The Proclamation We Are the Revcoms… We Are Working for a Real Revolution and a Whole New, Emancipating Way to Live… brings out sharply that all the brutality, exploitation, oppression of life, in this the greatest country in the world, is a product of the system of capitalism. And, that all the suffering, wars and occupations, devastation of the environment is a product of the capitalist-imperialist system.

This Fourth of July, this sharp line of demarcation needs to be drawn that:

There's NOTHING TO CELEBRATE ABOUT AMERICA... We Need to REJECT what America has done to the people of the world…

AND, on the other hand: THERE IS A FUTURE TO CELEBRATE… which is WORKING FOR a Real Revolution for a Whole New Emancipating Way We Could Be Living.

Two Systems. Two Constitutions. Two Futures. That is the subject of this commentary.

We live under a competitive system that is ruled by big imperialist gangsters who are compelled by a ruthless expand or die logic to each be top dog against the other. These world-class criminals, whether they rule from Washington, the Kremlin, or Beijing, are bringing the world closer than ever to the destruction of life as we have known it—through either nuclear war and/or the destruction of the environment.

Every day the news is saturated with how divided this country is. The news and culture are soaked with pissing, moaning, and worrying about who's up and who's down in the next election, the latest insanity from Trump and the fascist Republican Party, or the latest betrayal of promises by Biden and the Democrats as they ramp up drilling for oil, intensify the repression of immigrants on the border and fund, fund, fund the police. Piercing through all of this is Bob Avakian’s analysis that this is a rare moment when the possibility for a real revolution for a whole new emancipating way we could be living opens up—IF WE SEIZE THIS TIME AND PREPARE NOW FOR A REAL REVOLUTION.

We Are the Revcoms… puts it this way:

This is… a “rare time” when the capitalist-imperialists who rule over us, in this country, are deeply divided in a way they have not been since the Civil War in the 1860s, and the country is being ripped apart, with one section moving toward an outright fascist form of rule with the other fighting for the horrific way things have been. They cannot resolve these deep divisions, and “hold the country together,” on the basis of the “normal way” this system has operated—and, in any case, that “normal way” is full of oppression, destruction, and the real danger of wiping out humanity. For these reasons, this revolution we are working for is urgently necessary—and more possible.

I have gone into this, and we have discussed this divide, many times on The RNL Show, going into the ways that this divide is already disrupting and jolting lives in profound ways—taking away the right to abortion is but one painful example of this. The question is posed: what is to be done with the deep suffering… anguish… even paralysis that this has created for millions of people, who see their future in danger?  

The proclamation We Are the Revcoms… repeats the title of an important work by Bob Avakian expressing the two futures before us: Shaping up before us now are two fundamentally opposed futures: Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating.…

Which future we get depends to a great extent on what we do. And it doesn’t say, “Don’t worry be happy”; it doesn’t say, “Let it be”; it doesn’t say, “Get in on the good times while you still can”; it doesn’t say, “Be content with your head in the sand or up your ass.”

NO. NOT AT ALL. It puts forward what we the revcoms are determined to do, the responsibility that we are prepared and are preparing to take on—a responsibility and a struggle that only has a chance with all of you listening not just getting into this revolution, but sparking discussion and debate about what is in this Proclamation and new Declaration that will be released on revcom.us on July 3rd and announced by an action in Philadelphia and around the country on July 4th.

We Are the Revcoms… says, WE ARE DETERMINED:

1. To seize on this “rare time” to develop the basis to actually make revolution—to finally defeat the violent enforcers of this monstrous system.

2. To abolish this system, with all its oppressive institutions, and its governing U.S. Constitution—a document written by, and fundamentally serving the interests of, slave-owning and capitalist exploiters, from the founding of this country down to today…

3. To establish a far better system, based on the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, written by Bob Avakian…

We Are the Revcoms… goes into the leadership we have for this struggle and the strategy, the roadmap for preparing with all we’ve got for the chance to make an actual revolution.

As a group of revcoms prepare to go to Philadelphia to Independence Hall, the site where the U.S. Constitution was written, I want to draw a sharp and basic contrast between these two Constitutions.

A key thing to understand is that all governments and their rules, their laws, and their governing constitutions serve to maintain the way the society produces what people need to live. In the world today of capitalism-imperialism, these rules of the game enforce relations of exploitation and oppression—relations that enable a small class of exploiters to rule. The U.S. Constitution, as We Are the Revcoms… puts it, serves the interests of this ruling class. It legitimates their right to use the violence of the police and the military to enforce their system here and around the world.

The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America will bring into being a radically different system, which will base itself on the fundamental interests of the most bitterly exploited and oppressed under the capitalist system and of the people broadly. It will enable and provide the means for the masses of people, to have an increasing role in the running of society, for the purpose and with the goal of uprooting and overcoming all forms of oppression.

We Are the Revcoms… puts it like this:

The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America… provides a sweeping vision, a firm foundation and concrete blueprint for bringing into being a society, and ultimately a world, free from all forms of slavery, all exploitation and oppression based on class, race, sex and gender, all relations in which one part of humanity is subordinated to and dominated by others.

And it will enable us to go to work to repair the environment as well as it will move to abolish nuclear weapons as part of the struggle to bring into being a communist world and the abolition of war.

The U.S. Constitution and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America have two very different conceptions of freedom. The U.S. Constitution's conception of freedom is paltry and an illusion. It is a negative freedom—an expression of extreme individualism—don’t tread on me—each against the other. It promotes selfishness. While it formally provides for the protection of people’s individual rights, the reality under this system is that these rights are constantly under assault—especially for those this system considers a threat. It fosters the illusion that you can do, be, and have anything you want, when the reality is that under this system, you are trapped within the dog-eat-dog competitive rules of the game. Whereas Bob Avakian has pointed out, drawing from the writer Anatole France, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.” But who is compelled to face this choice by bitter conditions of their lives?

The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, on the other hand, not only provides for people to pursue their particular individual inclinations without interference from the institutions of society, so long as this does not do harm to others, or to society overall—“negative freedom"—but, beyond that, the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America envisions and will embody a whole new dimension of positive freedom: that will enable and empower the people to work together to create a new world to overcome all the forms of oppression that have tormented humanity for millennia.

It is a fact that nowhere else, in no other actual or proposed or guiding founding document of any government, is there anything like not only the protection but the provision for dissent and intellectual and cultural ferment that is embodied in this Constitution.

It enables this as a decisive part of how the masses of people will be able to go to work on overcoming all forms of oppression and exploitation here and around the world.

On July 3rd and 4th we will be presenting to people here and around the world a major new Declaration.

This Declaration is a demand for the radically new way we could be living, a demand for the new society put forth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, a demand to be taken up by millions in this time, when the future is at stake and there is the chance at making a real emancipatory revolution.

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* Andy Zee has made one substantive change to his spoken text to give a more all rounded and correct understanding of “positive” and “negative” freedom. This change is of particular importance to appreciate the advance of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. For a fuller understanding of these concepts see Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy by Bob Avakian. [back]