Revolution Books / Libros Revolución: The War in Ukraine AND The U.S. War Against Women

February 28, 2022

What You Need to Know and Engage This Week

In Bob Avakian's work over the past two years and especially in his extremely timely and important new talk, SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed. A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap for This Revolution, he makes the point that there will be no returning to normal. We cover two big elements of all this in this issue of revcom.

The first is the war in Ukraine: the Russian invasion and bombing, and the posturing and positioning of the U.S. in relation to that. The second is the “war” against women in the U.S.—speaking here not only of the unrelenting overall assault against women’s rights, but in specific the immediate prospect of the Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion by reversing or gutting the Roe v. Wade decision.

In regard to Ukraine, as Bob Avakian (BA) writes in this issue, “Certainly, the big power bullying and aggression by Russia, with its invasion of Ukraine a clear example, is something that all decent people should oppose. But no decent person should be joining in with the U.S. imperialists in their rivalry with Russian imperialism.” We tell you why—with BA’s new piece, “Shameless American Chauvinism: ‘Anti-Authoritarianism’ as a ‘Cover’ For Supporting U.S. Imperialism.” The fact is that way too many people—including people who should know better—are “losing track” of that second point; this article is for them… and for everyone else who is paying attention to the world around them.

We also feature an update on the situation in Ukraine; a piece giving you the historical background on Ukraine; and an interview with Noche Diaz from The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!— Show on YouTube. Get into this—for you are being fed a distorted picture of the real dynamics and driving forces behind this war and being lied to with a simplistic “America’s-the-‘good-guys’” narrative.

Moving to the second main thing this week, on Sunday February 27, Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights led a powerful speak-out at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the heart of New York City. This was followed by a brave act of civil disobedience at which Sunsara Taylor and six others were arrested. And this in turn is building toward demonstrations on International Women’s Day demanding: We Refuse to Let the U.S. Supreme Court Deny Women’s Humanity & Decimate Their Rights. ABORTION ON DEMAND & WITHOUT APOLOGY! This issue contains coverage of that speak-out and action, interviews from the The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, news about the struggle in other countries as well as statements of support for this crucial struggle around the world, and—very importantly—information on how to get involved with this movement.

Ten years ago this past week, the fascist vigilante George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. The outrage around that murder led to a resurgence of the struggle against white supremacy, one that spread from Florida to Ferguson, Missouri, to Minneapolis, the U.S. as a whole, and the world by 2020. This week we look back at the murder of Trayvon Martin and reflect upon what it meant then and what it means for today.

A major element of this whole situation—from falling bombs in Ukraine, to the struggle for abortion rights around the world and the arrests at St. Patrick’s this past Sunday, and the ongoing struggle against white supremacy—is the steamroller going on toward the fascist remaking of society. Yet this is covered over, including by those who claim to oppose these fascists but who insist on referring to them as “authoritarians.” In “Shameless American Chauvinism,” BA writes:

... to refer to Donald Trump and the Republican Party as “authoritarians” makes it seem as if what defines them is simply the urge to ill-gotten and tyrannical power. It tells you nothing about what they are seeking to do with that power—what ideology and what political and social program they are upholding and seeking to implement and enforce. The fact is that they are fascists—which has a very definite content: hatred and violent suppression of Black people and other people of color, immigrants, women and LGBT people, unrestrained plunder of the environment, grotesque American chauvinism, crude anti-intellectualism and anti-scientific lunacy.

And in “SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING,” BA says:

Every day, and in a thousand ways, the reality screams out that there is no living together with this fascist lunacy—and no one should want to! There is no way that any decent person should want to live in the society, and world, that these fascists are determined, that they are willing to kill, to bring into being.

This onrush to the fascist future comes through in sharp relief in “Lurching Into Darkness,” an article on how this drive finds concentrated expression in the state with the second largest population in the country, Texas. The question for you, our readers, is this: what will YOU do? Will you grapple with the two actual choices that we do have—either to live with this, or make revolution? And while you grapple with and dig deeper into that, will you stand up now to resist this onslaught?

The future depends on your answer. Spread the articles in this issue. And go to the Revolution Club panel to find out how to more directly get involved, and to read what the revcoms have been doing and are planning to do.

Included in this issue: