They Are Coming for the Immigrants... and What the Hell Are People Doing?!?

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

As we write this, the utterly illegitimate ICE—the special federal police force that acts against immigrants—has begun raiding the houses of hundreds and possibly thousands of immigrants around the U.S., aiming to deport them as quickly as possible. This comes on top of the 80,000 immigrants already locked up by the Trump/Pence regime, including the thousands being kept in utterly inhumane conditions on the border.

Some, but not enough, have seen the clips of what goes on at the border. The horror of the children screaming for their parents, and their parents not knowing where their children are but only that they are being tormented, sickened and possibly killed, will now be expanded to a whole other level. Now yet other children, those born here “legally,” will still find their parents torn from them. They will either be seized by ICE or else left to fend for themselves.

What Kind of World IS This?

In the world we need—in the world that is actually possible—those hit by environmental and social disaster would NOT be made into pariahs, confined as if in prison and then tortured if they dare try to leave that prison. No! They would be given the aid of their fellow humans, and then made part of working to figure out how to solve the disaster. Again, the means exist to do this in this highly developed and interconnected world.

Yet what do we see instead? The ascension to power all over the world of the most repressive elements of an already-oppressive system—of fascists—who make these policies even more nightmarish. If this were the plot of a science fiction movie or video game, it would be criticized for being too obvious and heavy-handed. Yet it is not fiction at all, but the reality that billions are being forced to live... and hundreds of millions are complicit in. What stands between what is actually possible and badly needed, and what is actually going on is: THIS CAPITALIST-IMPERIALIST SYSTEM. And what we need to do—the only solution—is to get rid of this system.

Bob Avakian (BA), the leader of the revolution, has said that the orientation of the revolution we need and are fighting for is that we would welcome everyone to this country who wants to build a new world. This is given substance in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which BA authored. This solution must be made known to millions, and thousands must be organized right now into this, and this is covered elsewhere on this site.

Needed: Massive Resistance

At the same time, and also very immediately, there is an urgent need for massive and sustained resistance by all kinds of people to the doubling down of this outrageous offensive. The planned raids that began this weekend should be and must be actively resisted, and anyone with a beating heart and functioning conscience should be part of that. The spirit and content of the actions taken last week—especially by those Jewish groups who put something on the line and said NEVER AGAIN—should be learned from and taken further.

Some of this began with actions on Friday and Saturday. While thousands came out, to all appearances this did not come close to matching the outpouring of a year ago. Yet things have gotten worse since then. Trump has not only not relented, he has redoubled his offensive. And the Democrats just recently went along with this, registering some verbal outrage but approving the money for ICE that makes these raids possible.

The question must be posed sharply to people: What the hell are you thinking? Why are you NOT acting?

At this point, to sit on your hands and hope for the Democrats to “do something” is complicit. The leaders of the Democratic Party—including very prominently Fuck Schumer and Nancy Piglosi—are neck-deep in these crimes, having presided over the funding of ICE with barely any restrictions and uniting with fascists to do so. As for the two dozen candidates mumbling out of both sides of their mouth, this is BEB (bourgeois electoral bullshit)! They have no answers to what is going down and still less to the horror that is looming, because they are locked within the requirements and terms of—and will defend right down to the end—the same capitalist-imperialist system that the fascists now run.

Yet not only do we need hundreds of thousands and millions in the streets around this outrage. This badly needed resistance should and must be built as part of a fight to drive out this fascist regime, through sustained, nonviolent resistance, day after day, night after night, with the same resilience and focus now on display in Hong Kong and Sudan. This is the mission of Refuse Fascism, which has been out in these protests while it fights to build this larger, and urgently needed movement, against the whole regime.

And yet... there is still not anything close to what is needed. So we ask our readers: Why are people NOT acting? How do we solve this problem? To quote the old song, there are “lives in the balance”... and even more. Write to us (at revolution.reports@yahoo.com) with your thinking and experience on this.

 

 

Bob Avakian's Answer to People Who Complain about Immigrants Crossing Borders

Watch BA’s whole speech, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution

What Happened Last Week: Protests Around the U.S. and World Condemn Crimes Against Immigrants

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Chicago, Photo: AP

 

On Saturday, July 13, between 5,000 and 10,000 people rallied and marched through the streets of downtown Chicago against the impending immigration raids, demanding “end criminalization, detention, and deportations.” Over a hundred groups organized or supported the rally, which included state Democratic politicians and many immigrants and children of immigrants. An 11-year-old described what it is like to live without her father, who was deported when she was 3. After the rally, the protesters marched to ICE headquarters.

On Friday, July 12, people in locations across the U.S. and the world (over 800, according to some reports) stepped out in protest against the Trump/Pence regime’s assaults on immigrants and new ICE terror raids, and in particular ICE concentration camps for children. The day of action was called by the Lights for Liberty coalition, which said the goal of the protests was to bring people “to concentration camps across the country, into the streets and into their own front yards, to protest the inhumane conditions faced by migrants.”

Protests took place in large cities like New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Philadelphia, as well as smaller cities and towns such as Gadsden, Alabama; Cody, Wyoming; Alpharetta, Georgia; Des Moines, Iowa; and Olympia, Washington. People mobilized by Refuse Fascism were an active part in the protests in various cities. There were small protests in Mexico, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Haiti, and other countries as well.

The July 12 protests included the following:

• Aurora, Colorado: 2,000 people rallied outside an ICE concentration camp and demanded it close. An American flag flying at the facility was pulled down and replaced with a Mexican flag.

• Phoenix, Arizona: 1,500 people protested at an ICE center, and some were arrested when they marched into a street and allegedly blocked traffic and stopped the light-rail train.

• Homestead, Florida: Some 2,000 people rallied outside a large detention camp in southern Florida that holds “unaccompanied minors,” demanding “shut it down!”

• New York City: From 1,000 to 2,000 gathered at Foley Square in Manhattan, near a facility where hundreds of detained immigrants are “processed” each day. Among those speaking was a rabbi who said, “There cannot be a Shabbat Shalom (a sabbath of peace) when there are kids in cages.”

• Houston, Texas: 600 to 700 people surrounded the entrance to a child detention center. A report from a Refuse Fascism activist said, “People were pissed off and there was a lot of heartfelt desire to do something to stop this nightmare...”

• Los Angeles: There were more than 20 vigils and other protests in the L.A. area. They included a crowd of 400 outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A.; a vigil at the San Bernardino office of Department of Homeland Security; and 300 people at the Sherman Oaks Galleria in the San Fernando Valley.

• Chicago: Hundreds gathered at the Federal Plaza downtown and marched to the ICE offices in downtown Chicago, and there were smaller protests in different suburban areas.

• Owensboro, Kentucky: Dozens gathered for a candlelight vigil, where organizers had a photo display of the horrible conditions the children and other immigrants face in the ICE camps.

• Washington, DC: Hundreds gathered, including a large American Federation of Teachers contingent that marched in chanting “classrooms, not cages!”

• Montclair, New Jersey: Hundreds came together at a church for an event that included testimonials from children in detention centers and a singing of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

Other protests that took place in the same week included:

• San Francisco: Thursday evening, hundreds protested in front of the San Francisco ICE headquarters, condemning the coming ICE raids. An organizer for the Arab Resource and Organizing Center said, “When you come after one of us, you come after all of us.”

• New York City: On the same day, hundreds protested outside Amazon’s Web Services summit demanding Amazon cut ties with ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. Amazon plans to host Homeland Security's biometric databases, which provide all kinds of facial recognition technology to track down—and hunt down—immigrants.

• On Wednesday afternoon, six people were arrested after refusing to end their sit-in at Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s Philadelphia office, demanding that he apologize for three million immigrants deported under Obama while Biden was vice president. And in Des Moines, Iowa, 50 women mobilized at the office of the Republican senator Joni Ernst to demand an end to the inhuman treatment of migrant children.

• In Germany, in the eastern city of Leipzig, 500 protesters fought last week with police in an effort to stop the deportation of an immigrant man, believed to be from Syria. People threw stones and bottles at the police.

• On July 12, hundreds of undocumented immigrants stormed the famous Pantheon monument in Paris, France, to call attention to their situation and demand legal status. The protesters—many from countries in West Africa—called themselves the “Black Vests” (widespread anti-government protests earlier this year in France were known as the “Yellow Vests” after the yellow jackets they wore).

Las Vegas Photo: AP

New York City, Photo: @wamganniej

The crowd waves to those stuck in the detention center. The message is received. #Lights4Liberty pic.twitter.com/Am8FmyVEOE

— Andrew Kimmel (@andrewkimmel) July 13, 2019

Protesters gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA

Philadelphia, Photo: AP

Houston

Madrid, Spain (Photo: Miguel Angel López-González)

A correspondence from Andy Zee:

A Salute and Challenge to the Professors and All Who Care About Justice and Humanity:

NOW is the time to speak out against the Trump/Pence Regime and to ACT together to DRIVE IT OUT!

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

We are at a perilous moment... fascist movements and regimes are advancing around the world. At the apex of this is the Trump/Pence regime here in the most powerful superpower. The stakes of recognizing that what the world faces in this regime is an American fascism and the urgent necessity to drive out this regime are nothing less than the future of humanity—either through the devastation of the environment or through the heightened danger of nuclear war in pursuit of the Trump/Pence regime’s America First program.

Right now, seeing 80,000+ people—refugees and immigrants—detained in horrific conditions including in massive makeshift tent prisons, caged outdoors under bridges, or in warehouses retrofitted with fenced-in pens with people sleeping on the floor, and most shockingly, with children separated from parents and held in cages, is torture and has shocked the consciences of millions.

In response to this, analogies to the concentration camps of the Holocaust as well as to other present and historical examples of fascism have been aptly made.

Outrageously and harmfully, the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC issued a statement that said such analogies “demean” and “disrespect” the Jewish people murdered in the Nazi Holocaust and those who survived. And that such analogies take away from people learning the lessons of that catastrophe by simplifying and flattening the history. NO. The “simple” here is profound. The museum’s position is obfuscating bullshit and does harm. Aside from acting as the proprietors of the crime and horrors of the Holocaust, this position undermines the urgent necessity to learn from the past to meet the urgent danger of the present.

THE MUSEUM’S WAS NOT THE LAST WORD... thankfully. Mostly young Jewish activists have put their bodies on the line in protest at immigrant detention centers around the country, putting forward the slogan from the Holocaust experience: NEVER AGAIN!

And of real import for all who see the need to stop this juggernaut of fascism, 580 professors signed a very important statement sharply criticizing the position of the National Holocaust Museum.

I want to highlight two points from their letter to the directors of the Museum:

The very core of Holocaust education is to alert the public to dangerous developments that facilitate human rights violations and pain and suffering; pointing to similarities across time and space is essential for this task....

We are not only scholars. We are global citizens who participate in public discourse, as does the Museum as an institution, and its staff. We therefore consider it essential that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum reverse its position on careful historical analysis and comparison. We hope the Museum continues to help scholars establish the Holocaust’s significance as an event from which the world must continue to learn.

There is a great need for more people, including professionals from many different fields of endeavor, to recognize that they are not only their professional selves, but responsible to humanity including as representatives of different fields—academia, science, the arts, law, medicine, etc. NOW IS A MOMENT TO SPEAK OUT COLLECTIVELY—against what the Trump/Pence regime is doing... and also against every attempt to stifle discussion and debate over the nature of what we face with the Trump/Pence regime and what must be done in response.

To the professors who signed this letter of refutation and demand that the Holocaust Museum change its position, I not only want to salute your letter but to challenge you about two important things that should be of concern if you are to be consistent and responsible in your stand.

First, there exists the most thorough and popular discussion of the nature of the Trump/Pence regime and how and why this fascist regime has come to power in the U.S. and what is to be done about it, in the film of a talk by Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism,titled: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible! Watch it. Do not turn away because the idea of watching a talk by a revolutionary communist leader makes you uncomfortable, or because you think you already know it. I have read many of your books, and while there are many important insights, none go to the historical roots and where this could all lead in the way Avakian does in this film. If you teach: assign it or show it to your students; you would do a disservice to not do so. And, I have a further challenge: while in this particular talk Bob Avakian does not go into the revolution we need and the radically new society that is envisioned in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which he authored, go there next—surely you would want to see if there really is a far better alternative to this system that brought forth a Donald Trump and Mike Pence as a part of its normal workings.

Second, there is an organization, RefuseFascism.org, which I was a part of initiating, that has a cogent and compelling Call to Act that puts forth a sharp, compelling analysis that what we face is fascism and not the worst, most extreme swing of the pendulum. It advocates for, and it is organizing for:

A different kind of protest. We need to organize now for the time when we can launch massive, sustained nonviolent protests in the streets of cities and towns across the country—protests that continue day after day and don’t stop, creating the kind of political situation in which the demand that the Trump/Pence regime be removed from power is met.

This is not mysterious. Look at Hong Kong and many other countries just within the past decade.

I conclude this letter with how the Refuse Fascism Call to Act ends, which pertains to what moved professors to make their statement and really to everyone who cares about justice and humanity—from those of us who believe that a future fit for humanity lies in a revolution to bring about a far better system or whether you believe that this system can be made to achieve that better world. We write:

We must confront the reality that the world as we have known it is being torn asunder. This requires getting out of our comfort zones and not allowing our differences to stand in the way of rising together in an unprecedented, unrelenting mass struggle to confront the danger of a Trump/Pence fascist America.

WE PLEDGE that we will not stand aside while there is still a chance to stop a regime that imperils humanity and the earth itself. Join us. Let’s stand together with conviction and courage, overcoming fear and uncertainty, to struggle with all we’ve got to demand: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go.

Andy Zee (spokesperson Revolution Books; co-initiator RefuseFascism.org)

 

Detention Center, Weslaco, Texas, June 11, 2019. Photo: Office of Inspector General, Dept of Homeland Security

America—the Lying, Deal-Breaking Aggressor in the Persian Gulf

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear agreement with the U.S. and five other world powers (China, Russia, France, Germany, and Britain).¹ During his campaign, Trump denounced the deal and in May 2018, after becoming president, he withdrew the U.S. from the agreement. Since then, the U.S. has sharply escalated its punitive sanctions, military deployments and threats of war against Iran.²

After the U.S. unilaterally pulled out and imposed sanctions, Iran continued to abide by the agreement and its terms. Then early this month, it announced it had stepped up its uranium enrichment and had exceeded some of the limits placed on it by the 2015 nuclear deal.

The U.S.—in an act and with the rhetoric of gangster-logic hypocrisy—reacted with outrage, denouncing Iran for not abiding by the nuclear agreement—as if Iran is the deal-breaking aggressor here, and not the U.S.! Trump threatened Iran it had “better be careful” and that it was “playing with fire.” The bourgeois media, by and large, never clearly refutes this lie and sets the record straight for the public.

Instead of this upside-down view, let’s look at the reality:

First, in 2015 the U.S. and its allies forced Iran to sign this treaty through sanctions and military threats. The deal they imposed was seen as benefiting the world’s big powers, particularly the U.S. Iran, headed by reactionary theocrats, would radically cut back its nuclear enrichment program and allow the most intrusive inspections in history in return for the lifting of sanctions and more normalized trade and investments, as part of the global capitalist-imperialist system.

Iran kept its word and upheld its end of the deal. America did neither, keeping with its founding principles and ethos, and its long and genocidal history of breaking every treaty it entered into with the Native peoples.

In 2017, the fascist Trump/Pence regime broke the treaty by withdrawing from it and re-imposing sanctions, which were supposed to be lifted. Then it bullied other countries into breaking the deal—and potentially gutting the whole agreement—by threatening them with sanctions if they honored the nuclear agreement’s promise of increased investment and trade with Iran!³

Now as Iran starts increasing its uranium enrichment since the treaty is no longer binding with the U.S. having broken it, the U.S. turns around and denounces Iran’s move as “nuclear extortion.” This, even though it is Trump and the U.S. that are threatening Iran with “obliteration”—in other words, a nuclear holocaust! (Note: the U.S. has thousands of nukes, Iran has zero.)

On July 1, the U.S. imperialists took their history and gangster-logic of mega, up-is-down and left-is-right lying to a whole new level. The White House issued a statement claiming, “There is little doubt that even before the deal’s existence, Iran was violating its terms.”⁴ How is it possible to violate a deal before there even is a deal?? What outrageous, twisted lie will these monsters come up with next to justify their monstrous crimes?

So who’s the lying, double-crossing, deal-breaking, war-threatening aggressor in the Persian Gulf? AMERICA...No one else!!

The U.S.’s sanctions are having a punishing effect on the people of Iran (see accompanying box on sanctions). The U.S.’s military moves are ratcheting up the threats of war, a war that would be devastating and catastrophic in its death and devastation.⁵

The Democrats Are a Party of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity

Where is the outrage and opposition to all this from the Democrats? Some have introduced resolutions in Congress demanding Trump consult with them before waging war with Iran (which have gone nowhere). But let’s look at the position of two of their leading lights:

First, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate: When the nuclear deal was first struck in 2015, Schumer opposed it and voted against it. He said that the agreement was not severe, intrusive and punitive enough against Iran on the nuclear aspects—and on the non-nuclear aspect of extending its influence in the region, Iran would “redouble its efforts to create even more trouble in the Middle East, and perhaps, beyond”—imperialist “double-speak” for contending and competing with U.S. interests.⁶

This is exactly the argument, logic and rationale of the fascist Trump/Pence regime in breaking this deal!⁷

Second, Cory Booker, one of the 24 #BEB Democratic candidates for president: When asked in a recent debate whether he would rejoin the deal, Booker answered: “We need to renegotiate and get back into a deal, but I’m not going to have a primary platform to say unilaterally I’m going to rejoin that deal. Because when I’m president of the United States, I’m going to do the best I can to secure this country and that region and make sure that if I have an opportunity to leverage a better deal, I’m going to do it.” [Emphasis added]

Again, this is a key dimension of what is now being done by the fascist Trump/Pence regime with its deadly sanctions and economic warfare against Iran, forcing it to bend to a “better deal” with Trump and the U.S.—even while the threat of open all-out war remains a looming, constant and intensifying danger.

What about the other leading Democrats? Are they loudly telling the truth about what’s taking place—that the U.S. is the lawless, war-mongering aggressor and treaty breaker here? NO! Are they demanding that the sanctions, which—by their scale, scope and nature of their effects on the Iranian people—are a crime against humanity, be ended right now? NO! Are they demanding that people massively protest against these unjust, murderous, and extremely dangerous moves? NO!

Instead, they agree with Trump that U.S. imperialism has the right to dominate the Middle East, or in Booker’s words “secure the region”—and the world—and that Iran is creating problems for it—it’s just that Trump isn’t dealing with this problem in the most effective way!⁸

In the face of these horrific sanctions and escalating war threats, as we have written previously, it is even more critical that:

All moves and actions the U.S. is undertaking in the Middle East, from economic to open warfare, be resolutely opposed by people in this country.... AT WHAT POINT DO YOU SAY “ENOUGH!”? This is a question—of morality, of humanity—to be asked of all.... [What it will take] for people to do what is needed, to stop relying on the Democrats, to act, to step outside the “normal channels”?

Communists must go further and instill in people a sense that not only are the interests of the U.S. rulers NOT our interests, but the best possible outcome would be a defeat for the U.S. in whatever unjust military action it undertook.⁹ At the same time, people need to question... why does this system wage war over and over and over...what will it take to end America’s unending wars...and what is their responsibility in the face of this—including to repudiate American patriotism and to do all they can to end this scourge on humanity?¹⁰

---

1. See “U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal: 6 Points of Orientation,” revcom.us, 7/20/15 [back]

2. “Iran Downs U.S. Drone...U.S. Attack Reportedly Called Off: Trump’s “Restraint” Masks Heightened Danger of Devastating U.S. War against Iran...” revcom.us, June 24, 2019; “How Long Must This Go On? Tankers Damaged in Persian Gulf—America Again Ratchets Up Threats, Danger of War Against Iran,” revcom.us, June 17, 2019 [back]

3. And this isn’t the half of it.  The 2015 agreement contains provisions entitling Iran to resume enrichment if another party or parties to the agreement violate it.  And according to a former Carter administration official, Gary Sick, because the Iran deal was ratified by the UN Security Council it constitutes “accepted international law,” which the U.S. is breaking.  The U.S. has also even “tried to prevent Iran from complying with it by preventing other countries from purchasing [Iran’s] excess fissile material, thereby forcing Iran to exceed the limits of the agreement.” [back]

4. “Statement from the Press Secretary,” issued July 1, 2019 [back]

5. “Iran Downs U.S. Drone...U.S. Attack Reportedly Called Off: Trump’s “Restraint” Masks Heightened Danger of Devastating U.S. War against Iran...” [back]

6. Senator Charles E. Schumer, “My Position on the Iran Deal,” August 6, 2015 [back]

7. “Mike Pompeo speech: What are the 12 demands given to Iran?” Al Jazeera, May 21, 2018; “Pompeo Issues Ultimatum to Iran: Only America Can Have Troops in Syria, Bully Iraq, Bomb Yemen, Support Reactionary Thugs, Wield Nukes, and Dominate the Middle East!” revcom.us, May 28, 2018 [back]

8. Meanwhile, the Democrats are busy supporting Trump's tariffs and other imperialist moves and war-like threats against China!  At the first Democratic “debate,” many of the contenders energetically joined with Trump in calling China one of the gravest “national security” threats the U.S. faces.  And Democrat leader Schumer recently counseled Trump to "hang tough on China" because "strength is the only way to win with China." [back]

9. This is the principle of revolutionary defeatism. “Revolutionary defeatism means that, for people in an imperialist country—or in any country where the government is carrying out an unjust war, a war of domination and plunder, a reactionary war that serves only to fortify oppression, or to replace one oppressive power with another—you must put special emphasis on opposing your own government in that war, even if the enemy of your government in that war is equally reactionary. It means that you must refuse to support your government in such a war and, beyond that, you must have a basic orientation of welcoming the setbacks and defeats of your government and making use of them to build opposition to your government and its reactionary war, in accordance with and guided by the objective of making revolution right within your own country and contributing all you can to the international revolutionary struggle. But revolutionary defeatism does not mean that you should actually support the enemy of your government if that enemy and the war it is waging is equally reactionary. Obviously, this can be complicated, and in order to correctly apply this orientation it is necessary to make a concrete analysis of the concrete situation while remaining firmly grounded in basic principle." Bob Avakian, from "The New Situation and Great Challenges." [back]

10. Watch Bob Avakian’s Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution [back]

Case #14: Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico... And America's Genocidal Response

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Bob Avakian has written that one of three things that has “to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better: People have to fully confront the actual history of this country and its role in the world up to today, and the terrible consequences of this.” (See “3 Things that have to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better.”)

In that light, and in that spirit, “American Crime” is a regular feature of revcom.us. Each installment focuses on one of the 100 worst crimes committed by the U.S. rulers—out of countless bloody crimes they have carried out against people around the world, from the founding of the U.S. to the present day.

THE CRIME

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria, with maximum winds of 175 mph, tore through the Caribbean, causing massive death and destruction. Puerto Rico, an island nation of over three million people, took a direct hit.

Around two dozen people died as a direct result of the storm—drowned by flood waters, hit by flying debris, or crushed by falling trees. But in the days, weeks, and months after the storm, thousands more would die, hundreds of thousands would endure great suffering, and the entire economic, educational, and social infrastructure of Puerto Rico would be severely and permanently degraded. Almost all of that was completely un-necessary; it was the result of deliberate inaction by the U.S. government and its refusal to organize a serious rescue and recovery effort for Puerto Rico.

From the first day it was clear that this was an unprecedented disaster for this poor, oppressed country. A spokesperson for Puerto Rico’s governor said, “This is total devastation. Puerto Rico, in terms of the infrastructure, will not be the same. This is something of historic proportions.”¹ A few days later, the mayor of Manatí broke down in tears, reporting that the whole town had run out of food and water. “We need someone to help us immediately.”²

So what did the U.S. do to help Puerto Rico—a U.S. territory which it is legally and morally responsible to aid? Almost NOTHING. Day after day, week after week, month after month, the U.S.—the richest and most powerful country in the world, capable of rapidly deploying thousands of soldiers half way around the world to wage war—went through the motions of organizing aid for hurricane victims, while providing almost no meaningful relief.

For almost a week U.S. president Donald Trump didn’t even say anything about the storm.³ There were no cabinet meetings to organize aid. No mobilization of utility workers to repair the electrical grid.⁴ No helicopters to bring desperately needed food, water, and other supplies to isolated parts of the island. No effort to provide safe housing for hundreds of thousands living without roofs or without homes at all. No shipments of urgently needed medicine.

Two thousand FEMA workers who were prepositioned in the capital of San Juan, lacking any leadership, mainly stayed in the Convention Center and gave people paperwork to apply for future help. (Eventually FEMA’s numbers grew to 10,000, but they remained largely useless.)⁵

Six days after the storm, a journalist wrote in the Washington Post that “I’ve yet to see a National Guard, FEMA, Red Cross or federal vehicle anywhere on the Island.”⁶

A week after the storm, only 11 out of its 69 hospitals had any electric power.⁷ A children’s hospital in San Juan reported that children on ventilators were in imminent danger of dying because fuel was running out.⁸

Nine days after the storm, 55 percent of the Puerto Rican people did not have drinkable water and 95 percent of the people were still without power (U.S. DOD).⁹ The Miami Herald reported that “bodies are piling up at the morgues of the 69 hospitals in Puerto Rico, of which 70 percent are not operating,” and that people were burying their dead in their backyards because they had no way to transport them to a morgue.¹⁰ The mayor of San Juan tweeted: “We are dying here.... If we don’t get the food and water into people’s hands what we are going to see is something close to a genocide.”¹¹ (Emphasis added.)

Two weeks after the storm, a U.S. hospital ship arrived, providing many photo ops and giving tours to journalists, but making no organized effort to get sick people there for treatment—the ship admitted an average of six patients a day!¹² The respected aid organization Oxfam furiously condemned “the slow and inadequate response the US Government has mounted in Puerto Rico.... The US has more than enough resources to mobilize an emergency response but has failed to do so...” (Emphasis added.)¹³

The next day, medical journalist Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote that “For want of insulin, blood pressure medications and antibiotics, things widely available at any neighborhood pharmacy in the US mainland, people in Puerto Rico will die—are dying—preventable deaths.” He concluded, “When you hear the death toll has increased from the current official number of 16, know that most every additional death need not have happened. They were preventable.” (Emphasis added.)¹⁴

Three weeks after the storm, 84 percent of the people still had no electricity, one-third did not have safe drinking water, and only about half the island’s hospitals had reliable power.¹⁵ Five thousand dialysis patients had their life-saving treatments reduced by 25 percent.¹⁶

Two months after the storm, over 750,000 homes and businesses were still totally without power,¹⁷ and the failure of a main line knocked out power temporarily for 80 percent of the population. Over 250,000 damaged or destroyed roofs were yet to be repaired,¹⁸ and FEMA bragged about providing 42,000 tarps to cover them.¹⁹ An unprecedented mental health crisis developed, with growing numbers hospitalized due to suicidal or homicidal thoughts. Doctors described the situation as “post-apocalyptic.”²⁰

100 days after the storm, half the population was still without power.²¹ Two hundred thousand Puerto Ricans—over six percent of the population—had left the island because of the intolerable conditions.²²

Even one year after the storm, tens of thousands still lacked any power and the electric grid was subject to frequent blackouts; 40,000 people were still using tarps for roofs.²³ Only 40 percent of people who had applied to FEMA for aid had received any help, and nearly half of all applications were denied outright.²⁴

And still today, 21 months after the storm, the electrical grid barely functions, tens of thousands of homes have not been repaired, little replacement housing has been built, and Puerto Rico is still considered extremely vulnerable to future (inevitable) hurricanes.

Aid promised to Puerto Rico fell far short of the $90 billion needed for reconstruction. And even most of that was never received. For instance, in April 2018, Congress “authorized” almost $20 billion in aid, but as of March 2019 (11 months later) only $14 thousand of that had been delivered to Puerto Rico, due mainly to obstruction from the Trump administration.²⁵

And all through this, the U.S., backed by its loyal government, headed by Governor Ricardo Rosselló, in San Juan, sought to minimize the emergency by claiming a tiny death toll—first of 16, then 18, and finally settling on 64 deaths, which they insisted on for 11 months, even as numerous experts studying the situation—as well as the masses themselves—estimated vastly more deaths due to storm-related causes like heat stroke, lack of medicine, sepsis, kidney failure, and on and on.

Finally, on August 28, 2018, the Puerto Rican government acknowledged 2,975 “excess deaths”—people who had died as a result of the storm—in the first five months after Maria hit.²⁶

THE CRIMINALS

President William McKinley, who ordered the conquest of Puerto Rico in 1898, and future president Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt, who rushed to participate in these U.S. wars of conquest (in Cuba) and build his political career as a virulent American chauvinist.

Every single subsequent U.S. administration, which, while varying in specific policies, all kept Puerto Rico as a subordinated colony, source of enrichment for U.S. capital, and a military testing base (on the island of Vieques), while repressing resistance to this status.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Ricardo “Ricky” Rosselló, who has acted as a craven lackey of Trump throughout the crisis, echoing his claims that the U.S. did a great job, maintaining the lie that only 64 people died in the storm, and providing cover for Trump and the U.S. government

Donald Trump, who spearheaded his administration’s “America First” genocidal policy of refusing to provide relief as Puerto Ricans were dying, while blatantly lying about the situation and promoting vicious white supremacist, fascistic contempt for and cruelty toward the Puerto Rican people.

THE ALIBI

There were and are two different but related excuses from the Trump regime for this unnecessary humanitarian catastrophe.

On one level, Trump denied that there was even a problem, insisting that hardly anyone had died even as the real death toll was climbing rapidly. “It’s been incredible,” Trump told CNN nine days after the storm. “The results that we’ve had with respect to loss of life. People can’t believe how successful that has been, relatively speaking.”²⁷ On October 3, he showed up in San Juan, declaring it “a great day” for Puerto Rico, and tossing rolls of paper towels into a crowd, mocking the true desperation of the people.

More fundamentally, Trump blamed Puerto Rico and its people, and did so in terms that dripped with racism. On September 30, he tweeted that the real problem was that “They want everything to be done for them...” Soon he began complaining, “We can’t keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders in P.R. forever.” Even a year later, he railed that Puerto Ricans “only take from the USA.”²⁸

THE REAL MOTIVE

Hurricane Maria was a major natural disaster, the tenth most intense Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. But the humanitarian disaster that killed thousands, caused incredible suffering for millions, and is still playing out in Puerto Rico resulted from two things.

First, the un-natural devastation caused by U.S. imperialism, under both Democrats and Republicans, over more than a century of domination, since its military conquest and occupation in 1898. So even before Hurricane Maria, 40 percent of Puerto Ricans lived in poverty, the school system was in acute crisis, the aging electrical grid was decaying from lack of maintenance, and Puerto Rico was terribly and unnecessarily vulnerable to a major storm.²⁹

The rise to power of the Trump/Pence regime took this legacy of imperialist domination and plunder to a whole new level as part of an overall white supremacist and fascist agenda for dealing with the sharpening contradictions U.S. imperialism is facing domestically and around the world.

The Trump/Pence regime’s refusal to provide aid to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria—especially in comparison to its much more rapid and well-funded response to hurricane disasters in east Texas and Florida during that same period—was a stark example of its escalation of U.S. predation around the globe, and the genocidal thrust of his “make America white again” agenda.

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1. “Briton dies after boat capsizes during Hurricane Maria,” The Guardian, Sept. 22, 2017. [back]

2. “Crisis grows in Puerto Rico as towns without water, power and phone service,” The Guardian, Sept. 23, 2017. [back]

3. “What every American needs to know about Puerto Rico’s hurricane disaster,” Vox.com, Oct. 5, 2017. [back]

4. In fact, the pro-U.S./ pro-Trump government of Puerto Rico and the PREPA power company it controls declined an offer of assistance from the American Public Power Association (a consortium of utility companies) who were prepared to assist, and instead gave the contract for rebuilding the entire electrical grid to Whitefish Energy, a tiny company in Montana with two employees, no experience on anything like this scale… and strong political connections to the Trump administration and the Republican Party. “Puerto Rico Turns to Unproven Montana Company for Massive Power Restoration Job, But No One Knows Why,” weather.com, Oct. 17, 2017. [back]

5. “Trump’s Response to Hurricane Maria: Deadly, Racist Contempt for the Lives and Dignity of the Puerto Rican People,” revcom.us, Oct. 1, 2017. Also, “When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, ‘everything collapsed simultaneously,’” Washington Post, Oct. 2, 2017: “The U.S. government did not ramp up all of its capabilities until six days had passed.” [back]

6. “Puerto Rico is being treated like a colony after Hurricane Maria,” Julio Ricardo Varela, Washington Post, Sept. 26, 2017. [back]

7. “Problems With Health Care Contributed To Hurricane Maria Death Toll In Puerto Rico,” NPR.org, Feb. 21, 2019. [back]

8. “The Distance Between Donald Trump And Puerto Rico,” The New Yorker, Sept. 27, 2017. [back]

9. “Trump lays blame on Puerto Ricans for slow hurricane response,” Reuters, Sept. 30, 2017. [back]

10. “Hurricane Maria’s death toll in Puerto Rico is higher than the official count, experts say,” Miami Herald, September 28, 2017. [back]

11. “‘Something close to a genocide’: San Juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz begs for more Puerto Rico Relief,” Independent, Sept. 29, 2017. [back]

12. “Amid Puerto Rico Disaster, Hospital Ship Admitted Just 6 Patients a Day,” New York Times, Dec. 6, 2017. [back]

13. “Statement by Oxfam America President Abby Maxman regarding Puerto Rico Hurricane Response,” at Oxfamamerica.org., Oct. 2, 2017. [back]

14. “Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s dire warning on Puerto Rico,” CNN.com, Oct. 3, 2017. [back]

15. “Only 16 percent of Puerto Rico has power 3 weeks after Hurricane Maria,” ABCnews.go.com, Oct.12, 2017. [back]

16. “Puerto Rico’s Health Care Is in Dire Condition, Three Weeks After Maria,” New York Times, Oct. 10, 2017. [back]

17. “Three Months After Maria, Roughly Half of Puerto Ricans Still Without Power,” New York Times, Dec. 29, 2017. [back]

18. “Half of Puerto Rico’s housing was built illegally. Then came Maria,” Miami Herald, Feb. 14, 2018. [back]

19. “Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State of Puerto Rico Luis G. Rivera-Marin: ‘FEMA is a powerful partner in Puerto Rico’s recovery,’” Whitehouse.gov., Oct. 31, 2017. [back]

20. “Doctors in Puerto Rico: ‘Reality here is post-apocalyptic,’” Fox6now.com, Oct. 17, 2019. [back]

21. “100 days after Hurricane Maria, barely half of Puerto Rico has power,” pix11.com, Dec. 29, 2017. [back]

22. “Quick Facts: Hurricane Maria’s Effect on Puerto Rico,” reliefweb.int, Jan. 19, 2018. [back]

23. “One Year After Hurricane Maria, Still Living Under Tarps; Puerto Rico may never recover from the catastrophic storm,” Bloomberg.com, Sept. 20, 2018. [back]

24. “A year after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans rebuild amid setbacks,” by Nicole Acevedo, nbcnews.com, Sept. 18, 2018. [back]

25. “With Hurricane Season Looming, Billions in Disaster Recovery for Puerto Rico Remain Unspent,” The American Prospect, April 15, 2019. [back]

26.  “Puerto Rico’s new Hurricane Maria death toll demands an inquiry into why the truth is only now coming out,” nbcnews.com, Aug. 29, 2018. [back]

27. “Trump’s continued indolent response to Hurricane Maria is our worst fears about him come true,” Vox, Aug. 29, 2018. [back]

28. “White House spokesman twice calls Puerto Rico ‘that country’ in TV interview.” Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2019. [back]

29. For a deeper understanding of this, see “Puerto Rico: 120 Years of Imperialist Exploitation and Oppression,” revcom.us, Oct. 2, 2017. [back]

 

From the first day, after Hurricane Maria hit, it was clear that this was an unprecedented disaster for this poor, oppressed country. (Photo: Amanda Caldero)

People try to cross where a bridge had been wiped out by Hurricane Maria. The entire economic, educational and social infrastructure of Puerto Rico was severely and permanently degraded. Almost all of that was completely unnecessary; it was the result of deliberate inaction by the U.S. government. (Photo: AP)

Two months after the Hurricane Maria, over 750,000 homes and businesses were still totally without power, and the failure of a main line knocked out power temporarily for 80 percent of the population.

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:

 

 

The Revolution Tour Is in NYC—$25,000 Needed in the Month of October

Updated September 30, 2019 | revcom.us

 

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour is now in New York City, boldly breaking onto the scene with the spirit of “You Think You’re Woke... But You’re Sleepwalking Through a Nightmare—This System Cannot Be Reformed, It Must Be Overthrown!” The world is being shaken up on many fronts, and the Tour is taking this message into the midst of these momentous events. A great deal is demanded of these revolutionaries in times like these and funds are urgently needed to support this important work!

Members of the Tour have been out to the high schools and out in the midst of the major outpourings of mainly young people at the Climate Strike saying: “Capitalism Is A Straitjacket On Humanity’s Chance To Save Our Planet... Only A REAL Revolution Can Remove That Straitjacket.” They quickly traveled to Washington, DC, to join with a protest against Trump, and carried a big banner saying “American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People’s Lives!—Bob Avakian” and “NO U.S. War On Iran!”—just as the danger of the Trump regime launching a war against Iran is sharpening. There in DC, members of the Tour attended the important national meeting called by Refuse Fascism to discuss calling people out into the streets in sustained nonviolent protests week after week to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power. In all of this, the Tour has been both uniting with people who are standing up in struggle while putting squarely before people that what is needed is to build a movement for an ACTUAL revolution and calling on people to be a part of this. And in the midst of all this, now some of the Tour volunteers are being called back to Los Angeles where they face grossly unjust charges stemming from standing up against the Trump/Pence regime in 2017 and 2018.

Film showings of the talks by Bob Avakian, The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! and Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution are planned in New York, and the Tour will be getting out in a major way on the campuses very soon.

But all of this can’t be done without raising greater funds right now. For the month of October, there is a need for a minimum of $25,000 to be raised to meet the most basic needs to sustain the volunteers, to print and distribute massive materials, to travel for trials, to travel to different cities on the East Coast—everywhere bringing out the message of the Tour in what promise to be turbulent times where this is needed more than ever.

 

“For a World Without Borders” Picnic in an Immigrant Community Raises Funds for the National Revolution Tour

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

A “For a World Without Borders” picnic was held at the end of June in the Mission District, an immigrant community in San Francisco. It was a fundraiser for the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour. The idea for the picnic was put forward by an immigrant woman at a prior fundraising event for the Tour at Revolution Books in Berkeley, in mid-May. She was inspired by the 5-2-6,¹ especially by #3 of the Points of Attention for the Revolution.²

She was energized in pulling together others in her community who had shown interest in the 5-2-6, to figure out concretely the exact time and place for the event and some other aspects of it. A prominent organization of immigrant women decided to co-sponsor and help make it happen, including outreach and preparing food.

The event took place shortly after Trump’s threats to start massive ICE raids. It was very significant that this picnic happened in the face of these threats. Immigrants are in the crosshairs, and targeting them is a linchpin in the drive to consolidate this fascist regime. In the atmosphere of intimidation caused by these threats, the effects on the community can be seen, as vendors who usually crowd the busy streets have disappeared and heavy foot traffic has been a rare occurrence. In this atmosphere, the picnic with its theme “For a World Without Borders” stood out to people in the community as a symbol of resistance as well as a call to fight for a much better world that is possible. It drew support from other progressive individuals in the community. Some came to the event, others donated by buying tickets.

At the event, the immigrant women brought drinks, tortas, pizza, a number of chicken dishes, and chips. Displays around the picnic area included pictures of children who have died in the Border Patrol camps, the 5 STOPS, and 6 Points of Attention in English and Spanish on large sandwich boards, and a special display comparing the Nazi era with today. There were 31 people at this picnic. About half were immigrant women. There were also members of a local progressive church, some supporters of Berkeley’s Revolution Books, immigrant rights activists, members of Refuse Fascism, and others. Community people visiting the park came by to check out the displays and revolutionary literature displayed at a table.

At the beginning people introduced themselves, explaining why they had come, many expressing determination to fight against these attacks on immigrants and condemning the egregious concentration camps across the country.

A statement from an immigrant woman focused on Point 3 of the Points of Attention. In part, she said, “I like these 5 Stops, 2 choices, and 6 points. Number 3 is the reason for which we are facing this terrible situation that is happening in our immigrant community, from all parts of the world, we who find it necessary to emigrate, because of the conditions that were created by this country: wars, famine, depleting our natural resources for them to get better and even though they have acquired so much profit from our countries, they don’t respect us, we are attacked, they lock our children and our families in metal cages, in million-dollar businesses called detention centers, inhuman, that look more like the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Let’s pay attention to what is happening, we can still stop the direction they are going in here in this country and in the whole world where fascist regimes are emerging. Let’s get organized and mobilized, let us not get immobilized, knowing perfectly well that there is fear and persecution directed at our communities and we cannot get used to this nightmare. Let us end all these nightmares.” She also said that Democrats are not the answer, that only through massive, sustained resistance can we drive out the Trump/Pence regime, and that fundamentally we need to get organized for an Actual Revolution.

Another statement came from the immigrant women’s organization that denounced the concentration camps and urged people to fight. There was a presentation by the MC, getting into the 5-2-6 and what the Revolution Tour is all about.

As people ate, there were lively discussions about the 5-2-6 and the National Tour. One woman from Central America who had crossed the border with her children responded to the 5-2-6 saying: “I just hope that all this talk of revolution is not just talk but can actually change the situation. We didn’t bring our children and sacrifice so much to then see our children separated and then die. We came seeking a better life and what we have gotten is this (pointing to her electronic ankle bracelet). I came for a better life for my children.”

There was back-and-forth with some people there about the need for thousands now to get organized for revolution and the crucial role for people like them who were drawn to this to take part in solving the problems of the revolution, to be part of the thousands needed to be organized into it now.

Since some people came from countries in Latin America where often militant reformism is promoted as "revolution," people engaged in "compare and contrast"--that is, comparing and contrasting the difference between that kind of "revolution" and the New Communism that BA has brought forward. One immigrant asked about the difference between the New Communism with what they saw as the shortcomings of the Shining Path’s people’s war in Peru several decades ago.

There were side discussions with immigrants and some middle class people who have been active around Trump/Pence Must Go and opposing the attacks on immigrants. One person was skeptical about the possibility of actually going for revolution and winning. She wasn’t at all familiar with BA’s New Communism and hadn’t read the pamphlet HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution, which she got introduced to.

People were encouraged to seriously study the HOW WE CAN WIN pamphlet and also to get into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. Copies of the pamphlet and a couple of Spanish copies of BAsics were gotten into people’s hands. People raised questions like, is it really possible to get to a situation where you could actually defeat the forces of repression of the U.S.? This was brought up by several people, including by one of the immigrant mothers who spoke about the measures the government is taking to try to keep people under their control.

In all, $469 was raised. One immigrant woman sold $50 worth of tickets. There was money donated by storeowners. Two members of a progressive church donated $200 to the tour, and over 30 donations were made at the picnic.

Towards the end, there was a piñata of Trump. And suddenly over a dozen kids from the rest of the park (mainly Latinos and a few Yemeni kids) appeared. The anger of everyone there, including the young children, was evident in how people attacked the piñata and stomped it once it was on the ground.

At a program and fundraiser for the Revolution Tour held at Revolution Books in Berkeley a week after the picnic, the immigrant woman who initiated the picnic proudly told people about the event and challenged those attending the bookstore program to match the $469 dollars raised. The challenge was met—another $500+ was raised there!

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1. The 5 STOPS, the 2 Choices, and the 6 Points of Attention. See here for more. [back]

2. “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.” [back]

 

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

Match Challenge of $1,000 Met During the Livestream: “Why We Burned the Flag, What This Revolution Is All About, and How You Can Be Part of It”

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From readers:

On Sunday, July 7, Revolution Books in NYC hosted a Livestream event with Andy Zee, Sunsara Taylor, and the flag-burners from the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour. You can watch it here. An important step forward towards reaching the goal of raising $50,000 needed for the Tour over the summer was taken by a supporter announcing a $1,000 match challenge: If we raised $1,000, she would match it, making a total of $2,000 in donations. Good news! We raised $1,110 with an additional $100 pledged afterwards that day, matching the goal. People were very inspired by the flag-burners and this National Revolution Tour to donate, many citing the crimes of U.S. imperialism, and the hope and possibility of many more people coming to the side of making radical change.

Will you take up the challenge now to scale up the fundraising? Get ready: the Chicago Tour started July 13. Set a goal: Donate, get your friends to match your donation, provide housing, food, travel needs, printing needs. Let us know what you can do and why you are doing it. Every donation, large and small, one time or monthly, matters. Here is the  statement from the person who made the $1,000 match challenge during the Livestream (which was written when Joey Johnson and another revolutionary were still in jail after the DC flag-burning, facing criminal charges that initially included a felony charge against Joey), and statements from others who donated.

Stand with Humanity and the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour to Meet This $1,000 Challenge

The National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour needs our support to propel this project forward. They plan to go to Chicago, New York and other cities across the country. They have travel expenses; food; lodging; printing costs for materials; legal costs and more. They have shown bravery and fortitude. They are proving that we can transform the people and expand our forces. They bring inspiration and hope, based on science, for a better world. The tour must be “scaled up” so that they can reach more people and expand this work. We do not want generations of people to have to continue this fight.

Step up and donate to the tour and I will match this up to $1,000. The Tour needs to raise $50,000 this summer, and if you donate now, we would have the first $2,000 of this amount. In fact, I challenge others to make this match as well. Once the first $1,000 is raised, will you pledge to match my $1,000?

I am back with this second challenge because I am convinced that the only way out of the hell that this system brings down on billions of people on the planet is through revolution. This project has as its goal to spread the word about the need for revolution and the leadership we have in Bob Avakian and his scientific formulation in the “New Synthesis of Communism.” This is the strategy for revolution and a whole new world structured with the highest aspirations of humanity in mind, and a world not based on plunder and exploitation.

I am amazed and inspired by what the Tour has been able to accomplish, even since my last challenge in April of this year. You stepped up! Thanks so much. We need you again to step up and we must work hard to get others involved to support this Tour. No less than the people of the world and the planet depend on it. So much has happened that shows the power this Tour has to build for an actual revolution.

Joey Johnson, Carl Dix, Noche Diaz and other members of the Revolution Club courageously burned the red, white and blue American rag on July 4 in front of the White House. This provocative action was needed to go up against the fascist display of military might with Trump’s tanks; weapons of mass destruction and flyovers. This rag is soaked in the blood of immigrants and slaves and Native Americans slaughtered in genocide. It is soaked in the tears of the children in cages at the Mexican border and some dying from abuse and neglect. This rag flies over the military bases the USA commands in over 100 countries around the globe and it embodies other heinous crimes against humanity. Our comrades now have serious charges leveled against them. Comrades supporting this call from the Tour burned rags on the U.S.-Mexican border and other cities across the country. The DC event was covered by journalists nationally and internationally and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media. That rag burning says to the world that there are people in this country who oppose what this fascist regime is doing and are fighting for another world. I am proud to be a part of all of this!

The Revolution Tour spent a good deal of time in LA with actions that “disturbed” the air and projected a disciplined and organized force for revolution. They showed that they were there to “make a political war on this system” and that “enough is enough.” Noche Diaz gave powerful lessons about the role of the police in this system and of the sordid history of the U.S. They connected with people in South Central LA where the Rodney King beating was videoed years ago when some of the Revcoms were not even born yet! This, now, was a beautiful thing to behold. The Tour members wearing the “BA Speaks—Revolution, Nothing Less” T shirts marching in formation chanting “what’s the problem? The whole damn system! What’s the solution? REVOLUTION!” I was greatly moved by stories of people who this system would be just fine killing off, raising their heads and daring to hope that they could be a part of putting a stop to all of the crap that they must endure each day. Watching kids from the hood putting on the BA shirts in their first steps into the revolution was heart rendering and awe inspiring!

The Revolution Tour worked to bring forward people from diverse backgrounds and from all parts of the socioeconomic strata to check out this movement. They worked with students from UCLA; they went into the neighborhoods; they gave speeches and held picnics getting out the word about what this revolution is all about and why it is needed. We heard a young Jamaican man whose parents were deported when he was very young and he had to survive on his own talk about stepping “outside of my fear” to step up to be a part of this movement. He passionately talked about how even at a young age he thought that this was not right and something needed to change. He was compelled to listen to the Revcoms and jump into the revolution. As Lenny Wolff said, “Something is being born here. If you cannot see it, something is wrong with you.”

I have been following the Tour closely, mainly by looking at the revcom.us website almost every day and listening to interviews with Revolution Club members and leaders of the Tour on the The Michael Slate Show which can be streamed on KPFK radio archives in LA. There are important lessons and guidance there and I encourage everyone to follow the tour at revcom.us and @tuneintorevcom on twitter. Please send in your thoughts, experiences and questions to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.

—A mental health professional and supporter of the revolution

Other Statements

From someone who donated $250: “Deepest thanks for the courageous Revolutionary RevComs. Your action in DC was inspiring. It was also a real example of putting Humanity First which is the essence of proletarian internationalism. I imagined in my mind what your action meant to the hearts of the masses and Revolutionaries in Iran who I have deep affection for... U.S. imperialism keep your bloody hands off Iran.”

From someone who donated $50: “As part of $1,000 donation and as a message to the people of this world that there are people in this country who are fighting for humanity first, not the USA first. Revolution Nothing Less.”

A longtime supporter of the revolution donated $200.

An African-American man said since the age of five he has witnessed the crimes of this system. He feels that this is an important moment to support the Tour because he has seen people come over to the side of making a radical change in the society.

Letter from a Prisoner:

"On the Revolutionary Tours and Struggling with Others"

July 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

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

It lights up my heart every time I read about the Revolutionary Tours and Clubs yall be doing. It gives me hope reading about our fellow comrades putting in work out there. And that yall take the time and patience to educate people on Communism and the Revolution. It is how the vanguard party is supposed to be, in the field and at the front lines of the movements that manifest itself cause of this bullshit system. I’m glad yall there educating people on why they out there and the reason they go through what they go through on a daily basis, leading the masses on the right direction. You already know, with out a vanguard party, people out there protesting would be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and the protest would be made in vain, not accomplishing a thing!

I sure wish I were out there in the world, helping the movement and doing my Part. Sadly I’m in prison, but it don't stop me from trying to educate fellow inmates on the State of the world and why, and through what social conditions, led many of us to crime and ultimately to prison. Though, I will admit, here in Texas is really difficult due to the fact many lack any sort of political conscious, and could care less about the state of the world. You have a few like minded individuals, but the majority of everyone else have this type of slave mentality. Most just care about money and don't want to hear anything that ain't talking bout making money, trying to be "Gangster," in other words, a ruthless capitalist. But I keep trying, and I study more and more to be able to explain things better.

I noticed on yalls Revolution tours, yall bump into people and students and yall have to struggle with them cause they point of view is different. I be going through the same thing, lately I been struggling with another fellow inmate, and he brings up the arguments most people make against communism. There’s two main arguments that people use against communism. The (1st) one being, that "human nature" is the reason why communism will never work. (2nd), that supposedly communism has been tried before and that it didn't work. I was presented with these two arguments while me and a fellow prisoner (my homeboy) were having a political discussion. At some point I told him I was a communist and that its all I be reading and studying for quite some time now. He told me that he agrees with communism as a theory and that capitalism is fucked up. He then tells me that communism does not work, that it’s been tried. I explain to him that those countries failed due to the isolation and economic warfare as well as military intervention the surrounding imperialist nations impose on them. That in the Soviet Union, after V. Lenin died and in China after Mao Zedong died those countries came to be communist in name but state capitalism in essence. So that argument is easily dropped. So now he holds on to the argument that human nature would not allow communism to work, because "human nature" dictates that when a person or a group of people come to power, they become easily corrupt. That humans, including animals have a hierarchy, a pecking order, and that’s the reason why "supposedly" capitalism goes hand in hand with human nature.

So me and homeboy been in this struggle where he’s trying to convince me that communism is a hopeless goal to accomplish and me assuring him that the "human nature" argument is flawed and without any real solid base. I try to explain to him Dialectic Materialism, that it can't be that we are hard wired to act the way we do. Dialectics explains how life flows freely and is ever still advancing forward, changing every time it approaches contradictions. And Dialectics Materialism debunks the "human nature" approach because, if life didn't flow freely, subject to manipulation by adaptation, then why is it that we didn’t stayed at the Point of Hunter Gatherers? if we are so hard wired to those ancestors, why didn't we stay at that level of human thought? (I hope I explained it right, you be thinking you know all about Dialectics until you try to explain it (LOL). But as Friedrich Engels put it, "The whole world, natural, historical, intellectual, is represented as a process—(i.e.) as in constant motion, change, transformation, development; and the attempt is made to trace out the internal connection that makes a continuous whole of all their movement and development."

And still, I continue struggling with homeboy because he is convinced that humans are naturally greedy, selfish, hostile to foreigners and competitive. All the characteristics that "coincidently" fit right in with capitalist/imperialism and bourgeois culture. And in struggling with homeboy, I patiently explain to him that the reason why humans of so long ago and way back to the Hunter Gatherers days were so competitive, hostile and what may be perceived as greedy...I don’t want to say dumb, but I can’t find another word to describe them not seeing what’s going on.

People don’t see how religion is but another arm of the oppressor, it enforces a lot of negative aspects of this bourgeois culture and system. We under it enforces the patriarch system of living, it teaches people to be submissive to the oppressors.

It is why I believe a real reform is impossible under this bourgeois capitalist system. What we need is a revolution, the revolution against this system and the culture it bred.

July 4th—Notorious Flag Burner Joey Johnson Attacked and Arrested

IN THE FACE OF MEIN TRUMPF'S MILITARIST ORGY, THE BURNING FLAGS LIGHT UP A DIFFERENT FUTURE

Updated July 6, 2019 | revcom.us

 

July 4 was a tale of three futures. One was Donald Trump—not only braying about the so-called greatness of America, but fetishizing the military hardware and troops of this empire that daily kills people all over this planet and calling on people to sign up for the slaughter. A second was the Democrats—with no answer to the fascist militarism of Trump other than petty carping from a shared framework of support for empire. And the third was seen in the flames of the burning American flags in full view of the White House, under the slogan “Imagine a World Without America.”

After the second flag went up in flames, the revcoms began marching in formation. Moments later, the police attacked the marchers, and Joey Johnson was tackled and arrested, along with one of his comrades—arrested for exercising a right that he himself had fought for and won 30 years earlier, all the way up to the Supreme Court. The charges were piled on, and organizers are calling for everyone to rally to Joey’s support. But the message had been delivered—right here, in the heart of the empire on its most “sacred” day, there was a force not only willing to call out the crimes of America, but to pose a whole new future for all of humanity.

The National Tour to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution had called the actions for July 4, which also took place on the border with Mexico in San Ysidro, California, and elsewhere. As Johnson put it to the Washington Post going in, “When I see that flag burn, I’m not only thinking of the children who are starved and bombed by the U.S. in Yemen, or the children who are torn from their parents along the U.S.-Mexico border... This is the workings of a system that the U.S. dominates... built on the plunder of literally billions of people around the world.”

Important as that is, Johnson and the RevComs were also standing for much more. The action was organized around a quote from Bob Avakian, who has developed a new communism that forges a road for the emancipation of humanity and who leads the revolution in the U.S. Avakian has said:

If you can conceive of a world without America—without everything America stands for and everything it does in the world—then you’ve already taken great strides and begun to get at least a glimpse of a whole new world. If you can envision a world without any imperialism, exploitation, oppression—and the whole philosophy that rationalizes it—a world without division into classes or even different nations, and all the narrow-minded, selfish, outmoded ideas that uphold this; if you can envision all this, then you have the basis for proletarian internationalism. And once you have raised your sights to all this, how could you not feel compelled to take an active part in the world historic struggle to realize it; why would you want to lower your sights to anything less?

These revolutionaries acted as a force consistent with the world they are fighting for and the revolution that they are organizing. They were serious, disciplined, and defiant in the face of fascist MAGA thugs who physically attacked them as well as the police forces that launched illegitimate attacks and arrests to prevent the revolutionaries from exercising this right. But they did illuminate the White House with the flames of the burning flag, and the very next day they were at the courthouse, defending Joey and the other demonstrator, demanding the charges be dropped and pointing to the bitter irony that, again, Johnson was being persecuted for exercising the very right guaranteed by the Supreme Court decision that bears his name: Texas v. Johnson. (Update: Joey Johnson and the other revolutionary were released from police custody on July 5. At the arraignment in court, Joey was charged with two misdemeanors. He said that he is innocent of the charges and will fight them in court. See here for more information.)

The face-off of these three futures on July 4... along with the ongoing outrage at the border and the increasing threats (and actual aggression) being carried out worldwide... the near-daily news of new attacks on the basic rights and humanity of women and LGBTQ people, on Black and other “minority” nationalities, on the environment itself... all these scream: We need Revolution—Nothing Less! For all those who took heart from these acts, whose faces turned towards this, follow your convictions and get with the Revolution.

San Ysidro, CA, July 4—Six flags burn at the U.S./Mexico border.
Photo: Peter Switzer

See Trailer
See full Film

Sampling of Mainstream Media Coverage of the July 4 Flag‑burning in Front of the White House

Updated July 7, 2019 | revcom.us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joey Johnson Released—Felony Charges Never Filed

July 6, 2019 | revcom.us

 

5 July 2019 For immediate release
Gregory "Joey" Johnson available for interviews
Also available: Noche Diaz, Carl Dix
Contact: Larry Everest 202 556 3906

Friday afternoon notorious flagburner Gregory "Joey" Johnson and another revolutionary were released from central lock-up in Washington DC. They had been taken into police custody after Johnson had burned two American flags in front of the White House on July 4th under the slogan “Imagine A World Without America.”

"I'm really proud of what the Revolution Club and others did, right in front of the White House and in the face of fascist Trump's display of military might!" Johnson said upon his release. "We stood with the 7 billion people of the world and projected the positive vision of a world without America and its "barbarism and hypocrisy," as Frederick Douglass put it, and the leadership to get there in Bob Avakian!"

At their arraignment in a DC court, they learned that the charges of felony assault on an officer and malicious burning, which the Secret Service had publicly claimed Johnson carried out, were never filed in court. In reality, it had been fascist Trump supporters and police who had assaulted Johnson and the revolutionaries in a failed attempt to prevent them from carrying out their act of Constitutionally protected speech, a right Johnson himself had established before the Supreme Court in 1989.

Johnson was arraigned on two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He states he's innocent of these unjust charges and will fight them in court. No charges at all were filed against the other revolutionary taken into custody and held overnight with Mr. Johnson.

"July 4 was a tale of three futures. One was Donald Trump—not only braying about the so-called greatness of America, but fetishizing the military hardware and troops of this empire that daily kills people all over this planet and calling on people to sign up for the slaughter," revcom.us reported. "A second was the Democrats—with no answer to the fascist militarism of Trump other than petty carping from a shared framework of support for empire. And the third was seen in the flames of the burning American flags in full view of the White House, under the slogan “Imagine a World Without America.”

"July 4th—Notorious Flag Burner Joey Johnson Attacked and Arrested-IN THE FACE OF MEIN TRUMPF’S MILITARIST ORGY THE BURNING FLAGS LIGHT UP A DIFFERENT FUTURE," revcom.us, July 5, 2019

July 4—In the face of Mein Trumpf's militarist orgy the burning flags light up a different future

See Trailer
See full Film

Revcoms' July Fourth Fireworks, 2019

July 9, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

The most meaningful Fourth of July event I’ve ever experienced took place yesterday in Washington, DC. There I saw two U.S. flags being torched on Pennsylvania Avenue with the White House in the near background. The event was conceived and carried out by members of the Revolution Clubs to protest Trump’s policies towards migrants, especially those seeking entry at America’s southwestern border, and against the U.S. government’s financial and moral support of other countries as they repeatedly bomb and invade such Middle Eastern nations as Yemen and Palestine.

The day before I witnessed this event, I spent some time with a friend discussing flag burning as a method of political protest. Even though I had already decided to go to DC as a protest against the government’s putting toddlers, children and adults into virtual concentration camps, my response to this idea was that it was rather melodramatic, and not worth doing because it would offend those that love America but hate Trump, many of these don’t associate the flag with Trump’s fascism. My friend felt that burning the flag was a powerful statement against Trump and those of his supporters that have made a fetish of the flag, steeping it in the symbolism of white supremacy and jingoism. He felt, as I did, however, that flag burning would be deeply offensive to some allies of Refuse Fascism and Revcom and divisive at a time when we activists must face Trump and his followers with as much unity as possible.

When my friend and I parted, I found myself leaning towards his at least partial approval of flag burning—that it was a powerful statement against the uses to which the fascists had put the flag. As I mulled over this assessment, my own agreement warmed, and I was glad that my concern over the little kids’ being locked in cages had decided me to go to DC to bear witness to the Revcoms’ protest regardless of what shape it took.

The flag burning turned out to be not only a powerful statement but also an intensely honest one.  I am beginning to realize that people must be persuaded by raw truth not cajoled or flattered by the beliefs that their families or schools instilled in them. Those are habits, sugar coated by a false and unhealthy sense of virtue. Surely those who are capable of struggling against Trump and his cronies must be able to see America’s behavior at its southern border, in the Middle East, and within its own boundaries has sullied all of its symbols, including the flag. Why would we want allies so fuddled by habit and so complacent about their own morality that they would hold our struggles back by clinging to old mores? Not that we should reject such people wholesale. There are many really good people like that out there. We should continue to seek them out and persuade them even if it means shocking them to do so.

To some extent, I am one of the people that need to be persuaded. My use of the term “melodramatic” when criticizing flag burning marks me as a liberal bourgeois. (You mustn’t burn flags, dear. It’s not in good taste.) But I found myself more shocked by the behavior of the trolls and ogres that had gathered at DC to celebrate Trump than by the flag burning. They were obviously more upset over the destruction of a piece of cloth than over the deaths and emotional crippling of humans. As they strove to vent their rage on the flag burners, they howled like animals and repeated with idiot conviction: “USA USA USA!” I saw one young woman, painted with stars and stripes, leaning into the arms of her boyfriend and wiping away fake tears over the “desecration of the flag.” Part of me wanted to smack her and say, “I’ll give you something to cry about.” People like this woman had passed us by with smirks when, before the main event, we had tried to engage their compassion for the migrant children at the border. Others, after the flag burning, mimicked the crying of the little ones (Mami, Papi) when they were torn from their parents’ arms and forced into cages.

Trump supporters, so determined to impose their fake and toxic values on others, must never take over our society. I noticed that other witnesses beside myself were more appalled by them than by the torching of a cloth symbol. One woman was beaten to the ground by the Trump supporters and arrested by the DC police when she gave verbal support to the flag burners. Another woman of about sixty came up to thank one of the Revcoms in Lafayette Park when he made a speech explaining the burning of the flag. She was the very epitome of a lady. She wept different, more genuine tears than the clinging vine I had noticed earlier.

—Lillian Forman, an eighty-three-year-old retired book writer and editor

Why Does Bernie Sanders Invoke a War Criminal as the Model of His “Socialism”?

July 8, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Editors’ Note: This was distributed by the Revolution Club in Chicago at a conference on so-called “socialism.” Most of the sponsors have a program of backing some version of Bernie-socialism.

Here we’re talking about Harry Truman, of course.

In his June 12 speech on democratic socialism at George Washington University, Bernie invokes Truman on what his path and program represent, saying:

President Harry Truman was right when he said that: “Socialism is the epithet they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years …Socialism is what they called Social Security … farm price supports … bank deposit insurance … the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.”

This is the same bloodthirsty criminal that dropped nuclear bombs on hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The same Truman who launched the Korean War, threatening China with nuclear weapons; who set the framework and doctrine to assert American dominance in the post WW2 world including military alliances like NATO, bringing forward the so-called “American Century” that has led to some of the greatest violence, suffering and immiseration of the Third World.

Yet, Bernie invokes Truman favorably without any mention of these war crimes – in a speech where the backdrop was a sea of American flags, the universal symbol of genocidal wars and torture, worn by the U.S. Air Force as they drop bombs all over the world and the police pigs as they murder our youth!

Why? Because Truman upheld distributing the spoils of war and American victory more widely and evenly, touting universal health care and affordable housing, defending FDR’s New Deal and extending his own “Fair Deal.” The social and economic measures of the New Deal, initiated by FDR and continued by Truman, were launched by the dominant section of the U.S. ruling class to prevent the collapse of capitalism at a time of crisis in the 1930s. It was designed to rescue and rationalize the banking system, to stimulate industrial production and job creation, and to establish new regulations and forms of government intervention in order to stabilize capitalism and restore profitability, at a time when genuine socialism was a very attractive pole in the world.

Truman’s program could be captured with the lyric from Bob Dylan’s song “Narrow Way”:

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

This is the same point of departure and narrow horizon of Bernie, the FDR-Truman-whisperer.

Distributing More of the Spoils of Empire to Social Programs Is NOT Socialism!

Yes, Bernie may not be about waging war or dropping nukes. But does he talk about how the U.S. is “looting and plundering on distant shores”? Does he talk about the U.S. sitting atop a parasitic food chain, feeding off the blood, sweat and tears of billions around the planet – in the vast global network of oil fields, mines, plantations and sweatshops? Does he talk about the child labor and civil wars fueling the mining of minerals indispensable for laptops and smartphones? Does he talk about starvation pay, death-trap sweatshops and squalid slums feeding the wealth of the U.S. every second, the conditions of the millions making those T-shirts and iPhones?

When Rana Plaza, one of these sweatshops in Bangladesh, collapsed in 2013, killing more than a thousand mainly women garment workers, as one commentator notes, “The screams of thousands trapped and crushed as concrete and machinery cascaded down upon them unleashed a full-spectrum shockwave, amplified by the anguished howl of millions around the world.” Does this “anguished howl” find expression in Bernie’s program? NO!

Instead, this is how he characterizes the choices:

… the difference between Donald Trump and me. He believes in corporate socialism for the rich and powerful. I believe in a democratic socialism that works for the working families of THIS country. [Emphasis ours]

There is NOTHING – absolutely NOTHING – about the billions whose labor clothes, feeds and enriches what he calls the “wealthiest country in the history of the world.” Does Bernie talk about where this wealth comes from, whether this needs to change? When he – correctly – rants about the howling inequalities between rich and poor, does he then go to the divide and lopsidedness of the world, between the rich imperialist countries and the poor Third World – with the former fundamentally parasitically feeding off the latter?

As a really simple example, take the cup of coffee you have in your hands right now. About 10% of the value leaves the U.S., back to the coffee-exporting country with the actual farmer living off starvation wages, often less than $1/day!

Yes, it is an indictment of this system that there is no adequate health care, education and jobs for the vast sections of the American poor. Bernie’s proposal in funding universal health care and other social programs is to tax the profits of corporations and wealthy of this country. But does Bernie ever mention that a disproportionate share of this wealth is from the “super”-profits extracted from the super-exploitation of millions and millions of people in the Third World?

Or does he fundamentally accept the status quo, with a logic of “let it keep flowing, but my share has to be equal to yours” in this country: sitting atop a global food chain of super-exploitation, a planet of slums and sweatshops like Dante’s seven layers of hell. Bernie calls for “upward mobility” within this parasitic relationship and process.

Then, what happens when people of the Third World are driven off their land by wars and poverty, by the effects of global warming, often from countries destroyed by U.S.-led-and-dominated coups, wars and the economic workings of this system? Does Bernie welcome them with open arms? Au contraire, monsieur! As he said in another instance:

If you open the borders, my God, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re going to have people from all over the world. And I don’t think that’s something we can do at this point. Can’t do it. So that’s not my position.

To answer the question in the title: Why Does Bernie Sanders Invoke a War Criminal, Harry Truman, as the Model of His “Socialism”: Because no matter how much you talk about peace, and no matter your “good intent,” if your “socialism” is based on re-dividing the spoils that come from dominating and exploiting the world, you will have to enforce these borders, secure these spoils and wage war to defend and extend that domination and exploitation.

 

Revolution Club, Chicago
(312) 804-9121
Revclub.chi@gmail.com
facebook.com/revclubchi/
1857 E. 71st Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649

 

Special REVOLUTION newspaper issue, March 2020

"You Think You're Woke...
But You're Sleepwalking Through A Nightmare

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

A Message from: The National Get Organized
for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

March 2, 2020 | revcom.us

 

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

There Is a Way Out of This Madness!

Get Into Bob Avakian (BA)

A Radically Different Leader
Who Has Developed
A Whole New Framework
For Human Emancipation

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

 

Field Reports From The National Revolution Tour

Updated April 23, 2020 | revcom.us

 

Tala Deloria and Lenny Wolff talk about The National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour, and about the May 20 speaking event at UCLA on The Michael Slate Show

---

Andy Zee and Michelle Xai "Grand Experiment... As Serious As Your Life"

On The Michael Slate Show

LISTEN HERE

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

Revolution Club at the State Capitol in Sacramento

 

Social Media Posts and Graphics for

The National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

July 1, 2019 | revcom.us

 

On this page are the key graphics that can be taken up everywhere to spread
The Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour

---

• POSTERS

• SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA

The Crucial Importance of the New Communism and BA's Leadership

June 17, 2019 | revcom.us

 

The following is a summation of some group study and discussion of the new communism and the leadership of Bob Avakian (BA).

First of all, I want to say that it has been truly great, deeply meaningful, critically important—and a lot of fun!—digging into the work, leadership and method of BA together. I have been thinking recently about some key themes and lessons that occur to me regarding our study and discussions and their purpose and importance. There is obviously so much that I could highlight—in terms of the key points we have gotten into in these sessions and the significance of these sessions—and trying to cover it all would be well beyond the scope of what I have written here (which ended up being longer than I envisioned when I started). However, I wanted to frame our work together with two overall themes.

The first of these themes is drawn from the beginning of a quote from BA: “Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit.” (from BAsics 3:1)

The second theme is the critical role of revolutionary theory.

Let me briefly get further into each of these themes—in general, as it relates to the role and importance of BA and his leadership in the world, and also as it relates to our study and discussions.

Given how much there is to say on each of these two themes, I can only really scratch the surface here. But let’s start with the first one:

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

The understanding captured in this quote not only speaks to the state of the world and of humanity—and to what is urgently needed in light of this—but also, relatedly, illuminates WHY we have been engaging in this study and discussion together and WHY this is so important.

We have often talked—and very correctly so, to be clear—about having “cool” discussions. But it’s important to understand that this is NOT fundamentally about having “cool,” “interesting,” “fun” or “mentally stimulating” discussions, even though these discussions definitely ARE all of these things!

Rather, our work together has a specific purpose: to deepen our understanding of the world not just for the sake of knowledge in some academic sense, but in order to radically CHANGE the world. And, more specifically, to deepen our understanding and application of the science of revolution and communism, as this science has been qualitatively advanced in groundbreaking ways through the new communism brought forward by BA—deepening our grasp and application of this science as a key part of contributing to the process of making revolution on the basis of this new communism.

Just look at the world! We have talked about the “5 STOPS,” which speak to five key, defining contradictions of this capitalist-imperialist system. These 5 STOPS are: “STOP Genocidal Persecution, Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality and Murder of Black and Brown People!”... “STOP the Patriarchal Degradation, Dehumanization, and Subjugation of All Women Everywhere, and All Oppression Based on Gender or Sexual Orientation!... Stop Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity!... Stop the Demonization, Criminalization and Deportations of Immigrants and the Militarization of the Border!... Stop Capitalism-Imperialism from Destroying Our Planet!”

A quick glance at the news from the past few weeks alone will reveal that the contradictions spoken to in these 5 STOPS—and the staggering level of suffering and misery caused by these contradictions—are only intensifying.

This is on top of the countless other forms of tremendous poverty, deprivation, misery, exploitation, oppression and suffering spawned by this system and heaped upon literally billions of human beings and humanity as a whole every single day that this capitalist-imperialist system continues.

A key point to understand, which BA’s work illuminates so sharply and powerfully, is that NONE of these outrages are accidental, isolated or disconnected from each other. They have a common source—this SYSTEM of capitalism-imperialism. These outrages and horrors for humanity are woven into this system’s rules, its operation, its “DNA,” its roots, its historical and ongoing functioning. For this reason, the system CANNOT be reformed—it must be overthrown through revolution.

This point about the NEED for an actual revolution—as opposed to attempts to “fix” or “heal” or “reform” a system that in fact CANNOT be fixed, healed or reformed—in order to put an end to the countless ways that humanity suffers needlessly is, I believe, one vital takeaway from our study and discussions of BA’s work; it is one critical point on which our collective understanding should be significantly deepened.

Another one of these vital points that I think has been a theme of our study and discussions—especially recently, as we have watched the most recent film from BA (Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution) and listened to the Q & A from this film—is what an actual revolution IS, what it involves and what it requires.

An actual revolution does NOT just mean “a big change”—in one form or another—which is how many people think of it or try to define it. Rather, an actual revolution means overthrowing the capitalist-imperialist system, meeting and defeating its repressive force, dismantling its institutions and setting up a new, socialist system and state power and society—and, accordingly, new institutions—on the road to communism. Right now is NOT the time for an actual revolution, because the necessary conditions for this revolution do not yet exist. But right now IS the time to be working for, hastening (i.e., working to accelerate the emergence of) and preparing for an actual revolution.

This point leads us to the question of what we ALREADY do have, and what we DON’T yet have and therefore need to urgently work on bringing into being, in terms of the necessary factors and conditions for revolution.

In terms of what we DO have: By far the biggest positive factor we have is BA. Through decades of work, BA has forged the new communism, which is the framework—and, most fundamentally, the scientific understanding and method—that humanity needs to make revolution and continue that revolution all the way to communism. Think about this: Just as the first round of communist revolutions would never have happened without the initial scientific breakthroughs and framework forged by Marx, so the next round of communist revolutions will not happen without millions of people taking up the further scientific breakthroughs and framework forged by BA.

The framework of the new communism includes: a comprehensive and further developed scientific understanding of the nature of the problem, that is, the nature of capitalism-imperialism, how it specifically operates, historically and in the world today, why and how it is responsible for the many different forms of suffering that humanity faces and why this system cannot be reformed and must be swept away through revolution; a viable strategy for revolution—for working now to hasten while awaiting a revolutionary situation and then winning in that future situation; and a concrete, vivid and thoroughly developed vision and “blueprint” for a radically different socialist society on the road to communism, as put forward in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA.

Most fundamentally and importantly—and this is a thread running through and underlying the understanding, strategy and vision—is the scientific METHOD of the new communism.

The new communism forged by BA builds upon—but also goes far beyond, and in some key ways breaks with—the past experience in theory and practice of the communist movement.

Speaking in depth to the totality and specific dimensions of the new communism is also beyond the scope of what I am writing here, but to quickly highlight some key points of this.

In terms of the totality of what is represented by the new communism, I want to quote the first of the Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, which we have previously discussed. This first resolution makes the point that the new communism

represents and embodies a qualitative resolution of a critical contradiction that has existed within communism in its development up to this point, between its fundamentally scientific method and approach, and aspects of communism which have run counter to this.

This point is important enough that I think it bears repeating in order to help facilitate ongoing further reflection: The new communism “represents and embodies a qualitative resolution of a critical contradiction that has existed within communism in its development up to this point, between its fundamentally scientific method and approach, and aspects of communism which have run counter to this.”

While—as this quote from the first resolution points out—communism’s method and approach has been FUNDAMENTALLY scientific, there have been important ways in which past socialist societies along with the communist movement, past and present, have taken up unscientific and even ANTI-scientific ways of thinking, methods and approaches to understanding and transforming reality, with very harmful effects.

The new communism brought forward by BA qualitatively resolves this contradiction, putting communism on a more firmly scientific footing and therefore carving out the method and framework that makes it possible—not inevitable, but possible—to confront and transform the many contradictions involved in making revolution and continuing that revolution all the way to communism.

Needless to say, this is a big deal in terms of the possibilities this new communism opens up for humanity!

While, once again, it is not possible to review in depth the various specific dimensions of the new communism, I want to highlight here three examples of this.

*First, the new communism breaks new ground—and breaks with unscientific approaches within the communist movement—in terms of its approach to the TRUTH, the process by which the truth should be pursued, understood and arrived at, and the importance of going for the truth not just in a general sense but specifically in terms of the goal of getting to communism.

The new communism’s approach to this breaks with the unscientific and harmful ideas—which have far too often and to far too great a degree infected the past and present of the communist movement at different points—that a particular section of society, such as communists, or the most oppressed and exploited, have a monopoly on truth; the idea that whether or not a statement is true should be evaluated based on the class (or social) position of the person making the statement; the idea that different classes have their own versions of the truth, i.e., that the proletariat has its truth and the bourgeoisie has its truth; the notion of “populist epistemology”—that whether or not something is true should be evaluated based on the numbers of people who believe it at a given time; the notion of “political truth”—the idea that whether or not something is true should be evaluated based on whether or not it is viewed as convenient at a given time.

Once again, all of those wrong ways of thinking are not just prevalent in society more broadly but have been significant problems in the past and present of the communist movement.

In opposition to all of this is the understanding encompassed in BA’s new communism that truth is... TRUTH! That it does NOT have a class character, nor is it determined by whether it is viewed as politically convenient in the short term, nor is it determined by the number of the masses who recognize it as truth at a given time. That truth is determined by whether or not something corresponds to objective reality, and it must be fully confronted in all of its dimensions—including those that might be unfortunate or inconvenient in the short run—as an essential part of actually getting to communism.

These points are encompassed in this very important quote from BA that speaks to a key breakthrough in understanding concentrated in the new communism:

Everything that is actually true is good for the proletariat, all truths can help us get to communism. (BAsics 4:5)

Once again, as BA has pointed out, the new communism’s breakthroughs in regard to the truth are not just a matter of recognizing that going for the truth is essential in general—though this understanding is encompassed, too—but that going for the truth is essential IN ORDER TO GET TO COMMUNISM.

*A second example of a specific key dimension of the new communism is its breakthrough in regard to internationalism—the understanding that “the whole world comes first.” This is not just a moral stand—although it is ALSO that—but represents a more fully scientific understanding of internationalism and its importance in the process of making and continuing revolution, and a rupture with and departure from unscientific understandings of internationalism in the past and present of the communist movement. This breakthrough developed with BA’s new communism includes the understanding that the world situation is principal—in other words, that it is the most important factor setting the terms—in regard to the process of making revolution in any particular country; that there can sometimes be a sharp contradiction between the needs of a particular socialist state and the need to advance the world revolution, and that advancing the world revolution must come first; and that in past revolutions there were sometimes important errors made by failing to recognize this and putting the needs of particular socialist countries above the world revolution. Here again, this is not just a matter of an abstract idea of internationalism, but principles based on the work BA has done to deeply engage and synthesize the correct understanding of and approach to the actual contradictions involved in consistently applying internationalism, with all the complexity and difficulty involved in this. (In this regard, the discussion of internationalism in BA’s book THE NEW COMMUNISM is very important.)

*A third example of specific dimensions in which the new communism has broken new ground is in terms of the method of “solid core with a lot of elasticity on the basis of the solid core,” which is a scientific understanding which in fact ruptures with the past understanding and approach of the communist movement in important ways, including in the application of this method to the process of making revolution and leading the future socialist society.

In terms of epistemology (theory of knowledge) and method, “solid core with a lot of elasticity on the basis of the solid core” intertwines with some of the key points made earlier in regard to truth and comprehends that while the communist method and approach is the most systematic, comprehensive and effective means of getting to the truth, this does not mean that communists have a monopoly on the truth and are always correct or that those NOT applying the communist method and approach are always incorrect; rather, those coming from other outlooks, methods and approaches can discover important truths and shed important light on elements of reality. Therefore, the METHOD of solid core with a lot of elasticity on the basis of the solid core involves applying the communist outlook, method and approach to reality with a specific goal, making revolution and getting to communism, while also understanding the need—ON THE BASIS OF APPLYING THAT METHOD—to learn from, sift through and sort out what is brought forward through many diverse streams of human activity and by people coming from a broad range of perspectives, including those that are not communist and even opposed to communism in some cases.

Applying this understanding of solid core with a lot of elasticity on the basis of the solid core to the process of making revolution and then continuing that revolution in the future socialist society on the road to communism, BA’s new communism recognizes—on a level far beyond and in some cases in opposition to the way this was understood prior to the new communism—the complexity and diversity of human activity and thought that must be involved in the process of making revolution and leading a socialist society to communism. This includes recognizing in a whole new way and on a whole other level the importance of dissent, debate, experimentation, ferment and individuality—not individualism but individuality—in socialist society.

To contrast this with one example from the first wave of socialist societies: In socialist China—which, again, overall represented an enormous leap for humanity in so many different spheres and overall—Marxism was in essence viewed as an “official ideology” that people in socialist society should profess, while the new communism, and in particular the approach of “solid core with a lot of elasticity on the basis of the solid core,” embodies the understanding that the leading element in socialist society needs to be communism, but this should not be enshrined and institutionalized as, in effect, an “official ideology” but put forward and struggled for as something people need to be won to and to consciously and voluntarily take up, while at the same time recognizing the importance of giving space to and engaging, and learning what can and should be learned from, the insights of others who have not, yet, been won to communism.

As positive as the overall experience of socialism in China was, BA’s new communism represents a very different vision of socialist society that involves a radical leap forward from even the best of the past.

So, these three examples—related to the approach towards truth, internationalism and solid core with a lot of elasticity on the basis of the solid core—are just that: three of many examples and points that could be offered to illustrate just how profoundly new BA’s new communism is, and the ways in which this new communism (to go back to the quote from the first of the six resolutions):

represents and embodies a qualitative resolution of a critical contradiction that has existed within communism in its development up to this point, between its fundamentally scientific method and approach, and aspects of communism which have run counter to this.

The works that we have read, watched and listened to from BA have been an application and illustration of the new communism—and this has immersed us in this new communism, in an overall way, as captured by the quote from the first resolution as well as in various specific dimensions, including the three highlighted in this letter.

Accordingly, our study and discussion of this work should have deepened our understanding and application of the new communism and its scientific method. Many of our discussions, in fact, have involved studying BA’s scientific method and seeking to take up and apply this method ourselves, to the best of our ability, even while not being able to do this on anywhere near the same level that BA himself does. This focus on method has been extremely important and instructive, manifested, for instance, in the way that we have studied and sought to emulate the way that BA boldly confronts, plainly presents and systematically unpacks the key contradictions and questions of the revolution, involving and inviting others to join him on that journey.

So, once again to return to the question of what we HAVE in regard to the factors and conditions needed to make revolution, the biggest positive factor we have by far is BA, the scientific framework, breakthrough and understanding that he has forged with the new communism, and the ongoing leadership he is providing. This leadership, as highlighted in the second of those six resolutions, involves an extremely rare combination: the ability “to develop scientific theory on a world-class level, while at the same time having a deep understanding of and visceral connection with the most oppressed, and a highly developed ability to ‘break down’ complex theory and make it accessible to the masses of people.” Our viewing, listening, reading and related study/discussion has also driven home this rare combination point repeatedly and powerfully.

In terms of what we don’t yet have, and therefore urgently NEED to work on bringing into being in order to make an actual revolution: We don’t yet have masses of people, first in the thousands and then in the millions, who are won to this revolution and its leadership and developed as an organized force for this revolution; we don’t yet have a situation where the party that is needed to lead the revolution has grown and been expanded and strengthened to the point where it has the necessary ties and influence in society to actually lead a revolution; and we don’t yet have a revolutionary crisis in which the system is unable to rule in the traditional way.

So, the urgent task before us—not just us, but certainly ALSO us—is to take the critical things we DO have and go to work on bringing into being what we DON’T yet have.

This theme—of what we do have, what we don’t have, and what we therefore need to get busy doing—has been another theme both directly spoken to and objectively posed by the works of BA that we have dug into and by our discussions of these works.

Bringing into being the conditions that we don’t yet have is urgently necessary, absolutely possible and in line with reality and how it can be changed, and there is a strategy for going to work on this, as we have discussed recently. But this will not be easy—it will take lots of STRUGGLE, repeatedly and fundamentally on a societal level.

This understanding, too, is another theme that jumps out in reflecting on our study and discussion.

We should understand that we are not operating on an “empty playing field.” There can be a tendency, especially when people are young and still relatively inexperienced politically, to think that everyone with a decent heart will immediately rally to the correct understanding of reality as soon as they are exposed to this understanding. And without question, there is a tremendous basis to win MILLIONS of people to this revolution and its leadership because it DOES, in fact, correspond to reality and to what humanity needs, and no other program and line does.

However, the understanding of BA and the new communism is, to put it simply, contending with all kinds of wrong ways of thinking, on all kinds of questions, that are spontaneously called forth and actively and repeatedly promoted by this system, and it is contending with all kinds of wrong LINES—i.e., wrong outlooks and methods applied to reality—that keep people trapped within this system. This includes, but is not limited to, people in society who call themselves “socialists” or “communists” but are actually about nothing that has anything to do with actual socialism and communism and really just want to reform capitalism and perhaps slightly redistribute the wealth generated by the capitalist system of exploitation. These reformists have nothing to do with an actual revolution and bringing into being a radically different world—and in some cases they will even admit as much. In any case, these fake socialists and communists are often some of those who most viciously attack BA and the GENUINE communism represented by BA, the new communism, precisely because BA and the new communism ACTUALLY represent what they may PRETEND to be about but in reality fundamentally oppose: real revolution and communism.

Few things are as threatening to a poseur as someone who actually IS what they PRETEND to be.

Returning to society more broadly: sharp ideological struggle must be waged—not just on an individual level or in small numbers, but among MASSES OF PEOPLE, and on a SOCIETAL SCALE—to rupture people out of all the wrong ways of thinking and wrong lines that they are caught up in and into the framework of BA’s new communism.

Once again, there is every basis and every urgency to do this, exactly because BA and the new communism correspond to reality and how it can and must be changed, while these other lines and ways of thinking do NOT. But this will take determined, sharp struggle—of the sort emphasized and modeled by BA in the works that we have studied together.

This brings me to the point with which I want to briefly conclude, which is the second of the two themes I have emphasized.

The Importance of Revolutionary Theory

Another tendency that people can have when they are young and relatively inexperienced is the tendency to view “doing stuff” as the most important political task at hand. “Doing stuff” can be defined in a number of different ways, including things such as attending programs, events or protests or doing “on the ground” political outreach and work.

Well, first of all, the question of “doing WHAT stuff” is immediately posed. In other words, what KIND of political work and outreach are people doing, and what KIND of programs and protests—around what line—are people seeking to be involved in? This is obviously a key question.

It’s not the case, as people often think and sometimes say, that “it’s all good”—in other words, “liberal”/“progressive”/“socialist”/“communist”—“sure, sure we all basically want the same things and are on the same page.”

NO. While there are certainly some important areas in which genuine communists can find unity with broad ranks of progressives, there are different lines out there and these different lines are in contention and lead to fundamentally different understandings of the problem and solution in the world.

So, that’s the first question: doing “WHAT” stuff and with WHAT goal?

That said, “doing stuff” in the right sense—i.e., doing “practical work” on the ground and in the broader society to promote this revolution and its leadership, to organize people into the revolution, working to hasten and prepare for an actual revolution, to Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution, including through different forms of political outreach, programs and discussions, demonstrations and protests, etc.—is extremely critical and important, and in fact urgently necessary.

But it is important to understand that in a movement for revolution—like any good team—everyone has different roles, and it is important for people to understand and embrace their roles in order to make the greatest possible contribution to the team and, in this case, to humanity.

However, even beyond this question of each person’s individual roles, there is the question of the decisiveness of revolutionary theory.

Once again, “doing stuff” in the right sense—i.e., practical revolutionary work—is critically important. If millions of people had the right theoretical understanding but didn’t act on that understanding in practice, nothing would change.

However—and this goes up against the ways people are trained to think in this society, and against the spontaneity of how people often see things when they are young (or new to things), but is nonetheless true and important—what is even more fundamental than “doing stuff” is the question of what people, individually and in their masses, UNDERSTAND. Whether and how people act—and the effect this has in the world—ultimately comes down to what people UNDERSTAND.

From that standpoint, it is crucial that people find the ways to do what we have been doing: immersing ourselves in, taking up and applying the most advanced revolutionary theory in the world, BA’s new communism, as part of the overall process of making revolution.

One final point: It is important not to look narrowly at what it means to TAKE UP and APPLY the new communism. This doesn’t just mean direct political work and outreach, which, once again, is very important. Taking up and applying this work means—in a BROADER sense—applying the understanding represented by BA and the new communism to understanding and changing reality. Very importantly, this includes sharing observations/ideas/questions and thoughts—about what you are learning and the material you are studying; about developments, changes and trends in society (and the world overall); about ways and openings to promote this revolution and its leadership; about how people (those you know and people more broadly) are viewing and discussing different things going on in society/the world, what this reveals about openings for revolution and jolts in society but also the need to transform people’s thinking; about major events and developments in music and the arts... just to give a few examples.

These are all VERY IMPORTANT contributions to the revolutionary process, and it would be wrong to think otherwise.

So, let me end this where I began: This process we have embarked on has been—and will continue to be—deeply meaningful, really exciting, and a lot of fun. And this is a crucial part of actually participating in and contributing to the process of building for the revolution that is so urgently needed.

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

July 15, 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.

 

America's Pig-in-Chief Declares "No" to Any Federal Charges for Police Murder of Eric Garner

July 16, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Almost exactly five years after New York City pigs murdered Eric Garner, Department of IN-Justice head William Barr announced that there would be no federal charges against the cop who killed Garner with a chokehold as he let out his last desperate words, “I can’t breathe.” None of the cops involved in killing Eric Garner has ever been punished, and now the Attorney General —who is “America’s top law enforcement official”—has given the stamp of approval to the murder.

On July 17, 2014, a bunch of cops on Staten Island surrounded and began to arrest Eric Garner, a 43-year-old Black man, for the “crime” of selling loose cigarettes. Millions of people saw and heard the video where one pig, Daniel Pantaleo, brought down Garner with a chokehold, and the other cops piled on. As was revealed earlier this year (after being kept under wraps for over four years), one cop on the scene texted their commander that Eric Garner was “most likely DOA.” And the commander’s response was: “Not a big deal.”

Eric Garner was known to his family, friends, and neighbors as a generous man who helped settle disputes among the people. He had been married for over 20 years, had a son who was about to start college, five other children, and two grandchildren. To the pigs, all this was “not a big deal.”

A 2015 grand jury refused to bring any charges against Pantaleo or any of the other pigs for murdering Eric Garner. Earlier this year, the NYPD held a disciplinary hearing to determine whether Pantaleo broke department “protocol” by using a chokehold. In the years since he murdered Eric Garner, he has continued be on the force, on “desk duty.” At most, Pantaleo could be fired as a result of the hearing—and even that may not happen.

Now the message has come from the top levels of the U.S. government that the murder of Eric Garner was “not a big deal.” As we have said:

NOT A BIG DEAL!!! These four words totally capture the utter callousness of these pigs and of their entire system, for whom the incarceration of literally millions upon millions of people over the past decades is NOT A BIG DEAL... for whom evictions of hundreds of thousands of women, especially Black and Latino, is NOT A BIG DEAL... for whom the poisoning of countless children by lead—and more than that, the generations of youth that are condemned to oblivion even before they are born—is NOT A BIG DEAL.

As Bob Avakian says in his filmed speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, after naming just some of the thousands and thousands, especially Black, Latino and Native American, murdered by the police:

If this were the only thing wrong with this system, it would be more than enough reason to sweep it off the Earth!

 

Video of cop using chokehold to kill Eric Garner

Never Again Action Shuts Down ICE Headquarters

July 17, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Photo: Never Again Action

Photo: twitter/@Yael_Shafritz

“Fuck the semantics. Children are dying. That should be enough. My goal is not to convince you to use those semantics. It’s to get you to stop these atrocities.” An organizer with Never Again Action responding to criticism of the group’s name.

A powerful and courageous action by more than 1,000 protesters shut down ICE headquarters in Washington, DC, Tuesday for at least five hours. People locked arms in the middle of the street and blocked all entrances to the building. “We will not allow them to get to their destructive place of work,” one protester told a reporter. Another said the action is “not just symbolic – we’re actually shutting down ICE.” Dozens of people were reported to have been arrested. Protesters also draped a banner reading “Pelosi, never again is now. #DignityNotDetention” on an overpass near the ICE building.

The protests were organized by Never Again Action, a group of mainly young Jewish activists, and Movimiento Cosecha, an immigrants group fighting for “permanent protection, dignity, and respect for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.” A spokesperson for Never Again Action explained that “We look at ... what our government is doing to immigrant communities. We see nothing less than a mass atrocity. While conditions might not exactly mirror the Holocaust, we shouldn’t wait for them to mirror the Holocaust to take action. That’s why we say ‘never again’ means never again for everyone, and never again means now.”

This protest continued the movement among progressive Jews to stand with immigrants and to shut down ICE and its concentration camps. Never Again Action intends to continue these protests and extend them to other cities. People everywhere need to learn from, support, participate in, and broaden these protests.

Anti-Government Protests Rock Puerto Rico,
Saying "Enough Already!"

July 17, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Massive protests demanding the ouster of Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Rosselló and his regime are shaking this whole oppressed island nation of some three million people and reverberating across communities of millions of other Puerto Ricans in mainland U.S. On Monday, July 15, tens of thousands marched in the streets of San Juan, the capital city. As protesters neared the governor's residence, which was protected with barricades, the police attacked with tear gas and pepper spray. As we post this on Wednesday night, more large protests are expected.

The immediate spark for the outbreak of protest is the exposure of widespread corruption in the government—including Rosselló’s former education secretary, who allegedly steered millions of dollars in contracts to “politically connected” contractors. This at a time when many schools in Puerto Rico have been shut down, part of the unnecessary and deliberate devastation in the wake of Hurricane Maria—as a result of genocidal inaction by the U.S. government and its refusal to organize a serious recovery effort—that has caused great death and suffering and severe degradation of the entire economic, educational, and social infrastructure of Puerto Rico (see “American Crime Case #14: Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico... And America’s Genocidal Response ”). On top of the corruption, hundreds of pages of online chats between Rosselló and members of his administration were leaked, showing these men exchanging misogynist (woman-hating), anti-LGBTQ, anti-handicapped, and other reactionary comments, including about victims of Hurricane Maria. So far, Rosselló has refused to resign.

Beyond these immediate outrages is the anger among the Puerto Rican people over the oppression they face, which has become even more intolerable since Hurricane Maria. A 31-year-old woman told the NY Times as she prepared to march on Wednesday, “It’s the final straw. My kids’ classrooms have mold in them.... There’s just so much outrage that’s been building over time.” Among the widely known Puerto Rican artists who have joined the protests or voiced support are Ricky Martin, Bad Bunny, and Residente. Martin said in an online video message, “Puerto Rico has suffered so much and we can’t deal with the cynicism of these leaders anymore. Enough already. Enough already.”

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

The National Get Organized For An ACTUAL Revolution Tour

Updated July 27, 2019 | revcom.us

 

We need a better world. And the National Tour is here in Chicago this summer, as part of ORGANIZING all over the country for a revolution to get to that world.

When we say “revolution,” we don’t mean some kind of bullshit voting that doesn’t change anything, or “work-within-the-system,” or heal-yourself” scheme. No. We are talking about mobilizing millions for an actual overthrow of this whole system. Overthrowing it, and then bringing in a totally new economic system and new constitution, and new ways of relating to each other, and the whole planet. We are talking about a revolution against all oppression, to emancipate humanity.

We have the strategy that could win such a revolution. We have the plan for what comes next. And we have Bob Avakian, who’s developed the science of revolution to a whole new level, who’s never given up or lost his heart for the people, and who is leading the revolution. You can learn more about all this by going to www.revcom.us and watching BA’s filmed speech, Why We Need An Actual Revolution—And How We Could Really Make Revolution.

But while we have all that, and all that is extremely important, we do not have the people who are needed to make this a reality. Thousands need to get organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution. What we need now are people who see the need for the big and radical change that is REVOLUTION, and want to do something to bring that about. People who want to fight for basic change and work on solving the problems we face in doing this... people who have ideas, as well as energy, to contribute. If you are that person, the National Revolution Tour is here in Chicago now to connect with you.

Look Around The World

Look at the border, where this government rips children away from their parents—with some even dying!—for the “crime” of desperately seeking a better life. Then look at the cities, where the police still beat down, mass-incarcerate, and kill off Black and Latino youth; or where ICE pulls off its raids. Look at what is being done to women, where—on top of everything else—now even the right to control their own bodies—to say when and if they want to have a child—is being taken away. Look at the ripping away of rights from LGBTQ people, and the murders going on of trans women. Meanwhile, the planet burns hotter... and Trump threatens war, to grab an even bigger share of the world.

And look at Chicago. The segregation, discrimination, and oppression of 100 years ago not only still goes on, in some very important ways it is worse! While Trump tells people of color to “go back where they came from,” the Chicago Police tell our youth to go back where they “come from,” even putting them on one-way, non-stop trains to the south side if they find “too many” of them downtown! This system has no future for the masses of Black and Latino youth other than being hounded and brutalized, arrested and even killed by the police. What makes it even worse is that instead of fighting the oppressor, too many of these youth have been set up to fight each other. But we aim to change all that.

What You Can Do... NOW

Bob Avakian tells the truth: “...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!”
Right now, while getting word of revolution out, we are also acting, to get things ready for revolution while we reach more people.

What we are planning:

Saturday, July 27 is the 100th anniversary of a vicious white mob attack on Black people on the 31st St. beach and a racist riot in Chicago. By the end of the week, dozens had been killed. The racist riot in Chicago and the resistance to it was the peak of a whole wave of racist assaults that began in April in Georgia, with the murders of six Black people by a white mob. It is also the anniversary of Black people righteously defending themselves against that in Chicago. Today there is an overt white supremacist in the White House, with his followers preparing for a civil war. We are going to be putting forward and organizing for revolution to do away with all oppression. We will be bringing together people of different colors, backgrounds and genders to emancipate all humanity. And we will be uniting with everyone who wants to commemorate this anniversary and say NO MORE to these kinds of horrors, everyone who wants to resist right now as well as commemorate, whatever their larger viewpoints.

Sunday, July 28 we will be having Future People Fundraising Party! Join with people all over the country to raise funds for the National Revolution Tour. We will be living the future today with music, art and ways of treating each other that reflect the world we are fighting to bring into being.

Be part of making this revolution a reality, in ways large and small. Follow us on social media. Donate. Come to the center at 1857 E. 71st St. and share your questions and your ideas. And join in to build this first big weekend of revolution on July 27-28.

Revolution Club Chicago 312-804-9121
Revolution Club Organizing Center, 1857 E. 71st St.

@tuneintorevcom     www.revcom.us
revclub.chi@gmail.com

Go All Out for the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour National Fundraising Weekend

Reprinted from Pasadena Weekly

Alex Hernandez and Chantelle Hershberger go on trial in what they view as a fight against fascism

by Coco Das, Contributing Editor of RefuseFascism.org

July 19, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Donald Trump, the candidate who called Mexican immigrants "rapists" on the campaign trail, is now the leader of a regime running concentration camps at the border. This past weekend, ICE agents were to conduct raids in nine cities, including Los Angeles, making good on Trump's threat to detain and deport millions of immigrants.

The vicious attack on immigrants is the spearhead of a larger fascist program by the Trump/Pence regime to radically remake society: civil liberties are stripped away and group after group is demonized on a road that leads to unspeakable horrors.

Millions of people want this to stop. But stopping Trump and Pence will take more than wishing something would change, or voicing our outrage on social media. People will have to step outside of their comfort zones. They will have to put something on the line.

Alex Hernandez and Chantelle Hershberger are two people who did just that. On two separate mornings in 2017, they stepped out onto the 101 Freeway, holding signs and blocking traffic to inspire people to take to the streets in nonviolent protest against the Trump/Pence regime.

Chantelle moved to Los Angeles from Ohio just before Trump's election. It bothered her that after each outrage and protest, people just seemed to go home and normalize what the regime was doing. When asked about why she joined the freeway action, she said, "It's one thing to talk about how wrong it is that a white supremacist is in the White House, and to even recognize the danger that ensues when you have the president backing these angry mobs of white supremacist militias. But it's another thing when you understand that this is vital to consolidating fascism. You need to incite fear among the masses. So then I had to decide. What was I going to do about it?"

Alex grew up in South Central Los Angeles and saw firsthand the widespread violence of the police against black and brown people. After Trump's election, he saw the extreme danger of a fascist regime at the helm of the most powerful country and military in the world. He took part in the freeway action because of what was going on in society at the time. "A year and a half ago, think of what the Trump/Pence regime was doing… threatening North Korea with nuclear war, banning Muslims, restricting trans people from the military. We did this to sound the alarm against fascism. Those were not normal times. And now, look at all the children in concentration camps, and lawyers for the Justice Department saying that migrant children don't need toothbrushes, beds, anything sanitary… All these things have consequences. This is the logic that leads to genocide."

Last month, prosecutors lost their case against Alex and Chantelle when the trial ended in a hung jury. They tried to frame their case as a simple traffic violation, despite the fact that the charges were brought by the highly political Major Crimes/Anti-Terrorist Division of the LAPD, a division with a sordid history of spying on activist groups.

Alex and Chantelle spoke in court about why they risked their lives to block the freeway, and moved several jurors to refuse to convict. But immediately after a mistrial was announced, the prosecution vowed to retry the case. By doing this, they join nationwide efforts to criminalize protest in the wake of Trump's election and become enforcers of the fascist suppression of dissent. Through aggressive policing and prosecution, and anti-protest bills either passed or proposed in 35 states, a fundamental right is under serious threat. We should never forget Trump's statement from the campaign trail that he longed for the days when protesters were carried out on stretchers.

These courageous activists stood up against a fascist regime before many people recognized that it was fascism. Videos of the freeway actions went viral, showing millions of people the kind of resistance that was needed. Supporting Alex and Chantelle and the rest of the freeway protesters, calling the City Attorney Mike Feuer's office and signing this petition to demand that they drop the charges, and filling the courtroom when their trial starts on July 25, goes a long way in refusing to accept a fascist America. Many supporters of Alex and Chantelle have chosen to stand on the right side of history. We invite you to join us.

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Coco Das is a member of the editorial collective of refusefascism.org. A related event featuring Pasadena activist and constitutional lawyer Stephen Rohde and the Rev. Cecil "Chip" Murray, among others, is at 5 p.m. Sunday at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd., LA. For information, call (323) 946-1742.

The National Revolution Tour Touches Down in Chicago

July 19, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From a member of the Revolution Tour
July 16, 2019

In mid-July, something new hit the streets of Chicago. Revolutionaries inspired by the vision and taking up the science of Bob Avakian’s New Communism took to the road in early 2019. These volunteers left their jobs and families behind to spread this revolution, build networks of support, and forge concrete organization throughout the country. After a real beginning in Los Angeles, which culminated in a march through South Central, the launch of the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour Chicago leg came off of its headline-grabbing flag burnings on July 4 in Washington, DC and at the U.S.-Mexico border. News of the blood-soaked U.S. imperialist rag going up in flames in front of the White House, which happened at the same time as the fascist-in-chief Trump was having his Nazi rally, went out all over the world, and the righteous aspirations of millions for a world without America and everything it stands for was powerfully represented. In the fires that engulfed those flags, a new world could be glimpsed.

The Tour touched down in Chicago as a major jolt was breaking out around the Trump/Pence regime’s concentration camps for migrants and refugees, and the horrific overcrowded slave-ship conditions within them. The profound need for revolution is sharply posed around these continued atrocities, and the challenge before us is to accumulate thousands to influence the millions, putting this revolution, and the leadership of Bob Avakian and the New Synthesis of Communism he has brought forward, on the map.

Welcome Dinner for the Revolution Tour: Liveliness, Struggle, and the Sense of Something New...

On Friday night, July 12, the 15 or so members of the Tour were welcomed by upwards of 40 people at a dinner held in the Hyde Park neighborhood. The diverse crowd included activists from Refuse Fascism, family members of people killed by police, and new masses who had just met us that week. There was a sense among those who were already familiar with the revolution for some time but have not necessarily come out to everything we have been doing that something new and radically different from our past work is concentrated in this Tour. There was a real anticipation and curiosity that interpenetrated with the overall mood of liveliness and enthusiasm. People local to Chicago in and around the Revolution Club were encouraged to step further into this historic process that the Tour is working to unleash and be part of making this real this summer.

Many people cooked dishes and several restaurants donated food. Attendees contributed funds to the Revolution Tour, including by donating for photos of the July 4th action autographed by the notorious flag burner Joey Johnson.

At the same time as our welcome dinner, the local Refuse Fascism chapter was leading an important protest as part of actions happening worldwide. A few members of the Tour went to unite with this struggle, and Joey Johnson spoke on behalf of the Tour, including by recounting how he and others burned the flag on July 4th. When a second wave of attendees came to the dinner off of this protest, they brought another round of urgency and interest in the Tour's mission.

The Revolution Steps into the Resistance Against Trump's Concentration Camps

On Saturday, July 13, there was another rally against Trump's concentration camps, this one with a more mass character that we aimed to impact on a revolutionary basis. We united with people's deep outrage and the growing militancy among a section of people, and we struggled against the notions promoted from the stage that we could rely on the Democrats and other #BEB. We challenged people to lift their sights and step into the revolution, and fought for everyone to recognize the urgency of driving out the Trump/Pence regime because it is fascist. A big focus of ours was to organize new people to come the next day to see the filmed speech, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, by Bob Avakian, thereby meeting the leader of the revolution and gaining crucial understanding of how humanity can get free.

We also connected new people to our social media. We waged sharp struggle around the questions of reform or revolution, the role of leadership, and other questions sparked by the 5-2-6 broadsheet. We marched in formation, chanting, “Fuck your borders! Humanity first!” One member of the Tour reported, “There were some people on the sidelines whose faces lit up, raising their middle fingers and joining us...it was almost as if it had never crossed them to say 'Fuck Your Borders' & when they did; I wish I could describe the look on people's faces, it was like a mix of joy, surprise and freedom.” One young woman, who had written a song indicting Donald Trump, took to our mic and injected some creative energy into the contingent, marching with us and taking a “BA Speaks – Revolution, Nothing Less!” T-shirt. Drawing out the more radical minded, we represented an alternate pole of authority and attraction.

Getting into BA at the Revolution Organizing Center

On Sunday, July 14, members of the Tour, Revolution Club, broader supporters, and new people came together to watch and discuss the full speech from Bob Avakian, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. After the speech, one of the Tour leaders led a discussion by posing the two parts of the title as questions: What did you learn about these things from this film? This unleashed a very rich discussion in which people’s questions and concerns were collectively wrangled with, including what is meant by “reform” and “revolution.” One member of the local Revolution Club did a sharp and substantive polemic about how, under this system, even the best-intentioned reforms will just lead “back to square one” and you'll be starting over, and over, and over again unless you overthrow the whole system. He gave examples from around the world and throughout history where people had righteously risen up, only to see their struggles drowned in blood and the oppression continue. In this light, he pointed to the tremendous significance of the science and strategy that BA had just broken down in the film.

Another Club member remarked that the first time he saw this film, BA “totally shredded apart” any notion he had left that this system can be reformed. He emphasized that BA fearlessly makes the case with evidence that the system cannot be reformed, and argued that we should challenge anyone who disagrees to provide their evidence to back up their argument. Others, including brand-new people, threw in their thoughts on how to spread this revolution further on the basis of what BA lays out in the speech, showing just a glimpse of what this sort of engagement with this film and this leader can unleash. We’ve also learned from the first leg of the Tour the importance of showing both parts of the film together, and that, as a recent article on revcom.us points out, “People linking up with BA is the most dynamic factor in bringing forward revolutionary forces and enabling masses of people to break with oppressive and unscientific modes of thought and actually work to consciously transform society in a revolutionary direction. BA is the greatest strength that the masses of people have.”

Throughout this all, we were beginning to get our feet wet out in the neighborhoods – sending teams out on the street to agitate and spread the revolution, get a sense of the city, and begin drawing some people forward through street rallies and provocations.

While we still have much more to accomplish here in Chicago, the first few days have been incredibly rich. As we finish this first dispatch, we have just announced big plans for the weekend of July 27th and 28th. Stay tuned here at revcom.us and @tuneintorevcom.

Some Thoughts On The National Tour

More On Putting the Problems and Needs of the Revolution Before the Masses

July 19, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Revolutionaries, even very new people, have to get together (meet) not just to get further enlightened and “educated” by being exposed to advanced materials and more developed leaders, but also to begin to talk with others (even very informally) about the needs of the revolution, the problems of the revolution, and their own ideas and insights about how to break through these problems.

It is not just... people who have been in and around the Clubs for some time who should do this—we should be learning how to have some “quick and simple” organizing meetings with brand new people, right as they begin to turn their faces in the right direction. These should be lively and dynamic, and while they should be led (so as to prevent them from going off into twenty million unproductive directions), this should be done with a light touch that works to allow air to breathe and initiative and questioning on the part of the new people present—new people should feel at one and the same time that this is all very serious (with a very developed strategy and seasoned innovative leadership at the helm, which they are going to be helped to engage and learn more about), but also that this is very exciting and challenging (and even fun) and, very importantly, that their own ideas about what is holding people back and how to break through and spread news of the revolution to millions, and organize thousands now, is something others present want to listen to and it’s something everybody, no matter how new, can get into batting around and implementing. It is the start of what it feels like to be in a “unit” (or a “team”) of revolutionaries, and it is what will make some at least want to “come back” on a more regular basis. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the Tour is working to develop a mass movement for revolution, and to develop an organized force growing into thousands in the near term, and to provide entry level points for new people to not only learn, and not only get involved in concrete practice, but also right from the start get drawn into wrangling (with others, of different levels and abilities, and from different sections of society etc) with 5-2-6 and how to both meet the needs, and solve the current problems, of the revolution.

If we increasingly do “on the spot” or “same day” meetings, it is important that we have figured out ahead of time what the next “time and place” to continue this is going to be (and maybe the new people can help figure that out too). The point is that we do have to have a vision of “revolutionaries getting together regularly” in some form (even if fairly briefly and informally a lot of the time), otherwise we can’t organize and consolidate.

LAPD Infiltrated Refuse Fascism,
Defendants Demand All Criminal Charges Be Dropped
"It's RIGHT to sound the alarm against fascism"

July 20, 2019 | revcom.us

 

For immediate release
July 19 2019
Contact: Refuse Fascism 323-946-1742 or 323-574-3997
What: Interviews/Evening of Conscience in Support of Defendants 
Free the #Freeway9 and #UCLA5 It's right to sound the alarm against fascism! 
When: Sunday July 21, 5:00 pm 
Where: Immanuel Presbyterian Church Wilshire & Berendo, LA 
Interviews available.

 

The LA Times reported today about the LAPD's suppression and surveillance of members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club in the cases of the #Freeway9 and #UCLA5.

These are people facing criminal charges for blocking the 101 Freeway in the Fall of 2017 and for disrupting Steve Mnuchin at UCLA in the Spring of 2018. These actions – for which the defendants are facing years in jail and several thousand dollars in fines – were aimed at sounding the alarm against the Trump/Pence Fascist regime, responding to a call from RefuseFascism.org for a movement of millions to drive this regime from power through mass, sustained, nonviolent protest in the streets.

The first trial of two of these defendants, Chantelle Hershberger and Miguel “Alex” Antonio, ended in a mistrial in mid June. Eight of the jurors refused to convict. But the prosecution is aggressively moving ahead, and trial is set to begin as early as July 25 with a pre-trial hearing set for Monday, July 22 at 8:30am at the Metropolitan Courthouse.

Hershberger, from Refuse Fascism LA, said today, “LAPD Chief Michael Moore acts as if he had no idea that there was an unconstitutional investigation into Refuse Fascism. This is ridiculous. The LA City Attorney brought a total of 56 charges against me and 10 others for the combined cases at UCLA and on the freeway, all brought simultaneously in August 2018 – months after the actions for which we were charged took place. This was a coordinated, political persecution against the kind of protest that we need to be seeing throughout society.” She continued, “The LAPD investigating itself for violating our civil liberties is a farce. They need to drop all the charges against me and my fellow Refuse Fascism and Revolution Club members. With the Trump/Pence regime consolidating a fascist America, sounding the alarm against this in the ways we did was righteous and right.”

Antonio added, “These cases concentrate what's needed right now: protest where thousands and then millions of people step beyond the bounds of meaningless politics-as-usual. They also show why this system, including the Democratic Party, cannot be relied on to stop this fascist onslaught. Even more, they are part of the problem: where the Democrat city attorney office in LA is greasing the skids for fascism by criminalizing, surveilling and persecuting the people who are actually trying to stop Trump and the existential threat to humanity that this regime represents. The actual lives of people mean nothing to them. They show in living color how, despite their differences with the fascist Republicans, the Democrats, a machine of massive war crimes and crimes against humanity, are far more concerned about holding this monstrous system together and keeping people in line than they are about preventing the consolidation of fascism.”

Coco Das, a spokesperson for Refuse Fascism said, “Millions of people want this to stop. But stopping Trump and Pence will take more than wishing something would change, or voicing our outrage on social media. People will have to step outside of their comfort zones. They will have to put something on the line – getting in the streets in sustained, non-violent mass protest to demand 'The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America.' It's not enough to hate what's happening: choose what side you're on, or history will choose for you.”

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Coco Das, national spokesperson for RefuseFascism.org

Chantelle Hershberger, one of the #Freeway9 and a member of Refuse Fascism, LA

Miguel “Alex” Antonio, one of the #Freeway9 and a member of the Revolution Club, LA; part of the Get Organized for an Actual Revolution National Tour

Previous coverage: 
LAPD informant infiltrated left-wing activists during Trump protests, records show 
Los Angeles Times, James Queally, Staff Writer July 19 2019

Los Angeles police spied on anti-Trump protesters 
The Guardian Sam Levin in Los Angeles July 19 2019

LA police embedded informant at 2017 church protests against Donald Trump 
San Francisco Examiner July 19, 2019

Por protestar en Los Ángeles contra la separación familiar, los acusan de conspiración 
La Opinion Jacqueline Garcia June 25, 2019

Alex Hernandez and Chantelle Hershberger go on trial in what they view as a fight against fascism 
Pasadena Weekly Posted by Coco Das, Jul 18, 2019