Andy Zee's Opening Commentary for The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less—Show, July 22, 2021:

Revolution IS What Humanity Needs
Introducing Bob Avakian's
THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—
WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY

July 26, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Welcome:   The RNL—Revolution Nothing Less—Show # 62;  July 22, 2021; Andy Zee; Los Angeles

Opening:

We mean what the name of our show says: Revolution—Nothing Less...

This IS:

What the planet we live on NEEDS...

What humanity, if it is to survive, NEEDS... 

What the youth of all nationalities for whom this system has no future NEED...

What Black and Latino youth who are dogged—if not murdered—by the police, … who are locked up in prisons and jails by the millions, whose lives are too often reduced to killing each other over what amounts to a pitiful piece of turf NEED...

What those who are not in that life but seek safety behind apartment doors or stuck in houses with bars on the windows that make homes a kind of prison NEED...

What women who should be able to live as full human beings free from the threat and reality of sexual abuse and rape and having the basic right to control their own bodies and reproduction NEED...

What trans and all LGBTQ people who are under assault from fascist thugs and the Republi-fascist party that is working to assume power again NEED…

What students who spend 20 years of schooling only to end up deep in debt and with atomized jobs, lobotomized, producing trivial pursuits NEED… 

What those who are able to work in health care or teaching only to be thrown up against the brutal wall of the profit system and the political setup that thwarts their desire to heal and teach—a bitter reality that burns a deep wound in their soul NEED...

What all of us NEED...

What Humanity Needs is Revolution, Nothing Less!  People want change... people in their millions don't want to live like this. 

But, up against people recognizing and getting with REVOLUTION, NOTHING LESS for a radically different and far better future looms SOMETHING ELSE—the terrible present.  This sits in the back of your mind… and it pushes to the front, maybe at night, or maybe when you least expect it, and it fills you with fear or dread of the morrow. A fear of the future and burying of hope that causes you to turn away from the reality that stalks humanity... making you feel that all that you can do, all that you should do, is to take care of you, to protect your little corner in a shooting gallery of rivals whether online or in deadly neighborhood warfare… but you, but we, can't hide from the fires that burn and now smother much of the country with smoke, from water running dry, from rising seas, and most of all from great conflicts among the rulers that roil this land and the world. To see this potential, to pierce through the fog of what is, requires the most scientific approach to the reality we face.

From The Revcoms: A DECLARATION, A CALL TO GET ORGANIZED NOW FOR A REAL REVOLUTION says:

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.

A Declaration, A Call says:

Revolutions are not possible all the time, but are generally possible only in rare times and circumstances, especially in a powerful country like this.

AND THAT

This is one of those rare times and circumstances.

This statement is as BOLD as it is SHOCKING to people who have not thought revolution possible for decades—caught up and confined in the world as it is on the surface today.

We have said these words for a few months on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less—Show and we have worked to bring them to life. Now, Bob Avakian—Revolutionary Leader, Author of the New Communism, has written a major piece, a companion to A Declaration, A Call, a lifeline of clarity, titled:

THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—

WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY

This is a work that makes the case, develops the argument, for why the moment in history that we are living in RIGHT NOW could be ripened into a revolutionary crisis, a situation where a real revolution for a far better world could be launched and won. This is an article that deepens our understanding of how that is so, how we should go to work right now to prepare the people, how to organize the forces today to seize the time to actually make a real revolution and drive this people-killing, soul-crushing system off the face of the earth and go to work building a radically new society where all humanity could flourish.

Bob Avakian cuts deep to the root of the problem, dissects the political situation, stretches our sights wide to encompass the broad potential among many different kinds of people for this revolution.  Having illuminated how this is so and what needs to be done to make this real, BA concludes with this: 

There is the basis to seize on the rare possibility to make revolution, even in a powerful country like this—there can be a real chance to win—IF, among growing numbers of people who cannot stand to live any longer under this people-killing, spirit-suffocating system, there is the scientifically-grounded understanding, determination and daring to make this a reality.

Over the last few weeks in key political “battleground” states where the Republican fascists have a majority, state legislatures have passed measure after measure restricting the right of Black and Brown people to vote, and more than that, new rules, that would enable the fascist Republican Party to overturn an election they don't like the results of ….

Over the last few weeks some in the Democratic Party have voiced seemingly strong objection to this, with Biden intoning “Have You NO Shame” to people who have none.  Democrats have been making speeches saying this is a revival of Jim Crow to a Republi-fascist movement and party who have spent the last 50 years trying to do just that.  Appeals to the consciences of people who have none, with Biden trying to “reach across the aisle” and find common ground with fascists, an approach that Bob Avakian has said will fail miserably in his New Year’s Statement. In this new piece BA cuts to the heart of the situation with this:

These divisions among the ruling powers, and in the larger society, cannot be resolved within the framework that has existed, and has held things together, for nearly 150 years, since shortly after the end of the Civil War which led to the abolition of slavery—they cannot be resolved on the basis of the capitalist “democracy” that has been the “normal” means of capitalist rule (dictatorship) for so long.

I repeat:  These divisions CANNOT BE RESOLVED within the normal framework that has existed for 150 years.  

Think about that. Don't turn away out of fear or because you don't wish it to be true.  Or, because it challenges your cherished assumptions and beliefs.

Bob Avakian makes the case for WHY there is the possibility of making revolution in this moment in “THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE.” But revolution will not just happen. There's work to do.

For the situation that makes revolution possible to become a reality, all who see the need for this need to, as “A Declaration, A Call” says:

…urgently change the situation where not nearly enough people know about this revolution and are with it.  We need to get this revolution, and its leadership, known everywhere.  We need to challenge and seriously struggle with people right around us, and all over the country, to do something that, yes, requires real heart and will make a positive difference for real—become part of this revolution, and follow this revolutionary leadership.  We need to organize more and more people into the ranks of the revolution. 

And that means getting “A Declaration, A Call” out everywhere, getting Bob Avakian's new article “THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY” everywhere.

It means fighting hard for this—changing ourselves, changing the world, and changing people.  Bob Avakian says that everyone who recognizes the profound need for revolution needs to wage a tireless, and at times fierce struggle to win more and more people to make a radical rupture with the confining and degrading terms of this system, and to take up, and act on, the revolutionary orientation and motivation that is put forward in the “Declaration and Call.”

BA says:

Instead of “staying in your lane,” and “going for self,” while this system is moving to even more decisively crush any hope for a world worth living in, people need to be looking at the bigger picture, focusing on the greater interests of humanity and the possibility for a far better world—and acting to make this a reality.

Where to begin? 

[1] “A Declaration, A Call” says get together to grapple with

why an actual revolution is necessary,

what such a revolution involves,

and what kind of society this is aiming for. 

This will enable people who are new to the revolution to themselves become organizers for this revolution and to recruit more and more people to do the same.

[2] This weekend if you are in Los Angeles or New York City, there are mass Revolution Club Meetings where people who see the need for real change will discuss these questions and make plans.

[3] Go online and read—and download it if you can—“THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE” by Bob Avakian and start digging into it. 

Here, I have just touched on its depth and scope.  BA presents a sharp analysis of the system we live under, how it has given rise to the current acute situation; he paints a vivid picture of how we could act to hasten this revolution taking the reader from how we go to work with the small forces for revolution today all the way up to a situation where a revolution could be launched; while the whole piece resonates with a profound morality of the goal of the emancipation of all humanity.  And, all of this is rooted in the scientific method and approach of the new communism that grounds not only our understanding, but our determination, and our daring to make this a reality.

[4] Then, if you are in New York or can get there, go to Revolution Books on August 4, where I will be speaking on this new work by Bob Avakian.  Then, the next day, Thursday, August 5, 2021 on the The RNL Show we will show a film of this presentation.  Organize watch parties now.

So, with this, we have a special show program for you today.