Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

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The American Enterprise—Property and Slavery
Peculiar Notions of "Freedom" and Profound Contradictions

In his book A Slaveholders' Union, Slavery, Politics, and the Constitution in the Early American Republic, George William Van Cleve captures, with biting and incisive irony, a contradiction which in fact gets to the very essence of this country and its posturing as the champion and model of freedom. Here is what Van Cleve writes about the very foundations, and "founding fathers," of the United States of America:

Think about this: Patrick Henry issues the cry, since made famous, "Give me liberty or give me death!"—while himself owning slaves, and vigorously defending and fighting for the "rights" of slaveowners. Another leading figure in the American revolution, Richard Henry Lee, champions the move for American independence and freedom, while forcing his slaves to carry his banner denouncing British taxation on people such as himself (the Stamp Act) as "chains of slavery"!

What is captured in these contradictions can stand very well as a metaphor for the nature and role of the United States of America—from its very founding, and down to the present day. This is a country ruled by forces which have always approached "freedom" most essentially in terms of the "right" to accumulate wealth as private property. Under this system, and through its dominant relations and institutions, masses of people have always been regarded and treated as above all instruments to be utilized by a relatively small ruling elite precisely to accumulate wealth as private property: wealth as capital—which means control over, and exploitation of, the labor of others, who are in effect wage slaves—and, for a long period in the history of this country, wealth as human property, literal slaves.

In terms of political philosophy, what has prevailed in this country, from the time of its founding to the present, is a peculiar and a confined and constricting view of "freedom," corresponding to the outlook and interests of exploiters and oppressors, whose system and whose philosophy have long since become outmoded and a direct barrier and hindrance to the emancipation of the masses of humanity, and ultimately humanity as a whole, from all relations of exploitation and oppression.

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Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Occupy LA Eviction: Determined Resistance Up Against Deceit and Repression

On Tuesday, November 29, Occupy LA (OLA) was evicted from its two-month-old site at City Hall Park (renamed Solidarity Park).

For weeks, city officials had tried to convince OLA to move by offering city-owned office space for $1 per year, land for a community garden and shelter for some of the homeless at OLA. To their credit, it was an offer OLA steadfastly rejected. This open defiance and exposure of the great pain and inequity of their system—and that people can resist and unite against it—was to be traded for a space to be either irrelevant and/or co-opted. This "offer" reveals a great deal about what has been most significant about the occupations—and what those with power have found intolerable: people putting their lives on hold, their bodies on the line, and occupying sites at the heart of the seat of government, or as in NYC at the heart of finance, or right in the middle of the universities where critical thinking is already under assault.

The city then rescinded that offer and instead made an "offer" they felt OLA couldn't refuse. On Black Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa issued a call to shut down OLA and gave a Sunday midnight deadline.

Instead of closing down, all day Sunday thousands from all over Southern California and all walks of life poured into the encampment to firmly stand with and show support for OLA. The people in the park included urban and suburban youth, veteran activists, everyday people and Hollywood movie stars, union officials, university professors, revolutionary communists, and punk rockers. The radical punk band NOFX gave a concert in the park and people sang along with them. Many came from other occupations and neighboring cities and from many college and university campuses all over the area.

With up to 500 tents, OLA had become the largest remaining Occupy site in the country, inspiring the people but infuriating the authorities. Like the Occupy movement nationally, Occupy LA opened up a physical as well as mental space for all kinds of people "to think, imagine, and dream of new possibility." It stood in sharp contrast to the cruel and crumbling economic, social, cultural, intellectual and political reality of 21st century America. The system found the Occupy movement's communal existence and cooperative ethos absolutely intolerable. The youths quoted below express the sentiments of the Occupy movement overall— that a better world is possible.

Several Latino youths, some from mainly Black and Latino South Central LA, told Revolution why they had come to OLA to be part of defying the Sunday eviction deadline:

"We're Still Here!"

On Sunday evening more than 2,000 people attended the biggest general assembly since the start of OLA. People boldly and joyfully voted to refuse being evicted. As the city's 12:01 am deadline passed, the huge crowd began chanting in unison "we're still here!"

Shortly after midnight, the Occupiers still numbered over 2,000. While some stayed inside the park watching the tents and others prepared for nonviolent civil disobedience and arrests, many moved into the streets and confronted riot gear cops. There was plenty of camaraderie and creativity that had come to characterize OLA. This spirit was captured by a big truck that drove into the area about 1 am; opening its side panels to reveal a bank of huge speakers blasting out Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On?" About 4 am, the city and the cops withdrew.

On Tuesday night, November 29, the LAPD issued a citywide tactical alert and overran OLA with an overwhelming force of over 1,400 cops, an unspecified number of LA sheriffs and members of other police agencies, including undercover cops.

The cops set up a six-block police perimeter blockading OLA's site and preventing people from entering the area. Hundreds of cops in riot gear marched out from the nearby police headquarters, and hundreds more poured out from inside City Hall, SWAT teams swarmed in by foot, hundreds more arrived on 30 metro buses, police helicopters buzzed the night sky.

The LAPD was armed with batons, many in hazmat suits (i.e., white hazardous-materials coveralls), pepper spray and tear gas, guns that shoot rubber bullets and more lethal ones. All this had the markings of a military-style operation that lasted all night—culminating in a cyclone fence erected around the OLA campsite by dawn, and the arrest of nearly 300 people.

This attack on OLA is part and parcel of the system's orchestrated nationwide repression against the Occupy movement—from New York to Oakland to UC Davis and UC Berkeley and dozens of other locations. This movement has become increasingly threatening to the functioning and ethos of capitalism in shifting the polarization of imperial America—where the masses of people have been taught to blame themselves or those on the bottom of society for society's problems—instead of those on top who own and run things (aka the 1%).

The resolve and courage of OLA protesters resisting eviction has been most inspiring to many. When the police invaded the park, there were reports that many who did not move fast enough to police liking were clubbed viciously. All Tuesday night, hundreds driven into the streets by police aggression continued to march and chant slogans, and the 60 protesters who locked arms and sat down together in the park itself were undaunted. Many in the latter group were first-time protesters who stood their ground to fight what they saw as social inequalities and injustices. Many said they did not want to be arrested, did not know what to expect from the historically brutal LAPD, yet stood firm heroically.

The police singled out protesters who showed any defiance for extra punishment. It was reported that arrestees who voluntarily stood up and were "escorted out" of the camp by cops were given $100 bail; others reported leaving and being arrested blocks away. But those who sat down and linked/locked arms were given $5,000 bail. A woman seen going limp while being arrested was roughed up and lifted off the ground by four beefy pigs, and those who occupied atop a tree at the camp were shot with bean bags.

And when OLA protesters were released from jail, one condition of their release was that they not return to the City Hall area where the camp was set up. Again, what does this tell us about what the authorities understand is at stake?

Reporters Banned and "Embedded"

The repression came down in an unprecedented media ban on coverage of the eviction. Alternative media like KPFK and others were not allowed in the camp during the raid, while mainstream media were told that only "embedded" media were permitted—as has been done with media in Iraq and Afghanistan. The very few media allowed to witness parts of the police raid on OLA willingly complied with every police command, and portrayed anyone who didn't as deserving of whatever they got from the cops. They reported the police story and repeatedly denigrated and dehumanized the protesters, while the cops were portrayed as ever so brave and endangered by angry protesters.

The embedded media acted to spread lies and confusion about how the eviction of OLA was handled differently and without any violence by the LAPD, unlike any other cities or campuses in the rest of the U.S. There has been an ideological assault that accompanied and followed the physical assault on OLA by portraying the LAPD as reformed and reasonable, and promoting the lie that this is a new model of "crowd management," that the way they carried out the eviction was the LAPD's "finest moment in its history" because it did not openly show its iron fist, barely hidden under a thin glove of apparent restraint. One well-known civil rights lawyer even went so far as to say "this is not our grandfather's LAPD."

This official story was challenged by a righteous demonstration called by OLA against police brutality on December 3. Several of those released from jail recounted being brutalized during and after the LAPD raid, and while in jail such as being put in very cold showers or taken out of sight of other prisoners and beaten, or denied food. One youth showed his broken wrist that he said was hit by a rubber bullet during the raid. Many said the media had grossly distorted the facts.

The mainstream media has helped cover over the illegitimacy of the system and its police in attempting to shut down this entire Occupy movement across the country with overwhelming force and THREAT of force. They've functioned to mold public opinion that the police rightfully have total monopoly on legitimate violence in capitalist society. In doing so they are trying to influence the debate that has been taking place within the Occupy movement, and far beyond, over whether the police are part of the 99%, rather than the armed force acting in the interests of the capitalist class or what the Occupy movement calls the 1%.

The crude capitalist propaganda aimed at OLA, praising the LAPD to the sky and mocking protesters, also serves a wider purpose than just the eviction of OLA. It's meant to suck in people, especially the middle classes, around a good cop/bad cop view of these brutal enforcers for the system. This kind of public opinion serves to create a broad atmosphere where anyone who is attacked by the police—such as many basic masses in the neighborhoods (stop and frisk comes to mind), or non-compliant protesters, are simply assumed to have done something wrong to deserve it, e.g., Oscar Grant or Manuel Jaminez.

These lessons are being debated before, during and after this eviction by many in LA and around the country. As part of the search for answers and sense of urgency, about 60 people at OLA attended a talk by Revolution writer and KPFK radio host Michael Slate on Sunday afternoon on the importance of the Occupy movement, the juncture it's facing and the road forward. Drawing on Andy Zee's article "Two-Month Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street: Resistance Up Against Nationwide Attacks," as well as Bob Avakian's "A Reflection on the 'Occupy' Movement: An Inspiring Beginning... And the Need To Go Further" (Revolution #251, November 27, 2011), the scene on the steps of City Hall featured more than an hour of lively discussion and debate, including over the kind of world we need and how to get there.

There was real agonizing and debate about what should characterize this movement. Some felt it should have tangible and realizable demands, but many others argued for why the sights must continue to be set on a better world and not something more narrow, routine and acceptable to the system.

It has indeed been a very inspiring beginning for a movement that is full of vitality and promise about a better future. It does need to go much further, including spreading more forcefully onto the college campuses. It has and can contribute to the societal questioning and searching for a much better future for humanity.

The battle for the Occupy movement is not over. Right now, the movement is confronting a major juncture. To come back and move forward even stronger will require being clear that the movement has captured the aspirations of millions because it has gone up against the way this system is destroying people and the planet. Moving forward will involve the creativity and the determination of tens of thousands around the country. Revolutionaries need to be in the fray—contributing to this process as part of building a movement for revolution. And, all those who aspire to a better world than the misery of capitalism need to find out about and engage this revolution. As Bob Avakian's statement says:

As with very positive movements in the past (including the very broad and very radical movements of the 1960s), left to their own spontaneous course (that is, without the necessary process of revolutionary communists uniting with and working to build these struggles but also working to provide the direction to divert things onto a more fully and consciously revolutionary path) these movements, even while they can involve truly large numbers of people and have a very positive impact, will eventually be repressed and/or dissipated, and/or brought under the domination of the ruling class, in one form or another—unless masses of people involved in them are won to, become firmly convinced of, the need to develop the struggle further, into a movement for revolution, with the necessary understanding and organization—yes, including the necessary structures and leadership—that is required to finally sweep away this system and bring into being a radically new system with the aim of ultimately abolishing all exploitation and oppression.

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Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

BA EVERYWHERE

Succeeding with the goal: $23,000 by December 12 for Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

For everyone who has dreamed of a different and better world or wondered how art and culture can be part of creating it, this is a film that needs to be seen.

If you want to contribute to changing the culture in our society, to bringing into being a culture that is uplifting instead of degrading, to tapping into people's highest aspirations in opposition to a me-first ethos, and to opening up mental space to engage and explore ideas of fundamental change... if you like the idea of celebrating revolution and the vision of a new world through art, dance, theater and music and think a wide range of people from different perspectives need to be part of that, then you need to contribute and help raise the funds for this film to be made.

But in order to produce it, and release it, $23,000 is required by December 12. Reaching this goal is essential, and possible.

What is this film going to be about?

Last April, a range of artists, musicians, dancers and actors came together from a diversity of perspectives in a unique cultural event: On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World. BAsics is a book of quotations and short essays from Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader who has developed a new synthesis of communism. This event brought people together who hadn't shared a stage before, and a remarkable connection was forged between these artists and the hundreds in the audience that night.

What brought together some of the top jazz musicians today, a cutting-edge "tropical punk" singer, a former member of the Black Panther Party, poets with their roots in the '60s and poets who shaped the more recent spoken-word movement? And why was all this occasioned by the release of a book from the leader who has re-envisioned revolution and communism?

The film will weave together footage from this beautiful event with interviews from artists and other participants, and it will speak powerfully to the question of how art and culture can be part of creating a different and better world. It will speak to why and how all this diversity was brought together around celebrating revolution and envisioning a new world... and how that can be a harbinger for changing things in the culture and society more broadly.

Getting this film made and out into the world will be a significant contribution to the discourse and a source of inspiration to those lifting their heads and asking if there is a different way for people to think, feel and be. After leaving the event, a student described it this way, "It feels like hope. That's honestly what it feels like..."

Succeeding in our goal

Raising the funds, and getting this film made, will change the foundation from which to go further forward with the whole campaign, BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make! A Mass Campaign to Raise Big Money to Get BA's Vision and Works Into Every Corner of Society.

It will mean bearing down in the next 10 days and really fighting it through, but not only is this possible, we can get stronger, reach out more broadly and have a big impact in the process.

Raising funds for this project is not only necessary, it is a door through which many people—including people who have never been part of anything like this—can connect with the campaign to project BA's vision and works into every corner of society from a wide range of perspectives. And the fundraising activities for this film—including house parties and creative outings among other things—will be part of changing the atmosphere in their own right, even as they make possible this film.

All of this is part of a larger ambitious initiative—BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference. That campaign is aimed at "effecting a radical and fundamental change in the social and political 'atmosphere' of this whole country by projecting the whole BA vision and framework into all corners of society where it does not yet exist, or is still too little known, and getting all sorts of people to engage and wrestle with it..." ("BA Everywhere... Imagine The Difference It Could Make!" Revolution #249, November 6, 2011)

Again, this will not happen without you! Many thousands of people have to hear about this with hundreds contributing in large and small amounts. Please tell others... invite 10 friends to give and tell them why you gave, comment on the indiegogo page about why you gave, post the link on Facebook, Twitter, on your blog or website, and pick up the phone.

The online place for donating for this film is indiegogo.com/basicsevent. The site shows the status of raising the money needed, and takes donations. Donations are also being gathered from those who wish to drop them off at Revolution Books to be donated online in batches. If you want to donate but aren't in a position to do so online, contact your local Revolution Books (page 15 of this paper or revcom.us/revbooks). If you have access to the Internet, go there now, watch the trailer for the film, and make a tax-deductible contribution—with some memorable gifts for anyone making a contribution. If you or someone you know of are considering giving $250 or more, please contact basicsevent@yahoo.com immediately, so that we can coordinate that gift with a matching donor plan to build momentum and bring in more donations.

And you'll find a whole range of creative ideas you can do to raise money for this project. For more organizing tools, including a phone banking script, go to revcom.us/Bafundcampaign.

Over the next week, literally hundreds of people will be contributing the needed money to produce the film Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World. Send us your ideas and plans for raising money for this important film so that revcom.us can let others know what everyone is doing. Readers of Revolution need to know how this movement is growing and developing—and what difference their contributions are making as a part of BA Everywhere. We don't need personal details but do want to see, learn from and share what you are doing.

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Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Film Concept
Occasioned by the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

Last April in Harlem, a range of artists, musicians, dancers and actors came together from a diversity of perspectives in a unique cultural event: On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World. BAsics is a book of quotations and short essays from Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader who has developed a new synthesis of communism. This event brought people together who hadn't shared a stage before, and a remarkable connection was forged between these artists and the hundreds in the audience that night.

The film will answer what brought together some of the top jazz musicians today, a cutting-edge "tropical punk" singer, a former member of the Black Panther Party, poets with their roots in the '60s and poets who shaped the more recent spoken-word movement. And it will get into the significance of why all this was occasioned by the release of a book from the leader and thinker who has re-envisioned revolution and communism.
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The film will be structured into the same four acts as the original event: Roots; The Whole Globe In Mind... Dedication; A Different Way to Think, Feel and Be; A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World.

It will weave together footage from the event performances with interviews from artists and people who were part of the host committee for the event. The interviews will explore all the themes that were on the stage that night – brought in through poetry, dance, theater, music and video footage. The revolutionary character of the '60s through poetry, dance, archival footage of the Black Panther Party and Avakian speaking in 1969... and a fiery statement from a former member of the Black Panther Party. None of this was with the nostalgia of looking back but through the words and culture, making you feel that revolutionary spirit and pointing it towards the future. Voices from around the world were brought in – through a theatrical piece about going home to Bangladesh, a dramatic reading of a poem from an Iranian revolutionary and a bilingual musical performance that rocked with celebratory defiance. A range of voices spoke to what it means to dedicate oneself to a struggle that is larger than themselves. Archival video from Avakian from 1976 on not selling out and voices of people in prison responding to Avakian's words on living a life of meaning.

The event explored questions of morality, and of the relations between different sections of people... both explicitly but also in the ways in which all kinds of musical and artistic genres shared the stage in a way that never happens in our society. The role of women in society was brought in both through Avakian's words being read poetically to music, and in the way women performers danced and played defiantly throughout the night. A range of abstract music was played – that made people think, got butts moving and made their hearts soar.

All the participants have different views on all these themes, and bringing all this together was part of the richness of the night... all contributing to the largest theme of celebrating revolution and the vision of a new world.

The film will also explore what all the participants felt in being part of something that was occasioned by the release of a book by the revolutionary leader, Bob Avakian. Some were very familiar with his work; many had just been introduced to him. Some had read several books and been following him for years; others had just checked out BAsics and were engaging Avakian's work for the first time. In a time when revolution and communism are considered off the table, what made these artists feel that this is what was needed in the world now? What compelled them to celebrate this occasion, even as they have their own and sometimes very different views on the content of Avakian's work? What kind of revolution and vision of a new world was being, in a very real and engaging and contradictory way, being previewed that night?

The interviews will draw out what these artists are trying to accomplish in their work, and how they saw participating in this event as part of that. We will dig into their thinking on the state of the world, what they think is required to transform it, and their views on BAsics in that light... again, involving a diversity of perspectives.

We will also intersperse video that was aired on the stage – a welcome message from Cornel West, archival footage of Avakian speaking in 1969 and 1976, as well as a more recent video from 2003 and other video messages sent that night, including a short piece from a young revolutionary who has since passed away from cancer, a message from artist Richard Duardo and others.

At this event – the artists and audience – carved out new space. New ways of relating, and together were stirred in ways they didn't expect and didn't think possible... a door was opened to the potential for another way the world could be. This film will open that up further in society, spreading and sharing that "different way to think, feel and be."

Who is the audience for this film?
This is a film for anyone who has dreamed of a different and better world or wondered how art and culture can be part of creating it. This film will contribute to changing the culture in our society, to bringing into being a culture that is uplifting instead of degrading, to tapping into people's highest aspirations in opposition to a me-first ethos, and to opening up mental space to engage and explore ideas of fundamental change. This film is for those who are curious to see how and why an incredibly diverse range of artistic voices respond to the revolutionary vision of Bob Avakian in these dangerous times.

This is for young artists who are trying to figure out how their work can be part of contributing to that different culture, students who want to be part of forging a counter culture that is a harbinger of the new, professionals sick of the status quo but cynical as to whether people can come together to bring something positive into being. And it's for those who suffer most from the brutality and immiseration in our society, but too often think they're alone and think people from other sections of society care not for their future. It's a film for anyone who likes the idea of celebrating revolution and the vision of a new world through art, dance, theater and music and thinks a wide range of people from different perspectives need to be part of that.

What is the plan for release and distribution?
This will be released in late winter/early spring. Part of the funds being raised is for release parties and screenings in several cities – Oakland, New York, LA and Chicago. Fans of the film would rent or get donated small theaters, invite artists to play and release the film with a splash.

It will be submitted to local and grassroots film festivals nationally, art houses and cinematheques and efforts made for it to be aired on public access in every region of the country. The film will be made available on iTunes, and sold on DVD nationally. Promotional work and outreach will be done for screenings in high schools and college campuses, in the projects and community centers.

This film will be a significant contribution to the discourse and a source of inspiration to those lifting their heads and asking about the future. After leaving the event, a young woman described it this way, "It feels like hope. That's honestly what it feels like..."
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ADDENDUM:
some quotes from BAsics, quotes from participants and attendees

A few of the QUOTES FROM BAsics read or shown on screen throughout the night at this event:
BAsics 1:1
"There would be no United States as we now know it today without slavery. That is a simple and basic truth."

BAsics 5:7
"American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People's Lives."

BAsics 4:15
"The truth will not set us free, in and of itself, but we will not get free without the truth."

BAsics 3:31 (excerpt)
"...Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution..."

BAsics 2:8
"Let's imagine if we had a whole different art and culture. Come on, enough of this 'bitches and ho's' and SWAT teams kicking down doors. Enough of this 'get low' bullshit. And how come it's always the women that have to get low? We already have a situation where the masses of women and the masses of people are pushed down and held down low enough already. It's time for us to get up and get on up.

"Imagine if we had a society where there was culture—yes it was lively and full of creativity and energy and yes rhythm and excitement, but at the same time, instead of degrading people, lifted us up. Imagine if it gave us a vision and a reality of what it means to make a whole different society and a whole different kind of world. Imagine if it laid out the problems for people in making this kind of world and challenged them to take up these problems. Imagine if art and culture too—movies, songs, television, everything—challenged people to think critically, to look at things differently, to see things in a different light, but all pointing toward how can we make a better world.

"Imagine if the people who created art and culture were not just a handful of people but all of the masses of people, with all their creative energy unleashed, and the time were made for them to do that, and for them to join with people who are more full-time workers and creators in the realm of art and culture to bring forward something new that would challenge people, that would make them think in different ways, that would make them be able to see things critically and from a different angle, and would help them to be uplifted and help them to see their unity with each other and with people throughout the world in putting an end to all the horrors that we're taught are just the natural order of things. Imagine all that."

COMMENTS FROM ATTENDEES:
a young woman:
"It feels like hope. That's honestly what it feels like. Growing up I've always had these sort of ideals and then in high school I was really trying to push them forward and everyone would always try to shut me up or ignore me because everyone either dismissed it completely and said the system that we lived in was fine or just didn't want to get in trouble. But just being around everyone, and hearing and seeing, I just felt immense hope. This is just a small room and a small group of people, but in the wider America and the wider world there's people just like us. And the point is to connect and unite and to bring the word forward."

Black woman, college student:
"I was blown away [by the event]. Blown away! I feel really excited about getting involved with the... revolution. I came here already feeling that I wanted to be involved. But now I feel really, really motivated."

Black woman:
"I think that, my generation, unfortunately, has become quite passive, and not involved and not active. I grew up in a very active, aggressive, progressive household. So it's difficult to be part of a generation that's not, that's lacking care and concern. But I guess it's gonna take someone like Bob Avakian to get the light under them, you know?"

COMMENTS FROM THE ARTISTS AND PARTICIPANTS:
Aladdin:
"And what I think we're trying to do tonight, is to kind of inspire people to look at another way of attacking a situation that may seem dire, but there is a way out... I've always felt that art really is a way to inspire people. The beauty of art, whatever the genre, whether it's music, theater, film, dance, spoken word, art has a way of just really connecting with an audience, especially live performance. Live performance, the audience is really sharing that moment with the performers. Tonight is a very diverse, eclectic group of performers. And I think one thing these performers have in common is that we have a burning desire to really communicate with our audience and really express their frustration, and the pain and the suffering. And all good art really comes from that. So to really have a group of artists come together to express that is—it's amazing!"

reg e. gaines:
"... the artists here... got something constructive for this. Kind of like something that's really going to speak to the issues and what this event's about. But the improvisational aspect of it is all based on emotion of us being here doing this event. It isn't so much about, OK, I'm going to be brilliant tonight here, or she's going to sing this, and they're going to play that, it's going to be brilliant. But it's like, are your emotions being fueled by the theme? Can you comment on the theme in a way that's more beautiful than it is in the real world? Because that's what we're supposed to do as artists. So can we talk about revolution, each one of us in each one of these vignettes that we are involved in, can we speak about revolution in an artistic/cultural way that opens somebody's mind in the audience who's like, wait a minute, that's kind of dope... there's got to be a connection. And it'll make them listen."

Leo Mintek:
"I think a lot of people understand that the world is in a very bad place right now, and I don't think we have to discuss that right now. What we need to discuss is what do you do about that? Is there a way out? How does that look and what is that? I've looked at a lot of different things and Bob Avakian's ideas make more sense in the world more than anything I've ever heard before."

Moist Paula Henderson:
"I'm all about making anything more fun. This is fun. So I kind of predict that everyone who's concerned is going to have a positive experience here tonight. And that will affect whatever happens tomorrow, next week, three months from now, as far as we're all concerned. I feel like a lot of serious political issues, movements, are devoid of celebration and so they get a bad rap in the world because it just seems like a drag, you know, honestly. And it doesn't have to be. People are people are people and everyone all over the planet likes to laugh and sing and dance and have music and like, you know, that's a real human thing. Throughout the ages of the human race everywhere. This thing, celebration. And maybe it's important to consider that it should always be included as the flip side of like more serious thought, as well. Because we are all humans."

Matthew Shipp:
"... what impressed me about Bob's work was an openness and a non-doctrinaire attitude. He always talks about a firm center and elasticity, and the fact that he talks about how revolutionaries have to have a poetic spirit. So I think freeing imagination is one reason we go into music, poetry, dance or whatever, and I really feel that the way he approaches things leaves a lot of things open for all kinds of possible syntheses and things to happen that you can't maybe pinpoint, but if we have a situation where people's imaginations can be unleashed, lord knows how things can evolve and come into being... So many different angles, through rhythm and dancing and through spoken word, which actually, even though poetry has an abstraction, so it's actually concrete language. And also I'm really touched by the letters from prisoners, because that's getting to the heart and soul of what the system can do to people, and how people can see some hope at the end of the tunnel or not, and what we're trying to speak to. So that type of letters from the prisoners is its own special type of poetry."

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/251/23000-by-december-12-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

SUCCEEDING WITH THE GOAL
$23,000 by December 12 for Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

But in order to produce it, and release it, $23,000 is required by December 12. Reaching this goal is essential, and possible.

What is this film going to be about?

Succeeding in our goal

Raising the funds, and getting this film made, will change the foundation from which to go further forward with the whole campaign, BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make! A Mass Campaign to Raise Big Money to Get BA's Vision and Works Into Every Corner of Society.

It will mean bearing down in the next ten days and really fighting it through, but not only is this possible, we can get stronger, reach out more broadly and have a big impact in the process.

Learning from experience

We're still gathering reports from the fundraising efforts over Thanksgiving where people opened up discussion about this fund campaign to their families and friends, and Black Friday where we kicked off a major fundraising initiative to raise copies of BAsics to prisoners. Stay tuned to Revolution newspaper for reports. New things were tried, new people met and new connections forged. We also raised money to send many, many dozens of copies of BAsics to prisoners (full tallies will also be printed soon).

First, we are in a time of rapidly shifting thinking. In this context, the fact that Avakian has done the work he has done, over several decades, summing up the positive and negative experience of the communist revolution so far, and drawing from a broad range of human experience, the fact that through this he has brought forward a new synthesis of communism—a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and the fact there is the crucial leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal... all that stands out even more sharply right now, with even more potential to connect.

Very big questions are up among a large swath of people and we should be putting BA's work directly in their hands. People will find a lot they resonate with in BAsics, or in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal), in Avakian's online talk: Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About or in other works. There are answers here. At the same time, people will have a lot of questions, uncertainty and differences. That's exactly the process of engagement that is a big part of this fund campaign which is set on nothing less than "effecting a radical and fundamental change in the social and political 'atmosphere' of this whole country by projecting the whole BA vision and framework into all corners of society where it does not yet exist, or is still too little known, and getting all sorts of people to engage and wrestle with it..." (from the editorial, http://revcom.us/a/249/ba-everywhere-en.html)

Second, work has to be done to organize people now to take up the efforts of this campaign in the ways they see fit. It's not enough to open a door... people have to walk through that door. And the numbers of people taking up this campaign should be growing in the process. If someone sees the need to get copies of BAsics to prisoners, that's an opportunity to talk with them about not just them contributing but how to reach out to others. If someone is excited about what this film will mean in society, and sees a need for the ideas in BAsics to connect up with a whole new wave in the culture, we should talk with them about hosting a house party for the weekend of December 10 & 11.

This actually concretizes and even sharpens the political wrangling people are doing. It makes people really think through what they want to see in society, and what they want to fight to make happen. We want this happening, and want to work with people to figure out how, where and why they want to carve in.

Three, we should recognize that for some people, it's a big step to go from donating or participating in something to calling something yourself. People have questions about whether this means they're representing for what Avakian is about, often when they have questions about this themselves. We should anticipate some people having second thoughts and keep a door open for them to raise their concerns. It's a positive thing when people raise their questions... it means they are seriously thinking about how they want to contribute and that impels them to sharpen up their own thinking about the world and the content of BA's vision and works.

Raising these funds really does matter to the world, and we should struggle in a good way about this with people. But we should also struggle in a good way for the space for them to contribute in the ways they feel comfortable. There is a process here of, as Avakian has put it, solid core with a lot of elasticity. Someone doesn't have to take responsibility for all of what BA is fighting for in the world to think it needs to be known. In particular, if someone is taking up a particular project—for example, raising funds for this film—all they are saying is they want this film to be made and seen. In this, it often helps if we work with people to concretize their thinking on where they do carve into this, and why they—from their perspective—want to help fund a particular project, or want to help fund the whole effort to make BA's vision and works more widely known and engaged. (It might also be helpful to share with people the statements from people on the Host Committee for April 11 to see the range of perspectives that brought this event together.)

As we go all out, we should apply these lessons, reaching out very broadly and working with people to take this up themselves setting out to reach our largest goal of projecting BA everywhere, making what he represents a point of reference in society, with the direct and immediate part of that now raising the money for this film—which we must and can do.

Four key links

Thousands of people need to be driven to the IndieGoGo fundraising site over the next few days, with a major nodal point in this on Tuesday, December 6. This means that it needs to be posted on websites and blogs, sent out via email, and via Twitter and Facebook. You can use this sample fundraising letter. People broadly should be asked to "favorite" the page by choosing "add to favorites" under the trailer or should be visiting the site regularly for updates.

Key in this will be garnering a couple hundred $10 contributions. These matter because they grow the number of people following the page, people who are watching to see how it turns out and helping themselves to spread the word and asking their friends to donate. Lots of smaller contributions grow the core of people fighting to reach this goal. And it synergizes with people who are able to give larger contributions.

We should be reaching out to people who have big online followings and asking them to contribute and post about this. We have to find the creative ways to put this before thousands of people online.

A key part of building the online base will be phone banking. Invite a bunch of people over to your house or to a Revolution Books after hours, bring snacks and call all the people that have been met over the last six months. Use the sample script here. When you call people, have them watch the trailer and then call them right back. Learn their thoughts, talk with them about what this is aiming to accomplish and what they can give. This is also a good way for people without Internet to contribute as they can contribute right over the phone and it's a way to reconnect with all the people we've met over the last many months, learn how their thinking is changing and how they want to contribute.

There will be daily updates on the IndieGoGo page with specific goals, mini-campaigns, and new comments from people about why they're giving, and the key thing to be doing that day, so keep checking.

There should be lots of people who are just connecting with this movement or have been with it for some time who'd want to invite people to a gathering to raise funds for this film. It can be five people or 25 people... in a housing project or fancy loft. This will be a time where wherever you are, and however many people you're able to bring together, you will be part of having a major collective impact. Call your friends, and family, reconnect with people you haven't talked to in a while, connect in person with people you only connect with online. Invite them over, order pizza, have a potluck or cook a fine meal. However you want to do it... get people together in a movement of house parties to raise whatever else is needed to reach the $23,000 goal.

There could also be all kinds of different events to meet that goal including car washes, bake sales, yard sales, and small-scale cultural benefits.

This is part of reaching out even more broadly; getting a chance to talk to lots of people about this film, what difference it can make and the whole campaign it's a part of to project BA Everywhere. Just sending out the invitations—even if people can't attend—will build awareness, and lead to donations. And it's an important part of building community, bringing people together in a too often atomized world.

There are lots of people we should be approaching for more serious sit-down meetings who can give larger contributions. We may be just starting a relationship with a more propertied person who would consider giving more but might start with a $100 contribution. This is significant, and for online fundraising will be particularly important if people want to put out a call for their contribution to be matched. [RIGHT NOW, donors are willing to match whatever is contributed up to $1,500, so whatever you give before Saturday, December 3 at midnight will be worth twice as much.] (See ANNOUNCING MATCHING DONOR DRIVE.)

Also, there may be a potentially higher donor who would like to have a house party around the film, but would like more time to plan it. You can ask someone if they would pledge to raise a certain amount at a party to happen later, give it on a credit card and then have the party in mid-December or when it suits their schedule.

If you know of donors who are considering giving $250 or more, please contact basicsevent@yahoo.com immediately, so that we can coordinate their gift with a plan to build momentum and bring in more donations.

Look in the local calendar listings and find out what cultural events are happening in your area, or what big gatherings. In one city, over a span of a few days, there is a big museum party and an experimental film festival. Get a few smart phones and laptops, load up the film trailer, make a big sign with something like: "ASK ME ABOUT RADICALLY CHANGING THE CULTURE IN THE NEXT TEN DAYS. indiegogo.com/basicsevent"

Get a few people, have someone reading Avakian's imagine quote on bringing into being a different culture, walk around with the laptop and smart phones and get small groups huddled around watching the trailer. People can give online on the spot, they can do live tweeting about the online fundraising campaign, you can get their email and phone number and send them an on-the-spot email and text so they can give and forward it to their friends.

Similarly, you can go around to professors and hang around the student lounges and take a similar approach.

We have an important goal and a way to reach it, let's raise these funds, reach waves of new people, learn a lot and have a big impact as we go.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/251/why-people-are-contributing-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

READ why some people are contributing

Robert Young, film maker, on why he contributed to the online fund campaign to produce the film, Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World:

I'm on the same page with all who see the need to raise money to help bring about an understanding of what is happening to us and the need for change. And I agree about getting the word out on Bob Avakian. The time is getting ripe for revolutionary change. So many people are finally speaking up about the inequality in society and their realization that they are not being represented in the Congress. I've donated to this film project and I urge other people to donate and help raise the needed funds by them urging others to donate. Even though times are hard and money is tight for most of us, we mustn't forget that we are all connected and need to be involved in the struggle for justice.

I used to be a military man proud and indoctrinated into the ways of this system. The promise of coming home to a life where I would be able to sustain myself was a lie. Eventually, I got into the Occupy movement, still thinking some of the way I did. Then one day, I had a discussion with someone and that person asked me, if I knew that I was responsible for the deaths of many innocent men, women, and children abroad in immoral wars waged by our government. I had never thought of it that way. Not being the person that actually put my hand on a trigger, I didn't think that I was impacting anything abroad. Then soon enough I learned about BA and BAsics. That experience completely turned around and changed the way that I thought about society and the role that I play in it, and one that I can play in a revolution. To sum things up, it is imperative that people that want to change this world get their hands on this book. There is a film being made about a celebration of revolution and the vision of a new world, that took place when the book came out and a fundraiser going on to get this film made. I think this film is definitely what the world needs right now and donating to get it made is paramount to helping change the culture.

"On December 10th, we came together to raise money for this film, it is a celebration of human emancipation. Be part of something larger than yourself. We challenge you. A message from some occupiers coming from a variety of different views who all want to see this film made."

Last night at the party with occupiers and poets about 20 different people from different backgrounds and ideologies came together to party and support the fundraising campaign for this film. These people, mainly occupiers, found this fundraising drive compelling enough to help contribute. We raised $30. To give a sense of the meaning of this I'll tell you that a lot of occupiers have very little money right now, for example, last week three people had a total of $14 between them for food.

After viewing the trailer and promos—poetry, chicken wings, wide ranging discussion, and debate around questions of horizontal democracy and vanguard leadership, we collectively came up with this message around 1:15 a.m.

I want this film to not just celebrate, but to challenge. I want, at the end of the film, to question what I thought was true coming in to it. I want it to give me a hint of that better world. I want to know why Communism, as developed by Bob Avakian, is being celebrated and embraced by these wonderful artists. Is it real? Truly a new vision, or nostalgia for a forgotten and lost past? I want all of those things and more, and that’s why I am contributing to this film and hope you will too.

Revolution used to just be a nice idea to me, but in these desperate an dangerous times it’s become an imperative. Supporting the humane, forward-thinking and musically engaging work and message behind ‘BAsics’ is not only the right thing to do, it’s a great deal for the money! Satisfaction highly likely and no bailout required.

This is the $ I’m matching from [a friend], who gave me $10 because I said I’d match what he gave. [My friend] gave because he said, “I want to see this film made.” I’m matching it because I want to see it made as well, so that YOU can see for yourself what the Revolution can look like.

I am very excited to be helping promote this kind of culture—a culture that reflects the better world we are trying to build!

I am a teacher in the inner city of Detroit. I want to help contribute towards Revolution to bring about a better future for my students!

I was there. After it was over, I said to those with me: dang, I hope they make that film, 'cause I need to watch that over again a few times!!! Got to say, it was somethin' different and good. About a whole new world and stuff. I think it's a good thing and I'm supporting it for sure.

I just contributed $1,000 to this effort and am asking you to join me in making a significant contribution to this project. In the swirl of the "Occupy" movements going on here and all over the world, it's especially critical to have the ability to inject Bob Avakian and his vision into the mix. People newly awakening to political life and activism need to learn about and be challenged by his enlightened and refreshing ideas. Give as generously as you can.

I was at this event back in April. The amount of talent in the room and on the stage was unbelievable—I'll be spreading the word!

It was a great pleasure to be in the audience on April 11th at the Harlem Stage. I want many people to get to know Bob Avakian and his work through seeing the performers interpret and engage with BAsics on the stage that night. I hope my friends working for a better world, including those who are inspired by Bob Avakian's vision of a radically different, liberating society, will also donate. We've got to get this film finished and into the world in 2012...so join me in giving $100, or more.

This was a really cool event, it contained so much it was hard to take it all in, so I really want to see a movie of it.

These are important ideas that cannot disappear from our conversation about our responsibility to create a just society. They are not the only ideas worthy of discussion but they must be part of it. It is equally important to understand the dynamics that caused people like Marx and Engels, Lenin, Mao and now Bob Avakian to analyze our misbehavior and dysfunction from this point of view. We cannot deny what lead them to this point nor be in denial about the cruelty of unfettered, unregulated capitalism.

Excited for people who weren't there getting a chance to experience such a special night. I have a feeling this film & BAsics will inspire even more art & nights like this in the future.

It was an amazing night, but an even more important message was being brought forward. Let's make sure we get this film made so more can learn and enjoy.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/250/avakian_on_the_occupy_movement-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

A REFLECTION ON THE "OCCUPY" MOVEMENT:
AN INSPIRING BEGINNING...AND THE NEED TO GO FURTHER

The main—and, up to this point at least, the overwhelming—aspect of these "Occupy" protests has been their very positive thrust: in mobilizing people to stand up against injustice and inequality and the domination of economic, social and political life, and international relations, by a super-rich elite class whose interests are in opposition to those of the great majority of people; and in contributing in significant ways to an atmosphere in which people are raising and wrangling with big questions about the state of society and the world and whether and how something much better can be brought into being. It will be a very good thing if these protests continue to spread and further develop, with this basic thrust and this positive impact. And these "Occupy" protests can be a significant positive factor in contributing to the revolution that is needed—IF this is approached, by those with the necessary scientific communist understanding, in accordance with that understanding and the strategic orientation and approach that flows from it.

At the same time, and in keeping with this understanding, it is also very important, indeed crucial, to compellingly make the case, for broad and growing numbers of people (both those who are involved in these protests and people more generally), that the idea (or ideal), which at this point has considerable currency among many involved in or supportive of these protests—that a "horizontal" (as opposed to a "hierarchal") movement can in itself serve as a means of major social change and perhaps even a model of a different society—this idea (or ideal) does not and cannot measure up to the reality of what is actually required to fundamentally uproot and transform a society, and indeed a world, marked by and grounded in profound inequalities and relations of oppression and exploitation, within every country and in the domination by a handful of powerful, imperial powers over the great majority of countries in the world and the great mass of humanity. To uproot and transform all this requires nothing less than an unprecedented revolution: a radical overturning of the entrenched, and violently repressive, ruling forces and imperial powers who now dominate human social existence, and the deep-seated economic, social and political relations of exploitation and oppression of which they are the embodiment and enforcers. And to achieve such a radical overturning and transforming requires a scientific approach to the strategic orientation, program, and organization that is actually required for the revolution that is really needed.

This revolution is necessary not only in order to deal with the basic, and antagonistic, relation in which the masses of people are ruled over by an exploiting class representing a small part of society, but also in order to transform the relations between different sections of the people themselves—including the transformation of the contradiction between those who (primarily) engage in physical labor and those who (primarily) engage in intellectual labor (the mental/manual contradiction)—in such a way that these relations no longer involve oppression and no longer contain the seeds of antagonism. Without such a revolution, even very positive developments, such as what is represented, in its main thrust and content, by the "Occupy" protests, will ultimately run into their limits. Such a movement cannot be extended linearly, and in its present form, into the radical change that is fundamentally needed. As with very positive movements in the past (including the very broad and very radical movements of the 1960s), left to their own spontaneous course (that is, without the necessary process of revolutionary communists uniting with and working to build these struggles but also working to provide direction to divert things onto a more fully and consciously revolutionary path) these movements, even while they can involve truly large numbers of people and have a very positive impact, will eventually be repressed and/or dissipated, and/or brought under the domination of the ruling class, in one form or another—unless masses of people involved in them are won to, become firmly convinced of, the need to develop the struggle further, into a movement for revolution, with the necessary understanding and organization—yes, including the necessary structure and leadership—that is required to finally sweep away this system and bring into being a radically new system with the aim of ultimately abolishing all exploitation and oppression.

In fact, as positive as things like the "Occupy" protests are, and despite the sincere intent and efforts of a great many involved in them, they cannot fundamentally provide the means for "equal participation" by people from different parts of society, since the very nature and functioning of the capitalist-imperialist system—in its historical development in this country, down to the present time, and in its international relations of exploitation, oppression, plunder and depredation—results in a situation where, within U.S. society itself (and in an even more pronounced way on an international level), there are profound and deeply rooted inequalities between different sections of people, which cannot be overcome within the framework and confines of this system and its fundamental relations and dynamics. Along with oppressive divisions based on race (or nationality), gender and sexual orientation, there are, within this society, significant differences in economic and social position. There are layers of people who are part of what is broadly referred to as the "middle class" and who generally occupy a more privileged position, in terms of access to education (and the whole realm of working with ideas), better-paying jobs and the benefits that go along with this, and a life relatively free of constant and intense repression, so long as they do not "step out of line," and yet they are subordinated to and, yes, dictated to by the ruling class of this country and, especially in these times, they find the quality of their lives and their prospects for the future significantly demeaned and diminished and many feel increasingly acute anger and disgust at basic inequalities, injustices and outrages which are in fact built into and expressive of the very fabric and nature of this system. At the same time, there are tens of millions, especially among those in the inner cities and the immigrants, who are deeply discriminated against and heavily weighed down under this system, which subjects them to the most profound and bitter exploitation, oppression and repression, binding them in chains which, in ultimate and fundamental terms, can only be broken by shattering the grip of this system and fully dismantling its apparatus of violent repression. As is demonstrated in the "Occupy" movement, there is a basis for a broad unity among these different sections of the people—in opposition to many of the manifestations of the oppressive and truly murderous nature of this system, and in a basic searching for a better way that human beings could relate to each other—but that unity cannot eliminate nor cancel out the reality and the effects of the profound inequalities that are so deeply rooted in this system and will continue to have force and effect so long as this system remains in power and its relations and dynamics set the fundamental and ultimate terms for things. This is yet another expression of the fact that nothing short of revolution, with a leadership grounded in a communist understanding and orientation, can fully penetrate to the depths of, let alone uproot, the relations that oppress and divide masses of people.

While uniting with the basic and very positive thrust of the "Occupy" protests; while continuing to work to broaden and deepen them; and while learning as much as can be learned from the already rich experience of these protests and the initiative and creativity, as well as determination, shown by many involved in them, it is crucial to influence and win more and more people to seriously engage with the scientific communist understanding and orientation—particularly as this is embodied in the outlook and strategic approach of our Party, the RCP, and in a concentrated way in the new synthesis of communism that I have brought forward over the past few decades and that I am continuing to work to further develop. For, once more, as emphasized in the first supplement in BAsics,^* this is not "our thing," in some narrow and sectarian sense—it is what, in accordance with the deepest reality, is required to end the outrages and injustices continually perpetrated by this system, and the horrendous suffering to which this continually subjects the great majority of humanity, and to bring into being a radically new and better society and world.

Once again, this understanding is crucial not only in an overall and basic sense, but also more specifically in relation—in opposition—to the idea of a "leaderless revolution" and related concepts, which are not in accord with the reality that must be confronted and transformed, in order to truly achieve the kind of world that many in the "Occupy" movement are searching and struggling for.

* "Reform or Revolution, Questions of Orientation, Questions of Morality," supplement of Chapter 1, "Worldwide System of Exploitation and Oppression," BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian (Chicago: RCP Publications, 2011), pages 25-32. Originally published in Revolution #32, January 29, 2006, and available online at revcom.us/a/032/avakian-reform-or-revolution [back]

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/deadly_inequalities-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Deadly Inequalities... in a World of Capitalist Exploitation and Oppression

The Occupy Wall Street movement has shined a big spotlight on one of the glaring crimes of the system we live under. Under the capitalist-imperialist system, enormous, almost incalculable wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people, while billions across the planet live in poverty and misery.

Glaring inequality has been a feature of capitalism since its birth. And in just the last 30 years the gap in wealth between the rich and the poor in the United States, and around the world, has risen exponentially. Driven by the workings of a system whose paramount aim is to maximize profit, enabled by dramatic changes in the world "balance of power," and facilitated by policies adopted and decisions made by the political leadership of the world's most powerful imperialist countries, especially the U.S., the frenzied, cutthroat enrichment of a relative handful of people has been accompanied by the catastrophic impoverishment of much of humanity. Hundreds of millions more have been pushed to the brink.

Well over 500 million people today live in what the World Bank describes as "absolute poverty"—by which they mean under $1.25 a day. In 2010, a child died of undernutrition every six seconds. The main problem is not a lack of food resources—it is who owns those resources, and how they are used. Brian Halweil, a professor at Stanford University who has studied and worked to overcome problems of world hunger, wrote that "while the myth persists that hunger results from a scarcity of food, inequitable distribution of resources and gender discrimination prevent most of the world's hungry from getting enough to eat."

Within the U.S. income inequality is at an all-time high, surpassing the levels of inequality reached during the Depression. One out of every three people in the U.S. is considered poor or "near poor," while as Emmanuel Saez, a UC Berkeley economics professor calculates, in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages (a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000). Saez also wrote that between 1993 and 2007, "The top 1 percent of incomes captured half of the overall economic growth." According to Mother Jones, a U.S. Census Bureau study showed that "A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent? $31,244."

Not only is wealth more and more concentrated among a few, in the U.S., people of color have suffered much greater losses than white people. The median wealth of white households is now 20 times that of Black households, and 18 times that of Hispanic households, according to the Pew Research Center. The average total wealth of single Black women is less than $100, and about half of single Black women have zero or negative net wealth. A study released in 2010 by Brandeis University professors showed that the wealth gap between Black and white families "has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation." Also, between 2005 and 2009, the wealth of "Hispanic households fell by 66 percent."

As of 2007, "The richest 2% of the world's population owns more than half of the world's household wealth ... The three richest people in the world have more money than the poorest 48 nations combined." On a world scale and within particular countries the chasms of wealth and poverty continue to grow. In his book Planet of Slums, Mike Davis estimates that there are 200,000 slums in the world "where child labour is the norm, child prostitution is commonplace, gangs and paramilitaries rule and there is no access to clean water or sanitation, let alone to education or democratic institutions." A United Nations report on the "urban environment" concluded that "New York was found to be the ninth most unequal city in the world and Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington, and Miami had similar inequality levels to those of Nairobi, Kenya, and Abidjan of the Ivory Coast. Many were above an internationally recognized 'alert' line used to warn governments."

In the last 10 years the trend towards extreme wealth in the hands of a small number of people and growing immiseration of the vast majority of humanity has accelerated, in this country and worldwide. A 2010 report from the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that "the gap between rich and poor [within the U.S.] has grown to its widest ever." When Branko Milanovich, the lead economist for the World Bank's research department, was recently asked "how unequal is the world, really?" He responded, "It is historically now around the peak of inequality ever."

500 million (+) people living in poverty and near poverty—from site of the World Bank www.worldbank.org

Child dying of under nutrition every 6 seconds—from the World Watch Institute www.worldwatch.org/sow11

Growing gap between wealth of whites and people of color, Pew Research Center study, pewresearch.org

Average wealth of Black women, Insight Center for Community Economic Development, insightcced.org

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/getting_out_basics_on_black_friday-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Getting Out BAsics on "Black Friday"

"Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving—it's the "biggest shopping day of the year," when Americans spend billions of dollars in an obscene orgy of "shop till you drop." But this year, teams of people in different cities went up in the face of all that to create a different scene. Their mission: to get BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian into the hands of people and raise money for covering the cost of responding to hundreds of requests from prisoners for copies of the book.

This was the first "nodal point" in the year-end plans to jump-start the fundraising campaign—"BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make." BAsics, a collection of quotes and short essays that concentrates more than 30 years of Avakian's work, can not only introduce many more people to the thinking of BA—who has put communism back on the agenda as a vital and viable force—it can play a major role in bringing forward and forging a new wave of revolutionaries. And the "BA Everywhere..." campaign has the potential to effect a radical and fundamental change in the social and political atmosphere of this whole country by projecting the whole Bob Avakian vision and framework into all corners of society.

It costs $10 to send one BAsics to one prisoner, and the goal is to raise $15,000 by the end of this year to get 1,500 books into the prisons. The teams that went out raised hundreds of dollars toward this goal, as well as selling copies of the book on the spot and getting out thousands of flyers from the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF). Many of the teams made eye-catching displays with an enlarged version of the Revolution centerfold on "Black Friday" that said: "Want the alternative to capitalism? Get the BAsics!"

One thing that comes through from the different teams' experiences is the dynamic role of the book itself: "Although it was a struggle to cut through the 'shopping fog,' putting the book in people's hands and letting them look at it and letting people know the impact of this book on the prisoners—a lifeline to revolution and transforming to be emancipators of humanity—had a big impact. 'This is really some book! I've only gotten past the first two pages and it's really something!' said a man who bought it on the way into a mall. Others who bought it on the spot did so after reading one or two quotes and recognizing something of what BA and this revolution is about. People were much more willing to donate after we had an opportunity to show them some of the letters from prisoners and how their lives were changing as a result of being connected to this revolutionary leader."

Someone who took BAsics out to a church in the Black community reported, "One man, only out of prison two months, had bought the book last week after leaving the church service. The same man came by today and shook my hand. He said he'd only read the first few quotes but said, 'This is a very important book. I really want to thank you for what you're doing out here.'"

One story gave an embryonic sense of what difference it would make when "BA Everywhere..." becomes a reality. A young woman from a southern African country came across a team out at an area of New York City where there are lots of artists and students. She spent a long time looking through a copy of BAsics, and then donated to send a book to a prisoner but did not get one for herself. Later in the afternoon, the woman came back and rushed to talk to one of the team members. After making her donation earlier, she had gone to Occupy Wall Street, where she heard someone doing a reading of the quote BAsics 1:10 about "Look at all these beautiful children that are female in the world..." She was so deeply moved by the quote that she just had to come back and get a copy of the book for herself!

New York—People in our area had a mix of exciting plans for Black Friday. We went to a new Target mall in an oppressed area, largely Puerto Rican (that is now being gentrified); another neighborhood that is mainly a mix of students and artists; the Occupy Wall Street encampment in our city, which is adjacent to a shopping area; a gourmet food store in a traditionally progressive middle class area; and the bus lines where families get on the buses to visit relatives in prisons 5-10 hours or more away. We also tried some important new things—dressing up and going to the opera, having a presence outside a world famous art museum (where there was an exhibit of a well-known radical artist), and going outside (and inside) the headquarters of major law firms known for their pro bono work.

A group of five of us took the alternative to capitalism and Black Friday to the heart of Occupy Wall Street. As we were getting going, a march being led by a group of drummers coming back from Wall Street and another march to end violence against women of a couple hundred people arrived at the same time. This was really favorable conditions and right away a couple of us jumped into the rally and did a mic check and read the entire quote 1:10 from BAsics about "look at all these beautiful children that are female in the world." A lot of people thanked us for that.

We got out several hundred fliers in the park and along the outer areas, which included thousands of holiday shoppers going by. This crowd was more difficult to penetrate and there were even some backward responses. Around the park, there were folks in town for the holidays who came down to see OWS and were just thrilled to be there as well as very concerned about the police presence. These people were especially open to BAsics. One woman from California had brought her 17-year-old son down to the park to check it out and to hand out stickers she had made, "Occupy Authority." She had heard of BA and one of our crew opened up to chapter 6 on revolutionary responsibility and leadership and found a quote that spoke to the positive role of revolutionary authority as opposed to the notion of authoritarianism. She read the quote, then bought a copy for a prisoner. She also got a copy of Revolution newspaper...

The team at the upper-middle-class neighborhood (in front of the fancy food store) at first had some trouble breaking through. Summing up, they decided they wanted the first thing to jump out to people was that this was a campaign to get 1,500 copies of BAsics to prisoners—and the idea of holiday giving a gift that matters. This drew forward a different sentiment—including those with more awareness of the prison issue—including a doctor from the Bay Area who is connected with health issues in California prisons; a woman who is a child of holocaust survivors, was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany after WW 2 and spoke about her feelings of empathy for people who suffer imprisonment and poverty; and a Black woman who spoke about her understanding of prison issues, who also wanted a copy for herself as soon as she looked at the table of contents and read the first quote. Also a white grad student who is doing a paper related to this, and an older Black man who returned to the book table after reading through the flyer and looking at BAsics. Also, although she didn't contribute on the spot, an older Black woman spoke about her church's work with ex-offenders and said she was going to show the material to the group at her church.

The legal/law firm team had a plan to go to law firms that have done ongoing pro bono work involving cases at Guantánamo as well as death penalty cases. We were able to go to one of these law firms first with a flyer saying we were coming back that evening when folks were going home and with a copy of the book in our hands. That evening we had buckets, a big donate sign and it was clear what we were doing, but it was dark. We came back several days later (as was printed in the initial flyer) in the morning with bigger signs and agitation which said "500 prisoners have this book BAsics and it has helped raise their political awareness and developed and trained a section of revolutionaries among them where they are changing the world and themselves in the process; 1500 more have requested this; help make this happen and DONATE. We need $15,000 to cover the costs for this."...

One young Black secretary told us she has been a supporter of the Innocence Project. Another Black woman who was just passing by told us her brother is in jail and she wants to get a copy of BAsics to him. Looking it over, she said to us: "It seems this is what he needs." A Black man, a truck driver and father of three who lives in Harlem, said he is going to support this effort and "work with you revolutionaries who are doing a mighty thing here." This struck a nerve and when people did take the time to undo their earphones connected to their iPods and took in what was asked, it made a difference and they got that they were making a difference. Interestingly, one young white guy who identified with the Occupy Wall Street movement and is a student at a college in the area donated $10. He knew and applauded that there was a beginning cross-over of sections of people coming from different places to fight against the system. He knew about stopping stop-and-frisk in New York...

Another team focused on a major crossroads in the large Black community neighborhood where we met the usual mix of students, professionals, travelers and residents. We had an anchor location at one spot and sent another team to another key intersection a few blocks away where we had some loud and effective agitation on the subject of mass incarceration. People are keenly aware of this, many know about and support the actions to STOP "Stop and Frisk." In about two hours at the second location, five holiday gift sets were sold as well as one individual sale. Back at the anchor location, which is a strategic but less busy spot, we sold five gift sets...

On Sunday at a church in the Black community, we sold two copies of BAsics that included one gift pack to a prisoner ($30). In addition we collected $57 in donations. Quite a few of these were $5 donations from people who had seen our flier either last week or earlier in the morning. We impressed people with the $500 in combined sales and donations in Harlem over the "Black Friday" weekend. One woman laughed out loud, pleased with the fact that we had gone right in the face of the ugly consumerism with this and managed to raise this much money for such a cause. She was not a churchgoer but a passerby and did not think highly of church or churchgoers. She was surprised that we were reaching out to people at this church. We talked about this in relation to building the movement for revolution...

Chicago—On Black Friday, people in the downtown area could loudly hear "Give a gift that matters; send BAsics to prisoners in U.S. hellholes"...Standing in front of a beautiful PRLF banner, two people dressed in orange jumpsuits and chained together read quotes from prisoners' letters and quotes from BAsics... A challenge went out to people: these brothers and sisters are fighting to understand why they are in the situation they are in, struggling to understand the world, fighting to transform themselves, they're depending on your humanity DONATE NOW! As a group of us spread through the crowd we carried large buckets decorated with BAsics pluggers with envelopes for the books to be shipped right away to prisoners...

A mother of a prisoner came by, listened, looked through BAsics chapter headlines and made a donation to have BAsics sent to her son who had been in prison for more than 15 years for an $80 robbery. One young woman donated in the name of Troy Davis. One older Black man who had spent time in prison stopped and helped agitate and call on people to donate...

Los Angeles—On Saturday, the campaign to get "BA Everywhere" went to a site of notorious brutality by the L.A. County Sheriffs, a place that draws oppressed people from all over the area: Men's Central Jail... Outside of Men's Central Jail, the call to donate to get BAsics to prisoners resonates deeply. At first people pass by not knowing what this scene—with displays and banners—is about. When they hear we are raising money to send a book to prisoners that has to do with revolution and the vision of a new world—many people feel this is serious and important. A few people give $10 donations right away, sponsoring one book to a prisoner. Others give what they can, small amounts they have on them. There is anger at what is happening to people in the jails and prisons. And there is an attraction to something that 1) is about revolution and fighting the system for a whole new world for all of humanity, and 2) this is connecting with prisoners, including the potential of people changing themselves as they come to be part of changing the world...

San Francisco Bay Area—Our first fundraising activity in this year's Thanksgiving weekend was attending the annual "un-thanksgiving" Indian Sunrise ceremony on Alcatraz Island, an event that started many years ago off the Native American occupation of Alcatraz in 1969. A group of us went with people to the ceremony, handing out the flyer about donating BAsics to prisoners, and then greeted people as they came off the ferries returning to the SF shore after the event. People were happy that we were there. Even though the time was short and it was raining, we sold a number of BAsics and collected some donations for books as gifts to prisoners.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/a_thanksgiving_dinner-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

A Thanksgiving Dinner—with Revolution in the Mix

We received this correspondence from a reader, a 25-year-old Black man who occupied Zuccotti Park from the beginning and has been a part of a crew spreading revolution and BA:

Last night several occupiers were staying at my house and ate dinner with my family. We had a great big dinner, ate really good food such as turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, potato salad, and of course lots of dessert. This was great being that many occupiers have not had a real home cooked meal in a long time, some even came back for seconds and thirds.

We sat together around the dining room table, eight occupiers with my parents. Everyone's mood was pretty much calm and ripe for conversation. My parents were asking questions of the occupiers and vice versa. They wanted to know where everyone came from, and why they were there. They were engaging in discussion about the economy and the way things are in this society, such as police brutality, stop and frisk, how we envision a better world and that's the reason why we are down there at Occupy Wall Street.

They were also asking about the eviction of the occupation from the park and people spoke about their friends that they had shared tents with. People were reminiscing about the community that we had, and we were also talking about where we can take this in the future, to keep it moving and going further. For my parents to hear these first-hand stories from the occupiers themselves, was an eye-opening experience and they were intrigued.

A little later on that evening, my uncle and outspoken aunt came over and also engaged in discussion. They were full of questions about the occupation in Zuccotti Park, the police attacks they'd heard about and what we were going to do next. My aunt has a degree in psychology, and likes to pick people's brains. She was around in the sixties and is in favor of people fighting for their rights. Sitting around the dining room table for dessert and piña coladas, there was a back-and-forth with her about capitalism, and how people are supposed to earn a living in this society. She said that for all the youth in the inner cities, if there weren't jobs there for them, then that's when you have to be creative and find one, that you can start your own business, that you had to be "self-made." We pulled the lens back and said that actually that wasn't realistic because of how society is set up and we showed her the quote from BAsics about how when people say they are a "self-made man" in reality other people have made all their clothes and material possessions. She liked this and wanted to learn more.

We also during that night brought revolution into the mix. The revolutionary communist among us had passed around the current issue of Revolution newspaper about Occupy Wall Street and my aunt and mother opened it up and looked through it. They asked about BAsics, Bob Avakian, and how another society would be organized. My father asked about past communist countries, he said "this didn't work in the Soviet Union, China, or Cuba." They asked what Avakian was saying about how this could be done. The revolutionary talked about how we have been lied to about the real history of actual socialist countries like the Soviet Union and China, and that Avakian has studied this past history, the accomplishments and the mistakes, to go forward today. They were curious and asked all kinds of questions about this and so we said that the best way to get what this was about is to check out this book BAsics and that we could watch the video we brought with some of his speeches and a trailer for a film of the April 11 celebration of revolution in Harlem. My Mom and aunt were especially interested in watching the trailer for a documentary of a cultural event that took place in Harlem. People were unsure, but curious, about the newspaper, and inspired by the video of BA that we showed, which my father said had reminded him of the Malcolm X speeches that he had heard.

A couple of us the night before had spoken to my father while he was preparing a whole heap of collard greens. He spoke to us about his heritage. How it was growing up in his home, a tiny island in the West Indies, and moving here when he was 17 years old, and his vision of the American dream. He opened up about the stories he had heard growing up about the slave trade in the West Indies, and the history of the oppression of Black people in this society, so this video was very powerful to him. My parents were intrigued by the things we had shown them about revolution.

I'll be honest. I've had a lot of back-and-forth about the importance of the occupy movement and why I am a part of it. After seeing the occupiers and that they're not the stereotypes and slanders that are depicted on the news, but that they're all adults that just want something different, then my mother's attitude changed. They went from telling me that I was living like a bum to actually agreeing to a lot of what people were saying. They shared Thanksgiving with the occupiers, and Mom went to bed that night with her copy of Revolution newspaper! I didn't think I'd ever see that.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/the_problem_the_system_of_capitalism-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Are Corporations and Banks Corrupting the System, or Is the Problem the System of Capitalism?

This is a slightly edited transcript of a talk given several times by Raymond Lotta at Occupy Wall Street at New York City's Zuccotti Park.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a great and momentous event. It is a fresh wind of resistance. We're protesting multiple outrages of this system, not just one. Occupy Wall Street is throwing up big questions about the source of these outrages and how to bring about a radically different and better world. And it's created space for us to talk about all this! So I'm really happy to be here with you.

My brief here is titled "Are the Corporations and Banks Corrupting the System, or Is the Problem the System of Capitalism?"

Of course, people are right to be outraged by what the corporations and banks do.

Corporations and Banks: Part of Something Bigger

But, you know, if we hate what the corporations and banks are doing, and we want to stop it, we have to look at what they are part of. They're part of something bigger than themselves, a system of capitalism that operates according to certain dynamics.

Think about this: particular corporations and banks don't exist forever; they're bought and sold. They merge, like JPMorgan and Chase, or Texaco and Chevron. They go bankrupt as a result of competition and crisis, like Lehman Brothers. They move in and out of different product lines, like what happened to IBM and the PC, or Apple moving into Google territory.

A transnational corporation or bank, with huge global assets, embodies the economic system we live under. Transnational corporations are units for the production and accumulation of profit, like Toyota or Exxon-Mobil assembling cars or drilling for oil. In the case of banks, they're units for maximizing financial profits from far-flung operations. A corporation is an instrument for the organized exploitation of wage labor. It is an instrument through which markets are penetrated and cornered, through which resources are grabbed, like the oil companies going into the Arctic. These corporations and banks are instruments—but not the only instruments—of ownership and control by the capitalist class.

The point I'm making is that these corporations and banks are pieces—and not the only pieces—on a global chessboard of capitalist-imperialism. And this chessboard, this brutal playing field, operates according to certain rules of the game. It's like basketball or soccer: there are rules of the game. If a basketball player kicked the ball like a soccer player to get it downcourt, the whole game would break down. Let's look at those rules:

Capitalism Operates According to Certain Rules

RULE #1: EVERYTHING IS A COMMODITY AND EVERYTHING MUST BE DONE FOR PROFIT. Everything under capitalism is produced in order to be exchanged, to be sold. Things have to be useful to be sold. But what's actually produced, and how it's produced, is measured and motivated by profit: whether it's housing, computers, medicine, energy... whatever. And profit comes from the exploitation of billions of human beings on this planet.

Criminally, under capitalism, the environment—like the rainforest in Ecuador where Texaco drilled for oil—is something to be seized and plundered for profit.

RULE #2: CAPITALIST PRODUCTION IS PRIVATELY OWNED AND DRIVEN FORWARD BY THE COMMANDMENT "EXPAND OR DIE." Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, or Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase are fighting each other for market share. They are driven to extend investments and cheapen costs, not mainly due to personal greed, but because if they don't expand and keep accumulating profit and more profit for their war chests, if they don't more ruthlessly exploit labor on a world scale, they won't stay alive—they'll go under or be gobbled up.

Competition runs through this whole system. It's beat or be beaten. When BP was cleaning up the oil spill, you didn't see other oil companies coming to share expertise and oceanographic equipment. No, these other companies wanted to take advantage of the situation—Shell and Exxon-Mobil were reportedly "licking their chops," as one New York Times article said, at the possibility of gobbling up BP. This "expand or die" compulsion leads to bigger and more powerful units of capital.

RULE #3 IS THE DRIVE FOR GLOBAL CONTROL AND DOMINANCE. Capitalism is a worldwide system. There's a great divide in the world between the imperialist and oppressed countries. On this global playing field corporations and banks compete for global influence and control, like the oil corporations going off the coast of West Africa. But the most intense form of rivalry is between contending world powers for strategic position and advantage—over regions, markets, and resources. This has led to wars of conquest, like what the U.S. did in the Philippines, or the French in Algeria, or the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And this drive for global control and domination led to two world wars.

So these are the three rules of the game: profit based on the exploitation of labor; expand or die; and the drive for global dominance. And whether we are talking about a corporation or a bank, they are guided by these three rules—and both play essential and functional roles in this system of capitalist production, a system of worldwide exploitation.

"Imperialism means huge monopolies and financial institutions controlling the economies and the political systems—and the lives of people—not just in one country but all over the world. Imperialism means parasitic exploiters who oppress hundreds of millions of people and condemn them to untold misery; parasitic financiers who can cause millions to starve just by pressing a computer key and thereby shifting vast amounts of wealth from one place to another. Imperialism means war—war to put down the resistance and rebellion of the oppressed, and war between rival imperialist states—it means the leaders of these states can condemn humanity to unbelievable devastation, perhaps even total annihilation, with the push of a button.

"Imperialism is capitalism at the stage where its basic contradictions have been raised to tremendously explosive levels. But imperialism also means that there will be revolution—the oppressed rising up to overthrow their exploiters and tormentors—and that this revolution will be a worldwide struggle to sweep away the global monster, imperialism." (BAsics 1:6)

Capitalism and the State

Those three economic laws that I've laid out are at the root of the capitalist-imperialist system. But the preservation and extension of this system requires a state power. You see, capital is private and competing. But the capitalists of a given country—like the U.S. or France or Russia or Germany—they have common interests. The state power in France acts to safeguard the common strategic interests of French capital—and so too in Japan or Russia or the United States.

The capitalist class dominates the economy. It controls the major means of production—land, raw materials and other resources, technology, and physical structures, like factories. The government is a key part of a state power that is controlled by the capitalist class, no matter who is president. But this state plays a special role in society. It's not acting in the interests of this or that corporation or bank. It acts to protect and expand the economic system and to keep the whole society functioning as a capitalist society. What are the key things the state does?

The U.S. government and state power have functioned consistently, from the time of the founding of the Republic and the Constitution, to serve the expansion and consolidation of a national market. The U.S. government and state power have functioned consistently to protect a property rights system based on the control of producing wealth by a small capitalist class that exploits wage laborers.

This state power has functioned consistently to serve the rise and extension of a global empire that rests on exploitation, plunder, and war: from the theft of land from Mexico to the annexation of Puerto Rico and the occupation of the Philippines to Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan.

I've talked about this expand-or-die dynamic of capitalism. You have a situation where huge banks and corporations are each and all seeking to gain advantage and position... each and all chasing after profit opportunities, investing as though there were no limit. Under capitalism, there's no society-wide planning or coordination. There's anarchy of social production, which leads to crisis. And when the system goes into deep economic crisis, the state acts to protect the system from collapse. This is what FDR did during the New Deal.

When economic crisis hit in 2008-09, the state under Bush and Obama acted to bail out and shore up the banks—not because these banks had "special influence." The bailout was designed to prevent a huge breakdown of the system and to protect the financial institutions that are key to the dominant position of the U.S. in the world economy.

This was a bailout of the capitalist system. They're doing that at a terrible cost to humanity, at great cost to not only the poor and exploited in this society but to broader sections of people. And at great cost to the ecology of the planet.

Now people have to choose between rent and healthcare... and that's a choice that no one should have to make. And young people don't know if they're going to have any kind of future worthy of human beings.

I started by posing the question: are corporations and banks corrupting the system, or is the problem the system of capitalism? My answer is that capitalism-imperialism is the problem—and we need a revolution to create a new system fit for humanity. And if you want to find out about how a socialist society would actually function, you need to check out the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). (revcom.us/socialistconstitution).

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/political_disobedience_vs_revolution-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Political Disobedience vs. Revolution: An Exchange and Debate on the Significance and Implications of the Occupy Movement

On December 2, Occupy Chicago sponsored an exciting event, "Political Disobedience vs. Revolution: An Exchange and Debate on the Significance and Implications of the Occupy Movement" featuring Bernard Harcourt and Raymond Lotta. It was held at a gallery of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Approximately 125 people attended, including Occupy activists and many college students.

Bernard Harcourt is Chair of the Political Science Department and Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Illusion of Free Markets. Raymond Lotta is a political economist and contributor to Revolution. He is an advocate of Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism. The exchange was prompted by an article written by Harcourt on the Opinionator blog of the New York Times in October. The issues being wrangled over had both a sense of the immediacy of the situation giving rise to the Occupy movement as well as weighty implications for envisioning a new model of society. The exchange was full of substance and contained sharp differences—even as both speakers expressed the positive impact of Occupy and share concerns about the larger issues of injustice and inequality in U.S. society.

Both gave wide-ranging presentations. Lotta spoke about the nature of capitalism and the need for revolution and put forth a vision of communism informed by Bob Avakian's new synthesis and concretely expressed in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). Harcourt set forth his vision of "political disobedience" and how this connects with what he sees as the new and important features of the Occupy movement that have longer-term implications for answering injustice. An exposition of this position can be found in his November 30 article in the UK Guardian, "Occupy's new grammar of political disobedience."

A central theme in the debate involved Harcourt's argument for "leaderless resistance" in sharp contrast with Lotta's arguments about the need for communist vanguard leadership to meet and defeat the repressive state power of capitalism-imperialism and to go on to transform society and uproot deep structures of oppression. Harcourt's argument posited that continuous "political disobedience" contains the potential of breaking free from what he sees as "failed paradigms," while Lotta argued that this amounts to a "holding action" while capitalism continues to strangle humanity. Both speakers referenced the statement "A Reflection on the 'Occupy' Movement: An Inspiring Beginning... And the Need To Go Further" by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

The audience was highly engaged with the speakers' presentations and actively participated in the discussion. The exchange very much embodied the Occupy movement's spirit of opening space for discussion. This was a very robust and principled debate. The moderator announced that Occupy Chicago will be posting a video of the program.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/new_york_student_action-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

New York: Student Action to STOP "Stop and Frisk"

December 2, 2011: In coordination with Columbia University's Students Against Mass Incarceration and other students around the city, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network hosted a Student Day of Action. Previous actions organized by the network, which have carried out nonviolent civil disobedience at police precincts in Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens—have led to dozens of arrests. This action focused on "bearing witness"—it featured testimonies from those who have been stopped and frisked, and culminated with a "Frisk-In": a piece of live street theatre, dramatizing the brutality of the stop-and-frisk policy, and the need for a struggle to put an end to it.

This action was part of the movement to stop mass incarceration, which has initiated determined struggle to end the racist, illegitimate¸ illegal practice of stop and frisk by the NYPD. The police are on pace to stop and frisk over 700,000 people this year alone. Eighty-five percent of those stopped and frisked are Black and Latino, and 90 percent of them are found to be not doing anything wrong at all. NYPD records list pretexts for these stops such as: "Furtive movement," "Appears to be lookout," "Fits description," and "Suspicious clothing."

The march began with 60 people at Pace University: students from Columbia, NYU, Pace, members of Occupy Wall Street and others, where we rallied and announced that, despite putting out that we would conduct civil disobedience at 1 Police Plaza, we were going to an alternate location. As we marched to an almost empty Zuccotti Park [since the police have cleared out the Occupy Wall Street encampment and have set up barricades], our numbers swelled to 100 people. We then went to Smith Housing Projects, the largest single housing unit on the Lower East Side—a stone's throw away from the courthouse at 100 Centre Street. After a brief rally, where a formerly incarcerated member of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and resident of the Lower East Side spoke on the significance of Smith houses, we proceeded to the Manhattan Criminal Courts building where we carried out the "frisk-in." One organizer, dressed in a pig mask with a police officer's cap, frisked a line of activists, who "assumed the position" on their knees with hands behind their backs. One of the activists shouts the Cosby-esque line: "This would all just end if you just pulled your pants up." Further down the line, someone says "something's wrong here... shouldn't we prevent this pig from harassing us." The activists lock arms and rise to their feet, surround the cop, and chant "Stop and frisk don't stop the crime, Stop and frisk IS the crime!"

The plan was made for a Student Day of Action soon after the first civil disobedience action in Harlem against stop and frisk —and was proposed by the STOP "Stop & Frisk" campus outreach working group, composed of grassroots organizers, students and teachers. Coming off of the first couple actions, where four student organizers from Columbia were arrested, the mission of the Student Day of Action became to answer the call to foster a whole new generation of freedom fighters, and recognize the decisive and influential role that students play in all this.

Those who participated in the march were visibly exhilarated—not only by the content of our chants and theatre, but also in response to knowing that we were giving the runaround to the police. At a planning meeting at Columbia beforehand, we discussed how we should put a student spin on things, and really open up the space for students to come out and bear witness, and stand in solidarity with those who have put their bodies on the line to stop all this. A student brought up dramatizing the event through dressing up and doing street theatre, and more specifically, conducting a "frisk-in" similar to the "die-ins" done at anti-war protests.

In the greater fight to end stop and frisk, important progress was made: not only in adding more students and student organizations to the numbers of people prepared to come out and bear witness or conduct civil disobedience—but also contributing to engendering a culture and atmosphere of resistance and spirited defiance for the illegitimate actions of the police. In combination with giving [NYPD Police Chief] Ray Kelly the Bull Connor Award at Columbia University (see press release posted at revcom.us), the Student Day of Action "frisk-in" is a representative action that contributes to demystifying the nature and role of the police in this system, and popularizing the spirit of defiance of the new Freedom Fighters, overall.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/durban_climate_talks-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Durban Climate Talks:
Criminal Inaction and the Imminent Danger

Representatives from 195 countries are now meeting at the 17th UN-sponsored climate talks in Durban, South Africa. Meetings run through December 9. Since 1992, these UN climate conferences have talked about addressing the urgent problem of climate change—but nothing of substance has been done to stop the problem. Instead, the situation has gotten worse and worse.

Even before the Durban conference began, the representatives of the most powerful countries that control this whole process had announced to the world that we should have no expectations for any major deals to address climate change. A New York Times headline said the Durban meeting concentrated "urgent issues but low expectations." In fact, according to the UK Guardian, "The UK, European Union, Japan, U.S. and other rich nations are all now united in opting to put off an agreement to limit emissions."

From Copenhagen to Durban

Leading up to the global climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009, expectations were raised that finally a real deal would be made with binding commitments to cut greenhouse gases that are the cause of global warming. The accord that was actually signed did nothing to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and was not even a beginning of a serious plan to do so. Instead, a criminal deal with no serious intention of doing anything was passed mainly at the initiative of the U.S., and then crammed down the throats of the majority of other countries. (See "Copenhagen Climate Summit Accord: A Crime Against the Planet," Revolution #188, January 10, 2010, online at revcom.us.)

Copenhagen was not an urgent gathering of scientists and others to solve this problem. What took place was the leaders of the world's most powerful countries fighting among themselves to force the other to make compromises while viciously pursuing their own interests and leaving the planet and its people to face the approaching global disaster.

When the Copenhagen talks produced nothing of substance, the world was promised that a new climate treaty could be made within a year. Then the time frame became 2-3 years. And now, the major imperialist players say no treaty should be expected until 2016—and that treaty wouldn't even take effect until 2020.

If such a decision is what happens—if such decisions and the power to make them remains in the hands of these capitalist powers—this will spell disaster for the world's ecosystems. The reality is that the world does not have this much time. Leading climate scientists are increasingly warning that emissions must be cut drastically—starting now—if catastrophic global climate changes are to be avoided.

Nothing again came out of talks last year in Cancun, Mexico, except for do-nothing promises to create a fund for the rich countries to pay for technology and projects for the poor countries to supposedly take steps to mitigate climate change. And even this has amounted to nothing, with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. pulling out in the weeks before the Durban talks.

Barack Obama and other U.S. representatives claimed that Copenhagen was a real success and set a framework for progress. The agreement said nations would set their own goals to cut greenhouse emissions and that this voluntary approach would achieve real progress. This was, and is, a cruel hoax that is exposed by the facts.

The Evidence from Science

The U.S. Department of Energy revealed recently that in 2010, the global output of carbon dioxide (the predominant greenhouse gas) had risen 6 percent over the year before. John Reilly of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change said, "The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing." Carbon emissions from the U.S. and China accounted for over half of the increase in emissions, and this was despite a global economic crisis. According to Tom Boden of the Oak Ridge National Lab, these figures mean the actual situation in the world is outstripping even the worst-case projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-a panel of world scientists and leaders that study climate change). The IPCC has projected that under its worst-case scenario, global temperatures will rise between 4 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. This scenario would spell a holocaust by drought, crop failure and water shortages in Africa; inundation of island nations and huge swaths of low lying nations like Bangladesh and parts of Egypt; a generalized destruction of large numbers of the world's species; and countless other disasters worldwide.

The World Meteorological Society just released figures showing that carbon dioxide levels in 2010 reached their highest level in recorded history, at 389 parts per million. Previous studies have documented that these levels are not only rising, but that their rate of increase is also going up.

The science and facts make it unmistakably clear. Climate change resulting from human-caused warming of the planet is underway and threatens to become a full-fledged catastrophe. The very future of life for many of our planet's species and possibly humanity itself is in danger. Studies show that 2010 was the warmest year on record. And a new report from the World Meteorological Organization says that 13 of the warmest years for earth's average temperature in recorded history have occurred in the last 15 years.

Studies are increasingly documenting a link between global warming and the trend to more extreme weather events—more intensive droughts in some areas, more intense rainfall and flooding in others, more powerful storms, and unprecedented heat waves. The Arctic ice cap and seas—the center of rich ecosystems crucial to the planet as a whole and central to earth's climate system throughout humanity's existence on earth—have been melting to unprecedented levels over the past decade. Scientists studying these developments describe this situation as "reinforcing the notion that the Arctic sea ice is in its death spiral."

Year after year, for decades, the alarm has been sounded and grown louder and louder—shouting out in scientific study after study; underwritten in a million ways in changes in the behavior, patterns, and movement of nature's inhabitants; and announced in increasingly destructive storms, killing heat waves and the changed face of our planet.

And year after year, the screaming chasm between the heightening danger and the criminal inaction and incapability of the world's major powers to address this danger sharpens. This criminality is so extreme in the U.S. that in ruling circles and official public opinion, doing anything of meaning about this problem or even confronting its existence in any real way has been ruled off the map.

Revolution will have further coverage of the Durban conference. But this much is already clear: The ruling classes and representatives of this system are incapable of saving our planet—not simply because of their greed for profit, but because of the very workings of the system of capitalism. Under capitalism, everything is turned into a commodity and everything must be done for profit; production is privately owned and driven by the commandment of "expand or die"; and there is a great divide between the imperialist and oppressed countries. (See "Are Corporations and Banks Corrupting the System, or Is the Problem the System of Capitalism" by Raymond Lotta.) There is no reason to think this system and its representatives are capable of addressing global climate change in the manner and time required. If economic and political power remains in their hands, humanity faces the real danger of a coming global environmental collapse.

But things do not have to be this way. There is an actual framework and approach, laid out in Revolution special issue "Global Emergency" (online at revcom.us/environment) and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal), that could move to address the climate and overall environmental crisis, by establishing through revolution a new system that would have at its foundation a sustainable economic approach that would preserve and maintain natural ecosystems. A system that would have a fighting chance to lead the world to combat environmental catastrophe as a critical element in the fight to emancipate all of humanity.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/thousands_come_out_for_dix_and_west-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Thousands Come Out for Carl Dix and Cornel West Dialogue at UC Berkeley

Friday, December 2 was an extraordinary evening. That night, Carl Dix, a longtime revolutionary and founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, and Cornel West, a leading public intellectual and "champion for racial and social justice," brought their dialogue—"In the Age of Obama...Police Terror, Incarceration, No Jobs, Mis-education: What Future for Our Youth?"—to the University of California campus in Berkeley. Both students and longtime observers told us they couldn't remember ever seeing so many turn out for a speaking event on campus.

Capacity audiences totaling at least 1,800 packed into Pauley Ballroom and two overflow rooms with live audio and video feeds. The line for the event stretched literally halfway through the campus, from the Student Union past the main library—roughly a quarter mile. Hundreds upon hundreds had to be turned away for lack of space.

Most attending were UC students. They were joined by members of the UC faculty, as well as students from other campuses including Mills, Laney, SF State, Cal. State East Bay, and colleges in San Jose. They were joined by activists and prominent figures from the community, in particular the Bay Area's African-American community, progressive religious people, high school students, artists and others. Many had been active in the Occupy movements throughout the Bay Area, including on the UC Berkeley campus.

Carl Dix and Cornel West each gave substantial presentations, and then had an extended dialogue. Afterward they answered questions from the audience.

"I'm fighting with the apathy and the indifference that is so constant in our society," a young woman told Revolution after listening to the program. "I know about this stuff but I forget about it so easily. I love hearing stuff like this where it really moves me and gets me fired up and makes me start acting."

"I had never heard Carl Dix before so I feel that I learned so much from him," a woman who teaches at a nearby seminary told Revolution. "I don't know very much about communism and he explained it concisely for me and he also interested me enough that I want to go read more about it and that kind of surprises me because I was raised as an Italian Catholic."

As the audience for the event lined up, Occupy Cal demonstrators set up three tents on the plaza, in violation of a University ban. At 11 pm, as the event was ending, Cornel West and Carl Dix went out to meet with and talk to the Occupiers.

There is much, much more to sum up, understand and report about this extraordinary evening, and Revolution will be doing so in its coming coverage.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/avakian/Egypt/Egypt2011-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

EGYPT 2011: MILLIONS HAVE
HEROICALLY STOOD UP...
THE FUTURE REMAINS TO BE WRITTEN

A Statement By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

February 11, 2011

Millions of Egyptian people from all walks of life, drawing inspiration from the people of Tunisia, have heroically risen up, defied the hated regime of Hosni Mubarak and forced Mubarak to resign. This has shattered the notion that "things can never change." It is a powerful demonstration that there is no permanent necessity to the existing conditions under which the great majority of humanity suffer so terribly. Oppressed people and people who hunger for an end to oppression, in every country all over the world, have deeply shared in the joy and hope of these massive uprisings. And the stirrings of revolt continue to spread.

At the same time, while Mubarak has stepped down, the same basic forces that have so cruelly ruled over and exploited the Egyptian people remain in power. And, despite their honeyed words of praise for the masses of youth and others who have risen up, despite their promises of "freedom" and "democracy," in reality they are determined to bring about a "transition" that will ensure that there is no fundamental change—that whatever new arrangements are engineered in the political process will still keep the masses of people in Egypt, in Palestine, and other countries of strategic importance for U.S. imperialism, in unbearable conditions. After all, the armed forces in Egypt—which are now supposed to carry out this "transition"—are the same armed forces which for decades faithfully and brutally enforced the rule of the Mubarak regime, while the heads of this military enriched themselves through becoming major exploiters of the Egyptian people; and the imperialists of the U.S.—who fully backed Mubarak and his cronies and kept them in power for 30 years, without any regard for the suffering of the people—are the very same imperialists who are now seeking yet again to call the shots and give the ultimate orders in terms of what the "transition" in Egypt will be.

The plans and designs of these oppressors and exploiters are NOT what the masses of people desperately want and need. Theirs is the cry of "freedom," and the struggle must be carried forward until real freedom is achieved—freedom from the rule of the imperialists and their local henchmen and junior partners, freedom from all forms of oppression and exploitation. Freedom from both the outmoded forces which would enslave women, and the people as a whole, in medieval darkness and oppression—and from the outmoded forces who would enslave people in the name of "democracy"..."freedom"...and capitalist-imperialist exploitation marketed as "progress."

It has frequently happened in history, as has been the case in Egypt (as well as Tunisia), that the domination of imperialism and the rule of local exploiters has taken a concentrated form in the regime of a "strong man" butcher. This was the case, for example, in Iran, with the torture-chamber rule of the Shah, in the Philippines with the tyranny of Marcos, and in Indonesia with the long monstrous reign of Suharto—all brutal dictatorships put in power and long kept in power by U.S. imperialism. In Iran in the late 1970s, in the Philippines in the 1980s, in Indonesia more recently, massive uprisings of the people forced the U.S. imperialists to throw aside these hated tyrants and to allow some changes. But in every case, the ultimate result was not one which led to real "freedom" for the people—instead they have continued to be subjected to cruel oppression at the hands of those who replaced the old, hated rulers, while these countries have remained within the overall framework of global imperialist domination and exploitation. But historical experience has also shown that the continuation of oppressive rule, in one form or another, is NOT the only possible outcome.

In Russia, in February 1917, another brutal despot, the Czar (absolute monarch), was overthrown by the uprising of the people. Here again, the U.S., British, and other imperialists, and the Russian capitalists, tried to continue the oppression of the Russian people in a new form, using the mechanisms of "democratic rule" and elections which, while allowing for some broader participation of different parties, would still be totally controlled by the exploiters of the people and would ensure their continuing rule, and the continued suffering of the masses of people. In this case, however, the masses of people were enabled to see through these maneuvers and manipulations, to carry forward their revolutionary rising, through many different twists and turns and, in October 1917, to sweep aside and dismantle the institutions and mechanisms of bourgeois dictatorship and to establish a new political and economic system, socialism, which for several decades continued to advance in the direction of abolishing relations of exploitation and oppression, as part of the struggle throughout the world toward the final goal of communism. The crucial difference was that, in the uprisings in Russia, there was a core of leadership, communist leadership, that had a clear, scientifically grounded, understanding of the nature of not just this or that ruthless despot but of the whole oppressive system—and of the need to continue the revolutionary struggle not just to force a particular ruler from office but to abolish that whole system and replace it with one that would really embody and give life to the freedom and the most fundamental interests of the people, in striving to abolish all oppression and exploitation.

Even though the revolution in Russia was ultimately reversed, with capitalism restored there in the 1950s, and today Russia no longer seeks to disguise the fact that it is a capitalist-imperialist power, the lessons of the Russian Revolution of 1917 hold valuable, indeed decisive lessons for today. And the most decisive lesson is this: When people in their masses, in their millions, finally break free of the constraints that have kept them from rising up against their oppressors and tormentors, then whether or not their heroic struggle and sacrifice will really lead to a fundamental change, moving toward the abolition of all exploitation and oppression, depends on whether or not there is a leadership, communist leadership, that has the necessary scientific understanding and method, and on that basis can develop the necessary strategic approach and the influence and organized ties among growing numbers of the people, in order to lead the uprising of the people, through all the twists and turns, to the goal of a real, revolutionary transformation of society, in accordance with the fundamental interests of the people. And, in turn, when people massively break with the "normal routine" and the tightly woven chains of oppressive relations in which they are usually entrapped and by which they are heavily weighed down—when they break through and rise up in their millions—that is a crucial time for communist organization to further develop its ties with those masses, strengthening its ranks and its ability to lead. Or, if such communist organization does not yet exist, or exists only in isolated fragments, this is a crucial time for communist organization to be forged and developed, to take up the challenge of studying and applying communist theory, in a living way, in the midst of this tumultuous situation, and to strive to continually develop ties with, to influence and to ultimately lead growing numbers of the masses in the direction of the revolution that represents their fundamental and highest interests, the communist revolution.

In my writings and talks, in Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, a Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, and in other major documents of our Party, we have striven to draw as deeply and fully as possible the critical lessons from the historical experience of the communist revolution and the socialist societies it has brought into being—the very real and great achievements, and the serious errors and setbacks—and to learn from the broader experience of human society and its historical development, in order to contribute all we can to the advance of the revolutionary struggle and the emancipation of oppressed people throughout the world. As the Constitution of our Party states:

"The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA has taken the responsibility to lead revolution in the U.S., the belly of the imperialist beast, as its principal share of the world revolution and the ultimate aim of communism....

"The emancipation of all humanity: this, and nothing less than this, is our goal. There is no greater cause, no greater purpose to which to dedicate our lives."

It is in this spirit, and with this orientation and goal in mind, that I extend heartfelt support and encouragement to the millions who have risen up. To all who truly want to see the heroic struggle of the oppressed masses develop, with the necessary leadership, in the direction of real revolutionary transformation of society and genuine liberation: engage with and take up the emancipating viewpoint and goals of communism, and the challenge of giving this organized expression and a growing influence and presence among the struggling masses.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/ray_kelly_bull_connor_award-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Revolution newspaper received the following press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 29th, 2011

2011 Bull Connor Award delivered to Ray Kelly by students at Columbia University, Stop Mass Incarceration Network (Stop "Stop & Frisk"), and Occupy Wall Street protesters.

On Tuesday afternoon Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke in the Urban Public Policy seminar class at Columbia University. This occasion attracted students, along with protesters from Occupy Wall Street and new Freedom Fighters against the New Jim Crow carrying out non-violent civil disobedience, in the movement to Stop "Stop & Frisk." This grouping greeted Ray Kelly inside the School of International Policy and Affairs (SIPA) to present him with the Bull Connor Award for outstanding service to the white community. The course he spoke at was called Urban Public Policy.

Congratulations Raymond Walter Kelly thank you for following the inspiring example set by Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor in never relenting in hounding Blacks and Latinos, persecuting Freedom Fighters, and keeping the city safe for upper class white men. November 29th, 2011

The award was issued by a Columbia University student who thanked him for the special privileges his administration affords him as a heterosexual white male." He remarked "my wealth feels very secure here as well as my privileges."

Although he was unable to accept at this time he will have another opportunity to accept this award at the December 2nd Citywide Day of Student Action to Stop "Stop & Frisk" where students will come out against this policy.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/awtwns_india-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

India: CPI(Maoist) leader Kishenji murdered

November 28, 2011. A World to Win News Service. Mallojula Koteswara Rao, also known as Kishenji, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), was killed in a forest area of West Bengal on November 24.

The authorities claimed that comrade Rao was killed in a firefight during an operation involving some 900 paramilitary troops and state police, including the Cobra commandos specially trained to fight the Maoist-led revolutionary movement based in the rural areas of central and eastern India. A party statement issued the next day said that he had been arrested, tortured and murdered.

At the funeral in his home town, Peddapally, the revolutionary writer P. Varavara Rao read out the following statement by the party's Central Committee.

November 24, 2011 would remain a black day in the annals of Indian revolutionary movement's history. The fascist Sonia-Manmohan-Pranab-Chidambaram-Jairam Ramesh ruling clique who have been raising a din that CPI (Maoist) is "the biggest internal security threat," in collusion with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, killed Comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao after capturing him alive in a well planned conspiracy. This clique which had killed Comrade Azad, our party's spokesperson, on July 1, 2010 once again spread its dragnet and quenched its thirst for blood. Mamata Banerjee, who had shed crocodile tears over the murder of Comrade Azad before coming to power, while enacting the drama of talks on the one hand after assuming office, killed another topmost leader Comrade Koteswara Rao and thus displayed nakedly its anti-people and fascist facet. The central intelligence agencies and the killer intelligence agencies of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh chased him in a well planned conspiracy and killed him in a cowardly manner in a joint operation and now spreading a concocted story of encounter. The central home secretary R.K. Singh even while lying that they do not know for certain who died in the encounter, has in the same breath announced that this is a big blow to the Maoist movement. Thus he nakedly gave away their conspiracy behind this killing. The oppressed people would definitely send to grave the exploiting ruling classes and their imperialist masters who are daydreaming that they could wipe out the Maoist party by killing the top leadership of the revolutionary movement.

Comrade Koteswara Rao, who is hugely popular as Prahlad, Ramji, Kishenji and Bimal inside the party and among the people, is one of the important leaders of the Indian revolutionary movement. The tireless warrior who never rested his gun while fighting for the liberation of the oppressed masses since the past 37 years and who has laid down his life for the sake of the ideology he believed in, was born in 1954 in Peddapally town of Karimnagar district of North Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. Raised by his father the late Venkataiah, who was a freedom fighter, and his mother Madhuramma who has been of progressive views, Koteswara Rao imbibed love for his country and its oppressed masses since childhood. In 1969, he had participated in the historic separate Telangana movement while he was in his high school studies in Peddapally town. He joined the revolutionary movement with the inspiration of the glorious Naxalbari and Srikakulam movements while studying graduation in SRR college of Karimnagar. He started working as an active member of the Party from 1974. He spent some time in jail during the black period of the Emergency. After lifting up of the Emergency, he started working as a party organizer in his home district of Karimnagar. He responded to the "Go to Villages" campaign call of the party and developed relations with the peasantry by going to the villages. He was one of those who played a prominent role in the upsurge of peasant movement popular as "Jagityal Jaitrayatra" (Victory March of Jagityal) in 1978. In this course, he was elected as the district committee member of the Adilabad-Karimnagar joint committee of the CPI (ML). In 1979 when this committee was divided into two district committees he became the secretary of the Karimnagar district committee. He participated in the Andhra Pradesh state 12th party conference, was elected to the AP state committee and took responsibilities as its secretary.

Up to 1985, as part of the AP state committee leadership he played a crucial role in spreading the movement all over the state and in developing the North Telangana movement which was advancing with guerilla zone perspective. He played a prominent role in expanding the movement to Dandakaranya (DK) and developing it. He was transferred to Dandakaranya in 1986 and took up responsibilities as a member of the Forest Committee. He led the guerilla squads and the people in Gadchiroli and Bastar areas of DK. In 1993 he was co-opted as a member into the Central Organizing Committee (COC).

From 1994 onwards he mainly worked to spread and develop the revolutionary movement in Eastern and Northern parts of India including West Bengal. Particularly his role in uniting the revolutionary forces which were scattered after the setback of the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal and in reviving the revolutionary movement there is extraordinary. He mingled deeply with the oppressed masses of Bengal and the various sections of the revolutionary camp, learnt the Bangla language with determination and left an indelible mark in the hearts of the people there. He worked tirelessly in achieving unity with several revolutionary groups and in strengthening the party. Comrade Koteswara Rao was elected as a Central Committee (CC) member in the All India Special Conference of the erstwhile CPI (ML) (People's War) held in 1995. He strived for achieving unity between People's War and Party Unity in 1998. In the Party Congress of the erstwhile CPI (ML)(PW) held in 2001 he was once again elected into CC and Politburo. He took up responsibilities as the secretary of the North Regional Bureau (NRB) and led the revolutionary movements in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab states. Simultaneously he played a key role in the unity talks held between erstwhile PW and MCCI. He served as a member of the unified CC and Politburo formed after the merger of the two parties in 2004 and worked as a member of the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB). He mainly concentrated on the state movement of West Bengal and continued as the spokesperson of the ERB.

Comrade Koteswara Rao played a prominent role in running party magazines and in the field of political education inside the party. He took part in running Kranti, Errajenda, Jung, Prabhat, Vanguard and other party magazines. He had a special role to play in bringing out various revolutionary magazines in West Bengal. He wrote many theoretical and political articles in these magazines. He was a member of the Sub-Committee on Political Education (SCOPE) and played a prominent role in teaching Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the party ranks. In the entire history of the party he played a memorable role in expanding the revolutionary movement, in enriching the party documents and in developing the movement. He participated in the Unity Congress-9th Congress of the party held in 2007 January, was elected as CC member once again and took responsibilities of Politburo member and member of the ERB.

The political guidance given by Comrade Koteswara Rao to the Singur and Nandigram people's movements which erupted since 2007 against the anti-people and pro-corporate policies of the social fascist CPM government in West Bengal and particularly to the glorious upsurge of people's rebellion in Lalgarh against police atrocities is prominent. He guided the West Bengal state committee and the party ranks to lead these movements and on the other hand conducted party propaganda through the media too with initiative. In 2009 when the Chidambaram clique tried to mislead the middle classes in the name of talks and ceasefire, he worked significantly in exposing it. He did enormous work in keeping aloft the importance of People's War and in taking the revolutionary politics into the vast masses. This great revolutionary journey which went on for almost four decades came to an abrupt end on November 24, 2011.

Do condemn this brutal murder. It is the conspiracy of the ruling classes to wipe out the revolutionary leadership and deprive the people of correct guidance and proletarian leadership. It is a known fact that the Maoist movement is the biggest hurdle to the big robbers and compradors who are stashing millions in Swiss banks by selling for peanuts the Jal, Jungle and Zameen of the country to the imperialist sharks. The multi-pronged, country-wide brutal offensive named Operation Green Hunt of the past two years is exactly serving this purpose. This cold-blooded murder is part of that. It is the duty of the patriots and freedom-loving people of the country to protect the revolutionary movement and its leadership like the pupil of their eye. It's nothing but protecting the future of the country and that of the next generations.

Even at the age of 57, Com. Koteswara Rao led the hard life of a guerilla like a young man and had filled the cadres and people with great enthusiasm wherever he went. His life would particularly serve as a great inspiration to the younger generation. He studied and worked for hours together without rest and traveled great distances. He slept very little, led a simple life and was a hard worker. He used to mingle easily with people of all ages and with people who come from various social sections and fill them with revolutionary enthusiasm. No doubt, the martyrdom of Comrade Koteswara Rao is a great loss to the Indian revolutionary movement. But the people of our country are very great. It is the people and the people's movements which gave birth to courageous and dedicated revolutionaries like Koteswara Rao. The workers and peasants and the revolutionaries who have imbibed the revolutionary spirit of Koteswara Rao right from Jagityal to Jungle Mahal and who have armed themselves with the revolutionary fragrance he spread all over the country would definitely lead the Indian New Democratic Revolution in a victory path. They would wipe out the imperialists and their lackey landlord and comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and their representatives like Sonia, Manmohan, Chidambaram and Mamata Banerjee.

Our CC is appealing to the people of the country to observe protest week from November 29 to December 5 and observe 48-hour "Bharat Bandh" on December 4-5 in protest of the brutal murder of Comrade Koteswara Rao. We are appealing that they take up various programmes like holding meetings, rallies, dharnas, wearing black badges, road blocks etc protesting this murder. We are requesting that trains, roadways, commercial and educational institutions be closed and that all kinds of trade transactions be stopped as part of the "Bharat Bandh" on December 4-5. However, we are exempting medical services from the Bandh.

A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine (aworldtowin.org), a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/252/mumia_must_be_free-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

A Great Injustice for 30 Years—Mumia Must Be Free!

December 9 marks the 30th anniversary of the night Philadelphia police shot, beat, and arrested the revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. He has now been sitting in solitary confinement on death row for 29 years.

Shortly before dawn, on December 9, 1981, Mumia was driving a cab on a downtown Philadelphia street. He saw a cop viciously beating his brother, William Cook, with a metal flashlight. Mumia rushed to the scene. He was shot in the chest by the cop, and was found sitting on the sidewalk in a pool of his own blood. The cop lay on the street nearby, dying from bullet wounds. Arriving police attacked Mumia, who was well known to them as a revolutionary journalist and a former Black Panther, and arrested him for the murder of the cop.

At his 1982 trial, Mumia was denied the right to serve as his own attorney and was barred from the courtroom for half his trial. The prosecution claimed Mumia had confessed—a confession that cops only "remembered" months after the incident. Witnesses were coerced into giving false testimony. Key evidence was never seen by the jury. A court reporter overheard the trial judge saying that he was going to help the cops "fry the n****r." Mumia was convicted and sentenced to death.

A determined mass movement prevented Mumia's execution in 1995, but he was still denied justice and remained on death row. By 2000, Mumia's case had become an international issue. The European Parliament, Amnesty International, and others called for a new trial. In 2001 a federal district court judge upheld Mumia's conviction but overturned his death sentence because of unconstitutional jury instructions. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed these decisions, leaving Mumia to face the prospect of life in prison without parole.

Revolution recently spoke with Pam Africa, leader of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, about the current situation and ongoing importance of the struggle to free Mumia.

The Revolution Interview is a special feature of Revolution to acquaint our readers with the views of significant figures in art, theater, music and literature, science, sports and politics. The views expressed by those we interview are, of course, their own, and they are not responsible for the views published elsewhere in our paper.

Revolution: What does the experience of Mumia Abu-Jamal and his case tell us about the kind of society and government we live under?

Pam Africa: I've learned that no matter how many organizations and how many countries you have—the European Parliament, presidents of all these different countries, and people standing up on the front lines clearly stating that this is wrong—30 years later, we wind up with a decision from this government stating that Mumia would still get life without parole, it's time for people to stand up.

We can all shut this government down, by people supporting Occupy Wall Street. Here's all these youth up there, bringing that important much-needed attention to the problem. Occupy Wall Street is a good example of resistance to this government. That's what we have to do, resist. This is the government that wanted to just outright kill Mumia, and there would have been no ifs, ands, or buts about it, except for this powerful, powerful movement, which forced them to come up with this decision... forced them to say life in prison [ed.—rather than execution]. Now we can get them to release Mumia based on the evidence, because nobody can get around the fact of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. Life in prison without the possibility of parole is unacceptable. I'm talking about what society can do, people who have humanity, people who have justice in them. We're not dealing with courts of law. We are dealing with courts of outlaw. The reason that Occupy is so strong right now is the same reason that Mumia is alive now—it's because of persistence. Wherever I'm at, I visit the Occupy to encourage them, to help keep them going.

PA: I see people mobilizing around the world, in Cuba, in Africa, Canada, all throughout the United States, in France, in Germany, in London and Amsterdam. People are outraged that this government could come up and say life in prison without parole after all that has been uncovered in these 30 years. The only call can be: Release Mumia. The one thing we do know is, if we let this go down with Mumia, it will continue for the many coming behind. It's not like Mumia is the first one that they have done this to. Mumia has been made an example, you know, because Mumia doesn't backpedal on his positions.

Revolution: Tell us about the big program you have coming up on December 9 in Philadelphia.

PA: What Mumia is asking people to do is come and take a stand. On December 9 we'll have a program at the National Constitution Center, with Brother Cornel West, Michelle Alexander, Vijay Prashad, Immortal Technique, Mark Lamont Hill, Ramona Africa, Michael Coard, Louisa Hanoune, Amiri and Amina Baraka, IMPACT Youth Repertory Theater, African Dance Ensemble, and a video statement from Desmond Tutu. The reason why people have stopped what they are doing to come here is that we have to send this government a loud, clear message: We are not going to allow you to get away with what you are trying to get away with. Our call has to be, Release Mumia!

Permalink: http://www.revcom.us/a/251/call-for-volunteers-mass-incarceration-project-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

Mass Incarceration in the USA:
The history behind it... what it means today... the struggle to put an end to it

The United States—the richest and most powerful nation—has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of its prisoners. More than 2.3 million people are behind bars in the country that brags it is the "leader of the free world." The courageous prisoners on hunger strikes have shined a light on how they are subjected to the inhumane, mind-crushing torture of solitary confinement—kept in small, windowless concrete cells 23 hours a day and denied human contact. Such mental torture is considered a war crime when carried out against prisoners of war, but the U.S. inflicts this on tens of thousands of prisoners.

If you find this situation intolerable—as you should—then you need to be part of exposing these conditions and joining the struggle against mass incarceration in the U.S. And one important way you can do this is by working on a special project Revolution newspaper is initiating to do research and deeply expose the reality of mass incarceration in the U.S.

Today, mass incarceration concentrates the way Black and Latino people are systematically discriminated against and oppressed by the system. In the U.S. Black people in particular have always filled the prisons in greatly disproportionate numbers compared to whites. But as the forms under which Black people have been subjugated in this country have evolved, the forms of the enforcement of their subjugation have evolved as well. And the massive numbers of African-Americans in jail concentrate that—in terrible ways with ominous implications.

There is an urgent need to raise people's consciousness about this and a pressing need for determined struggle against this outrage. And through this, people can come to see that things don’t have to be this way—that there is the necessity, and the possibility, of a radically different world.

Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, has summed up the positive and negative experience of the communist revolution so far, and drawing from a broad range of human experience, has developed a new synthesis of communism. There really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and there is the crucial leadership needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal. Revolution newspaper takes the work of Bob Avakian as its foundation and framework.

We are building a movement for revolution. We have a strategy. And Revolution is a crucial, pivotal part of this. This newspaper enables people to really understand and act to radically change the world. It cuts to the bone to tell you WHY things are happening... to show you HOW it doesn’t have to be this way... and to give you the ways to ACT to change it. It is a call to action and a means of struggle. It provides a scaffold upon which thousands today—and eventually millions—stay connected and learn to act in powerful and united ways.

The Revolution project around mass incarceration will do important new exposure and connect up with and help fuel mass resistance. Our methodology is to dig deep, to learn about and expose what’s really going on, to get at the facts. It’s not about putting a story together to support what we already think—it’s about getting to the truth. And this approach is both crucial and exciting.

We need high school and college interns and other volunteers to work on this project—which is about understanding and changing the world. Look at the important role students have played in doing research and digging up information that has led to the exoneration of innocent prisoners, many who were on death row. Such work has brought the searing injustice of the U.S. death penalty to the attention of millions of people and spurred others to act.

Good research includes digging up facts and figures—and through doing this to expose the ways in which this is the leading edge in new forms of systematic and systemic oppression of Black and Latino people . To put this all together, the human element of this is something this project needs to really focus on. For example this project will include:

People can work on this project with Revolution reporters in different cities, and contribute from anywhere via e-mail and phone.

To apply for this project send us a letter (revolution.volunteers@yahoo.com or RCP Pubs PO Box 3486 Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654), telling us about yourself, why you want to work on this project, in what ways you think you can contribute, and what your availability is.

Special Issue on Prisons and Prisoners in the U.S.
From the Hellholes of Incarceration to a Future of Emancipation
revcom.us/a/183/editorial-en.html

Special Issue – The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and the Revolution We Need
revcom.us/a/144/BNQ-en.html

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

The American Enterprise—Property and Slavery
Peculiar Notions of "Freedom" and Profound Contradictions

Occupy LA Eviction: Determined Resistance Up Against Deceit and Repression

"We're Still Here!"

Reporters Banned and "Embedded"

BA EVERYWHERE

What is this film going to be about?

Succeeding in our goal

Film Concept
Occasioned by the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

SUCCEEDING WITH THE GOAL
$23,000 by December 12 for Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

What is this film going to be about?

Succeeding in our goal

Learning from experience

BAsics 2:8

Four key links

READ why some people are contributing

A REFLECTION ON THE "OCCUPY" MOVEMENT:
AN INSPIRING BEGINNING...AND THE NEED TO GO FURTHER

Deadly Inequalities... in a World of Capitalist Exploitation and Oppression

Getting Out BAsics on "Black Friday"

A Thanksgiving Dinner—with Revolution in the Mix

Are Corporations and Banks Corrupting the System, or Is the Problem the System of Capitalism?

Corporations and Banks: Part of Something Bigger

Capitalism Operates According to Certain Rules

Capitalism and the State

Political Disobedience vs. Revolution: An Exchange and Debate on the Significance and Implications of the Occupy Movement

New York: Student Action to STOP "Stop and Frisk"

Durban Climate Talks:
Criminal Inaction and the Imminent Danger

From Copenhagen to Durban

The Evidence from Science

Thousands Come Out for Carl Dix and Cornel West Dialogue at UC Berkeley

EGYPT 2011: MILLIONS HAVE
HEROICALLY STOOD UP...
THE FUTURE REMAINS TO BE WRITTEN

A Statement By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

February 11, 2011

2011 Bull Connor Award delivered to Ray Kelly by students at Columbia University, Stop Mass Incarceration Network (Stop "Stop & Frisk"), and Occupy Wall Street protesters.

India: CPI(Maoist) leader Kishenji murdered

A Great Injustice for 30 Years—Mumia Must Be Free!

ALL OUT FOR MUMIA

Mass Incarceration in the USA:
The history behind it... what it means today... the struggle to put an end to it

Revolution #252, December 11, 2011

The American Enterprise—Property and Slavery Peculiar Notions of "Freedom" and Profound Contradictions

Occupy LA Eviction: Determined Resistance Up Against Deceit and Repression

"We're Still Here!"

Reporters Banned and "Embedded"

BA EVERYWHERE

What is this film going to be about?

Succeeding in our goal

Film Concept Occasioned by the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

SUCCEEDING WITH THE GOAL $23,000 by December 12 for Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

What is this film going to be about?

Succeeding in our goal

Learning from experience

BAsics 2:8

Four key links

READ why some people are contributing

A REFLECTION ON THE "OCCUPY" MOVEMENT: AN INSPIRING BEGINNING...AND THE NEED TO GO FURTHER

Deadly Inequalities... in a World of Capitalist Exploitation and Oppression

Getting Out BAsics on "Black Friday"

A Thanksgiving Dinner—with Revolution in the Mix

Are Corporations and Banks Corrupting the System, or Is the Problem the System of Capitalism?

Corporations and Banks: Part of Something Bigger

Capitalism Operates According to Certain Rules

Capitalism and the State

Political Disobedience vs. Revolution: An Exchange and Debate on the Significance and Implications of the Occupy Movement

New York: Student Action to STOP "Stop and Frisk"

Durban Climate Talks: Criminal Inaction and the Imminent Danger

From Copenhagen to Durban

The Evidence from Science

Thousands Come Out for Carl Dix and Cornel West Dialogue at UC Berkeley

EGYPT 2011: MILLIONS HAVE HEROICALLY STOOD UP... THE FUTURE REMAINS TO BE WRITTEN

A Statement By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

February 11, 2011

2011 Bull Connor Award delivered to Ray Kelly by students at Columbia University, Stop Mass Incarceration Network (Stop "Stop & Frisk"), and Occupy Wall Street protesters.

India: CPI(Maoist) leader Kishenji murdered

A Great Injustice for 30 Years—Mumia Must Be Free!

ALL OUT FOR MUMIA

Mass Incarceration in the USA: The history behind it... what it means today... the struggle to put an end to it

The American Enterprise—Property and Slavery
Peculiar Notions of "Freedom" and Profound Contradictions

Film Concept
Occasioned by the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

SUCCEEDING WITH THE GOAL
$23,000 by December 12 for Occasioned by BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World

A REFLECTION ON THE "OCCUPY" MOVEMENT:
AN INSPIRING BEGINNING...AND THE NEED TO GO FURTHER

Durban Climate Talks:
Criminal Inaction and the Imminent Danger

EGYPT 2011: MILLIONS HAVE
HEROICALLY STOOD UP...
THE FUTURE REMAINS TO BE WRITTEN

Mass Incarceration in the USA:
The history behind it... what it means today... the struggle to put an end to it