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.

What People Are Saying about the Tour

Updated May 13, 2019 | revcom.us

Plowing New Ground for Revolution—the Revolution Tour Hits California’s Central Valley

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

To find out what the 526 means—or the 5 STOPS, the 2 choices, and the 6 Points of Attention—read this page.

From members of the National Revolution Tour:

Two of us from the Revolution Tour went up to a state university in the Central Valley of California, often called the “breadbasket” of the country because of its enormous agricultural output. We pinned down the trip very quickly after receiving an invite from a student (I’ll call her H) who had met the Tour during the national MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán) conference.

When we got there, H and her friend B took us to one of their favorite restaurants and told us about the area: lots of farmworkers who migrate from Mexico to harvest, a large Latino population in the area, and a lot of Trump supporters. They told how there is some controversy on the campus over a person many believe is one of the white supremacists who was a part of organizing the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville where Heather Heyer was killed. Also posters from “Identity Evropa” (a white supremacist group) have been going up on campus. They told us how involved they were with campus organizing and making a list of recommendations to better the conditions for the students of color on that campus such as increasing funding for the ethnic studies program, a new diversity center, etc.

We got into the rising fascism in the U.S. and all over the world with the ascendance of Trump/Pence and what it’s unleashing on the campuses and everywhere else, because of the very workings of this system. We also talked about where it can further lead if we don’t stop them through a revolution and fundamentally get rid of this system that brought into being Trump/Pence. We got into the POAs, which she had spread via group chat to some friends already. She spoke on POA #2 and how it’s a problem that people make fun of other people for being a woman or LGBT. We had an important conversation—which would continue with her and many others throughout our visit—over what we meant by “overthrow” and “revolution” and getting each other to have the same conversation.

At one point, we asked our hosts what they thought it would take to end white supremacy for real—not just on one campus or community, but for all seven and a half billion people on the planet. In response, one of them returned again to the struggle at their college, saying that the institution was not built to include students of color and probably can’t ever be fully reformed and instead they’ll have to focus on the local community college. Our other friend agreed that capitalism is the problem and suggested that people need to return to the land. They argued that this would be better for the environment and allow people with criminal records to not be subject to discrimination in hiring. We united with much of what they were getting at, but posed in different ways that the point is not simply to enable some individuals to escape the jaws of this system, but to make a revolution that breaks the hold of the capitalist-imperialist state over the lives of literally billions and sets out to dig up all the oppressive divisions of today.

After dinner we went to a screening of Battle of Algiers that was part of a film festival put on by the ethnic studies program. The film was heavy and exposed the sacrifices made in Algeria during that national liberation struggle to rid themselves of French colonialism. A student allowed us to do a brief presentation after the film. We talked about the Tour and the 5-2-6. A couple of students knew who we were from H. One student was curious about the strategy for revolution and still trying to understand why some of the leaders of MEChA had tried to silence us at their national conference; in part this had made her more curious and in part it made her cautious. We got into why people would be opposed to revolution, even though it’s in the interest of humanity.

Another student had met the revolution up in the Bay Area and heard we were coming from someone in the Revolution Club. We got into things with her afterward and watched the clip of what BA has to say to people who complain about immigrants. She said she had watched some of the first part of the film but it was a little confusing to her and she wanted to watch it with others to discuss it. We planned to meet up the next day to watch the film together. We put to her being a part of the Tour’s next leg and gathering a contingent from the campus to come down to L.A. for a nodal event on the Tour. Still, this question of, “What should I be doing with the revolution?” was a challenge for us to answer with her. We posed to her the great strengths of this revolution—the highly developed leadership, strategy, and scientific approach—but also what we don’t have and urgently need: the people taking this up and making it a reality. And we wrestled with her about how she could be part of spreading this revolution—including together with the others we were meeting—even as she is learning more. We decided to work on a POA day on campus, but this is something that needs more ongoing attention and thinking overall.

As we were getting ready for sleep that night, our host told us how she had been thinking all night about what we had posed to her, “A world without borders... a world without rape...” She’d never heard anyone insist that it was possible and she’d been trying to envision it. We stayed up wrangling with the strategy for an actual revolution, learning more about the struggles and dynamics of their campus, and a whole lot more about life and the world.

The next day we met up with B who lent us MEChA’s table they have set up in the campus plaza. We put our materials on it, POAs, BAsics, the NO MORE posters, stickers, HOW WE CAN WIN (HWCW), 5 STOPS posters, etc. We had an A-frame of the 5 STOPS set up. Friends of B stopped by and he introduced us to them. A friend came up and saw all of our materials and just started taking stacks of POA posters and NO MORE posters as well as stickers. He gave me some of his stickers too that said, “Reject White Supremacy.” I talked to another friend about communism. He considers himself a communist and has anarchist friends, but couldn’t imagine a world without a state, but made clear not the kind of state we have now under capitalism. He was saying this in relation to his anarchist friends, but also in relation to the climate crisis and how concerned he is about the report that came out on the fact that we only have 10-12 years to solve this problem, and doesn’t see how you could solve this without a different state. I emphasized the need for him to get into the New Communism forged by Bob Avakian and got into the importance of communism as science, how Avakian has put communism on a more scientific foundation, and the real advances made by him and the real importance of that. He seemed intrigued and sat and talked with us more. A member of the LGBT group came over wearing a “KAMALA” hat who wasn’t really interested in revolution. Later, however, while we were struggling with another student about the history of America, she chimed in, “When Was America Ever Great?” We then posed to her the contradiction of her hat and putting faith into the Democratic Party, explaining how the Republican Party is fascist and the Democratic Party is a machine of massive war crimes and crimes against humanity while giving her a BEB broad sheet. She got a little defensive saying, “All parties need improvement” and we had some struggle over that, which was positive but definitely didn’t get resolved.

Our hosts also introduced us to a member of the Black Student Union. After we spoke with them a bit, they invited us to speak at their meeting that night. I met this other Black student with a “Defend DACA” shirt on. I told her to read the 5 Stops poster, posed the 2 choices and told her why we are here and gave her the 6 points of attention. I read her POA #3 in relation to her shirt. She had a really great response along the lines, “You know what’s happening to women in Saudi Arabia, in Mexico and Latin America is my problem. I’m tired of people only standing up for things when it affects them.” She also really appreciated the quote from Avakian, “Internationalism—The Whole World Comes First,” and, “American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People’s Lives.” She had an internationalist perspective and morality. We also got into “cancel culture” and she shared how ridiculous it is that people bring up things in the past that people did to write them off when what’s more important is how’ve they’ve changed and what they are doing now. She said, “It can’t just be the people who are most affected standing up, it has to be everyone, we need more allies, we need more men and white people.” I united with her, then also said we don’t need more “allies,” we need emancipators of humanity. And what would happen if only the most oppressed rose up without others joining in? They’ll get crushed or encircled. I invited her to come watch the film with us later and showed her the trailer for it on the spot before she had to leave.

We came to the MEChA meeting. They had a training session from people who do dispatches on I.C.E. raids and they gave instructions to the MEChA members on what to do when they see an I.C.E raid. It was pretty heavy and infuriating how ever-present the terror of I.C.E. is to everyone’s lives in the area. After the training, we did a presentation on the 5-2-6. We made sure to clarify what we really meant by revolution and an overthrow, pulling from part 1 in HWCW and part 3, “An actual revolution does not mean making some changes within this system,” but means meeting and defeating its armed forces of oppression and repression when the time comes. We put forward the strengths we do have in the leadership, strategy, and science developed by Bob Avakian and the people we don’t have and how the tour is on a mission going all around the country to solve that problem and organize the thousands. All the students stayed (about 10) even though their meeting had ended. One told us that overthrowing made sense, but seemed scary to think about. Another asked how long we have been at this and how it is going. We were very honest about telling people the tremendous breakthrough BA has made in the science and strategy for revolution and the game-changer this is and how all this is the product of decades of work and struggle, but at the same time we are basically starting anew with this Tour in going out and fighting to organize the people needed to make it real and put that challenge to them as well.

One of us then met up with the young woman from the night before to watch the first part of BA’s talk Why We Need an Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. We were only able to watch a little over half of part 1 because she had time constraints, but she thought after watching the 5 STOPS that “it all makes sense.” And we both appreciated the fact that BA walks through how the 5 STOPS are interwoven into the capitalist system, she even shared how, “Being part of a Mexican family, they’re always asking me when I’m going to get a boyfriend. But what if I don’t want to have a boyfriend? Why does my self-worth have to be measured by being tied to someone else?” She said she can’t see why people would disagree with this and I explained to her even though all of what BA is saying is true, people are caught up in a lot of B.S. and mental shackles and walked through the mental shackles the Tour is going to work on breaking. She also had questions on how she is going to take this out because she “doesn’t know enough.” I told her if people have questions, to take them to the POAs, and I also guided her to the website as a place where she can learn more as she’s spreading the word about it. Also I said she could call me anytime.

Meanwhile, one of us gave a presentation to the Black Student Union meeting. The Tour member began by walking through each of the 5 STOPS, emphasizing with each that it was woven into the system of capitalism-imperialism and cannot be reformed away and must be overthrown. By the time she reached the fourth stop, a student blurted out, “Wow, you are like super-woke!” He meant this very positively and the room was rapt during the whole presentation which proceeded to the “2 choices” and then the challenge and mission of the Tour. The first question was posed by that same student who had blurted out, asking what the exact plan for an overthrow was. This focused up more sharply what we mean by revolution and the big challenge before us—in addition to briefly answering it we pointed people to HWCW on the website and especially to BA’s full talk, Why We Need an Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. This made one of the other students, who had reacted very positively previously, reconsider in some ways. She said the idea of an actual overthrow gave her pause. But she also reached back to her knowledge of the Black Panther Party and how everyone acts like they were so extreme because they took up arms, but they were real heroes to her and were just fighting to end oppression. We stuck around after the meeting to talk more with her and with others who were interested.

That night, we stayed up late with our host one more time reflecting on the trip as a whole. We let them know that they had made a very important contribution to the revolution by inviting us up, introducing us to so many people, and helping open so many doors. They expressed that they were moved and inspired by how we had been able to relate to so many different people, lift their sights, and not get caught up in the petty squabbles that too often characterize people’s thinking even among those who are fighting for change. We agreed to keep working on all this together.

The National Revolution Tour in Los Angeles, May 1st.

#POA4Rev

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The Revolution Club in Los Angeles discussed the Points of Attention wherever people were gathered, including at this bus stop. (Photo: Special to Revolution)

What Is 5-2-6?
The 5 STOPS, the 2 Choices, and the 6 Points of Attention

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

Two Letters from the Tour in Orange County

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

From the Editors: Below are letters from two members of the National Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour sent while they were taking the Tour to Orange County. One chronicles some of their experience in Orange County, the other wrangles more broadly with some of the experience of the Tour. Both reflect on the overall process of bringing new people into the movement for revolution.

[1] Report from the Field: Taking the Revolution Tour to Orange County

Recently, the National Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour was invited to spend a few days with some revolutionaries down in Orange County, California. Orange County has for decades been known as a hotbed of fascist conservatism and this remains the case in many ways. But this has been also changing in recent years, including that there is a significant population of immigrants from Mexico and Central America as well as a significant number of young people who are yearning for something different.

The National Revolution Tour has been in Orange County for two days now. We have been to a community college and a nearby state university. Students have expressed interest in the 5 STOPS and the Points of Attention for the Revolution. Many have said they need to check out what the revolution is before making a commitment. We summed up that although it is important for people to do the work themselves in order for them to commit to anything, we ourselves should not be standing in the way of the masses stepping into a process of making revolution. Just listen to BA and how he talks. Pay attention to the method he is using, someone with a lot of heart for the masses of people and science, with a firm understanding and a wide embrace and learning. This is someone who doesn’t feel sorry for what people go through but sees their revolutionary potential to become emancipators of humanity. There is no formula to The New Communism. I don’t think you can just get it by expecting the science to just come to you. This is what it means to do the work. Yes, to study, but to apply that science from the abstract. Ardea Skybreak talks about the analogy of the horse and how if you are riding a horse and you pull the reins too sharply, the horse will buck and come to a stall; if you let go of the reins, the horse will just go whichever way. The horse is not an analogy of the people we are working with, but it’s an analogy of the process we need, and BA is a concentration and a model of what it means to lead the masses into a process of making revolution.

From this wrangling, we have identified a need for us to bring the masses what we HAVE and what we DON’T have as we go to people straight up with revolution and that anything less is bullshit. Taking on the bullshit can be an attractive pole that resets the terms, and we have been figuring out how to “disrupt the air” like walking into a dining hall, propping up the six Points of Attention on a table, and standing on a chair to read them aloud. After this, we organized two students, one young Latina who was an oceanography major and cared about the environment said she thought it took a lot of courage to stand up on chairs and to read them aloud, and another young Latina who believed the POAs were important and that it was good that we got up and did that.

These few days in Orange County have been intense in the sense that there is an extreme urgency in that, ultimately humanity and the planet do not have that much time and need revolution more than ever. The National Tour will be in LA for a few more weeks so it can set a foundation for this nationwide movement for revolution to accumulate and impact to the degree and rhythm it needs to in a beginning way as it cannot stay at any particular city indefinitely, and we have a gathering on Wednesday night at a local cafe for people to meet the National Tour. Some have said they are interested in coming, and someone we met at the Downtown Art Walk has just committed to coming and bringing friends from her weekly discussion group.

People’s commitment is not based on how much we can convince people to commit to joining the revolution or doing tasks for the revolution. Commitment is based on people’s understanding and aspirations and those aspirations can be awakened through exposure and struggle. We have discussed what actually stands in the way of people stepping into a process, and it is the modes of thinking that this Tour is going to work to hit at as we accumulate and organize the thousands needed for the revolution in the next year that can influence millions. The other reason is in the way we can stand in the way of the process by expecting everyone to agree with everything or to be won to everything, before they can step into the process. We need to do better at showing and introducing the leader of this revolution, Bob Avakian. A lot of people we meet are impressed and intrigued that there is a National Tour. They will ask where is it going, what is it doing, and they are easily won to following the Tour on social media. We’ve been getting a lot to follow us on Instagram, where we can send them a direct message.

We’ve wrangled a lot about putting the problems of the revolution to the masses of people, to bring them in to fulfill the needs of different particular problems we are confronting at any given time. Some of this was done in new ways in relation to the picnic last week in LA. It is not to have people merely feel included in the process so they will want to join “our movement,” but they actually become a part of the process by going to work on the problems of the revolution. Our collectivity is our strength, and we have relied on this collective process rooted in the science we have along with the guidance and conception of the Tour to make advances and to sum up our breakthroughs, our shortcomings, where we got sidetracked, and what we can identify as key in our approach without tailing everything that attracts the masses of people.

We are embarking on a historic journey and mission with this National Tour. Orange County is not another place we are doing work in, but many people in OC and LA and around the country do really care about the 5 STOPS, and our understanding has to be rooted in that material basis for revolution, that none of these “Stops” can be resolved under this system and that is a big weakness for this system, as we take on the approach needed of stepping up to people straight up about revolution and find the ways to include all kinds of people in the process of making revolution, solving problems big and small, toward emancipating all of humanity. This is still just the beginning.

[2] Involving the Masses in Solving the Problems of the Revolution—A Reflection from a Tour Member

I thought the work we did in the last week during the Points of Attention (POA) week was qualitatively different than what has come before. First off, I think we have actually stepped out much more consistently with the 5-2-6 message¹—and people, based on what they understood this revolution to be about, and for, as concentrated in the POAs took up and participated in the process of making revolution. Different people spread the word about the POAs, engaged thoughtfully with the POAs, and challenged others to engage them.

People found different ways to be a part of working on the problems of the revolution. Some people made food for the picnic. Others were a part of getting supplies so that others who didn’t have cash could contribute something. One person volunteered to talk to rival gangs so that this picnic could happen without set-tripping. Hundreds met the revolution and dozens were a part of spreading this further.

I think it is important to note how this is unprecedented. We did new things in terms of carrying out work that from the beginning was involving people in the process of making revolution and never before have we so frankly popularized the contradictions, the problems, of making this revolution and worked with masses to solve them.

I think an example that is small, but still worth learning from, is the approach taken to working with masses around the banana pudding. Here is a real objective contradiction. The very reasons why we need a revolution—stand as obstacles to masses of people being a part of the revolution. Like a woman who is disabled and on a limited income who wants to contribute food but doesn’t have the finances to purchase the ingredients. So, we took those problems and put it to other people. We didn’t do this just by saying “help us make a banana pudding,” we did it by saying “there are two choices, live with all of what is concentrated in the 5 STOPS or make a revolution—we are making revolution—here’s what it’s all about, and here people are stepping into the movement for revolution—someone wants to make a banana pudding—but can’t—you should be a part of solving this problem.” Instead of approaching that contradiction as a nasty roadblock in our way we actually seized on it to involve even more people in the revolution.

Looking through the reports on revcom.us, you can see all different sorts of people who were both challenged and inspired by the 5-2-6 message. Taking a look at the testimonials of what people said about the six POAs, you can see how much this speaks to people. On many different levels. You can also see how much the POAs challenge what people think. A revolution without revenge? Not for self? Without borders? And you can see people stepping out with these in a beginning way while still having differences—and while having differences still considering themselves part of this!

For example, there was a woman at the picnic who told me that she didn’t agree with communism and was more of a socialist herself—yet she considered herself a part of the revolution and thought the POAs should be upheld and spread. There are a lot of people just like that who have been part of the process. People are going through a process—and most people aren’t going to go from 0 to 60 MPH instantly. From what I have seen and read, it looks to me that there has been very substantial struggle over the two choices and an involving of people on the spot to be a part of the revolution while they learn more and struggle to get to the truth of things.

In opposition to this, I have felt strong pulls towards trying to join every difference and struggle through every wrong position before involving people in the revolution. Which both means demanding people to go 0 to 60 MPH in their thinking and actually reinforces the “us vs. them” divide—and is NOT the process that BA is fighting for.

We should be stepping to people straight up with revolution and struggling with them over the solid core—the 5-2-6 and the core message—AND involving them from the beginning in line with their aspirations and understanding (in relation to the solid core message). And thereby initiating a process where people can learn more as they take part in changing the world.

One thing that I got much more of an appreciation of the POAs as part of taking them out is just how much they concentrate what the revolution is all about—what it is for—and how much it concentrated key parts of the revolutionary strategy. In that way the POAs are “enough” to get started. They are a coherent whole, not just statements of morality divorced from the revolutionary process. I still think part of bringing alive the strategy for revolution is bringing out the importance of living by and fighting for the POAs. Struggling with the thinking of blocs of people, winning them to the core principles of the revolution, transforming their thinking to defy and repudiate the putrid values of this system. Like hating on women and gays and immigrants. American chauvinism and me first. Petty revenge and meaningless violence. Going against the grain when “what is popular” is flat wrong. Winning people to take these up and struggle with others is a key part of making revolution. As opposed to approaching these POAs as just an alternative ethic that we will apply off to the side of what is going on in reality. NO. These are to be actively fought for and striven for as part of making revolution NOW. And we are organizing people around these core principles because the road to this kind of world is revolution and communism (POA #1) and how we get there is an overthrow (POA #6) and building up the forces for revolution, based on these POAs, and changing the thinking of people, and building up the alternate authority of the revolution are all key parts of preparing for the time when we can go all out for power.

1. This refers to the 5 STOPS, the 2 Choices posed by Bob Avakian (“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!”), and the 6 Points of Attention for the Revolution. See here. [back]

The Revolution Tour in Orange County

“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 »

The National Tour & @OCRevClub took to #OrangeCounty #DTSA and met many people like this high school student who read #POA4Rev @tuneintorevcom pic.twitter.com/dxloSqlaXG

— Revolution Club Los Angeles (@revclub_la) May 6, 2019

#POA4Rev

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New Feature on this Site:

Sign Up to Stay Connected and Get Organized for Revolution

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

We want to call attention to a new feature on revcom.us: a new sign-up form for a free e-sub to Revolution online.

By signing up, you will be able to follow how the Points of Attention for the Revolution (POAs) are being taken up around the country. You will learn about how people like you are thinking about living according to the POAs and what it would take to get to a world where this is how everyone lived. You can follow the progress of the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour. And you will be connected with the revolution, receiving a free e-sub to www.revcom.us.

By filling out the form, you will be able to receive updates and invitations targeted to your particular interests and region.

If you are new, take a minute right now to fill out the form for a free e-sub.

If you are an organizer for revolution, be sure to bookmark this link on your phone so that you can sign people up on the spot as you are meeting them.

As Tens of Thousands Die in Venezuela from U.S. Economic Warfare...

Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez: “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil”

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

The U.S. is waging economic war on Venezuela. It is just as deadly as the shooting wars it finances all through the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, but you don’t see the blood and hear the screams.

Last week, the Center for Economic and Policy Research stated that U.S. “economic sanctions”—that is, economic warfare—against Venezuela have so reduced the availability of food and medicine that as many as 40,000 people have died in the past two years who would not have died if there were no sanctions. The U.S. did this by 1) almost totally stopping oil imports from Venezuela and pressuring other countries to do the same, 2) preventing Venezuela from selling any of its assets, and 3) preventing it from borrowing. By recognizing their puppet Juan Guaidó as the legitimate head of Venezuela (despite his never having been elected or even having run for president), the U.S. made Guaidó the legal owner of all funds and goods of the Venezuelan government.¹

This warfare has been accompanied by the constant threat of real war, of U.S. invasion if the government of President Nicolás Maduro should move against Guaidó, and/or if it violates some other supposed “red line” of the U.S.²

You expect—or you should expect—the mainstream Democrats to follow suit. After all, Obama began the “sanctions” in 2015, which Trump then escalated in 2017. According to the Associated Press, Trump persistently asked aides in 2017 why the U.S. can't just invade Venezuela? Sanctions became the “sanitary” way to do it. Forty thousand deaths later, the noose gets tighter every day.

And what about the Democrats? With the exception of Elizabeth Warren, no mainstream Democrat has opposed the economic warfare of the Trump regime, and even Warren calls for “free elections”—that is, invalidating the previous election and having new ones at a time when the U.S. holds the country’s economy hostage. The Democrats may sometimes speak in a softer tone—the better to bring along the antiwar people they’re in charge of corralling and domesticating—but as this chart makes clear, year in and year out they are just as vicious when it comes to enforcing U.S. imperial dictates.

But what about the “socialists” like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Surely, loving social justice and economic equality as they do, they will speak out against this one-sided economic warfare.

Actually, no. Bernie Sanders tries to keep his mouth shut on this, and so far he’s been allowed to succeed in that. Sanders does not want to alienate the more radical-minded people that he’s in charge of corralling. But when pressed, as he was on BBC recently, he will say that while the U.S. should not intervene militarily, it should “use its authority” to ensure “free and fair elections”—which is exactly the position of the U.S. and its tool Guaidó, who claim that Maduro’s election was illegitimate. And by the way, Bernie, what IS the “authority” of the U.S.—if not its murderous economic warfare and the threat of its military?!?³

Then there’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Violence is horrible,” said Ocasio-Cortez to National Review. Wow, what a courageous stand. But which violence, Alexandria, are you talking about? Because while the U.S. media highlights the suppression carried out by Maduro’s forces, it ignores the far, far greater violence of U.S. economic warfare. When pressed for clarity on this, she said that she’ll “defer to caucus leadership on how we navigate this.” “Caucus leadership” being Nancy Pelosi—who, surprise! supports removing Maduro and installing the U.S. puppet Guaidó.

The Democrats are an imperialist party that sometimes pretends not to be in order to rope in people who, to a degree, oppose what the U.S. does all over the world. The “socialists” like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are in charge of drawing in the disillusioned and the angry who are looking for a radical alternative. They talk “militant” on some things, but when push comes to shove they share the essential America-first mentality of the Republicans and mainstream Democrats—they just want a more equal share of the spoils. Their essential program shares the view of the narrator in the Bob Dylan song “Narrow Way”:

“We looted and we plundered on distant shores
Why is my share not equal to yours?”

When it comes to what America does to people all over the world... to the blood it sucks in Asia, Africa, and Latin America... Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, like their fellow Democrats, have no answer. They, too, fit the essential truth that:

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

1. The Maduro government, while claiming to be socialist, never broke with the imperialist system. This makes them especially vulnerable to the kind of blackmail now being practiced by the U.S. imperialists. For more on the false road of Maduro, and Hugo Chávez who preceded him, see “Hugo Chávez Has an Oil Strategy... But Can This Lead to Liberation?” by Raymond Lotta, revcom.us, July 1, 2007. [back]

2. See “Points of Orientation on the Situation in Venezuela,” revcom.us, May 3, 2019; and “U.S. Poses as ‘Humanitarian’ While It Weaponizes Starvation in Venezuela,” revcom.us, February 11, 2019. [back]

3. Sanders, by the way, also voted for U.S. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, sanctions that took the lives, according to the UN, of 5,000 children a month. [back]

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“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 »

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Doing the Infrastructure Shuffle

How Schumer and Pelosi Normalize the Fascist Trump

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

Last Tuesday, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi (aka Screwmer and Piglosi)—the leaders of the Democratic Party—met with Trump for 90 minutes. They made a deal to push for $2 trillion to rebuild the transportation and communication infrastructure of the U.S. Schumer called the meeting “very, very good” and Pelosi gushed that “we’re very excited about the conversation we had with the president.” Pelosi herself had requested the meeting with Trump.

What else happened in the days before, during, and after this meeting? The morning of the meeting itself, the U.S. and its puppets in Venezuela launched an attempted military coup against the government. Two days after the meeting, a report came out that the U.S. is killing 10 times more civilians in its undeclared wars than previously reported. That same day, the Senate refused to overturn Trump’s veto of a resolution to end U.S. support for the genocidal Saudi war against Yemen.

The day before the meeting, the Pentagon announced plans for an expanded military role at the border. The Trump/Pence regime put into effect new fees and restrictions for asylum seekers, which will mean that many people fleeing violence will be put inside U.S. prisons while they wait years for their hearings. A day after the meeting, a 16-year-old Guatemalan immigrant became the third child fleeing violence to die in U.S. custody. And a day after that, a 10-month-old Honduran infant drowned when the raft he was on capsized in the Rio Grande, with three other people also feared dead.

The Friday before the meeting, Trump (again) praised Robert E. Lee, amid new reports of rising white supremacist violence. Alabama passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the U.S.—encouraged by the Trump/Pence regime’s packing of the federal courts with abortion opponents. Three days later, the Trump/Pence regime expanded the so-called “conscience rule,” which allows religious institutions (including hospitals and schools) to discriminate against women and LGBTQ people in health care.

And for good measure, the regime rolled back safety regulations on off-shore drilling.

But worst of all, this Schumer/Pelosi meeting with Trump took place in the direct aftermath of the Mueller report. The report laid out Trump’s multiple and repeated attempts to use executive power to obstruct justice. There for all to see were clear assaults on the rule of law and separation of powers.

And instead of calling this out, Schumer and Pelosi give him cover. In fact, the New York Times could only find one relatively low-level Democrat who would publicly point out that this meeting was held in the middle of a “constitutional crisis.” Brian Fallon, a former aide to Schumer, said, “The most important job the Democrats have right now is to uphold the rule of law against a president who thinks the law doesn’t apply to him. We have bigger fish to fry than trying to look like we gave it a shot on infrastructure. This was the play in 2016. It strikes me as a very pre-Trump approach for how to manage.”

The spectacle of Schumer and Pelosi at the White House trough reveals two important things:

First, as Barack Obama said after Trump’s election, “we [meaning ruling class politicians] are all on the same team.” They function as imperialist operatives first and foremost, and both the Democrats and Trump want to revamp the imperialist infrastructure to better compete against their rivals.

Second, and more to the point, the Democratic leadership is desperately attempting to ward off any calls for impeachment, let alone driving out the regime. They fear the “disorder” of the struggle it would take to actually STOP fascism far more than they fear the full imposition of fascism itself. Meeting with Trump on infrastructure is tantamount to meeting with Hitler to plan how to build the autobahn (the German superhighway system) while the concentration camps are being readied. It is a major symbolic move to normalize and fully accept this presidency.

The fascist juggernaut has momentum. It is more urgent than ever to drive it from power AND it should be clear—especially after the “infrastructure” shuffle danced by these Democrats—that the only way to stop it is through the masses of people relying on our own efforts, with massive, sustained, nonviolent protest.

Finally: this regime grew out of a specific system—capitalism-imperialism, at a time when it is racked by multiple crises. The representatives of this system, whether Democrat or Republican, will fight most of all for the continued operation of that system; and unless and until this system is overthrown, these will be the (non)-choices offered to the masses. That cannot be tolerated—and can only be resolved through a revolution to get beyond this system and the madness it brings down.

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New—and Even More Ugly and Horrific—Truths Come to Light in the Police Murder of Oscar Grant

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

From a reader:

Ten years! It has been 10 years since hundreds of people on a BART train in Oakland saw cops shoot unarmed 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back, 10 years since millions saw videos of that murder on TV and the internet. An internal report has just been released that shows the cops and BART authorities knew full well that Oscar was murdered in cold blood and this has been kept secret until now.

The system knew. Their own report said it. This speaks volumes about what happened to Oscar, about the real role of the police, the actual nature of the system they serve, and why what we need is an actual revolution.

Oscar’s cold-blooded murder by BART cop Johannes Mehserle at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, California, was one of the first times police were caught on cell phone videos killing someone, and it went viral. People rose up in the streets of Oakland, and there were many powerful protests when the system failed to indict Mehserle. This led to the very rare case of a cop actually doing time for shooting someone down (no cop in Alameda County, the county Oakland is in, had ever been brought up on murder charges for killing someone while on duty). And people protested when the verdict was announced because Mehserle was convicted of manslaughter and not murder. (He did a little bit of time—less than a year—and then he got out on unsupervised probation.)

Because of the mass protest, the murder of Oscar Grant became an important symbol and indictment of the system’s vicious treatment of Black people. The San Jose Mercury wrote: “‘I am Oscar Grant’ became a rallying cry so loud it spread to far-off places such as Egypt, where protesters in the Arab Spring uprising held signs bearing his name.” An important, powerful, and heart-wrenching movie was made of Oscar and what happened that night, Fruitvale Station.

Oscar Grant’s murder is in the news again now because reporters in California working for the San Jose Mercury News filed a lawsuit seeking internal BART documents that had been kept secret about what happened that night on the BART train. They used a new law in California that allows for release of records of police misconduct. A major internal study BART had commissioned of what happened at Fruitvale Station was released to the public for the first time.

The report is significantly redacted, but it reveals important things about the case, the murderous role of the police on the scene, and how the system went about covering this up. One key point exposes that Mehserle knew full well he was drawing his gun. In his trial, a key point of his legal defense was that he didn’t know he had drawn his gun, that he got confused and thought he was drawing his taser instead, so, the lie went, shooting Oscar was not intentional. This had real influence on why he was convicted of manslaughter (which means in part that he did not intend to kill) instead of murder. At the time, many people exposed Mehserle’s claim about the taser as ridiculous, as the revolver and the taser are very different, feel very different, and were in holsters on opposite sides of his body. Now, BART’s internal investigation, which was written before his trial, says what everybody who saw the videos at the time already knew:

“The conclusion can be made from a close viewing of the enhanced video that he [Mehserle] was intending to pull his firearm and not his Taser....” And: “[Mehserle] can be seen trying to draw it at least two times and on the final occasion, can be seen looking back at his hand on the gun/holster to watch the gun come out....”

The report draws the conclusion: “at the time of the shooting the video clearly depicts Oscar Grant with two hands on his back in a handcuffed position. Deadly force was not justified under the circumstances.” This was cold-blooded, intentional murder.

The report also exposes the consistent and systematic way BART and the BART police cover up their brutality. For example, Mehserle had six use-of-force incidents reported in the year before he killed Oscar. The report said that this constituted “ample warning signs of an impending problem.” Yet nothing was done to address this “impending problem,” and Mehserle remained on the force. And of course these “incidents” were hidden from the public. The report talks about how hiding these kinds of [use-of-force incident] reports—including complaints of brutality from the public—is the rule. They are not revealed unless they are found to be “unjustifiable,” which, according to the report, had NEVER happened in the history of the BART police. Meanwhile, throughout the huge battle over his murder, Oscar’s previous police records were “leaked” to the press.

A big claim of the defenders of Oscar’s murder was that Oscar and his friends were “thugs” and that they caused a fight on BART and the police had to use force to deal with that. The newly released report demolishes that story, especially when it goes into the role of BART officer Pirone. Pirone, along with his partner, was the first BART cop on the scene at Fruitvale Station. Pirone claimed that Oscar attacked him. But the report noted that the “video reveals a different story,” saying: “Pirone approached Grant, grabbed hold of him and pushed him against the wall ... he [then] appears to have struck him one time in the head or facial area.” He is on tape and in the report calling Oscar the N word. Pirone also “kneed Grant in the face,” which the officer did not report, and an autopsy revealed Oscar suffered a hemorrhage. Everyone who looked carefully at the videos at the time could see what Pirone did. But here we have BART’s own official internal investigation summing up the role that Pirone played. BART claims that this report led to Pirone’s firing, and so their hands are clean. But that is just a further cover-up and a further example of the way the system protects its pigs. Pirone never faced any legal charges at all even though he went on a racist rampage and brutally assaulted Oscar and the people who were with Oscar, and this had everything to do with Mehserle pulling the trigger.

What all this points to is that even though this was a famous case that went viral, was shaped by powerful mass protest in the streets, was made into a very good and important movie—and was one of the rare cases in which a cop who killed someone actually went to jail—STILL, the system hid key facts that showed that this was cold-blooded murder, AND hid key facts that showed that Mehserle had a history of using force. You can see in this how the system operated to defend police murder and gave Mehserle the lightest sentence possible. You can see how this points to the deeper reality that without getting rid of the SYSTEM of capitalism and white supremacy, we cannot put an end to police brutality and murder. As Bob Avakian put it:

The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and the order that enforces all this oppression and madness.

—BAsics 1:24

Oscar Grant

Questions on Facebook’s Censorship and Banning

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

Editor's Note: We received this letter from a reader, and thought it important to share as part of the necessary discussion—and food for thought—on the recent permanent banning of individuals from Facebook's platform, and to explore and understand its potential implications. While there are many new questions in terms of the advent of social media as sources and platforms for sharing news, information and opinion, and this merits further grappling, the precedents being set right now are potentially very dangerous and need to be opposed, as we monitor further developments.

On Thursday, May 2, Facebook, the largest social network in the world, banned Alex Jones, of Infowars, a white-supremacist conspiracy-spewing website, and its contributor Paul Watson; Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan who has been known to traffic in anti-Semitism; Milo Yiannopoulos, a fascist provocateur who has a history of white-supremacy; anti-Muslim provocateur Laura Loomer; and Paul Hehlen, neo-Nazi, self-described "pro-white" congressional candidate who ran against Paul Ryan in 2016. This follows the earlier banning of the official pages of white-supremacist and fascist groups spewing conspiracies and “fake news” like Infowars and Nation in Distress.

A Facebook spokesperson said in a statement on May 2, “We’ve always banned individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology. The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.” Facebook's stated criteria are vague and broad, and leave room for tremendous abuse.

While the propagated views and rhetoric of the individuals banned on May 2 are odious and harmful, and are mainly white-supremacist and/or anti-Semitic, the fact is that Facebook also at different times banned or suspended progressive groups and individuals from Black Lives Matter, advocates against police brutality as well as supporters of RefuseFascism.org.

All this poses a number of inter-related and immediate questions:

• What does it mean that while Facebook has historically promoted itself as an “open platform” attempting to become the world’s digital public square with enormous reach and influence, it has increasingly been policing and censoring content on this platform, assigning itself the power of judge and arbiter of who is—and who is not—allowed into this public square on an ongoing permanent basis?
• This assumes concentrated manifestation in the banning of Louis Farrakhan. News articles attribute this to anti-Semitism. Farrakhan has in fact trafficked in deplorable and horrific anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and is reactionary as shown on revcom.us, but he has not, to my understanding, incited specific acts of violence against individuals recently, nor has Facebook provided any evidence of this. This starts narrowing who can be allowed into “the public square.” How is this related to historic and current attempts to criminalize a whole range of groups that have opposed or seem to oppose white supremacy, from one standpoint or another?
• How does this relate to the fact that one of the biggest purveyors of violence in the world—historically and at present—is the U.S. government? Or that one of the biggest purveyors of “hate” in the world is the occupant of the highest office of the land, concentrating the white supremacy, xenophobia and misogyny of this society? To my knowledge, these have not been banned permanently from Facebook, raising real questions about their professed criteria.
• What is the relationship between this move and the larger context of the rise of fascism and the increasing criminalization of dissent and protest? The fascist Trump/Pence regime is calling for protest to be penalized with harsh sentences, backing laws in multiple jurisdictions, and is threatening to pass laws that penalize universities heavily if reactionary and fascist protesters are not allowed to speak or are driven off campus by student and other protest.

While this particular move by Facebook may in some ways be seen as a counter-current since the main people currently being banned are white supremacists who are supporters of the fascist regime, its precedent is likely to reverberate and redound against genuinely progressive and radical ideas, ideas and ideology that Facebook and others can designate and declare as “promoting or engaging” in “violence and hate.”

These and other related questions demand attention as this unfolds.

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

May 6, 2019 | revcom.us

Every week, revcom.us 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.