Showings Around the Country: People Were Inspired and Provoked to Think About What They Had Never Imagined Possible

October 1, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A week ago, the weekend of September 22-23, more than 250 people across the country attended special preview screenings of the groundbreaking film of a speech by Bob Avakian (BA), Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution.

These preview screenings were held outdoors at a park in Los Angeles, at Revolution Books in New York and Berkeley, and at the Revolution Club Organizing Center in Chicago. More preview screenings were planned this past weekend—stay tuned to revcom.us to hear about them. These preview screenings are part of generating momentum, buzz, and organization for the online premiere on October 19.

As we wrote earlier this week, “People were rapt... taking in and wrestling with the stark case that Bob Avakian (BA) makes in Part 1 of this film for why we face only two choices: either we live with the horrors that this system brings down on the people, or, we make revolution. Then, in Part 2, he breaks down a question that has bedeviled people for decades and more: How we could really make revolution in a country like this and what we have to do now to make that real. People were inspired and provoked to think about what they had never imagined possible.”

A member of the Revolution Club, New York City, captured the mood and sentiment at these previews, saying, “You could feel when people really connected with something in the film and you could feel when assumptions and comfort zones were being challenged. Some in the audience took careful notes and others did not take their eyes off the screen.... BA’s speech opened up interrogation of how the system of capitalism-imperialism operates as well as the possibility for things to be different.... The film led some of the people we spoke with to begin questioning things they had never questioned before. A high school student really captured it when she said she felt she’s been lied to all her life about many of the things spoken to in the film. Some of the people we spoke to also said they were challenged by a lot of what’s in the second half of the film. Overall hearing someone put forward and get into the complexity and dynamics of real revolution was challenging for some people and very attractive for others.”

This broadly characterized and captured the sentiment and mood across the country.

Those who attended came from a variety of perspectives. For example, according to a report on the New York City showing, “People came from all over the city and beyond and it was a very diverse audience. There were musicians and artists, students and young people, veterans of the ’60s, an attorney and other professionals, and residents from Harlem.... There were a number of new people who came who had never been to Revolution Books before.... People had a lot on their minds and many had come to engage, to learn, and to look for answers.”

Similarly, according to a report on the preview in Chicago, those who attended were a “diverse mix, some visiting our center for the first time, [they] included a couple who drove three hours from out of state, three people from a suburb north of Chicago, a foreign-born professor, a young man whose father had to leave El Salvador in the 1980s because of threats from the U.S.-backed death squads, as well as people from the neighborhood of the center and other parts of the South Side. The film was punctuated from the audience by outbursts of laughter, applause, thoughtful comments, and shouts of ‘All Played Out.’”

In Los Angeles, several people commented that Part 1 presented an “airtight, irrefutable” argument for why this system can’t be reformed—but that Part 2 was going to be “uphill.” However, they were thinking about real revolution in the U.S. in ways they had never considered before. A Latino organizer and activist responded, “WOW! This is just on a whole other level. Avakian went to a whole other place. Wow.”

The responses to the film from those attending the previews reveal the potential difference this film could make if seen by thousands and tens of thousands soon. A sample of brief excerpted video responses and testimonials can be viewed and spread on social media. Written and verbal responses also reflect this (see box).

One person met at a protest against global warming said she loved the way BA showed how the system works in Part 1. She said the second part left her with a lot of questions, and she wants to think about it more. She said it’s “a heartbreak” to learn that there is nothing good about this system. She’s trying to wrap her head around that. She understands and seems to appreciate that she can contribute now, as she is learning.

In conversation with a correspondent, one person said that he was very impressed with BA’s ability to present such deep analysis in ways that he could understand and then, commenting on the second half of the film, said that he had never thought about revolutionary strategy like this... that it was all very new to him and a lot of information to absorb, some of which went past him but which he wants to understand better. A criminal defense lawyer who had shared the film trailer on Facebook, and considers BA “brilliant,” really emphasized the importance of more people seeing BA. She was frustrated with people when they dismiss things like communism, and says she is attracted to the basic morality and principles of communism. A young Latino guy just getting involved in the Revolution Club, who was very engaged and taking notes during the film, said he felt like Bob Avakian was speaking to him and that he wishes he had heard about this years ago. He said that he wishes all the “warriors” who are “lost” right now could watch this film.

There were a lot of follow-up conversations, questions, and wanting to learn and discuss more, most discussions going well past the scheduled ending times, particularly with members of the Revolution Club. People discussed what will replace this society and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America as a framework for a radically different and far better society. People also got into how the 5 Stops cannot be resolved under capitalism-imperialism. There were deep interrogation and questions on whether and how we can actually win when the time is ripe to go for an actual seizure of power. Many were feeling really challenged by this dimension and wrangling with what to do NOW to prepare for that situation.

One of the key objectives of these preview screenings was building up the organizing capacity towards the online premiere and beyond—especially with fundraising, sparking a social movement of showings going into the premieres, and spreading word of the film through social media and wherever people gather through posters, palm cards, and other publicity materials. Ideas were solicited from people on how to spread the word and impact society with this film—because what is needed are people, their ideas and thinking. As the report from Chicago said, “There was some beginning brainstorming about fundraising which included organizing a benefit in an area of artist galleries and holding a back-alley, nighttime party at our center. People were encouraged to donate on the spot, and some did, including at the new GoFundMe site. People signed up for and talked about the plan to have 500 people post the video on their social media platforms when it premieres, and promoting it on their platforms between now and then.”

There was also organizing people into the movement for revolution, through getting involved in the Revolution Clubs, Revolution Books, The BA Institute, and into the struggle led by Refuse Fascism to drive out the fascist Trump/Pence regime. Experiences in organizing people were uneven across the country, and there is a lot to learn.

Stay tuned to revcom.us as we learn more, and share lessons learned.

This is an exciting beginning, but only a beginning!

From the Revolution Club NYC:

Overflow Crowd for the Harlem Preview Showing

October 1, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

It was an incredible preview screening of Bob Avakian’s historic speech at Revolution Books in Harlem on Sunday, September 23. There was excitement and anticipation in the air. People came early to get a good seat, and the house was full by the time the film began, with an overflow crowd seated under a canopy outside of the bookstore watching on a TV screen.

People came from all over the city and beyond, and it was a very diverse audience. There were musicians and artists, students and young people, veterans of the ’60s, an attorney and other professionals, and residents from Harlem. Members of the Revolution Club were there, along with activists from Refuse Fascism and supporters of Revolution Books and The Bob Avakian Institute. There were a number of new people who had never been to Revolution Books before. People heard about it through email or saw the film trailer on social media or had gotten a flyer on the street. Others got a phone call or a text message. Some people came by themselves and others came with friends.

People had a lot on their minds, and many had come to engage, to learn, and to look for answers. A young Black college student shared a story as she waited for the film to start of going to a high school in another part of the country and risking getting in trouble for standing up against racism in her school, and said she wanted to see what the film said about all this. A jazz musician in town visiting came and brought a friend to watch the film. A high school student came after learning about this from members of the Revolution Club at the September 15 Refuse Fascism protest against the fascist Trump/Pence regime. An attorney active in the struggle for justice for the people in Puerto Rico came with her husband and said she had shared the trailer of the film on social media. A person who is moving to Delaware came back for the film screening, and several young people visiting from Mexico stopped in to watch it.

Carl Dix did a short introduction, and the film began. The audience was into it, responding at different times throughout the film. You could feel when people really connected with something in the film and you could feel when assumptions and comfort zones were being challenged. Some in the audience took careful notes, and others did not take their eyes off the screen.

After the film ended, MCs from the Revolution Club called on people to become part of the mass movement needed to spread BA’s film everywhere and spoke about why this is important and some of the many ways people can be a part of this. And they were challenged to join, volunteer with, or run with the Revolution Club, Revolution Books, Refuse Fascism, and The Bob Avakian Institute. Artists in the audience were called on to contribute to the creation of a revolutionary culture and to take up the task, as BA has emphasized, of making “a culture of revolt against this revolting culture.” And an invitation was made to everyone to contribute to all this with ideas and suggestions, including ideas on finding the forms for people to become involved together with others. Many signed up to be a part of this, with people taking copies of the film on thumb drives and making plans to organize their own preview screenings with friends, neighbors, and colleagues. And an announcement was made that there would be another preview screening at Revolution Books the next Sunday (the 30th) at 4 pm.

Revolution Books buzzed with excitement long after the film had ended. A group even walked over to a nearby restaurant to continue the discussion. BA’s speech opened up interrogation of how the system of capitalism-imperialism operates, as well as the possibility for things to be different. There were many discussions, including a few heated ones, on the fundamental question of reform or revolution. The film led some of the people we spoke with to begin questioning things they had never questioned before. A high school student really captured it when she said she felt she’s been lied to all her life about many of the things spoken to in the film. Some of the people we spoke to also said they were challenged by a lot of what’s in the second half of the film. Overall, hearing someone put forward and get into the complexity and dynamics of real revolution was challenging for some people and very attractive for others.

The impact that we saw was only the beginning of what this speech on “Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution” can and will open up as more and more people seriously engage it.

Step Up the Struggle to Defeat Brett Kavanaugh—On the Right Terms, in the Right Way

Four Points of Orientation

October 1, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

[1]  The past week has seen an outpouring of countless women speaking the bitterness of their experience of rape, sexual abuse, shaming, and all the rest of the horrifyingly pervasive and putrid social relations of this society around women and giving expression to powerful desire to see this ended. The fury of having to live as slaves, as playthings, as objects, as mere things to be used and abused... your most intimate sense of yourself and your body invaded and trampled on, and then to be ignored and mocked and condescended to, shouted over and belittled and rendered voiceless to boot... all this has come spilling out. The pressure is volcanic, the eruption has only begun, and this is far from an “America only” problem.

We need a whole new world. We need a world where the millennia-old, deeply seated oppression of women—the oppression that came into being with the first division of humanity into exploiter and exploited, oppressor and oppressed—is finally done away with the only way it can be: as part of uprooting and abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression. You cannot vote out of office an oppression woven into the very fabric of the system this government was built to protect. You cannot end this oppression by going into boardrooms of banks and corporations that exploit and enchain women all over the world, feeding off their subordinate position. You can’t defeat the oppressor by playing the oppressor’s game.

To get to that new world we need a revolution: an overthrow of the existing system and the building of a new one. The possibility of such a world is real. It can be seen in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, by Bob Avakian. And it can be won by getting with the movement for revolution that he leads, a revolution that takes the emancipation of women as its cornerstone. As Bob Avakian has said,

You cannot break all the chains, except one. You cannot say you want to be free of exploitation and oppression, except you want to keep the oppression of women by men. You can’t say you want to liberate humanity yet keep one half of the people enslaved to the other half. The oppression of women is completely bound up with the division of society into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, and the ending of all such conditions is impossible without the complete liberation of women. All this is why women have a tremendous role to play not only in making revolution but in making sure there is all-the-way revolution. The fury of women can and must be fully unleashed as a mighty force for proletarian revolution. (BAsics 3:22)

[2]  Let's look again at what Brett Kavanaugh represents politically and the tremendous harm he has already done and the even greater harm he will do if he becomes part of the Supreme Court. He played a key role in the Christian-fascist driven impeachment of Bill Clinton, in getting George W. Bush illegitimately into office despite losing the popular vote, in Bush’s torture and warrantless wiretapping, in grooming other fascist judges for the court, and more. This pig, once on the Supreme Court, will move to reduce women to essentially being wombs in the name of being “pro-life,” and he will move to gut gay rights and critical thinking and dissent, minority voting rights and due process, environmental regulations and protections against surveillance, and anything else that gets in the way of the fascist juggernaut. He will move to protect executive power, the prerogatives of capital, police impunity, and anything else that fits the needs of the fascist project now attempting to consolidate itself. Look at his record—the proof is there; the performance last Thursday only put an exclamation point to it.

Kavanaugh’s whole history and stand make clear the fundamental and essential reasons that this monster must be kept off the Supreme Court. Because this nomination is so freighted, it has exacerbated the divide between those who are moving to install fascism and those elements within the ruling class trying to prevent it. As evidenced by Senator Jeff Flake’s sudden switch of position on Friday, things are now in a great deal of turmoil. In this situation, people must fight harder than ever to prevent Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme Court, on the basis of repudiating his fascist record and program—which is, after all, why Trump nominated him—and in a way that is linked to defeating and driving from power the whole fascist Trump/Pence regime and juggernaut he is part of.

[3]  How we fight our battles is critically important. There must be a unity between our means and ends.

Specifically, it is not right, and will lead to a very bad place, to adopt a standard where all accusations are treated as proof of guilt. Just think for a second about who has paid and who will pay a horrendous price when that standard is adopted. Just because an accusation corresponds to a very widespread social phenomenon—that millions and millions of women are sexually assaulted and that the overwhelming majority of accusations are truthful—does NOT mean that every single accusation is true. Getting to the truth requires a serious and open-minded sifting of concrete evidence. This is in opposition to the stand of believing all victims no matter what, which has become not just a rallying cry but something of a litmus test.

This is in stark opposition to the view put forward by liberals like Chris Hayes of MSNBC who said, after the Thursday hearings, “It all comes down to who you believe.” No, it does not—and it should not! Is that really the kind of world we should want to live in? A society where guilt or innocence is determined by who is more “believable” on television? It should not take more than a minute or two to think of the potential for abuse and ultimately real horrors involved in that: If standards of truth go out the window, then who and what is and is not to be believed will ultimately be settled by whoever has the most power. Let’s not forget that this is America, where the words of white women were used to lynch innocent Black men in the not-so-distant past and where, as this is written, the testimony of cops who murder Black people is deemed more “believable” by mostly white juries than eyewitness accounts of people in the area and even unambiguous videotape.

That is the world we live in now, but it should NOT be the world we want.

Further, there is a question of how to evaluate a person’s past. Here, the decisive question is not what someone did as a youth but what has been the subsequent arc of their life. There are reasons that juvenile records are supposed to be sealed. The reasons have to do with the fact that younger people are unformed and without the capacities of adult judgment and that their adult lives should not be dogged and marred by what they did when they were not in a position to be fully responsible for their actions. In the case of juvenile offenses, the larger society’s right to know does NOT trump the right of the individual, even if a larger social good may be sacrificed.

For these reasons, as we have written before, “the question should not be if they did bad things as a youth, but have they fundamentally confronted and broken with that—or have they continued in the same essential direction? In the case of Kavanaugh, these facts are beyond clear: whatever he did (or did not) do as a teenager, as a full-grown man he has been a major player in strengthening patriarchal oppression and in driving forward the overall fascization of the U.S.—and this is true no matter how many women who knew him way-back-when say that he was a polite teenager, or whether Dr. Blasey’s accusation proves to be true or not. It is for these reasons that Kavanaugh must be opposed or defeated.”

[4]  Where will and where should all the fury that has poured forth now go?

Will the pent up fury felt by millions and millions against the oppression and degradation of women be a powerful fuel in the fight to put an end to the culture and system that gives rise to this nightmare? Will it drive people to look deeper—at the roots of all this in the system of capitalism-imperialism that rules over us? And, to aim higher—at a world free of all divisions into oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited, masters and slaves?

Or, will this fury drive the oppressed themselves even more blindly into this world of nightmarish horrors? Will people not just wrongly accept as permanent this world of oppression and dehumanization of one group by another, but actively revel in this by aiming no higher than for a chance at revenge? Will it get spent on pulling down one or two monsters, while the monstrous system remains intact?

The history books and headlines are full of just struggles that ended up with those who once fought and sacrificed for freedom going for revenge for them and theirs, and then for their chance to “have a go at it,” and screw everyone else. That’s NOT inevitable—but it will take a struggle from the very beginning and all the way through against the strong pulls that take people there... pulls already manifesting in the struggle right now. How we answer these questions right now even in this seemingly initial stage—and in an ongoing way as we go forward—will have great bearing on whether humanity is emancipated or simply sinks deeper into the nightmare.

Let’s make this week a time to step up the battle against the attempt to put Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and against the whole regime, to build the movement for revolution, and to plunge into the debate over the problem we face and the solution to it.

You Want A World WITHOUT Oppression, Or Just Your Turn On Top?
Women Need Revolution—Not Revenge!

by Sunsara Taylor

September 27, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In a recent New York Times column, Jennifer Weiner plumbed the depths of her fury at the lifetime of patriarchal insult and injury faced by her and all women. But rather than aim her fury at ending sexual assault, violence against women, and the system that gives rise to it, she plunges headlong into a gruesome, small-minded vision of revenge.

Weiner revels in hideous fantasies of tossing rapists out of helicopters and—dare anyone lay a finger on her own daughters—“hunting down the man who hurt them and dismembering him with my fingernails and burning the whole world down.” She glorifies the lust for “revenge ... power ... money ...” and the ability “to be loved and not love in return.”

If Weiner hoped to provoke disgust and fear, she succeeded. I am terrified of the world she yearns for—and disgusted by it. We should all be. Because the only thing worse than allowing patriarchy to continue to diminish and torment all women’s humanity, would be for women to completely abandon their own humanity by becoming like their oppressors.

The problem is not that Weiner is angry. For good reason women harbor deep and righteous fury. It flows from thousands of years of female enslavement. It comes from one in three women being raped or beaten in her lifetime. It comes from women super-exploited in sweatshops from Bangladesh to Brazil and women raped in war zones from Congo and Bosnia to right inside the U.S. military. It comes from stalking, abuse, sexual slavery, and sexual shaming. It comes from the bombing of abortion clinics and the killing of doctors. It comes from pornography that is increasingly violent, degrading, and mainstream. It comes from the reality that after generations of marching, going to jail, hunger-striking, writing, and speaking against all this, a boastful sexual predator sits in the White House and the Supreme Court is on the verge of slamming women, LGBTQ people, and many others violently backwards.

If you are not furious, then wake the hell up. Men, too.

But fury is not enough. Like a fire, fury can be harnessed for good—or can destroy everything.

Should our fury drive us to lust for the chance to make men suffer the way women have? For the “right” of women to behave like depraved death squads, hurling human beings to dreadful deaths? For the squalid “satisfaction” of inflicting such terror on another person that the light never returns to their eyes because that’s what has been done for thousands of years to women?

Or, should our fury drive us to fight against and abolish the system and world that is held in place through that kind of terror—through centuries of white people terrorizing Black people, through murderous wars of imperialist aggression, through global networks of grinding exploitation, and through a culture that socializes men and boys from an extremely young age—through pornography, through scripture, and in countless other ways—to view and treat women as objects of sexual plunder or mere breeders of children?

Should our fury propel us into the ideological straight jacket of “me” and “my people”—a punier, perverse replica of “Bros before Hoes” or Trump’s chauvinist “USA! USA!”—that reduces us to seeking vengeance if something happens to our own daughter (yet another expression of patriarchal property relations)?

Or should our fury compel us to broaden our horizons to the fight to end all forms of oppression? To grasp, as Bob Avakian has emphasized in speaking about the new communism he has developed, that what we need is, “A Whole New World and the Emancipation of All Humanity—Not ‘The Last Shall Be First, and The First Shall Be Last’”? To fight with all we’ve got to beat back these horrors right now while building up the strength to make an actual revolution so that, as one expression of real liberation, one day no girl or woman anywhere ever again knows what it is to fear the sound of footsteps behind her?

Should our fury drive women to harden themselves, to extinguish their ability to feel and to love so that they can better claw their way to the top of this dung heap, where the only way to get ahead is by pummeling others to the bottom, where everything—even women’s bodies and sexualized degradation—is turned into a commodity to be bought and sold or bartered for advantage?

Or should we fight for a world not divided into oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited, masters and slaves? A world where opening oneself up is not an invitation for predation, where all children of all genders are taught to respect the full humanity of others, and to forge friendships and intimate relationships based on mutual respect, shared affection, equality and—where it develops—genuine love and tenderness?

We have to choose.

It may seem like all rage is the same and that—after centuries of rape, brutality, oppression, and enslavement—all rage is justified. It is not. Revenge leads rapidly and inexcusably deeper into the nightmare. In contrast, ending this nightmare requires breaking decisively and fully with revenge, lifting our sights, and fighting for an actual revolution aimed at human emancipation. This means taking up and being guided by a morality consistent with that future every step of the way.

Sunsara Taylor is an advocate for the new communism developed by Bob Avakian, a writer for Revolution newspaper (revcom.us), and a co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org.

Bob Avakian, "A world of rape and sexual assault"

An excerpt from REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. Watch the whole talk at revolutiontalk.net.

Includes these and more...

"Can This System Do Away With, or Do Without, The Oppression of Women?–A Fundamental Question, a Scientific Approach to the Answer"

"Religion, Patriarchy, Male Supremacy and Sexual Repression"

"Putting an End to 'Sin,' Or We Need Morality but not Traditional Morality"

Full Edition (PDF) | Sampler Edition (PDF)

Online Premiere October 19

Read more

Trial of Killer Chicago Cop Turns into Attempted Second Execution of Laquan McDonald

October 1, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

We’ve seen the horror movie over and over—cops murder people in cold blood, and then walk free almost every time. In the very few cases where one is put on trial, the killer cop gets off scot-free, or with a slap on the wrist, by claiming he feared for his own safety. The prosecutors—so skilled at sending Black and Latino people to prison—forget how to prosecute when it comes to the pigs, the armed enforcers whose job is to serve and protect the system of exploitation and oppression that rules over the people.

Almost four years after Laquan McDonald was murdered by police on a Chicago street, killer cop Jason Van Dyke is on trial for murder. A dashcam video—covered up for over a year by the police and city officials, all the way up to the mayor, before it was forced into the public eye—shows Van Dyke getting out of the squad car and, within six seconds, start firing 16 bullets at Laquan, who is walking away, hands at his sides. And after the opening week of the trial when the prosecutor, sure enough, forgot to prosecute (see accompanying article), this past week Van Dyke’s lawyers brought up a parade of “witnesses” to try to paint Laquan as a youth with a “violent” history—obviously to argue the “case” that Van Dyke was justified in gunning down Laquan. Their “testimony” included things like an intake officer at a juvenile detention center saying that Laquan allegedly took a swing at him after becoming upset at being locked up and not being able to make a phone call. Laquan, of course, is not here to speak on his own behalf about these incidents—so there is only the word of these prison officers about what happened. But whatever the accuracy of their testimony—this kind of thing that no doubt happens a lot in youth prisons is supposed to be a cause for these youths to be executed by cops?!

The judge also ordered a nonprofit organization that offers recovery services for people with substance abuse and mental health problems to comply with a subpoena from Van Dyke’s lawyers and release Laquan’s records. The nonprofit had resisted the subpoena, saying that the records are protected under privacy laws. So again—the records of people being treated for recovery from substance abuse or for psychological treatments are supposed to be “evidence” that “justifies” police killing them?!

The judge ruled such “testimony” and “evidence” admissible because they were “Lynch material,” named after an Illinois Supreme Court ruling that allows defendants, like Van Dyke, claiming self-defense in a murder trial to bring up the victim’s alleged “aggressive and violent character,” even from years previously. NO! This character assassination to “justify” a modern-day lynching is no more legitimate than using a woman’s previous sexual history to attempt to “justify” rape. Van Dyke didn’t know anything about Laquan when he arrived on the scene, jumped out of the squad car, and started shooting almost immediately—except that he was a Black youth who was refusing police orders. In any case, nothing about Laquan’s past justifies a pig firing even a single bullet at him, let alone 16!

Outside the courtroom, sympathetic media portrayals of the killer cop—which began with substantial interviews by the Chicago Tribune and others—continues. This has included a major piece in the Chicago Sun Times in which Van Dyke’s Black brother-in-law claims Van Dyke is not racist and accounts of Van Dyke’s parish priest, who has been sitting in the courtroom with Van Dyke’s wife each day, speaking in support of the cop’s claims about the murder of Laquan.

At the same time, Van Dyke’s actual record of repeated violence against the people will not be brought into the courtroom, unless his lawyers bring him up to the witness stand (and perhaps not even then). In a 2015 article titled “Chicago Rarely Penalizes Officers for Complaints, Data Show,” the New York Times noted that Van Dyke “has had 18 civilian complaints filed against him, including allegations of using excessive force and racial slurs.” The investigative group Invisible Institute reported in an article on the Intercept website that after being the target of two complaints of use of excessive force in his first two years as a cop, Van Dyke’s “complaint rate skyrocketed. Citizens filed several allegations against him over the next five years. His use-of-force rate increased as well, from less than two per year to six in 2014.” TheRoot.com reports that according to a study in a forthcoming edition of the American Economic Journal, “Officer Van Dyke had accrued so many civilian complaints between 2002 and 2014 that he was in the top 3 percent of officers.” This is quite an “accomplishment” in a police department well-known for widespread brutality and racism. Van Dyke was exonerated in all the complaint cases—but that is just routine practice with the city’s police “review” board.

Among the other outrages from the killer cop’s defense team was the playing of an animated video of their re-creation of the scene—to supposedly refute the dashcam video by purporting to show that Laquan was moving toward Van Dyke when the officer started shooting. At parts in the animation, the figure supposedly representing Laquan is surrounded with a red outline to make him seem larger in an attempt to bolster Van Dyke’s claim that Laquan was “threatening” him. And the animation stops after the first five shots by Van Dyke—omitting the rest of the 16 shots that he fired into Laquan as he was laying on the ground.

A “pharmacology expert” was put on the stand to claim that one of the effects of the PCP that was detected in Laquan in the autopsy was to give him “superhuman strength”—another defense effort to make it look like Laquan was the “aggressor” and Van Dyke was only “defending” himself. This “expert” also claimed that even though Laquan was walking away from the officers toward a chain-link fence and an empty lot, “He’s still in the situation with a knife in his hand and disobeying orders from the police ... still showing aggressive behavior and actions. I would describe that as violent rage behavior.” Again—walking away from police, with arms at your sides, toward an empty lot is “evidence” of “aggressive,” “violent” behavior that “justifies” being killed in cold blood by an armed enforcer of this system?!

The Larger Picture

The dredging up of claims about Laquan’s past is poisonous bullshit. But people should look at the larger picture behind what happened to Laquan. Nobody knows what exactly Laquan was doing or thinking the night his life was cut short. But what kind of a monstrous system creates a situation in which a whole generation of youth like Laquan are robbed of any decent future and are treated as less than human, just because the capitalist-imperialists who hold power no longer deem them worth exploiting—after generations upon generations that came before them were brutally exploited and oppressed, first as slaves, then sharecroppers, and last-hired-first-fired wage slaves in the factories?

What kind of a heartless system keeps cutting resources—like social workers who are trying to help these youths navigate a society that has been set up against them—when the reality is that under a radically different system, on a whole different economic and political foundation and with different set of social relations, all youth could flourish and grow? There is, in fact, an actual vision and plan for such a system—the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian (BA).

What kind of system trains police forces with a “mad-dog” mentality who look at oppressed youth as the “enemy” and brutalize, tase, and even shoot on sight when they encounter such youths acting in ways that may signal he or she is upset or mentally disturbed—with fellow cops who routinely lie and erect a wall of silence in order to protect their mad dogs—instead of reaching out to and helping such youth? As BA has insisted, if the police can’t handle such situations any differently than terrorizing and murdering people, they should get out of the way. Because under a radically different system, the people’s police would be willing to put their own lives on the line to resolve a situation than take the life of any human being—“That’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re actually trying to be a servant of the people.” (See BAsics 2:16.)

In order to bring into being that radically new, liberating system, we need an actual revolution to overthrow the system ruling over us now—a system that will go on murdering, by quick or slow death, youths like Laquan and go on doing all kinds of other crimes and other madness to people here and around the world until the system is brought to an end. And a crucial part of preparing the ground, preparing the people, and preparing the vanguard for that revolution is fighting the power and the outrages they commit, like the police murder of Laquan and, now, the attempted whitewash of that crime in the courts.

Laquan McDonald

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From the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

To Do This, We Need To Know:

Why we need an actual revolution.
What we need to do now.
How we could defeat them.

ABOUT THE BOOK, ORDER HERE

See excerpts HERE

Pre-publication PDF of this major work—including the appendices—available HERE

Insight Press has announced that in addition to the print book, THE NEW COMMUNISM is now available as an eBook at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble and other retail and library websites.

Points of Attention for the Revolution

The Revolution Club upholds, lives by and fights for the following principles:

1 We base ourselves on and strive to represent the highest interests of humanity: revolution and communism. We do not tolerate using the revolution for personal gain.

2 We fight for a world where ALL the chains are broken. Women, men, and differently gendered people are equals and comrades. We do not tolerate physically or verbally abusing women or treating them as sexual objects, nor do we tolerate insults or “jokes” about people’s gender or sexual orientation.

3 We fight for a world without borders, and for equality among different peoples, cultures and languages. We do not tolerate insults, “jokes” or derogatory names about a person’s race, nationality, or language.

4 We stand with the most oppressed and never lose sight of their potential to emancipate humanity—nor of our responsibility to lead them to do that. We work to win people of all backgrounds to take part in the revolution, and do not tolerate revenge among the people.

5 We search for and fight for the truth no matter how unpopular, even as we listen to and learn from the observations, insights and criticisms of others.

6 We are going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way beyond the destructive, vicious conflicts of today between the people. Because we are serious, at this stage we do not initiate violence and we oppose all violence against the people and among the people.

Now is the time to spread these messages to all of society

"HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution" is a companion to the Message from the Central Committee of the RCP, USA posted on www.revcom.us on May 16, 2016.  Get "HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution,” together with “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution,” out everywhere.  Now is the time to spread the word to all of society.

Download "HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution" HERE (36”x24” PDF): ENGLISH  | ESPAÑOL.  Download “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution” HERE (17"x 22" PDF): ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL.  Our suggestion is that they be printed on white bond paper and posted together in the appropriate ways all over the place. Here’s a rough picture of what this could look like.

“HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution” now in booklet form!

Printing Instructions:
The PDF of a booklet that includes “HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution,” “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution” and the “Points of Attention for the Revolution”is now available. This booklet is 16 pages long. The size of the laid-out pages is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". It can also be printed 6" x 9". There are two layouts here. 1) One is a single PDF with 16 consecutive, individual pages. 2) The second is a printer's spread; that is, the first spread is page 16 and page 1, the second is page 2 and page 15, etc., so that when it prints and is folded, the pages will be in order. Printers can tell you which layout they need. Readers should make plans for printing this 5 1/2" x 8.5" booklet, raising money, and getting it out in the tens of thousands everywhere as soon as possible.

ENGLISH:
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, single pages
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, printer spread

SPANISH:
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Greasing the Skids for Fascism…
Ominous and Illegitimate Persecution of 11 Members of Refuse Fascism, LA and the Revolution Club, LA

September 26, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In Los Angeles, 11 members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club have been criminally charged for engaging in and/or supporting non-violent civil disobedience and political protests which took place from September 2017 through March 2018. These protests included holding banners across the length of the Los Angeles 101 Freeway, with one stating “Trump/Pence Must Go!” and several protests at UCLA campus, including a disruption of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. These protests were aimed at sounding the alarm about the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and the need for millions to fill the streets in a mass nonviolent movement aimed at driving this regime from power.

The arrests and subsequent charges for these acts of political protests are unjust and illegitimate. With a fascist regime in power, tearing up what are supposed to be protected civil and legal rights, and ruling through open terror and violence, these protests were not just needed, they were right. They were meaningful forms of nonviolent civil disobedience and, on a changing political and legal ground, forms of protected speech!

It is NOT illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater IF THERE IS A FIRE. To say the least, what we are facing is, by analogy, a fire of such extreme proportions, it demands people defy protest as usual. The Trump/Pence regime is bringing into being a theocracy, with open white supremacy, ethnic cleansing, genocide, the ripping away of women's basic and essential rights, attacking science and the basic understanding of truth... and as an essential part of this, the shutting down of our supposed civil liberties, right to free speech, protest, and the freedom of the press. With the threats of nuclear war and even more rapid environmental destruction, it is not hyperbole to say this is a regime that threatens to destroy civilization.

At the same time, the prosecution of these 11 activists and revolutionaries involves an escalation of the criminalization of political protests and a leap in state repression, moves that are greasing the skids for fascism. Some of the more serious and dangerous elements of these prosecutions include: two leaders of Refuse Fascism being singled out for criminal conspiracy charges related to the freeway protests, which have historically been used to specifically target political leaders (one person facing this charge was not even arrested nor on the freeway at the time of the protests); the LAPD’s “Major Crimes/Anti-Terrorism Division” is involved, a department which has a history of targeting progressive and radical social movements; and the LAPD’s admission that they sent in a “confidential informant” to spy on and illegally record members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club. These are just some of the most egregious ways they are violating the basic legal rights of people in prosecuting these outrageous charges.

In this changing legal situation, what these protesters did—in the tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience—was necessary, right and should not be criminalized. Everyone who cares about justice should join in the demand to DROP THE CHARGES! People throughout society should draw inspiration from and emulate what these heroes did, and join the urgently needed movement to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power.

Righteous Protests, Unjust Arrests, Illegitimate Charges

In September and November, 2017, over five million people viewed on social media two early morning nonviolent actions of civil disobedience on the 101 Hollywood Freeway where traffic was stopped with signs, including a 60-foot banner sounding a clarion call that “The Trump Pence Regime Must Go!” (In the first of these two protests, they carried signs that stated: “Nov 4 It Begins!” calling on people to join the protests organized by Refuse Fascism aiming for millions to fill the streets in protest day after day, night after night, to drive this regime from power.) A total of eight people were arrested for these courageous actions. But nine are being charged in these two actions, including Michelle Xai, who was neither arrested nor on the freeway during these two protests. Both Michelle, who is also part of the Revolution Club, and USC professor and artist Perry Hoberman have been charged with conspiracy to commit a crime. Michelle and Perry are being singled out and targeted for being spokespeople and leaders of Refuse Fascism.

On February 12, 2018, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke at UCLA where his speech was disrupted by protesters, including organizers from “No Cops Academy” and the Revolution Club. They called out Emanuel’s role in the cover up of the police murder of Laquan McDonald (see here for report on the protest). Three people with the Revolution Club were arrested and currently, one is facing four misdemeanors.

On February 26, 2018, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spoke at UCLA where he was continuously booed and hissed by protesters in the audience. As seen by millions on social media, he was also disrupted by three young women from the Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism. They spoke out with substance and determination, challenging Mnuchin, and exposed a regime “that is hell bent on consolidating fascism.” These three were brutalized and dragged out of the auditorium by University of California police and arrested along with two others who were also brutalized and arrested outside the event because they dared speak out about the arrests that had just happened inside the auditorium where Mnuchin was speaking! (See report here.) Currently, two of the five are facing charges but all were told (verbally, not in writing) that they were banned from campus for seven days (including a student and UCLA alum!).

On March 1, 2018, scores of UCLA students linked arms across Bruin Walk in response to a nationwide protest called by Refuse Fascism: 11 Minutes of Silence for 11 Million Undocumented: Immigrants Stay! Trump/Pence Must Go! No one was arrested at this protest, but two people have since been charged, for “disturbing the peace,” trespassing and violating the seven day ban mentioned above. One of the charges against the UCLA student is for resisting arrest. How the hell is this even possible when she was not arrested?!

UCLA students linking arms across Bruin Walk in response to a nationwide protest called by Refuse Fascism.

These prosecutions represent a major escalation of political repression

The decision to file charges against the 11 came 10 months after the first freeway protest. Shortly after each of these arrests, when those arrested first appeared in court, they were informed by the L.A. City Attorney that criminal charges were not being filed BUT that charges could be filed any time within one year of the original arrest. This is a way the state can hold the threat of filing charges over you, in an effort to intimidate you and others from participating in future political protests.

In late July/early August 2018, 11 of the protesters received letters from the LA City Attorney ordering them to appear in court. While not all of them have appeared in court yet (some are scheduled for October), at least 10 are each facing multiple misdemeanor charges including failure to disperse, refusing to comply with a police officer, resisting or “obstructing the free movement of a person,” disturbing the peace, and trespassing on a college campus. Some of these people are facing up to over four years in jail and over $4,000 in fines.

Most serious and ominous, when Perry and Michelle first appeared in court, they first learned that Perry is being charged with three misdemeanors stemming from his arrest on the freeway at the first protest and one count of conspiracy. Michelle is charged with one count of obstruction of traffic and two counts of conspiracy for both freeway protests, even though she was not arrested nor on the freeway. Each conspiracy charge is punishable by one year in jail and $10,000 in fines.

How do they justify these outrageous charges? It turns out, the LAPD sent a spy, a “confidential informant,” into Refuse Fascism meetings last fall “for the purpose of gathering intelligence.” In other words, they admit in their official police report, to surveillance of political discussions—a violation of people’s basic rights to assemble and protest. They also admit that this confidential informant recorded a conversation they had with one of the defendants. Recording people without their permission is illegal in California!

The police report admitting to all this came from the “Major Crimes Division” (also known as the Anti-Terrorist Division, ATD) of the LAPD which is part of the LAPD's “Counter Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau.” This department has a sordid history of spying, harassment and deadly repression against a broad spectrum of political groups and individuals. (See box on Background on the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division/Anti-Terrorist Division.)

Historically, conspiracy charges have been used to specifically target political activists and especially, the leadership of political movements. If they can't figure out an actual crime that you've committed, they target you with “conspiracy to commit a crime.” This is a wide ranging charge targeting protest organizers, the leadership of political movements and aimed at debilitating the movements themselves. In the 1960s, the FBI and local cops went after leaders of the anti-war and Black liberation movements by arresting them on bogus conspiracy charges that led to lengthy, expensive, and time-consuming trials. An infamous example was the Chicago 8 trial in response to massive protest at the Democratic National Convention. When people take responsibility to lead a political movement in the interests of humanity, this is precious and these leaders must be defended!

The fact that Perry and Michelle are charged with conspiracy is outrageous on its face, but there is more to these charges. Such a charge requires a minimum of two people to be involved in such a conspiracy. In the second conspiracy charge being leveled against Michelle, according to the official police report, the second conspirator’s “identity is unknown.” This statement by the LAPD’s Anti-Terrorist Division enables the state to carry out and justify a very dangerous open-ended fishing expedition and campaign of intimidation against all the defendants in the freeway protest, with this charge being held over their heads.

Ironically, even the DA's office admits that the First Amendment is involved in this case. The detective writing the police report admits to having consulted with the District Attorney with a request to file felony conspiracy charges (vs. misdemeanors, which they are facing). The DA said that felony charges would be “contrary to the spirit of the law where First Amendment freedoms are concerned.” So how are misdemeanor charges any less “contrary” to their First Amendment rights?!

Even as these cases are in their initial stages, it is already evident that these prosecutions are politically motivated, being handled outside of the norm of criminal prosecutions. We won’t go further here with more examples but it’s evident from who is prosecuting these cases and how the defendants are being treated in court.

The Moves to Strip Away Civil Liberties, Criminalize Dissent and Ramping Up of Repression and Terror

All this is taking place at a time in which the basic rights to political protest and speech are being rapidly foreclosed by the Trump/Pence regime which has unleashed a wave of new state laws, gutting basic civil liberties and a movement of storm troopers carrying out mob violence, and violent threats, in order to intimidate and silence people. The dangers of this are even being pointed to among ruling class figures.

Even before he became president, Trump incited hatred and violence against protesters at his Nazi-like rallies with statements about longing for the day when “a protester would be carried out on stretchers”; in the wake of the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, he refused to condemn the white supremacists and fascist thugs and described them as “fine people”; and called for revoking the citizenship and imprisoning people who burn the flag, in violation of Supreme Court protection; and urged the firing—and possible exile—of professional athletes who took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial oppression in the form of police violence and murder.

In 2017, state legislators in nearly 20 states have proposed or passed bills that would criminalize and physically endanger protesters, including making it legal to run over protesters as long as the driver claimed it was an accident. New penalties for protesting have been proposed in some states that would include fines up to $1,000,000 and up to 10 years in prison. Mass picketing aimed at blocking access to streets and highways, airports, train tracks, or places of business has been outlawed as has the wearing of a robe, mask or other disguises at a protest. There are cases at both Rutgers and UCLA that would make the criticism of the state of the Israel, and their policies of genocide against Palestinian people, a crime. (The case at UCLA is overlapping with attacks on the Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism for the protest against Steve Mnuchin mentioned above.)

On January 20, 2017, at Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC, over 200 protesters were arrested for simply being part of a demonstration during which some alleged destruction of property took place. The government was forced to drop the charges against most of the defendants after the first trial of six facing serious felony charges ended in acquittals on all charges. The attempted political railroad of the J20 defendants was not only a vicious act of revenge against the righteous protests on the very first day of the Trump/Pence regime—it was a major escalation of fascist repression as the government demanded detailed information on visitors to a website that was used to organize the protests, and the site’s web hosting provider said complying with the order would have meant handing over information on about 1.3 million visitors.

Recently, Trump said in response to those who courageously disrupted the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh that we shouldn’t allow protesters in this country because it’s an embarrassment. These are not just rants from a madman. These are the words of the commander in chief of this country's armed forces: calling for the foreclosing of and crushing of dissent, the evisceration of the First Amendment, including people’s right to political speech and protest in relationship to calling out against injustices and crimes being carried out by its government, and this is even more dangerous as it is a key component towards the consolidation of fascism.

The Revolution Club in their sights

These protests have mainly taken place as part of the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence Regime, involving people from different perspectives. At the same time, these prosecutions may also include specific targeting of the Revolution Club. The Club is a force on the frontlines organizing forces for an actual revolution. They live in line with, and fight for, a radically different world: fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution.

In addition to the protests outlined here, members of the Revolution Club were also recently arrested for talking to people in a public park about revolution. These arrests were so outrageous, and so clearly in violation of people's basic rights, the LAPD was forced to drop the charges. Most recently, a member of the Revolution Club was arrested for amplified sound in downtown LA at the monthly event, Artwalk. In LA, amplified sound is not illegal! In both instances, people in the surrounding area stood with the Revolution Club against these attacks.

This goes together with a pattern of assault and political persecution of the Revolution Club in Chicago. One member of the Club, Maya, is facing seven years in prison for taking part in the silent protest for immigrants which took place on March 1. And throughout the spring and summer, people associated with the Revolution Club in Chicago were repeatedly arrested, threatened with arrest, and ticketed for using legally permitted amplified sound. Including Maya’s case, people associated with the Revolution Club in Chicago currently face a full dozen cases in court.

We do not know to what degree, if any, there is national coordination in these attacks, but we do know that both in LA and Chicago, there is a pattern of harassment by the authorities. And we know that the attacks on the Revolution Club are politically motivated: they are being gone after for their determination to prevent the consolidation of fascism and for spreading the message and organizing forces for an actual revolution.

People from all different perspectives need to stand with the revolutionaries against these attacks. These are people fighting for a radically different world, free of exploitation and oppression. They understand the illegitimacy of this whole system, and its violent forces of repression used to enforce this system and they are organizing forces today to bring that better world into being. They reach throughout every section of society, including the students and youth and those catching the most hell who this system has no future for. This is a message this system, and those who sit atop it, don't want you to hear.

Fascism Can Happen Here, It Is Happening Here and We Must Stop It!

A crucial component of implementing a fascist regime is the tearing up of the rule of law, and criminalization of what have been traditional forms of protest, aimed at gutting the basic right to political speech and dissent. As Bob Avakian has written: “Even supposedly fundamentally Constitutional rights throughout the history of the U.S. not only can be—but particularly in times of 'stress' or actual crisis in the system often are—sacrificed to the needs of the ruling class.” (From “The Social Content of Law and Its Interpretation” in the compilation Constitution, Law, and Rights—in capitalist society and in the future socialist society)

This is such a time.

As we stated above, in the face of these moves to criminalize and punish political protests, it is imperative that people unite broadly to step out of the bounds of symbolic protest-as-usual. To do so in this changing legal context is a form of protected political speech—it needs to be defended and it needs to spread.

These 11 resisters are being punished for acting with courage and conviction at a time when history is demanding all people of conscience act commensurate with the grave danger humanity is being confronted with by the Trump/Pence fascist regime.

There are great stakes in these cases. Will a supposed “sanctuary city” be allowed to violate the basic rights of people in these ways, contributing to the overall consolidation of fascism, with the right to dissent and protest foreclosed? Will people be able to act commensurate with the danger facing humanity without being shut down and criminalized?

All those who care about the future need to stand up against these outrageous prosecutions and demand the charges be dropped! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.

Getting Our Heads Around Organizing Thousands ... and Thoughts on Building the Revolution Clubs

From a member of the Revolution Club

September 22, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

There are some things that have come up in the process of building the movement for revolution that I think may still be holding us back and are worth drawing some attention to.

One big thing is getting our heads around the kind of process that is involved in thousands getting “organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution.” (From HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution [HWCW]) In a recent letter on revcom.us called “Initial Thoughts on the Revolution Club…,” one of the things it says is, “Spreading and acting on the basis of the Points of Attention for the Revolution, the clubs have to go through the world as people living and embodying the values of the future world we’re fighting to bring into being. This too is a pole of attraction to the revolution for many. The clubs should be open to everyone who agrees to the Points of Attention, working and struggling with and learning from people, and not thinking everyone, or most people, will go ‘from zero to sixty.’ The clubs must embody a way of organizing and working with people that is gone into in the ‘Commitment and the Process of Building a Movement FOR Revolution’ piece from earlier this summer.”

The process discussed there, and in the “Commitment... Process” piece should not be taken as an “add-on” to what kind of work we are already doing. I think this involves breaking down, breaking with, and re-conceiving a lot of “how we do things” which tends to involve a lot of one-on-one work with people, and a lot of trying to develop and prepare people before they are involved in and given responsibility for working on the revolution. We need to be involving people and enabling them to take responsibility for the revolution AS they are learning and developing their understanding and ability to lead and take more responsibility, and we all should involve people in forging new ways that people can learn and develop above all in collective ways and as part of the process. How we do at this will also bear on whether or not we are building a movement and developing leaders for an actual revolution.

And the part that says “The clubs should be open to everyone who agrees to the Points of Attention, working and struggling with and learning from people, and not thinking everyone, or most people, will go ‘from zero to sixty’” indicates that these Points of Attention (POAs) need to be much more broadly used to give coherence and organization to a broad revolutionary movement, as opposed to just being the things you have to agree to once you’ve learned what you need to know to be able to begin taking part in the revolution.

I know I’ve been part of different approaches to building the clubs either with no process or coherence, or else an arduous process akin to a few college courses. Instead of this, for example, recently some of us were talking about how to bring into the club a number of people who got to see BA speak over the summer before we said to ourselves, “What are we gonna do with people that he didn’t just do with them and better? Let’s just talk to them and ask if they are ready to live by and fight for the POAs and if they get the basics of that and agree to it, that’s the point.” And this experience ended up showing how impactful it is for people to make that commitment and dedication in front of others when they were officially acknowledged. And then people will have to continue to struggle over how to follow through on that responsibility (I mean, who doesn’t have to keep doing that?) Doing regular ceremonies with groups of people welcomed into the club together with masses checking out the revolution has an affect all the way through, too, as it can also create a standard among the masses who are not yet ready to make that commitment but who can be part of broader support networks who are also able to hold people to those POAs who are representing for the revolution.

The New Film

This gets to another point about the upcoming film of Bob Avakian’s talk Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. I really think with what is said about it in the piece “Take This Film and Change Everything” that this film can play a key role in giving people the basic grounding in the “whys” and “hows” of revolution that can enable many people to take this up and step into the process. With the role this can play in relation to organizing the thousands, as well as influencing the millions, in mind, I think it is worth the clubs to have more crackling over how we build for the upcoming preview screenings and the online launch the next month, as well as sharing advanced experiences and the hardest obstacles. I know, for example, that where I am there is some promising potential of someone who was able to see the talk from BA live seeking to find ways to organize their own showings among circles of people who we are not normally in touch with. We know someone else who no longer lives close by and asked if there was a club near him he could join, so we are trying to set up working with him to pull some people together and send a club member out there to watch the film with them.

People should be coming to expect not ONLY to hear something great that will affect them, but we need to find ways so that people are getting a basic sense of the role this film can play in changing everything. (I saw that there is now another piece up on who should see this film and what this will do, very directly speaks to this and more!)

The Problem and the Solution

This relates to a last point that in everything we are doing, everyone working on the revolution together from brand new to more experienced, from heavily-involved to beginning involvement, everyone should in basic ways be let in on what are the problems of the revolution and how what we are doing now is part of going to work on them. Everyone who was lucky enough to be at the talks that BA gave this summer (that will be this new film) could learn a lot from how he modeled doing this throughout the speech and the Q&As that followed, bringing people in to working together on making revolution. The film, when it comes out, and HWCW are great tools for this, and they need to be worked with so everyone involved can contribute their thinking as well as practical involvement toward solving these problems.

Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for Revolution

To round out the picture, I also want to point out that none of what we are doing is off to the side of major battles going in throughout society. As that “Initial Thoughts” piece says, “Fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution is a key part of the strategy for revolution. In carrying out such a radical strategy for such a radical goal, the clubs must of necessity be the most radical, convention-breaking, not-playing-by-the-rules thing out there—and must bring forward masses to defend them when they are attacked for being that.” The film of BA’s talk, and HWCW also, give a lot of guidance for how to understand the “5 Stops” and how to enter into struggle around these “Stops” as part of building up the forces for revolution.

What I just wanted to say here is that here, too, we need to involve people not just in coming to protests or actions of various kinds, but also in questions like: How do we build up the authority of the revolution and its leadership? Where can we unite with others and where do we need to struggle? How do people learn to evaluate different organized forces, programs, culture and values—according to how it relates to the revolution we need to end all oppression? How do we carry all this out and defeat the attempts to crush the revolution and its leadership? Here, too, on revcom.us, there is a lot of up-to-date guidance on the various police attacks and charges facing the clubs all over the country. And here, too, we have to learn how people are involved in working on these problems as part of the whole process.

“Revolutions are made by the bold. On the basis of the solid core foundation of the works of BA and other key documents of the new communism, and the guidance that must be up every week and every day at revcom.us, the clubs must dare to storm the heavens—and dare to make mistakes in the process.” (From “Initial thoughts...”)

Listen

Download PDF of "The Problem, the Solution, and the Challenges Before Us"

Protesters Confront Armed Fascist "Open Carry" March at Kent State

October 1, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On September 29 Alt-right fascists called an “open carry” march, complete with AK-47's, on the Kent State University campus near Cleveland, Ohio. This was where, on May 4, 1970, four students were shot dead by the National Guard for courageously protesting the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia. This armed fascist organizing rally, aimed at allowing students and faculty to carry guns on campus, was an insult and provocation that infuriated many. On Saturday, over 100 counter protesters, including students, 60's people, and Refuse Fascism and other progressive groups righteously confronted, outnumbered, and prevented the fascists from completing their march. They also stood up to the police, who aggressively protected the fascists and came close to trampling one woman. The chant “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!” was taken up, and toward the end of the counter-protest, an American flag was burned with people approvingly watching it go up in flames.

America Steps Up Barbarity at the Border:

12,800 Minors Detained, Migrant Families to Be Locked Up Indefinitely

September 17, 2018 | Updated September 30, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Update, September 30—According to news reports, hundreds of immigrant children labeled by the government as “unaccompanied minors” have been moved in the middle of the night from where they were being held across the country to the detention camp at Tornillo-Guadalupe, near El Paso, Texas, and the border with Mexico. This camp is a tent city in the sweltering desert, which the government has quickly expanded from the original capacity of 400 detainees in June to 3,800 now. These children had already gone through the severe trauma of having to leave their families and everything else behind in their home countries, making a dangerous trek through Mexico and across the U.S. border, and then getting treated as criminals here and held in detention facilities. Now hundreds of these youths are being yanked out of where they are with little notice, separated from any friends they have made, and put on buses at night to be sent to a mass detention camp. These kids had been receiving at least some schooling and regular visits from legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases—but at Tornillo, the youths are deprived of any schooling, and access to legal help is limited. This is yet another intolerable crime by this system of capitalism-imperialism that is the cause of so much human suffering around the world.

In late June there was international outrage at the horrific sight of America's Border Patrol agents tearing immigrant children from the arms of their parents—and then the emotional damage to these young children being used by the U.S. to deliver a message to other immigrants and refugees: “Stop coming here.” Of those 2,500 children separated and detained, 300 have still not been reunited with their parents who were deported without their children.

But there are in fact another 12,800 children still in custody—those who came to this country alone, without a parent or guardian. This is the highest number of “unaccompanied minors” ever detained at one time—and a five-fold increase since May 2017! These migrant youth—overwhelmingly children from Central America’s Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala—left their families and everything else behind, risked the dangers of the weeks-long trek across Mexico, only to be treated as criminals for seeking asylum in the U.S.

At the same time, border arrests of immigrant families coming from the countries of the Northern Triangle increased 38 percent in August, making it the greatest number of family arrivals in August on record.

What Drove These People to Come to the U.S.?

The truth is that the conditions in these countries are so intolerable that they are driving huge sections of their populations to flee. And why did the conditions get that way? The violence, turmoil, and poverty that have made these countries unlivable for so many are the consequences of decades of plunder and military and political domination by the U.S. in this region the imperialist rulers so arrogantly consider “America's backyard.”

Direct U.S. support for vicious tyrants and their murderous armies and death squads in the 1980s led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people in the Northern Triangle countries. This reactionary violence was aimed at suppressing resistance movements backed by the U.S.’s main global rival at the time, the Soviet Union (which had become a capitalist-imperialist power following the overthrow of socialism in the mid-1950s). The expansion of economic plunder by U.S. corporations in the decades that followed—aided by the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), this region's version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that devastated the life of tens of millions in Mexico—made it impossible for huge numbers of people to support themselves on the land. And the widespread violence by gangs (often working with the police) that is gripping whole sections of these countries today and has created world-record murder rates, is the result of decisions made by the U.S. in the 1990s to deport thousands of youth back to Central America, in the name of the “war on gangs.”

The consequences in those countries have been catastrophic, and that has led to the huge flow of refugees and immigrants to the U.S.-Mexico border. In relation to this, there is a section of the U.S. ruling class that views immigration in the context not only of U.S. economic necessity (the super-exploitation of Mexican and Central American labor has always been the cornerstone of the capitalist economy in the southwest and western U.S.), but as a part of maintaining domination over Mexico and Central/Latin America through “soft power” (that is, economic, political and cultural domination in conjunction with the brute force and bullying). They think the best way to protect and pursue U.S. imperialist interests is to forge an arrangement where immigration can continue but under greater U.S. control. 

This was the program that Obama was carrying out. And its consequences were horrific, including trying to stop the flow of Central American refugees through more intense militarization of the border and sending the overwhelming majority back to their homelands. At one point Obama said on ABC News, "That is our direct message to the families in Central America. Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll be sent back. More importantly, they may not make it."

Obama’s expansion and unleashing of the Border Patrol drove more and more border-crosssers into the most dangerous parts of the Arizona desert, where hundreds lost their lives each year. The bones and other remains of these migrants, ravaged by desert animals, have Obama's name on them. Obama earned the title “Deporter-in-Chief” because under his regime a record-breaking two million immigrants were deported. He promoted the program Secure Communities, under which local police forces worked hand in hand with ICE agents in cities around the country to target immigrants, until it was pulled back; used indefinite detention to discourage others from coming here; and directed tens of millions of dollars, as Trump is doing right now, to the Mexican government to fund the arrest and deportation of Central American immigrants and refugees before they can get to the U.S. border.

The Fascist Solution

The Trump/Pence regime represents another section of the rulers who are convinced that the fascist program of extreme repression, openly racist “Make America White Again” demonization of people of color, and anti-immigrant ethnic cleansing can succeed in resolving what is in fact an intractable contradiction for this system. Their fascist “solution” includes:

• Create more detention space to hold more children, for even longer periods of time
• The record number of immigrant youth being held today is not a result of an upsurge in their numbers arriving at the border. It is a direct result of changes aimed at raising the risks for anyone who would step forward to take responsibility for the children. In the past, “unaccompanied minors” were released to sponsors, such as parents already in the U.S., extended family members, or family friends, as soon as the relationship was verified. But in June, the Homeland Security Department announced that potential sponsors and other adult members living with them would have to submit fingerprints, and that the data would be shared with immigration authorities. This can threaten families of those stepping forward to be sponsors with deportation if anyone is undocumented. As a result, far fewer are stepping forward, leaving the minors in custody for almost twice as long as under the previous policy.
• The government's focus is now on expanding the detention space so that they can imprison even more children, for even longer periods of time. On September 11 plans were announced to triple the number of beds from 1,200 to 3,800 at the immigrant detention camp at Tornillo-Guadalupe, a tent city in the sweltering desert near El Paso, Texas. They have also called for the Pentagon to make arrangements to hold immigrant children on military bases around the country.
• Detain immigrant parents and children together—indefinitely
• The Trump/Pence regime is moving to eliminate obstacles in the way of holding parents and children together in custody—indefinitely. The reason this fascist regime was tearing parents and children apart in June is because they have been prevented from holding children in detention facilities for more than 20 days as a result of a 1997 settlement agreement of a class-action lawsuit known as Flores. That has meant that families in custody had to be released from detention after 20 days. The regime argues that the policy of releasing families from detention to await their immigration hearings—crudely labeled “catch and release”—leads to immigrants failing to appear in court. In fact, over three-quarters of these immigrants do show up for court.
• On September 7, the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services issued a proposed federal regulation that would replace the Flores agreement and allow for the indefinite detention of families.

These crimes against immigrants are just a part of the intolerable outrages this system carries out continually, and that cause so much unnecessary human suffering for the masses of people of the world. STOP the demonization, criminalization and deportations of immigrants and the militarization of the border.   

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This detention facility in Dilly, Texas houses over 1,500 women and children who have been detained, August 2018. Photo: AP

Immigrants and the New Socialist Republic in North America

The following is from the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which was authored by Bob Avakian and adopted by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

H. Immigrants, Citizenship and Asylum.

3. The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic, as set forth in this Constitution and in laws and policies which are established and enacted in accordance with this Constitution. From the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, anyone residing outside of the territory of this Republic who wishes to enter its territory, and any such person wishing to become a citizen, or a permanent resident, of this Republic, must follow the relevant laws and procedures which have been established on the basis of this Constitution. Anyone who applies for asylum in this Republic and, through the relevant procedures that have been established for this purpose, is found to have been persecuted, or to have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of having taken part in just struggles against imperialist and reactionary states or other reactionary forces, or on account of scientific, artistic, or other pursuits which have brought them into conflict with reactionary powers and institutions, shall be afforded asylum in the New Socialist Republic in North America, so long as they pledge to act in compliance with the Constitution of this Republic, and do act accordingly. Provided that they do not engage in any serious violation of the laws of this Republic, people granted asylum have the right to remain within the territory of this Republic for as long as they choose to do so, and shall be accorded the same rights as citizens, with the exception that, so long as they have not become citizens, they may not vote in elections or be elected or appointed to public office. They shall have the right, after a certain period, determined by law, to become citizens of this Republic, with the same rights and responsibilities as all other citizens. The citizenship process, as well as review of the asylum status of all those granted asylum, shall be carried out in accordance with the laws and procedures established for these purposes.

From the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico:

In the Face of the Crimes of the State: Never Forgive, Never Forget, but Rather Resistance and Revolution!

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The following flyer from the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico, was translated from Spanish by revcom.us; the original article appeared at aurora-roja.blogspot.com.

Fifty years after the massacre of Tlatelolco [October 2, 1968], four years after Ayotzinapa and Tlatlaya, two years after Nochixtlán, these and many other crimes of the state remain in absolute impunity. And the armed forces and police of this criminal state continue murdering, disappearing and torturing thousands of people. In a “listening” forum in Ciudad Juárez, Andrés Manuel López Obrador [newly elected Mexican president] insisted that in order to achieve “pacification and reconciliation,” the victims would have to grant “forgiveness”. The victims and their families began to shout very justly so, “Never forgive, never forget!” and “Without justice, there is no forgiveness!” “Forgiving” crimes against humanity would only contribute to perpetuate the monstrous war against the people by the state, in collusion at all levels with organized crime, which has resulted in more than 200,000 murders in the last 12 years. The only hope of justice is the determined resistance of the people to expose and denounce these crimes, and the only definitive way out of so many horrors is a revolution that overthrows this criminal state and the current rotten inhuman system, responsible for so much misery and unnecessary suffering.

Ayotzinapa: It Was the State, and They Continue Lying to Cover It Up

The evidence compiled by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) leaves no doubt that the federal government, as well as the state and municipal governments, participated directly in the joint operation that resulted in the murder of six people and the disappearance of the 43 teaching college students of Ayotzinapa, and who later took actions to cover up this terrible crime. Military and police from the three levels of government spied on the students with the C4 [Center of Command, Control, Communications and Computer] system from when they left the school. The police and the armed forces (as well as drug traffickers) participated in the coordinated operation to prevent the students from leaving Iguala in the State of Guerrero, and the army took control of the C4 at critical times and suppressed the videos of these crimes.

Then the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and its Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) set up a cover-up of this state crime, with the alleged “historical truth” that the 43 students had been incinerated by an organized crime group in the Cocula dump on the very night of September 26, 2014. This lie has been rejected by virtually every independent investigation, including the investigations by the GIEI itself, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), Amnesty International, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The government fabricated its lie by torturing people illegally detained. The recent report of the UN High Commissioner confirms that, in the 34 cases that it investigated, the detainees were tortured.

A video and other evidence also indicate that they planted, under the command of Tomás Zerón of the AIC, a piece of bone, from the missing student Alex Mora Venancio, in a garbage bag along the San Juan River on October 28, 2014, to be “discovered” the next day by divers from the Marines. In addition, they planted 42 bullet shell casings in the Cocula dump. If the federal government planted Alex’s bone, obviously it was directly involved in these crimes. Authorities at the highest level of the government know where the disappeared students are, and they are only trying to cover up the role of their own uniformed assassins.

And they continue to cover up this massacre: Ten federal government entities have filed at least 222 court appeals to prevent the creation of a “Truth Commission,” and former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto appears in government ads to defend the same lie “that the 43 young people had been incinerated by a criminal group.” Nobody from the new incoming federal government has come out to expose him for what he is: A cynical and lying criminal. Alejandro Encinas (future undersecretary of human rights of the Secretariat of the Interior) promises to push for a real investigation as of December 1, but López Obrador has already promised to choose the new heads of the armed forces from among today’s same criminal generals and admirals. So, what will his government do in the face of the opposition from the armed forces, the police and the PGR to being investigated?

It is because of the tenacious resistance of the family members, the students and thousands of other people in Mexico and the world that the state has not yet been able to bury the whole truth and close the case. Whether all the truth comes out and there is possibility of some justice, will depend on the determined resistance of the people, independent of the state, who free of restraints, expose the state’s crimes and its lies.

NEVER FORGET October 2, and the Same Murdering State Still Stands

Although there have been some changes in form, in essence the current state is still the same state as the one that massacred more than one hundred students and others on October 2, 1968, when the army opened fire on a peaceful rally under orders from President Gustavo Díaz Órdaz and his Secretary of the Interior, Luís Echeverría, with the backing and advice of U.S. imperialism. Although the first government with parties “alternating in power” and a supposed “democratic transition” with Vicente Fox as president, promised to investigate and clarify “the crimes of the past” with a special prosecutor’s office, this office was finally dissolved and none of the executioners responsible for the massacres of Tlatelolco, the “Halconazo” of June 10, 1971 [massacre of students by elite Mexican army soldiers], nor the government’s dirty war in the following years was put on trial or punished.

The 1968 student movement erupted at a time of revolts and revolutions that convulsed the world and encouraged the hopes of millions of the possibility of overthrowing the current capitalist system and getting to a much better socialist society. This movement fought the antiriot police heroically, demanded freedom for political prisoners, mocked the “regime of the Mexican Revolution,” and exposed the reactionary nature of the repressive forces of the state, which was and remains an oppressive machine to subdue all mass opposition that threatens or even hinders the “proper functioning” of the reigning system.

Stop the War Against the People!

This reactionary repressive role of the state is largely disguised now with the supposed “war against organized crime” declared 12 years ago by then President Felipe Calderón with the sponsorship of the U.S. government, which is really a war against the people. This accelerated the militarization of Mexico, increased the scourge of organized crime, and led to a huge escalation of widespread violence against the people—murders, femicides, disappearances, torture, and the unjust imprisonment of thousands of innocent people—at the hands of the forces of the state and also criminal groups, who act in collusion while competing and clashing among each other. This is a form of preventive counterinsurgency, which tries to prevent a mass insurgency from arising. In the Enrique Peña Nieto government, all this reactionary violence against the mass movements and also against the population in general has intensified. Just in July 2018, the official figure (which minimizes the actual number) was 2,599 murders—the highest figure for which there are records. In the first seven months of 2018, 16,339 people are murdered. The murders of women classified as femicide also hit a record 78 women in July, an official figure that omits many misogynistic murders that are not recorded as femicides. The Femicide Map, for example, reported more than 230 femicides per month in 2017.

Immigrants, mainly Central Americans, are a key target of this war, with the Mexican state acting as U.S. guard dog. They flee from criminal and patriarchal violence and from misery, the product of the destruction of the countryside and the environment, as well as the super-exploitation by imperialist companies. The Mexican government and the hitmen collude to kidnap, deport, disappear, or murder them. The crime of the 72 executed immigrants buried in San Fernando, Tamaulipas brought to light this massacre, but remains in absolute impunity. The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement says that it has documented between 70 and 80,000 disappeared Central Americans in the six years of Calderón government, 30 percent of them women and girls, many of them sold into human trafficking networks. Since 2014, the Mexican state, with the U.S. calling the shots, has intensified this persecution, deporting more Central Americans than the U.S. and also collecting their biometric data for the U.S. Currently, the Trump/Pence fascist regime is seeking to impose a Mexico as a “safe third country,” corralling the migrants in Mexico who are seeking asylum in the U.S.

The Army and the Marines Disappear or Murder the Detainees

“Extrajudicial executions” are already the daily norm. The crime of Tlatlaya in 2014 still remains unpunished, where the army soldiers murdered 22 people, executing the majority of them after they had surrendered, obeying written orders to “go out into the night to shoot down criminals.” Later, the police arrested and tortured the witnesses.

Since January 2018, the Marines have unleashed a reign of terror in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. As of May, they had disappeared 36 people, nine of them had already appeared murdered with signs of torture. Despite videos, photographs, witnesses, and even several cases in which family members followed the kidnapper Marines to their bases, the commanders keep denying everything, just as they did in March when a Marine helicopter murdered two girls and their mother, a fact that was later verified by the expert reports.

The Problem Is the System, the Solution Is the Revolution

Why, in these and many other cases, do the forces of the state murder, disappear, torture, and repress people? It is not simply due to corrupt officials, the lack of “training in human rights” or that “they are not doing their job.” The truth is that by repressing people, the state is doing its job: Its job is to defend a system based on the exploitation and oppression of the great majority by a handful of big Mexican and foreign capitalists. There is no way to maintain this system of big injustices and inequalities without sowing terror among the people on the bottom of society and repressing the outbreaks of protest and rebellion, and this is precisely the fundamental role of the current state. The election of López Obrador as president has awakened in many hopes that he may at least lessen the growing horrors that we are living, but the reality is that he is going to be at the head of the same criminal state, representing and defending the same heartless system.

The only way out for the people is the most determined independent resistance that exposes the criminal state, and contributes to preparing a revolution guided by the New Communism, to overthrow the current predominantly capitalist system subordinated to imperialism which is the root of so much misery and injustice, and create a new socialist society. If you want to contribute to another future that is possible and much better, share this flyer and contact us.

Aurora Roja, voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico
aurora-roja.blogspot.com
September 1, 2018

On August 27, 1968, armored tanks went up against students in Mexico City who staged a protest in the Zócalo plaza, one of the largest protests against the government in Mexico's history. (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

Protest of family members and others against disappearance of people by Marines, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

“We Are All Ayotzinapa! The State Is Not Negligent, It Is Criminal! The people stand up for another future!—National Resistance Network ‘¡Stop the War on the People!’”

A Call from Carl Dix and Cornel West:

Come to Chicago & Add Your Voice to Call for Justice for Laquan McDonald

WE MUST REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE KILLER OF LAQUAN MCDONALD WALKING FREE!

October 3, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A travesty of justice is being perpetrated in Chicago. Carl is in Chicago, working with the Revolution Club and other forces for social justice, mounting protest and organizing every day.

Your voice, your body, and your financial support are needed to stop this miscarriage of justice.

The trial of Jason Van Dyke, the police officer who killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014 is coming to a close. Van Dyke got out of his police car and within seconds fired 16 shots into Laquan's body even though he was walking away from the police with his arms at his side. The whole thing was caught on video, a video that Chicago authorities tried to cover up and keep the public from seeing.

When massive protest and a court ruling forced the public release of the video, Van Dyke was charged with murder. See the attached fact sheet for just how bad this trial has been.

The 16 shots Van Dyke fired into Laquan's body, most of them while he lay on the ground, were illegitimate violence. The trial has reinforced that illegitimate violence. And if the court lets Van Dyke walk free, that would be illegitimate violence too—a threat against every Black and Brown youth in Chicago.

Those whose voices have significant impact in society have a special responsibility to condemn the way Laquan McDonald has been executed twice, once by a cop on the street and a second time in a trial in which he, and not the cop who shot him, has been portrayed as the criminal.

Come to Chicago and stand with people as they respond to the soon-to-be-issued verdict in this case. Speak out on this miscarriage of justice where you are. Speak to the press about it. Post on social media about it. And donate now to the Revolution Chicago Project to support the struggle: https://www.gofundme.com/RevolutionSummerChicagoFund.

Download factsheet and distribute
-from Revolution Club
-from your organization or group

DONATE to the Revolution Chicago Project—
Support the struggle!

Killer Cop Van Dyke Gets on Stand and Lies—Again—to "Justify" the Murder of Laquan McDonald

When the Jury Goes Out, People Must Act!

October 3, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago cop who carried out the wanton murder of Laquan McDonald with 16 bullets took the stand on Tuesday, October 2, in his trial on first degree murder charges. And as the dashcam video was played in the courtroom—which shows Van Dyke advancing and firing at Laquan as he is walking away with his hands at his sides—the killer cop blatantly lied. He claimed that Laquan “waved the knife from his lower right side upwards, across his body, towards my left shoulder”—when the video shows no such thing. In response to his lawyer asking him whether Laquan was “advancing” toward him, Van Dyke claimed, “He never stopped.” Again—no such thing is shown on the video. And Van Dyke claimed that he kept on firing until he had emptied his gun, because “I could see him start to push up with his left hand off the ground. I see his left shoulder start to come up. And I still see him holding the knife with his right hand, not letting go of it.” Yet again, the dashcam video exposes this as a lie.

On top of all this, this killer pig spewed out racist poison in his attempt to justify his crime, several times describing Laquan as having eyes “bugging out”—trying to depict the youth as some “frightening” and “violent” animal, a “savage,” that had to be dealt with by lethal force. He even claimed he saw Laquan with “eyes...still bugged out” as he was on the ground, riddled with bullet holes, his bone shattered, bleeding to death.

Asked why the dashcam video doesn’t show what he’s claiming to be the “threatening” moves Laquan made, Van Dyke repeatedly claimed the video doesn’t show his “perspective.” He was shown an animated re-creation introduced as “evidence” by his lawyers purporting to support some of Van Dyke’s claims. Asked why even that animation doesn’t show Laquan raising the knife in a threatening way, Van Dyke said it’s “not my perspective because it’s showing the back of my head and not from my eye level.”

Yes, Van Dyke was seeing things from his “perspective”—the “perspective” of the pigs whose real job is, as Bob Avakian brings out, not to serve and protect the people but to serve and protect the system that rules over the people and enforce relations of exploitation and oppression. And as part of that, the “perspective” of the police is to look at Black and other oppressed youth automatically as “criminals” and to brutalize and even kill them at the slightest provocation or for no reason at all except the color of their skin or the way they talk.

And what about the so-called “prosecutors,” whose job supposedly is to get a conviction of the accused? The cross-examination of Van Dyke was not even done by the main “special prosecutor” but by an assistant, and they wrapped up the cross-examination in less than 30 minutes! Here was an opportunity to powerfully expose the actions of this killer cop and tear his lies to shreds—using his own words. But aside from a few attempts to point at contradictions between Van Dyke’s words and the dashcam video, the prosecutors basically pulled their punches. And this follows the previous two weeks of the trial: the prosecutors putting on as one of their main witnesses Van Dyke’s partner on the night of the murder, who proceeded to argue the defense’s case; and then the second execution of Laquan McDonald by the defense, who brought on a parade of “witnesses” to paint him as a youth with a “violent” past (see the article here). And while Van Dyke’s lawyers were allowed to do this, not one word about Van Dyke’s violent past—like how he was in the top 3 percent of Chicago cops with brutality complaints against them—was uttered during the whole trial even when Van Dyke took the stand and spoke of his history as a police officer, “I've pulled out my gun a few times, but I am proud of the fact that I'd never fired it til that night.” This meant that the prosecution could have questioned him extensively about his history in cross examination—but once again, the prosecution failed to prosecute.

Also in the courtroom on Tuesday, the defense brought up another “expert” to back up their attempt to have Van Dyke walk free. A psychologist specializing in “stress” on cops—and who had interviewed Van Dyke sometime after he killed Laquan—said as part of his testimony, “In an emergency situation, if something is bad, you gotta do something. You’ve got to escape. But wait, you can’t just escape you have to neutralize the threat because that’s your job....” This was another insidious attempt to portray Laquan as the “threat” and “aggressor” and Van Dyke as not just an officer who was doing his “job” but was even the “victim” in the situation.

During his testimony, this psychologist let out that in his interview with Van Dyke, the cop had said that while he and his partner were in the squad car on the way to the scene of the eventual killing, Van Dyke had said, “Oh my God, we’re going to have to shoot this guy.” All Van Dyke knew at that point was that other cops were following someone who had popped the tire of a police car. But already, this pig was itching to pull the trigger—and in fact did, 16 times, murdering Laquan.

The judge said at the end of Tuesday that the trial was nearing the end. It is possible that the case could go to the jury (and even reach a verdict) by the end of the week. The way the trial has gone indicates the possibility of a great injustice—the cop who murdered Laquan McDonald walking totally free or with some lesser charges.

Black pastors, activists and others have called for the city to be shut down with nonviolent protests, boycotts and other actions if Van Dyke is found not guilty.

Carl Dix and Cornel West have issued a call for people to “Come to Chicago & Add Your Voice to Call for Justice for Laquan McDonald: WE MUST REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE KILLER OF LAQUAN MCDONALD WALKING FREE!”

The Revolution Club Chicago said as part of their call to action at the start of the trial: “Mobilize when the jury goes to decision. If Van Dyke IS found guilty, CELEBRATE the struggle that achieved this. IF Van Dyke is allowed to go free, business-as-usual NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN.”

And Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who has been in Chicago carrying out revolutionary work around the trial, said:

When the jury goes out, don’t be alone. If you’re in a school, stop school and go out front and listen and wait; if you’re the teacher, change the lesson to something relevant to understanding, and acting to stop, this horror. If you’re in college, go to a common room, or cafeteria or plaza—wherever people are. If you’re at work, stop work and gather around a radio or TV or phone. If you’re in your house, go out on the corner, or into a bar, or into a laundromat, and be with people. If you’re “doing business,” stop the business and start talking with people around you. If you’re out in the burbs, and there are no corners where people gather, call your friends and go witness together somewhere, on a busy corner, a mall, wherever. While you’re waiting, talk about what this means if this killer cop walks. If you have a sign, hold it; if you don’t have one, make one; start making those signs now so you’re ready.

And when the jury comes back—whatever they say, act accordingly.

Dashcam Video of Officer Jason Van Dyke Shooting Laquan McDonald

Bob Avakian, "The police, Black youth and what kind of a system is this?"

This is a clip from REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, a film of a talk by Bob Avakian given in 2003 in the United States.

Find out more at
Justice For Laquan McDonald! Convict Van Dyke and Throw Him in Jail— The Whole Damn System Is GUILTY AS HELL!

Statement by Carl Dix

"If They Free the Killer Cop, the City Must STOP!"

October 5, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Carl Dix was in front of the courthouse yesterday with the Chicago Revolution Club raising the cry: “If They Free the Killer Cop, the City Must STOP!”

Together with Cornel West, Carl issued a statement that said: “The 16 shots Van Dyke fired into Laquan's body, most of them while he lay on the ground, were illegitimate violence. The trial has reinforced that illegitimate violence. And if the court lets Van Dyke walk free, that would be illegitimate violence too—a threat against every Black and Brown youth in Chicago.”

Yesterday Carl said: “Laquan McDonald is today's Emmett Till. If Chicago becomes today's Money, Mississippi, by letting Laquan's killer walk free, people have to flood the streets in response, rejecting this illegitimate verdict. People must express their rage in ways that make unmistakably clear that the days when the system can unleash its cops to do whatever they want to us must be, and can be, ended."

The Revolution Club Chicago photographs have been featured in today’s New York Times, Chicago Tribune and other publications.

Carl Dix  is a long time revolutionary and a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Carl was one of the Fort Lewis 6, 6 US soldiers who stood together to refuse orders to go to Vietnam. In 1996, he co-founded the Oct 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality and in 2011 he co-founded, with Cornel West, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN), which launched the campaign to STOP "Stop & Frisk" in NYC.

Photo: Ashlee Rezin/Chicago SunTimes via AP

From Carl Dix:

One Killer Cop Convicted—Get with the Revolution and Get Rid of This Whole System that Needs Killer Cops!

October 5, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Jason Van Dyke, the Chicago cop who murdered Laquan McDonald, has been convicted—of second degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery. After decades of police and racists getting away with murder—from Emmett Till to Fred Hampton and up to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Darius Pinex, Justus Howell, Rekia Boyd, Aquoness “Quono” Cathery, and Harith Augustus—we finally got a little bit of justice. We forced a conviction of a cop for murdering a Black person. People are right to celebrate this, and the pigs have no right to suppress them or take vengeance against them when they do.

It should’ve been first degree murder. The evidence showed this. The video shows Van Dyke opening fire on Laquan as he walked away from the police with his hands at his side. Van Dyke pumped 16 shots into Laquan’s body, most of them as he lay on the ground bleeding.

Right now, it seems that these convictions are enough to send this murdering pig to jail. But we need to be vigilant that they don’t find some loophole to let him walk. We can’t go to sleep on this.

During the trial some activists and leaders said, “Yes, we should protest but we don’t want another Ferguson.” Let’s be clear: this murdering cop never would’ve been on trial in the first place if it weren’t for what people did in Ferguson and Baltimore and the other places where people straightened their backs. This spread all across the country, including Chicago taking to the streets to demand police terror STOP! And as part of this, there were all the exposures, the marches and rallies in Chicago in response to the release of the video of the murder of Laquan and the massive coverup that ran right to the entire city administration. 

This struggle has impacted the way people more broadly look at these police murders of Black and Brown people. So much so that in this case, even though there was only one Black juror and the state put on a lackluster prosecution, the jurors still looked at the video of Laquan being murdered and saw it for what it was—MURDER. HOW WE CAN WIN, How We Can Really Make Revolution, the guide to making revolution, says: “We need to oppose and disrupt the moves of the ruling powers to isolate, ‘encircle,’ brutalize, mass incarcerate and murderously repress the people who have the hardest life under this system and who most need this revolution. We need to ‘encircle’ them—by bringing forth wave upon wave of people rising up in determined opposition to this system.” This was a step toward that.

We don’t want to just keep fighting these same battles year after year. What they do to people here and all over the world is a horror ... and it is unnecessary. It is caused by their system of capitalism-imperialism—and we must and we can overthrow that system. We have the science that lets us know how to fight. We have the strategy for fighting and winning in HOW WE CAN WIN that you can read at www.revcom.us. We have the plan for a new society, where all exploitation and oppression can be abolished and humanity can be emancipated, in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. And we have the leadership, in Bob Avakian, architect of the new communism, whose film Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution goes online at revcom.us on October 19.

I call on everyone in Chicago and all over the country who wants to see a better day, who yearns for freedom—get with the revolution and join the Revolution Club (for information, go to Revcom.us).

Bob Avakian: Masses Don't Know The Effect They Have On Society

Clip from BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS.

Carl Dix is a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party and a follower of and advocate for Bob Avakian, his leadership and his visionary new synthesis of communism. He is a courageous freedom fighter from the 1960s who went on to become a revolutionary fighter and a communist. Dix spent two years in military prison for refusing to fight in the unjust Vietnam War. He emerged unrepentant and went on to become a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), USA, dedicating his life to the emancipation of all humanity. Carl is a co-initiator of Refuse Fascism. He co-founded, with Cornel West, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN), and initiated Rise Up October that brought thousands into the streets in New York City in 2015 demanding a stop to police terror.

From a Prisoner:

"A Huge Revolutionary Salute to the Revolution Club of Chicago..."

October 5, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

We greatly appreciate receiving these letters from prisoners and encourage prisoners to keep sending us correspondence. The views expressed by the writers of these letters are, of course, their own; and they are not responsible for the views published elsewhere in our paper.

PRLF*,

First and foremost, I would like to send out a huge revolutionary salute to the Revolution Club of Chicago for boldly demanding that Van Dyke be convicted and locked up for Murder and showing how the whole system is guilty of the murder/cover-up of Laquan McDonald all in front of the courthouse and for the world to see—I always make it a point to highlight what the Rev. Club is putting forward whenever the local news comes on.

Revolution’s coverage of this Killer Cop’s trial has really ignited some lively and intense discussions involving murder by police, mass incarceration, and the overall oppression of Black people as well as other oppressed nationalities and how all of this is rooted in the murderous system of global exploitation and oppression.

These weekly compiled articles from revcom.us continues to play a vital and dynamic role in here. Not only do these articles expose the crimes and outrages of this system, but also shows us scientifically why this system can’t be reformed and why it is so essential and indispensible for us to be engaging and grappling with the revolutionary leadership and scientific works of BA, in particular the new synthesis of communism that BA has developed and brought forward.

As prisoners who have a heart for humanity, we need to help spread the word of the new film Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution—this film needs to get out in a big and powerful way!

We need to make a “future of revolution, actual revolution, guided by the vision, ethos, and plan of the New Communism developed by Bob Avakian” a point of contention in the face of the “Trump/Pence fascist regime” and “Imperialism-as-usual.”

A “Not Guilty” verdict in this pig’s trial will have genocidal implications for Black and Latino people and other oppressed nationalities across the country, especially as the Trump/Pence regime is preparing to lock in a pro-fascist majority in a branch of government by installing Kava-Nazi onto the Supreme Court.

Whose interests was Van Dyke “serving and protecting” when he pumped 16 shots throughout the body of Laquan McDonald?

Can you please arm me with the following:  1) Conquer the World 2) Demarcations 3) Away With All Gods! 4) Bastion of Enlightenment… or Enforcer for Imperialism: The Case of Israel. Thank You!

Fight the Power, and Transform the People for Revolution…

* Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund

ALERT

GoFundMe.com cancelled the campaign to raise funds to promote the new speech by Bob Avakian
This is unacceptable! Protest, Donate and Spread the Word

October 5, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

We've just learned that GoFundMe.com cancelled the campaign to raise funds to promote the speech by Bob Avakian, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. This will premiere online on October 19 and needs to be seen by many thousands who hate the way people are forced to live under this system. Over $2,300 of the $5,000 goal had been raised which has now all been refunded to the donors.

GoFundMe has yet to give a reason for this, but we are waiting for its response. This is unacceptable! What's at stake here is whether or not people will be able to get a basic understanding of the truth that this system can't be reformed... the need and possibility for a radically different world, and how to fight for that world through an actual revolution... or even be able to debate this!

What you can do:

1. CONTRIBUTE funds to spread the word of the online release of this speech. This is all the more reason you are needed... to get word of this speech everywhere, up from the grassroots. Spread the message that the defenders of the old order don't want you to hear. Spread this trailer and ask others to donate. For now, contribute HERE.

2. Write to GoFundMe in protest. Contact them through their help page here: https://www.gofundme.com/mvc.php?route=contact/suggest or on social media. Demand they re-instate the campaign from RCP Publications!

3. Double down! We're now 10 days away from when our promotional campaign was going to start and just 14 days away from the online premiere. We had an initial goal of $5,000... let's double it! This message of real revolution is going up against the whole status quo... all the naysayers who tell you to accept the horrors of this system and confine ourselves to the margins. Say NO to this! Contribute generously, spread this message, organize a fundraiser or bake sale. If you already contributed, and your money was refunded, contribute again HERE and give more than your initial contribution. Don't let this message be suppressed!

Come back to this page, and @tuneintorevcom for updates of the situation. Write to revolution.reports@yahoo.com with your ideas and suggestions.

The Importance of Protesting the Supreme Court Confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh... and Doing So on the Right Terms

October 8, 2018 (updated and reposted from an earlier article) | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

(New editors note added at end.)

Brett Kavanaugh represents a grave threat to the future of humanity, and his nomination to the Supreme Court should be thoroughly rejected. As we have written:

Brett Kavanaugh has a long ugly history in both the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government in pursuing a reactionary Christian fascist agenda. This proven public record is why his nomination to the Supreme Court should be and must be stopped. Kavanaugh played a thoroughly reactionary role in the Republi-fascist Starr Commission’s inquisitional attempt to impeach Bill Clinton in the 1990s. As a member of the Bush regime he justified torture. Later he said that the president should be immune from prosecution. And his judicial decisions in the last decade trampled on basic constitutional rights especially regarding women and LGBTQ people.

If he is approved for the Supreme Court he would lock in a pro-fascist majority in a branch of government which can decisively affect all parts of the government, as well as the rights of the people to speak out and dissent. Further: The decisions he would almost immediately participate in will significantly intensify, to put it mildly, the oppression and degradation of women and LGBT people. The protests of the past two weeks have been righteous and should continue.

In short, Kavanaugh has done great harm throughout his life, and if given the chance to ascend to the Supreme Court he will do far, far worse.  

What we knew and what is even now further coming to light concerning Kavanaugh’s views on the rights of women to control their own reproduction, especially but not only the right to abortion, as well as a number of other serious issues, including torture and executive power, to name a few—which in every case he has verged from stonewalling to deception to outright mendacity—all argue that his ascension to the court would do grave and incalculable harm and must be opposed and STOPPED.

Up to now, despite the efforts and sacrifice of several thousand people who did turn out in DC, with many getting arrested, the struggle to stop this has NOT been commensurate with the threat posed. As for the top Democrats, they have exposed some of Kavanaugh’s record and complained about the cover-ups, but they have not brought out anything close to the full extent and substance of it nor have they pinpointed it as fascist, they have not called out masses, nor have these Senators simply stopped the hearings as illegitimate until a full disclosure was made and a full interrogation allowed; in the main they have basically gone through the motions. 

Yet it is not too late to mount the major struggle required—if masses of people are led to grasp the depth of the harm Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Court will do and its connection to the overall fascist program. But this struggle must be fought on the right terms.

The Accusation Against Kavanaugh of Sexual Assault and Attempted Rape

Early in this whole process, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford told her congressional representative that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her when she was 15 years old and he was 17. At this point, other than those who were in the room, nobody knows the exact truth of this allegation; yet many are speaking with utter surety, with no real basis to do so beyond hunches and what they know from press accounts, as to what did or did not happen. To deem something true because it comports with your experience, or is consistent with larger pervasive social phenomena (the outrage of sexual assault in this case), or what feels right to you does NOT lead to actually correctly understanding reality; getting to the truth requires a serious and open-minded sifting of concrete evidence. To act on the basis that something seems true without such evidence can lead, and has led, to very bad outcomes.

At the same time—and this is also very important—some basic truths that have been underlined in this past period include the fact that many women do in fact wait years before bringing truthful accusations precisely because of the huge social forces arrayed against women when they do so, including shaming and outright revenge attacks, all of which multiply in vitriol and pervasiveness in the age of social media. Connected to that, most women do not make such accusations lightly; and virtually all women have stories of harassment, abuse, beatings, extortion, or rape perpetrated by men and boys in their backgrounds. That this is so is one extremely important reason for revolution, for overturning this social order and its putrid relations between people and values (relations and values fostered and reinforced by virtually every institution in society), and replacing it with a genuinely emancipatory one; indeed, were this pervasive harassment and abuse the only thing wrong with this system, that would be reason enough to make revolution. However, this larger social truth does not itself determine the truth, or falsity, of any particular assertion.

Following the emergence of this accusation, for many people the truth or falsehood of this charge has become the decisive issue in the Kavanaugh nomination. And even some people who have up to now opposed Kavanaugh for the more overriding reasons we enumerated at the beginning of this article are shifting their emphasis to make this the principal issue. All of this is wrong. Even if the evidence eventually points unambiguously to Kavanaugh’s guilt, that should not be the decisive question or even the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

How Should We Judge a Person’s Past?

First, even assuming that the weight of evidence brought forward proves the charge leveled against Kavanaugh, what someone did at 17 years old has to be mainly looked at in relation to their entire life. People at 17 are not fully responsible adults; they are still in the process of becoming who they will be.^*

The decisive question is not what someone did as a youth but what has been the subsequent arc of their life. People can change; the question should not be whether they did bad things as a youth, but: have they fundamentally confronted and broken with that—or have they continued in the same essential direction? In the case of Kavanaugh, these facts are beyond clear: whatever he did (or did not) do as a teenager, as a full-grown man he has been a major player in strengthening patriarchal oppression and in driving forward the overall fascization of the U.S.—and this is true no matter how many women who knew him way-back-when say that he was a polite teenager, or whether Dr. Blasey’s accusation proves to be true or not. It is for these reasons that Kavanaugh must be opposed or defeated.

The Importance of the Right Terms

This leads to the second point. If Kavanaugh is to be rejected not mainly, or decisively, for his proven record as an adult but for accusations—even if they prove to be true—of what he did as a juvenile, on what basis will the nominee who will surely succeed him (for instance, if it is the even more right-wing, if that is possible, Amy Barrett) be opposed?

More important: what kind of society are we going for? One in which errors and even crimes in people’s youth are brought forward and wielded against them when they are adults, and in which these are deployed for political ends (no matter how just and correct those ends may seem in the short run)? Or one in which people are judged on the arc of what they dedicate their lives to and in which there is a fundamental moral unity between means and ends?

The Struggle Against Kavanaugh Must Intensify

Again, the struggle to prevent Kavanaugh from being seated must not only continue but intensify, with the correct focus—on his thoroughly fascist history and what that portends for the future of humanity. Revolutionaries and radicals should be wherever people are struggling against this nomination, exposing the full weight of the danger involved with this nomination and directing the outrage against the fascist reshaping of the Supreme Court, the Trump/Pence fascist regime overall, and the capitalist-imperialist system which brought forward this whole nightmare.

* For this reason, comparisons between this situation and Anita Hill are not entirely apt. Hill brought her accusations against a grown man who had authority over her in a governmental agency. [back]