As one key part of what is a sweeping and wide-ranging work, BA digs deeply into the basis for, and the implications of, the consolidation of the Republican Party as a fanatical, truth-denying fascist party, one which is “hell-bent” on violently remaking all of society to be even more viciously and repressively white supremacist, male supremacist and national chauvinist. He analyzed the ways in which those sections of the rulers (mainly inside the Democratic Party), who are opposed to this fascism but who are still dedicated to preserving this horrendous system of worldwide exploitation and oppression, were attempting to deal with this but have no real answers to either this fascist assault or the actual forms of oppression that torture, degrade and drain the life out of the masses of people every hour of every day. He showed how the depth of this conflict has led to a situation in which the old ways that the rulers had held things together were now being rent apart and could no longer hold—that there would have to be a radical change, one that was either reactionary and enslaving or revolutionary and emancipating. He exposed the ways of thinking in the so-called “progressive” movements and among the masses that hold back and do damage to the revolutionary struggle. And on that basis he showed how revolutionaries could go to work on this situation, one which now is hurtling in a direction of still further, unimaginable horror, to transform it into one in which millions of people, with a tested core of hundreds of leaders, could be brought forward to make revolution. This work, as BA says in the title, forms a necessary foundation upon which one can understand the events of this tumultuous period and a basic road map with which we can transform it. This is why BA’s talk is the first thing you come to when you open up this website every week. This is what we revolutionaries use to analyze and understand the situation and how to transform it. This is what this website attempts to apply every week. And this is what we invite YOU to dig into, talk with us about, and spread to others. |
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Right now, and on the basis of what is in this talk, revolutionaries—and everyone who cares about the future—need to be raising hell, dramatically calling out this system and its crimes, and the still worse crimes it is on track to commit, struggling with people over how they are thinking about all this, and mobilizing people to act. Revolutionaries need to provoke, challenge, inspire and organize thousands and then millions—all to this purpose: Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force. |
International Women’s Day: An Important Step Forward |
One important step in carrying forward this transformation took place last week on March 8, International Women’s Day, when hundreds marched to defend the right to abortion. The fascists have already drastically ripped away the right to abortion in Texas and set the stage for virtually eliminating abortion—pending the Supreme Court decision expected in June which (if it goes as expected, an outcome that the so-called pro-choice movement is conceding) will trigger laws which will virtually eliminate the right to abortion in Texas and the whole middle of the U.S. This will mean that forced motherhood, which is nothing less than female enslavement, will be on track to become the law of the land. And that will mean horrendous suffering and degradation in the here and now for countless women. Yet the so-called leadership of the so-called pro-choice movement is itself so enslaved to the dictates of the Democratic Party—which wants to avoid confrontation with the fascists over this issue—that they have refused to mount any struggle or even sound the alarm about this forced enslavement of women! Millions and millions—most people, to be accurate and blunt—don’t even know what is about to happen! It is against this backdrop—and up against the need to mobilize thousands and then millions, very quickly, to oppose and defeat this horror—that the marches in over a dozen cities took place last week…marches that can in fact mark a real and important beginning, if they are correctly understood and built on. So go here, here and here to find out what happened, to draw important lessons and to dig into how to go further, and go to the site of Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights to learn how to get involved in this crucial movement. And go here and here, for worldwide coverage of this. |
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Students in Tallahassee, Florida, walk out to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation. Photo: @AnnaForFlorida |
Very much linked to the attack on abortion is the heavy reinforcement of patriarchal (male supremacist) gender oppression in general going on right now, spearheaded by the fascists. These fascists are on a rampage. This issue covers two important fronts of this: a horrendous Florida law that would outlaw any positive education around or even mention of LGBTQ people and relationships in public schools, with potentially severe penalties—nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” law—and the ongoing horrific police repression directed against transgender people, especially Black and other oppressed nationality trans women. |
Ukraine: A Dangerous Flashpoint and a Critical Struggle That Must Be Waged With How People Are Thinking |
The most critical international conflict going on right now is the war in Ukraine, where Russia has launched a horrible military invasion of the sovereign country of Ukraine, and NATO—the military alliance headed by the U.S.—has been backing Ukraine with significant arms shipments, military training, economic warfare, and perhaps other means as well. Within the U.S., this war has entered into the conflict between the fascists and those in the ruling class opposed to them. |
The truth is this: while the Russian invasion is utterly unjust and wreaking terrible suffering on the Ukrainian people, this war grew out of imperialist contention between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO bloc of imperialists for influence and power within Europe. The U.S. is not and has not been some innocent good-hearted giant standing above the fray; it is a bloody-jawed beast, one that supports the even bloodier and indeed genocidal war now going on in Yemen. (That war, in Yemen, is NOT being covered in the U.S. media with anything approaching even 1/1000th of the attention being given to Russia and Ukraine.) Both sides, in different ways, are pursuing imperialist interests. People should be opposing both the Russian invasion and the maneuvers and machinations of the U.S. and the NATO bloc to utilize the war for their imperialist purposes, and should definitely struggle very hard against the dangerous demagogy going on among many so-called liberals and leftists who are in one way or another supporting “our rulers” and even, outrageously, calling on them to “do more against the Russians.” |
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We here within the U.S., living under a system whose war crimes—past AND present—dwarf those of Russia and indeed every other power on the planet, must be raising hell among the people to see how they are allowing themselves to be made the “foolish victims of deceit and self-deceit,” in the words of the great revolutionary leader V. I. Lenin. As Bob Avakian has recently written, "What is called for, and urgently now, is to oppose all imperialist marauders and mass murderers, and all systems and relations of oppression and exploitation, while giving particular emphasis to opposing 'our own' imperialist oppressors who commit their monstrous crimes 'in our name' and seek to rally us to support them on the basis of a grotesque American chauvinism, which we must firmly reject and fiercely struggle against." |
In the midst of all this, the Democrats continue their embrace of outright piggery in the name of getting “tough on crime.” The spectacle of Joe Biden crowing like a mockingbird in his State of the Union address “fund the police… fund the police… fund the police… fund the police…” four times—and getting a standing ovation when he did even from the fascists!—should not be filed away. This too—not just the speech but the whole program of increased repression that it fought for—has to be continually opposed. We’ve covered this in recent issues here, here and here and we want to strongly encourage readers to continue to get out this graphic and this basic point of understanding. These are the main arenas in this issue. And there are other articles, letters, reports and images as well, all detailed in the table of contents. With all these: read to understand… and wield to transform. |
| “...we have two choices: either, live with all this — and condemn future generations to the same, or worse, if they have a future at all — or, make revolution!”—Bob Avakian |
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Unbelievable as it may seem, in the 21st century there are still people—including people in positions of power and authority—who are determined to force women to bear children, regardless of the situation, the feelings, and the better judgment of those women themselves. That is a way of enslaving women to the dictates of an oppressive male supremacist, patriarchal system; and that is what the cruel fanatics who are determined to deny women the right to abortion are really all about. — Bob Avakian |
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