Over the past several weeks, a small team of revcoms have distributed over 100 compilations at several pro-Palestine street protests: Israel and Palestine, The Middle East and U.S. Imperialism, The Revolution Humanity Needs, A Selection of Writings from Bob Avakian.
At these protests we put the pamphlet into people’s hands, state the title, make clear it’s written by revolutionary leader Bob Avakian and take people to the Table of Contents, often having people read the quote from Bob Avakian on the inside of the title page as part of this introduction: “We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.”
We ask people to make a donation to The BA Institute for the compilation, and aim to leave people with a compulsion to read it ASAP. We often ask a question that BA repeatedly “comes back to” in the selections: “Why is Biden, and basically the entire government and ruling class of the U.S., supporting Israel in carrying out the genocide against the Palestinian people, before the whole world?”
A range of answers follow: “the Military Industrial Complex,” “the importance of control of the port in the Mediterranean,” “labor-replacing technology has led to the necessity for genocide of people” etc. Many people at these protests have been influenced and trained to think: “It’s the power of the Jewish lobby…” and specifically AIPAC. People often reverse the relationship as to who dictates to whom (even allowing Israel, as an “attack dog” for U.S. imperialism, does have its own necessity and dynamics). A striking number of people (including people who donate for the compilation) overstate the supposed dictating power of “the Jewish lobby” but there are many others at these protests who “reach for” an understanding that there is a system underlying why this genocide is happening.
There are extraordinary selections in this compilation on what capitalism-imperialism means—what it actually is—selections that take people through the deeper relations and dynamics of this system, including profound ways this system has gone through dramatic changes over the past several decades.
The selection “Why Is Religious Fundamentalism Growing in Today’s World?” takes people into the underlying political economy of this global system.
Still, up to now, a significant section of thoughtful people (who donate for the pamphlet) respond to the fact that Hamas and fundamentalist Islamic Jihad is not a force for liberation… with “there would not be any resistance if it were not for Hamas.” I think that is the main sentiment among the broader nonaligned people at the protests. While BA makes clear Islamic fundamentalism doesn’t hold a candle to U.S. and western imperialism when it comes to perpetrating unjust violence on humanity, this compilation “dig[s] down beneath the surface of this phenomenon and its various manifestations, to grasp more deeply what are the underlying and driving dynamics in all this” so this terrible dynamic (Islamic fundamentalism vs. increasingly globalized U.S. and western imperialism) can be confronted and transformed—by winning people scientifically to something which can actually bring about a radically different and better world for all humanity, especially women! We point people to the section on “The Oppression of Women and the ‘Two Outmodeds’” which digs into this.
And religious fundamentalism is not only growing in oppressed countries throughout the world but right here in the heartland of the U.S. empire! Discussion of fundamentalist religion’s growth has opened up dialogue about revolutionary potential in the United States, about the fact that it's a rare time in this country where revolution has become more possible. Several compilation selections also explore the rise of Christian fascists in the U.S., including at the highest levels of government (as well as tens of millions of people). This BA compilation introduces and challenges people with an entirely different framework, with an important section “About the Author” at the end.
Something I think captures both the “freshness” as well as the agonizing (and contradictoriness) going on, is this comment from a young woman who bought the compilation. “I am not here to change the system, I am here so this system doesn’t change me.” She said she doesn’t want to “lose her humanity and empathy for others…” which she sees others losing—that’s why she is at this protest. On her question, there are the pieces reprinted from BA’s social media, Revolution #21: “There is no such thing as ‘human nature.’” And Revolution #22: “The Communist Revolution and the Radical Change in Supposedly Unchanging ‘Human Nature.’”
People are coming to the protests with a lot of heart, and the feeling of the system working on them, but don’t have the science to know we can actually change the system—which people WILL find in this compilation.