A Guide to the New Issue of Revolution

 

From Revolution / revcom.us: What's in This Issue—A Guide to REVOLUTION, October 18, 2021 October 18, 2021   Welcome to this week’s issue of REVOLUTION, the newspaper of Revcom.us. This is where you come to catch up on significant events of the last week and how they tie into the larger dynamics in the world, where you can read and dig into new work from Bob Avakian along with earlier work that bears very directly on the events we describe, and where you can find out news from the movement for revolution. This week we are publishing a new article by Bob Avakian, BA, revolutionary leader and author of the new communism: “Living Marxism vs. Vulgarized Marxism, Liberating Revolution, Not Lifeless Reformism.” BA takes on the widespread distortion of Marxism which claims Marx spoke only to “class,” and not oppressive social relations like white supremacy and male supremacy. He shows how this is wrong and concisely and clearly goes through the keystones of the science founded by Marx and Engels, and as it was further developed by Lenin and Mao, to refute it. And BA goes into the further work that he has done in bringing forward the new communism—including, but not limited to, the ways in which this new communism analyzes and gives emphasis to how the struggles against different kinds of oppression form “indispensable components and powerful driving forces in the communist revolution.” This should be distributed widely and gotten into with all kinds of people, especially people now getting interested in the revolution. In “Blitzkrieg of Hateful New Laws and Measures in Texas: Marching Toward a Fascist AmeriKKKa” (here) along with articles on the basketball player Kyrie Irving’s controversial—and reactionary—refusal to be vaccinated for COVID-19 (here and here), we get into some of the ways that fascists are moving to increase their power and influence in society. (While Irving himself is not a fascist, his reactionary, selfish stance on COVID is being welcomed and used by the fascists.) These events form part of a larger and very important picture. As A DECLARATION, A CALL TO GET ORGANIZED NOW FOR A REAL REVOLUTION put it: Revolutions are not possible all the time, but are generally possible only in rare times and circumstances, especially in a powerful country like this. This is one of those rare times and circumstances. This system is in real trouble, caught up in crisis and conflicts for which it has no easy or lasting solutions. Throughout this country the workings of this system have given rise to deep divisions which cannot be resolved under this system. Society is being ripped apart. Those who rule are locked in a bitter fight among themselves, and they cannot hold things together in the way they have in the past. Although there are a lot of bad things connected with this and it could lead to something really terrible, it is also possible that we could wrench something really positive out of it— revolution, to put an end to this system and bring something much better into being. Why this is so is gone into greater depth in THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY, by Bob Avakian, and we again urge everyone to get into both this and the Declaration and Call in an ongoing way. Doing that will enable you to put what we cover about current events in the world each week into perspective. This summer has driven home the reality of climate change and people have begun—and really just begun—to get a sense of the horror this will actually mean. In two weeks, on October 31, the great powers of the world will assemble in Glasgow, Scotland, to bicker and bargain over what to do about this, while the earth and its precious web of life continues to burn. But what will—what must—WE do? Read "As the World Burns and Its Rulers Fiddle in Glasgow… A CALL TO THOSE WHO WANT A RADICALLY DIFFERENT FUTURE FOR HUMANITY"—and then spread this everywhere where people are getting together to protest Glasgow and talk about what must be done. In the mid-1990s, Bob Avakian initiated the idea of a national day of protest against police brutality, repression, and the criminalization of a generation. This got taken up and during the late '90s and into the next century thousands of people in scores of cities would come into the streets in protest each year on this day. Today this horror continues as a running sore of this system—with new videos of atrocities committed by the pigs surfacing every week, new exposures of their widespread murders, brutalities and cover-ups coming to light all the time, and over two million people—disproportionately "minority"—still in prison, with many millions more either stigmatized for having been in prison, or under parole, probation or some other form of state control, or both. To mark this day this year, we are publishing a new version of the Stolen Lives Poster (go here) and featuring a number of important articles and clips on this from Bob Avakian over the past year. Shortly before publication, REVOLUTION received a powerful letter from Mariam Claren, the daughter of Iranian political prisoner Nahid Taghavi (here). If you have not heard of Nahid before—or if you have, and you have been following her case—you are going to want to read this latest letter from her daughter on the one-year anniversary of her imprisonment by the Iranian government for political reasons. Find out about the campaign to burn the cages and free all the political prisoners held by the reactionary Iranian regime. That gives you some sense of what is new in this issue of REVOLUTION and where you can go to find out more. Other articles cover how the Supreme Court’s current refusal to act against the new Texas law which effectively outlaws abortion echoes a decision from 150 years ago that gave a green light to lynch mob terror ("Texas's Abortion Ban and Lessons from the 1873 Supreme Court Decision that Green Lighted Lynch Mob Terror") and the latest in the Biden Administration’s more hidden but just-as-heartless-in-the-end policy toward immigrants ("Forced Back to Mexico: U.S. Drives Haitian Refugees Even Deeper Into Hell"). Finally, we’re posting today a call to a mass meeting next Sunday called by the Revolution Club LA; check your local Revolution Club for listings. To find out more about the Revolution Club, go here.

@The Revcoms     YouTube.com/TheRevcoms     www.revcom.us

ABOLITION—REAL AND ILLUSORY by Bob Avakian

 

From Revolution / revcom.us: ABOLITION—REAL AND ILLUSORY   by Bob Avakian, Revolutionary Leader, Author of the New Communism October 11, 2021 In a previous article (“Police and Prisons: Reformist Illusions and the Revolutionary Solution”), I have made a scientific analysis of why the idea of abolishing (or “defunding”) the police and abolishing prisons under this system is a serious and harmful illusion.2 And, as a matter of fact, as spoken to in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which I have authored, even in the fundamentally different and emancipating society for which this Constitution provides a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint, there will still be a need for security forces and prisons, although these institutions will be radically different and serve radically different purposes than institutions of this kind (police and prisons) under this system of capitalism-imperialism.3Today, there are people who call themselves “abolitionists.” In addition to the abolition of literal slavery remaining in the world today, for some “abolition” means the ending not only of the racial discrimination that exists throughout the law and the application of the law in this country, and the mass incarceration that is bound up with this, but the ending of a society that requires and institutionalizes these outrages. But what these abolitionists do not say—and what is critically important to recognize, and act on—is the truth that it will require the revolutionary overthrow of this system of capitalism-imperialism and its replacement by a socialist system, aiming for the final goal of communism, in order to bring about a society, and world, that will actually do away with and move beyond racial oppression, in every form, as well as all other relations of oppression and exploitation. An article on revcom.us states this very basic and crucial truth: You cannot bring a radically different and emancipating society into being, moving to abolish all oppression and exploitation, without breaking the capitalists’ violent hold over society (the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie) and establishing a radically different socialist form of rule (the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat). And only with this socialist system can you give the most powerful support to the revolutionary struggle throughout the world.1 Without this, there is simply no way to abolish the systematic discrimination, brutality and outright murder by police, and no way to do away with the mass incarceration and what amounts to torture in prison of millions of especially Black and Latino men (and growing numbers of women). To speak bluntly: Regardless of their intent, those who talk of “abolition,” without talking about the need for this revolution, are “the foolish victims of deceit and self-deceit” (to invoke an important formulation from Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, who made crucially important contributions to communist theory). And here the question is sharply posed: If you really want to abolish prisons and police that embody and enforce terrible, murderous injustice—if you really want to abolish systematic, systemic and institutionalized white supremacy—why not dedicate your efforts to abolishing this whole system that requires all this, and replacing it with a system that does not? Why not become actively involved in the movement, led by the new communism, to prepare for and then carry out an actual revolution to overthrow this system, and bring something much better into being, aiming for the abolition of all exploitation and oppression, everywhere, as set forth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America? That is an abolition really worth dedicating your life to.

@The Revcoms     YouTube.com/TheRevcoms     www.revcom.us

WATCH AND SHARE!

Why The World Is So Messed Up, And What Can Be Done to Radically Change This—A Basic Scientific Understanding. By Bob Avakian

 

From Revolution / revcom.us: Why The World Is So Messed Up, And What Can Be Done to Radically Change This— A Basic Scientific Understanding   by Bob Avakian October 4, 2021 In other works, including The New Communism and Breakthroughs, this fundamental point is emphasized: The mode of production sets the framework—the terms and the limits—for what goes on, and is possible, within the society grounded in that mode of production. “Mode of production” is another way of saying “the economic system,” or the economic base of society. This is the fundamental way in which people are organized to “interact with each other, and with the rest of nature, in order to meet their basic needs and provide for future generations.”3In today’s world, to fundamentally change society, you must seize power—overthrow the existing state power and establish a new state power. In the article Commodities & Capitalism—And The Terrible Consequences Of This System, A Basic Explanation, I examined the basic contradictions which have historically developed in the foundation and at the core of the capitalist system, and how the communist revolution—and only the communist revolution—can bring about a resolution of these contradictions that is in the interests of the masses of humanity, and ultimately humanity as a whole.1 In another article, I spoke to this crucial understanding about the nature and dynamics of not only capitalist society but human society more generally, and the basis for the radical transformation of society: people live in societies that are organized as systems—systems that are grounded in the ways people interact with each other, and with the rest of nature, in order to meet their basic needs and provide for future generations. And those systems have certain basic relations, and ways of functioning, that are independent of the will of any particular individuals or groups of people, even those who occupy the dominant position within those systems.2 Since the break-up of early communal societies among human beings thousands of years ago, economic systems have been based on the exploitation of the many by the few: a situation where these “few” who own and control the major means of production (land, factories and other production facilities, machines and other technology) are in a position to force others to work to create wealth for them—and if these “others” do not do this, they will not be able to survive. Such, for example, is the system of outright slavery, but also the system of feudalism, where large landowners exploit masses of serfs—peasants owning little or no land and basically having no rights which those landowners are bound to respect. This was the situation not only in large parts of the world—including in Europe, Japan and China—until more recent times, but also with the system of “sharecropping” in the southern U.S., where masses of Black people, and some poor whites, were viciously exploited by plantation owners, for nearly 100 years after slavery was (for the most part) abolished through the Civil War of 1861-65.   In the world today, the dominant system of exploitation is capitalism, which has developed into capitalism-imperialism, a worldwide system that not only exploits tens of millions of wage-workers in this country, but even more viciously exploits hundreds of millions of people, including more than a 150 million children, in a vast network of sweatshops, mines and farms, particularly in the Third World (Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia). But here is something that is crucial to understand: economic systems (or modes of production) are not just something that some powerful people somehow invent and impose on masses of powerless people. The nature of the economic system is basically determined by the relations of production—the way in which people are organized to utilize the forces of production that exist (the forces of production consist of the means of production, along with the people, with their knowledge and abilities). And, again, the mode of production constitutes the foundation, and sets the terms and limits, for what goes on in society overall. An Illustration of These Basic Relations and Dynamics: Why Are Black People Still Viciously Oppressed? Here’s an example from fairly recent history in this country that illustrates this basic point. The system of sharecropping, in the U.S., particularly in the South, after the Civil War, was based on intense manual labor by people, particularly (though not only) Black people, who owned little or no land, and were in debt to large landowners, who controlled and profited from the crops that were produced and sold. The technology was very primitive, compared to the technology of today, with much of the plowing done by horses and mules, and the harvesting of the crops mainly done by hand. But then, after World War 2 (which ended in 1945), new technology had been developed, such as tractors and picking machines, which began displacing large numbers of sharecroppers. With the creation of a larger market for their products, and in a situation of heightened competition, not only within this country but also internationally, it was necessary, and it was more efficient and profitable, for these large landowners to use this machinery in place of sharecroppers. This, along with the striving to escape terrible conditions of oppression, in the rural South in particular, was a major factor propelling masses of Black people into the cities in the South, but also a mass migration of millions to the urban areas of the North and West. But what situation did masses of Black people find themselves in, under these new conditions? Not only in the South, but throughout the country, they were subjected to systematic segregation and discrimination, backed up by continuing terror, carried out by police along with other white supremacist thugs. All this was a major impetus for the civil rights and Black liberation movements that powerfully erupted in these new conditions. But, even while important changes were brought about through the great struggle and sacrifice of masses of people, this did not eliminate the basic situation of oppression and exploitation of the masses of Black people. Why? Because this struggle took place within—and did not bring about the overthrow of—the system that dominates in the society as a whole: the system of capitalism-imperialism. Although masses of Black people were now living in new conditions, they were not starting over with a “blank slate,” free to choose any way to live that they desired. In order to live and provide for their families, they were forced to seek employment in large factories and other workplaces that were owned by capitalists, and forced to live within a capitalist society—which, from the beginning and throughout its history in this country, has had white supremacy poured into its foundation and woven into all its dominant relations and institutions. The Basis Now Exists for Emancipating All Oppressed People, All of Humanity This gets to another important point about the systems that characterize the societies that people live in. These systems are historically evolved. This means that changes in human society are based, and can only be based, on transforming what already exists in that society, on the foundation of the forces of production that have been developed at any given time. And even revolutionary changes—a radical leap from one system to another—can only proceed on the basis of transforming what exists. This cannot be done by coming up with ideas or notions about how society “ought” to be, if those ideas or notions have no basis in the existing reality. What is crucially important to understand is that the basis now exists to enable the billions of people on this planet to have the means for a decent life, worthy of human beings—a life that is continually being enriched, not just materially but socially, intellectually and culturally. But, at the same time, the way human society has developed under the domination of this system of capitalism-imperialism has led to a highly “lopsided” world, where billions of people in the world live in horrific conditions of oppression and misery, with millions of children in the Third World dying each year from starvation and preventable diseases. Quiet as its kept: All this is the basis on which a relatively small part of the people within this country, and a very small part of humanity as a whole, has the conditions and the “freedom” to develop and apply their initiative and creativity—only to have this serve, under this system, to reinforce the “lopsided,” highly unequal and profoundly oppressive conditions in the world as a whole and for the masses of people in the world. And all this is completely unnecessary.4 It is the productive forces that have been developed under the capitalist-imperialist system that actually provide the material basis to move beyond all this. But, at the same time, it is this system, with its mode of production based on exploitative relations of production, that is the direct barrier to making this a reality—is a chain on the masses of people throughout the world, and on humanity overall. This brings us to the fundamental contradiction of capitalism—between socialized production and private appropriation. Under this system, things are overwhelmingly produced through organized means of mass production, with the machinery and other technology that makes this possible. This is carried out, and can only be carried out, by large numbers of people working together in different sites of production (factories, and so on) and ultimately millions, and billions, of people organized into interconnected chains of production and transportation (“supply chains”). And this is what forms the basis for society’s functioning and for people to survive and reproduce. But all this is controlled by—and the products of all this are appropriated by—competing capitalists, with the most powerful and dominant anchored in a few capitalist-imperialist countries (such as the U.S., Germany, Japan, Russia, and China). This fundamental contradiction—between production that is socialized and the private appropriation of what is produced, and the corresponding concentration of not only wealth but the means to create wealth (the means of production) in the hands of a small minority of humanity, in a small number of countries—this acts as the essential barrier and chain on human emancipation and suffocates the vast human potential that is now shackled under the domination of this system. This is what is preventing humanity from acting as fit caretakers of the earth, by approaching this in a planned and cooperative way, and instead is driving things toward environmental and ecological disaster at an ever accelerating pace. On the other hand, it is the communist revolution which has the basis to resolve this fundamental contradiction, by socializing the ownership of the means of production—moving to make them the common property of society—and, on this basis, carrying out economic development in a planned and sustainable way, revolutionizing the relations of production as a whole, as well as the corresponding social relations (for example, gender and “racial” relations), and the superstructure of politics, culture and ideology. (A “superstructure” is something which is built on top of a foundation; so, for example, the walls and the roof of a house constitute a “superstructure” that is built on the foundation of the house). To Fundamentally Change Society, You Must Seize Power Here we come to another crucially important understanding that is brought to light through the application of the scientific method of communism: the economic base (the mode of production) is the foundation of human society; and, on this foundation, there will be a superstructure of politics, culture and ways of thinking (ideology) that, in their dominant expressions, reflect and serve to maintain this economic base. (In other works, such as Breakthroughs, Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon, and Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity, I have spoken to, and provided examples illustrating, why it is that the superstructure of any functioning society will, and must, correspond to, and serve to reinforce, the economic base of that society.5) It is the superstructure that maintains and enforces the existing economic base (mode of production) and the corresponding social relations. So, while the economic base is the foundation of society, which sets the terms and limits for how all of society can and must function, it is in the realm of the superstructure—and in particular the domination of political power—where the direction of society, and in particular the potential to radically transform society, is determined and resolved. In its most essential terms, the domination of political power is expressed through a monopoly of armed force and violence (and, in particular, institutionalized armed force and violence which is declared “legitimate”). To see this in simple and graphic terms, think of what happens under this system when people mobilize in the attempt to bring an end to injustice and oppression: they are met with the repression and violence of the superstructure of this system, in particular the police and armed forces, the courts and prisons—which concentrate the state power enforcing the existing system.6 In order to transform society to put an end to the injustice, oppression and exploitation that is built into this system, and is grounded in its mode of production, it is necessary to break the back of its system of state power, its violent rule over society (the dictatorship of the capitalist-imperialist class), and establish a new system of power, a socialist state power (the dictatorship of the proletariat), in order to radically transform the economic base, the corresponding social relations, and the political and ideological superstructure as a whole, toward the goal of uprooting and finally abolishing all relations of exploitation and oppression, everywhere. To sum up this essential understanding of the relations in society and the basis for radically changing society: The economic base (the mode of production) is the foundation of society, which sets the ultimate terms and limits for what can happen in a given society; but it is in the superstructure where revolution can and must be made, by overthrowing the existing state power and system of political rule, and establishing a radically different state power and system of political rule, in order to move forward to transform the economic base, the social relations, and the superstructure as a whole, including the political institutions and processes as well as the culture and ideology. Or to put things in basic and simple terms: In today’s world, to fundamentally change society, you must seize power—overthrow the existing state power and establish a new state power. This Revolution Is Possible, and Urgently Needed This is the historic necessity and challenge before us today: the overthrow of the capitalist-imperialist system, with its monopoly of political power, concentrated as the monopoly of so-called “legitimate” armed force and violence, and the establishment of socialist state power, enabling the radical transformation of society as a whole, and aiming for the final goal of communism, with the abolition of all relations of exploitation and oppression, throughout the world. This revolution is not just a historic necessity in some general (or abstract) sense. It is a pressing, urgent demand of our times, when this system of capitalism-imperialism—through its massive arsenals of nuclear weapons, which must be abolished, and its increasing destruction of a liveable environment—not only imposes horrendous, and unnecessary, suffering on the masses of humanity, destroying lives and crushing spirits, but also poses a growing threat to the very existence of humanity. More than that, as a Declaration from the revcoms makes clear, and as I have gone into in an article elaborating on key points in that Declaration: This is one of those rare times when this revolution becomes possible, even in a powerful country like this.7 This rare opportunity must not be wasted and squandered. It must be actively worked for, in an organized way, with scientifically-grounded passion and determination, by everyone who hungers for a world without the misery, brutality, and destruction, and the agony, alienation, dread and despair that is the daily life and terrible condition of billions of people across the earth, when the time has long since passed when that is necessary or can in any way be justified, and there is the basis and the possibility for a radically different and emancipating existence and future for humanity. In the words of the opening of A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution, from the revcoms: To everyone who can’t stand this world the way it is ... who is sick and tired of so many people being treated as less than human ... who knows that the claim of “liberty and justice for all” is a cruel lie ... who is righteously enraged that injustice and inequality go on, and on, and on, despite false promises and honeyed words from people in power (or those seeking power) ... everyone who agonizes about where things are headed and the fact that to be young now means being denied a decent future, or any future at all ... everyone who has ever dreamed about something much better, or even wondered whether that is possible ... everyone who hungers for a world without oppression, exploitation, poverty, and destruction of the environment ... everyone who has the heart to fight for something that is really worth fighting for: You need to be part of this revolution.8

Upcoming Articles by Bob Avakian at revcom.us: Abolition—Real and Illusory Living Marxism vs. Vulgarized Marxism  Liberating Revolution, Not Lifeless Reformism Recently published: No Right to Kill with Religion  “Religious Exemptions” Are Not a Legitimate Reason for Refusing Vaccines

_______________ FOOTNOTES: 1. This article by Bob Avakian (Commodities & Capitalism—And The Terrible Consequences Of This System, A Basic Explanation) is available at revcom.us. [back] 2. Bob Avakian, Why Do People Believe the Most Ridiculous and Outrageous Nonsense? Wild Distortions Of Reality, Deadly Illusions Of “Painless Progress,” And The Urgent Need For A Real, Scientifically-Grounded Revolution. This article is also available at revcom.us. [back] 3. Bob Avakian, The New Communism, The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation, Insight Press, 2016. This book can be ordered from The Bob Avakian Institute (thebobavakianinstitute.org), as well as Insight Press, and through revcom.us. Breakthroughs, The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, A Basic Summary, by Bob Avakian, is available at revcom.us. [back] 4. Bob Avakian, Capitalism-Imperialism—The Suffocation of Seven Billion—And The Profound Need For A World On New Foundations, is part of a collection of articles Bob Avakian: Writings in 2020—A Momentous Year, which is available at revcom.us. [back] 5. Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon (Part 1: Revolution and the State; Part 2: Building the Movement for Revolution), and Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity (Part 1: Beyond the Narrow Horizon of Bourgeois Right; Part 2: Everything We’re Doing Is About Revolution) are available at BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us. In each of these works, see Part 1 in particular. Specifically in regard to the relation between the base and the superstructure, the author has called attention in particular to this passage from Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity: It is important to grasp this point that the need for radical change in society gets called forth in the superstructure—in the thinking of people, and then in the political organization of people. People form groups, they form parties with programs and objectives which reflect—reflect not in a reductionist, linear and one‑to‑one sense, but reflect ultimately—what’s going on in the basic relations in society, in terms, most fundamentally, of the contradiction between the forces and relations of production. This gets reflected more or less consciously in people’s thinking and then in their political organization. And in acting on their ideas, in seeking to bring about change in correspondence with their ideas, they come up against constraints—not only economic but also political constraints—the force of the state and the power relations in society which they have to shatter and transform in order to (once again in relative, not absolute terms) unleash and liberate the productive forces, including the people. This is how societies change in a fundamental and qualitative way—how and why revolutions are called forth and occur, through momentous struggle. [back] 6. For a further discussion regarding state power, see the article From Bob Avakian: Once Again On Why All Dictatorships Are Not Bad, And Why We Should Want, And Fight For, A Socialist Dictatorship, which is available at revcom.us. [back] 7. From The Revcoms (Revcom.us): A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution is available at revcom.us. The article From Bob Avakian—Revolutionary Leader, Author of the New Communism: This Is A Rare Time When Revolution Becomes Possible—Why That Is So, And How To Seize On This Rare Opportunity, is available at revcom.us. [back] 8. A Declaration, A Call To Get Organized Now For A Real Revolution. [back]

@The Revcoms     YouTube.com/TheRevcoms     www.revcom.us