November 7, 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 began last week’s guide to the issue with a question: If you could meet a great revolutionary thinker and leader—if you could go up close and personal with them, finding out what they think about key issues in the world, how they see making revolution, how they look at some of the most controversial questions and sacred cows in society… as well as how they came to be the way they are… if you could go one-on-one with them and hear what they thought about humanity, about friendship, about poetry—about everything that goes into making life worth living—would you? |
Last Thursday, for many people that encounter began. They listened to Bob Avakian, BA, grapple with the most existential and excruciating questions that we face today. They heard him do it with sharpness and scientific method, with creativity, with humor and, yes, even with song. Yet he never once flinched from laying out the terrible difficulty—the horror, really—that humanity faces. He did more than that, though; he showed you how we could begin working to transform that terrible looming future, the only way it can be transformed: through revolution—people in their millions rising up to put an end to this system of capitalism-imperialism. To paraphrase Malcolm X, BA didn’t tell people what they want to hear, but what they need to hear—and went right up against the “conventional wisdom” and “what everyone knows” to do it. He did this with science and heart and a bone-deep conviction that people can change. And he told you some of the ways how he himself has changed over the course of his life. |
Many of the people who watched—new and old alike—were tremendously moved and sparked. We’re highlighting a few responses on the page devoted to these interviews. But many more—thousands and even tens of thousands—need to see it… and soon, to race to catch up to the situation we face. That’s the key thing now to get to the point where millions could be mobilized to go all-out, consciously, up against the system to make that revolution. So what do we need to do to make that happen? First, watch the interview again. Think about it. Learn from it. Talk it over with others. Next, start spreading the word, talking to others about why they need to watch it. Invite them into it… but if they resist, or argue, or hem and haw, be clear: at a moment when the future hangs in the balance—indeed, when the question of whether humanity will even have a future is in serious doubt—it’s unconscionable to refuse to engage with BA. |
For the people who’ve heard, or been influenced by, the attacks on BA—challenge them to think critically. For instance, as we said last week, People raise that they are uncomfortable with one leader, that this smacks of “cult” and “dictator,” that “the people are the real leaders,” that no one who is Black—or Latino, or female, or transgender—is going to (or should) follow an old white guy. Well, there are answers to all that “stuff” and more—answers which are addressed on revcom.us, often by BA himself (see “Bob Avakian Speaks to ‘Cult’: A Ridiculous, Ignorant, and Irresponsible Accusation,” “BIPOC Leadership: There Is No Such Thing,” “Once Again on Why All Dictatorships Are Not Bad, and Why We Should Want, and Fight for, a Socialist Dictatorship”). |
But to those who do see something of real importance and potential in this interview, now is the time to spread it. People should spread it with the best understanding they have, drawing from and using the materials on the special page, especially the excerpted videos from the interview itself. Talk your experience over with one another and through reflection and practice improve your approach. Revcoms should plan high-impact outings that make a splash and a scene, inviting people new and old to come with them, and play excerpts from the interviews in a big way right on the spot. Final step: let us know what you did and what you learned, so we can share the lessons (write to revcom.us at revolution.reports@yahoo.com). In brief, getting these interviews seen by thousands and tens of thousands before the new year is the leading edge of what revolutionaries and people who care about the future of humanity need to be doing for the next six weeks. Imagine: tens of thousands learning about what Bob Avakian is really all about, what kind of revolution he’s working for, and how he’s going at it… thousands in one way or another spreading the word and themselves learning more as they do… and building a movement that can change the face of this suffering planet. * * * |
Many people have trouble seeing how we could go from where things are today to the kind of situation where people could make revolution. But look at Iran, right now, where millions have taken to the streets, seemingly overnight, with a determination to get free. What began as an important struggle against the oppression of women has spread to be a multi-pronged mass uprising against the hated oppressive regime. |
But people there face big questions: What will bring liberation? What kind of revolution is needed? And what must be done to get there? These questions are grappled with in an important new piece from the Communist Party of Iran, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. The CPI (MLM) are followers of the new communism, fighting as one contingent in a movement to emancipate all humanity. So read this, as well as other important news from the struggle in Iran, and go here and here to read earlier important documents from the comrades there. * * * |
The revcoms are working tirelessly to apply the science and strategy developed by Bob Avakian—the new communism, in short—to making revolution. This week we are running two letters (here and here) about recent experiences that distill important lessons from recent experience in this. In this issue: * Three-part interview: Up Close and Personal with Bob Avakian Heart and Soul & Hard-Core for Revolution |
* 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, by Bob Avakian * Organizing for an Actual Revolution: 7 Key Points * Strategic Commanders of the Revolution, by Ardea Skybreak * This Republic—Ridiculous, Outmoded, Criminal, by Bob Avakian * Struggle in Iran |
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| “...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 |
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 » |
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* New: Letters from revcoms on debating “woke” identity politics vs. revolution and the new communism |
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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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