This is a time of huge turmoil, when what people once thought were long-standing reforms are now being ripped away… when the threat of war sounds increasingly louder… when the earth itself burns and freezes in unprecedented ways … when the rights and humanity of women are under assault across the planet… a world in which the old arrangements through which society has been ruled by one or another set of oppressors are increasingly fraying and ripping. 

A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized For A Real Revolution makes the point that:

Revolutions are not possible all the time, but are generally possible only in rare times and circumstances, especially in a powerful country like this.  This is one of those rare times and circumstances.  This system is in real trouble, caught up in crisis and conflicts for which it has no easy or lasting solutions.  Throughout this country the workings of this system have given rise to deep divisions which cannot be resolved under this system.  Society is being ripped apart.  Those who rule are locked in a bitter fight among themselves, and they cannot hold things together in the way they have in the past.  Although there are a lot of bad things connected with this and it could lead to something really terrible, it is also possible that we could wrench something really positive out of it— revolution, to put an end to this system and bring something much better into being.

Bob Avakian, BA, in his new presentation, SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed. A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap for This Revolution, provides a foundation for understanding and a road map for transforming that rare time into a revolutionary time. 

This week, we are running a new article from BA, one that poses a sharp challenge that takes on acute meaning in this rare time and in this high-stakes context: In Light of the Urgency Spoken to in “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating”: A RENEWED CHALLENGE: SEARCHING FOR AN HONEST LIBERAL OR PROGRESSIVE. Read this—and help get this read and engaged out beyond the current reach of this website, sending it to those you know who need to confront this message. 

This talk, in people’s hands and most of all taken up and wielded, could change everything.

In Something Terrible, OR Something Truly Emancipating, BA makes the following point:

Here is another profound truth: Even with all the ways that the heavy chains of hundreds, and thousands, of years of oppressive tradition weigh down on the masses of people—and place a heavy burden particularly on the half of humanity that is female—there is a deep yearning to be free of all this, which not only leads to imaginary hopes of supernatural salvation but also erupts in unrestrained fury right in this real world.  And that fury needs to be fully called forth, given a scientific, revolutionary expression—focused toward the emancipation of all the oppressed and exploited of the world, and ultimately all humanity—directed to fighting against the fundamental source of all the suffering: this system of capitalism-imperialism, with its suffocating and brutal, patriarchal male supremacy, along with all its other outrages. This takes on even more powerful meaning and urgent importance in the current situation in this country (and others), where the forceful assertion of raw misogyny (hatred of women) and patriarchal subjugation of women is becoming more blatant and unbridled, focused to a significant degree now in the escalating moves to even further deny women control over their own lives and their very bodies, with the right to abortion, and even birth control, being brought under mounting attack.  Right now, this slogan and call needs to be taken up broadly and made a powerful material force:  Break the Chains, Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!

Last week marked the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision finding that women had a constitutional right to abortion. This right is now under direct and dire threat. Yet so many who purport to speak of the importance of this right turn out to be leading people to “adjust” to a life in which abortion is illegal. 

But last Saturday, on the 49th anniversary of the decision granting this constitutional right, a new movement announced itself, aiming to do nothing less than bring millions into the streets in relentless struggle to defend this right and defeat the attempts to take it back or gut it. In this issue, we cover that movement’s “opening shot” with an account of their opening rally at the Supreme Court and important speeches from some of the initiators. We also speak to those figures now acting as if nobody saw these attacks coming or took seriously the prospect of actually losing the right to abortion. Go here and find out what BA has been saying on this question for decades.

Relatedly, last week saw the fascist Republican Party go further in its attack on basic rights of Black people, as well as other “minority” nationalities and the rule of law overall. They killed a very basic bill that would have blocked some of the laws now being passed on the state level to make voting more difficult for Black people, other oppressed nationalities, and more generally people who live in cities. We have covered the many attacks of these fascists on this right because even though voting itself is ultimately almost always a meaningless exercise of voting for which section of the rulers will oppress the masses, the stripping away of the right to vote amounts to a vicious attack. It is a move to lock down an even more brutal fascist dictatorship, deepening the oppression of an already-oppressed people. We get into what happened in more depth here, and also take apart the “white supremacist veto” that they call the filibuster. 

As COVID continues to rage across the world, a “second pandemic” also rages—the “pandemic” of ignorance and individualism spread by the fascists and those who are acting as their tools. We get into what these twin plagues have meant to Black people in Chicago, as one example; to the world of professional tennis (here and here); and to some of how this played out at a Los Angeles high school, all in the last week.

This past week saw threats and counter-threats between the U.S. and Russia over the fate of the country of Ukraine. Go here to clearly see where the interests of humanity lie in contrast to what the U.S. propaganda organs of mainstream press trumpet; and here for a call-out on the poisonous chauvinism being peddled as progressivism.

This week, we are also featuring a letter in response to controversy around the Tale of Two Scientists, of which revised and updated versions are now posted.

We received news as we went to press of a heroic hunger strike going on now at Evin Prison in Iran. We urge you to go here to read about this hunger strike, and here for an account of a recent program going into the issues of this struggle.

Finally, go here to learn about and connect with the Revolution Club and here to see the latest edition of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show on YouTube.

We want to call your attention to the Revolution Club section on this site's Home page, where articles by club members and about the club are posted. There are a number of new things up this time, including a report on an intervention in a struggle over vaccines and masking at a Los Angeles high school.