On August 30, I had the opportunity to attend the important conference hosted by the Revcoms in Los Angeles, Getting Beyond Capitalism AND Beyond Mamdani-Style “Democratic Socialism," Getting Beyond this Whole System To Something Far Better: A day of talks and workshops on the need and possibility of an actual revolution, and a fundamentally different system. This was not a “timeless” gathering of revolutionaries opining on utopian schemes, but a living laboratory of revolutionary science, full of substantive and lively discussion of the biggest questions facing humanity, convened at a time of existential danger and possibility. New people, mainly young people and students, but others as well, came to the conference off of mass flyering and posters that went up around Los Angeles in recent weeks. For some, this was only their second Revcom event. For others, this one-day conference was their first experience with the movement for revolution. People remarked that they were struck by the simple posters featuring the title of the conference, and especially that they demarcated “Mamdani-style” DSA so-called “socialism” and not just denounced capitalism. I heard multiple people say that this is what pulled them towards actually attending. 

Upon arrival, attendees received a packet with materials: the broadsheet We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way To Live, A Fundamentally Different System, the Official Biography of Bob Avakian, the "Woke is a destructive force” indictment, a program for the Conference laying out the day, and a flyer and sign-up sheet from the Revcom Corps Los Angeles, which got into ways people interested in the Corps could plug into activities like an upcoming student Zoom, a discussion on Bob Avakian’s analysis on “woke” vs. emancipating revolution, and outreach at UCLA later in September. At the bottom of the flyer, this important invitation from Bob Avakian was reprinted: 

Let's go on a crucial journey together—full of unity against oppression and lively struggle about the source of the problem and the solution. Pursue your own convictions—that the outrages that move you are intolerable—to their logical conclusion, and be determined not to stop until those outrages have been eliminated. And if this, as well as learning about other outrages, and ideas about how this all fits together and flows from a common source—and how it could all be ended, and something much better brought into being—leads in the direction of seeing not only the need for bold and determined resistance, but also the need for revolution and ultimately communism, then don't turn away from that because it moves you beyond your comfort zone, challenges what had been your cherished beliefs, or because of prejudices and slanders. Instead, actively seek to learn more about this revolution and its goal of communism and to determine whether it is in fact the necessary, and possible, solution. And then act accordingly.

After a welcome and laying down some ground rules and procedures for the day, Sunsara Taylor brought alive the stakes of the moment and the role that new people can play by stepping up to become emancipators of humanity in her opening presentation, a version of her speech We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way To Live, A Fundamentally Different System. After a Question and Answer session, we broke for lunch, with delicious food donated by local restaurants. The room buzzed with conversations as people ate together in small knots and continued getting into the questions raised by the opening presentation and Q&A. 

After lunch, things really kicked into a higher gear, with two really incredible clips from Bob Avakian, one from his 2012 speech BA Speaks: Revolution–Nothing Less!, and the “imagine we had a time machine” clip from the 2025 interview he did with Sunsara Taylor. Both clips brought alive what would be possible with the masses of people exercising state power in a radically different system based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. This was important on a number of levels. Firstly, these clips utilized just parts of these historic interventions by BA to raise people’s sights far above the world as it is now, with all its oppression and degradation, to how we really could be living in a genuinely socialist system. Secondly, they modeled a thoroughly scientific method and approach to social change—what things would be possible to change right away? What things would take a longer process of struggle? BA makes the point that police brutality and murder of Black and brown people by state forces would be ENDED on day one! He foregrounds the importance of the liberation of women to the whole struggle, and why this is a dynamic force propelling society forward under socialism, ensuring this is an all-the-way revolution. He emphasizes how the future Socialist Constitution will ensure the rights of the people in a way that is not done under the present system, where the presumption of innocence (to take just one example) is a joke. Lastly, these clips provided, for new people, a real sense of who Bob Avakian is as a leader, and what makes him so radically different from all the bourgeois electoral bullshit and other hustlers who are put forward as “leaders” under this system.

After this, Rafael Kadaris broke down in basic terms the “three things” that socialism is, drawing from BA, 1) a new economic system, 2) a new political system and 3) a transition to communism. He emphasized that the transition to communism aspect is what’s most important. This led into a rich break-out group discussion session on the We Need and We Demand broadsheet. Each group picked out one section from the centerfold (e.g., Rights of the People, a new Education system, a new Healthcare system, etc.) and discussed what new socialist state power makes possible. In the breakout group I was a part of, some of the new people wanted to discuss the section on nuclear weapons. We discussed questions like: could we really dismantle and abolish nuclear weapons? What is the nature of nuclear weapons? Is it true that socialist state keeping these weapons in its arsenal undermines the emancipating character of that state? What necessity does it pose for the new socialist republic if there are still imperialist states in the world who keep their nuclear weapons, while the socialist state dismantles those it has inherited from the previous imperialist state power it overthrew? While the discussion went through twists and turns, what we kept returning to is that these are complex questions with no easy “ready-made” answers. This underlines the ongoing need for science in addressing the vexing problems of revolution. We need wrangling in the realm of theory, and remaining grounded in what the material basis is for abolishing nuclear weapons and abolishing war: the interconnectedness of humanity. One revcom leading the discussion spoke repeatedly about “stretching” her brain. I think this is something all of us reading this site should reckon with—are we consistently seeking to “stretch” our brains and test our thinking against their limits? Are we taking responsibility not just for a particular region we may be in or an area of work, but for the revolution as a whole, so that we can actually make real advances towards revolution in this race-against-time moment when the system is running up against its limits?

After another break, we reconvened for a presentation by Annie Day on Bob Avakian’s leadership and the New Communism. From a number of angles, Annie broke down how Avakian, as a result of decades of work, has resolved a critical contradiction within communist theory and practice that has existed since its beginnings: between its fundamentally scientific core and secondary unscientific aspects which have run counter to this core. She also gave a beginning sense of the scope of Avakian’s corpus, using the titles of his works to bring this alive, such as “Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That?” and “Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World.” Annie also spoke about how the ridiculous charge of “cult” is an admission of ignorance and cowardice, drawing from a piece by BA. These attacks on Bob Avakian and the Revcoms reflect and concentrate real questions, she argued, such as reform or revolution? What should be our criterion for leadership? Do we need to go for revenge or the emancipation of humanity? 

The presentation closed with another clip from BA, on “The Rosetta Stone” of communist leadership. I won’t summarize the whole 18-minute clip, which is well worth watching and re-watching, but I did note that this video had a real effect on the crowd. I was sitting amongst some of the brand new people and seeing some of them nod along as BA explained how communist leadership enables the most oppressed masses, from housing projects and the hard hoods, to enter into political life and make sense of the complexity of reality. I heard them laugh along at his lighthearted moments as he spoke honestly about the question of some people not wanting to follow an old, white man. Seeing this clip really connect with people who were “meeting” BA for the first time really gave me a glimpse of what’s needed and what will be involved in bringing increasing numbers of people into deepening engagement with this leadership, and building growing cores of followers of BA. 

In the Q&A and discussion that followed, Sunsara and Annie took questions from the floor and encouraged others to speak to things that came up. One man asked, “how do we know when someone is ready to lead?” and spoke about qualities of charisma and public speaking. Another person answered that we need to be thinking about political line and policies for the struggle, and that people need to take on different roles and give their strengths to the revolution. Sunsara spoke about how leadership involves taking responsibility for the whole process of revolution. Multiple revcoms brought up the point that BA makes in Humanity on the Brink about breakthrough leaders, and how this shouldn’t be “a one man show”—how this is a critique of how too many in the Revcom forces have thought about this, and how this needs to change. The challenge was put squarely to people to take up this science themselves and contribute to the process of learning about and changing the world. Another person said that when it comes to the question of the environment, they only want to follow indigenous people, because they have been most affected by environmental degradation, and they most know the way out. Annie challenged him on this, and fought for the understanding that we need to take a thoroughly scientific approach to everything, including the question of the environment, and to assess whether certain programs are effective based on evidence, not on the identity of the person or group that puts them forward. Some indigenous practices are worth incorporating into an overall scientific framework, but others could be harmful, or no longer correspond to the world as it has changed. She also spoke to the illusions fostered and the harm done by the slogan and demand “land back” and how this concentrates revenge and an unworkable program in today’s conditions. She fought for people to dig into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, and how it provides a real, viable framework for addressing the historical and ongoing injustices done to indigenous peoples on this continent. Giving real scope to this here is beyond what I can do in this reflection, but seriously, go read what BA writes in there and compare it against any other proposed program or framework for dealing with these complex contradictions. I challenge anyone to produce something more radical and potentially liberating.¹ The person who asked the question stood up and said “thank you for taking this on!” and he clearly appreciated the exchange, even if he wasn’t fully won over. 

As the day wound down and people ate dinner and talked more, I saw people engaging with the literature and materials tables, taking stacks of posters, stickers, and flyers to get out to their campuses and neighborhoods. Some people bought copies of The New Communism, BA’s essay on the Declaration of Independence, Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, a Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, the sampler edition of Break All The Chains! Bob Avakian on the emancipation of women and the communist revolution, and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. 

I don’t want to make sweeping judgements from too small a sample size, but I do think something very important is signified by the fact that a cohort of brand new people stuck with the full day program all the way through, left with more literature and materials on the basis of a beginning but deep engagement with revolutionary theory and BA “straight up” via the video clips, and collective wrangling over vexing problems. I think this goes beyond “we got an audience of X number of people to an event.” It’s a process that people are being brought into—where they're able to engage a serious understanding of reality, raise their questions and differences, and struggle together about the problem and solution. Some people will divide out, and others will step forward and deepen their engagement. Whether we seize on this to build up the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity, the forces for this revolution, whether this can lead to a geometric progression of followers of BA commensurate to the quality of this leadership, and the stakes of this moment—all this is up to us. This conference, in my view, concentrates a process that many more people need to go through, and quickly, if we are to seize on this “rare time” and if we are to not squander the rare and precious leadership we have for this revolution. Let’s dare to make the most of our lives in this time, to make this emancipating revolution.