Like millions of people around the world, I have been following and supporting the heroic uprising of the masses of people in Iran against the ultra-reactionary religious fundamentalist regime ruling that country—an upsurge sparked by the murder of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, by the theocratic rulers’ “morality police.” The people have been acting courageously in the face of violent repression by the regime’s forces.

When I saw a heartbreaking poster on the Revolution—Nothing Less! YouTube show of all the children and young people who have been killed by the government forces in Iran who have been viciously targeting and murdering these young people protesting in the streets, it reminded me of the Stolen Lives banner here with all the pictures of the mostly young Black, Latino and Native men, and women, who have been murdered by the vicious pigs in the U.S.

The circumstances are different. But the similarities are striking. Think about it: all of that daring, all of those dreams… those future lives which were never lived—cut down by the brutal forces whose very purpose is to crush any opposition, any spirit, any defiance—and try and make the youth “obey.”   

The pictures are the same and the ultimate source of the official murdering is the same—whether they speak Farsi or English: the worldwide system of capitalism-imperialism. It takes the form of outright medieval religious reaction in Iran, and in the U.S. the iron fist is covered in a fraying glove of “democracy.” But the system is essentially the same and the people of both countries have pictures of their dead youth displayed on banners which they carry in the streets. 

What an unthinkably horrific system is it that forces humanity to live like this? It is not the only way we can live, and we don’t have to live like this. A different world, where the spirit and joy, and yes, the defiance and questioning of youth, are cherished and fostered. There is a leadership for the revolution necessary for us to build that different and far better world—Bob Avakian, BA, who has developed the new communism. And there is a force in the U.S. and a force in Iran striving to lead the actual revolutions based on the new communism of BA. 

And right now, people can “meet” BA through the three incredible gifts of three new interviews of BA, which premiered on The RNL Show. Anyone whose heart is torn out by seeing those two banners from the U.S. and Iran of our children needs to be part of getting these interviews out into the world. We need to get them out on a scale which meets the pressing need to give hope and understanding, challenge and insight, urgency and inspiration to the masses of people to see how and why revolution is necessary and possible and how and why they, why you, need to be a part of this NOW. You need to watch these interviews, show them to your family, friends, co-workers, fellow students. And you need to donate funds generously to make them available to people across the country. We are in a tumultuous time when all of society is being ripped asunder. This makes revolution more possible, and being challenged by what is in these interviews is what people need to be able to seize on this rare potential.

We can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to dominate the world and to determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible.

—Bob Avakian