Looking for Truth in a World of Lies

Revolutionary Worker #1251, August 29, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org

What you are holding in your hands is something very special. Every week, in English and Spanish, the Revolutionary Worker/Obrero Revolucionario newspaper is the place to find the hidden truths, the covered-up stories, the suppressed voices, the reality behind the lies of this system--and a liberating vision of communist future that offers a real way out of the horrors that engulf the world today.

As the clique now in the White House pour out lie after lie to justify their pre-emptive wars and Ashcroftian madness--and as the official opposition poses no real alternative--the need for the truths that are in the pages of the RW stand out as urgent as ever.

We are living in heavy times. A time when the rulers of the most powerful imperialist country in history are dead set on violently reshaping the economic and power relations globally and dominating the world as a "new Rome." A time when millions here and around the world are coming into motion against the juggernaut of empire.

As the article "See Bush.Think Revolution" in this issue of the RW says: "There is a collision course between the trajectory launched by the Bush clique and the real interests and deep-down aspirations of millions of people. This collision course threatens the whole juggernaut they have set in motion, and it forms the backdrop for what will not be just any old election--if they even hold the election!"

And, as this articles emphasizes, the time is now to resist and deny the rulers a claim to a mandate for their agenda--no matter who is elected come November: "Later may be too late; the time is now. By our acts, by our relentless political initiative between now and November 2 and beyond, we must build this resistance and change the entire climate in the country."

The RW is the voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which is seriously setting its sights on seizure of power in the U.S. and the revolutionary transformation of society, as part of world proletarian revolution. We communists are all-the-way down with the fight to deliver a NO! to Bush and all he stands for. And, as communists, we approach the resistance of today with a vision of a very different future--a future where humanity as a whole has gotten rid of all exploitation and oppression.

With great clarity and creativity, Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, has been exploring and developing this far-reaching vision of a communist future and the revolutionary path to get there. Featured in this issue of the RW is an excerpt from a recent talk by Chairman Avakian, "Dictatorship and Democracy, And the Socialist Transition to Communism."

One of the biggest untruths that people are bombarded with is that the socialist societies that have existed so far, in the Soviet Union and China, were big failures. The RCP has initiated a project to "Set the Record Straight"--to bring out the truth about these revolutions. This issue includes an excerpt from a fact sheet by this project, on the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led by Mao Tsetung.

In "An Open Letter to Artists: Resisting Moloch in the New Millennium," Michael Slate discusses the role of artists in the struggle today. Other articles in this issue discuss the reality behind the U.S. government's "war on terror" and the instructive history of Pastor Niemöller, a resister to Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Truth in Preparation for Revolution

The extremism and brutality of these times is stirring anger and resistance.

But as Chairman Avakian points out, "The masses don't just need a movement, although that is very valuable. They need a revolution. If we have a movement and not a revolution, then people's suffering is not going to end. These conditions are not going to be overthrown and uprooted."

And in order to make revolution, the people need a revolutionary press.

The Revolutionary Worker applies the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to "get inside the contradictions" and bring to life the inner working of society. It shows where the contradictions in society come from and where they are headed--and how people can transform society in the interests of humanity. In this way, the Revolutionary Worker provides a consistent source of truth in a world of lies and lays the basis for revolution.

There is no other newspaper like this one. Where else can you read such an amazing range of articles--from an in-depth series on evolution to dispatches from the Maoist people's war in Nepal, interviews with prominent artists, on- the-spot coverage of major resistance, exposures of police murders, voices from the ghettos and barrios, key developments around the world, and the pathbreaking communist theoretical works by Bob Avakian?

When you become a regular reader of this paper, you become connected with a readership that stretches to every corner of this society and to far-flung regions of the world--from behind prison walls to the academic halls, from the inner-city projects to the pueblos of Mexico and shantytowns of India, from the suburbs to the sweatshops, from artistic circles to the political currents of opposition.

But this paper is more than that. This paper is a school that uncovers the truth about the social, political, and economic relations of the world and the dominant ideas of this society. It exposes the source of the suffering and the outrages people face that have carved up our world in such drastically unequal ways.

Some people say they don't believe in objective truth or objective reality--"you have your truth, and I have mine." As communists, our understanding is that there is objective reality--and that in order to change the world, people must start from the way things really exist in the world.

The oppressors rule fundamentally through the reactionary armed forces of their state--but keeping the truth from the masses is also crucial to maintaining their system.

So it's in the interest of the proletariat--whose mission is to emancipate all of humanity--to expose how things really are and arm the people with this truth in order to change the world through revolution. We must understand the world in order to transform it.

From thousands of sharp examples, the Revolutionary Worker exposes that the whole system we live under is based on exploitation--here and all around the world. It puts forward revolution as the only viable option for the people. And it shows how only the proletariat--those with nothing to lose but their chains--can be the backbone of a struggle to overthrow this system and pave the way to a whole new world.

The Revolutionary Worker lets people know that there is a party that can lead such a struggle, a political party that speaks and acts for those with nothing to lose but their chains: the Revolutionary Communist Party.

This paper is a transformative pivot between the Party and the masses--reaching out to new forces, raising the consciousness of the people, "stretching a line" to wide-ranging movements and forces in society, "diverting" the spontaneous struggles into a revolutionary movement. And it is a political and organizational hub of the Party and all the diverse elements of its work.

This paper lets the people know about Chairman Avakian--a unique leader, one of those truly rare individuals who emerge only occasionally as the very best of what the revolutionary people and their struggles can forge and bring forward at certain junctures in history. This is critical to the revolution. Bob Avakian is a creative and wide-ranging thinker. At the same time, he has a profound sense of the struggles, trends, and sentiments among the masses, the movements of opposition, and society overall. He is the leader of the RCP, USA, and he is a very important leader of the international revolutionary movement and the international communist movement. Anyone serious about transforming the world has to dig into the questions that are spoken to and wrangled with in the works of Bob Avakian.

We invite you to tune in to the revolution.

Become a regular reader of the Revolutionary Worker . Subcribe. Go online to rwor.org.

But don't stop there. Connect this paper with the tens of thousands coming into political life. Become an RW distributor. Take bundles of the paper to where you work, live, go to school--wherever you are. Become part of a great collective effort to make the RW a "reference point" throughout society--wherever people are looking for the truth and looking for change.

These are days when events can move in unexpected ways--when being able to get the truth and spread the truth really matters. when looking at things from a strategic, world-changing perspective means knowing when and how to act. when staying tuned in can be the difference between realizing our dreams or waking up in a nightmare. days when you can't take a chance on missing an issue of the Revolutionary Worker .