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:

#BEB
BOURGEOIS ELECTORAL BULLSHIT:

Online version of new four-page print issue of Revolution newspaper

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Republican Party Is Fascist

The Democratic Party Is Also  a
Machine of Massive War Crimes and
Crimes Against Humanity

(D) = Democratic       (R) = Republican

Nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 1945

Harry Truman (D)

Military intervention in Greek civil war, 1947-49

Truman (D)

The U.S. armed, trained, and led the reactionary Greek military in a bloody counterinsurgency against anti-fascist guerrilla fighters who had driven Nazis from many parts of Greece during WW 2. The leftist fighters suffered losses of many tens of thousands before their surrender in October 1949. 

The Korean War, 1950-53

Truman (D), Dwight D. Eisenhower (R)

Mass execution of political prisoners by U.S.-puppet South Korean regime, July 1950. Photo: U.S. Army

In June 1950, the U.S. orchestrated a United Nations invasion of Korea, and sent over 340,000 American troops. U.S. and U.S.-led forces killed more than two million North Korean civilians, 500,000 North Korean soldiers, and between 900,000 and a million Chinese soldiers. There were also 1.3 million South Korean casualties, including 400,000 dead. 

CIA coup in Iran, 1953

Truman (D), Eisenhower (R)

The CIA and British intelligence launched a military coup overthrowing Iran’s elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized Britain’s Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, replacing him with U.S. puppet Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

The coup embedded Iran as a key military outpost for the U.S. against regional liberation struggles and in its Cold War clash with the Soviet Union. The Shah ruled as an iron-fisted U.S. puppet for 25 years.   

Vietnam War, 1961-1975

Eisenhower (R), John Kennedy (D),
Lyndon B. Johnson (D), Richard Nixon (R),
Gerald Ford (R)

Villagers in My Lai, Vietnam, massacred by U.S. troops, March 16, 1968. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The U.S. sent more than 500,000 troops and dropped millions of tons of bombs in an effort to defeat the national liberation struggle of the Vietnamese people.

By the time the war ended in America’s defeat in 1975, its military had slaughtered some two million Vietnamese civilians and one million Vietnamese soldiers. During the war, the U.S. also bombed the small neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia, killing hundreds of thousands.

Murdering Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, installing the butcher Mobutu, 1961-1997

Eisenhower (R), Kennedy (D), Johnson (D),
Nixon (R), Ford (R), Jimmy Carter (D),
Ronald Reagan (R), George H.W. Bush (R)

On January 17, 1961, a firing squad shot to death the Congolese anti-colonialist leader Patrice Lumumba, months after he’d been elected prime minister of the newly founded Republic of the Congo. This murder was carried out by Lumumba’s Congolese enemies, but it had been called for by President Eisenhower and organized by CIA Director Allen Dulles. Murdering Lumumba and then in 1965 installing the brutal regime of Mobutu Sese Seko turned Congo (Zaire) into a bulwark for U.S. intervention in Africa for nearly three decades. While global imperialism and Mobutu plundered the country, Congolese people suffered hellish enslavement and destitution.

Invasion of the Dominican Republic, 1965

Johnson (D)

On April 28, 22,000 U.S. troops invaded the Dominican Republic to crush a just, mass uprising against the country’s pro-U.S. tyranny. Thousands of Dominicans were killed.  

CIA orchestrates bloodbath in Indonesia, 1965-1966

Johnson (D)

In 1965, the reactionary Indonesian military, led by the pro-U.S. General Suharto, as well as other reactionary forces that it unleashed, slaughtered people with wild abandon. This was set in motion, backed, and orchestrated by the U.S., which provided the military with equipment, weapons, and ultimately tens of billions of dollars. When the bloodletting ended, at least 500,000, perhaps more than a million, had been killed, including members of the Communist Party of Indonesia, trade unionists, intellectuals, teachers, land reform advocates, ordinary peasants, ethnic Chinese, women, and children. 

CIA-organized military coup in Chile, 1973

Nixon (R)

On September 11, 1973, the Chilean military, with secret backing from the U.S., carried out a coup against the leftist government of President Salvador Allende. More than 3,000 Chilean people were executed, thousands more were “disappeared,” and tens of thousands tortured; over 140,000 people were rounded up during the coup, and in the few years that followed, as many as one million people out of Chile’s population of 11 million were forced into exile.

U.S. foments civil war in Angola, 1975-1994

Ford (R), Reagan (R), George H.W. Bush (R), Clinton (D)

In 1975, when Portugal ended its colonial rule over Angola, and the MPLA, one of the groups that fought for independence, was set to take power, the U.S. began arming, funding, and militarily assisting the reactionary anti-MPLA butchers of UNITA headed by Jonas Savimbi. A savage civil war was unleashed which lasted until 2002. Some 500,000 were killed, over four million were driven from their homes.

Supporting Indonesian genocide in
East Timor, 1975-1999

Ford (R), Carter (D), Reagan (R),
George H.W. Bush (R), Clinton (D)

In 1975, President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger met with Indonesian dictator Suharto and green-lighted Indonesia’s invasion of its neighbor, East Timor. Up to one-third of the Timorese population, as many as 20,000 people, were killed through massacres and enforced starvation. Many Timorese were imprisoned and tortured by a military armed and trained by the U.S. The slaughter continued for almost 25 years.

U.S. backs El Salvador death squads, 1980-92

Carter (D), Reagan (R), George H.W. Bush (R)

Massacre by U.S.-backed Salvadoran military in El Mozote, December 1981. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

To crush a guerrilla struggle against its brutal client regime, the U.S. supported, funded, and armed death squads that carried out extra-judicial executions and massacres which killed as many as 75,000 Salvadorans.

The U.S.-sponsored Contra war in Nicaragua, 1981-1988

Reagan (R), George H.W. Bush (R) 

After the Sandinistas overthrew the pro-U.S. Somoza dictatorship in 1978, and established friendly ties with the Soviet Union, the U.S. worked to overthrow them through its proxy army, the Contras, formed from Somoza’s vicious National Guardsmen and other supporters. As many as 50,000 people were killed.  

U.S.-backed genocide in Guatemala, 1982-1983

Reagan (R)

In 1982, the U.S. backed a military coup by the Christian fascist General JosО EfraТn RТos Montt, who then launched a genocidal assault on Guatemala’s indigenous Mayan population. Guatemala’s military systematically destroyed more than 600 indigenous Mayan villages, slaughtering some 75,000 people. The Guatemalan military regime’s savage, U.S.-supported war continued until 1996. It’s estimated that some 200,000 people were disappeared or killed. 

The Persian Gulf War—the U.S. assault on Iraq, 1990-1991, followed by sanctions

George H.W. Bush (R), Clinton (D)

From January 16 to February 27, 1991, the U.S. waged war against Iraq to strengthen its grip on the Persian Gulf. Some 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed and another 300,000 wounded. The war also caused the deaths of 70,000 civilians by January 1992.

By 1997, the UN reported that more than 1.2 million Iraqis had died as a result of medical shortages caused by the war and sanctions, including 750,000 children under the age of five.

Invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, 2001-present

George W. Bush (R), Barack Obama (D),
Donald Trump (R)

Children killed in U.S. air war in Afghanistan, 2009. Photo: AP

In 2001, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, drove the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime from power, and installed a widely hated, pro-U.S. “Islamic Republic.” The U.S. air and ground war has continued ever since. By August 2016, some 111,000 (including more than 31,000 Afghan civilians) had been killed and over 116,000 injured.  

Invasion, occupation, and ongoing intervention in Iraq, 2003-present

George W. Bush (R), Obama (D), Trump (R)

In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein’s regime based on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. war and occupation sparked armed resistance and led to the rise of reactionary Islamic jihadism and the ethnic-sectarian conflict that continues to this day. Some studies estimate that between 1.2 and 1.4 million (and perhaps as many as 2.4 million) people in Iraq have died from the war’s direct and indirect impacts. More than 4.2 million Iraqis had been injured and at least 4.5 million driven from their homes by 2016. 

U.S., British, French war on Libya, 2011

Obama (D)

In March 2011, the U.S., Britain, and France seized on a mass uprising against Muammar al-Qaddafi’s oppressive 42-year-long rule to launch a war. For the next seven months, the U.S.-led coalition carried out extensive bombing raids and military operations. By October, between 10,000 and 30,000 had been killed and Qaddafi’s regime had been shattered. Libya was turned into a battleground between reactionaries, and life became a nightmare for the people, with shortages of food, water, and electricity. 

Arming, backing, and enabling the
Saudi-led war in Yemen, 2015-present

Obama (D), Trump (R)

U.S.-backed Saudi Arabia airstrike on Yemen, 2015. Photo: AP

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia, with U.S. backing, launched a war against Yemen’s Houthi movement. Since then, between 57,000 and 60,000 have been killed. The Saudis have bombed Yemen’s food, water, and medical systems, causing massive hunger and disease. At least 85,000 children have starved to death as a result, and in 2016 and 2017 alone, 113,000 children died of starvation or preventable disease. Fourteen million Yemenis are on the brink of famine. 

U.S. support for Israel’s wars, 1948-present

Truman (D), Johnson (D), Nixon (R), Reagan (R), Clinton (D), George W. Bush (R), Obama (D), Trump (R)

Palestinians in Gaza Strip after Israeli missile strike, 2008. Photo: AP

The U.S. supported the foundation of Israel, which was created by defeating armies from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq in war, and by violently forcing at least 750,000 Palestinians from their lands and homes. Zionist forces took more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities. This is known as the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe). Since then Israel has launched a series of aggressive wars in the region. Israel, backed with billions of dollars of U.S. aid annually, has increasingly functioned as a key U.S. proxy and attack dog. 

For the full chart of crimes of Republicans and Democrats go to www.revcom.us

This System CANNOT Be Reformed—
It MUST Be Overthrown!

We Need an ACTUAL Revolution

To deeply understand the threat to humanity posed by the Trump/Pence Regime...

Watch this film of a talk by Bob Avakian at www.revcom.us

A regime that could destroy civilization.
You think you know... but you don't.

#BEB

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

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The following is a slightly edited transcript from the agitation Andy Zee did at the #BEB reveal in Los Angeles on March 15.

Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit
We Need an Actual Revolution

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Let me restate the message from the Revcoms on the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour: “The 2020 elections, as in all elections under this system, are nothing other than: Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit.”

These elections are nothing other than a brilliant device to rope you into complicity with great crimes. A circus to make you think you have some say in what’s going on. They are a way to bamboozle you, to deceive you, to make you think you are doing something and to put your stamp of approval on great, great horrors.

As Noche said, we are on a tour to spread this revolution, to spread the work of Bob Avakian, to spread the fact that there is a way out of this madness through a revolution for a radically new society based on the New Communism.

And the stakes could not be higher for humanity around the world, as well as here in the United States where a fascist regime IS in power—that’s the Trump/Pence regime. This regime is step-by-step consolidating a white supremacist fascist form of rule. And, the Democrats have NO ANSWER for this... Nancy Pelosi has said that impeachment is off the table. Why?

She said: “Because it divides the country.” .... Get real! Get real! ... when you have Nazis marching in the streets with torches saying “Jews will not replace us...”, with attacks on homosexuals, while marching under the banner of the Confederate flag and white supremacy.

This country IS divided. As Bob Avakian has said:

Trump makes use of these divisions in pursuit of his fascist agenda, but neither he nor anyone else has caused, or could have caused, these divisions—they are rooted in the very nature, functioning, and requirements of this system, in the way all this has historically evolved. To eliminate these divisions, it is necessary to eliminate this system.

The DEMOCRATS have TOLD YOU AND THEY HAVE SHOWN YOU that they have NO ANSWERS.

THINK ABOUT THAT. CONFRONT IT. We are facing a fascist regime. And, the Democrats blather on about governing or promoting wish lists like the Green New Deal which will solve the environmental crisis just about as well as Obama solved the crisis of police shooting Black and Brown youth—which is to say, NOT AT ALL. But, no, you would rather believe in make-believe than get out of your comfort zones and face reality. And this is not the first time in history that we have seen such a movie played out.

This system and their media mouthpieces have you thinking about an election contest in which you really have no say in anything about what is going on. They have you in a Game Show: America's Got Imperialist and Wanna-Be-Imperialist Talent—as you can see up here [pointing to the Rogues Gallery of #BEB].

Do you want to be part of that same crew of oppressors by giving them your stamp of approval? [Audience: “Hell No!”]

You think you’re woke—but you’re rooting for Bernie, you’re cooing over AOC, you’re following Beto’s existential crisis on the internet. But you are sleepwalking through a nightmare... This system cannot be reformed.

And look, the stakes are such as to whether or not this planet will even be habitable for human beings within 50 or 100 years. You cannot change your light bulbs and tax carbon as a way out of this. You need an entirely different system. We have a problem with the environment that is caused by a dog-eat-dog capitalist system that depends on fossil fuels and the fight over who controls those fossil fuels. We have a problem that turns water into a commodity around the world. This is a system. WE NEED TO OVERTHROW THIS SYSTEM!

And that’s why we here are out on tour to say to everybody: This system cannot be reformed. We have to overthrow the system. We need an ACTUAL revolution.

The 2020 election? As Noche said before:

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 2020 elections? You want some evidence? I’m going to give you some evidence. When I’m done I want you to pick up a copy of this newspaper REVOLUTION. You will see this centerfold. And you need to go through this. You need to see over the last 70 years, the crimes, the murder, the death, the plunder that has been caused by both parties. From Yemen more recently from Obama; the Iraq War; all the way back to the bombing of Hiroshima. Look at these facts and then tell me that you can rely on the Democrats to resolve the things that you care the most about. You cannot and it will never happen that way. We need an ACTUAL revolution.

Okay, now we’ve had some fun with this #BEB. We're not done having that fun.

But, we’re actually talking about some serious stuff here. We do face a fascist regime. As peculiar, petty, lunatic and bizarre as Donald Trump and Mike Pence are, the reality they are bringing about affects the lives of billions of people. And as the organization Refuse Fascism has said: Trump’s “Make America Great Again” plan is a 21st century fascist program of “America First”—wrapped in the flag of Mike Pence’s Bible taken literally, with a program of white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia.

In opposition to this, the Democratic Party—where all too many people are putting their money, their resources and their hopes—is acting exactly like the “progressives” and the moderates did in Germany 90 years ago when they conciliated and collaborated with Hitler’s regime, with the result being tremendous horrors for humanity.

And the heart of this, the reason they don't have and can't have any answers to all that plagues the people is because the Democratic Party is a ruling class party whose purpose is to enforce and re-enforce the system that gives rise to all of this here and around the world. And that's what's shown in this chart of what the U.S. does around the world. Any party that is seriously promoted by the media in this country, that is seriously in power, can only be a party of the ruling class. And unless that’s what you want to be—a wannabe plunderer and oppressor of humanity here and around the world—then you need to get with the revolution.

THERE ARE THREE FUTURES FACING US:

The first future is a fascist regime—with all that that means.

The second future is putting your hope in complicity with all of this, in a Democratic Party that has brought you and the people around the world the same oppression and plunder.

Or you can get with the revolution and find out about Bob Avakian and the New Communism and find out that there actually is a way for humanity to overcome all forms of exploitation and oppression. That is not an impossible dream. It’s a hard road but it’s a possible road because of the very problems that this system generates and the sentiments that people have against them.

So we have hit the road organizing this. And I just want to say two more things.

One thing is that part of fighting for this revolution is recognizing the danger of this fascist regime. And if you take the conclusion of what I’ve said—that you can’t rely on the Democratic Party—then what can you rely on? Well, we can rely on ourselves, on yourselves. The only way that we are going to stop this regime is not the 2020 election, but by millions of people, starting with thousands, gathering in city streets and squares around this country, in non-violent continued sustained protest day after day demanding that this entire regime be removed. That's the program of Refuse Fascism. And those of us who are Revcoms support that, and it’s part of the road towards what we are working for, and which is what we are out here telling you is truly needed—a revolution for the complete emancipation of humanity.

We are on the road to organize you to be part of the thousands for revolution. We are on the road to tell you that there is a way out of the madness. We are on the road to tell you that there is a third future that is neither one of these ruling class parties but is a future that’s in the interests of all humanity.

So #BEB is real, it’s Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit and you’re going to be hearing about it on the media until they have you stupefied. We need to un-stupefy the people with revolution.

This a moment in history of great peril. Such moments also contain the potential for great liberating change. That's the point. That's the reason. That's the mission of the tour:

To organize thousands of people into the revolution to prepare for the time and the conditions when we could really win and get on the road to freeing humanity and saving the planet.

“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 first week of the Tour »

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)

Revolution Club, Los Angeles reveals #BEB at Los Angeles City Hall on March 15, 2019.

Crossroads in Sacramento: Four Straight Answers to Four Big Questions

From the Revolution Club, LA

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Two weeks ago, the DA in Sacramento refused to file charges against the pig who murdered Stephon Clark. At the Republican DA’s despicable press conference, she dragged up all this demeaning and completely irrelevant shit to smear Stephon Clark’s character and make it seem like he wanted to commit “suicide by cop.” Two days later, the Democratic attorney general, Xavier Bacerra, also announced there would be no indictment from the state level. Unlike the Republican, he emphasized what a “devastating loss” it is, how much he values “the sanctity of human life” and feels the pain of Stephon’s family. These crocodile tears don’t mean squat: Both the Democrat and the Republican agree on the end result—that the pigs who chased unarmed Stephon Clark into his grandmother’s backyard, gunned him down in a hail of bullets and left him to die while they turned off their body cameras to get their story straight, were justified!

So, question one: What does it tell you that the Democrat and Republican sang the same song of “we’re not gonna indict,” in two-part harmony? It tells you that this system has no answers to the murder and criminalization of our youth. This oppression is knit deep into the fabric of the system of American capitalism-imperialism, and it can only be dealt with by overthrowing that system.

Right now a lot of different forces are trying to focus everything toward changing some law. That this is gonna be the answer, what people should be pouring their energies into. So, question two: What does it tell you that there are states that have no such laws like California, there are all kinds of cities that now require minicams on their pigs, there are the community review boards that stretch from Seattle to Sarasota and these places, too, have rampant murder by pig? Come on! This won’t answer shit! So, again, it tells you that you can reform this system all you want, but until you get to the root cause—which, again, is American capitalism-imperialism, which requires white supremacy—nothing will ever change for real.

Third point: seems like everyone, including some so-called militants, are now preaching for people to go to their “safe space” and cool down on the fighting back. What does that tell you? It tells you that those who are doing this are scared of you standing up and raising your heads and going further. Right now we have the system on the defensive. Now is not the time to retreat to “safe spaces”; now is the time to build the revolutionary understanding, determination, and organization of this struggle, to spread it, and to make it part of building toward the time when millions can be led to go all-out, against this system, with a real chance to win. And we, the Revolution Club, have the science, the strategy and leadership, in Bob Avakian (BA), the architect of the new communism and the leader of the revolution, to do that. Don’t let them tell you to go into retreat—and don’t fall for it.

And that leads to point four: revolution means something very specific. To quote the statement that we run on our website, revcom.us:

An actual revolution is a lot more than a protest. An actual revolution requires that millions of people get involved, in an organized way, in a determined fight to dismantle this state apparatus and system and replace it with a completely different state apparatus and system, a whole different way of organizing society, with completely different objectives and ways of life for the people. Fighting the power today has to help build and develop and organize the fight for the whole thing, for an actual revolution. Otherwise we’ll be protesting the same abuses generations from now!

Conclusion: If you DON’T want to fight these abuses generations from now, if you DO want to find out more about the way out of this madness and participate in actually bringing a new world into being, then get with the Revolution Club... and get into BA.

Sacramento Saturday: Lines Get Drawn, People Step Forward and Things Get Hot... in a Supermarket Parking Lot

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

After briefly stopping at the infamous state capitol building to record a message from the tour, the spot we ended up at was a strip mall near the neighborhood where the pigs murdered Stephon Clark that many of the people in the area frequented. There were a number of commercial businesses and a major supermarket in a larger shopping plaza, and there was a major passageway that much of the traffic had to go through to get to the stores there. We started off at the busiest intersection with some chanting and speaking about revolution and the murder of Stephon Clark. With our banner barely unfurled, after just a little while of being there, a man from mall security came in to try to shut us down. He threatened us, ripped up one of the signs with pictures of Stephon Clark and Willie McCoy (another victim of police murder in nearby Vallejo), and was putting hands on the people with the Revolution Club, including jabbing one comrade in the throat with his walkie-talkie before trying to choke the comrade with his hands. Not only did we refuse to be backed off by this wannabe pig, but a situation opened up where people began to come to our aid, pull up their cars and yell at this guy, recording him and catching him in the act, and there were people who came to stand with the revcoms. This was important because people got a clear sense of what side we were on and the question of where you were going to stand was posed very sharply. The security guy had ripped the sign with Stephon Clark’s and Willie McCoy’s faces on it and was openly attacking the message we were bringing forward, which we made clear in both the agitation and chanting we were doing.

A middle-age white woman who had initially been in her car recording when this wannabe pig was coming at us, yelled at him to stop putting his hands on us, before this wannabe pig turned to her and called her a bitch and threatened to beat her if she got out of the car. Moments later, she got out of her car and came over to further record him and see how we were doing. While we were talking to her, she said, “I’m here with my daughter, and I’m not someone who does all this, I am usually just in my church, but wrong is wrong. It’s wrong to put your hands on someone, and [tears began to come to her eyes and she pointed to the signs of Stephon Clark and others murdered by police] it’s wrong to shoot someone, and what happened to all these people is just... WRONG.”

Another person who stopped to stand with us was a young Black man who had just gotten off work from the nearby supermarket when he saw us being attacked and decided he had to step in. He was engaging with the message we were bringing about the need for people to get organized for revolution, with real doubts and questions about whether people could really come together to do something like that, including himself who he said is caught up in having to work like a slave. He didn’t just stand with us against the wannabe pig; after engaging with what the revolution was bringing people, he felt compelled to join in on the spot and worked with us to get out the statement to the cars coming through, and by the time he was leaving he was working on how to join us both to impact the upcoming protest on the anniversary of the murder of Stephon Clark, and to come together afterwards to watch the film of BA’s speech, as well as helping to get out materials to let other people know and bring them into this.

Before long, it wasn’t just the wannabe pig trying to intimidate and drive out the revolution, but the actual pigs, who showed up in force. They made some announcements and tried to back us off, but were not able to and eventually had to back off for various reasons, including the fact that people came to stand with us and that the authorities are on somewhat the defensive politically after being rocked by the protests against the murder of Stephon Clark and the refusal to bring charges against the cops who killed him. Throughout this whole back-and-forth with the pigs and wannabe pig, many people were drawn into finding out what we were saying and some even connected up and took materials to spread the word, but at this point most of the traffic was in cars, and many of the people we reached were rolling down their windows and reaching out for material, raising fists, and honking in support. So we decided we were just getting started.

We seized on the opening we had made and took to marching around the area and toward the major supermarket, going through the parking lot chanting with our visuals and banner. The six of us coming through, representing as a serious force, had an electrifying effect throughout the shopping area. We set up near the front entrance to the supermarket where we were able to speak to many more people on the bullhorn, and had a number of one-on-one engagements. Many of the people we reached were Black and Latino, some white, and mostly working class. In speaking to people en masse, we brought out not just exposure of the system and the murder of Stephon Clark, but also fought to really bring alive that there is leadership that people have in BA and that we were there to recruit people to get with the strategy for revolution that he has brought forward, and to begin acting on that strategy. We fought to give people a basic understanding of why having this leadership in BA is a real strength that people have if we’re going to really make revolution to end all oppression. We drew from HOW WE CAN WIN in posing how this goes against the lying politicians, those who front for the system and preach reconciliation, and dead-end solutions and reforms that won’t end a damn thing. We put to people that while the struggle that has taken place right here is important, this needs to be transformed into revolutionary understanding, determination, and organization. And, importantly, that means we’re here to recruit YOU, and that this was being done throughout the country with this national Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour.

Of the engagements we had with people, this included a woman who was part of the Black Student Union at her college and had been part of the protests in the city, and who live-streamed about 10 minutes of our agitation on Facebook. It included a guy who read closely the Points of Attention for the Revolution, commenting on how he really likes the point about breaking all the chains, and how women, men, and differently gendered people are equals and comrades. And it included a young white woman who responded to hearing about the strategy for revolution and the need to bring forward people now who could prepare for and lead an actual overthrow when the time is right by saying “I want to be a leader.”

It seemed to us that many of the people we interacted with here were people who didn’t find it too hard to agree with us that anything short of revolution was ultimately bullshit. But this does pose questions about how to involve and organize in an ongoing way those who have now been initially drawn toward the revolution, and how they can be part of meaningful ways to have an impact and contribute to making revolution. With everyone we talked to, we emphasized the importance of coming to the screening of BA’s speech that we set up for the next Tuesday in Sacramento, and also joining our contingent at the Stephon Clark march on Monday. We got out hundreds of copies of the Revolution Club statement about Stephon Clark with the Points of Attention for the Revolution on the back, and a number of people took stacks of them to get out to others.

One thing we did not do well at was putting to people the need for funds and fundraising as an important way to do that. But we do know getting people together in the coming days to further spread the word throughout the city, and to come together to watch BA’s speech, will be important markers and ways to go to work on this problem.

Impact at the LA Climate Crisis March:

Cracking Open Mass Debate on Real Revolution

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

by a member of the Revolution Club, Los Angeles

Young people in over 100 countries took part in a strike on Friday, March 15, answering the call from 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg to demand action by world governments to curb the catastrophe of climate change. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 people, many of them high school students, came out in LA.

A heightened sense of urgency is being felt by youth all over the world: Will there be a planet for future generations to live on? Millions are being thrust into political life at a time when the very future existence of human civilization is up for grabs. This global wave of struggle is very important, but left to itself, it will be channeled into the confines of the very system of capitalism-imperialism which is driving this destruction. Going into the youth protest here in LA, the national Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour and the Revolution Club LA felt an additional sense of urgency: Thousands of people need to get organized for revolution now, with the aim of impacting and influencing millions.

The Revolution Club marched in formation, chanting “There is no Planet B! Revolution is what we need!” and “We are the revcoms! The mighty, mighty revcoms!” and other revolutionary chants, announcing our presence and alerting all that there IS an organized, serious, fighting force for a whole other way for humanity and the planet. This in itself had an impact. During the march, many students took up our “Planet B” chant, which we followed up with, “The system can’t be reformed. It must be overthrown!” which did not see the same number of people take it up. We would switch back and forth between the chants. This reflected the positive inclinations toward a more radical solution and the simultaneous resistance to an actual overthrow. This was all part of a bigger process by which people were being influenced on different levels. Through our presence as a whole, we unleashed a process of polarization and repolarization around the questions of reform or revolution, the Green New Deal, questions about violence and about whether you could defeat them, and what exactly is the new communism.

We wielded the polemic on the Green New Deal, which is being promoted as the big “solution” to the climate crisis, but is in reality a deadly illusion keeping people fighting to reform the system instead of uniting to overthrow it. Repeatedly, we unleashed mass contestation, with people sorting themselves out in relation to our core message and the controversy that followed in our wake. Even those who sharply argued against revolution because we took their ideas on, served the larger process of clarification and demarcation that led to others turning their heads to revolution.

A note on the makeup of the march: Many of the students were from better-off sections of Los Angeles, and for most taking part, this was their first demonstration. The fact that hundreds were out in the street was positive, but certainly the size was not commensurate with the threat humanity is facing.

Often the polarization was negative against revolution, with many seeing this solution as being too “extreme” or repeating tired anti-communist tropes that still get ingrained in people from the time they are young, including through the school curriculum. We sharply challenged all of this, wrenching freedom from the fierce struggles being born out of the debates. Because we didn’t back down, we projected something that was, to some people, very attractive. THIS brought forward the interested parties seeking another way out of the crowd in a way that we could never do if we stayed on the margins, talking to people one-on-one.

In one instance, 12 students debated with us over the role of the Democrats, the Green New Deal, America’s founding principles, and more. At a certain point many were piling on anti-communism and not even listening. One of the students who was more serious and challenged her peers to “hear them [the communists] out.” Then, in front of them all, she signed up with the revolution. At the same time, 40 people throughout the course of the afternoon gave us their names and contact information.

When a counterrevolutionary agitated against the revolutionaries, trotting out the “cult” line and urging others to disregard us, we put it back to the masses that anything short of revolution would allow the planet to burn. Serious students drew near and dug in.

In summing up, we felt there were real strengths in how we stepped out, proceeding from BAsics 3:1: “Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit...” and uniting and struggling with people on that foundation (as the rest of BAsics 3:1 goes on to explain).

At the same time, while there was some work done to organize people into the revolution, this needed to be done much more consistently and boldly—putting forward, and concretely carrying forward, our goal of organizing thousands into the revolution now, and organizing hundreds as part of this crucial tour.

"What's the problem? The whole damn system! What's the solution? Revolution!" Uniting, contending, and bringing forward the need for revolution, for humanity and the planet to get free. #RevolutionNothingLess #ClimateStrike #ClimateAction #climatechange @tuneintorevcom pic.twitter.com/rPLPpamrWn

— Revolution Club Los Angeles (@revclub_la) March 16, 2019

“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 first week of the Tour »

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)

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

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.

Response to FEM Magazine:

Trying to Censor Revolutionaries in Safe Spaces of Empire

By Tala Deloria, Revolution Club, LA

March 15, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

After The Word on Wednesdays (an open mic poetry venue at UCLA) censored a revolutionary’s poem, we challenged the people attending to a debate about where the framework of intersectionality leads. They did not come to debate, but a contributor to FEM magazine wrote an article about the incident. This is a response to help bring clarity to the contention.

What we have here is two opposing models in contention. One aiming to sweep away oppression and exploitation throughout the planet, and the other aiming to curate the positions of oppressed people within this system—dictating who owns what oppression, and what stories can be told by whom—all of which leaves the world as it is.

The problem, according to this contributor, was that revolutionaries “colonized” their “safe space” by reading a poem dealing with global violence against women, and that a white man should not have read that poem because he has never experienced the trauma it detailed.

If you apply this criterion, even queer women of color living in imperialist countries couldn’t have read the poem! By this logic, it would’ve had to have 23 authors to be legitimate and politically correct. This is farcical and worse, as it can only lead to the stories and experiences of people in oppressed nations going untold. How convenient it is for this system when we can only speak from our own experience, never stepping out of our lanes to empathize with those on whose backs we are living, and instead censoring the telling of their stories in the name of preserving a safe space. A “safe space” which, by the way, you are able to carve out BECAUSE of the imperialist position of the U.S. in the world; a “safe space” which in the face of this incident, you enforced by calling the repressive force of the state—the pigs (UCPD)!

Further, if you think what happened at The Word was “colonization,” please go study what King Leopold and friends did to the Congolese people, what Cortez did throughout Latin America, what the British did in India. Your comparison would almost be funny if it wasn’t so insulting.

A white man empathizing with and reading a poem about violence against women is not violence just because it triggered your narrow worldview and made you uncomfortable. Comparing THIS to what the U.S. does all over the world—dropping drone bombs on babies, using rape as a tool of war, plundering the people and the planet in its search for riches and power—trivializes ACTUAL colonial and imperialist violence. The only way you can consider this a legitimate comparison is if you’re stewing in American chauvinism. So please, pick yourself up out of that BS and get real!

This isn’t to say artists shouldn’t have spaces to express themselves, but let’s set different standards here, and ironically, applying your criteria would mean the end of art! Think about it.

If we really want to end oppression, we need EVERYONE to speak out about the experiences of the people of the world. We must welcome everyone who wants to join the fight because that’s what it’s going to take to get free—uniting everyone who can be united in a revolutionary movement to overthrow the system that enforces relations of masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, to get beyond this dynamic once and for all.

The second thread of the argument is that: “Only a white man’s worldview could select class and imperialism as the only relevant axes of oppression; only a white man could fail to understand that race, gender, and sexuality are the raw material for our capitalist and militaristic institutions.”

Underlying the distortions peddled in this sentence is a dismissal of a scientific understanding of the problem as the worldview of a “white man,” which you see as the main enemy.

Reality is not a compilation of narratives, some of which have dominance over others. We live in a global system of capitalism-imperialism which has integrated and made indispensable pre-existing social antagonisms—white supremacy, patriarchy, etc. This is true not only with regards to the divide between oppressed nations and imperialist countries, but also the oppression this system carries out in this country—the genocidal trajectory of mass incarceration and police terror against Black people, the demonization and persecution and incarceration of immigrants, and the list goes on.

We are in the "school of Bob Avakian" because as part of his breakthrough in human thought, he has brought forward a scientific understanding of the relationship between these social antagonisms and the underlying mode of production. It’s not that everything boils down to class as an identity or a position in the distribution of wealth in society—it’s that capitalism-imperialism with its underlying mode of production has the violent enforcement of oppressive inequality built into its operation, and it will continue to regenerate social antagonisms and oppressive ideas on a world scale and prevent you from fundamentally abolishing them unless and until we overthrow the system.

This understanding is not something you can come to by proceeding solely from the experiences or “narratives” of oppressed peoples. As our polemic on intersectionality states, “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.”

Trauma is real, and the stories and experiences of oppressed people should be and must be heard IN THE CONTEXT OF fighting to make a revolution and bringing into being a radically new state wherein people have the right to direct society toward the eventual abolition of classes and all the antagonistic divisions between human beings throughout the world, not to “get mine” or get atop a “woke” world!

This brings me to the paltry vision of “revolution” put forward in the article: “I think [my vision of revolution] looks like queer people of color sharing poetry on Wednesday nights. Many small, beautiful revolutions.”

Though I love poetry, as any real communist does, to call poetry readings by queer people of color revolution amounts to nothing but wielding your American privilege to keep the world as it is. You carve out a safe space within, and on the basis of, empire and you think the most radical thing we can do is to “assert [our] lived experiences as worthy of attention and validation in public discourse.” This is just a sad worldview with horizons so limited that they prevent you from seeing beyond this system.

There’s a way out of this madness. This is what we were bringing into The Word that day. A strategy for how we can make an actual revolution, which means an OVERTHROW of this system, meeting and defeating their forces of repression (the military, police, etc.) when the time is right. We are preparing now for that time. Because of the work Avakian has done, we have a strategy to go up against this imperialist beast with a real shot to win, and we have a constitution which sets a foundation for a society on the road to emancipating all of humanity. This is what anyone who really wants to get free needs to raise their sights to engage.

I myself, am honored to be in the school of Bob Avakian.

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

March 23—in LA and All Over the Country—Break Bread with (and Get Down with) the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Revolution Clubs and everyone who wants a different and better world is urged to tune in live to the national celebration in Los Angeles (2:30 pm PDT) for the “Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour” on Saturday, March 23

Gather friends, family members, and others—in public mass events, small clusters, or on your own—and join in celebrating and launching a Tour that will travel the entire country for a year, putting real revolution and the leadership of Bob Avakian on the map and organizing thousands into this movement for revolution to emancipate all of humanity.

Learn about the mission and vision of the Tour and this revolution. Meet the revolutionaries who are on fire for real revolution and have put aside everything to go out and fight for this revolution up against all the non-solutions, dead-ends, and bullshit that has people trapped in lowered visions and a world of horror. Hear directly from the leader of the revolution, Bob Avakian, through excerpts of his recent film, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. And find out how to get involved in spreading this wherever you are, join in donating and raising funds to keep this Tour out on the road.

Dispatches from a Tour Member

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour has begun in Los Angeles. I’m looking around, and we have a solid and strong team. I was even thinking, “Well, who am I to be a part of this?” We have all kinds of people. We have very developed leadership. We have people with a lot of experience wrangling with ideas, struggling over problem and solution, and we have people who are newer to taking on this level of responsibility on the national level as part of organizing the thousands and influencing millions for an actual revolution and going to work to lead while being led by this leadership, overall by BA, on that basis. We have people from different backgrounds, from different cities. It’s really beautiful and it’s an incredible feeling to be a part of this, and the question of “who am I?” is the wrong question when it comes to emancipating humanity and representing the interests of the seven billion people on this planet, and this Tour is going to work on that.

It feels like it has been weeks when in reality it’s actually just been a few days. We went to the campuses, to the parks, and to the neighborhoods taking out what we have and what we need along with #BEB, “What is #BEB?” We’ve encouraged people to think, to look at the people on the #BEB poster, about what they have in common, because if you can’t figure it out, you might have #BEB! This is a big part of what stands in the way in people’s way of thinking. This stirred some controversy at UCLA, where we brought the poster onto a grassy area where students were enjoying the sun, talking and studying. It seemed like we were just talking to people in the ones and twos, so we posed a question from the bottom of the hill to everyone of what is #BEB? It was met from someone who told us to shut up because they were studying. Another student approached us and said no one should listen to people who don’t believe in intersectionality theory and read Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work. We posed back, “Well there is an intersectionality... with all of the #BEB faces on the poster!” We went through and not everyone wanted to engage with what #BEB was, but some did. They thought long and hard. “Was it breaking empire bankers?... bad...” and then their engagement got other students from the next group and the next guy to engage and try to guess. This mattered because while the haters of revolution told us to shut up and tried to shut us down, others decided to think and to find out what it was.

On the UCLA campus, the revcoms have stirred up a lot of controversy and made an impact. It began with a reading of “The Women of the World” at a poetry reading that was cut short by the MC who claimed we were infiltrating their public “safe space” because a white man was reading the poem, which the revcoms came back the next day on campus to debate that gathered some new students. Then there was a piece from the campus feminist paper about the revcoms “infiltrating” and “colonizing” their spoken word, and then the revcoms were featured in the main college newspaper marching for the women of the world and particularly against the forced hijab in Iran, and then a polemical response by Tala Deloria to the piece from the feminist magazine. There is a freedom-necessity dynamic here, of putting on your boxing gloves and struggling, taking on what’s being waged at the revolution and throwing it back with substance and reality for the masses to see, to impact and prepare the people for revolution. This will be a part of how this revolution makes it through the bullshit, not bowing down to necessity or “moving on” but by taking it on head-on with the reality and science and BA in the interests of the people of the world.

The reveal of #BEB was beautiful. The Revolution Club was lined on the steps of the City Hall to unveil “WHAT IS #BEB?” and a speech by Andy Zee. This was broadcast live on The Michael Slate Show on KPFK, and live-streamed on Facebook. A member of the Club took some great photographs, and a supporter and videographer did video. Unfortunately, we did not bring the hundreds to this. There was going to be a climate march bringing a lot of young students, and the organizers preparing for it in front of us were watching and listening to the #BEB reveal, and some of their jaws dropped.

After the reveal, as young students came to City Hall by the hundreds and hundreds, the Revolution Club came marching in, chanting, “We are the mighty, mighty revcoms!” as students themselves took on the chants and pulled out their phones to take photos and videos. We marched toward the middle of the gathering that drew the media forward. When people marched, we chanted, “There is no Planet B, Revolution is what we need!” and “Climate change needs a SYSTEM CHANGE—hey!” along with “How do we get out of this mess? REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!” You could see students gathering with different programs and different chants, but up and down the march you could see some students taking on the revolutionary chants. Students were agonizing over the existential questions for the planet, animal species, and humanity. A radical-minded young Latina college student joined us on the spot and walked with some of us afterward to organize people for revolution. After she saw us struggling with some students who did not agree about revolution and argued you can work within this system and then walked away, the young woman remarked how she could not stand to not want to confront those kinds of people. She talked about how Obama deported more people than any previous president, and AOC was not someone her friends and she were falling for. She had come out to the march alone, but she got organized with the revolution, and she may be free to join us today.

This Tour is just beginning. We have the launch next weekend to work on bringing people to. We’re gonna need people to contribute food. We’ve gone to some places like parks and marching down the neighborhood. A lot more has to be done. I’m seeing how complex these things are and the methods we need to work on this. What are our metrics? How do we measure our work? How do we sum it up? I have talked to people on the tour of how do we work as a team of scientists.

I’m going to have to go now, but I would like for readers to contribute to this process, and this Tour needs a lot of funds. We have made $10K and that is a good beginning, but we are going to need a lot more and continue bringing in people and their ideas and their support and their conscious going to work on this revolution to emancipate humanity.

UCLA: Challenging the Sandbox Bullies and Opening Up the Debate

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From the Revolution Club, Los Angeles

A minor positive shitstorm sort of fell into our lap at UCLA when a Revolution Club member was censored at an open mic poetry event on campus, called The Word on Wednesdays, for laying out a brief polemic on intersectionality and reading a poem he wrote about the violence faced by women throughout the world. The audience at the event was comprised mainly of people of color and LGBTQ+ people, whose argument in favor of the censorship boiled down to “you’re a white man and its wrong for you to speak about trauma you have never experienced.”

And so, they dropped a boulder on their own feet! We hit back against this absurdity, coming back the next day with flyers of the poem, posting them up everywhere and engaging in some debate on social media:

NJ like New Jersey‏ @njlikenewjersey Feb 28

A man.... reciting a poem to speak on behalf of women?? You lost me.

Revolution Club Los Angeles‏ @revclub_la Feb 28

Replying to @njlikenewjersey @tuneintorevcom

That’s because you’re lost already. That’s where identity politics takes you, bickering over who has a right to speak about what oppression rather than how to end oppression.

We got a bit of a buzz going, mainly within the social circle around The Word, but also reaching beyond that. We went out to Bruin Walk, a central area on the campus, with some agitation around the incident and the problem with preventing people from stepping outside of their direct experiences. This challenged about 20 people to come up to debate and listen, including a woman who was at the open mic, who made the argument that the system must be changed from within, promoting the snake oil of the Green New Deal and its main peddler, AOC, up against revolution.

We gave the advocates of intersectionality and the narrative curators of The Word an opportunity to defend their paltry framework and help clarify the differences between their road for “change” and our road for human emancipation. On the day of the debate, we wielded our polemic on intersectionality and went back and forth with a handful of people who stopped to engage, most of whom were partisan and thought intersectionality and revolution could coexist.

Although no one from The Word came to debate, a contributor to FEM magazine (a feminist campus publication) felt compelled to write an article about what happened. Leaving aside the distortions of what happened, the gist of the argument in the article was that a white man reading a poem about the women of the world in a room full of people of color amounted to us “colonizing” their “safe space.”

In the midst of this, the Revolution Club was featured on the front page of the Daily Bruin (the campus newspaper) for a rally we held in Westwood on International Women’s Day, commemorating the 40th anniversary of Iranian women’s rebellion against the forced hijab.

We wrote a biting response to the FEM magazine article, exposing these arguments and challenging people who really want to get free to learn more about the way out of this mess. Campus is in finals now and then on break, but we plan to take this out to students once they’re back to break open further debate around intersectionality vs. revolution. The articles here include the FEM attack and our reply, and a snapshot of a day on campus.

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

March 18, 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.

From RefuseFascism.org:

Our mission: Millions in the streets demanding In the Name of Humanity, Trump/Pence Must Go

Updated December 3, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Our singular demand:

In the Name of Humanity, The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

How does that happen?

Every fascist move by the Trump/Pence regime should be met by more struggle and involve more and more people and diverse political forces opposed to the moves of this regime. And this struggle needs to be aiming at and preparing for nothing less than driving out the whole regime through the non-violent massive struggle of people staying in the streets day after day, creating the kind of political crisis that could drive out the whole fascist regime.

[1] The most defining thing about the recent elections is that the fascist program of the Trump/Pence regime became more consolidated and its fascist social base was more fully unleashed. Pipe bombs sent to leading Democrats and CNN. A hideous antisemitic massacre. Racist murders of African-Americans. Vicious anti-immigrant lies of an “invading caravan” to be met by US Troops who Trump said should shoot if the refugees throw rocks. Trump whipping up his rallies – Nuremberg style. On top of two years of the regime eviscerating what are supposed to be civil and legal rights, banning Muslims, locking in a majority fascist Supreme Court, stoking violent white supremacy and xenophobia, hateful misogyny, and ripping up international alliances and ramping up the threats of war. The Trump/Pence regime and the forces within it have said they view this presidency as the “last chance” to secure their vision for this country. This will continue and grow worse – with Trump now firing Sessions, attacking reporters, doubling down on his racist nationalism – unless and until it is stopped by the masses of people acting in fierce and sustained opposition outside the confines of politics as usual.

[2] The Democrats winning a majority in the House did not change this. The Democratic opposition throughout the elections and Nancy Pelosi’s post-election speech, refused to confront Trump’s fascism, but instead normalized, accommodated, and then promised to collaborate with the regime that is bringing an American fascism. About the Democrats, it could be said:“ First they came for the Muslims, and I protested once and then let it happen… Then they came for the immigrants, and I voted for healthcare and stayed mum.” They are determined to maintain order – even if that is the order of fascism – rather than risk the instability that it would take to confront and drive out the fascist regime and the nightmare they are hammering into place.

[3] The people who hate and fear this whole fascist nightmare and direction must now ACT with great determination in the streets – while organizing to move tens of thousands and soon millions to join them in the streets – with sustained determination until we drive this fascist regime from power in the name of humanity.  This is why we are organizing a movement – aiming to bring hundreds of thousands and millions into the streets – to say: In the Name of Humanity, The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

Conversation with a Grad Student:
“You are really going all-in on this!”

March 18, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a member of the Revolution Tour:

Since it was a very sunny spring day with students lounging on the grass and studying in the outdoor eating areas, we sent teams to engage with students, in addition to the agitation and the BEB sign on Bruin Walk.

I was part of a team at UCLA focused on the cafeteria and the outdoor eating area. We were randomly approaching people with the leaflet and asking them what BEB means, and asking also if we could record their answers/guesses. Given that this included people who did not stop out of interest, there was an element of social investigation in it and close to half the people we approached declined to be recorded not because they did not want to be on camera for political reasons but because they had no idea and did not want to appear foolish. Lots of sheepish shrugs of shoulders and apologies for having no idea—because they don’t follow politics and didn’t know who many of the people in the pictures were. Some of these were foreign students but not just that—there were people who said I just don’t follow politics. We gave them clues—first look at the pictures and see what they may have in common, see if you can work it out, and, second, who the leaflet was from.

There were students who really gave it a go and got a big kick out of it: what might it be—why were all these people on the same page? They would say, I figure it might be all politicians are bad, or corruption, but why are some of the good ones here? We’d tell them they had till Friday to figure it out—when it was going to be announced at City Hall and on the radio. Spread it to their friends and keep working on it—think it through. One young woman waiting in a food line as we were leaving was saying to her friend, “Bev, we’ve got a puzzle to solve by Friday.” An Iranian student who thought this was great took a picture of it to send out on social media on the spot. A woman with a great sense of humor went over each picture with a guess: “Well, it’s the revcoms, so it has to be something radical. Let’s see... why is Kamala Harris on here, I thought she was one of the good ones but maybe she’s not, maybe they are all bad... hmm—how am I doing? It has to be something bad.” A student who had a radio show on sex mused on how could she fit this in and took a stack to get out to all the other shows on the radio station.

One conversation worth reporting on was with an Asian-American doctoral student who said, “I’m familiar with revcoms, and I’m glad that you exist.” We asked why and she said she had been on the edge of the big open-air debate on intersectionality the week before and agreed with us. When we asked what she agreed with, she basically had interpreted this as we were challenging people who think they are woke but who don’t know anything about the rest of the world and are content with that—but basically she was thinking we were expanding or broadening the quality of intersectionality. She agreed that people are just sleepwalking through a nightmare.

My squad comrade laid out that this is a polemic against intersectionality as a framework and why—and the woman we were talking to took it in and said she’d never thought about it that way. There was back-and-forth on this and then she said, OK, I’m going to go on a rant—and she did about all these people who think they are woke but don’t know shit and how they are not at all interested in speaking to people who are not, whose minds need to be changed and who don’t know anything because everyone is so brainwashed. She said, “I have to tell you I saw the poem in the stall¹ in the bathroom and I stayed there and read the whole thing.” My comrade told her what had happened at the poetry reading and why they stopped the poem—because a white man had no right to speak about something that was not his own experience, and she said, “I am so sorry that this happened to you—my husband is white and heterosexual who is very empathetic; that is so bullshit.”

The conversation turned to what this has to do with reform and revolution and she said, “You know, I vote and send money and even volunteer but, you know, this isn’t going to change anything—it’s like all you are doing is dusting the counters when the room is a mess—the room is still a mess.” The conversation then turned to how she is taking a look at capitalism and then we had an exchange over what is revolution and why the system has to be overthrown, who is Bob Avakian and what he’s done, and that there is a strategy (HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution) and a new communism. At which point she said that someone she knew has just been getting into this and he and a friend have decided they are full-out socialists and that we need a revolution, and he had come home and asked her if there was a revolution to overthrow the government, would she be with him and she had told him yes.

The conversation then turned to the Tour and what we were doing with this—that people are here and need support, need to be fed, which she thought was awesome—“you are really going all-in on this.” We suggested she invite some of us over for a meal and to talk with her friend who raised the “overthrow” question to her—that it’s likely he is working with people who have differences and a different strategy over how to do this, but let’s debate it. We made arrangements to follow up. Then a friend of hers who is visiting from Arizona and teaches in a really conservative part of the state chimed in and there was discussion of how polarized the state is and polarization more generally—which went back to what we were doing on campus, the need to challenge the frameworks and the polarization on this as necessary and good—that the people who could and should be on the right side of the larger polarization in society right now are paralyzed and locked into all this bullshit that keeps things as they are—concluding with how much they hate all the smugness of the supposed wokeness.

1. A week earlier, a member of the Revolution Club was stopped from reading a poem he wrote on the oppression of women at an open poetry reading. The Club put out a statement exposing this, and the Club called for an open-air debate on it. For more on this, go here. [back]

“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

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