Bob Avakian
A Radically Different Leader —
A Whole New Framework for Human Emancipation
Bob Avakian (BA) is the most important political thinker and leader in the world today.
Bob Avakian is completely different than the endless stream of bourgeois politicians who are put forward as “leaders,” whose goal is to maintain one variation or another of this system of capitalism-imperialism that is founded on and perpetuates itself through cruel and literally life-stealing exploitation, murderous oppression, and massive destruction, in all parts of the world. BA is a revolutionary who bases himself on the scientific understanding that this system must finally be overthrown through an organized struggle involving millions of people, and replaced with a system that is oriented to and capable of meeting the most fundamental needs of humanity and enabling humanity to become fit caretakers of the earth.
Bob Avakian is the architect of a whole new framework of human emancipation, the new synthesis of communism, which is popularly referred to as the “new communism.”
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BA is the author of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, an inspiring application of the new communism—a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a new socialist society, whose fundamental goal is to bring about a world without classes and class distinctions, a world without exploitation and oppression, and without the destructive divisions and antagonisms among people: a communist world.
Ardea Skybreak, a scientist with professional training in ecology and evolutionary biology, and a follower of Bob Avakian, speaks to the importance of what he has brought forward:
Bob Avakian ... on the basis of decades of hard work [has been] developing a whole body of work—theory to advance the science of communism, to advance the science of revolution, to more deeply explain where the problems come from, what the strategy is for getting out of this mess, what the methods and approaches should be to stay on track and actually build a better world, to build a society that most human beings would want to live in. (From Science and Revolution, On the Importance of Science and the Application of Science to Society, the New Synthesis of Communism and the Leadership of Bob Avakian, An Interview with Ardea Skybreak)
BA is a leader who is firmly convinced, on the basis of a consistently scientific method and approach, that the goal must be nothing less than all-out revolution, and who at the same time has emphasized:
the new communism thoroughly repudiates and is determined to root out of the communist movement the poisonous notion, and practice, that “the ends justifies the means.” It is a bedrock principle of the new communism that the “means” of this movement must flow from and be consistent with the fundamental “ends” of abolishing all exploitation and oppression through revolution led on a scientific basis. (From Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, A Basic Summary)
As a revolutionary leader, BA also embodies this rare combination: someone who has been able to develop scientific theory on a world-class level, while at the same time having a deep understanding of and visceral connection with the most oppressed, and a highly developed ability to “break down” complex theory and make it broadly accessible.
A leader like this has never before existed in the history of this country, and this leadership is of tremendous importance for the emancipation of all humanity.
What is urgently needed now is for continually growing numbers of people—in the thousands, and ultimately millions—to become conscious and active followers of BA, building the revolutionary movement, based on the new communism, for which BA provides this unprecedented leadership.
Being a communist today means following Bob Avakian
and the new path that he has forged.
Important Articles from Bob Avakian
NEW YEAR’S STATEMENT BY BOB AVAKIAN
A New Year,
The Urgent Need
For A Radically New World—
For The Emancipation Of All Humanity
Read it here:
English
Spanish
Farsi (reposted from the website cpimlm.org)
From Bob Avakian—Revolutionary Leader, Author of the New Communism:
THIS IS A RARE TIME WHEN REVOLUTION BECOMES POSSIBLE—
WHY THAT IS SO, AND HOW TO SEIZE ON THIS RARE OPPORTUNITY
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What is Bob Avakian’s new communism?
A whole new framework for human emancipation.
Bob Avakian ... on the basis of decades of hard work [has been] developing a whole body of work—theory to advance the science of communism, to advance the science of revolution, to more deeply explain where the problems come from, what the strategy is for getting out of this mess, what the methods and approaches should be to stay on track and actually build a better world, to build a society that most human beings would want to live in. — Ardea Skybreak
Read the book online
Authored by Bob Avakian.
A concrete and visionary blueprint for a radically different society.
Read the book online
New from Insight Press
insight-press.com
Available online at Amazon,
Apple Books, Barnes & Noble,
Kobo and other major retailers
(EPUB, MOBI, PDF)
Read the book online
The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation
Read excerpts from the book
More from Bob Avakian’s works: films, books, articles, audio
Hope For Humanity
On A Scientific Basis
Breaking with Individualism,
Parasitism and
American Chauvinism
Bob Avakian
Author of
The New Communism
Read excerpts here, including
Individualism, BEB and the Illusion of “Painless Progress”
With a Note Added by the Author, Fall 2019
Bob Avakian’s collected works: films, books, articles, audio
Close
Who is Bob Avakian (BA)?
As a leader, Bob Avakian embodies a rare combination: someone who has been able to develop scientific theory on a world-class level, while at the same time having a deep understanding of and visceral connection with the most oppressed, and a highly developed ability to “break down” complex theory and make it accessible to the masses of people.
BA provides strategic and tactical leadership, in an ongoing way, for the revolutionary struggle, in all its crucial dimensions, and he has greatly developed the science and art of communist leadership.
Get to Know BA
Where do I start?
BOB
AVAKIAN
LIVE
WHY WE NEED AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION AND HOW WE CAN REALLY MAKE REVOLUTION
A speech by Bob Avakian
Part 1: WHY WE NEED AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION
Part 2: HOW WE CAN REALLY MAKE REVOLUTION
Watch clips from the speech and Q&A
THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!
In The Name of Humanity,
We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America
A Better World IS Possible
A Talk by Bob Avakian
The handbook for revolution. You can’t change the world if you don’t know the BAsics.
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A wide-ranging interview with Ardea Skybreak, a scientist with professional training in ecology and evolutionary biology, and an advocate of the new synthesis of communism brought forward by Bob Avakian.
Read the full interview
BA on Trump/Pence fascism in the U.S. and the
Rise of Fascism in the World
A Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian:
THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!
In The Name of Humanity,
We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America
A Better World IS Possible
The Fascists and the Destruction of the “Weimar Republic”...
And What Will Replace It
Originally published in 2005
Bob Avakian on the Right-Wing Agenda:
The Truth About Right-Wing Conspiracy…
And Why Clinton and the Democrats Are No Answer
Originally published in 1998
September 2017:
Talk by Bob Avakian
The Problem, the Solution, and the Challenges Before Us
An important talk given by Bob Avakian in the summer of 2017.
Read talk | 
Listen
BA Speaks to Key Faultline Contradictions of this System
This needs to be EVERYWHERE
There is an urgent need for this new synthesis to be taken up, broadly, in this society and in the world as a whole: everywhere people are questioning why things are the way they are, and whether a different world is possible; everywhere people are talking about “revolution” but have no real understanding of what revolution means, no scientific approach to analyzing and dealing with what they are up against and what needs to be done; everywhere people are rising up in rebellion but are hemmed in, let down and left to the mercy of murderous oppressors, or misled onto paths which only reinforce, often with barbaric brutality, the enslaving chains of tradition; everywhere people need a way out of their desperate conditions, but do not see the source of their suffering and the path forward out of the darkness.
From Resolution #6 of “Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA”
January 1, 2016
Dig Deeper Into BA’s New Synthesis of Communism
Editors’ note: Posted below is an important document by Bob Avakian. It is also an important companion to SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION: On the Importance of Science and the Application of Science to Society, the New Synthesis of Communism and the Leadership of Bob Avakian, An Interview with Ardea Skybreak, which our readers should continue to study and to use and popularize broadly.
THE NEW SYNTHESIS OF COMMUNISM:
FUNDAMENTAL ORIENTATION,
METHOD AND APPROACH,
AND CORE ELEMENTS—AN OUTLINE
by Bob Avakian, Summer 2015
CONTENTS
- Introductory Point of Orientation
- Method and Approach: Communism as a Science—Further Development of Dialectical Materialism
- Internationalism
- The Strategic Approach to Revolution, Particularly in Imperialist Countries Such as the U.S.—But with Implications More Generally
- Building the New Society, Advancing to a New World
- Conclusion/Summary
Introductory Point of Orientation. The new synthesis is, in a real sense, a “work in progress,” as I am still actively applying myself to leading and to learning, from many sources, and hopefully this new synthesis will continue to be further developed and enriched as a result of ongoing work in the theoretical realm in dialectical relation with further developments in the world and in particular the further advance of a revolutionary struggle whose ultimate aim is a communist world. But it is correct to say that, as a result of work I have carried out, over a number of decades, summing up the experience of the communist revolution and socialist states and drawing from many diverse spheres of human activity and thought, there is already a further, qualitative development in the science of communism that is embodied in the fundamental orientation, method and approach, and the core elements, of the new synthesis. Because of the importance of what this represents—and the importance of presenting this in a form that is both concise and concentrated, as well as an accurate rendering, to serve as a basic grounding and guideline and to encourage and facilitate further engagement with the new synthesis—I have written the following outline. As with the new synthesis itself, this outline is not something final but a reflection of what has been brought forward up to this point, and the qualitative leap this represents, even as this is a process that is ongoing; it provides a basic indication of the essential method and approach, and other important components, of the new synthesis. In what follows, the different dimensions where communism has been further developed through this new synthesis are indicated, followed by some of the key sources where these points are spoken to (in some cases works by others, which speak to important aspects of the new synthesis, are cited; but where no authorship is indicated, the reference is to a work of mine).
Method and Approach: Communism as a Science—Further Development of Dialectical Materialism
Freedom and necessity—a further synthesis:
Neither the emergence of the human species nor the development of human society to the present was predetermined or followed predetermined pathways. There is no transcendent will or agent which has conceived and shaped all such development, and nature and history should not be treated as such—as Nature and History. Rather, such development occurs through the dialectical interplay between necessity and accident and in the case of human history between underlying material forces and the conscious activity and struggle of people.
(This statement of mine is cited by Ardea Skybreak in Of Primeval Steps and Future Leaps, and this understanding of freedom and necessity is discussed in the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! and in “Ajith—A Portrait of the Residue of the Past,” by Ishak Baran and K.J.A., in Demarcations #4.)
Epistemology: a scientific theory of knowledge. Against relativism.
(SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION: On the Importance of Science and the Application of Science to Society, the New Synthesis of Communism and the Leadership of Bob Avakian, An Interview with Ardea Skybreak, available at revcom.us; “Ajith—A Portrait of the Residue of the Past”)
Epistemology and morality. Against “might makes right,” and how relativism and “truth as narrative” ultimately lead to “might makes right.”
(BAsics 4:10; Away With All Gods!—Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World, especially Part Four; BAsics 5:11; “Ajith—A Portrait of the Residue of the Past”)
Epistemology and partisanship. In the relation between being scientific and being partisan, being consistently scientific is principal, and the basis for being, correctly and fully, partisan to the proletarian revolution and its goal of communism.
(“Ajith—A Portrait of the Residue of the Past”)
Against populism and populist epistemology. Against reification—the mistaken concept that the oppressed, because of their exploited condition and place in society, have a “special purchase on the truth,” and in particular a special ability to understand the dynamics of society and its transformation. Against religiosity/religious tendencies in communism.
(BAsics 4:11; Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy; “‘Crises in Physics,’ Crises in Philosophy and Politics,” in Demarcations #1; Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA)
A consistently scientific political economy, a consistently dialectical materialist approach to the relation between the economic base and the superstructure of politics and ideology.
(“On the ‘Driving Force of Anarchy’ and the Dynamics of Change,” by Raymond Lotta in Demarcations #3; “Can This System Do Away With, or Do Without, The Oppression of Women?—A Fundamental Question, a Scientific Approach to the Answer,” in the compendium Break ALL the Chains!—Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution ; Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon, Part 1)
Beyond democracy and equality. A further development of Marx’s profound insight that the advance to communism involves society, and the people who make up society, moving “beyond the narrow horizon of bourgeois right,” in their material conditions and in their thinking, and his critical understanding that right can never be higher than the economic structure of society, and the culture conditioned thereby.
(Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That?; Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity, Part 1)
“Solid core with a lot of elasticity based on the solid core.”
(Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy; SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION: On the Importance of Science and the Application of Science to Society, the New Synthesis of Communism and the Leadership of Bob Avakian, An Interview with Ardea Skybreak)
“Emancipators of humanity.” The communist revolution is not about revenge, or “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last,” but is about emancipating humanity, ending all exploitation and oppression throughout the world.
Internationalism
The material basis and philosophical basis, and the overall approach, of communist internationalism.
(BAsics 2:12; “Advancing the World Revolutionary Movement: Questions of Strategic Orientation”; “Communism or Nationalism?,” a polemic by the OCR, Mexico, in Demarcations #4)
Summing up the first wave of the communist movement/socialist states.
(Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must and Will; Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution, Part 2 and Part 3; Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA; “You Don’t Know What You Think You ‘Know’ About... The Communist Revolution and the REAL Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future,” An Interview with Raymond Lotta, Revolution #323, November 24, 2013)
The Strategic Approach to Revolution, Particularly in Imperialist Countries Such as the U.S.—But with Implications More Generally
Lenin’s What Is To Be Done?—revived and “enriched”—in terms of heightened emphasis on putting the problems of the revolution before the masses, but also on how communist consciousness must be “brought from outside” the direct experience and struggle of the masses, the importance of the ideological realm, and transforming the thinking of the people; and on the need to “push on” objective developments, a further development of a core element in What Is To Be Done? Hastening while awaiting—acting to transform the objective situation to the maximum degree possible at any given time, while being tense to new, and perhaps unforeseen (or even unforeseeable), events and how other class/social forces are themselves “working on” the objective contradictions from their own point of view and in line with how their representatives perceive their interests.
(The first six paragraphs of Part 2 of Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity)
Mao emphasized the dialectical relation between matter and consciousness, and stressed the need to be oriented to be prepared for unexpected developments; but precisely this kind of orientation, understanding, method and approach is synthesized—in a fuller, higher and more concentrated way—in the new synthesis.
(This informs “Some Principles for Building a Movement for Revolution” and the statement “On the Strategy for Revolution,” by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.)
Separation of the communist movement from the labor movement. Analysis of the bedrock base and driving force for revolution, and the broader united front under the leadership of the proletariat.
(Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon, Part 2)
The role of intellectuals as political and literary representatives of a class, and the contradictions bound up with this in the proletarian revolution.
The pivotal role of the Black national question, the pivotal relation between national liberation and proletarian revolution, in the U.S.
(Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy; “The Oppression of Black People & the Revolutionary Struggle to End All Oppression”; The films
REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN;
Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About;
BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!;
Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal))
The crucial role—and the even further heightened role in today’s world—of the struggle for the emancipation of women and its relation to the proletarian revolution and its goal of emancipating all humanity through the advance to a communist world.
(BAsics 3:22; Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution, Part 3; Break ALL the Chains!—Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution)
The seizure of power.
(“On the Possibility of Revolution,” by the Revolutionary Communist Party; Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon, Part 2)
Building the New Society, Advancing to a New World
Carrying forward the socialist transformation of society, as part—fundamentally a subordinate part—of the overall world revolution toward the ultimate goal of communism.
The “parachute point”—the “opening out” of social relations and the expression of social and class contradictions with the consolidation of the new socialist state.
(The Basis, the Goals, and the Methods of the Communist Revolution)
“Solid core with a lot of elasticity based on the solid core,” applied to socialist society. Recognition of the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the leadership of a communist vanguard, during the socialist transition to communism, and at the same time a heightened emphasis on the importance of dissent and ferment, politically, intellectually, culturally, on the foundation of and as a key part of exercising the dictatorship of the proletariat and carrying forward the transition toward communism, and, with the achievement of communism, the abolition of dictatorship of any kind.
(Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy; “Alain Badiou’s ‘Politics of Emancipation’: A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World,” by Raymond Lotta, Nayi Duniya, and K.J.A., in Demarcations #1)
The role of a socialist constitution, rights of the people and the rule of law with the dictatorship of the proletariat.
(Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon, Part 1; Constitution, Law, and Rights—in capitalist society and in the future socialist society, Selections from the writings of Bob Avakian and excerpts from the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal))
The relation between abundance and revolution, within a socialist country and internationally.
(Birds Cannot Give Birth to Crocodiles, But Humanity Can Soar Beyond the Horizon, Part 1)
All this is embodied, applied and amplified in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).
Conclusion/Summary. What is most fundamental and essential in the new synthesis is the further development and synthesis of communism as a scientific method and approach, and the more consistent application of this scientific method and approach to reality in general and in particular the revolutionary struggle to overturn and uproot all systems and relations of exploitation and oppression and advance to a communist world. This method and approach underlies and informs all the core elements and essential components of this new synthesis.
CONTENTS
- Introductory Point of Orientation
- Method and Approach: Communism as a Science—Further Development of Dialectical Materialism
- Internationalism
- The Strategic Approach to Revolution, Particularly in Imperialist Countries Such as the U.S.—But with Implications More Generally
- Building the New Society, Advancing to a New World
- Conclusion/Summary