposed to be basic rights, such as voting. (With a scientific method and approach, it is both possible, and important, to actively oppose attempts to deny people the right to vote, and at the same time win people to see that their efforts need to go, not into voting for representatives of this system that is oppressing them, but working to build up the basis to overthrow this whole system.)

    All these attacks on people and their rights need to be powerfully opposed, and people on the good side of this need to be actively protected and defended, where they are assaulted with threats and even outright physical attacks.

    There is the need to prevent the police from brutalizing and just coldly murdering people. Let us remember what was said by some people who witnessed, and even recorded, the slow-motion vicious execution of George Floyd: They agonized over whether they should have done more, should have acted to stop this blatant assassination of a defenseless Black man. Now, again, what I am pointing to is consistent with point 6 of the six Points of Attention for the Revolution—and, in what I am saying here, I am not calling for launching an attack on anyone. But there is no right for anyone, including police, to just murder someone—and there is a right and responsibility to defend and protect people from unjust attacks on their rights, and on their very lives.

    Imagine if, in these different kinds of situations, there were a force of hardcore revolutionaries, including basic youth, whose presence in a disciplined and organized formation made clear that no unjust attacks on people would be tolerated. But this must not just be imagined—it must be developed as one important part of the overall process of preparing for, and building the organized forces for, revolution.

    This must be taken up in a serious, scientific way—not attempting, at any given point, to do what there is not yet the basis to do, but actively working to bring into being the conditions where what was not possible before becomes possible, as the organized ranks of revolution continue to grow and become steeled as a disciplined force. Taken up in this way, this can increasingly have dynamic effect—with “reverberations” and impact far beyond the immediate situation, attracting more people to this revolution... which, in turn, will make it possible to have even greater impact... and attract even larger forces.

    All this is an important part of the overall approach that I have laid out in the course of this talk, which will enable what are today the small organized forces of this revolution to continue to grow—increasingly by leaps and bounds—in numbers, organized strength, and impact on society as a whole. This is what more and more people must be challenged, and enabled, to become part of.

    Something Terrible or Something Truly Emancipating - Square, wo "NEW"

     

  • ARTICLE:

    REVOLUTION: A REAL CHANCE TO WIN

    Part 1: We Are Serious

    "REVOLUTION: A REAL CHANCE TO WIN" is published in a series. 

    Part 1: We Are Serious, July 31, 2023. 
    Part 2: A Scientifically Based Strategy, August 7, 2023. 
    Part 3: Civil War and Revolution, August 14, 2023. 
    Part 4: Hard Core Youth and the Revolution, August 21, 2023. 
    Part 5: Winning and Winning, August 28, 2023.

    Introduction:

    Some people have argued that an attempt to make an actual revolution, to overthrow the ruling system of capitalism-imperialism in this country, up against the powerful armed forces of this system, would be suicidal. This is something I spoke to, a number of years ago now, in the talk Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution:

    Many people, including many who say they would like to see a radical change in society, insist that revolution is not possible because “they” are too powerful, and “people are too messed up.” Well, it is true that, shaped as they are by this system, the masses of people, in any part of society, don’t know shit and have their heads up their asses, when it comes to an understanding of how things really are, why they are the way they are, and what could and should be done about this. But this stands in sharp contradiction to another important truth—that millions of people really do care about one or more, and many care about all, of the “5 STOPS.” This is a contradiction that we have to go to work on, to move masses of people in the direction of the revolution that is needed to finally put a stop to those “5 STOPS” and the horrific conditions to which the masses of humanity are constantly subjected. [The 5 STOPS refers to five major social contradictions and forms of oppression and devastation that are built into this system of capitalism-imperialism and which can only be eliminated through a revolution to overthrow this system.]18

    It is also true that the ruling powers of this system, with the machinery of death and destruction they wield to enforce this system, are indeed very powerful. But a big part of people’s difficulty in imagining that we could actually defeat them is the inability to conceive of a situation that is radically different than the “normal” functioning of this system, a situation where, for large parts of society, the “hold” of the ruling class over people—its ability to control, manipulate, and intimidate them—is broken, or greatly weakened. Fundamentally, people cannot imagine this because they are not approaching things with a scientific outlook and method.19 (Emphasis added.)

    This series of five articles speaks more fully to why such a revolution is not only urgently necessary now but why, with the right scientific approach, such a revolution could in fact have a real chance to succeed—and why anyone who really wants to see a radically different world, without all the horrors that are continually brought about, and the even greater horrors for humanity that are now threatened by this system of capitalism-imperialism needs to be actively involved in working tirelessly, with scientifically based determination, for this revolution.

    The following is the first in a series of selections from my talks and writings speaking to how to go about carrying out a revolution in this country, mobilizing millions of people, with the goal of actually defeating the violent enforcers of this system of capitalism-imperialism, abolishing this system altogether, and bringing into being a radically different, emancipating system based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.20

     This part one contains an excerpt from “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating” (which is available at revcom.us); and then an excerpt from a presentation to a gathering of revcoms (revolutionary communists) in 2022.

    Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force.

    And then, once this revolutionary force is brought into being, everything would be focused on how to actually fight to win.

    At that point, this force of millions would need to be mobilized and wielded in such a way as to make clear that it is going for a complete, revolutionary change—that it will not back down from this goal and accept anything less. In this way, it would constitute a powerful pole attracting and drawing forward even broader numbers of people from all parts of society—and it would pose a definite challenge and call to people everywhere in society, including in all the existing institutions of this system, to come over to the side of this revolution.

     

     

    Something Terrible or Something Truly Emancipating - Square, wo "NEW"

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    As I said in the Dialogue with Cornel West: It is important that we are right, and righteous—it is important that we stand with the wretched of the Earth and stand up against their oppression—but we have to win. We have to actually shatter the rule of this monstrous system, and bring something radically different and much better into being. Or else, we will at best “fight the good fight” but the horrors will continue, and get even worse.21

    The sixth point of the Points of Attention for the Revolution says this: “We are going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way beyond the destructive, vicious conflicts of today between the people. Because we are serious, at this stage we do not initiate violence and we oppose all violence against the people and among the people.”22

    I have highlighted the words “Because we are serious” in order to emphasize that this Point of Attention is not a declaration of some idealist pacifist notion that the struggle against this system can and must always remain non-violent. First of all, while we are against all violence against the people and among the people, and at this stage we do not initiate (and we do not encourage others to initiate) violence, at the same time we strongly recognize and uphold the right of people to defend themselves against unjust attacks. And, more strategically, we scientifically understand that: the fundamental source of violence in the world is this system of capitalism-imperialism, that by far the greatest perpetrators of unjust violence are the ruling classes of the capitalist-imperialist powers, most of all this country—and that the fundamental reason why the abolition of this system cannot be achieved peacefully is, once again, because of the nature of this system itself, and the fact that those who rule in it would never allow their system to be swept away without attempting to violently suppress and crush any such attempt.

    This is what it means that we are serious about all this.

    It is with this understanding, and this orientation, that we have to very seriously approach the question of how to actually win—win in the more immediate fight, historically speaking, to seize power—and win in a way that lays the basis for winning in the largest sense, with the goal of uprooting all oppression and exploitation, all over the world, bringing into being a communist world in which human beings can truly thrive with the fullest expression of their humanity.

     

    Next >>

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. The 5 STOPS are:

    STOP Genocidal Persecution, Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality and Murder of Black and Brown People!

    STOP The Patriarchal Degradation, Dehumanization, and Subjugation of All Women Everywhere, and All Oppression Based on Gender and Sexual Orientation!

    STOP Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity!

    STOP The Demonization, Criminalization and Deportations of Immigrants and the Militarization of the Border!

    STOP Capitalism-Imperialism from Destroying Our Planet! [back]

    2. A film and the text of Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Actually Make Revolution are available at revcom.us in BA’s Collected Works. [back]

    3. The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America is available at revcom.us. [back]

    4. REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN. This film of the Dialogue is also available at revcom.us/BA's Collected Works. [back]

    5. The Points of Attention for the Revolution are available as well at revcom.us. [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    REVOLUTION: MAJOR TURNING POINTS AND RARE OPPORTUNITIES

    Or... Why did Lenin talk about World War 1 as a “stage manager” of revolution?...

    And why did Mao say, We should thank Japan for invading China?

    Let’s begin with this: In the most fundamental sense, communist revolutions do not come about simply as a result of the revolutionary work and struggle of the communists.

    Why am I raising this? To argue that what communists do is unimportant?! No—obviously not. It is of definite and vital importance for communists to work consistently, and struggle vigorously, with determination and creativity, to win masses of people to see the need for and become actively involved in preparing for and then carrying out the overthrow of the oppressive system, in order to bring into being a radically different and emancipating system. (And clearly revolutions could not come about as a result of the revolutionaries carrying out something other than consistent revolutionary work and struggle.)

    But revolutions do not proceed in a straight line—and it is crucial to grasp, and act decisively in relation to, those rare times when a profound, qualitative change in the situation opens up the possibility for major advance for revolution, perhaps even the possibility of carrying things all the way to the overthrow of the existing system and the establishment of a radically different and much better system.

    This possibility may not be, and generally is not, immediately apparent, and on the contrary what is often more readily seen on the surface is the way in which, in the short term, the situation is worsening.

    The point is that all this can only be correctly grasped, and acted on, with a consistently scientific method and approach.

    One of the most important things that such a scientific method and approach makes clear is this: Revolutions are made possible, in the most fundamental sense, as a result of the intensification of the contradictions of the oppressive system, leading to crucial turning points, providing rare opportunities for major revolutionary advance, even potentially opening the way for the victory of the revolution. And the prospects for revolution hinge to a great extent on whether the conscious forces for this revolution not only carry out consistent revolutionary work and struggle, but more specifically whether they recognize—and on that basis act boldly and with scientifically grounded determination, to take full advantage of—these crucial turning points and all-too-rare opportunities.

    Of course, the role of communists is not to wait around passively for such crucial turning points and rare opportunities. On the contrary—and this is a basic point of orientation in the new communism which I have brought forward—communists must continually work to maximize the development toward, and accumulate forces for, the revolution that is needed: applying the approach of hastening while awaiting the necessary conditions that make it possible to go all out in the fight for revolution, with a real chance to win. And then, when the necessary conditions have come into being, it is of crucial importance to act decisively—to lead masses of people, in their millions, to actually seize power.

    But simply going along carrying out “routine” work in the name of revolution, actually lacking any revolutionary orientation and sense of urgency—“tolling the bell” timelessly, like monks in a monastery, paying no attention to the larger developments in the world, and in particular the way the fundamental contradictions of the ruling system are becoming much more acutely posed than in “normal times”—this will result in failure to grasp the potential this opens up for revolutionary advance and will lead to throwing away the rare opportunity.

    The successful communist-led revolutions, first in Russia and then in China, during the first half of the last century, illustrate these crucial lessons. (Even though the socialist systems that were established through revolution, first in Russia/the Soviet Union and then in China, were eventually overturned and capitalism restored in both countries, the essential points I have emphasized here are highlighted by the experiences of these revolutions in leading masses of people in overthrowing the oppressive old order and establishing a new, revolutionary society and government.)

    Russia: World War 1 as a “Stage Manager” of Revolution

    For the Russian revolution, it was World War 1, beginning in 1914, that greatly heightened the contradictions of the capitalist-imperialist system overall and in a particularly acute way within Russia. (This was a war between rival imperialist powers for the dominant position in the world, and in particular the domination and exploitation of vast colonial empires especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.) As this war unfolded over several years, and intensified the contradictions that led to the war, it made the objective basis and possibility for revolution more favorable, although this possibility had to be firmly grasped and actively worked on—and the opportunity to overthrow the old order had to be decisively seized, when that opportunity arose toward the end of this war. 

    But it is worth noting that for some time before the start of World War 1, and then during much of that war, the Russian communists (the Bolsheviks) were severely weakened—with their leader Lenin and some other leading figures in exile, desperately hanging on in extremely difficult circumstances (with some comrades living, and even dying, on the streets). This difficult situation was to a large degree the result of the defeat of a revolutionary uprising in Russia in the decade before the start of World War 1 and the severe repression that followed that defeat. In those circumstances, many former supporters, or intellectual sympathizers, of the revolution adopted “philosophical” rationalizations for turning away from Marxism, and more than a few people within the ranks of the Bolsheviks retreated into self-indulgent individualism. Further, for much of World War 1, because the Bolsheviks took and maintained the principled stand of refusing to support their own imperialist ruling class in that war—while exposing and denouncing the war overall as imperialist—they were very unpopular among large sections of the Russian people, who especially at the start of the war were swept up in patriotic fervor in support of Russia’s involvement in the war.

    But as the war dragged on, with the Russian ruling class continuing to be actively involved in this war that was causing enormous casualties for the Russian troops and terrible suffering for the masses of people in Russia, the Bolsheviks were able to increasingly win growing numbers of people and organize them into a powerful revolutionary force—including a section of the government armed forces that came over to the side of the revolution—and in the latter part of 1917 this revolutionary force succeeded in seizing power as the contradictions continued to intensify, largely as a result of the continuation of the war and the way it concentrated the underlying contradictions of the system of capitalism-imperialism.

    That is what Lenin meant when he said that this war, with all of its massive destruction and terrible suffering, was a “stage manager” of revolution. But this did not happen “automatically” as a result of the mounting horrors of the war. There would have been no revolution in Russia then if the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, had not, first of all, maintained a principled stand in opposition to the war—going against the powerful tide of patriotic fervor at the beginning and for a good part of the war. Beyond that, there would have been no revolution in 1917 if Lenin had not provided decisive leadership in making the scientific analysis of the ways in which this war was greatly heightening the contradictions of the capitalist-imperialist system, overall and in a particularly acute way in Russia—or if the Bolsheviks had failed to apply this analysis and seize on the rare situation toward the end of the war when, as Lenin also put it, years and even decades of “normal times” became concentrated in months or even weeks of intensified contradictions and accelerated developments.

    The Chinese Revolution and the Japanese Invasion and Occupation of China

    In the late 1920s, after the slaughter of large numbers of Chinese Communists by reactionary forces headed by Chiang Kai-shek in Chinese urban areas, Mao Zedong led in making a crucial leap for the Chinese revolution: he headed a force of revolutionaries, recruited especially from among desperate sections of Chinese youth, to retreat into remote mountains and launch an armed struggle—a people’s war—against the oppressive and murderous government headed by Chiang Kai-shek (backed by “western” imperialists, including the U.S.). For several years, this people’s war succeeded in establishing and extending revolutionary base areas in the Chinese countryside and defeating successive attempts of the counter-revolutionary forces to suppress and liquidate these base areas and the revolutionary forces leading them. But, finally, in the mid-1930s, the Chiang Kai-shek government adopted new military strategy and tactics, which succeeded in forcing the revolutionaries to abandon the base areas and embark on what became known as the Long March, covering thousands of miles and ending up with the establishment of a new base area centered in Yenan in the interior of China.

    Particularly with the eventual victory of the Chinese revolution—with the final defeat of Chiang Kai-shek’s forces and the establishment of nationwide revolutionary political power in 1949—the Long March has come to be seen as a great revolutionary achievement. And it was. But it is also the case that, although this Long March did make possible a new and crucial stage in the Chinese revolution, the great majority of the revolutionary forces that embarked on this Long March—numbering in the tens and tens of thousands—died in the course of it. And it is entirely possible that not only those massive numbers of revolutionary fighters, but the revolution itself, could have been killed off—at least for a whole period of time—as a result of having to abandon the original base areas and carry out the tortuous Long March.

    As it turned out, even with the great losses, a significant force survived the Long March, and this force—having fought many battles and overcome many hardships—was further tempered and steeled. Then, as a result of the invasion and occupation of large parts of China by Japanese imperialism, it became both necessary and possible to rally broad sections of the Chinese people in opposition to this invasion and occupation. And the need for the broadest possible resistance against the Japanese occupation, as well as the weakened position of Chiang Kai-shek’s government as a result of this occupation, established both the necessity and the basis to enter into a united front with this Chiang Kai-shek government to fight the Japanese invaders. (Because of “the reality on the ground” Chiang Kai-shek was forced to agree to this united front, even though, during the course of the war of resistance against Japan, Chiang continued his attempts to wipe out the communist-led forces, while giving up more and more ground to the Japanese.)

    The result of all this was that, through the course of World War 2—which began in 1939 and finally ended in 1945 with the defeat of Japan and its allies, including Nazi Germany—the revolutionary forces in China led by Mao grew in numbers and strength; and, after a relatively brief interlude of attempted but failed negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek, through three more years of people’s war the revolution succeeded in thoroughly defeating the reactionary forces of the old order in 1949, capturing power throughout the Chinese mainland and forcing Chiang Kai-shek to flee to the island of Taiwan.

    As was the case with World War 1, this second world war came about because of the intensification of the basic contradictions of the system of capitalism-imperialism. But the course of World War 2, including the Japanese occupation of China and the war of resistance waged against that occupation, in which the revolutionary forces led by Mao played a decisive role—all this resulted in a major change in the power relations within China, in a direction more favorable for the revolution; and this prepared much of the ground for the fight for the final victory of the revolution in 1949. In a real sense, the Japanese invasion and occupation of China constituted a kind of “fulcrum,” shifting the terms of the revolutionary struggle and providing the objective basis for a crucial advance of the revolution, after the devastating setback (the need to abandon the initial base areas of the revolution) which made necessary the Long March, with not only its real achievements but also its great losses.

    This is what Mao meant when he said that Japan should be thanked for invading China. Obviously, Mao was not unaware of, or unconcerned about, the terrible atrocities which Japan’s occupation forces imposed on the Chinese people. His point was that the Japanese invasion and occupation, with all the destruction and suffering it brought for hundreds of millions of Chinese people, and for the Chinese nation as a whole, ended up contributing, in a major way, to the eventual victory of the Chinese revolution, and with it the possibility of uprooting the fundamental and overall causes of the horrific exploitation and oppression to which the masses of Chinese people had been subjected not just for years and decades but for centuries and millennia.

    Mao’s ironic statement—we should thank Japan for invading—reflects the reality that the invasion and occupation of China by Japanese imperialism ended up contributing, in a major way, to the success of the Chinese revolution. But this revolution could not have succeeded if those leading it, and in particular Mao, had not grasped and acted in accordance with the changing objective conditions brought about by the Japanese invasion and occupation, particularly as this took place in the overall context of World War 2—and then the qualitatively changed conditions again, within China and in the world as a whole, with the end of World War 2, in which Japan was defeated and its occupation of China ended.

    Crucial Lessons for This Rare Time When Revolution Has Become—More—Possible

    Of course, no one can say with certainty that the Chinese revolution could not have eventually succeeded even if Japan had not invaded (or that there could never have been a communist-led revolution in Russia without World War 1). As Mao also emphasized, Marxists are not fortune-tellers. Marxism—communism—is a continually developing science, which proceeds on the basis of analyzing a continually changing objective reality.

    The point, once again, is that revolutions do not proceed in a straight line, but through many twists and turns, including setbacks and defeats, sometimes very serious setbacks and defeats, along the way. The actual process is in line with another statement by Mao, which applies to even a successful revolution—that it is a matter of fighting and failing, repeatedly, until victory is finally achieved. And, all along the way, there is a need to apply a scientific method and approach to learn not only from advances, and from what prove to be correct policies, but also from mistakes, difficulties, setbacks and defeats, to continually make a scientific analysis of the constantly changing situation, and to recognize and seize on openings for advance, especially situations where there are profound, qualitative changes in the objective situation providing the potential for major advance, even perhaps the victory of the revolution.

    Through the application of this scientific method and approach, it can be, and has been, firmly established that there is a basis and a possibility—not a certainty or “inevitability” but an actual basis and possibility—for revolution aiming for a communist world to ultimately triumph. And even while today the conditions in the U.S. and the world are vastly different than they were during the different phases of the Chinese revolution, in the first half of the last century, or the Russian revolution in 1917—and revolution in this country obviously will not and cannot come about as some kind of “copy” of either of those revolutions—especially in these tumultuous times now, the possibility of an actual revolution is real, yes right in this powerful imperialist USA. But this possibility cannot be grasped without the scientific method and approach of communism, as it has been further developed with the new communism. And a revolution will not, and cannot, be brought about without applying this method and approach to continually make, and act on, a scientific assessment of the constantly, and now rapidly, changing objective reality—including the daunting challenges and vexing difficulties, but most fundamentally the development of the contradictions of the system of capitalism-imperialism and the consequences of this, on a world level as well as within this country itself.

    This scientific approach is especially crucial in those times when the contradictions of this system are changing in a major way—and, above all, those rare times when, as Lenin noted, years and decades of “normal times” become concentrated in months or even weeks, when contradictions are repeatedly intensified and changes rapidly accelerated, heightening the prospect of great disaster for humanity but also the possibility of wrenching a radically different and far better future, through revolution.

    This is one of those rare times.

    Why? As explained in Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points,

    Brutal and murderous white supremacy, male supremacy, and other oppressive relations, the deepening crisis in society and the world overall, including the constant wars and the continuing destruction of the environment: all this cannot ultimately be resolved, in any positive way, within the confines of the system that rules in this country and dominates in the world as a whole—the system of capitalism-imperialism. Under the rule of this system, all this will only get worse. The deepening divisions within this country now, from top to bottom, mean that those who have ruled in this country for so long (the capitalist-imperialist ruling class) can no longer rule, as a “unified force,” in the “normal” way that people have been conditioned to accept—with a system of government that has an outer shell of “democracy” to cover over the fact that it is an actual capitalist dictatorship at its core, relying fundamentally on the armed force of the institutions of “official violence,” the police and the military. Because of big changes in this country and the world overall, one part of the ruling class, represented by the Republican Party, has become fascist: they no longer believe in or feel bound by what have been the “norms” of “democratic” capitalist rule in this country. And the other section of the ruling class, represented by the Democratic Party, has no real answer to this—except trying to maintain the “normal way” that the oppressive rule of this system has been enforced for hundreds of years, while the fascists are determined to tear up those “norms” and rule through more openly and aggressively oppressive means, without the traditional disguise of supposed “democracy for all.”

    The crisis and deep divisions in society can only be resolved through radical means, of one kind or another—either radically reactionary, murderously oppressive and destructive means, or radically emancipating revolutionary means. And this resolution could quite possibly happen, one way or the other, within the next few years. This rare situation, with the deepening and sharpening conflicts among the ruling powers, and in the society overall, provides a stronger basis and greater openings to break the hold of this system over masses of people. In a situation like this, things that have basically remained the same, for decades, can radically change in a very short period of time. This rare time must not be wasted— it must be seized on to have a real fighting chance to bring about a truly emancipating revolutionary resolution, and not be subjected to a terrible, reactionary, murderously oppressive and destructive resolution.8

    This, once more, requires resolutely “going against the tide” of spontaneous mass sentiments, including the stubborn tendency of many to remain stuck in the well-worn rut of relying on “the way things have always been,” even as that “way” is being profoundly disrupted and shattered by the intensifying, and even potentially existential, “earthquakes” erupting in this country and the world overall. As I have emphasized before, people—masses of people, in different parts of society—need to be shaken awake, through sharp, and at times fierce, struggle to get them to confront the very real horrors shaping up on the near horizon but also the real possibility for a revolutionary way forward out of this madness. This means breaking with the dominant relations and ways of thinking of this putrid system of capitalism-imperialism, including its quicksand trap of elections to choose between the Democrat and Republican representatives of the ruling class of this system.

    The following, which I wrote years ago now, has greatly heightened and urgent meaning today:

    Indeed, if and when conflicts among different sections of the ruling class reach the point where they are beginning to assume antagonistic proportions themselves, that is a sign of extremely deep and acute cracks and fissures in the entire established order; and such a situation must be seized by the oppressed not to side with one section of the bourgeoisie against another—thus helping the ruling class to “repair” the rupturing old order and reinforce its dictatorship, in one form or another—but instead to rise in revolutionary struggle to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie altogether.9

    Masses of people: all those who suffer so horribly in the “normal times” of living under the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism...all those who hunger for a more just world and a future worth living in, but whose future will be something truly terrible if things are allowed to continue on the terms set by this system... Masses of people, in continually growing numbers, must be made aware of the meaning and implications of this rare time, including through fierce struggle as necessary to win them to raise their sights and recognize not only the necessity but the possibility to seize on this rare time to make revolution and wrench something really positive, yes something truly emancipating, out of this rare time.

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points is available at revcom.us. A fuller analysis of why this is a rare time when revolution becomes more possible, even in a powerful imperialist country like the U.S., is contained in the major work by Bob Avakian Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed, A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution, which is also available at revcom.us. [back]

    2. This statement by Bob Avakian is from his book Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That? (published by Banner Press, 1986); emphasis added. [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    Thanksgiving? Genocide Then & Now. We Need Revolution!

    Episode 224 of The RNL — Revolution, Nothing Less! — Show

  • ARTICLE:

    From Atash/Fire #157, Journal of the Communist Party of Iran, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist

    A Call to Afghan and Iranian Students and Intellectuals Living in the U.S.

    December 2024

    Editors’ note: The following call is posted in Farsi in Atash/Fire Journal #157, December 2024, at cpimlm.org. It was translated by revcom.us volunteers. Translators have added some bracketed explanatory text.

    The election of a fascist to rule in the United States will open a new chapter in the crimes of American imperialism in both the domestic and the international arenas. In order to understand what is happening and why it is happening, in order not to get lost in the global turmoil that is sure to engulf the Middle East—Iran will be one of its flashpoints—it is vital to follow the scientific analysis and concrete strategies and guidelines that [revolutionary leader] Bob Avakian puts forward on combating fascism and making revolution in the U.S. Although his specific guidance is mainly focused on the process of revolutionary struggle in the U.S., Avakian’s strategic approach—of basing resistance to fascism in the U.S. on the strategy of making revolution and overthrowing the entire capitalist system of imperialism—can be learned from in order to pave the way for revolution in other parts of the world. 

    The battle between revolution and counter-revolution in the U.S. will have a huge impact on the whole world—and the interests of humanity depend on the strengthening of the revolutionary forces in the U.S. 

    Avakian emphasizes this crucial point, 

    Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force. (@BobAvakianOfficial social media message Revolution # 66

    Therefore, the revolutionary communists in the U.S. under the leadership of Bob Avakian should be unsparingly supported. We must support the revolutionary communists against [physical and verbal] attacks [including] from the snakes in the Democratic Party, which has never intended to confront fascism. Any decent person in the U.S. should get with this leadership and the revolutionary communists. 

    We make this call especially to the old and new immigrants from the Middle East, and in particular to those from Iran and Afghanistan: become part of this process of revolution in the U.S. The first step is to follow the [social media] messages of Bob Avakian25 Join the various collectives that are being organized along this path under the leadership of the revolutionary communists who follow the new communism and Bob Avakian. Out of this great disorder, we can wrench a revolutionary order—if we proceed on the basis of reality: the fact that capitalist imperialism is an outmoded system that must be overthrown everywhere, replaced by new socialist republics, in [North] America and everywhere else that the revolution [must be] victorious!

    _______________

    FOOTNOTES:

    1. Follow Bob Avakian’s messages @BobAvakianOfficial on social media (X, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.). In these dispatches, he spells out the concrete policies of the present period for revolutionary communists, their allies, and for the broad masses of people. [back]

  • ARTICLE:

    VIDEO

    Christian Fascism, A World in Turmoil And the Revolutionary Leadership of Bob Avakian

    Episode 225 of The RNL — Revolution, Nothing Less! — Show

  • ARTICLE:

    The Blood-Drenched U.S.-Israeli “Ceasefire” in Lebanon

    Displaced residents return to destruction in Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, November 27, 2024.

     

    Displaced residents return to destruction in Dahiyeh, in Beirut, Lebanon, November 27, 2024.    Photo: AP

    “While denouncing ‘terrorists,’ the rulers of this country openly support terrorism.”

                Bob Avakian, REVOLUTION #99

    On Wednesday, November 27, Israel’s massive bombs may have stopped falling on Lebanon, and Hezbollah rockets on northern Israel, at least for now. But this did nothing to erase or repair the enormous devastation, bring back the 3,961 Lebanese slaughtered, or heal the 16,520 wounded by Israeli bombs and missiles. As our accompanying article shows, this U.S.-Israeli orchestrated ceasefire is about legitimizing this criminal slaughter, and locking in Israel’s battlefield gains. 

    The numbers don’t begin to tell the whole story of the terror and suffering rained down, not just on the Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure Israel claimed to target, but on millions of ordinary Lebanese as well.6 

    In his ceasefire announcement, Biden praised Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s leaders. But he didn’t talk about what these attacks on heavily populated areas with 500-pound, 1,000-pound or even 2,000-pound bombs did to thousands of people in Lebanon.

    Biden Upholds Indiscriminate Carpet-Bombing of Beirut

    Displaced people hug each other in front of the rubble of their destroyed house in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, November 28, 2024.

     

    Displaced people in front of the rubble of their destroyed house in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, November 28, 2024.    Photo: AP

    Imagine you, your husband, and your three children were cooking dinner at your home on Beirut’s southside, like hundreds of other families. Suddenly, without warning, your whole 10-story apartment building is rocked by a shattering explosion. Seconds later, the floor of your fourth-floor flat buckles, and your ceiling and all those above it collapse. Seemingly endless moments later, you’re able to climb out of the debris and stagger into the street, your whole apartment building turned to rubble and rebar. You and at least one of your children are alive, but you can’t find the others. You soon find out they’re gone forever.

    This isn’t imaginary. It happened in one form or another to many of the 1.4 million Lebanese who were forced to flee from their homes. And it happened to the 248 children who were killed and the 1,436 who were wounded in the Israeli attacks. 

    “I mean, they were essentially carpet-bombing the south and Beirut and hitting all kinds of targets, and, you know, absolutely indiscriminately,” Lebanese writer and editor Lina Mounzer told Democracy Now!.7 “People were terrified. People were running on foot. There was absolutely no safe place to hide. It was truly like, you know, 24 hours that were just condensed horror. And it is absolute terrorism. It is barbarism. I don’t have any other words to describe it.”

    Biden Praises Demolishing Homes and Razing Towns and Villages 

    Biden also praised Israel for destroying “Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon.” But he didn’t tell you that doing this meant creating a vast zone of destruction, leveling whole villages and destroying 5,624 buildings there—and now warning Lebanese that they can’t come back to many of these villages, which many have called home for generations.8 

    What does this look like? 

    “[P]eople are coming back not just to devastated homes and devastated lands in the south, but they’re picking up the pieces of their lost families.” Mounzer says. “There are a lot of people now who are going to be able to have funerals that they weren’t able to have, memorials that they weren’t able to have. You know, the grieving process begins now, not just for the country at large, but specifically for so many families who have lost their loved ones, including up until these final 24 hours.” 

    Follow Bob Avakian @BobAvakianOfficial