Revolutionary Communist 4 (RC4) On Air
Revolution #011, August 14, 2005, posted at revcom.us
Jerry: I’ve spoken to other revolutionary communists about this. I have my own opinions, my own concerns about how revolutionary it is to have an older white man from middle class, upper middle class economic background leading a revolutionary organization. What does that say and what does that mean? Is this person so unique that you can’t imagine anyone else doing it? What’s your take on that, Clyde?
Clyde: I think that’s a very important question and I think you’ve gotten right to the heart of it, because this individual that we’re talking about is a very rare individual. I think leaders come along at different times.
Jerry: Our listeners should know that we’re discussing Bob Avakian, who is the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Clyde: .I think really when you want to explore this question you have to explore it from the standpoint of line. What is the position of the person? It’s not a question of how old they are.. the question is, ’What is their line and do they know the way out?’
If you look around and survey the leaders that are on the scene today, there’s none of them that know the way out. There was a brother that called in the other day and he was asking, ’well, what about Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan?’ Well, I’m sorry. They don’t know the way out. Bob Avakian knows the way out. That’s why I’ve chosen to have him as my leader and that’s why I follow Bob Avakian, because he knows the way out of this system. And ultimately that way out of this system is communist revolution. When you’re talking about communist revolution you’re not just talking about Black people. You are indeed talking about Black people, but you’re talking about people throughout the whole world. You’re talking about hundreds of millions and ultimately billions of people throughout the whole world.
Clyde dug into this question again during the event itself:
"Let me address head on and not duck or in any way be defensive about a white leader, the fact that Bob Avakian is white. I think the crucial question here is not that he is a white leader but that he is a communist leader. He said that himself and I think that’s a very important point to be emphasizing. I think what I said on the radio show yesterday is an important point. When a person comes forward who knows the way out of this, who knows the way out of this mess then I think it is important for people to come forward and learn as much as they can from that person, to become followers of that person.
"But to come back to this question once again. I think sometimes what’s involved is that people are defining the struggle in ways that are not contributing to ultimately where we need to go, but are defining the struggle in ways that are more limited in terms of where history needs to go, where the masses of people need to go, and ultimately I’m talking about where our class, the proletariat, needs to go. In other words, our ideology, our revolution is an international revolution. It’s an internationalist and an international revolution. It is not a Black revolution. It is not a revolution of any particular nationality. We’re approaching this from the standpoint of the people at the bottom of society whose interests lie with eliminating all oppression, all inequalities and all the things that exist under capitalism and when we get power will be inherited from capitalism. It’s moving away from all that.
“So I think that having a leader like this (and having the dictatorship of the proletariat of the proletariat)—as much as it has been attacked and maligned and slandered—having a leader like this is a wonderful thing, not a bad thing. It’s something that if people really want to get out of this, if they really want to get beyond this, if they really want to see another world—and we desperately need another world— then they are able to see the importance of having a leader like this. Those of us who are followers of Bob Avakian and those who are supportive of his work in various ways and what he’s doing and who ultimately become part of that revolutionary process that he is leading have to recognize the importance of what exists in our chair.”