Revcom.us is where you come to get into the thinker who has brought forward the new communism—Bob Avakian, or BA. It’s where you come to get his most up-to-date analysis, his latest commentary, and the whole body of work he’s brought forward in forging the new communism.
Revcom.us is also where you come to get into a scientific materialist analysis of the week’s events, their connections to each other and how all of that relates to the revolution humanity so urgently needs.
And, in another dimension, revcom.us is a toolkit—one with the tools that enable you to understand, and go to work on transforming, the world and the people in it… for REVOLUTION.
This week we continue to feature BA’s extremely important and timely analysis of the situation we face and how to move to change it: 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.
The title itself gets at its importance. It’s a necessary foundation for understanding the tumult, upheaval and sometimes seemingly astounding events of today. Nothing else digs anywhere near as deeply nor as unsparingly and accurately as this does in penetrating the dynamics driving today’s world; nothing else even tries to reveal how a revolution is not only the only solution but what could make that revolution possible; and nothing else maps out how to get to work on making that revolution.
In this issue, we are particularly applying that roadmap to one of the most important current political conflicts in this country. The Supreme Court right now is “on track” to rule on a case that could be used to overturn the constitutionally recognized right to abortion. THAT “TRACK” MUST BE REVERSED!
Doing that will require intense and massive struggle in the streets. It will mean raising hell around this question in unprecedented ways between now and June, when the announcement is likely to happen. Whether the thousands and then millions turn out to rise up in this way around this right will profoundly affect, for better or worse, whether we will go further down the road toward “something terrible”… or make an important, possibly major, step down the road toward “something truly emancipatory.”
The first steps to this are next Sunday, February 27, when Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights has called a bold action at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City at 1:30 pm, at which some people will be engaging in civil disobedience; and then this will be followed by mass demonstrations on March 8 at as many locations as possible around the country. Together, these two days will impact with a message of fierce resistance and begin to set a different dynamic in motion.
We are including important analysis of why this is happening, what it will mean, where do the interests of humanity lie, and how we must act in the face of that. We’re featuring the video and text of a powerful speech last week by Sunsara Taylor—“Forced Motherhood Is Female Enslavement—We REFUSE to Let the Supreme Court Decimate Abortion Rights!”—that laid all this out to people. We’re highlighting works by Bob Avakian on the emancipation of women that put this battle in its largest context. We’re including powerful first-hand testimonials from women on the importance of this right and what it would mean to lose it (here and here).
And we’re including important tools for organizing. These include:
- the entire episode of the last RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, which is provocatively framed on the foundation of Bob Avakian’s link between epistemology—how you understand reality—and morality, and the relation of that to this struggle;
- a link to the mass committee Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights and to the Revolution Club web page on this site—these sites include sample flyers and memes and videos, ways to get organized, accounts of experience in trying to organize, and a new “frequently asked questions” feature;
- stories and materials that relate to an important building action set for next Sunday, February 27, that will politically target the misogynistic Roman Catholic Church, an institution which in many ways has been the backbone and battering ram of the struggle over the past 49 years to steal this basic and fundamental right—this necessity—away from women.
We’re covering other fronts as well. We get to the reality behind the rush of the Democratic Party to back up and promote the vicious repressive program of “ex”-pig Eric Adams, the new Black mayor of New York City. This includes a short piece calling this out—"Two Critical Truths on the Situation in New York”—as well as an interview with Akeem Browder, the brother of Kalief Browder, whose story will not only tear your heart out but give you a living sense of the inhuman racist oppression this pig Adams aims to not only preserve but intensify.
Relatedly, at a time when those on the desperate edge of society are—again—being demonized by Republi-fascist and Democrat alike and the calls ring out to “lock them up,” we urge you to read a sampling of the letters we get from prisoners (here and here) who have begun to truly “rehabilitate” themselves by reading materials from this site, focusing on the work of Bob Avakian, and changing their world outlook in the process.
And hardly least, as the war drums beat over Ukraine, and as no end of mystification, distortion and sensationalism pours out from the capitalist-imperialist media, we cut through it with a basic article, which along with earlier coverage, answers the basic questions of what is happening, why is it happening, and where do the interests of humanity lie?
So read these, and read the other stories and features as well… and let’s get to work!
Included in this issue:
* The struggle around abortion rights
-Speech by Sunsara Taylor, “Forced Motherhood Is Female Enslavement—We REFUSE to Let the Supreme Court Decimate Abortion Rights!”—video and text
-Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights call for February 27 action at St. Patrick cathedral in NYC
-Call for mass actions around the country on March 8
-Lori Sokol: “Are You Willing to Put Yourself on the Line?”
-Interview with woman who was gang raped in Mexico and denied an abortion—text (in English) and video (in Spanish)
-Amy Coney Barrett’s “Recipe” for Forced Motherhood: I Lived This Reality, and Here Is My Story!
-Why Are They Protesting the Catholic Church? For Two Millennia of Outlawing Abortion and Oppressing Women!
-Iran Enacts Misogynist “Give-Birth-or-Else” Law
-From RiseUp4AbortionRights.org: 10 Facts About the Abortion Rights Emergency
* NYC Eric Adams and Democratic Party’s repressive program against the people
-Two Critical Truths on the Situation in New York
-The Torture and Murder of Kalief Browder by This System—interview with Akeem Browder
* Ukraine
-As Ominous Events Unfold in Ukraine, a Basic Orientation (posted February 22)
-While Russian Troops Mass on the Ukraine Border, U.S. Provocations Escalate Danger of War
* The Revolution Club Fighting for… Getting Organized for… REVOLUTION
-Unleashing the Outrage: Students and Others Start to Get Organized for International Women's Day. Field Reports—And a Challenge to Raise Hell—from the Revolution Clubs
-FAQs and Answers on Abortion Struggle, by Members of the National Revolution Tour
-High School Students Say NO to Forced Motherhood and Start Getting Organized
-Initial Experience With Starting An Ad-Hoc Committee for International Women’s Day. Learning From Each Other... Forging a Collective Mission
*From prisoners
-Responses to PRLF survey. Part 1: “We need a REVOLUTION NOW!” … “We have a hell of a fight on our hands!”
-On Getting into The New Communism by Bob Avakian and Dialectical Materialism