May 23, 2022 A Guide to This Issue of Revolution What You Need to Know and Engage This Week About the World and Revolution |
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We are this week again focusing your attention on Bob Avakian’s (BA’s) article The Supreme Court Moves to End Abortion Rights: “Taking to the Streets,” And Refusing to Let This Go Down. There are millions who see the need to keep the right to abortion and even feel strongly about it. But they have not yet been won to being part of the massive resistance needed to prevent the overturning of Roe v. Wade. They don’t know that it can be won and they don’t know how. This article takes on the arguments standing in their way. It needs to get everywhere—and among those who have read it, BA’s arguments and the method he uses to dig into reality need to be really thought about and worked with. |
Within this battle for abortion rights, there is bound up the question of what kind of future we will have. Decades ago, as the contradictions that scream out today were only beginning to assert themselves, BA wrote the following: The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances… It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms… The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement? |
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At the end of “Taking to the Streets,” And Refusing to Let This Go Down, and after extensive discussion of the importance uniting the broadest numbers of people in this fight and of not letting this battle get derailed by dead ends, BA writes: Fundamentally, to bring about a more just society and world, what is needed, and all the more urgently now, is a revolution to overthrow this whole system, which both Democrats and Republicans represent and work to enforce, even as they have sharp differences between them over how to do this. In “Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating,” I have analyzed in depth why this is a rare time when revolution becomes more possible, even in this powerful country. It is crucially important to understand why this is so—which has to do with the already very deep, and continually deepening, divisions, not only in the country overall but particularly within the ruling class, and why that ruling class cannot continue to rule in the “normal way” it has for generations—and how to move to build up the revolutionary forces with the strategy and organization capable of seizing on this rare opportunity, not in order to achieve a “peaceful transfer of power” from one section of the capitalist-imperialist ruling class to another, but to bring about a seizure of power by a revolutionary people, numbering in the millions and millions and determined to bring about a truly emancipating change—bringing down this monstrous system and building up a radically different and far better system. |
Working to prepare for that revolution right now means, first, aiming high to actually win this battle—going everywhere with the sharpest message possible and winning all kinds of people, including people with real influence, to become actively involved; continuing to build this ferment and resistance among the youth while winning them to impact all of society with their conviction and urgency; and spreading the spirit of making unmistakably clear to those who run society that if this right is taken away, the “machinery” of business-as-usual will not be allowed to function. It means spreading “Taking To The Streets” and enabling many, many people to read this, to discuss it, and to take up the arguments in there with others—all for the goal of refusing to let this foul attack succeed. |
And working to prepare for revolution in the midst of this means, at the same time, the revcoms being out there building this struggle, spreading this article (available in pamphlet form also) and the understanding it contains, marching in disciplined formation with bold banners, and letting people know where they can find out more about this revolution and what it stands for and how they can get connected to it—especially through The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show on YouTube, as well as the revcom social media and this website, revcom.us, and meetings of the Revolution Club, in cities where they exist. |
So this week’s issue focuses on that: we feature an updated panel on the Home page of materials on this struggle, including not only BA’s article but also a new speech from Sunsara Taylor, the new episode of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, new messaging from Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, and reports and visuals from the student walkouts last Thursday. We include what the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, has to say on abortion, as well as other materials from BA, including Part Seven (“Globalized Supply Chain”) of an important new interview (full interview here). We also feature a famous and powerful clip from Mario Savio, a leader of the 1964 Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, another time when people had to take a bold stand… and to go with it, a section of Bob Avakian’s memoir, From Ike To Mao and Beyond, in which he discusses his experience in the Free Speech Movement. |
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And there’s more—much more. Go here for a statement from the Chicago Revolution Club on the cruel murder of a young Black man… and the cruel edict against all Black youth then put into effect by Chicago’s Black mayor, Lori Lightfoot. Go here to find out about important—and ominous—developments in the war in Ukraine, and here to read BA’s reply to former SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) members who now support the U.S. government’s proxy war with their imperialist rival Russia there. And go here to find out about the continued use of Trump’s immigration order that has people seeking asylum in the U.S. in a living hell on the border. |
We also want to call on everyone reading this to watch the 100th episode of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show and especially to spread it to others. This show has to become the way that people all over this country link up with the revolution every week—at a time like this, it is very possible to build the audience fairly quickly into the thousands and then take off from there. Send us your ideas on this and your experience. |
See the table of contents for other important articles this issue. And see you in the streets on Thursday, May 26! |
| “...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 |
A weekly YouTube show about ACTUAL revolution, based on Bob Avakian’s new communism |
What Is the Revolution Club? Who Should Check Out the Revolution Club, Run with It and Join? What Does It Mean To Join? And How Do I Get Started? What do I do first? Find out more about Revolution Club » |
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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WWW.REVCOM.US/REVOLUTION NEWSPAPER brings alive a scientific analysis of major events in society and the world—why they are happening, how different events and developments relate to each other, how all this relates to the system we live under, where people's interests lie in relation to all this, how revolution is in fact the solution to all this and what the goals of that revolution are, how different viewpoints and programs relate, positively or negatively, to the revolution that is needed, and how people can move, and are moving, to build toward that revolution. Revcom.us/Revolution is the guide, the pivot, the crucial tool in drawing forward, orienting, training, and organizing thousands, and influencing millions—fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution—hastening and preparing for the time when we can go for the whole thing, with a real chance to win. Subscribe to revcom.us | Donate to/Sustain revcom.us | Send your correspondence to revolution.reports@yahoo.com |
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