From Revolution Club, Los Angeles:

JUSTICE FOR STEPHON CLARK! THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY AS HELL!
WE NEED A REVOLUTION!

March 9, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Last week, in the midst of the protests against the cold-blooded pig murder of Stephon Clark and the IN-justice System’s refusal to indict his killer-in-blue, the Sacramento Bee pointed out that 52 years ago this month the Black Panther Party marched inside the Capitol with guns. They quoted Bobby Seale saying back then that “racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of Black people.” That was over 50 years ago but it could’ve been said yesterday! Not only has this murder and brutality never gone away, in many ways it is worse—including that there are now 10 times as many people in prison as there were back then, and the majority are Black or Latino. This oppression is interwoven into the blood and bones of this capitalist-imperialist system.

Ask yourself: Are we going to protest for days or weeks and then allow our anger to be corralled and swept into the killing confines of this system that shows us over and over again that you can’t vote this shit away or tweak some law that will somehow make pigs stop killing our youth? Will another 50 years go by until it’s our grandkids dying outside of our doorsteps and all we can do is cry while the murdering pigs who killed them stand over their bodies “getting their stories straight”? Fuck that!

“Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit.”
—Bob Avakian, leader of the revolution

Think about it:

Murder after brutal murder of Black and Brown youth by this system’s pig enforcers have continued nonstop for way too goddamn long and it must STOP.

Stephon Clark, a young Black male, gets murdered in his grandmother’s backyard, shot in the back and riddled with bullets and then they tell us that they aren’t going to prosecute the pigs who killed him. Once again, this system is telling you that they have no future for our youth, that they’ve never counted for anything to the people who run this system other than as a thing to be exploited and now that they can’t make a buck from working them in some field or in some factory, they unleash their whole repressive force against them. From the pigs who murder us in the streets to the prisons that hold us in huge numbers, to the courts that justify this whole murderous repression, the whole damn system is guilty! And anyone, whether it’s some lying ass politician or some well-intentioned reformist, who tells us that we have to rely on that system, or work within it, are telling a big lie.

People in righteous outrage and in a much needed show of defiance have taken to the streets, protested in city hall, walked out of school, and marched on the Capitol. The authorities have reacted with mass arrests. This fight must go higher, but it must be transformed, through struggle, into revolutionary understanding, determination, and organization.

This can be done. Yes, in many ways things are worse than they were 50 years ago. But in one BIG way we have something that we did not yet have back then: we have the science, the strategy, and the blueprint for a new society, and we have the leadership in Bob Avakian (BA) who has brought that forward. If you are serious about fundamentally changing this madness, if you really want to STOP the terror and brutality and all the other outrages of this system, then the most urgent thing you can do is to go online to check out BA’s speech, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution!

We, the Revolution Club, are actively organizing people NOW around BA’s strategy and vision, working on a plan to bring down this whole system when the time is right and bring into being a far better society. We have a bold plan for the next year to put revolution on the map in a huge way and to take things further from there. We ARE building a movement for revolution—NOW. And YOU need to be part of this.

Revolution Club, Los Angeles

"We are not some shooting target"

Pigs Who Murdered Stephon Clark Walk Free...Sacramento Rocked Again with Protests and Student Walkouts

March 8, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader:

Hundreds of students took to the streets of Sacramento on Thursday, March 7 to protest the refusal of Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert to indict the pigs who murdered unarmed Stephon Clark¹ a year ago. The Sacramento Bee described the protest as “a boisterous and at times angry four-hour march to the state Capitol.” The students chanted “Cops can’t stop the revolution” and “Whose streets? Our streets!”

The students walked out of Sacramento City College and Sacramento High School, where Clark was a student. They took over the city streets, blocking traffic, as they wound their way to the steps of the Capitol, where Joshua Robinson, a City College student, read a letter to the city calling the DA’s decision (not to indict) “a shame on her office” and “a stain on the city.”

The Bee reported that Robinson “said the two officers should be fired for failing to ‘de-escalate before recklessly firing 20 shots in the dark at Stephon Clark,’ and demanded authorities drop charges against the 84 protesters who were arrested after a march in East Sacramento Monday night.”

Robinson, in speaking of a long history of gun violence against Black youth, referred to the fact that the Black Panther Party had been fighting this 50 years ago. The Bee article pointed out that “The march (today) comes 52 years after the Black Panthers made national news for marching to the state Capitol armed. Leader Bobby Seale of Oakland read a statement calling for the public to take note of legislation that intends to keep communities of color ‘disarmed and powerless’ while ‘racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder and repression of black people.’”

This was the fifth consecutive day of protest that is rocking the city since the Sacramento County DA made the ruling on Saturday not to indict the cops who murdered Clark last March 18. Then on Tuesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said that he would not file charges against the murdering pigs. That night, at the Sacramento City Council meeting, an angry crowd shouted down council members and local leaders, forcing the council members to flee the room and shut down the meeting.

At the march, Sheku Baryoh, a Sacramento City College Student, told the press, “Police have to answer to us. We are not some shooting target. I’m [not a shooting target] because I’m a Black person.”

Yashar Yisrael, who attends Sacramento Charter High School, joined the march with his friends. He said, “Stephon Clark could have been any of us. We want to show this is something that relates to us.”

Thursday’s student walkout was organized by campus chapters of the Black Student Union, who demanded that the DA resign and the murdering cops be fired. They also called for the DA to expunge prior cannabis-related criminal convictions for all Sacramento citizens, pushed for a more diverse faculty at Sacramento Charter High School, and said they want Sacramento City Unified, Twin Rivers and Natomas Unified School Districts to end their contracts with school resource officers (cops) who are stationed on K-12 campuses in the region. They also marched in support of California Assembly Bill 392, which attempts to put limits on the definition of “justifiable homicide” when a cop kills someone.

These are righteous protests that must continue until these killer cops are jailed.  But there is more that must be demanded. As the revcom.us article “#Stephon Clark. Say His Name!”: Sacramento Pigs Shot Unarmed Stephon Clark Six Times in the Back! put it:

How many more times will we have to listen to pigs—and this whole system that backs them—“justify” their utter depravity toward Black, Latino, and Native American young people by saying “we thought he had a gun”? This time, once again, there was no gun. These police killings, over and over again, are not accidents. They are not the result of “lack of training” or “bad policies.” Why do they get away with it almost every time? Because they are doing what they are supposed to do as armed protectors of the system that rules over the people.

Enough Is Enough! Time’s Up for This System! No More!

1. See revcom.us articles on the police murder of Stephon Clark here and here. [back]

"Police murder... and the murderous logic of this system's election game."
by Bob Avakian

Students walked out of Sacramento City College and Sacramento High School, where Clark was a student.

Fascists and Pelosians Have No Right to Condemn Anybody...

Blaming "the Benjamins" Whitewashes Reality: The U.S. Backs Israel Because It Is an Enforcer for the U.S. Empire

Updated March 11, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In February, newly elected Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar responded to a tweet by journalist Glenn Greenwald that it is “stunning” how much American politicians defend Israel, with “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.” She got blasted for her tweet, and not just by Trump and Republicans but by leading Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, who sponsored a “bipartisan” resolution in the Congress demanding Omar apologize for “use of anti-Semitic tropes and prejudicial accusations about Israel’s supporters.” All this set off a wave of vicious attacks on Omar and Muslims in general, including a poster at a West Virginia Republican rally associating Omar (who is an immigrant from Somalia, which had no connection with the attacks of 9/11) with 9/11. Omar has said that “Assassinate Ilhan Omar” is written on gas stations near her house.

In response to the furor, Omar “unequivocally apologize[d]” for the tweet, saying she was “grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”

Basic point number 1: Donald Trump said there were “good people” among the murderous fascist mob chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville, Virginia. His regime has legitimized Nazis and created a climate that produced the most lethal anti-Semitic massacre in U.S. history, the mass killing at a Pittsburgh synagogue last October. Any leading figure who can uphold, or tolerate, or “reach across the aisle” to a fascist regime like that has very obviously forfeited any right to speak on who and what is anti-Semitic. So those people should shut up.

But point number 2: No amount of Benjamins ($100 bills) buys or sells strategic allies for this bloody-jawed empire. All the conspiracy theories about how the Israel lobby represents—as Omar insisted in a follow-up tweet—“allegiance to a foreign country” channel the outrage people in this country and around the world feel at Israel’s genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people into looking at the world through the lens of what is in the national interest of the United States! And when you look at the world through that lens, you are on your way to complicity with the ongoing crimes of an empire built on genocide, slavery, and wars of empire.

Why does the U.S. back Israel? Because for decades, over and over again, from South Africa to Guatemala, and especially in the oil-rich and geographically strategic Middle East, Israel has served as a hit man for the interests of the U.S. empire. Israel’s massive high-tech military, gruesome torturers, assassins, and “advisors” have been unleashed over and over in service of the U.S. to back brutal oppressors and crush popular uprisings. Look up “Israel apartheid nuclear weapons” or “Israel Guatemala Ríos Montt” online. And Israel plays a critical role in U.S. conflicts with rivals like Russia (particularly in the bloodbath in Syria) and in escalating war moves against Iran.

That role—as a nuclear-armed attack dog for the U.S. empire—explains the billions of dollars the U.S. sends to Israel every year and the unflinching U.S. support for Israel’s invasions of its neighbors and ongoing terrorist ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. The Israel lobby is not “successful” because it represents the interests of Israel (which it does) or the masses of Jewish people (which it does not); it is “successful” because its agenda coincides with the needs of an empire that sits atop a world of bone- and spirit-crushing exploitation and environmental devastation enforced through torture, terror, and unjust wars. Israel is an essential link in that chain.

You want to make the terms of things the national interests of the United States? Defenders of Israel will win that one every time. Let them have it. The national interests of the United States are the problem in this world. Nothing good can come trying to serve them, and nothing good can come from providing cover for the U.S. empire by serving in its Congress.

Editors’ note: Since this article was written, the House overwhelmingly passed a bi-partisan resolution similar to the one described in this article. It added wording that "also acknowledges the harm suffered by Muslims from harassment, discrimination and violence and condemns anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against all minorities."

February 12, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

“You Think You’re Woke...
But You’re Sleepwalking Through A Nightmare —

This System Cannot Be Reformed,
It Must Be Overthrown!”

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

To you who are fed up with this society and “solutions” that are no solution...

To you who are angry and defiant and want to see an end to the white supremacy, the patriarchy and its many forms of gender oppression, the persecution of immigrants, the imperialist wars and occupations and threats, and the capitalist plunder and destruction of the environment—an end to all, or any, of the horrible forms of oppression and exploitation that define and intertwine with this capitalist-imperialist society...

To you who seek not justice for yourself or even just your own people, but the Emancipation of ALL Humanity...

To you who hate the fascism of Trump and Pence, but see through “vote for me and I’ll set you free” and any road that just makes the present horrors a little more tolerable for some within the U.S., while people around the world suffer even more...

To you who choke on “I’m woke,” “I’m good,” “No worries” when the world is being torn asunder and who have no patience for the putrid morals and relations of this culture...

To each and every person who senses that none of these horrors will be solved by this dog eat dog capitalist/imperialist system and that something radical—a real revolution—is needed... even as you have a thousand questions as to what that revolution would look like and whether it is even possible:

There Is a Way Out of This Madness!

“Let’s get down to basics:
We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit.”
—Bob Avakian

We are constantly told, openly and by implication, that there is no alternative to the present order. But that is wrong!

There is a scientific approach that makes clear this madness is unnecessary and indicates the potential pathways for change. There is an actual plan for a radically different—and radically better—society, on the road to wiping out all exploitation and oppression, and emancipating humanity. There is a strategy to draw forward the millions and millions needed to make that happen. There is the leadership, in Bob Avakian (BA), the architect of the new communism and the leader of the revolution. These are great strengths on the people’s side. But, what is now missing and urgently needed is YOU—to get with, support, and become an organized part of the revolution.

There is a project to put this revolution before millions and organize thousands into it. That project is the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour—starting out in Los Angeles in March and going around the country for the rest of the year. We’re going to boldly bring forward that science, strategy, and leadership for revolution and go right up against all the bullshit—the outmoded, petty, self-deceiving, and self-seeking bullshit that just ends up perpetuating the outrages of today.

But that’s not all. There’s no revolution without organization. We’re going to work: organizing for a revolution—enough now of everyone in “their lane,” with eyeballs glued to their screens. We’re gonna go everywhere, from the hard streets to the suburbs, from the hardscrabble rural areas to the campuses, and to wherever people are creating the new or debating the future. We’ll be giving people the concrete ways and means to support, contribute to, and join this revolution, in many different ways, big and small—with ideas and with practical involvement, with support and with questions and criticisms.

The tour will go far and wide, spreading and showing the film of the historic 2018 speech by Bob Avakian, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, that deeply answers the two questions in its title. And, the tour will get out the pamphlet, HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution, which concisely lays out the principles for how we get from the situation we are in today to actually winning an actual revolution.

Busting the People Out of Mental Shackles

We’ll call out the dead-end paths and mental shackles:

• The identity politics and all the similar rationales that end up with people looking out for themselves or their group, while the system grinds on, taking lives and crushing spirits, and dividing those who should oppose it;
• The religions that preach reconciliation and serve to keep minds away from confronting and changing reality as it really is;
• The entrepreneurialism—whether “legit,” gangsta, or NGO-style—that keeps everyone locked in the destructive, horrific capitalist present;
• The phony “socialism” that raises people’s hopes but only aims at repackaging and dividing up the spoils of U.S. domination of the world.

And we will definitely take on complicity with the Democratic Party, which poses as “the only alternative.” When in fact:

The Republican Party Is Fascist
The Democratic Party Is Also a Machine of Massive War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
This System CANNOT Be Reformed—It MUST Be Overthrown!
We Need an Actual Revolution

The tour will IMPACT everywhere it goes—opening up debate, stirring up controversy, shaking up society so that people no longer feel they have to accept the unacceptable and adjust to injustice, and instead are inspired to get organized for a revolution to change everything.

The tour will work with the Revolution Clubs where they exist and help form new ones where they don’t. The tour will connect with people protesting and resisting this system’s crimes, especially those that concentrate the deep conflicts of this system. Stepping to people with revolution straight up, and coming from that place, we’ll unite in fighting injustice and oppression, and we’ll struggle with them to see the need and possibility for revolution. This is what it means to Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution. The tour and the Revolution Clubs are where you learn about the revolution while leading—contributing to building vanguard organization necessary to lead a revolution.

The tour kicks off in March in Los Angeles and Southern California. Your participation and your support are needed to start, sustain, popularize, and defend the tour.

What You Can Do NOW

• DONATE: Without hype, absent fundamental change, without revolution, the future of humanity and the planet hangs in the balance. This tour cannot be sustained without your contribution. Become a MONTHLY SUSTAINER and make it possible to keep the tour on the move through the rest of the year. People are pouring their money into politicians of the Democratic Party—who are nothing but war criminals or war criminals-in-training, competing to be commander in chief or representatives of this bloody empire. Make a Profound Difference and DONATE to the possibility of something that could get beyond this horror and radically change the whole world.
• Learn about this tour. Go to www.revcom.us to view the speech by Bob Avakian and to learn more about the tour, the movement for revolution, Bob Avakian, and the new communism.
• Get onboard. Go to revcom.us to see ways you can spread the word, get with the tour, and get organized.

A Radically Different and Better World IS Possible!

Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

 
Donate to
The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour:

Thousands Raised...Many Thousands to Go...
Donors speak out about why they gave to The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

Includes new statements posted as of May 27, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour has started in Los Angeles, as the start of a national Tour going across this country. There have been events in different cities to kick off the Tour that raised funds, and send-off parties for volunteers heading to Los Angeles, where funds were raised. The call to donate financial support for the Tour has already brought some significant donations that indicate the real, if beginning, potential for very broad support for this Tour. This includes people who have given matching donations—one for $2,000 if others would match it—and a number who agreed to sustain the Tour on a monthly basis. There are others who have agreed to donate food for the volunteers going on the Tour, and some who have made things to be sold to generate funds for the Tour.

The many thousands of dollars raised so far is just a very small portion of what is going to be needed to support this Tour, and sustain and grow the movement for revolution, organizing thousands now and impacting the whole society that this Tour is setting out to do.

Here is the basic truth. Bob Avakian (BA) emphasizes in Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, “Networks of people, working together to spread the word about and organize people into the revolution, need to be built, and expanded, in all parts of the country—and linked together.” Very importantly, this includes building up financial support now for the Tour as part of that process. There can be no revolution without financial support. There will be no revolution without organization of people of all strata, networks of people who are an essential part of the strategy for an actual revolution.

Many thousands donating now—including many people who are just hearing about the need and possibility for an actual revolution for the first time—will make it possible for this Tour to shake things up at this crucial moment in history, when so much hangs in the balance for humanity.

The statements on this page from donors give a living sense of the different ways people are seeing the importance of contributing by donating to the Tour, and calling on others to join them in this historic effort.

“You Think You’re Woke...
But You’re Sleepwalking Through A Nightmare —

This System Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown!”

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

Read about the Tour stepping up and stepping out »

Read the Call to the Tour »

Checks can be sent to:
RCP Publications, Box 3486, Merchandise Mart
Chicago, IL 60654-0486 (Mark for the Tour)

"I felt inspired to give today because humanity is suffering and needs this tour. I heard the statement from a donor and I matched it."https://t.co/XtAzVOkhZE pic.twitter.com/35WmvIm0JM

— NYC Revolution Club (@NYCRevClub) March 8, 2019

#BEB

Updated March 16, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

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8.5x11" Poster version with no hashtag BEB

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Social Media Versions with no hashtag BEB

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

Striving for Emancipation Around the World:

International Women's Day 2019

March 11, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

March 8, Los Angeles—A very revolutionary and militant march celebrated International Women’s Day—calling on people to join and support the rebellion of Iranian women against the mandatory wearing of the hijab. The marchers—chanting slogans in Farsi and English—started from Westwood Village near the UCLA campus, and marched through parts of Tehrangeles, an area of Farsi-speaking people and Iranian businesses. A small contingent of Iranians came from other cities. An especially rousing moment was when the Los Angeles Revolution Club marched in formation to join the protest.

From the CALL for the march, which was issued by an underground women’s collective in Iran: “March 8, 2019 marks 40 years since the uprising of women against the Islamic Republic ‘Hijab Decree.’ In this year, we are also marking the first anniversary of the uprising of dispossessed masses and the impressive revolt of women against the hijab, popularly known as the ‘Women of Revolution Street.’... We call upon all women and men involved in different social movements to join and defend our struggle for an unconditional abolition of mandatory hijab, and Sharia laws, as well as uprooting women’s oppression of all kinds. Without the emancipation of women, none of us is free.”

Revolution Club, Los Angeles, March 8

Iranian Lawyer Thrown into the Theocratic Regime’s Dungeons—for Defending Women Who Dared to Remove Hijab

Nasrin Sotoudeh

There is a courageous revolt by women in Iran against the reactionary theocratic regime’s decades-old “Hijab Decree,” under which women are required to cover their heads in public, or face imprisonment and other punishment. Photos that spread on social media last January showed women without their hijab defiantly standing on platforms on the streets in Teheran and other cities. These protests against the hijab law are known among the people in Iran as “Women of Revolution Street.”

Now, Nasrin Sotoudeh, a woman lawyer who has courageously defended these hijab protestors against the regime’s repression, has herself been thrown into the notorious Evin Prison, convicted of “national security” crimes. The Center for Human Rights in Iran reports that Sotoudeh “has been jailed since June 2018 when she was detained in part for representing women in a court of law who had been arrested for peacefully protesting the state’s compulsory hijab law.” According to her husband, Reza Khandan, Sotoudeh was tried in absentia last December—she refused to appear in court in protest of the unjust proceedings and because she was denied the right to choose her own lawyer. Khandan himself was sentenced to six years in prison this January, in part for posting updates about his wife’s case on Facebook.

The regime has not made clear which specific charges Sotoudeh was convicted of, but according to Amnesty Reports, she faces 34 years in prison and 148 lashes from the recent conviction and an earlier trial. In addition to defending women arrested for defying the mandatory hijab law, Sotoudeh had also spoken out against the move to force defendants facing political charges to choose from a list of lawyers approved by the regime.

As a recent statement issued by an underground women’s collective in Iran (“Support the Revolt of Iranian Women against Forced Hijab” said: “We consider the struggle against the forced hijab as a global struggle against all forms of patriarchal oppression and degradation of women by Islamic fundamentalist states and groups in the Middle East and North Africa and all over the world. This is a global struggle against male supremacy, racism and sexism by all of the capitalist imperialist states, fundamentalism, Christian fascism, and right wing political forces throughout the world.”

You Think You Are Woke...
But You Are Sleepwalking Through A Nightmare

Get Organized for An ACTUAL Revolution to Emancipate All Humanity

Updated November 10, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Noche Diaz Presenting the Lifetime Fire Extinguisher Award to Al Sharpton at the Sacramento, CA State Capitol.

Intersectionality: Feel-good Make-believe in the “Woke” Spaces of Empire

by Nayi Duniya

March 2, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Welcome to the land of intersectionality—where a seemingly radical and all-encompassing framework can comprehend and traverse multiple oppressions faced by billions on this planet without the “messiness” of overthrowing the system that generates and enforces these oppressions; where truth is determined and wrong is righted by anointing the most oppressed as authority and leadership in struggles for reform; where the most fundamental and deep-seated social divisions and lopsided gulfs of the world such as between rich and poor nations are effectively ignored and where identified “intersections” and “direct experience” shared across “lanes” are sufficient to change the world.

This is feel-good make-believe “woke” world. In the real world of horrendous—and needless—suffering, it is a cruel joke inflicted upon the billions of humanity. The world is a horror for the vast majority—oppression and exploitation of whole peoples, genocidal wars and violence in the intimate sphere, millions driven off homes by conflict and global warming. This world is shaped and stamped by a system: the system of capitalism-imperialism.

As Bob Avakian says:

Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit.

From BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian (BA), 3:1

Intersectionality is a framework for ranking and adjudicating different forms of oppression which can only leave the world as it is, with people fighting each other over turf and privilege. With its “standpoint epistemology,” it disallows the necessary and possible analysis of underlying driving dynamics that are the systemic causes of this horrific oppression—felt and lived by billions! There is NOTHING “radical” about intersectionality, either on the problem (the root causes of the oppression) or the solution (what is to be done to fundamentally uproot and get beyond it). To do that takes science, looking beyond the surface at underlying mainsprings and drivers, how they historically evolved, function, and continue to change.

Would one diagnose and cure any serious disease like cancer or Ebola just on the shared “intersectional” lived experiences of each patient, confining oneself to their symptoms and suffering, instead of the application of science—bringing to bear underlying causes like gene mutations or germs, corresponding treatments, and in this context, learn from and work with patients?

Objective social reality actually exists and is not just an adjudicated compilation of narratives, nor is it determined by what people think even while that’s a part of it. Societies, like all natural phenomena, come into being, change, and go out of existence—and science can be applied to society, as it can to nature, to grasp the underlying and driving dynamics and the multiple pathways of development within those dynamics.

These are the questions that must be confronted and dug into: What are the real and dynamic links between capitalist production relations and the deep-rooted forms of social oppression that are embedded in this society, such as the oppression of Black people, of women, of LGBTQ people, of immigrants? Can we do away with one without the other? Will it take a revolution, overthrowing this whole system, or can we do something less? How can an actual revolution be made in a country like the U.S.? What sort of society needs to and can replace this? Is it possible, and how do we fundamentally get to a world beyond all this oppression, exploitation, and antagonistic social division, to the emancipation of all of humanity? What does that look like, as part of a worldwide process?

There are approaches and answers to ALL these questions, concentrated in the breakthroughs of Bob Avakian, BA. The scientific discovery made by Marx of how societies develop and the possibility of a future without class divisions and all forms of oppression, and the further developments of that understanding through a whole first wave of communist revolutions, were world changing advances for humanity. But there were significant aspects in theory and practice that ran counter to communism’s fundamentally scientific and emancipatory character and goals. BA has resolved this and has forged a whole new framework for emancipating all of humanity, the new communism. So, yes, there is a radical and scientific framework that can not only comprehend the multiple oppressions faced by billions on this planet, but chart the way beyond it!

“Standpoint epistemology” or applying “intersectional analysis” do not even broach these critical questions—and are obstacles in this much-needed process. Of course, these forms of oppression “intersect,” for they occur in the context of a worldwide system of capitalism-imperialism, but proceeding from the “standpoint” or “narratives” of even the most oppressed does not get to the underlying system, and how all these oppressive social relations are interwoven in the history of this society and the nature of this system. Class, approached as an “intersectional identity,” is not a substitute for or the essence of, or even begins to comprehend, capitalism-imperialism as a global system of production relations which puts its stamp on the social relations and ideas of the time.

Without science and a scientific approach to get at the root causes, what is needed to uproot this and set up a radically different system and society, ALL resistance and struggles are channeled back into the very same system that is the source of this oppression in the first place. Without this, even the sincerest and best of intent, insight, analysis, and struggle is constrained or straitjacketed by the fundamental lack of seeing beyond the capitalist mode of production, the permanence of this system. The narratives and lived experiences of the oppressed, silenced for too long, have a critical role—but in this context, to make revolution and to get beyond it all, for the emancipation of all of humanity, not to “get mine” or get atop a “woke” world!

Tellingly, American privilege is deafeningly absent in “woke” world’s intersectional matrix of oppression, unmentioned in “safe spaces,” even while the U.S. is atop this parasitic food chain of capitalism-imperialism! Focused on “me” and “my” oppression, what about the 7 billion people—in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Central and South America, or Bangladesh; the billions in the sweatshops, the mines, the farms providing your clothes, technology and food? And the list goes on and on...

In “woke” spaces of America, standpoint is mere guideposts to adjudicate scraps of spoils, spoils of empire, not a framework for the emancipation of all of humanity. For those trying to apply intersectionality across borders without seeking to uproot the divide between the imperialist countries and the Third World, and the role of the U.S. atop this, this is at best a pipe dream, at worst an apologia for imperialism, concentrating the essence: being “woke” without fundamentally changing a goddamn thing!

A CHALLENGE AND AN INVITATION

We do not need any more people getting played—squandering their desire for real change into following hustlers or schoolyard bully types who rationalize turning oppressed “identities” into political capital, at times with seemingly radical veneer like “abolitionism” on harmful illusions and meaningless reforms, other times pitching for candidates of the ruling-class, war-criminal Democratic Party. We do not need the “right to speak” and “leadership” legitimated by identity and narrative, but judged by the content of what is being said, and where it is being led.

WHAT IS URGENTLY NEEDED: radically and fundamentally changing the world and all its oppressive social relations. That requires serious dialogue and debate on reform vs. revolution: what is the source of these horrors and what is the solution, what will emancipate all of humanity and what will be mere rearrangements within the same system!

Every person of conscience should engage this Call:

“You Think You’re Woke... But You’re Sleepwalking Through A Nightmare—This System Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown!”

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

Prison Abolition: How to Feel “Woke” Without Fundamentally Changing a Thing

A REVOLUTIONARY Intervention from Tala Deloria
Revolution Club member and UCLA student

February 23, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

If you’re serious about ending mass incarceration and police terror, you need to be talking about the OVERTHROW of this system. Anything short of this, in the final analysis, is bullshit.

This system of capitalism-imperialism is what’s driving the genocidal police terror and mass incarceration of over 2 million people, over half Black, Latino and Native American men and women. This same system terrorizes the globe with wars for empire, economic sanctions, coups, bombing and torture. It drives people from their homelands in desperation for a life and livelihood and then warehouses them in detention centers and concentration camps at the border. This same system enforces vicious misogyny, oppressive gender relations and has now brought to power a fascist regime reigning through undisguised dictatorship and intensified repression, concentrating the naked vileness that makes up the heart of America. This system CANNOT be reformed!

“...we have two choices: either, live with all this—and condemn future generations to the same, or worse, if they have a future at all—or, make revolution!” – Bob Avakian (BA), the leader of the revolution, from the speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can REALLY Make Revolution.

In opposition to revolution, what is the meaning of Angela Davis’ call for “abolition democracy”?

“...as our overarching strategy, we would try to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment—demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance.” – From Are Prisons Obsolete?

This an argument for a paltry set of reforms. Illusions and delusions that will never be achieved under capitalism. In the same speech mentioned above, BA shows:

“White supremacy and capitalism—they have been completely interwoven and tightly ‘stitched together’ through the whole development of this country, down to today; to attempt to really put an end to white supremacy while maintaining the system of capitalism would tear the entire fabric of the country apart.”

To the degree any of Davis’ proposed reforms could be won under this system, the resources for this would come from America’s blood-sucking exploitation of the people of the world.

In the face of the desperately urgent need for real fundamental change, all “abolition” is doing is training you to nibble around the edges, begging and bargaining for a piece of the bloody imperialist pie. Those who do care about the nightmare of mass incarceration are funneled into endlessly working within – and even strengthening – the same system that causes this. This gets you to contribute to the tried and true hustle that this system can “do well by doing good,” while it keeps grinding up billions here and around the world.

Reality check: We live in a brutal capitalist dictatorship. This oppressive economic and social system is enforced by an illegitimate state power, a violent apparatus of repression and suppression. They keep oppressed people – Black, Latino and Native American people – in line through arbitrary and blood-thirsty police and vigilante terror. In every corner of the globe, it’s the US army with their bombs and torture, CIA backed-coups, and proxy wars that enforce the US’ dictates, global domination and plunder of resources.

This system’s violent hold on power does need to be broken. But that will take nothing short of an ACTUAL revolution: “Revolution where millions go up against, defeat and dismantle the system’s armed forces of violent suppression. Revolution that sets up a totally new power, with a different economy and different ways people relate to each other.” – From Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution, Message from the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party

The leadership exists for this revolution in Bob Avakian: the most radical revolutionary on the planet who has developed a new synthesis of communism which includes a constitution with a re-envisioned legal framework and concept of justice for a future socialist society aiming to uproot all the oppressive and antagonistic divisions plaguing humanity. (At revcom.us/socialistconstitution)

Revolution IS possible and we are getting organized for this revolution NOW. There are answers for HOW to make revolution in this imperialist beast and HOW to bring forward the needed millions to do that. There is a strategy for this, concentrated in How We Can Win—How We Can Really Make Revolution, a battle plan for revolution from the Revolutionary Communist Party and further developed in the speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can REALLY Make Revolution (at revcom.us).

This is a leaflet that the Revolution Club Chicago is passing out at Louis Farrakhan's February 17 'Saviours' Day' speech:

Stop Being Farra-CONNED!
We Don't Need to GET IN ON Oppression, We Need to END Oppression
Get With the Real Revolution

February 16, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Welcome to Farrakhan’s “Saviours’ Day” message, where he will tell you how after 400 years of being bitterly oppressed, you should now learn to be a more obedient slave, prove you can be useful to your oppressors in hopes of negotiating a better deal and becoming their junior partners, and look to an imaginary ruler in the sky to one day give you a chance to be big-time oppressors.

All the terror and torture and brutality inflicted on Black people since the beginning of the USA is God’s way of leading his chosen people to their destiny? What kind of sadistic, tyrant God would that be? And why should anyone want a destiny of becoming new rulers over others?

Farra-CON, with his worshipping of American capitalism and American chauvinism, his ridiculous Yakub story, his vicious attacks on Jews, and his disgusting patriarchal program of male domination over women and demonizing LGBTQ people, is selling oppressed people a package of trying to get in on oppression, not get rid of it.

If you want to follow a wanna-be oppressor who begs Donald Trump to give him land so he can try to set up his own version of Israel—a genocidal state that serves U.S. imperialism—while he organizes Black men to act like police against people who protest and rebel against this system, and trains people in a slave mentality... follow Farrakhan.

If you want to put an END to ALL oppression, get with the scientific theory and leadership we have for making an actual revolution to overthrow this whole system and emancipate all of humanity: the new communism forged by, and the ongoing work of, Bob Avakian (BA). BA has developed the science, the strategy, and the vision and concrete plan for a real revolution and a radically new society on the road to full emancipation.

Bob Avakian says,

“There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.”

Revolution Club Chicago 
(312) 804-9121 
revclub.chi@gmail.com
FB/Twitter @RevClubChi

revcom.us

You Can’t Change the World If You Don’t Know the BAsics

March 11, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Every week, Revolution features one quote from BAsics, by Bob Avakian, the handbook for revolution. We encourage Revolution Clubs and other readers, everywhere, to take the time to discuss the quote—the whole quote—and to write us at revolution.reports@yahoo.com with accounts of these discussions, or thoughts provoked in yourself by reading the quote.