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Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/667/this-is-the-situation-these-are-the-stakes-en.html
Updated | revcom.us
Editors' Note: What follows is an important message that concisely outlines the dynamics of the struggle around the presidential election. This originally appeared at revcom.us in late September, before the election and Biden's victory over Trump in the popular and Electoral College votes. The points here are even more relevant than ever.
THIS IS THE SITUATION, THESE ARE THE STAKES.
TRUMP IS DETERMINED, AND HAS A STRATEGY, TO STAY IN POWER, AND HAMMER INTO PLACE HIS FASCIST PROGRAM—MURDEROUSLY ENFORCING INJUSTICE, CRUSHING BASIC RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES, ACCELERATING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND HEIGHTENING THE DANGER OF NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION—NO MATTER HOW PEOPLE VOTE. Trump is already stealing the election, he has a plan in place to use key institutions, including the Supreme Court, and violent thugs, in and out of uniform, to keep his regime in power.
THE DEMOCRATS’ STRATEGY IS LIKELY A LOSING STRATEGY THAT WILL LEAD THEM TO CAPITULATE TO TRUMP (even if the actual voting favors the Democrats). Left to their own devices, the Democrats do not have the ability or the will to fight Trump the way he needs to be fought. Despite the fact that the Trump/Pence regime represents an existential threat to humanity, the Democrats have refused to call out this fascist regime for what it is and oppose it on that basis. They are calling on people to just vote as if this is a “regular” election and the “normal rules” apply. The Democrats are trying to rely on procedures and institutions that this fascist regime has corrupted, destroyed, or taken over.
IF FASCISM FULLY TAKES HOLD IN THE MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, THIS COULD LEAD TO A CATASTROPHE FROM WHICH HUMANITY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RECOVER.
FOR EVERYONE WHO CARES ABOUT JUSTICE, ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, AND A FUTURE WORTH LIVING FOR HUMANITY: WE NEED TO TAKE UP THE CALL FROM REFUSEFASCISM.ORG TO ORGANIZE AND MOBILIZE DETERMINED AND CREATIVE NONVIOLENT ACTIONS AND SUSTAINED DEMONSTRATIONS, DAY AFTER DAY, BECOMING INCREASINGLY MASSIVE AND POWERFUL, DEMANDING TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!—CHANGING THE WHOLE POLITICAL EQUATION AND SITUATION IN THIS COUNTRY, MAKING EVERY FORCE IN SOCIETY RESPOND TO THE POWERFULLY DEMONSTRATED DEMAND OF MASSES OF PEOPLE THAT THIS FASCIST REGIME MUST BE REMOVED.
Despite what the Democrats stand for, and how their approach would severely limit and cripple the fight against this fascist regime, in terms of voting people need to massively vote against Trump, by voting for Biden. BUT IT IS ABSOLUTELY CLEAR:
VOTING WILL NOT BE ENOUGH—AND SIMPLY RELYING ON VOTING WILL VERY LIKELY LEAD TO DISASTER. WE NEED TO TAKE TO THE STREETS NOW, AND STAY IN THE STREETS, DEMANDING TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!
For further understanding of all this, see these important works by Bob Avakian, available at revcom.us: the three-part series Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now! (in particular Part 3, Trump’s Fascism—More Blatant and Dangerous Every Day: How a Determined Fight and Massive Mobilization Could Defeat This) and Statement by Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On the Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need to Drive Out the Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting in This Election, And the Fundamental Need for Revolution.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/refuse-fascism-be-in-the-streets-and-town-squares-en.html
Reposted from RefuseFascism.org:
| revcom.us
We have been living through a rolling coup—a theft of an election—heading to a showdown November 3. Biden-Harris campaign buses with Democratic politicians on board were surrounded and nearly run off the road by MAGA caravans in Texas. Police in North Carolina pepper-sprayed families marching to the polls. This is the violence the Trump/Pence regime has unleashed to remain in power. Trump wants to claim victory on Election Night and stop the counting of millions of votes, and is now backed by a pro-fascist majority on the Supreme Court.
NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND TOGETHER IN THE STREETS AND PUBLIC SQUARES, CONTINUING THROUGH THE ELECTION AND AS LONG AS IT TAKES TO DRIVE THIS FASCIST REGIME OUT OF POWER.
We must vote in big numbers. But, the reality is that voting alone will not stop Trump. Nor can we rely on Biden and the Democratic leadership to wage the kind of struggle that is needed to stop a fascist coup. After we vote, the masses of people must take to the streets in non-violent protest and take an unequivocal moral stand: We demand Trump/Pence Out Now! Our numbers, our diversity, and our heart for humanity can overwhelm this fascist movement and sustain us through whatever the Trump/Pence regime tries to do to remain in power. As we grow, we will inspire millions more to join this great struggle, until those in power are compelled to concede to our single demand that the regime must go.
November 4, meet up with Refuse Fascism at 3:30 p.m. local time. Rally in the public square and march together to 5 pm protests with our demand on behalf of humanity: Trump/Pence Out Now!
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Reposted from RefuseFascism.org:
| revcom.us
Not since the days when the KKK murdered Black people who tried to register to vote have we seen anything like this. The right that people shed their blood to win is under attack from Trump and the fascist Republican Party.
These white supremacists are trying to steal the election. WE MUST STOP THEM! Over the next nine days join us in nonviolent action to thwart the attempts of the Trump/Pence regime to block Black, Latino and Indigenous people from voting.
We need to be real clear on what is going on—it’s a matter of life and death. This is not a “typical election.” This is not “oh, they’re both the same.” THIS IS A NINE-ALARM EMERGENCY. This is part of a rolling fascist coup. This is part of bringing in a regime in which people who do not go along with white supremacy, male supremacy, and America-first-over-the-world will have NO rights whatsoever. As Carl Dix, an initiator of Refuse Fascism, has said, “I have been warning for years that mass incarceration and police murder has been part of a slow genocide against Black people. Now we face the danger of a fast one.”
People are acting. Black and Brown people all over the country are coming out early to vote. All kinds of groups are filing suits and fighting in the courts. Others are preparing for election day itself, to protect people’s right to vote against Trump’s fascist marauders.
We support these efforts. Voting is essential. But VOTING WILL NOT BE ENOUGH. These next nine days before the election we in Refuse Fascism are organizing to:
You are needed to be part of this. Join with us to go to the battleground states beginning this week.
TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW!
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Reported from RefuseFascism.org — Shorter Version:
| revcom.us
Not since the days when the KKK murdered Black people who tried to register to vote have we seen anything like this. The right that people shed their blood to win is under attack from Trump and the fascist Republican Party.
These white supremacists are trying to steal the election. WE MUST STOP THEM! Over the next nine days join us in nonviolent action to thwart the attempts of the Trump/Pence regime to block Black, Latino and Indigenous people from voting.
People are acting in opposition to this. Black and Brown people all over the country are coming out early to vote. All kinds of groups are filing suits and fighting in the courts. Others are preparing for election day itself, to protect people’s right to vote against Trump’s fascist marauders.
We support these efforts. Voting is essential. But VOTING WILL NOT BE ENOUGH. These next nine days before the election we in Refuse Fascism are organizing to:
You are needed to be part of this. Join with us to go to the battleground states beginning this week.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/election-night-with-refuse-fascism-en.html
| revcom.us
A RefuseFascism Live Broadcast
produced in association with The RNL—Revolution Nothing Less—Show
Join Andy Zee, co-initiator of Refuse Fascism and co-host of The RNL—Revolution Nothing Less—Show, and Coco Das, member of the Editorial Board of Refuse Fascism, for Election Night coverage, November 3, starting 8:30 pm EST (5:30 pm PST).
Featuring:
No election—in history—has carried greater stakes for humanity, for the planet, and for people in this country.
What has been a rolling coup—the stealing of an election—is coming to a head on Election Day...
What happens next is unwritten. The masses of people who refuse to live in a fascist America must write that history...
This is what the RefuseFascism live broadcast will report on, analyze, and provide direction to what you, to what people in their millions, need to do to stop a fascist stealing of the election and a fascist America.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/670/bob-avakian-only-someone-worse-than-a-fool-en.html
| revcom.us
Only someone worse than a fool would want that racist Confederacy-loving white supremacist, pussy-grabbing misogynistic male supremacist, LGBT-bashing, rights‑trampling, science-denying, environment-destroying, war-mongering, xenophobic “America first” bloodsucking fascist motherfucker Trump to get re-elected.
Bob Avakian
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/659/bob-avakian_statement-on-the-immediate-critical-situation-en.html
| revcom.us
1The situation today holds truly unprecedented and momentous challenges, with profound implications not only for the people in this country but for all of humanity. Three years ago, I spoke to this reality—which has become even more pronounced, and even more dangerous, in the time since then:
We are confronted by—we are now being ruled by—a fascist regime: relentlessly assaulting civil rights and liberties and openly promoting bigotry and inequality; acting with callous disregard or cold-blooded malice toward those they consider inferior and a drain or stain on the country; on a mission to deny health care to millions who will suffer and many who will die without it; crudely degrading women, as objects of plunder, breeders of children without the right to abortion or birth control, subordinate to husbands and men in general; defying the science of climate change, attacking the science of evolution, and repudiating the scientific method overall; a regime brandishing an arsenal of mass destruction and threatening nuclear war; intensifying state terror against Muslims, immigrants, and people in the inner cities; unleashing and giving encouragement and support to brutal thugs spewing vile “America First,” white supremacist, male supremacist, and anti-LGBT venom—a regime that boasts of all this and declares its intention to do even worse.
This is a regime headed by “a demented bully” with his finger on the nuclear button. It is a regime that, without exaggeration, threatens not just greatly heightened suffering for the masses of humanity but the very existence of humanity itself, through its intensified moves to further the plunder of the environment and its boasts of unequaled weapons of mass destruction and its blatant declaration of willingness to use those weapons, including its massive nuclear arsenal.
I have also emphasized that it is this system of capitalism-imperialism which, through its “normal workings,” has brought forth this fascism, and that no fundamental change for the better can be brought about under this system, and instead this system must be overthrown and replaced by a radically different and far better system, in order to abolish and uproot all relations of exploitation and oppression, and the violent conflicts they give rise to—all of which is built into the foundations of this system and its ongoing functioning and requirements.
Right now, for everyone who is concerned with ending injustice and oppression, and with the question of whether humanity will have a future worth living—or will have a future at all—removing the Trump/Pence fascist regime from power is an immediate, urgent question and truly historic imperative.
And, for those who understand the need for revolution, for the overthrow of this system, as the fundamental solution to the continuing horrors this system causes for the masses of humanity (whether this system is ruled through an open fascist dictatorship, or the disguised “democratic” dictatorship, of the ruling capitalist class), the immediate struggle to oust the Trump/Pence regime from power must be approached not as a “diversion” from (or “substitute for”) building the movement for the revolution that is needed, but precisely as part—a crucial part and urgent requirement—of the overall work of building for this revolution.
Our fundamental goal, and guiding star, remains: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
In everything we do, including in all the struggles we take part in that are themselves short of revolution, our consistent approach is, and must be, to make all this serve that fundamental goal of revolution and the emancipation of all humanity.
***********
Normally, we revolutionary communists argue that people should not vote in bourgeois elections, which serve to reinforce the existing system of capitalism-imperialism and feed popular illusions that exploitation, oppression and injustices can somehow be “reformed away” short of getting rid of the system that gives rise to these horrors in the first place. But is this the right position to take in relation to this particular election?
To answer this, we need to look at the whole picture. [Read again]
2Already, in the nearly four years it has been in power, we have been forced to witness and endure the horrors already committed, and the grave danger posed, by the Trump/Pence regime. Trump ran his campaign in 2016 on what amounted to a straight-up fascist program, including blatant white supremacy and male supremacy, and xenophobic racism toward immigrants, particularly those from Mexico and other countries which Trump regards as “shit-holes,” as well as open advocacy of torture and thuggery by police and Trump’s “civilian” supporters. And, once in power, Trump has blasted ahead with the implementation of this program, steamrolling over any “institutional norms” that stood in the way of this, even in the face of impeachment—and with heightened arrogance and momentum once his fellow fascists in the Republican Party voted to acquit him in the Senate.
Essentially, everything that is described about this regime at the beginning of this statement is what Trump and those around him have carried out with a vengeance. This has become all the more flagrant and aggressive with the approach of the election scheduled for this November. And imagine what Trump will do if he is given a second-term “mandate” through re-election this coming November.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the response of Trump and Pence to this has also provided another graphic illustration of the anti-scientific nature of this regime and its utter disregard for the suffering of masses of people, especially those most despised by this regime and most vulnerable to and hit hardest by this pandemic.
But, as horrific as all this has been, it is not just a matter of horrific policies but of a qualitatively different form of rule, based on brutal repression and violation of what are supposed to be the most basic rights.
Already we have seen Trump, in flagrant violation of Constitutional principles, send occupying storm troopers, from various federal government agencies, to criminalize dissent and suppress people protesting in Portland and other cities, and to add to the reign of terror against masses of people in the inner cities of Chicago and elsewhere.
We have seen Trump’s crude displays of “America First” jingoism, including his repeated calls for severely punishing those who, in his view, have failed to show the appropriate patriotic fervor, or who have dared to raise criticism and protest against some of the more glaring oppression carried out by enforcers of this system, in particular the ongoing brutality and murder of Black, Brown, and Native American people by police. We have witnessed his continual encouragement of white supremacist thuggery, by police and by “Second Amendment people” and other “very fine people.”
All this calls to mind the rise to power and the rule of Hitler and the NAZIs in Germany during the 1930s and early 1940s. As Hitler built his fascist movement, thugs would be mobilized to brutalize and terrorize people who didn’t show support for Hitler and the NAZIs—assaulting them on the street and in other public places. Once the NAZI fascist state had consolidated its power, any opposition was severely punished and crushed. All those who did not openly endorse and proclaim the official NAZI ideology were targeted. Large numbers of people were purged from public institutions—all those, in particular Jews but others as well, who were deemed “alien” to the “pure Germanic race” and an obstacle to the monstrous aims of the NAZIs. Beginning with the communists, but before long encompassing the Jewish population, Roma people, homosexuals, and others, concentration camps were filled with those who were considered a threat to the NAZIs or a “stain” on the German nation. And this led, before long, to the mass genocide of millions of Jews in Germany and countries conquered and occupied by the NAZIs.
All this did not happen all at once—but it took place within a relatively short period of time (a decade or so), and with an increasingly accelerating pace. The rule of law was not openly and formally abandoned altogether, but the “law” and “the rule of law” became the same as what Hitler and the NAZIs said it was. Much of what Hitler and the NAZIs did, during their reign of terror and genocide, was “in accordance with the law”—law that they had reduced to nothing more than their barbaric aims and means, murderously enforced by institutions which had been stripped of any meaning or purpose other than what conformed to and served the NAZI agenda, reduced to nothing more than instruments of NAZI atrocity.
In the whole of what Trump is currently doing—including his open calls to overturn Supreme Court decisions and precedents (for example, to outlaw abortion and punish flag burning), along with his repeated violations of the law and due process of the law and his insistence that he is the law—we can see the looming shadow of even more overt fascist dictatorship. For that is what fascism is: open and aggressive dictatorship, trampling on and perverting the rule of law, relying on violence and terror, on behalf of the predatory capitalist system and as an extreme attempt to deal with profound social division and acute crises (both within the country and in the global arena). And with the moves by Trump’s “Secretary of Education,” Betsy DeVos—who is herself a Christian fascist whose ultimate goal is to replace public, secular education with schools based on Christian fundamentalist indoctrination—we can see the outline of the Trump/Pence regime version of “official (Christian fascist) ideology.” We can recognize the looming shadow of a situation where not just school children, but everyone in society, will be required to pledge allegiance to a white Christian fascist America.
A statement from the organization Refuse Fascism (RefuseFascism.org) argues eloquently and powerfully:
Actual lines are being drawn, with catastrophic consequences for all of humanity. If we lose the right to protest—through legal or extra‑legal means—all bets are off. Fascism is not just the worst of a pendulum swing. It is a qualitative change in how society is governed. Dissent is piece by piece criminalized. The truth is bludgeoned. Group after group is demonized and targeted along a trajectory that leads to real horrors. All this has been happening for more than three years, yet with concentration camps at the border, Trump acquitted in a sham impeachment trial, and an executive order to protect monuments while First Amendment rights are criminalized with actual jail time, too many still want to bask in the comfortable delusions that this is not really happening. This is fascism. It is happening, and time is running out to stop it.
For far too long, those of us, including the diverse voices represented by Refuse Fascism, who have been pointing to the very real immediate danger—and potentially even greater danger—represented by the Trump/Pence regime were far too often met with arrogant dismissal by those who could not, or would not, see the reality and the trajectory of this regime; who dismissed the danger by ignoring or downplaying many of the terrible things this regime had already done; and who then pointed to whatever had not yet been done by this regime as supposed “proof” that it would not do those things. Now, at this late and crucial hour, to treat as “alarmist exaggeration” the fascist nature of this regime and its very real parallels with the horrors perpetrated by previous fascist regimes—this is to ignore not only vital lessons from history, but also the extremely dangerous reality of the current situation, including the significance of the fact that Trump—fulfilling his promise to Christian fascists—has stacked the courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, with legions of Christian fascists and other extreme right-wing judges, who will move to “legally legitimize” the whole horrific program of the Trump/Pence fascist regime.
If this regime is able to further consolidate its power and make further leaps in implementing its horrific objectives, this will result in a devastating setback for any attempt to resist injustice and oppression, and will very likely lead to the brutal repression, and even annihilation, of defenders of democratic rights and proponents of any meaningful progressive reforms, as well as any organized forces fighting for fundamental revolutionary change.
In the most essential sense, the urgent need to mobilize masses of people around the demand to force the removal of this fascist regime is not in conflict with the mass outpouring against institutionalized white supremacy and police terror, or other mass movements against the outrages of this system, but is in basic unity with and is crucial for all these struggles, and all this can and must be understood, and built, in a powerful mutually reinforcing way. [Read again]
3Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is saying, in relation to the election.
Through completely unfounded attacks on voting by mail, and preparation to intimidate and obstruct Black people and Latinos attempting to exercise their right to vote, moves are already underway by the Trump/Pence regime and its supporters to suppress the votes of those who are likely to vote against Trump. As he did in the 2016 election, Trump has already indicated his likely refusal to accept the result of the election this time if he is not the winner. And now Trump has openly “floated” the idea of “delaying” the election.
Given what Trump has already done, and what he has blatantly declared, as much as it is horrifying it is also very realistic to envision this regime stationing storm troopers, loyal to this regime, in cities all across this country—viciously moving to suppress any expression of resistance or opposition—with the approach of the election, and continuing beyond that.
The ongoing pandemic, or executive orders to quell “civil disorder” (i.e., protests) in many parts of the country, could also serve as pretexts to “postpone” the election, perhaps indefinitely.
And it is certainly not unthinkable that Trump would move to create a “national emergency”—for example, by carrying out acts of war, against Iran or possibly even China—in order to further institute even more extreme repressive conditions, with even greater numbers of para-military storm troopers occupying cities, in order either to cancel (or indefinitely “delay”) the election, or to control the voting and the results of the election if it is held.
It is of critical importance to continue to build resistance, right now and in an increasingly powerful way, against any and all repressive moves by Trump, including by building mass opposition to this regime’s attempts at voter suppression and through mass mobilization in support and defense of those who are targets of such suppression.
With the full awareness of what is represented by this fascist regime, and what it means that Trump is not only seeking to suppress the votes of people who will vote against him but is also preparing to utilize forceful, violent repression to remain in office if he is not declared the winner in the election, it is of critical and urgent importance to build now truly massive and sustained mobilization around the unifying demand that this regime must be OUT NOW!—with an orientation of being prepared to continue this even past the election, if the situation requires it.
From the first days of the Trump/Pence regime, Refuse Fascism has been calling out the fascism of this regime and calling for the mass mobilization to drive out this regime that is now, all the more urgently, required. It would have been very good—it could have made a real difference—if all those who hate this regime but failed, or refused, to recognize its actual fascist nature and the great danger to humanity it poses as such, had much earlier responded to and actively taken up this call by Refuse Fascism. Now, finally, there is a growing recognition, and increasing discussion, about the “authoritarian” nature of this regime, and even the use of the term “fascism” to describe it. (As I have pointed out, on the part of many, this is a case of “Oh, now they’re saying” this is fascism, as if that has just become the case. But, with an understanding of the profound stakes involved, it is important to recognize that now is better than never.) The hour is getting late—but it is still not too late to make this mass mobilization a reality. Relying on, and confining actions within, the “norms” and “regular channels” of this system, including the upcoming election, cannot solve this profound and urgent problem, especially when dealing with a fascist regime and its fanatical followers that are determined to trample on and tear up those “norms.” [Read again]
4At this critical hour, every appropriate means of non-violent action must be utilized to remove this regime from power. And if, in spite of mass protest demanding the removal of the Trump/Pence regime, this regime remains in power when it is time for voting, then—without placing fundamental reliance on this—using all appropriate means to work for the removal of this regime must include voting against Trump (assuming the election is actually held). To be clear, this means not a “protest vote” for some candidate who has no chance of winning, but actually voting for the Democratic Party candidate, Biden, in order to effectively vote against Trump.
This is not because Biden (and the Democratic Party in general) have suddenly become something other than what they are: representatives and instruments of this exploitative, oppressive, and literally murderous system of capitalism-imperialism. The electoral process continues to be what we revcoms have called it—BEB (Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit). It remains the case that no fundamental change for the better can come about through this electoral process, and that, in general and overall, voting under this system serves to reinforce this system, especially if voting is seen as a way—and more so if it is seen as the (only) way—to bring about meaningful change.
But this election is different.
It is true that, with every election, the Democrats run the same basic con game—blackmailing people who hate injustice and oppression to vote for them as the “lesser evil”— insisting in effect that, “You may not agree with everything we say, you may even have serious differences and criticisms regarding what we’re all about—but do you want them to be in power?!” (the openly white supremacist, male supremacist, climate change-denying plunderers of the environment, and all-around reactionary Republican Party). And the Democratic Party has done this, time after time after time, while itself representing and seeking to preside over this system of capitalism-imperialism which has white supremacy, male supremacy, environmental plunder and wars for empire built into it, at the same time as the Democrats make noises about, and take some steps to implement, minor (and ultimately meaningless) reforms to supposedly address these outrages. All this has actually contributed to the development of things toward the terrible situation we are faced with now. It has politically paralyzed many who seek an end to such outrages, reducing them to passive dependents on the Democratic Party and its role in the electoral process, while adding fuel to the fire of the die-hard fascist sections of society that insist on absolutely no mitigation of these outrages—no concession to the struggle against this—and in fact demand the brutal reinforcement of this oppression and outrage, in extreme terms.
But, again, this election is different—in a crucially important way. The question is not whether Biden and the Democrats represent something “good,” or whether, in fundamental terms, the Democrats are “better” than the Republicans. Both of these parties are ruling class political parties, and none of their candidates represent anything “good” in the most basic and essential sense. Biden is not “better” than Trump, in any meaningful way—except that he is not Trump and is not part of the move to consolidate and enforce fascist rule, with everything that means.
To approach this election from the standpoint of which candidate is “better” means failing to understand the truly profound stakes and potential consequences of what is involved. The fact is that there can be one—and only one—“good” that can come out of this election: delivering a decisive defeat to Trump and the whole fascist regime. Doing this would create far better conditions for continuing to wage the struggle against everything represented by the Trump/Pence regime and all the oppression and injustices of this system, and would be a great gift to the people of the world.
Again, in these very particular, extraordinary circumstances, if the Trump/Pence regime is still in power by the time of the election, in spite of mass mobilizations demanding the ouster of this regime, then the struggle against this fascist regime needs to include voting against Trump by voting for Biden, while continuing to build sustained mass mobilization against this regime and everything it represents and concentrates, and being prepared to carry forward this mass mobilization if Trump loses the election but refuses to leave. [Read again]
5In recognizing this, however, it is extremely important to stress once again, in the strongest terms, that, for the reasons spoken to here, relying on voting—without this mass mobilization—will very likely lead to disaster.
There is the possibility that Trump could actually win the election—although whether he wins or loses, this election will involve unprecedented moves to suppress the votes of those opposing him and to use other illegal means to enable him to remain in power. And, even more essentially, with the clear understanding of the fascist nature of this regime, and the full implications of that, this regime is illegitimate, regardless of the means by which it has come to power and moves to retain and further consolidate power. Hitler and the NAZIs came to power in Germany in the 1930s through the “normal channels” of the “democratic system” there—including elections—but there was absolutely nothing “legitimate” about their rule and all the truly unspeakable horrors it led to. And the same basic principle applies to the Trump/Pence regime. By its very nature and content, there is no such thing as “legitimate” fascism.
Whatever happens with the election—and even if Biden wins and succeeds in actually taking office—there will be no “return to normalcy.” First of all, the fascists—those still in powerful positions, and the fascist “base” in the wider society—will not allow it. And, in any case, no one should want it. The “normalcy” of this system has always included the barbaric oppression of Black people and other people of color, with systematic terror, brutality and murder to enforce this oppression. It has always included vicious discrimination, bigotry and violence against immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, and any others regarded as inferior and “alien.” It has always included unjust wars for empire, and continuing crimes against humanity. It now poses a threat to the very existence of humanity through its increasing devastation of the environment and the ever present threat of nuclear war.
The many-sided struggle to oust the fascist Trump/Pence regime must be taken up not as a substitute for but as a part—a crucial part—of moving to get beyond all that is represented by and embodied in the “normalcy” of this system. [Read again]
6Finally, regardless of what happens with this election, it remains profoundly true—and it is vitally important to recognize, and to act on the understanding—that no fundamental change for the better can come under this system. Even as sustained mass mobilization urgently needs to be built around the unifying demand of Trump/Pence OUT NOW!, all those who have come to see that institutionalized white supremacy, male supremacy and the many other outrages and crimes against humanity perpetrated under this system are in fact built into this system of capitalism-imperialism must work together, in an ongoing way, to build a continually growing movement and to strengthen the organized forces for an actual revolution to overthrow this system.
In summation: Given the truly monumental stakes involved, not only in terms of any particular issue, no matter how important, and not merely in terms of this country, but for the masses of people throughout the world and the future of humanity, there is a great need to approach things and act with the sophistication necessary to handle the complex and difficult contradictions involved in all this—having a broad vision, rejecting petty sectarianism and brittle dogmatism, and not falling into a paralyzing “either/or”: either we fight against white supremacy and police terror, or we fight to bring about the removal of the Trump/Pence fascist regime; either we vote in this election, or we build mass struggle against outrageous oppression and against this fascist regime; either we oppose this regime, by all appropriate means, or we work for revolution. In this extraordinary and very complex situation—and from the point of view of advancing the struggle toward the goal of finally eliminating all exploitation and oppression, everywhere—there is an urgent need to do all of that, and to do so with an understanding of the correct and necessary relation between the different parts of this overall approach: putting the main emphasis and reliance on mass mobilization, with voting in this extraordinary situation necessary and important but not the main thing to be relied upon; and, in fundamental terms, making all this contribute to creating more favorable conditions for, and building up the organized forces for, not only resisting the crimes of this system but finally carrying out the revolution that is needed in order to put an end to this monstrously criminal system and its domination in the world, in any form. [Read again]
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Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
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We received this translation in French. This is an unofficial translation, and we do not vouch for its accuracy.
1La situation actuelle comporte des défis véritablement sans précédent et d’une importance capitale, avec des implications profondes non seulement pour les habitants de ce pays mais pour l’humanité tout entière. Il y a trois ans, j’ai parlé de cette réalité – qui est devenue encore plus prononcée, et encore plus dangereuse, dans le temps qui s’est écoulé depuis lors :
Nous sommes confrontés à – nous sommes gouvernés par – un régime fasciste : qui s’attaque sans relâche aux droits et libertés civils et promut ouvertement la bigoterie et l’inégalité ; qui agit avec un mépris impitoyable ou une malveillance de sang-froid envers ceux qu’il considère comme inférieurs et comme un fardeau ou une tache sur le pays ; dont la mission englobe le refus de soins de santé à des millions de personnes qui vont souffrir et à beaucoup d’autres qui vont mourir sans ces soins ; un régime qui dégrade grossièrement les femmes, en tant qu’objets de pillage, comme des pondeuses sans droit à l’avortement ou à la contraception, subordonnées aux maris et aux hommes en général ; qui conteste la science du changement climatique, attaque la science de l’évolution et répudie la méthode scientifique dans son ensemble ; un régime qui brandit un arsenal de destruction massive et menace la guerre nucléaire ; qui intensifie la terreur d’État contre les musulmans, les immigrants et les habitants des quartiers populaires ; qui déchaîne et encourage et soutient des voyous brutaux crachant leur venin « priorité à l’Amérique », de suprématie blanche, de suprématie masculine et anti-LGBTQ – un régime qui se vante de tout cela et déclare son intention de faire encore pire.
Il s’agit d’un régime dirigé par « une brute démente » avec le doigt sur le bouton nucléaire. C’est un régime qui, sans exagération, menace non seulement d’accroître considérablement les souffrances des masses de l’humanité, mais aussi l’existence même de l’humanité, par l’intensification de ses actions visant à poursuivre le pillage de l’environnement, par ses armes de destruction massive inégalées et par sa déclaration flagrante de volonté d’utiliser ces armes, y compris son arsenal nucléaire massif.
J’ai aussi souligné que c’est ce système de capitalisme-impérialisme qui, par son « fonctionnement normal », a fait naître ce fascisme et qu’aucun changement fondamental pour le mieux ne peut être apporté dans le cadre de ce système, et qu’au contraire, ce système doit être renversé et remplacé par un système radicalement différent et bien meilleur, afin d’abolir et de déraciner tous les rapports d’exploitation et d’oppression, ainsi que les conflits violents qu’ils engendrent – tout cela étant intégré dans les fondements de ce système et dans son fonctionnement et ses exigences permanents.
À l’heure actuelle, pour tous ceux et toutes celles qui ont à cœur de mettre fin à l’injustice et à l’oppression, et engagent la question de savoir si l’humanité aura un avenir qui en vaut la peine – ou n’aura pas d’avenir du tout : obliger le régime fasciste de Trump/Pence de quitter le pouvoir est une question immédiate et urgente et un impératif véritablement historique.
Et, pour ceux et celles qui comprennent la nécessité de la révolution, du renversement de ce système, comme la solution fondamentale aux horreurs continues que ce système produit pour les masses de l’humanité (que ce système soit dirigé par une dictature fasciste ouverte, ou la dictature « démocratique » déguisée, de la classe capitaliste dominante), la lutte immédiate pour chasser le régime Trump/Pence du pouvoir doit être abordée non pas comme une « diversion » (ou un « substitut ») de la construction du mouvement pour la révolution qui est nécessaire, mais précisément comme une partie – une partie cruciale et une exigence urgente – du travail global de construction de cette révolution.
Notre objectif fondamental, et notre étoile polaire, demeure : LA RÉVOLUTION – RIEN DE MOINS !
Dans tout ce que nous faisons, y compris dans toutes les luttes auxquelles nous participons et qui ne sont pas elles-mêmes de nature révolutionnaire, notre approche constante est, et doit être, de mettre tout cela au service de cet objectif fondamental de la révolution et de l’émancipation de l’humanité tout entière.
***********
Normalement, nous, les communistes révolutionnaires, soutenons que les gens ne devraient pas voter aux élections bourgeoises, qui servent à renforcer le système existant de capitalisme-impérialisme et alimentent des illusions populaires selon lesquelles l’exploitation, l’oppression et les injustices peuvent d’une certaine manière être « réformées » sans se débarrasser du système qui est à l’origine de ces horreurs. Mais est-ce la bonne position à adopter par rapport à cette élection particulière ?
Pour y répondre, nous devons examiner la situation dans son ensemble. [Relisez]
2Déjà, depuis près de quatre ans qu’il est au pouvoir, nous avons été contraints d’assister à et d’endurer les horreurs déjà commises, et le grave danger que représente le régime Trump/Pence. Trump a mené sa campagne en 2016 sur ce qui équivalait à un programme fasciste pur et simple, englobant une suprématie blanche et une suprématie masculine flagrantes, et un racisme xénophobe envers les immigrants, en particulier ceux du Mexique et d’autres pays que Trump considère comme des « trous de merde », ainsi qu’un plaidoyer ouvert en faveur de la torture et de la brutalité de la part de la police et des partisans « civils » de Trump. Et, une fois au pouvoir, Trump a mis en œuvre ce programme à toute allure, écrasant toutes les « normes institutionnelles » faisant obstacle, même face à la destitution – et avec encore plus d’arrogance et d’élan une fois que ses collègues fascistes du parti républicain ont voté pour l’acquitter au Sénat.
Essentiellement, tout ce qui est décrit à propos de ce régime au début de cette déclaration est ce que Trump et ceux qui l’entourent ont fait avec acharnement. Cela est devenu d’autant plus flagrant et agressif à l’approche des élections prévues en novembre 2020. Et imaginez ce que fera Trump s’il se voit confier un second « mandat » par le biais d’une réélection en novembre.
La pandémie COVID-19 et la réponse de Trump et Pence à celle-ci ont également fourni une autre illustration graphique de la nature anti-scientifique de ce régime et de son mépris total pour la souffrance des masses populaires, en particulier celles que ce régime déteste le plus ainsi que les plus vulnérables et les plus fortement touchées par cette pandémie.
Mais, aussi horrible que tout cela ait été, il ne s’agit pas seulement de politiques horribles, mais d’une forme de pouvoir qualitativement différente, basée sur une répression brutale et la violation de ce qui est censé être les droits les plus fondamentaux.
Nous avons déjà vu Trump, en violation flagrante des principes constitutionnels, envoyer des troupes d’assaut et d’occupation, provenant de diverses agences du gouvernement fédéral, pour criminaliser la dissidence et réprimer les personnes qui manifestent à Portland et dans d’autres villes, et pour ajouter au règne de la terreur contre des masses populaires dans les quartiers défavorisés de Chicago et ailleurs.
Nous avons vu les manifestations grossières de chauvinisme de Trump, genre « priorité à l’Amérique », y compris ses appels répétés à punir sévèrement ceux qui, selon lui, n’ont pas fait preuve de la ferveur patriotique appropriée, ou qui ont osé critiquer et protester contre certaines des oppressions les plus voyantes exercées par les exécuteurs de ce système, en particulier la brutalité et le meurtre continus des Noirs, des Latinos et des Amérindiens par la police. Nous avons été témoins de ses incitations continuelles aux violences suprémacistes blanches, par la police et par les « gens du deuxième amendement » et d’autres « gens très bien ».
Tout cela rappelle la montée au pouvoir et la domination d’Hitler et des NAZIs en Allemagne dans les années 1930 et au début des années 1940. Alors qu’Hitler construisait son mouvement fasciste, des voyous étaient mobilisés pour brutaliser et terroriser les personnes qui ne soutenaient pas Hitler et les NAZIs – les agressant dans la rue et dans d’autres lieux publics. Une fois que l’État fasciste NAZI a consolidé son pouvoir, toute opposition était sévèrement punie et écrasée. Tous ceux qui ne soutenaient pas ouvertement et ne proclamaient pas l’idéologie officielle NAZIe étaient visés. Un grand nombre de personnes ont été expulsées des institutions publiques – tous ceux, en particulier les Juifs mais aussi d’autres personnes, qui étaient considérés comme « étrangers » à la « race germanique pure » et comme un obstacle aux objectifs monstrueux des NAZIs. En commençant par les communistes, mais en englobant bientôt la population juive, les Roms, les homosexuels et d’autres, les camps de concentration ont été remplis de ceux qui étaient considérés comme une menace pour les NAZIs ou une « tache » sur la nation allemande. Et cela a conduit, avant longtemps, au génocide de masse de millions de Juifs en Allemagne et dans les pays conquis et occupés par les NAZIs.
Tout cela ne s’est pas produit d’un seul coup, mais dans un laps de temps relativement court (une dizaine d’années), et à un rythme de plus en plus rapide. L’état de droit n’a pas été ouvertement et formellement abandonné, mais la « loi » et « l’état de droit » sont devenus ce que Hitler et les NAZIs ont dit qu’ils étaient. Une grande partie de ce que Hitler et les NAZIs ont fait, pendant leur règne de terreur et de génocide, était « conforme à la loi » – une loi qu’ils avaient réduite à rien d’autre que leurs buts et moyens barbares, appliqués de manière meurtrière par des institutions qui avaient été dépouillées de tout sens ou but autre que ce qui était conforme à et servait le programme NAZI, réduites à rien d’autre que des instruments de l’atrocité NAZIe.
Dans l’ensemble de ce que Trump fait actuellement – y compris ses appels ouverts à l’annulation des décisions et des précédents de la Cour suprême (par exemple, pour interdire l’avortement et punir le fait de brûler le drapeau), ainsi que ses violations répétées de la loi et des procédures légales et son insistance à dire que c’est lui la loi – nous pouvons voir l’ombre imminente d’une dictature fasciste encore plus ouverte. Car c’est cela le fascisme : une dictature ouverte et agressive, piétinant et pervertissant l’état de droit, s’appuyant sur la violence et la terreur, au nom du système capitaliste prédateur et en tant que tentative extrême pour faire face à une division sociale profonde et à des crises aiguës (tant au sein du pays que dans l’arène mondiale). Et avec les initiatives de la « secrétaire à l’éducation » de Trump, Betsy DeVos – elle-même une chrétienne fasciste dont le but ultime est de remplacer l’éducation publique et laïque par des écoles basées sur l’endoctrinement fondamentaliste chrétien – nous pouvons voir les grandes lignes de la version du régime Trump/Pence de « l’idéologie officielle (chrétienne fasciste) ». Nous pouvons reconnaître l’ombre qui plane sur une situation où non seulement les écoliers, mais aussi toute la société, devront prêter allégeance à une Amérique blanche chrétienne fasciste.
Une déclaration de l’organisation Refuse Fascism (RefuseFascism.org) argumente de manière éloquente et puissante :
Des limites réelles sont tracées, avec des conséquences catastrophiques pour toute l’humanité. Si nous perdons le droit de protester – par des moyens légaux ou extra-légaux – tous les paris sont annulés. Le fascisme n’est pas seulement le pire des mouvements de pendule. C’est un changement qualitatif dans la manière dont la société est gouvernée. La dissidence est criminalisée pièce par pièce. La vérité est matraquée. Un groupe après l’autre est diabolisé et ciblé sur une trajectoire qui mène à de véritables horreurs. Tout cela se produit depuis plus de trois ans, mais étant donné les camps de concentration à la frontière, l’acquittement de Trump dans un faux procès de destitution et un décret visant à protéger les monuments, alors que les droits du premier amendement sont criminalisés avec de véritables peines de prison, trop de gens veulent encore se prélasser dans des illusions confortables que tout ceci ne se passe pas vraiment. C’est le fascisme. Ça se passe bel et bien, et le temps presse pour l’arrêter.
Pendant bien trop longtemps, ceux d’entre nous, y compris les diverses voix représentées par Refuse Fasicsm, qui ont souligné le danger immédiat très réel – et potentiellement encore plus grand – représenté par le régime Trump/Pence ont été trop souvent confrontés à un renvoi arrogant de la part de ceux qui ne pouvaient pas, ou ne voulaient pas, voir la réalité et la trajectoire de ce régime ; qui ont rejetté le danger en ignorant ou en minimisant nombre des choses terribles que ce régime avait déjà faites ; et qui ont ensuite ont indiqué tout ce qui n’avait pas encore été fait par ce régime comme une prétendue « preuve » qu’il ne ferait pas ces choses. Maintenant, à cette heure tardive et cruciale, traiter comme une « exagération alarmiste » la nature fasciste de ce régime et ses parallèles très réels avec les horreurs perpétrées par les régimes fascistes précédents, c’est ignorer non seulement les leçons vitales de l’histoire, mais aussi la réalité extrêmement dangereuse de la situation actuelle, y compris la signification du fait que Trump – remplissant sa promesse aux fascistes chrétiens – a empilé les tribunaux, jusqu’à la Cour suprême, avec des légions de fascistes chrétiens et d’autres juges d’extrême droite, qui vont s’efforcer de « légitimer légalement » tout le programme horrifiant du régime fasciste de Trump/Pence.
Si ce régime parvient à consolider davantage son pouvoir et à faire de nouveaux bonds dans la mise en œuvre de ses horribles objectifs, il en résultera un revers dévastateur pour toute tentative de résistance à l’injustice et à l’oppression, et il est très probable que cela conduira à la répression brutale, voire à l’anéantissement, des défenseurs des droits démocratiques et des partisans de toute réforme progressiste significative, ainsi que de toute force organisée luttant pour un changement révolutionnaire fondamental.
Dans le sens le plus essentiel, le besoin urgent de mobiliser les masses populaires autour de la demande de forcer le départ du régime fasciste n’est pas en conflit avec le déferlement de masse contre la suprématie blanche institutionnalisée et la terreur policière, ou d’autres mouvements de masse contre les outrages de ce système, mais est en unité fondamentale avec et est crucial pour toutes ces luttes, et tout cela peut et doit être compris, et construit de manière puissante et permettant de se renforcer mutuellement. [Relisez]
3Le simple fait de compter sur le vote pour chasser ce régime conduira presque certainement à des résultats très mauvais, voire désastreux. Cela est particulièrement vrai compte tenu de ce que ce régime fait déjà, et de ce que Trump dit, en ce qui concerne les élections.
Par des attaques totalement infondées contre le vote par correspondance, et des préparatifs visant à intimider et à entraver les Noirs et les Latinos qui tentent d’exercer leur droit de vote, le régime Trump/Pence et ses partisans ont déjà entrepris de supprimer les votes de ceux qui sont susceptibles de voter contre Trump. Comme il l’a fait lors de l’élection de 2016, Trump a déjà fait part de son probable refus d’accepter le résultat de l’élection cette fois-ci s’il n’est pas le vainqueur. Et maintenant, Trump a ouvertement « suggéré » l’idée de « retarder » l’élection.
Compte tenu de ce que Trump a déjà fait, et de ce qu’il a déclaré de manière flagrante, autant il est horrifiant, autant il est réaliste d’envisager que ce régime stationne des troupes d’assaut, loyales à ce régime, dans des villes de tout le pays – s’efforçant vicieusement de réprimer toute expression de résistance ou d’opposition – à l’approche des élections, et après.
La pandémie en cours, ou les décrets visant à réprimer le « désordre civil » (c’est-à-dire les protestations) dans de nombreuses régions du pays, pourraient également servir de prétexte pour « reporter » l’élection, peut-être indéfiniment.
Et il n’est certainement pas impensable que Trump cherche à créer une « urgence nationale » – par exemple, en menant des actes de guerre, contre l’Iran ou peut-être même la Chine – afin d’instaurer des conditions encore plus répressives, avec un nombre encore plus important de troupes d’assaut paramilitaires occupant les villes, afin soit d’annuler (ou de « retarder » indéfiniment) l’élection, soit de contrôler le scrutin et les résultats de l’élection si elle a lieu.
Il est d’une importance capitale de continuer à renforcer la résistance, dès maintenant et de manière de plus en plus puissante, contre toutes les mesures répressives prises par Trump, y compris en construisant une opposition de masse aux tentatives de ce régime de supprimer les électeurs et par une mobilisation de masse pour soutenir et défendre ceux qui sont la cible de cette suppression.
Avec la pleine conscience de ce que représente ce régime fasciste, et de ce que cela signifie que Trump ne cherche pas seulement à supprimer les votes des personnes qui voteront contre lui, mais se prépare également à utiliser une répression violente pour rester au pouvoir s’il n’est pas déclaré vainqueur aux élections, il est d’une importance critique et urgente de construire maintenant une mobilisation vraiment massive et soutenue autour de la demande unificatrice de chasser ce régime tout de suite : OUT NOW ! avec l’orientation d’être prêt à continuer cela même après les élections, si la situation l’exige.
Dès les premiers jours du régime Trump/Pence, le fascisme du refus a crié au fascisme de ce régime et a appelé à la mobilisation de masse pour chasser ce régime qui est maintenant, d’autant plus urgemment, nécessaire. Il aurait été très bien – et cela aurait pu faire une réelle différence – que tous ceux qui détestent ce régime mais ne reconnaissent pas, ou refusent de reconnaître sa nature fasciste réelle et le grand danger qu’il représente pour l’humanité en tant que tel, aient répondu beaucoup plus tôt à cet appel de Refuse Fascism et l’aient activement repris. Aujourd’hui, enfin, la nature « autoritaire » de ce régime, et même l’utilisation du terme « fascisme » pour le décrire, sont de plus en plus reconnues et font l’objet de discussions de plus en plus nombreuses. (Comme je l’ai souligné, pour beaucoup, c’est un cas de « Oh, maintenant ils disent » que c’est du fascisme, comme si c’était tout juste arrivé. Mais, avec une compréhension des enjeux profonds en jeu, il est important de reconnaître que maintenant est mieux que jamais). Il se fait tard, mais il n’est pas encore trop tard pour faire de cette mobilisation de masse une réalité. S’appuyer sur les « normes » et les « voies habituelles » de ce système, y compris les prochaines élections, et confiner les actions à l’intérieur de ces normes et voies ne peut résoudre ce problème profond et urgent, surtout lorsqu’on a affaire à un régime fasciste et à ses partisans fanatiques qui sont déterminés à piétiner et à déchirer ces « normes ». [Relisez]
4En cette heure critique, tous les moyens appropriés d’action non violente doivent être utilisés pour écarter ce régime du pouvoir. Et si, en dépit des protestations de masse exigeant le départ du régime Trump/Pence, ce régime reste au pouvoir au moment du vote, alors – sans s’y fier fondamentalement – l’utilisation de tous les moyens appropriés pour œuvrer au départ de ce régime doit inclure le vote contre Trump (en supposant que l’élection ait effectivement lieu). Pour être clair, cela ne signifie pas un « vote de protestation » pour un candidat qui n’a aucune chance de gagner, mais le fait de voter pour le candidat du Parti démocratique, Biden, afin de voter effectivement contre Trump.
Ce n’est pas parce que Biden (et le Parti démocrate en général) sont soudainement devenus autre chose que ce qu’ils sont : les représentants et les instruments de ce système de capitalisme-impérialisme exploiteur, oppressif et littéralement meurtrier. Le processus électoral continue d’être ce que nous, les revcoms, avons appelé le BEB (baratin électoral bourgeois). Il n’en reste pas moins qu’aucun changement fondamental pour le mieux ne peut se produire par le biais de ce processus électoral et que, de manière générale et globale, le vote dans le cadre de ce système sert à renforcer ce système, en particulier si le vote est considéré comme un moyen – et plus encore s’il est considéré comme le (seul) moyen – d’apporter un changement significatif.
Mais cette élection est différente.
Il est vrai qu’à chaque élection, les démocrates mènent le même jeu d’escroquerie de base – en faisant chanter les gens qui détestent l’injustice et l’oppression pour qu’ils votent pour eux en tant que « moindre mal » – en insistant en effet sur le fait que « vous pouvez ne pas être d’accord avec tout ce que nous disons, vous pouvez même avoir de sérieuses différences et critiques concernant ce que nous sommes, mais voulez-vous que ce soit eux au pouvoir ? » (le parti républicain ouvertement suprémaciste blanc, suprémaciste masculin, pilleur de l’environnement qui nie le changement climatique et qui est réactionnaire dans tous les domaines). Et le Parti démocrate a fait cela, maintes et maintes fois, alors qu’il représentait et cherchait à présider ce système de capitalisme-impérialisme dans lequel la suprématie blanche, la suprématie masculine, le pillage de l’environnement et les guerres pour l’empire sont intégrés, en même temps que les démocrates font du bruit et prennent des mesures pour mettre en œuvre des réformes mineures (et finalement sans importance) pour soi-disant remédier à ces outrages. Tout cela a en fait contribué à l’évolution des choses vers la terrible situation à laquelle nous sommes confrontés aujourd’hui. Elle a paralysé politiquement beaucoup de ceux qui cherchent à mettre fin à ces outrages, les réduisant à une dépendance passive du Parti Démocratique et de son rôle dans le processus électoral, tout en jetant de l’huile sur le feu des sections fascistes de la société qui insistent sur le fait qu’absolument aucune atténuation de ces outrages ait lieu – ni aucune concession à la lutte contre cela – et qui demandent en fait le renforcement brutal de cette oppression et de cette indignation, en termes extrêmes.
Mais, encore une fois, cette élection est différente – d’une manière cruciale. La question n’est pas de savoir si Biden et les démocrates représentent quelque chose de « bon » ou si, en termes fondamentaux, les démocrates sont « meilleurs » que les républicains. Ces deux partis sont des partis politiques de la classe dirigeante, et aucun de leurs candidats ne représente quelque chose de « bon » au sens le plus élémentaire et le plus essentiel du terme. Biden n’est pas « meilleur » que Trump, d’une quelconque manière significative – sauf qu’il n’est pas Trump et qu’il ne fait pas partie de la tendance à consolider et à imposer le pouvoir fasciste, avec tout ce que cela implique.
Aborder cette élection du point de vue du candidat qui est « meilleur » signifie ne pas comprendre les enjeux vraiment profonds et les conséquences potentielles de ce qui est en jeu. Le fait est qu’il ne peut y avoir qu’un seul « bien » qui puisse sortir de cette élection : infliger une défaite décisive à Trump et à l’ensemble du régime fasciste. Cela créerait de bien meilleures conditions pour continuer à lutter contre tout ce que représente le régime Trump/Pence et contre toute l’oppression et les injustices de ce système, et ce serait un grand cadeau pour les peuples du monde.
Encore une fois, dans ces circonstances très particulières et extraordinaires, si le régime Trump/Pence est toujours au pouvoir au moment de l’élection, malgré les mobilisations de masse exigeant l’expulsion de ce régime, alors la lutte contre ce régime fasciste doit inclure le vote contre Trump en votant pour Biden, tout en continuant à construire une mobilisation de masse soutenue contre ce régime et tout ce qu’il représente et concentre, et en étant prêt à poursuivre cette mobilisation de masse si Trump perd l’élection mais refuse de partir. [Relisez]
5En reconnaissant cela, cependant, il est extrêmement important de souligner une fois de plus, dans les termes les plus forts, que, pour les raisons évoquées ici, compter sur le vote – sans cette mobilisation de masse – conduira très probablement au désastre.
Il est possible que Trump remporte effectivement l’élection – et qu’il gagne ou qu’il perde, on verra dans cette élection des mesures sans précédent pour supprimer les votes de ceux qui s’opposent à lui et pour utiliser d’autres moyens illégaux l’aidant à rester au pouvoir. Et, plus essentiellement encore, à partir d’une compréhension claire de la nature fasciste de ce régime, et de toutes les implications qui en découlent, ce régime est illégitime, indépendamment des moyens par lesquels il est arrivé au pouvoir et des mesures prises pour le conserver et le consolider davantage. Hitler et les NAZIs sont arrivés au pouvoir en Allemagne dans les années 1930 par les « voies normales » du « système démocratique » de ce pays – y compris les élections – mais leur régime n’avait absolument rien de « légitime » et toutes les horreurs vraiment indicibles auxquelles il a donné lieu. Et le même principe de base s’applique au régime Trump/Pence. Par sa nature et son contenu, le fascisme « légitime » n’existe pas.
Quoi qu’il arrive avec les élections – et même si Biden gagne et réussit à prendre effectivement ses fonctions – il n’y aura pas de « retour à la normale ». Tout d’abord, les fascistes – ceux qui occupent encore des postes puissants, et la « base » fasciste dans la société au sens large – ne le permettront pas. Et, en tout cas, personne ne devrait le vouloir. La « normalité » de ce système a toujours inclus l’oppression barbare des Noirs et d’autres personnes de couleur, avec la terreur, la brutalité et le meurtre systématiques pour imposer cette oppression. Elle a toujours inclus la discrimination vicieuse, le sectarisme et la violence contre les immigrants, les femmes, les personnes LGBTQ et toute autre personne considérée comme inférieure et « étrangère ». Elle a toujours inclus des guerres injustes pour l’empire, et des crimes continus contre l’humanité. Elle constitue aujourd’hui une menace pour l’existence même de l’humanité en raison de la dévastation croissante de l’environnement et de la menace toujours présente d’une guerre nucléaire.
Il faudra entreprendre la lutte multiforme pour chasser le régime fasciste de Trump/Pence non pas comme un substitut mais comme une partie – une partie cruciale – du mouvement visant à dépasser tout ce qui est représenté et incarné dans la « normalité » de ce système. [Relisez]
6Enfin, quoi qu’il arrive avec cette élection, il reste profondément vrai – et il est d’une importance vitale de reconnaître et d’agir en fonction de cette compréhension – qu’aucun changement fondamental pour le mieux ne peut se réaliser sous ce système. Alors même qu’il y a besoin urgent de construire une mobilisation de masse soutenue autour de la revendication unificatrice : Trump/Pence, dehors ! OUT NOW!, tous ceux et toutes celles qui ont pu voir que la suprématie blanche institutionnalisée, la suprématie masculine et les nombreux autres outrages et crimes contre l’humanité perpétrés sous ce système sont en fait intégrés dans ce système de capitalisme-impérialisme doivent travailler ensemble, de manière continue, pour construire un mouvement en croissance constante et pour renforcer les forces organisées pour une véritable révolution visant à renverser ce système.
En résumé : Étant donné les enjeux véritablement monumentaux, non seulement pour chaque problème, aussi important soit-il, et non seulement pour ce pays, mais aussi pour les masses populaires du monde entier et l’avenir de l’humanité, il y a un grand besoin d’aborder les choses et d’agir avec la sophistication nécessaire pour gérer les contradictions complexes et difficiles qu’implique tout cela – en ayant une vision large, en rejetant le sectarisme mesquin et le dogmatisme rigide, et en ne tombant pas dans un « soit/soit » paralysant : soit nous luttons contre la suprématie blanche et la terreur policière, soit nous nous battons pour chasser le régime fasciste de Trump/Pence ; soit nous votons lors de cette élection, soit nous construisons une lutte de masse contre l’oppression scandaleuse et contre ce régime fasciste ; soit nous nous opposons à ce régime, par tous les moyens appropriés, soit nous travaillons pour la révolution. Dans cette situation extraordinaire et très complexe – et du point de vue de l’avancement de la lutte vers l’objectif d’éliminer enfin toute exploitation et toute oppression, partout – il y un besoin urgent de faire tout cela, et de le faire en comprenant la relation correcte et nécessaire entre les différentes parties de cette approche globale : mettre l’accent principale sur la mobilisation de masse et s’appuyer sur elle, le vote dans cette situation extraordinaire étant nécessaire et important mais non pas le principal élément sur lequel on doit compter ; et, en termes fondamentaux, faire en sorte que tout cela contribue à créer des conditions plus favorables et à accroître les forces organisées pour, non seulement résister aux crimes de ce système, mais enfin pour mener à bien la révolution nécessaire afin de mettre un terme à ce système monstrueusement criminel et à sa domination dans le monde, sous quelque forme que ce soit. [Relisez]
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We received this translation in Farsi. This is an unofficial translation, and we do not vouch for its accuracy.
۱ - وضعیت امروز چالش هایی بی سابقه و با تاثیرات درازمدت در مقابلمان گذاشته است که نه تنها برای مردم این کشور بلکه برای کل بشریت پیامدهای عمیقی خواهد داشت. من سه سال پیش، این واقعیت را تحلیل کردم و از آن زمان تا کنون، بسیار برجسته تر و حتی خطرناک تر شده است :
اکنون با رژیمی فاشیستی که بر ما حاکم است روبرو هستیم: رژیمی که بی امان به حقوق و آزادی های مدنی حمله می کند و آشکارا تعصب و نابرابری را ترویج و ترغیب می کند. این فاشیست ها عده ای از مردم را فرومایه و بی ارزش یا لکۀ ننگ کشور می خوانند و رفتارشان با آنها بی اعتناییِ سنگدلانه یا کین ورزی بیرحمانه است. آنها محروم کردن میلیون ها نفر از بیمۀ سلامت و درمان را که بدون آن مردم در رنج زندگی کرده و بسیاری جان خواهند داد ماموریت خود می دانند. آنها گستاخانه زنان را اشیاء قابل غارت و ماشین زاد و ولدِ می دانند که حقِ سقط جنین و کنترل بارداری ندارند و باید تابع شوهران و به طور کلی مردان باشند. علمِ تغییرات اقلیمی را انکار می کنند، به علمِ تکامل حمله و به طور کلی روش علمی را تقبیح می کنند. این رژیمی است که زرادخانۀ کشتار جمعی اش را به رخ می کشد و تهدید می کند که دست به جنگ هسته ای خواهد زد. ترور دولتی را علیه مسلمانان، مهاجران و توده های مردم گتوهای آمریکا تشدید کرده است؛ از اوباش بیرحمیِ که از دهانشان تعفن «اول آمریکا» بیرون می زند، از سفیدپوستان برتری طلب و مردسالاران و نفرت پراکنی های ضد دگرباشان جنسی حمایت کرده و آنها را افسارگسیخته می کند. این رژیمی است که به خاطر همۀ این ها به خود می بالد و اعلام می کند که بدتر از همۀ اینها را در انبان دارد .
در راس این رژیم «قلدر مجنونی» نشسته است که انگشت اش روی ماشۀ بمب هسته ای قرار دارد. این رژیم، بدون اغراق نه تنها تشدید بیسابقۀ رنج توده های بشریت را تهدید می کند بلکه خطری برای موجودیت بشریت است. زیرا در حال افزایشِ غارت هرچه بیشتر محیط زیست است و به داشتن سلاح های کشتار جمعیِ بی نظیر افتخار کرده و با گستاخی اعلام می کند که مایل است از این سلاح ها، از جمله از زرادخانه عظیم هسته ای اش استفاده کند .
همچنین تأکید کرده ام که سیستم سرمایه داری-امپریالیسم از طریق «عملکرد عادی» خود، این فاشیسم را تولید کرده و تحت این سیستم هیچ تغییر اساسیِ مثبت ممکن نیست . در نتیجه، سیستم را باید سرنگون کرد و به جای آن سیستمی را جایگزین کرد که به شکل رادیکال متفاوت و به مراتب بهتر از آن است، تا بتوانیم کلیۀ روابط ستم و استثمار و درگیری های خشونت آمیزی که این روابط تولید می کنند را ریشه کن کنیم . تمامی این ها در شالوده های سیستم تعبیه شده اند و بخش لاینفک و ضروری از کارکرد و نیازهای آن را تشکیل می دهند .
در حال حاضر، برای همۀ کسانی که مشغله شان پایان دادن به بی عدالتی و ستم است و برایشان سوال است که آیا بشریت آینده ای که ارزش زندگی داشته باشد را خواهد داشت و اصلا آینده ای خواهد داشت یا خیر، بیرون راندن رژیم فاشیستی ترامپ/ پنس از قدرت، مساله ای فوری و عاجل و یک الزام حقیقتا تاریخی است .
راه حل اساسی برای دهشت هایی که سیستم دائما برای توده های بشریت به وجود می آورد، انقلاب و سرنگونی سیستم است (فارغ از این که سیستم از طریق دیکتاتوری فاشیستیِ عریان طبقه سرمایه دار حاکم اداره می شود یا از طریق دیکتاتوری نقابدار «دمکراتیک» این طبقه). کسانی که این نیاز را درک می کنند نباید رویکردشان به مبارزه فوری برای بیرون راندن رژیم ترامپ/ پنس از قدرت، چنین باشد که گویی این مبارزه «انحراف » از (یا «جایگزینی » برای ) ضرورت سازمان دادن جنبش برای انقلاب است. رویکردشان، دقیقا باید این باشد که این مبارزه بخشی — و بخشی حیاتی و ضرورتی فوری — از فعالیت کلی برای سازمان دهی انقلاب است .
هدف اساسی و ستارۀ راهنمای ما کماکان این است: انقلاب و نه چیزی کمتر از آن !
در هر فعالیتی که امروز انجام می دهیم، از جمله هنگامِ شرکت در مبارزاتی که رویکردشان مبارزه برای هدفی کمتر از انقلاب است، رویکرد ما این است که همۀ این فعالیت ها را به خدمتِ هدف اساسی انقلاب و رهایی بشریت در آوریم و همواره باید چنین رویکردی را داشته باشیم .
معمولا، ما کمونیست های انقلابی استدلال می کنیم که مردم نباید در انتخابات بورژوایی رای دهند. زیرا این کار به تقویت سیستم سرمایه داری-امپریالیسم خدمت کرده و به این توهم رایج دامن می زند که گویا می توان با «اصلاحات» و بدون سرنگون کردن سیستمی که سرچشمۀ همه این دهشت ها است، از ستم و استثمار خلاص شد. اما آیا این موضع در رابطه با انتخابات خاص کنونی درست است؟ برای جواب گفتن به این سوال باید به کل تصویر نگاه کنیم .
۲ - در مدت نزدیک به چهار سال که رژیم ترامپ/پنس در قدرت بوده است، ما را مجبور کردند شاهد جنایت هایی که پیشاپیش مرتکب شده است باشیم و خطر عظیم آن را تحمل کنیم. ترامپ کارزار انتخاباتی خود در سال ۲۰۱۶ را بر مبنای برنامه ای پیش برد که آشکارا برنامه ای فاشیستی بود مشتمل بر برتری جویی سفیدپوستان و مردسالاری و نژادپرستی و مهاجر هراسی به ویژه علیه مهاجران مکزیک و کشورهای دیگر که او آنها را «گودال های متعفن» می نامد. همچنین حمایت آشکار از تبهکاری و شرارت نیروهای پلیس و هواداران «غیر نظامی» او. ترامپ بلافاصله پس از رسیدن به قدرت، با تمام قوا این برنامه را به عمل درآورد و به سرعت کلیۀ «ضوابط نهادینه »[ ۲ ] را که مانعی در مقابل خود میدید، لگدمال کرد و حتا در مواجهه با استیضاح این کار را ادامه داد و پس از این که رفقای فاشیست او در حزب جمهوری خواه وی را در مجلس سنا تبرئه کردند، با تفرعن و شتاب بیشتر به این کار ادامه داد .
اساساً، هر آنچه در ابتدای بیانیه درباره این رژیم توصیف شده چیزی است که ترامپ و اطرافیانش با شدت کین خواهانه به انجام رسانده اند. با نزدیک شدن انتخابات ماه نوامبر، این روند غلیظ تر و پرخاشگرانه تر شده است. تصورش را بکنید که اگر در ماه نوامبر در صورت انتخاب مجدد برای دور دوم، به او مقام «فرماندهی» داده شود، چه خواهد کرد !
پاندمیِ کوید۱۹ و پاسخ ترامپ و پنس به این بیماری عالمگیر، تصویر روشن دیگری از ماهیت ضد علمی این رژیم و بی اعتنایی مطلق آن به رنج توده های مردم ارائه می دهد. به ویژه قشرهایی که این رژیم بیشترین حس تحقیر را نسبت به آنها دارد و شکننده ترین های جامعه اند و در این پاندمی شدیدترین ضربات را خورده اند .
تمام این ها اتفاقات وحشتناکی هستند اما مساله صرفا اتخاذ سیاست های وحشتناک نیست. بلکه ما با یک شکل کیفیتا متفاوت از حاکمیت مواجهیم که مبتنی است بر سرکوب وحشیانه و تجاوز به هر آنچه قرار است پایه ای ترین حقوق باشد .
پیشاپیش دیده ایم که ترامپ در نقض آشکار اصول قانون اساسی، نیروی ضربت نظامیِ اشغالگری را از ارگان های مختلف دولت فدرال به پورتلند و شهرهای دیگر فرستاده است، تا ابراز نارضایتی و اعتراضات مردم را جرم و جنایت تلقی کرده و سرکوب کنند و بر سلطۀ ترور علیه توده های مردم در گتوهای شیکاگو و دیگر نقاط بیافزایند .
ما شاهد نمایش برتری طلبی عریان ترامپ در شعار «اول آمریکا» بوده ایم؛ از جمله در مطالبات مکررش برای مجازات شدید کسانی که به نظر او نتوانسته اند به طور شایسته شور وطن پرستی نشان دهند، یا جرأت انتقاد از او را به خود داده اند یا علیه برخی از عریان ترین ستم گری های قوای اجراییِ سیستم، به ویژه تداوم سرکوب بیرحمانۀ سیاهان و قتل مردم سیاه، قهوه ای و بومیان آمریکایی توسط پلیس اعتراض کرده اند. ترامپ دائما در حال ترغیب رذالتِ اوباش طرفدار «متمم دوم قانون اساسی »[ ۳ ] و دیگر کسانی که او «آدم های بسیار شایسته» می خواند بوده است .
همه اینها عروج هیتلر به قدرت و حاکمیت او و آلمان نازی در دهه ۱۹۳۰ و اوایل دهۀ ۱۹۴۰ را به یاد می آورند. هنگامی که هیتلر جنبش فاشیستی خود را بنا می نهاد، اراذل و اوباش بسیج می شدند تا آن دسته از مردم را که حمایت خود از هیتلر را نشان نمی دادند ضرب و شتم کرده و بترسانند و به آنها در خیابان و سایر اماکن عمومی حمله کنند. همین که دولت فاشیستی نازی قدرت خود را تثبیت کرد، هرگونه اپوزیسیون را به شدت مجازات و خرد کرد. همه کسانی که با صراحت او و ایدئولوژی رسمی نازی او را تایید نمی کردند مورد هدف قرار می گرفتند. تعداد زیادی از مردم از مؤسسات دولتی پاکسازی شدند. به ویژه یهودیان و همۀ کسانی که به اعتقاد رژیم نازی نسبت به «نژاد خالص آلمانی» «بیگانه» بودند و مانعی در رسیدنِ این رژیم به اهداف جنایتکارانه اش تلقی می شدند. اول از کمونیست ها شروع کردند. اما خیلی زود جمعیت یهود، کولی ها (رومانها)، همجنسگرایان و دیگران را در بر گرفت. اردوگاه های کار اجباری پر از کسانی شد که برای رژیم نازی تهدید یا برای آلمان «لکه ننگ» محسوب می شدند. و طولی نکشید که این روند به نسل کشیِ گستردۀ میلیون ها یهودی در آلمان و کشورهایی که توسط رژیم نازی فتح و اشغال می شدند، منجر شد .
هرچند این اتفاقات یک باره رخ ندادند اما طی یک دوره نسبتاً کوتاه (یک دهه یا بیشتر) و با شتابی فزاینده روی دادند . حاکمیت قانون کاملاً آشکارا و رسماً کنار گذاشته نشده بود اما «قانون» و «حاکمیت قانون» مترادف شد با هیتلر و هر آن چه رژیم نازی می گفت «قانون» است. بخش عمده از کاری که هیتلر و نازی ها در جریان حاکمیت وحشت و نسل کشی انجام دادند «مطابق قانون» بود. قانونی که به اهداف و ابزار توحش آنها تقلیل پیدا کرده بود، و توسط نهادهایی که کاملا از هر معنا یا هدفی به جز خدمت به دستور کار نازی و انطباق با آن تهی شده بودند، از طریق سرکوب و قتل اعمال می شدند و تبدیل شده بودند به ابزار جنایت نازی ها .
درمجموع آنچه ترامپ در حال حاضر انجام می دهد، از جمله فراخوان های علنی وی برای لغو تصمیمات دیوان عالی و مصوبه ها و بدعت های قبلی (به طور مثال، فراخوان غیرقانونی کردن سقط جنین و مجازات سوزاندن پرچم)، به همراه نقض مکرر قانون و آیین های دادرسی قانونی توسط وی و پافشاری بر این که او خودش قانون است، سایۀ فرارسیدن دیکتاتوری فاشیستیِ هرچه عریان تر است. فاشیسم همین است. یعنی دیکتاتوری آشکار و تهاجمی، لگدمال کردن حاکمیت قانون، تکیه کردن بر خشونت و ترور به نیابت از سیستم سرمایه داری سیری ناپذیر و به مثابه تلاشی افراطی برای مقابله با شکاف های عمیق اجتماعی و بحران های حاد (در داخل و در عرصه جهانی). و با اقدامات «وزیر آموزش و پرورش» ترامپ (بتسی دو- ووس ) Betsy DeVos می توانیم خطوط کلی نسخۀ رژیم ترامپ/پنس از «ایدئولوژی رسمی» (مسیحیت فاشیستی) را ببینیم. چرا که بتسی دو-ووس خودش یک فاشیست بنیادگرای مسیحی است و هدف نهایی اش تعویض نظام آموزش عمومی و سکولار آمریکا با مدارسی مبتنی بر آموزش آیینیِ مسحیت بنیادگرا است. از هم اکنون می توانیم سایه گستریِ وضعیتی را تشخیص دهیم که نه تنها دانش آموزان مدارس بلکه همۀ افراد جامعه ملزم به بیعت وفاداری با یک آمریکای فاشیستی مسیحی سفید گردند .
یکی از بیانیه های سازمان «رفیوز فاشیسم» این موضوع را در متن زیر به شکل شیوا و قدرتمند استدلال می کند :
«به واقع خطوط در حال ترسیم شدن هستند و اوضاع آبستن پیامدهای فاجعه آمیز برای کل بشریت است. اگر ما حق اعتراض از طریق قانونی یا غیر قانونی را از دست بدهیم، اصلا نمی توان گفت که چه خواهد شد. فاشیسم صرفا بدترین حالت در چرخش آونگ نیست. بلکه تغییری کیفی در نحوۀ حاکمیت بر جامعه است. گروه ها را یکی پس از دیگری شرور نامیده و در مسیری که به وحشت می انجامد مورد آماج قرار می دهند. همه اینها در ظرف بیش از سه سال در جریان بوده است، اما با وجود برپا شدن اردوگاه های اجباری در مرز، تبرئۀ ترامپ در دادگاه استیضاح قلابی و فرمان اجرایی برای محافظت از بناهای تاریخی و هم زمان جرم تلقی کردن حق «متمم اول» که استفاده از آن مجازات زندان دارد، خیلی ها هنوز می خواهند غرق در توهمات راحت طلبانه شان باشند و نمی خواهند باور کنند که این اتفاق واقعا دارد روی می دهد. این فاشیسم است که به جریان افتاده و زمان برای متوقف کردن آن دارد از دست می رود ».
خیلی وقت است که عده ای از ما، از جمله صداهای متنوعی که توسط «رفیوز فاشیسم» نمایندگی می شود، نشان داده ایم که رژیم ترامپ/پنس خطری فوری و دارای ظرفیت خطراتی بس عظیم تر است. اما این هشدارها اغلب اوقات و بیش از اندازه با واکنشِ انکارهای متکبرانۀ کسانی روبرو شده است که نمی توانند یا نمی خواهند واقعیت و مسیر این رژیم را ببینند. آنها چشمان خود را بر بسیاری از کارهای وحشتناکی که این رژیم پیشاپیش انجام داده بستند و به آنها کم بها دادند تا خطر این رژیم را انکار کنند. آنها خاطرنشان می کردند که این رژیم هنوز فلان و بهمان کارها را انجام نداده و انتظار داشتند که «اثبات» این ادعا باشد که این کارها را نخواهد کرد . اکنون که دیری از شب گذشته و در این لحظۀ حساس، با دیدن ماهیت فاشیستی این رژیم و تشابهات بسیار واقعی آن با جنایت های رژیم های فاشیستی قبلی، دادنِ عنوانِ «زنگ خطرهای اغراق آمیز» به این هشدارها هیچ نیست مگر بی اعتنایی به درس های حیاتی تاریخ و علاوه بر این، چشم پوشیدن بر واقعیت بسیار خطرناک اوضاع کنونی: از جمله، اهمیت این واقعیت که ترامپ برای عملی کردن وعده هایی که به فاشیست های مسیحی داده است، دادگاه ها را از مدارج پایین تا دیوان عالی کشور با قشونی از فاشیست های مسیحی و دیگر قضات راست افراطی پر کرده است. این قشون، برای اعطای «مشروعیت قانونی» به کل برنامه هولناک رژیم فاشیستی ترامپ/ پنس حرکت خواهد کرد .
اگر این رژیم بتواند قدرت خود را بیش از اینها تثبیت کند و در اجرای اهداف ترسناک خود جهش های بیشتری کند، نتیجه اش عقب گرد ویرانگر برای هرگونه تلاش در مقاومت علیه بی عدالتی و ستم خواهد بود و به احتمال زیاد منجر به سرکوب بیرحمانه و حتا نابودی مدافعان حقوق دمکراتیک و حامیان هر شکل اصلاحات مترقیِ معنادار و همچنین نیروهای متشکلی خواهد بود که برای تغییرات اساسی انقلابی مبارزه می کنند .
به اساسی ترین وجه، ضرورت فوری در بسیج توده ای مردم حول خواست بیرون راندن اجباری این رژیم فاشیستی در تضاد با خیزش توده ای علیه سفیدسالاری (برتری جویی سفید پوستان) و ترور پلیسی که نهادینه هستند یا در تضاد با جنبش های توده ای علیه دیگر جنایت های این سیستم نیست . بلکه در اتحاد بنیادین با تمام این مبارزات بوده و برای همه آنها حیاتی است . اینها به طرزی قدرتمند با یک دیگر رابطۀ تقویت متقابل دارند که می توان و باید آن را درک کرد و بر این مبنا آنها را سازمان داد .
۳ - تقریبا با اطمینان می توان گفت که صرفاً اتکا به رأی دادن برای بیرون راندن رژیم از قدرت، منجر به نتایج بسیار بد و حتی فاجعه آمیز خواهد شد . این امر به ویژه با توجه به کارهایی که رژیم ترامپ/پنس پیشاپیش در رابطه با انتخابات انجام می دهد و آن چه ترامپ در رابطه با آن می گوید، صادق است. پیشاپیش رژیم و حامیانش حرکت هایی را برای سرکوب آرای کسانی که احتمالا علیه ترامپ رأی خواهند داد شروع کرده اند. به عنوان مثال ترامپ دست به حملات کاملاً بی اساس علیه ارسال رأی از طریق پُست زده و برای ارعاب سیاهان و لاتین تباران و مانع تراشی در مقابل استفادۀ آنها از حق رأی شان تدارک می بیند. ترامپ همانطور که در انتخابات سال ۲۰۱۶ گفت در صورت باخت، از پذیرش نتیجه انتخابات سر باز خواهد زد، در مورد انتخابات آینده هم چنین زمزمه هایی را سر داده است. و اکنون ایدۀ «معلق کردن» و «به تاخیر انداختن» انتخابات را طرح می کند .
با توجه به کارهایی که ترامپ قبلاً انجام داده و وقیحانه اعلام کرده، می توان تصور کرد که با نزدیک شدن انتخابات و بعد از آن، رژیم ترامپ/پنس گارد توفانِ storm troopers وفادار به خودش را در شهرهای سراسر کشور مستقر کرده و با شرارت دست به سرکوب هرگونه ابراز مقاومت و مخالفت بزند. این چشم انداز بسیار ترسناک و همچنین بسیار واقع بینانه است .
تداوم پاندمی کوید۱۹ یا فرمان های اجرایی برای فرونشاندن «بی نظمی مدنی» (اعتراضات) در بسیاری از نقاط کشور می تواند همچنین به عنوان بهانه و نقابی برای «تعلیق» انتخابات و شاید تعلیق نامحدود آن، استفاده شود .
مطمئناً می توان تصور کرد که ترامپ یک «شرایط اضطراری ملی» نیز خلق کند. برای مثال به اقدامات جنگی علیه ایران یا حتا احتمالا علیه چین دست بزند و به این بهانه شرایط سرکوبگرانه شدیدتری را برقرار کند، شمار بیشتری از گارد توفان شبه نظامی اش را برای اشغال شهرها بفرستد و انتخابات را ابطال کند (یا برای مدت نامحدود «به تاخیر» بیندازد) و یا در صورت برگزاری انتخابات، از این طریق آراء و نتایج آن را کنترل کند .
در حال حاضر، استمرار در سازمان دادن مقاومت و سازمان دادن آن به شکل قدرتمند و گسترش یابنده علیه هر حرکت سرکوبگرانۀ ترامپ، از جمله سازمان دادن مخالفت علیه تلاش های این رژیم در سرکوب رأی دهندگان و از طریق بسیج گسترده در حمایت و دفاع از آنهایی که آماج چنین سرکوبگری هستند، دارای اهمیت اساسی است .
با آگاهی کامل نسبت به ماهیت رژیم فاشیستی و آن چه نمایندگی می کند و با آگاهی نسبت به این که ترامپ فقط به دنبال سرکوب آرای کسانی نیست که علیه وی رأی خواهند داد، بلکه در تدارک است که در صورت برنده نشدن در انتخابات برای ماندن در قدرت از سرکوب خشن و قهری استفاده کند... با آگاهی کامل نسبت به اینها، هم اکنون باید دست به بسیج حقیقتا عظیم و پایدار حول خواست متحدانۀ بیرون کردن فوری این رژیم از قدرت بزنیم. این مبارزه از اهمیتی اساسی و فوری برخوردار است و باید جهت گیری آن را داشته و آماده باشیم که در صورت ضرورت اوضاع، این بسیج را بعد از انتخابات هم ادامه دهیم .
از روزهای نخست رژیم ترامپ/ پنس، سازمان «رفیوز فاشیسم» ماهیت فاشیستی این رژیم را فریاد زده و فراخوان بسیج گستردۀ توده ای با هدف بیرون راندن این رژیم از قدرت را داده است. تحقق این هدف اکنون هرچه ضروری تر و فوری تر شده است. اگر، آنها که از این رژیم متنفرند اما در گذشته نتوانستند یا نخواستند ماهیت واقعیِ فاشیستی و خطر بزرگ آن برای بشریت را تشخیص دهند، زودتر از این ها به فراخوان «رفیوزفاشیسم» پاسخ داده و فعالانه درگیر آن شده بودند، امروز با اوضاعی واقعا متفاوت و بسیار خوبی روبرو بودیم. اکنون سرانجام و به طور روزافزونی عدۀ بیشتری این واقعیت را تشخیص می دهند و حول ماهیت «اقتدارگرای» این رژیم بحث می شود و حتی استفاده از اصطلاح فاشیسم برای توصیف آن افزایش یافته است. همانطور که خاطرنشان کردم در مورد افراد زیادی می توان گفت: «اوه ! حالا می گویند» که این فاشیسم است، گویی به تازگی فاشیسم ظاهر شده است. اما از آن جا که خطرات عمیق را می فهمیم، بهتر است این واقعیت را به رسمیت بشناسیم که الان بهتر از هرگز است. زمان در حال از دست رفتن است. اما هنوز برای محقق کردن بسیج گستردۀ توده ای خیلی دیر نشده است . تکیه کردن بر «ضوابط» {«هنجارها»} و «مجاری معمول» سیستم و محدود کردن اقدامات خود در این چارچوب ها، از جمله انتخابات آینده، نمی تواند مشکل عمیق و فوری پیش رو را حل کند، به ویژه هنگامی که مساله مقابله با یک رژیم فاشیستی و پیروان متعصب آن است که مصمم اند این «ضوابط» را لگد مال و پاره کنند .
۴ - در این لحظۀ حساس، باید از هر وسیلۀ عملِ غیر خشونت آمیز مناسب برای بیرون کردن این رژیم از قدرت، استفاده شود. اگر علیرغم اعتراضات گسترده با خواست بیرون کردن رژیم ترامپ/پنس از قدرت، این رژیم در زمان انتخابات کماکان در قدرت باقی مانده باشد، آنگاه (با فرض این که انتخابات به واقع برگزار شود) استفاده از کلیۀ ابزار مناسب برای کنار زدن این رژیم باید شامل رأی دادن علیه ترامپ باشد . بدون این که تکیۀ اساسی بر روی این روش گذاشته شود . واضح بگویم که این به معنای «رأی اعتراضی» برای برخی کاندیداها که شانس پیروزی ندارند نیست. بلکه برای رأی موثر علیه ترامپ، در واقع باید به نامزد حزب دمکرات یعنی بایدن رأی داد .
دلیل این امر آن نیست که بایدن (و به طور کلی حزب دمکرات) یک باره تبدیل به چیزی غیر از آن چه هستند شده اند. آنها نمایندگان و ابزار سیستم استثمارگر، ستم گر و به معنای واقعی کلمه، سیستم آدمکش سرمایه داری-امپریالیسم هستند. پروسۀ انتخاباتی کماکان همان چیزی است که ما کمونیست های انقلابی نامیده ایم : BEB (مزخرفِ انتخاباتیِ بورژوازی). کماکان حقیقت این است که هیچ تغییر اساسی به سمت شرایط بهتر نمی تواند از طریق پروسۀ انتخاباتی به دست آید و این که به طور عام و به طور کلی، رأی دادن تحت این سیستم به تقویت سیستم خدمت می کند، به ویژه اگر به رأی دادن به عنوان راهی برای دست یافتن به تغییر معنادار و به خصوص اگر به عنوان «راه» به آن نگریسته شود .
اما این انتخابات، فرق دارد .
این حقیقت دارد که با هر انتخاباتی، دمکرات ها همان بازی شیادانه را اجرا می کنند. یعنی مردم متنفر از بی عدالتی و ستم را می ترسانند که به «شّر کمتر» رأی دهند و اصرار می ورزند که «شما ممکن است با هرچه ما می گوییم موافق نباشید، حتا ممکن است اختلافات و انتقادهای جدی به ما و فعالیتهای مان داشته باشید اما آیا واقعا می خواهید که آنها در قدرت باشند؟! (منظور از آنهاسفید پوستان برتری طلب، مردسالاران، غارتگران محیط زیست که تغییرات اقلیمی را انکار می کنند، و مرتجعین تمام قدِ حزب جمهوری خواه است ).
و حزب دمکرات همواره و دائما این کار را کرده است. حزب دمکرات نمایندۀ سیستم سرمایه داری- امپریالیسم است که سفیدسالاری، مردسالاری، غارت محیط زیست و جنگ برای امپراتوری در وجودش تعبیه شده و همواره تلاش میکند در رأس سیستم بنشیند. با این وجود گاها سر و صداهایی در مورد این جنایت ها کرده و برخی قدم ها برای برخی اصلاحات ناچیز (و در نهایت بی محتوا) بر می دارد تا به اصطلاح کاری در رابطه با آنها صورت بدهد. همه اینها در واقع به ایجاد اوضاع وحشتناکی که امروز در مقابلمان است خدمت کرده است. به لحاظ سیاسی بسیاری از کسانی که به دنبال خاتمه دادن به چنین جنایت هایی هستند را فلج کرده و به سطح وابستگان منفعلِ حزب دمکرات و نقش آن در پروسه انتخاباتی فروکاهیده است. ضمن اینکه بر آتش بخش های فاشیستِ سخت جان جامعه دمیده است که مصرند مطلقا اجازۀ هیچ تخفیفی در این جنایات و هیچ امتیازی به مبارزاتی که علیه آن می شود، داده نشود، و در واقع خواستار تقویت بیرحمانۀ این ستم و جنایات آن به طرزی افراطی هستند .
با این وجود، این انتخابات از زوایای بسیار مهمی متفاوت است . سؤال این نیست که آیا بایدن و دمکرات ها نماینده چیز «خوبی» هستند یا اینکه آیا اصولا دمکراتها «بهتر» از جمهوری خواهان هستند. هر دوی این ها، احزاب سیاسیِ طبقۀ حاکم اند و هیچ یک از نامزدهای انتخاباتی آن ها در پایه ای ترین و اساسی ترین مفهوم، چیز «خوبی» را نمایندگی نمی کنند. بایدن در هیچ جنبۀ محتوایی «بهتر» از ترامپ نیست، جز این که او ترامپ نیست و بخشی از تلاش برای تحکیم و اجرای حاکمیت فاشیستی با تمام معنایی که دارد، نمی باشد .
اگر به این انتخابات از این زاویه که کدام نامزد «بهتر» است نگاه کنیم، از درک خطرات عمیق و عواقب بالقوه ای که در این وضعیت وجود دارند، غافل خواهیم ماند. واقعیت این است که از درون این انتخابات تنها چیز «خوبی » که میتواند بیرون بیاید، وارد کردن یک شکست قاطع به ترامپ و کل رژیم فاشیستی است . انجام این کار می تواند شرایط به مراتب بهتری برای ادامۀ مبارزه علیه هر آن چه رژیم ترامپ/پنس نمایندگی کرده و علیه کلیه ستم ها و بی عدالتی های این سیستم ایجاد کند و هدیۀ بزرگی برای مردم سراسر جهان خواهد بود .
باز هم در این شرایطِ بسیار خاص و خارق العاده، اگر رژیم ترامپ/پنس با وجود بسیج گستردۀ توده ای حول خواست برکناری این رژیم، در زمان انتخابات همچنان در قدرت باشد، آنگاه مبارزه علیه این رژیم فاشیستی رأی دادن علیه ترامپ از طریق رأی دادن به بایدن را ایجاب می کند، در همان حال که سازماندهی بسیج گسترده و پایدار علیه این رژیم و هر آنچه نمایندگی و در خود فشرده می کند را باید ادامه داد و آماده باشیم که بسیج گسترده را حتا اگر ترامپ در انتخابات بازنده شود اما از قبول باخت امتناع کند ادامه دهیم .
۵ – با وجود تشخیص این مساله، بسیار مهم است که یک بار دیگر به شدیدترین وجه تأکید کنیم که به دلایلی که در اینجا گفته شد ، اتکا به رأی دادن بدون بسیج گستردۀ توده ای، به احتمال زیاد منجر به فاجعه خواهد شد .
این احتمال هست که ترامپ واقعاً در انتخابات پیروز شود. اما، چه برنده شود یا بازنده، انتخابات شامل اقدامات بی سابقه در سرکوب آرای مخالفان وی و استفاده از وسایل غیرقانونی گوناگون برای ماندن در قدرت خواهد بود. و حتی اساسی تر، با درک دقیق ماهیت فاشیستیِ رژیم و پیامدهای کامل آن، باید گفت فارغ از این که رژیم ترامپ/پنس از چه طریقی به قدرت رسیده و برای ماندن و تحکیم قدرت خود دست به چه حرکاتی می زند، در هر حالت نامشروع است . هیتلر و نازی ها در دهه 1930 در آلمان از طریق «کانالهای عادی سیستم دمکراتیک» از جمله انتخابات به قدرت رسیدند، اما حاکمیت آنها و اقدامات وحشتناک وصف ناپذیرشان، مطلقاً هیچ «مشروعیتی» نداشت. همین اصل اساسی در مورد رژیم ترامپ/پنس صدق می کند. به دلیل ماهیت و محتوا، چیزی به نام «فاشیسم مشروع» وجود ندارد .
هر اتفاقی در انتخابات بیافتد و حتی اگر بایدن برنده و به واقع رئیس جمهور شود، هرگز «بازگشت به شرایط عادی» در کار نخواهد بود. زیرا، اولا فاشیست ها، یعنی کسانی که کماکان در مقام های بالای قدرت خواهند ماند و همچنین «پایۀ» فاشیسم که در جامعه گسترده شده است، چنین اجازه ای را نخواهند داد. و دیگر این که، به هر حال هیچ کس نباید خواهان «بازگشت شرایط عادی» باشد. چرا که «شرایط عادی» این سیستم همواره شامل ظلم و ستم وحشیانه علیه مردم سیاه و سایر رنگین پوستان از طریق ترور، قساوت و قتل عام سیستماتیک برای اجرای این ستم؛ همواره شامل تبعیض شرورانه، تعصب و خشونت علیه مهاجران، زنان، ال جی بی تی کیوها و سایر کسانی که به عنوان فرومایه و «بیگانه» تلقی شده اند، بوده است. همواره شامل جنگهای ناعادلانه برای امپراتوری و ادامه جنایات علیه بشریت بوده است و اکنون همان «شرایط عادی» از طریق ویرانی های روز افزون محیط زیست و تهدید همیشگی جنگ هسته ای، تهدیدی برای موجودیت بشر نیز محسوب می شود .
مبارزات چند جانبه برای براندازی رژیم فاشیستی ترامپ/پنس جایگزینی برای حرکت به فراسوی این سیستم و هر آنچه که توسط «شرایط عادی» آن نمایندگی شده و تجسم می یابد نیست. بلکه باید به مثابه یک بخش – بخشی مهم – از حرکت به فراسوی سیستم در دست گرفته شود .
۶ – سرانجام جدا از اینکه چه اتفاقاتی در انتخابات جاری بیفتد، یک حقیقت عمیق تغییر نمی کند و آن این که هیچ تغییر اساسی به سمت شرایط بهتر در چارچوبۀ این سیستم امکان پذیر نیست. تشخیص این حقیقت و عمل کردن بر مبنای درکِ آن اهمیتی حیاتی دارد. هرچند که بسیج گستردۀ پایدار حول مطالبۀ متحد کنندۀ «برکناری رژیم ترامپ/پنس! فوری!» باید به طور عاجل پیش برود. اما در همان حال کسانی که به این درک رسیده اند که سفیدسالاری، مردسالاری و دیگر ستم ها و جنایت ها علیه بشریت که در چارچوب این سیستم جریان دارد در حقیقت در وجود سیستم سرمایه داری-امپریالیسم تعبیه شده اند، باید به طور منظم و مداوم با یکدیگر برای ساختن جنبشی گسترش یابنده و تقویت نیروهای سازمان یافتۀ برای انجام انقلابی واقعی جهت سرنگونی سیستم، کار کنند .
خلاصه کنم: با توجه به وجود خطرات حقیقتا سرنوشت ساز، نه فقط از منظر یک موضوع خاص، هرچند که بسیار مهم باشد، و نه صرفا برای این کشور، بلکه برای توده های مردم در سراسر جهان و برای آیندۀ بشریت، نیاز فوق العاده ای هست که رویکرد و عمل مان دارای آن حد از پختگی باشد که در مواجهه با تضادهای پیچیده و دشوار اوضاع کنونی لازم است – داشتن دید وسیع، رد سکتاریسم کوته نظرانه و دگماتیسم شکننده و بی دوام، و پرهیز از رویکرد فلج کنندۀ «این یا آن». نباید گفت: ما علیه سفیدسالاری و خشونت پلیس مبارزه می کنیم یا برای بیرون راندن رژیم فاشیستی ترامپ/پنس؛ یا در این انتخابات شرکت میکنیم یا مبارزه توده ای علیه مظالم سیستم و این رژیم فاشیستی راه می اندازیم.؛ یا با هر وسیلۀ مناسبی به مخالفت با این رژیم بلند می شویم یا برای انقلاب کار می کنیم . در این شرایط استثنائی و بسیار پیچیده و از چشم انداز پیشبرد مبارزه با هدف محو نهایی همه انواع ستم و استثمار، در همه جای جهان، نیاز فوری به انجام همه این کارها هست و این کار را باید بر مبنای درک رابطۀ صحیح و لازم بین بخشهای مختلف این رویکرد کلی باید انجام داد: با قرار دادن تأکید اصلی و اتکا بر بسیج توده ای وسیع، رأی دادن در این شرایط خارق العاده لازم و مهم است اما نباید تکیۀ عمده را بر آن گذاشت؛ و به طور بنیادین، همه این کارها را باید به خدمت ایجاد شرایط مساعدتری برای ساختن نیروهای متشکل در آورد، تا نه فقط مقاومت علیه جنایت های این سیستم را پیش ببریم بلکه برای این که بتوانیم بالاخره انقلاب کنیم؛ انقلابی برای پایان دادن به حیات این سیستم فوق العاده جنایتکار و تسلط آن در جهان، به هر شکلی .
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(See also "Short Version—The Basic Picture and Essential Vision")
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In the Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution, I spoke to this important point:
At this critical hour, every appropriate means of non-violent action must be utilized to remove this regime from power. And if, in spite of mass protest demanding the removal of the Trump/Pence regime, this regime remains in power when it is time for voting, then—without placing fundamental reliance on this—using all appropriate means to work for the removal of this regime must include voting against Trump (assuming the election is actually held). To be clear, this means not a “protest vote” for some candidate who has no chance of winning, but actually voting for the Democratic Party candidate, Biden, in order to effectively vote against Trump.
At the same time, however, I strongly emphasized that
Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is saying, in relation to the election.
But, if that is true, then how could this regime be removed from power—and, specifically, how could a mass mobilization actually lead to this regime being forced to go?
Imagine this.
Among the thousands who have already been reached, and moved, by the work of RefuseFascism.org, raising the demand that this fascist regime must be OUT NOW!, growing numbers become grass roots organizers, reaching out to their families, friends and communities, and involving all kinds of people and groups—through direct contact, social media, and in other ways—drawing into this growing, and increasingly diverse, mass movement thousands more who share their hatred for everything this regime stands for and is moving mercilessly to hammer into place. Many more, in turn, also become organizers.
Imagine that, as has happened with the mass protests against racist oppression and police terror, people mobilize in the streets, day after day, beginning on October 3rd, responding to the call from Refuse Fascism for sustained non-violent but determined demonstrations around the unifying demand that this regime must go, now. These mobilizations grow, expanding and multiplying—joined by increasing numbers of people outraged by continuing police brutality and murder; by the ravaging of the environment; children in cages and tens of thousands of immigrants in concentration camps on the border; Trump’s heartless and reckless neglect and lying about the COVID pandemic, causing tens of thousands of needless deaths, disproportionately among Black and Brown and Native people; the regime’s relentless move to further consolidate a Supreme Court that is another instrument of fascist bigotry and repression—masses of people, from all parts of society, who are sickened by all this, and are coming to see even more clearly that all this is bound up with and driven by this fascist regime, joining with the ongoing daily mobilizations, linking their outrage and resistance with the unifying demand: OUT NOW!
Imagine: Students, teachers, scientists, medical professionals, lawyers, clergy and their congregations, unions, civil rights and justice organizations, artists, athletes and others in the cultural arena—all these, and others, take up the call and mobilize to strengthen the movement. Celebrities, and prominent people in many fields, utilize their platforms to magnify the message and help to mobilize still greater numbers.
As the crimes of this regime escalate day after day—spewing white supremacy, male supremacy, and other bigotry; moving to suppress votes and steal the election; threatening and unleashing violence to remain in power regardless of the outcome of the election; increasingly turning the “Justice Department” into a naked instrument of lawless repression, robbing people of basic rights, while moving to hammer into place a Supreme Court that will declare all this “Constitutional” and “legal”—as all this, and more, becomes increasingly blatant, and accelerates at a dizzying pace with the approach of the scheduled election, growing sectors of society come to the realization that they cannot simply look to the election to deal with this. Casting aside passive reliance on the “normal political process,” and overcoming fear in the face of threats and assaults by fascist thugs, all over the country masses of ordinary people, in growing waves, take to the streets, join the ongoing OUT NOW! mobilizations, or themselves initiate such mobilizations where they are not yet happening. This becomes a massive groundswell, engulfing the country as a whole, dramatically changing the terms of political engagement, forcing every political contender and all the dominant institutions in society to respond to this rising wave of determined mass resistance. This growing mobilization moves from the margins to the center of media attention and coverage, in this country and internationally. People around the world take notice, are inspired and organize demonstrations in solidarity and support.
Imagine that, all of a sudden, Democratic Party politicians and operatives are forced to realize that they cannot simply funnel all the outrage and discontent into an election that is being daily stolen and violently corrupted by the fascist regime. These politicians now declare that they identify with the sentiments of the masses of demonstrators demanding OUT NOW!—and they seek to have speakers at rallies and work to control and direct the mobilizations into “acceptable channels” that will not lead to further “disorder.” But, given the growing understanding and determination of the demonstrators, these politicians’ efforts only draw even more attention, and still greater numbers, to these mobilizations—and, even in the face of growing threats and acts of repression and violence by the regime and its fascist supporters, in and out of uniform, these mobilizations continue to grow and even more powerfully thunder the demand: OUT NOW!
Faced with this intensifying situation, the leaders of the Democratic Party calculate that the only way they can hope to gain control over the situation and re-establish some semblance of “orderly process” is to themselves take up the demand that the Trump/Pence regime must go—now—even before a scheduled election that this regime has thoroughly perverted and prevented from proceeding as a “free and fair” process. This move by the Democrats is joined (or supported, behind the scenes) by others in powerful positions in the government, including even some Republican politicians who have finally decided that their political goals and personal ambitions are better served by breaking with this regime and regrouping around other “leaders.” Trump (and Pence) are presented with the ultimatum from these ruling class forces that either they resign or they will be impeached—and, this time, convicted—and those making this demand also make clear that they have the institutional power behind them to enforce this, if Trump (and Pence) refuse to leave.
Imagine!
Of course, it is impossible to say exactly where things will end up, and there is no “guarantee” of success. But it is possible. And two things should be emphasized in relation to this.
First, if masses of people do not take to the streets, now, around the demand that this regime must go; if this regime is allowed to suppress votes and use the threat and force of violence to remain in power; if it is able to further consolidate its fascist rule and to be further unleashed to bludgeon into place its fascist program and aims—then the consequences will truly be catastrophic.
Second, we—all of us, from many different walks of life and many different political perspectives, who can recognize this fascist regime for what it is and refuse to live in a fascist America—we, by acting together, in the thousands and millions, can give expression to the strongly held sentiments of tens and tens of millions, who righteously hate everything this regime represents and aspire to a much better world than this. We can give life to massive, non-violent but sustained, and rapidly growing, mass mobilizations demanding that this regime must go—now—with the possibility that this can become a reality. We can powerfully give expression to the crucial understanding that—because of its very fascist nature, and with its escalating attempts to corrupt an election and remain in power regardless of the actual outcome of that election—this regime is illegitimate and must be removed. And if, even with this mass mobilization, this regime is still in power on November 3rd, the fact that we have carried out this mass mobilization and powerfully raised this OUT NOW! demand, will mean that there will be much more favorable conditions for continuing, and further amplifying and strengthening, this mass mobilization if Trump and his regime attempt to stay in power, regardless of the actual outcome of the election.
Whether there will be a real possibility of a society, a world and a future for humanity—one worth living in—will depend, to no small degree, on what we who aspire to such a world decide to do, and strive with the determination necessary to make this a reality.
*********
With this basic outline in mind of what is necessary, and what is possible—the determined fight and massive mobilization that could actually defeat the moves of the Trump/Pence regime to further hammer into place its fascist rule, with the truly catastrophic consequences that would lead to—let’s look at this further, and more fully, in the context of the larger situation and crucial recent developments.
The announcement of the death of longtime liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been the occasion for Trump and his fellow fascists, not to pause to honor Ginsburg, but to immediately declare their intention to ram through the appointment of yet another extreme right-wing judge onto the court—to give further “legal backing,” by “the highest court in the land,” to the fanatically oppressive and repressive agenda and aims of the fascist Trump/Pence regime, which include: using “executive power” to trample on the rule of law and turn the “law” into merely an instrument of the fascist regime; giving the police even more unlimited powers to brutalize and murder in the name of “law and order”; ruthlessly persecuting immigrants, LGBT people, Muslims and other “undesirables”; further removing restrictions on the plundering of the environment; forcing patriotism and religious fundamentalism (that is, Christian fascism) down the throats of everyone in society—and, not least, outlawing abortion and in general slamming women more forcefully into a subordinate position in relation to men and in society overall.
In The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!, I examined the “unholy alliance” between Trump and the Christian fundamentalists, who are the hard core and driving force of this fascism.1
Speaking to the same phenomenon (and referring to the Christian fundamentalists as “evangelicals,” and having in mind particularly white evangelicals), Kristin Kobes Du Mez has made clear:
evangelical support for Trump was no aberration, nor was it merely a pragmatic choice. It was, rather, the culmination of evangelicals’ embrace of militant masculinity, an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and condones the callous display of power, at home and abroad.2
The Christian fascist zealotry in opposition to abortion is not really about the fraudulent notion that abortion amounts to “killing babies”—something which is demonstrated by (among other things) the fact that these opponents of the right to abortion also strongly oppose birth control which prevents pregnancy in the first place. The truth is this:
What is really involved is that abortion, and birth control, help to provide women with a certain independence, a freedom to decide whether and when to have children—and, yes, a certain freedom to engage in sexual relations of their own choosing, on the basis of their own desire and volition, without having to be worried about whether they are going to become pregnant when they have neither wanted nor decided to do so. It is this relative independence and freedom that causes a frenzy among Christian fascists, because it runs counter to reducing the role of women to “helpmates” to husbands and breeders of children for those husbands in patriarchal, male-dominated families, and to the subordinate and oppressed position of women in society as a whole.3
In previous writings and speeches—including the previous article (Part 2) in this series—I emphasized that there is a direct connection and powerful link between the patriarchal misogyny (hatred and degradation of women) of this fascism and its aggressive white supremacy, and that:
there can be no “reconciliation” with these fascists—whose “grievances” are based on fanatical resentment against any limitation on white supremacy, male supremacy, xenophobia (hatred of foreigners), rabid American chauvinism, and the unrestrained plundering of the environment, and are increasingly expressed in literally lunatic terms. There can be no “reconciliation” with this, other than on the terms of these fascists, with all the terrible implications and consequences of that!4
It is urgently necessary for everyone who refuses to accept (to be “reconciled” with) all this, to understand what the terrible consequences will be if the Trump/Pence regime is able to make a further leap in consolidating its fascist rule and implementing its fascist program. This fascism “is not just a matter of horrific policies but of a qualitatively different form of rule, based on brutal repression and violation of what are supposed to be the most basic rights.”5
The African-American theologian, Hubert Locke—whom I quoted in the previous article (Part 1) in this series—underlines this crucial point:
Were all this only a battle for the hearts and minds of the American people, we could wade into the conflict with a great deal less concern, confident that good sense and human decency would ultimately triumph over ignorance and bigotry. But this is a battle for power—it’s about seizing the reins of government, manipulating the courts and judicial decisions, controlling the media, and making incursions into every possible corner of our private lives and relationships, so that what the religious right perceives as the will of God will reign in America.6
All those who can recognize that this nightmare is rapidly becoming a brute reality—who refuse to live in a fascist America where every aspiration for a just world is viciously slandered and mercilessly deprived of air to breathe—we, in our millions and tens of millions, must act together to create a situation where there can be, and there will be, no “normal,” no grinding along of the machinery that is leading to disaster, so long as this fascist regime is in power.
We need to fight with the full recognition of the profound stakes that are involved and the ultimate threat to humanity itself that is posed by this regime. What is called for now is struggle that is non-violent, but is daring and bold, fired with the determination not to back down, until this regime has been removed. We must, in a very urgent way, bring into being a situation in which every force—among all the different sectors of the ruling powers and institutions, and in the society at large—has to respond to and weigh heavily the political situation that we are creating through increasingly massive and powerful mobilizations, insisting that this regime must go, now!
Anything less will mean tying ourselves to forces and procedures, and passively awaiting an outcome, that will very likely lead to capitulating to this fascism, with what will be (without the slightest exaggeration) truly catastrophic consequences.
As my August 1 Statement emphasizes: “At this critical hour, every appropriate means of non-violent action must be utilized to remove this regime from power.”7 And, if it comes to it, that means voting for Biden in order to effectively vote against Trump.
I have also pointed to this important reality:
It is true that, at this point, the vote in a few states essentially determines the outcome of presidential elections—so that, as was the case with Trump in the previous presidential election, someone can lose the popular vote and still become president. But, even given this reality, an electoral strategy that could work much better for the Democrats would be to take on Trump’s whole racist approach, directly and forcefully, and appeal to Black people and other people of color, and the large number of white people (especially, though not only, younger generations) who have shown that they are motivated by a definite desire for an end to social injustice, blatant inequality, and rampant police violence. That is a great “reservoir” that, theoretically, the Democrats could focus on appealing to.8
It is also true that “the Democrats themselves will not—cannot—really do this.”8 But, creating the kind of political situation where Biden and the Democrats are forced to recognize, and reckon with, the powerfully expressed determination of massive numbers demanding an end to the Trump/Pence regime and the fascism it embodies—that could exert a compulsion on the Democrats to voice opposition to Trump on a basis that at least comes close to the heart of the essential fascist nature and program of the Trump/Pence regime...Which, in turn, could impel more people to take to the streets demanding this...Which, in turn, could create still more favorable circumstances and conditions for waging the fight to remove this regime.
Think about what has happened as a result of the beautiful rising that has taken place against institutional racism and police terror. In very significant ways, “the conversation about race” has been dramatically changed. All of a sudden, the Democrats, and other “mainstream” institutions, feel compelled to talk not only about the need for “police reform,” but about “systemic racism”—and there is widespread discussion and debate about the whole history of this country, with its roots in slavery, and genocide against the indigenous peoples! There is no way that all this would have taken place—and the political landscape would have been so dramatically changed, in such a short period of time—in the absence of this beautiful mass rising! And the same can happen, in the same immediate (“telescoped”) way, if there is not only a continuation of the righteous outpouring against racist oppression and police terror, and other outrageous injustice, but if all this is linked together with, and given powerful expression as, masses of people, in continually growing numbers, in the streets powerfully demanding that the fascist Trump/Pence regime must go!
If this fascist regime is still in power when it is time for voting—then that will require not just people carrying out the single act of voting themselves, but working to mobilize people in massive numbers to deliver a decisive electoral defeat to this fascist regime. But, at the same time, as I have emphasized repeatedly—and this cannot be emphasized too many times—for all the reasons discussed here (as well as elsewhere in this series and in my August 1 Statement) relying on voting, without the mass mobilization demanding the removal of this regime, is likely to lead to disaster.
Masses of people must act, now, to create the most favorable conditions for forcing the removal of this regime, whose continuation, and further consolidation, in power will, without any exaggeration, have truly monstrous consequences.
As I have also emphasized, it “would be a very grave mistake to fail to take seriously what is being openly proclaimed by Trump and his fascist supporters,” including their threats of even greater violence to ensure that the Trump/Pence regime remains in power. But, an even more important truth is this: “as truly dangerous as these fascist threats and acts of violence, and preparations to carry out even more violence, are—being cowed by and capitulating to this would lead to a far greater horror.”9 In confronting this, every decent person can take inspiration and find courage in the actions of the masses of people who have defiantly braved repeated attacks, by police and government storm troopers under the command of the Trump/Pence regime, as well as assaults by armed pro-Trump fascist thugs, and have poured into the streets, to express their outrage over racist brutality and murder and their determination that this must end.
But it is not just fear, however well-founded, that must be overcome. It is also the individualism that has become so widespread, and often expressed in such extreme terms, in this society, especially in recent times. In the situation today, faced with the escalating and accelerating fascist juggernaut, this individualism is often expressed in these terms now: “While I hate everything Trump is about and everything he is doing, I have to look out for myself and those who are close to me; and putting myself on the line to step out and actively oppose this by getting into the streets and demonstrating around the demand that this regime must be removed now—when there are not that many people already doing this—well, that is a risk I am not willing to take, especially when there is an election coming up and there is a chance that this might deal with the problem.”
Here—along with calling attention once again to the ways in which Trump is already perverting and stealing the election, and is using violence and threatening even more violence to remain in power, regardless of what actually happens with this election—it needs to be pointed out strongly: If everyone who has expressed (or felt) these sentiments were actually to take to the streets, there would be a force of literally millions, and even tens of millions, powerfully demonstrating their insistence that the Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!—as is being called for, and organized by, RefuseFascism.org.
It also needs to be bluntly said: This rampant individualism—everyone just thinking about themselves and failing or refusing to act on the larger interests of humanity—this is a big part of why we are faced with the terrible situation we are faced with now. And continuing in this way will only contribute to things becoming far, far worse, with truly catastrophic consequences for all of humanity—which few, if any, will ultimately be able to escape. (Besides the ever-present danger of nuclear annihilation, especially with the demented bully Trump having his finger on the nuclear button, think about the environmental crisis and the intensified and accelerated damage the Trump/Pence regime has already done to the environment—and will do on a far more terrible scale, if it remains in power.)
It may not be “easy,” but it is in the fundamental interests of everyone (everyone who cares at all about social injustice and inequality, and having an environment, both natural and social, in which human beings can breathe and hope to flourish) that we all be willing to be “among the first” to boldly step forward and become part of a truly massive mobilization demanding that this regime must be removed, now—and, in doing so, discovering that we are not after all “alone” or “only a few brave souls,” but are together, not just in sentiment but as an active force, with thousands and ultimately millions.
Yes, it is true that there is no “guarantee” that even such a massive mobilization will succeed in forcing the removal of this regime—and this regime, along with the crazed fascist fanatics who make up its “base,” will rabidly resist this—but it can be guaranteed that, if this regime succeeds in remaining in power, by corrupting and stealing the election and then refusing to leave, once more the consequences will truly be catastrophic.
And, while there is no “guarantee,” there is a definite possibility of a positive outcome. Once again, think of the tremendous impact that the beautiful rising against racist oppression and police terror has had, almost literally “overnight.”
At the same time, it is important to understand that, even if and as a mass mobilization demanding the removal of this regime could have a powerful impact on the political terrain, and on all the institutions of power and sectors of society, things would not likely go forward as a simple direct line extension of this mass mobilization. Rather, it would more likely take place as the interplay between that mass mobilization and the contradictions and conflicts among the powers-that-be, which will be heightened by this mass mobilization—possibly leading to a political crisis of such powerful dimensions and depth that forces who normally strongly resist doing things outside of the “traditional institutional means and procedures” of this system, ruling class powers who do not normally involve themselves directly in the politics of the system, and even some of those who have up to now stubbornly stuck with this fascist regime, will conclude that it is necessary to remove the regime—to at least force Trump (and Pence) to resign—in order to avoid an even more profound crisis for their whole system.
Again, no one can say, with absolute certainty, what the outcome of all this will be. But a truly massive popular upsurge, aimed at driving out the Trump/Pence regime, even ahead of the election, could play a very powerful role in creating favorable conditions for dealing with the demented determination of this regime to remain in power and wreak even further havoc and horror.
It is crucial to recognize that
The mass mobilization that is needed cannot be built “overnight,” in the aftermath of the election—and it cannot be built by confining things within the framework and limits insisted upon by the Democrats.10
And, through the work of Refuse Fascism, and some others joining this effort, this mass mobilization has already begun.
It is a fact that, since the early days of the Trump/Pence regime, Refuse Fascism has been calling for mass mobilization around the demand that this regime must go; and, while it has rallied thousands so far to take to the streets to voice this demand, as yet this mobilization has not resulted in the exponential (by leaps and bounds) growth that it needs to, now very quickly, achieve. But, because those thousands really do give expression to strongly held sentiments of tens of millions, they actually represent a potentially powerful force, and it is crucial to build on every advance that is made in reaching and mobilizing people, including by enabling those who have stepped forward to themselves become organizers of many more...to, in turn, become the organizers of still greater numbers. Further, it is very important to recognize, and act on the understanding, that the times, right now, are very different than they have been over the past few years, even with all the outrages that this regime has committed over those years.
Things now are much more intense, and are developing in a much more accelerating pace, particularly as Trump is ramping up his fascist offensive, with the approach of the scheduled election. This is having contradictory effects. On the one hand, the violent repression and attacks on people protesting injustice—and the threats of even much worse repression and violence—on the part of this regime, and its fascist supporters, together with the fact that the scheduled election is rapidly approaching: this has led more than a few, among those who hate this regime, to fall into a passive position of just waiting for the election and hoping that it will somehow resolve the crisis that is intensifying now on mainly very bad terms. But, the other side of the story is that the relentless drive by this regime and its supporters, even as the election approaches, to go full steam ahead with their fascist juggernaut, to corrupt and steal the election, to refuse to accept a defeat in the election, and to remain in power regardless of the outcome of the election—this is forcing, more and more to the forefront, the reality of what is represented by this regime, the great objective danger of simply waiting for the election, and the great need to take to the streets, now, to demand that this regime must be removed.
This speaks, once again, to the importance of the mobilization that is already taking place around the demand Trump/Pence OUT NOW! And it speaks to the great importance of this mobilization, with whatever numbers it organizes at any given time, becoming sustained, taking place day after day, and to build on every significant advance it does achieve. As this is done in ways, both determined and creative, that “capture the imagination” of people—together with the continuing intensification of the crisis that is largely being driven, now, by Trump’s fascist actions and declarations—“things can come together,” and “the dam can break,” with growing numbers of people pouring into the streets, raising ever more loudly the demand that this regime must go, now, and calling forth still greater numbers to join in this courageous and urgently needed mobilization.
In conclusion:
With the full awareness of what is represented by this fascist regime, and what it means that Trump is not only seeking to suppress the votes of people who will vote against him but is also preparing to utilize forceful, violent repression to remain in office if he is not declared the winner in the election, it is of critical and urgent importance to build now truly massive and sustained mobilization around the unifying demand that this regime must be OUT NOW!—with an orientation of being prepared to continue this even past the election, if the situation requires it.11
***
The crazed fanaticism of the fascists insisting that Trump must remain in power, no matter what, must be met, and overwhelmed, by the conscious passionate intensity of masses of people who hate everything that this fascist regime represents, who recognize the very real existential threat that this regime represents for humanity and are fired with righteous determination that this regime must go!12
1. The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible. Video of this speech is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, Liveright Publishing. The part quoted here is from the “Introduction.” [back]
3. Fascists Today And The Confederacy: A Direct Line, A Direct Connection Between All The Oppression. This article of mine is also available at revcom.us. [back]
4. Trump Is Already Stealing The Election And Threatening Even More Violence To Stay in Power, Part 2 of Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now! This article is available at revcom.us. [back]
5. Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution (also available at revcom.us). [back]
6. “Reflections on Pacific School of Religion’s Response to the Religious Right,” by Dr. Hubert Locke, also available at revcom.us—emphasis added. [back]
7. Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution. [back]
8. The Democrats Can’t Fight Trump The Way He Needs To Be Fought, Part 1 of Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now! [back]
9. Trump Is Already Stealing The Election And Threatening Even More Violence To Stay in Power, emphasis in the original. [back]
10. The Democrats Can’t Fight Trump The Way He Needs To Be Fought. [back]
11. Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution (also available at revcom.us), emphasis in the original. [back]
12. Trump Is Already Stealing The Election And Threatening Even More Violence To Stay In Power, emphasis in the original. [back]
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(See also "Long Version—The Larger Canvas and Fuller Picture")
| revcom.us
In the Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution, I spoke to this important point:
At this critical hour, every appropriate means of non-violent action must be utilized to remove this regime from power. And if, in spite of mass protest demanding the removal of the Trump/Pence regime, this regime remains in power when it is time for voting, then—without placing fundamental reliance on this—using all appropriate means to work for the removal of this regime must include voting against Trump (assuming the election is actually held). To be clear, this means not a “protest vote” for some candidate who has no chance of winning, but actually voting for the Democratic Party candidate, Biden, in order to effectively vote against Trump.
At the same time, however, I strongly emphasized that
Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is saying, in relation to the election.
But, if that is true, then how could this regime be removed from power—and, specifically, how could a mass mobilization actually lead to this regime being forced to go?
Imagine this.
Among the thousands who have already been reached, and moved, by the work of RefuseFascism.org, raising the demand that this fascist regime must be OUT NOW!, growing numbers become grass roots organizers, reaching out to their families, friends and communities, and involving all kinds of people and groups—through direct contact, social media, and in other ways—drawing into this growing, and increasingly diverse, mass movement thousands more who share their hatred for everything this regime stands for and is moving mercilessly to hammer into place. Many more, in turn, also become organizers.
Imagine that, as has happened with the mass protests against racist oppression and police terror, people mobilize in the streets, day after day, beginning on October 3rd, responding to the call from Refuse Fascism for sustained non-violent but determined demonstrations around the unifying demand that this regime must go, now. These mobilizations grow, expanding and multiplying—joined by increasing numbers of people outraged by continuing police brutality and murder; by the ravaging of the environment; children in cages and tens of thousands of immigrants in concentration camps on the border; Trump’s heartless and reckless neglect and lying about the COVID pandemic, causing tens of thousands of needless deaths, disproportionately among Black and Brown and Native people; the regime’s relentless move to further consolidate a Supreme Court that is another instrument of fascist bigotry and repression—masses of people, from all parts of society, who are sickened by all this, and are coming to see even more clearly that all this is bound up with and driven by this fascist regime, joining with the ongoing daily mobilizations, linking their outrage and resistance with the unifying demand: OUT NOW!
Imagine: Students, teachers, scientists, medical professionals, lawyers, clergy and their congregations, unions, civil rights and justice organizations, artists, athletes and others in the cultural arena—all these, and others, take up the call and mobilize to strengthen the movement. Celebrities, and prominent people in many fields, utilize their platforms to magnify the message and help to mobilize still greater numbers.
As the crimes of this regime escalate day after day—spewing white supremacy, male supremacy, and other bigotry; moving to suppress votes and steal the election; threatening and unleashing violence to remain in power regardless of the outcome of the election; increasingly turning the “Justice Department” into a naked instrument of lawless repression, robbing people of basic rights, while moving to hammer into place a Supreme Court that will declare all this “Constitutional” and “legal”—as all this, and more, becomes increasingly blatant, and accelerates at a dizzying pace with the approach of the scheduled election, growing sectors of society come to the realization that they cannot simply look to the election to deal with this. Casting aside passive reliance on the “normal political process,” and overcoming fear in the face of threats and assaults by fascist thugs, all over the country masses of ordinary people, in growing waves, take to the streets, join the ongoing OUT NOW! mobilizations, or themselves initiate such mobilizations where they are not yet happening. This becomes a massive groundswell, engulfing the country as a whole, dramatically changing the terms of political engagement, forcing every political contender and all the dominant institutions in society to respond to this rising wave of determined mass resistance. This growing mobilization moves from the margins to the center of media attention and coverage, in this country and internationally. People around the world take notice, are inspired and organize demonstrations in solidarity and support.
Imagine that, all of a sudden, Democratic Party politicians and operatives are forced to realize that they cannot simply funnel all the outrage and discontent into an election that is being daily stolen and violently corrupted by the fascist regime. These politicians now declare that they identify with the sentiments of the masses of demonstrators demanding OUT NOW!—and they seek to have speakers at rallies and work to control and direct the mobilizations into “acceptable channels” that will not lead to further “disorder.” But, given the growing understanding and determination of the demonstrators, these politicians’ efforts only draw even more attention, and still greater numbers, to these mobilizations—and, even in the face of growing threats and acts of repression and violence by the regime and its fascist supporters, in and out of uniform, these mobilizations continue to grow and even more powerfully thunder the demand: OUT NOW!
Faced with this intensifying situation, the leaders of the Democratic Party calculate that the only way they can hope to gain control over the situation and re-establish some semblance of “orderly process” is to themselves take up the demand that the Trump/Pence regime must go—now—even before a scheduled election that this regime has thoroughly perverted and prevented from proceeding as a “free and fair” process. This move by the Democrats is joined (or supported, behind the scenes) by others in powerful positions in the government, including even some Republican politicians who have finally decided that their political goals and personal ambitions are better served by breaking with this regime and regrouping around other “leaders.” Trump (and Pence) are presented with the ultimatum from these ruling class forces that either they resign or they will be impeached—and, this time, convicted—and those making this demand also make clear that they have the institutional power behind them to enforce this, if Trump (and Pence) refuse to leave.
Imagine!
Of course, it is impossible to say exactly where things will end up, and there is no “guarantee” of success. But it is possible. And two things should be emphasized in relation to this.
First, if masses of people do not take to the streets, now, around the demand that this regime must go; if this regime is allowed to suppress votes and use the threat and force of violence to remain in power; if it is able to further consolidate its fascist rule and to be further unleashed to bludgeon into place its fascist program and aims—then the consequences will truly be catastrophic.
Second, we—all of us, from many different walks of life and many different political perspectives, who can recognize this fascist regime for what it is and refuse to live in a fascist America—we, by acting together, in the thousands and millions, can give expression to the strongly held sentiments of tens and tens of millions, who righteously hate everything this regime represents and aspire to a much better world than this. We can give life to massive, non-violent but sustained, and rapidly growing, mass mobilizations demanding that this regime must go—now—with the possibility that this can become a reality. We can powerfully give expression to the crucial understanding that—because of its very fascist nature, and with its escalating attempts to corrupt an election and remain in power regardless of the actual outcome of that election—this regime is illegitimate and must be removed. And if, even with this mass mobilization, this regime is still in power on November 3rd, the fact that we have carried out this mass mobilization and powerfully raised this OUT NOW! demand, will mean that there will be much more favorable conditions for continuing, and further amplifying and strengthening, this mass mobilization if Trump and his regime attempt to stay in power, regardless of the actual outcome of the election.
Whether there will be a real possibility of a society, a world and a future for humanity—one worth living in—will depend, to no small degree, on what we who aspire to such a world decide to do, and strive with the determination necessary to make this a reality.
Read the 10-part series HERE
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Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
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| revcom.us
In the Statement by Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution, I spoke to this important point:
At this critical hour, every appropriate means of non-violent action must be utilized to remove this regime from power. And if, in spite of mass protest demanding the removal of the Trump/Pence regime, this regime remains in power when it is time for voting, then—without placing fundamental reliance on this—using all appropriate means to work for the removal of this regime must include voting against Trump (assuming the election is actually held). To be clear, this means not a “protest vote” for some candidate who has no chance of winning, but actually voting for the Democratic Party candidate, Biden, in order to effectively vote against Trump.
At the same time, however, I strongly emphasized that
Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is saying, in relation to the election.
The fact that Trump, and his supporters, continue to commit outrage after outrage, on a regular basis, can cause people—even those who hate everything Trump represents—to forget about outrages that were committed even just a little while ago. But, it is crucially important not to forget that Trump has already “floated” the idea of “delaying” the election on the basis of his completely false claims that things like mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud and that it could take weeks, months, or even years to know the actual result of the election (note: weeks, months, or even years—during which time Trump would insist on staying in power!).
Trump and his supporters are making moves to suppress the votes of many Black people, and others, who are likely to vote heavily against Trump. Here is one glaring example: In the state of Florida (which Trump desperately needs to win), the Republican-controlled government is working to undermine changes in the Florida Constitution that have restored the right of convicted felons to vote. This could take away the right to vote from nearly 800,000 people, many of whom are Black and Latino.1
Trump’s operatives are already in the process of organizing fascist thugs to go to polling places, especially in key “battleground” states, to “watch out for fraud.” In fascist Trumpworld, lying is a way of life and the standard operating procedure. When they say “law and order,” they mean police killing Black and Brown people. To them, the truth is “fake news,” and they claim “science doesn’t know” things that only Trump knows. So, when they talk about “election fraud,” what they mean is people voting against Trump. And what these fascist goons being organized by the Trump camp intend to do is precisely to prevent people from voting against Trump—with the threat, and the use, of force and violence.
Michael Cohen—who, for more than 10 years, was Trump’s personal attorney and “fixer”—has sounded the alarm, more than once, that Trump will do anything to stay in power, even start a war to create a national emergency.2 Trump, who is both a pathological liar and a liar with a purpose, has deliberately and repeatedly downplayed the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic, even while knowing what a serious danger it actually poses. He has already forced government bodies, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to bend its findings and recommendations about the COVID-19 pandemic to serve Trump’s political ambitions and goals. And it seems increasingly likely that, shortly before the election, in the attempt to offset the exposure of his terrible recklessness with regard to COVD-19, and to perversely declare himself the “savior” of the people from this pandemic, Trump will use his presidential power to pressure approval for the use of a vaccine, even before it has really been scientifically determined whether such a vaccine is not only effective but safe.
Another thing that must not be forgotten is that Trump has not only justified and supported but openly encouraged violence by armed white supremacist storm troopers (what he calls “Second Amendment people”). He has supported police violently attacking protesters and utilized armed forces of the government to attack and suppress protests, in Washington, D.C., in Portland and other cities. There is already plenty of evidence—and more evidence comes out all the time—that (assuming the election is actually held) regardless of the actual outcome of the election, Trump will declare himself the winner and use whatever means he can, including violence, to stay in power. As pointed out in a recent article posted on revcom.us:
On September 10, Trump was asked by Jeanine Pirro of fascist Fox “News” what his response would be on election night if he won and those against him “threaten riots.” Trump’s response: “We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that.... We have the right to do that, we have the power to do that if we want. Look, it’s called insurrection.”3
Here, it is necessary to “translate” what is being said in this episode of the ongoing fascist lie-athon of Trump and his media accomplices (such as Fox “news”). Trump “winning” the election means Trump declaring himself the winner. (Remember that Trump has already strongly implied that he will not accept the results of the election if Biden wins; and Trump has insisted that the only way he could lose the election is if it is “rigged.”) “Riots,” in fascist-speak, means protests against police brutality and other injustices, even when (as has been the case) these protests are overwhelmingly peaceful; and “insurrection” here means mobilization against the Trump/Pence regime, even if that mobilization is non-violent.
The same revcom.us article calls attention to this:
Another glimpse at what the fascists may be thinking of and even planning for came from the mouth of longtime Republican operative and Trump stooge, Roger Stone. (In July, Trump commuted the 40-month prison sentence of Stone, who had been convicted of lying to Congress.) In a call with Alex Jones—pro-Trump conspiracy theorist—on his online Infowars show, Stone said Trump should consider declaring “martial law” or invoke the Insurrection Act if he should lose the November election.3
And Stone called on “Attorney General” William Barr (head of Trump’s Injustice Department, chief enforcer of unlawful repression, and a “commander” of the regime’s storm troopers) to prepare now a force ready to act on this “martial law” declaration if Trump loses.
Note that Stone openly calls for Trump to use violence to remain in office if Trump loses the election.
And other fanatical backers of this regime, in and out of government, have called on its supporters to arm themselves in preparation for the election.
It would be a very grave mistake to fail to take seriously what is being openly proclaimed by Trump and his fascist supporters.
But as truly dangerous as these fascist threats and acts of violence, and preparations to carry out even more violence, are—being cowed by and capitulating to this would lead to a far greater horror.
The Trumpite attempts to suppress votes must be actively, vigorously opposed; and people must mobilize, now and in an ongoing way, demanding that the whole Trump/Pence regime must go.
In Part 1 in this series, I examined the reasons why the Democrats will not call out the Trump/Pence regime, and its supporters, for what they are: fascist. I pointed out:
Time and again, the Democrats have sought to deal with this by trying to utilize the very “norms” and institutions that this fascist regime is defying and tearing up, or bending to its fascist aims—the courts, congressional hearings and proceedings, and so on. Time and again, the Democrats have failed. Yet they stubbornly refuse to seek any means of opposing this regime other than by resorting to these “norms” and procedures. This is what they are doing, and will be strongly inclined to continue doing, even in the face of Trump’s increasing and intensifying moves to suppress votes in the upcoming election and his clearly indicated determination to have himself declared the winner in the election, or to remain in power regardless of the outcome of the election.4
Biden and the Democrats act as if—and repeatedly insist that—the reason there is so much bitter conflict, violence, and “chaos” in society is because “Trump is dividing us, not uniting us.” But the truth is that, while Trump has become a “rallying point” and “spearpoint” of the fascist forces in this country, within the structures of power and more broadly among sectors of the population, there are deep-seated reasons and causes for why this fascism has become such a powerful force. Biden and the Democrats cannot “bring the country together,” as they falsely claim, because there can be no “reconciliation” with these fascists—whose “grievances” are based on fanatical resentment against any limitation on white supremacy, male supremacy, xenophobia (hatred of foreigners), rabid American chauvinism, and the unrestrained plundering of the environment, and are increasingly expressed in literally lunatic terms. There can be no “reconciliation” with this, other than on the terms of these fascists, with all the terrible implications and consequences of that!
As I have also emphasized: “all this points to the very great likelihood that regardless of the actual outcome of this election (assuming it is actually held), if Trump declares himself the ‘winner’and refuses to leave, in the absence of truly massive mobilization demanding that the Trump/Pence regime must be removed, the Democrats will end up capitulating to Trump.”4
This does not mean that voting for Biden would be irrelevant—would make no difference. Many people who hate Trump have at the same time expressed a definite lack of enthusiasm for Biden. But “enthusiasm for Biden”—or the lack of such enthusiasm—is really beside the point, and basing things on something like that involves gross ignorance, or a deliberate ignoring, of the crucial stakes involved. The reason to vote for Biden is to vote against Trump and his whole regime. And that should be reason enough, for any person who actually cares about social justice, who refuses to live in a fascist America and has any sense of the very real catastrophe it would mean, not just for people in this country but for all of humanity, if Trump gets a “re-election mandate.” For these reasons, as I pointed out in my August 1 Statement, if it comes down to it—if the Trump/Pence regime is still in power when it is time for voting—then voting for Biden, in order to vote against Trump, will be very important and necessary.
As that Statement emphasizes, “there can be one—and only one—‘good’ that can come out of this election: delivering a decisive defeat to Trump and the whole fascist regime.”This would not “put an end” to the fascism that has arisen out of deep-seated contradictions and has gained strength, over decades. But, as the August 1 Statement further emphasizes: delivering a decisive defeat to this regime “would create far better conditions for continuing to wage the struggle against everything represented by the Trump/Pence regime and all the oppression and injustices of this system, and would be a great gift to the people of the world.”
At the same time, for all the reasons spoken to in that Statement, and highlighted here—the moves by Trump that are already far along to steal the election, and his determination to use whatever means he can to remain in power, regardless of the actual outcome of that election, and at the same time the likelihood that the Democrats, left to their own devices, will end up capitulating to Trump—waiting for November and relying on voting will very likely lead to disaster.
People need to really and fully awaken to the reality of what is at stake, before it is too late. More than a few people have observed, sometimes with sad resignation, that the continuing avalanche of lies and truly monstrous criminal acts by Trump and his regime have worn them down, to the point where they are no longer shocked or feel compelled to act. But losing one’s ability to be outraged, and to act on that outrage, means losing one’s humanity—and, given the situation we are facing, it amounts to collaborating with the fascism of this regime and the catastrophe toward which it is relentlessly propelling humanity.
The crazed fanaticism of the fascists insisting that Trump must remain in power, no matter what, must be met, and overwhelmed, by the conscious passionate intensity of masses of people who hate everything that this fascist regime represents, who recognize the very real existential threat that this regime represents for humanity and are fired with righteous determination that this regime must go!
And, to make this a reality, this righteous determination cannot just be channeled into voting against Trump. What is urgently required now is “stepping outside of the ‘norms’ of this system and mobilizing masses of people in determined, non-violent but sustained struggle in the streets to demand the ouster of this regime, as is being called for by RefuseFascism.org.”4 And:
The mass mobilization that is needed cannot be built “overnight,” in the aftermath of the election—and it cannot be built by confining things within the framework and limits insisted upon by the Democrats....
We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets, Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now!4
(The next, concluding article in this series will speak to the big question: How the nonviolent but sustained, and continually growing, mass mobilization, demanding Trump/Pence OUT NOW! that has been called for, and is being organized by, RefuseFascism.org, could lead to, or contribute in a major way to, a situation in which the Trump/Pence regime would be removed from power.)
 
1. See the article “Florida Moves to Deny Voting Rights to Hundreds of Thousands of People Convicted of Felonies,” at revcom.us. [back]
2. In his testimony before a congressional committee in 2019, Michael Cohen spoke to the danger that Trump would refuse to recognize the results of the election scheduled for November 2020, if Trump did not win this election. And, in his recently-published book Disloyal, The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump, Cohen once again sounds the alarm, even more urgently, with the warning that Trump will do anything, including starting a war, to stay in power. Cohen has acknowledged that, prior to this 2019 appearance before Congress, he had lied to Congress—something he sought to set right by giving truthful testimony in that 2019 hearing. Trump’s fascist falsehood machine has tried to seize on the fact that Cohen is an admitted liar, who has been convicted of the crime of lying to Congress, in the attempt to draw attention away from what Cohen has revealed about Trump and the great dangers he poses. The problem, for the Trumpites, is that the lies they are referring to, and other despicable acts Cohen carried out—this was done precisely on the instruction and for the benefit of the Liar-in-Chief, Trump himself.
Cohen, who worked very closely with (or for) Trump, for more than ten years, including the first years of Trump’s presidency, and probably knows Trump as well as anyone can, confirms what is said by Trump’s niece, Mary Trump: Racism, misogyny (hatred and degradation of women), and all-around bigotry are at the very core of Trump’s being. [back]
3. “Trump on Election Night Protests: ‘We’ll put them down very quickly.’” This is part of the continuing series The Fascist Assault on revcom.us. [back]
4. The quotes and references here are from Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now, Part 1, “The Democrats Can’t Fight Trump The Way He Needs To Be Fought.” This article of mine is available at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/664/bob-avakian-voting-will-not-be-enough-pt1-en.html
| revcom.us
Part 1
In the Statement by Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution, I spoke to this important point:
At this critical hour, every appropriate means of non-violent action must be utilized to remove this regime from power. And if, in spite of mass protest demanding the removal of the Trump/Pence regime, this regime remains in power when it is time for voting, then—without placing fundamental reliance on this—using all appropriate means to work for the removal of this regime must include voting against Trump (assuming the election is actually held). To be clear, this means not a “protest vote” for some candidate who has no chance of winning, but actually voting for the Democratic Party candidate, Biden, in order to effectively vote against Trump.
At the same time, however, I strongly emphasized that:
Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is saying, in relation to the election.
It has become increasingly clear that a pivotal part of Trump’s strategy, in relation to the election scheduled for November, and his overall approach to holding power, is to make more and more blatant appeals to racism by trumpeting a call for “law and order.” Trump portrays the ongoing protests against white supremacy and police terror as violent—and, as is typical with him, he flagrantly and grossly lies about the extent and causes of this violence. He paints a crude horror scene of you-know-who coming to pillage and rape—to violate the homes and the people, especially the women—in the suburbs, which in Trump’s vision are all white. This is a direct “echo” of the vile tactics used by white supremacists organizing mobs to lynch Black people during Jim Crow segregation, and of how Hitler stirred up hatred of and violence against Jews in NAZI Germany. Here again, facts do not matter to Trump and his fascist regime and its supporters—or, rather, facts are to be deliberately distorted, defied, and perverted in pursuit of literally murderous aims.
It has been shown (for example, in a study by Princeton University) that, overwhelmingly (more than 90 percent of the time), these protests against white supremacy and police terror have not been violent; and violence that has been committed by the protesters themselves has been relatively minor (some fires, looting, and trashing of a few buildings, in small, confined areas, often at or near police stations—nothing like the picture Trump paints of whole cities being burned down and destroyed). But, beyond that, most of the violence in connection with these protests has been perpetrated by Trump supporters—by police, who have repeatedly attacked the protests, and by armed fascist thugs (those Trump calls “Second Amendment people”). At least 20 protesters have been killed in this way. And Trump and his supporters have justified—and even glorified—this violence by white supremacists.
The Democrats, and the “mainstream media” generally in the same camp (CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and so on), have largely tried to shift the focus away from the protests and onto questions where they feel Trump is more vulnerable—in particular Trump’s truly reckless handling of the COVID pandemic, and things such as statements by Trump (or attributed to him) insulting U.S. soldiers. But Trump will continue his racist attacks on the protests against white supremacy and police violence, and his attempts to paint the Democrats as backers of violence and “carnage” by Black “thugs,” anarchists” and other “far leftists”; and this will have the effect of forcing the Democrats to devote significant attention to responding to this. And what has been the response of the Democrats? They have made the point that most of the protests have been peaceful, and they even say that Trump wants violence; yet, at the same time, the Democrats accept, to a large extent, the terms (and the trap) Trump has set. They have put a great deal of emphasis on denouncing violence by protesters, without giving the same emphasis to pointing out who is responsible for most of the violence connected to the protests—once again, overwhelmingly Trump supporters. The Democrats do not highlight the bitter irony that here are people protesting violence by the police and, even when (overwhelmingly) their protests are peaceful, they are subjected to yet more violence by the police! The Democrats don’t emphasize yet another glaring irony: Here are Trump and his supporters denouncing and attacking people overwhelmingly carrying out peaceful protests against racist violence, while Trump defends monuments to “heroes” of the Confederacy, who waged a war, in which they killed hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers, in the attempt to preserve and extend slavery.
There are two basic causes for how the Democrats and their allies do—and do not—respond to what Trump is doing with his attacks on the protests and his contrived racist horror story of mobs of “those people” bent on violently attacking innocent (white) people and their property. First, the Democrats’ electoral strategy is focused on winning a relatively small number of “swing voters,” largely white people in the suburbs, in a small number of “swing states.” Flowing from this, and once again largely accepting the terms Trump has set, the Democrats see it as very important to reassure these voters that the Democrats, too, denounce—and, by implication, will use the power of the government to suppress—violence that supposedly is carried out by protesters and supposedly threatens these (white suburban) “swing voters.” Here it has to be said that, even on its own—very wrong and perverted—terms, this is likely a losing strategy. Not only is it the case that, by far, most of the violence connected with the protests has been carried out by Trump supporters (including the police), while overwhelmingly the protests themselves have been peaceful; but, even if the intent of everyone protesting were to remain completely peaceful, including when provoked and attacked by the police and armed “civilian” racists, there will still be violence—exactly because Trump and his supporters will continue to carry out, and to escalate, the violence, no matter what the protesters do.
It is true that, at this point, the vote in a few states essentially determines the outcome of presidential elections—so that, as was the case with Trump in the previous presidential election, someone can lose the popular vote and still become president. But, even given this reality, an electoral strategy that could work much better for the Democrats would be to take on Trump’s whole racist approach, directly and forcefully, and appeal to Black people and other people of color, and the large number of white people (especially, though not only, younger generations) who have shown that they are motivated by a definite desire for an end to social injustice, blatant inequality, and rampant police violence. That is a great “reservoir” that, theoretically, the Democrats could focus on appealing to.
But the Democrats themselves will not—cannot—really do this. And this gets to the deeper reasons why the Democrats approach things in the way they do. Although, in the present situation, where there has been a massive outpouring against police terror, the Democrats have felt the need to talk in general terms about “police reform,” as representatives of this system of capitalism-imperialism the Democrats are very firm about the fundamental need for the police to enforce the oppressive “law and order” of this system, with the racist violence that involves. So, the Democrats cannot carry out a campaign that actually unites with the strongly and widely held sentiment that this police violence must end. At the same time, as representatives of this system, and as upholders of its traditional institutions and “stability,” they do not want to win an election and head the government on the basis of appealing to and further arousing a force of tens of millions filled with passionate intensity to end police terror and white supremacy, which in fact are built into and required by this system. Better, from the Democrats’ point of view, to appeal to longings for “a return to calm and normalcy”—which are likely to resonate with many middle class suburbanites—even though there will not be any “calm and normalcy,” in large part because the fascist forces will not allow it.
Once again now, as was the case during and in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, there are “mainstream” voices (such as CNN’s Chris Cuomo, brother of the Democratic Governor of New York state, and Thomas Friedman, a prominent proponent of the “great benefits” of highly globalized capitalism) who argue that, in order to win this time, Biden and the Democrats should appeal to Trump’s “base” by recognizing their “grievances,” rather than humiliating them. But there are deep-seated bases for this fascism, and the minds of these fascists will not be changed by “being nice” to them or acting as if their “grievances” are “legitimate.” As I (and others who have seriously studied this fascist phenomenon) have pointed out, the reality is that these “grievances” flow from resentment against any changes that even slightly undermine white supremacy, male supremacy, xenophobia (hatred of foreigners), rabid American chauvinism, and the unrestrained plundering of the environment. And, even though, in the most fundamental terms, the Democrats represent this system of capitalism-imperialism, which embodies and enforces all of this, the Republican party, as it has become more and more blatantly fascist, has cultivated and organized its “base” through aggressively promoting, in extreme terms, this inequality, oppression, and plunder of the earth, along with a rejection of, and passionate “resentment” against, the scientific method and rational thinking. For example, there is this important analysis, by African-American theologian Hubert Locke, speaking particularly to the Christian fundamentalists that are the driving force of this fascism:
It is not happenstance that it is a movement that draws its strength and finds its support principally in the so-called heartland of the nation and especially in its southern precincts. This is the portion of the United States that has never been comfortable with post-WWII America. The brief period of normalcy after the war was followed within a decade by a pent-up and long overdue racial revolution that overturned centuries of culture and tradition, especially in the South. The disillusionment, two decades later, with an unpopular war in southeast Asia shook the foundations of traditional/conventional patriotism in American life; it was followed in the next decade by a sexual revolution that upset deeply entrenched views among this portion of the American populace about the subordinate place of women in society and the non-place of gay and lesbian persons in American life. These political and social and cultural defeats have now erupted into a pitched battle to turn back the clock on the last half-century and return America to its pre-war purity. It is not without significance that teaching creationism in the schools, for example, is such a prominent part of the religious right agenda. That was a battle the right lost in the mid-1920s but it is not one that the right ever acknowledged losing‑‑just as some die-hards have never acknowledged losing the Civil War. Consequently, the restoration the religious right seeks is one that would recapture a way of life that disappeared in this nation a half-century ago.1
This is what “Make America Great Again” actually means. The Democrats could not “compete” with this, without abandoning their own “identity” as the party that supposedly cares about social justice and addressing the environmental crisis.
All this, in turn, is tied in with the fundamental reasons why the Democrats will not call out the Trump/Pence regime for what it actually is—fascist—which, as I have emphasized, “is not just a matter of horrific policies but of a qualitatively different form of rule, based on brutal repression and violation of what are supposed to be the most basic rights.”2 First of all, if you acknowledge that this regime is in fact fascist, then that raises very big questions about the whole system, and how it is that such a fascist regime could come to power—not through something like a military coup, but through the “normal channels” and institutional procedures of this system. And, along with that, if you recognize that this regime is fascist, then that has very big implications in terms of what must be done to deal with the dangers posed by this fascism—which, in reality, requires stepping outside of the “norms” of this system and mobilizing masses of people in determined, non-violent but sustained struggle in the streets to demand the ouster of this regime, as is being called for by RefuseFascism.org.
In sum, the Democrats, being who and what they are, will not and cannot deal with all this—neither the election, nor the larger situation in which this election is taking place and the profound stakes that are actually involved—in any way other than on the terms, and within the limits, established by this system, which has produced this fascism, and to a large degree on the terms set by the fascists themselves.
This can be seen in what the Democrats have done in their attempts to deal with the way in which the Trump/Pence fascist regime has—repeatedly, and in an escalating way—trampled on the “norms” of this system. Time and again, the Democrats have sought to deal with this by trying to utilize the very “norms” and institutions that this fascist regime is defying and tearing up, or bending to its fascist aims—the courts, congressional hearings and proceedings, and so on.Time and again, the Democrats have failed. Yet they stubbornly refuse to seek any means of opposing this regime other than by resorting to these “norms” and procedures. This is what they are doing, and will be strongly inclined to continue doing, even in the face of Trump’s increasing and intensifying moves to suppress votes in the upcoming election and his clearly indicated determination to have himself declared the winner in the election, or to remain in power regardless of the outcome of the election.
All this is why—even though, if it comes down to it, voting against Trump by voting for Biden will be necessary and important—it will very likely lead to disaster to rely on voting and just hope that the election will solve the problem.
And all this points to the very great likelihood that regardless of the actual outcome of this election (assuming it is actually held), if Trump declares himself the “winner” and refuses to leave, in the absence of truly massive mobilization demanding that the Trump/Pence regime must be removed, the Democrats will end up capitulating to Trump. The mass mobilization that is needed cannot be built “overnight,” in the aftermath of the election—and it cannot be built by confining things within the framework and limits insisted upon by the Democrats.
The truth—the truth about this country, and the truth about what is represented and is being implemented and enforced by the Trump/Pence regime—must be brought alive as a crucial, and immediately urgent, focus of the fight against injustice and oppression and against the fascism of this regime. This must be done without waiting for the election, but by taking action right now, and in an ongoing way, with masses of people—first in the thousands, growing into millions—in sustained mobilization around the unifying demand that this regime must go.
Waiting for November, and Relying on the Election, Will Likely Lead to Disaster:
We Need to Take to the Streets, and Stay in the Streets, Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now!
 
1. Reflections on Pacific School of Religion's Response to the Religious Right, by Dr. Hubert Locke. This is available at revcom.us.
In addition to my own writings and speeches on this question of fascism, which are available in BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us,* there have been a number of important studies of particularly the Christian fascist phenomenon—including in recent books by Katherine Stewart* and Kristin Kobes Du Mez*—which make clear that these fascists are firmly committed to their extremely oppressive, reactionary, and literally lunatic views and aims, and they will not be moved by attempts to appeal to their supposed “legitimate grievances.”
* For example, my recent article Patriarchy and Patriotism—Aggressive Male Supremacy and American Supremacy—The Danger and the Immediate Challenge draws from important insights in Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation; and my 2017 speech The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible cites important analysis in Katherine Stewart’s book The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. [back]
2. From Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
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Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/633/bob-avakian-a-radically-different-leader-en.html
| revcom.us
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."
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.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/671/rnl-show-episode-32-announcement-en.html
The Trump/Pence fascist regime must not be allowed to steal the election and remain in power. The regime has now rammed through Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation, at the same time as they carry out voter suppression, sowing doubt on the election process, while MAGA fascist street thugs continue to carry out voter intimidation and violence. Four more years of this fascist regime will mean horrors for humanity.
With days before the election, everyone who cares about humanity must ACT DECISIVELY to prevent another four years of this white supremacist, Christian fascist Trump/Pence regime. We must remain firm in our conviction that this regime is illegitimate, and call on everyone to take up the demand from RefuseFascism.org: Trump/Pence Out Now!
In this episode:
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Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/665/bob-avakian-for-the-liberation-of-black-people-en.html
| revcom.us
One of the things that comes through most powerfully in Bob Avakian’s memoir1 is that a profound hatred for the oppression of Black people has been a defining part of Bob Avakian’s life from the time, as a teenager, he learned about the lives of the Black people with whom he developed deep ties of friendship. Never feeling that, because he is white, “it is not his place” to be involved in the struggle against this oppression—but, on the contrary, determined to contribute whatever he could to this struggle—Bob Avakian (BA), from the time he worked closely with the Black Panther Party in its revolutionary days in the 1960s, has made the liberation of Black people a defining part of his life’s commitment and work. As he developed as a revolutionary communist, and emerged as the foremost revolutionary leader and thinker in the world, this commitment has become even deeper and has been strongly interwoven with a dedication to the emancipation of all humanity from every form of oppression and exploitation.
As BA has written about his life’s work:
Why was I doing the work I was doing? Once again, we’re back to for whom and for what. I wasn’t doing this work for myself. When I was young, in middle school and then even more so in high school, my life got changed in a very major way by coming into contact with people that I hadn’t really known that much before, in particular Black people. I started learning about their situation and how that relates to what goes on in this society as a whole. I was drawn to the culture—not just the music and the art overall, but the whole way of going through the world—of the Black people who became my friends, and the world they introduced me to. And I came to the point of recognizing: these are my people. Now, I knew they had a different life experience than I did. But these are my people—I don’t see a separation—it’s not like there are some other people “over there” who are going through all this and somehow that’s removed from me. These are my people. And then I began to recognize more deeply what people were being put through, the oppression they were constantly subjected to, the horrors of daily life as well as the bigger ways in which the system came down on them. And as I went further through life and began to approach the question of what needs to be done about this, and was introduced to taking up a scientific approach to this, I realized that my people were more than this. I realized that my people were Chicanos and other Latinos and other oppressed people in the U.S.; they were people in Vietnam and China; they were women...they were the oppressed and exploited of the world...and through some struggle, and having to cast off some wrong thinking, I have learned that they are LGBT people as well.
These are my people, the oppressed and exploited people of the world. They are suffering terribly, and something has to be done about this. So it is necessary to dig in and systematically take up the science that can show the way to put an end to all this, and bring something much better into being. You have to persevere and keep struggling to go forward in this way. And when you run into new problems or setbacks, you have to go more deeply into this, rather than putting it aside and giving up.
So this is why I’ve been doing the work that I’ve been doing.2
Bob Avakian grew up in Berkeley, California. Unable, because of a life-threatening illness, to be directly involved in struggles taking place against racial oppression for several years after graduating from high school in 1961, BA nevertheless closely followed and strongly supported the civil rights movement in the early 1960s, and at the same time was influenced by and supportive of the militant stand and role of Malcolm X. This was reflected in an article that BA wrote at the age of 19 in 1962 supporting the struggle of Black people. (This article was submitted to the liberal magazine Saturday Review. Although the article was not published, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, Norman Cousins, personally replied—indicating that, although the magazine had chosen not to publish this article, he recognized that the article spoke, in a strikingly compelling way, to very important questions.)
Having recovered from his illness, in 1964, BA became actively involved in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California in Berkeley, where he was a student. The central issue of this movement was the right of students to carry out activity on the campus in support of the civil rights movement. BA was among the 800 who were arrested during the occupation of the university administration building, which was the high point of the movement and led to winning its demands.
As the civil rights movement increasingly gave way to a more militant Black liberation movement in the second half of the 1960s, BA was strongly influenced by this. He left the university and dedicated his life to working for radical change. As a result of direct contact and discussions with Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the founders of the Black Panther Party, and getting to know Eldridge Cleaver (who also became a leader of the BPP), BA worked closely with the Black Panther Party from its earliest days and at the height of its revolutionary role and influence.
In 1967, BA attended rallies, and spoke at one of the rallies, held by the BPP in North Richmond to protest the killing there of Denzil Dowell, part of the long and continuing chain of murders of Black people by police.
In 1968, when Huey Newton was facing murder charges as a result of a shoot-out with Oakland cops, BA spoke—along with a number of key figures in the Black liberation movement, including Stokely Carmichael, Rap Brown, James Forman, and leaders of the Black Panther Party— at a Free Huey rally held in the Oakland auditorium on the occasion of Huey Newton’s birthday.
BA worked tirelessly to build support, including among white people, for the demand to “Free Huey!” At a “Free Huey” rally at the courthouse in Oakland where Huey Newton’s trial was being held, BA was arrested for “desecrating” (burning) the American flag.
During this time, at the invitation of BPP leaders, BA wrote a number of articles for the Black Panther newspaper.
At a rally of thousands, led by the Black Panther Party, on May First, 1969, BA spoke of the need for revolution and called on white people in particular to more actively take part in movements for revolutionary change in the U.S., and to support such movements throughout the world.
By the beginning of the 1970s, millions of people in this country were in favor of some kind of revolutionary change, but they faced profound challenges. How could this revolution be made—or was it even possible to make a revolution here, up against such powerful forces of oppression and repression? Which were the key forces that had to be mobilized to have a real chance to carry out such a revolution? What kind of leadership was needed, and what methods and approaches should that leadership be based on? The difficulties in confronting and seeking the answers to these hard questions, combined with brutal and often murderous repression by the powers-that-be, led many revolutionary organizations, including the Black Panther Party, to split and end up departing from the road that could lead to real revolution.
By this time, partly because of the influence of the Black Panther Party, which had popularized the “Red Book” of quotations from the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, BA had become convinced not only that revolution was necessary, and was possible, but that it had to be led by a vanguard force that based itself on the scientific method and approach of communism, as it had been developed initially by Karl Marx, then further developed by V.I. Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution in the early part of the 20th century, and then in turn further developed by Mao, who led the Chinese revolution and the new, socialist society in China, until his death in 1976. BA led in the formation of the Revolutionary Union at the end of the 1960s, with the aim of working toward the establishment of the vanguard party of revolution, based on the science of communism. During the first part of the 1970s, BA was both the practical leader and the leading theoretician of the Revolutionary Union, writing much of the essays and polemics for its theoretical journal Red Papers. This included major articles, particularly in Red Papers 5 and 6, that involved groundbreaking scientific materialist analysis of the situation of Black people, historically and down to the present—how and why their particular conditions of oppression had changed, from the time of slavery to the present era, and how this objectively put Black people in a potentially powerful position to be a driving force not only for their own liberation but for the communist revolution whose fundamental aim is the abolition of all oppression and exploitation. These articles included powerful polemics, arguing against positions and programs that would not lead to, but would actually work against, this liberation and the revolutionary transformation of the world as a whole.
In 1975, with BA’s leadership, the Revolutionary Communist Party was founded, with the aim of being the vanguard force for the revolution that was, and continues to be, profoundly necessary. Over the decades since then, BA has fought to keep that Party on the revolutionary road and to bring forward new revolutionary forces to revitalize and strengthen the vanguard forces for the revolution that is now, all the more urgently, required. While continuing to provide practical guidance to the revolutionary forces, BA, through summing up the experience (positive and negative) of the communist movement, and drawing from a broad range of human experience, has brought forward a new synthesis of communism (also referred to as the new communism) which, most decisively, has established communism on an even more consistently scientific basis. As BA’s Official Biography explains, the new communism “is a continuation of, but also represents a qualitative leap beyond, and in some important ways a break with, communist theory as it had been previously developed. It provides the basis—the science, the strategy, and the leadership—for an actual revolution and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation.”3
A defining part of this new communism is the emphasis it gives to the struggle for the liberation of Black people, and the relation of this to the ending of all oppression. And this has continued to stand out in BA’s leadership role and work over the decades, up to the present. At revcom.us there is a special section, Bob Avakian on The Oppression of Black People & the Revolutionary Struggle to End All Oppression, which contains clips from films and selections from the writings of BA on this question. The following are just a few examples of important works and leadership by Bob Avakian, over the past few decades, that speak to this decisive question.
The book Reflections, Sketches & Provocations, written by Bob Avakian during the 1980s, contains a number of commentaries, speaking in a number of dimensions to the oppression of Black people and the struggle against this oppression, including support for rebellions following the murder of Black people by police. This book begins with the essay “Hill Street Bullshit, Richard Pryor Routines, and the Real Deal,” which powerfully exposes how terror against Black people, and other oppressed people, is “part of the job” of the police—and is “a reward” for carrying out the role of maintaining the “law and order” that keeps the oppressed in their desperate and miserable conditions. Going deeper, it speaks to how this is rooted in this system of capitalism-imperialism, which has had this oppression built into it from the very beginning.
In the 1990s, BA raised the idea that there should be a day, every year, when people mobilized to protest police brutality, mass incarceration and repression by the government. This proposal was taken up and a broad coalition, including family members of people killed by police, was formed to initiate, in 1996, the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. At its height, over the next decade, this National Day of Protest, held every October 22nd, rallied thousands of people in dozens of cities across the country. And activities by people who have been part of this coalition have continued since then.
During the past two decades, BA has given a number of filmed speeches, and written articles, essays and books, in which the liberation of Black people and its crucial relation to the communist revolution, aiming for the emancipation of all humanity, has been a major question.
BA’s 2003 speech Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About, begins with a searing exposure and condemnation of lynching, and speaks to the horrific reality of slavery and the oppression of Black people down to today, including the continual murder of Black people by police.3
In 2006, BA gave a series of 7 Talks, in which once again the oppression of Black people, and the struggle for their liberation, is a major theme. One of these 7 Talks, Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy, begins by speaking to the experience of Black people in this country; and the question of slavery and the overall oppression of Black people is, of course, a major part of this talk. It is in Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy that the following is clearly stated:
There would be no United States as we now know it today without slavery. That is a simple and basic truth.
(This is also the very first statement in BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, the handbook for revolution.)3
At the beginning of BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less!, in 2012, this point is stated emphatically:
Let’s start with just one great crime of this system: police murder—after murder—after murder—of Black people and Latinos, especially youth.3
This is part of the powerful exposure in this speech of the role that continuing murders by police play in enforcing this monstrous system of exploitation and oppression, the system of capitalism-imperialism.
At the beginning of his October 2017 speech The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible, BA speaks powerfully to the horrors of slavery in this country—including the rape by slavemasters of huge numbers of enslaved women. This speech shows how the murderous oppression of Black people, continuing down to today, is one of the main roots of the fascism that has come to power in this country with the Trump/Pence regime; and, in this speech, BA repeatedly returns to the critical importance of the fight against this oppression.3
BA’s 2018 speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution begins this way:
In 2012 in Revolution—Nothing Less! I talked about the outrageous murder of Ramarley Graham earlier that same year—shot down in his own house in the Bronx by the New York City police. He was only 18 years old. Do I have to tell you what “race” he was?! His mother kept saying: “This has to STOP!” And his father repeated over and over: "WHY did they kill my son?! WHY did they kill my son?!" New York cops then loudly rallied around their fellow pig who murdered Ramarley in cold blood, viciously taunting Ramarley's family and loved ones, demonstrating yet one more time the ugly truth that, in the way this country has been built, and for the powers-that-be in this country, the humanity of Black people has never counted for anything—they have never been valued as human beings, but only as things to be exploited, oppressed, and repressed. Six years later, and with cold-blooded murders by police continuing in an unbroken chain, I will say again what I said then: How many more times does this have to happen? How many more times do the tears and the cries of anguish and anger have to pour forth from the wounded hearts of people?! How many more times, when another of these outrageous murders is perpetrated by the police, do we have to hear those words that pour gasoline on the already burning wounds: “justifiable homicide, justified use of force” by police?! How many more?!3
In that 2018 speech, BA not only powerfully exposes once again the horrific oppression that this system of capitalism-imperialism inflicts on Black people, and on other oppressed people in this country and throughout the world, and the grave danger this system poses to the very future of humanity; he also lays out in this speech (and in a more recent article A Real Revolution—A Real Chance To Win, Further Developing the Strategy for Revolution3) the strategic approach that could make it possible for this system to be finally overthrown through a revolution in which millions and millions of people are led to fight to put an end to this system and bring a radically different and much better system into being.
In the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA, a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for that radically different and much better system is set forth. And the principles and means for finally putting an end, at long last, to the oppression of Black people is a major part of that Constitution.3
This year (2020), BA has written as many as 30 articles in which this decisive question—the oppression, and the struggle for the liberation, of Black people—is a recurring subject.3
In the speeches and writings of BA overall, there is not only powerful, penetrating exposure and uncompromising condemnation of brutal and murderous oppression but, even more importantly, there is scientific analysis of how all this is rooted in this system of capitalism-imperialism and of the need, the possibility, and the means for making revolution to overthrow this system and finally put an end to all the outrageous and unnecessary suffering that the masses of humanity are continually subjected to under this system.
***
It is a very precious thing for the oppressed of the earth when they have a leader whose life is dedicated to their emancipation, and who has the determination, and the scientific method, developed over decades, to point the way, and continue to carve out the path, to achieving that emancipation. BA is such a leader. As emphasized in the article Bob Avakian: A Radically Different Leader—A Whole New Framework For Human Emancipation:
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.3
One of the things that most distinguishes BA’s role as a revolutionary leader is his willingness—indeed, his insistence—on telling people the truth, even when they may not want to hear it. This comes through in the way BA exposes and refutes unscientific ways of thinking—all kinds of “conspiracy” theories and superstitious ideas—that lead people, including the most bitterly oppressed people, away from understanding the world as it actually is, and keep them from seeing not just the need, but the possibility, of radically changing the world, in a way that will lead to ending oppression. A big problem that BA has taken on, straight-up, is the role of religion as a mental chain on the masses of Black people, and other oppressed people, and the need to break this chain in order to most powerfully wage the struggle to finally be free of all oppression. BA has repeatedly emphasized that, in order to end oppression, “you have to want revolution badly enough to be scientific about it.”
Science means judging whether something is true, or not, by whether there is evidence that it actually corresponds to reality—and not believing something because it makes you feel good to believe it, or not refusing to believe something because it makes you uncomfortable. In the article Conspiracy Theories, Fascist “Certitude,” Liberal Paralysis, Or A Scientific Approach To Changing The World, BA has spoken directly to this problem:
many of the basic masses, who are bitterly oppressed under this system, also are suspicious of and even are inclined to reject science and scientifically-grounded analysis. But this also leaves you vulnerable to all kinds of unfounded “conspiracy theories” and other wrong and harmful ideas, including the notion that nothing people do will make a difference because “it’s all in god’s hands.”3
In the 2014 Dialogue with Cornel West (REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion), which took place during the upsurge of protest and rebellion in response to the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, while speaking to the importance of uniting people broadly in the struggle against oppression, including people who hold religious views, BA also emphasized that the revolution that is needed to finally put an end to oppression must be led with a scientific, not a religious, outlook and method.3
From the start of the article Bob Avakian On Emancipation From Mental Slavery And All Oppression, written this year (2020), BA does not hold back in speaking to these critical questions:
In 1863, mid-way in the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln finally issued the Emancipation Proclamation and, as a result of the Civil War, Black people were formally freed from literal, physical slavery. But today the question is: When, and how, will Black people finally be free from all forms of slavery and oppression? And this poses straight-up this big question:
When will Black people finally emancipate themselves from the mental slavery of religion?!....
Once more, the question is sharply posed: How can Black people be finally and fully emancipated from centuries of oppression, and how does this relate to ending all oppression, of all people, everywhere?
The answer is that the possibility of this is real, but it can happen only on the basis of a scientific approach to changing the world and the scientifically-grounded understanding that this oppression is rooted in and caused by the system of capitalism-imperialism—the same system that is viciously exploiting and murderously oppressing people not just in this country but all over the world and is plundering the natural environment—and that this system must and can be overthrown through an actual revolution and replaced by a radically different and far better system: socialism, whose final goal is a communist world, without any oppression or exploitation of anyone, anywhere.3
****
From his early years, forging close personal ties with Black people and increasingly learning about their lived experience, to his development as this rare leader who has brought forth the most advanced scientific revolutionary theory with the new communism—a defining part of the life and work of Bob Avakian has been the liberation of Black people from centuries of oppression, and the understanding of how this relates to, and is a crucial driving force in, the communist revolution to finally abolish every form of oppression and exploitation, everywhere.
BA himself has expressed this in the following poetically powerful statement:
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.
1. From Ike to Mao and Beyond, My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist, A Memoir by Bob Avakian, Insight Press, 2005. [back]
2. Bob Avakian, THE NEW COMMUNISM: The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation, Insight Press, first printing, 2016, pp. 321-22. In addition to THE NEW COMMUNISM, in other recent works by BA—in particular Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, A Basic Summary, and Hope For Humanity On A Scientific Basis, Breaking with Individualism, Parasitism and American Chauvinism—the oppression and the struggle for the liberation of Black people, and its relation to the emancipation of humanity as a whole, is a prominent subject. These works are available at revcom.us. [back]
3. All of these works are available at revcom.us. (Information about how to acquire the print and e-book editions of BAsics can be found at revcom.us. Audio of the 7 Talks is available in BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us; and Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy has been published in a print edition, the text of which can also be found in BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us.)
The film of the Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian, REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion, is also available in BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us.
The article Conspiracy Theories, Fascist “Certitude,” Liberal Paralysis, Or A Scientific Approach To Changing The World (longer and shorter versions) is available at revcom.us as well.
The importance of Bob Avakian as a revolutionary leader, who has further developed communism as a consistently scientific method and approach, is a central theme in 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. Ardea Skybreak is a scientist with professional training in ecology and evolutionary biology, who is also the author of the important book THE SCIENCE OF EVOLUTION AND THE MYTH OF CREATIONISM, Knowing What’s Real And Why It Matters. Each of these books by Ardea Skybreak is published by Insight Press, and the Interview with Ardea Skybreak (SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION) is also available at revcom.us
The following articles, written by Bob Avakian this year (2020), which speak to the oppression of Black people and the struggle to end this oppression, are available as well at revcom.us:
Donald Trump—Genocidal Racist (Parts 1-10)
Racial Oppression Can Be Ended—But Not Under This System
Police And Prisons: Reformist Illusions And The Revolutionary Solution
Lynching, Murder By Police—Damn This Whole System! We Don’t Have To Live This Way!
Bob Avakian On Emancipation From Mental Slavery And All Oppression
Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James And The Whole Truth
Donald Trump Isn’t “Tough,” He’s A Bloated Bag Of Fascist Feces
Bloated Bag Of Fascist Feces Trump Isn’t “Tough”—Part 2: Who Really Has Heart?
Trump And Pigs: A Racist Love Affair
Fucker Carlson, Fascist “Fox News” And The Broadcast Of White Supremacy
Bob Avakian on Black Trump Supporters: What If Jews Had Supported Hitler?!
Bob Avakian On: A Beautiful Uprising: Right And Wrong, Methods And Principles
On Statues, Monuments, And Celebrating—Or Ending—Oppression
Fascists Today And The Confederacy: A Direct Line, A Direct Connection Between All The Oppression
Patriarchy And Male Supremacy, Or Revolution And Ending All Oppression
Sounding Like Southern Segregationists: It’s Not Just Trump—It’s Democrats Too
Bob Avakian On Ugly Words & Phrases
Bob Avakian On Tulsa Racist Mobs
A Real Revolution--A Real Chance To Win: Further Developing the Strategy for Revolution
[back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/667/donald-trump-genocidal-racist-by-bob-avakian-en.html
10 Part Series:
| revcom.us
Genocide means killing off a whole people, or a large part of that people. Genocide is what the Europeans did to the native peoples in America, while stealing their land. Genocide is Hitler and the NAZIs murdering six million Jews. Donald Trump is a genocidal racist.
Donald Trump hates Black people and everybody who is not a “white, English-speaking, Christian American.” If he could, he would kill off a whole lot of them, and put many of the rest in jail for life, or drive them out of the country.
Trump has spouted and shouted vicious racism for years, and decades.
Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, who knows him well, said this about him:
“I can only imagine the envy with which Donald watched” the cop killing George Floyd. “I can only imagine that Donald wishes it had been his knee on Floyd’s neck.” (emphasis added)
Think about that.
What do you think Trump will do if he can get his “knee” even more firmly on the necks of Black, Brown, and Native peoples?
Yes, even after slavery was ended, Black people have been continually subjected to horrific oppression and terror, right down to today—but the fully unleashed rule of genocidal racism, which is what Trump is aiming for, would be a horror on a whole other level. The slow genocide of Black people which has already been going on—through things like mass incarceration and continuing murder by police—can quickly become a much faster and more complete genocide if Trump and his regime succeed in remaining in power and carry forward more fully their fascist program.
And, as I have said in my August 1 Statement,* the hour is getting late, but it is not yet too late, to defeat the fascism concentrated in the fascist regime of Trump (and Pence) and to wrench something positive out of this increasingly terrible situation. But that requires fully facing up to what this regime of genocidal racist fascism represents and what it is aiming to do, and using all appropriate means to remove this regime from power—above all the mobilization of masses of people, to get in the streets, starting now, in the thousands, and stay in the streets, becoming millions, powerfully putting forward the unifying demand that this fascist regime must be OUT NOW!
And, as I emphasized in that August 1 Statement, in the most fundamental terms, it requires working to create more favorable conditions for, and to build up the organized forces for, the revolution that is needed to finally put an end to this system, which has from the beginning rested on genocidal racism and other horrific forms of oppression—and which now, with this fascist regime, is moving to take this to even more monstrous levels, posing a very real and grave threat to the very existence not only of Black people but the masses of oppressed humanity and ultimately humanity as a whole.
This is not hype or exaggeration in any way—it is the cold hard fact we are faced with—and it demands that, in the name of and for the future of humanity, we act on the basis of fully confronting this reality and moving, in our millions and millions, to change this reality, before it really is too late.
(If you think this is an exaggeration, and the danger is not as great as what is said here, then you don’t know who Donald Trump really is. In part 2 and the rest of this series of articles, further evidence will be brought out to show that Donald Trump is indeed a genocidal racist whose fascist regime is a threat to the very existence not only of Black people, but to the masses of oppressed humanity, and to humanity itself—and, once again, what we are urgently called on to do in the face of this.)
*STATEMENT BY BOB AVAKIAN, August 1, 2020, ON THE IMMEDIATE CRITICAL SITUATION, THE URGENT NEED TO DRIVE OUT THE FASCIST TRUMP/PENCE REGIME, VOTING IN THIS ELECTION, AND THE FUNDAMENTAL NEED FOR REVOLUTION. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/665/posters-pamphlet-donald-trump-genocidal-racist-en.html
Spread them Everywhere
| revcom.us
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/650/bob-avakian_nothing-less-en.html
| revcom.us
revolutionary leader, author and architect of the revolutionary new communism.
To all those who have risen up so powerfully and are demonstrating to say “No More!” after the murder of George Floyd, and all the other cold-blooded murders by police.
To all those who have drawn inspiration from this righteous uprising.
To all those who have had the blinders forced from their eyes and have been provoked to think anew about what kind of country it is that we live in.
This has raised the biggest questions about what is needed for people everywhere to live fully as human beings:
AN END TO INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM
AND MURDER BY POLICE—NOTHING LESS!AN END TO ANY WAY PEOPLE ANYWHERE ARE
USED, ABUSED, AND BRUTALIZED—NOTHING LESS!
We need a world without white supremacy and male supremacy—a world where no one is regarded as “alien”—a world without war, where people from all over the globe, with a beautiful flowering of diversity, act together for the common good and are truly caretakers of the earth.
THIS IS NOT JUST A DREAM.
The possibility for this is being powerfully demonstrated in this uprising of the people, of all different races and genders, from all parts of the world—refusing to remain silent or stay passive while all this oppression and brutality goes on.
To Make All This Real
We Need: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
A strategic plan for how to make this revolution, and a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a radically different and much better world, where all this can become possible—can be found in the work I have done, including the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.
You can learn more about this revolution and become part of making it a reality by going to revcom.us and joining with the revcoms.
We do not need to live in this world where so much of humanity suffers so unnecessarily under this system of capitalism-imperialism that cannot exist without exploiting and degrading people, suffocating their humanity and killing them without mercy. We can do much better! Don’t listen to talk about how “it can never happen.”
Look around you—what seemed impossible yesterday is happening right now! Revolution, why should we settle for anything less?
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/652/bob-avakian-racial-oppression-can-be-ended-en.html
| revcom.us
Everywhere we go, and in everything we do, we revcoms boldly put forward: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
This is not just a slogan—though it is a very good and very important slogan. It is the concentrated statement of a very profound truth, which is also captured in our slogan: This System Cannot Be Reformed—It Must Be Overthrown!
But what do we mean in saying that this system cannot be reformed, and why is that true? In Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, I speak to the “5 STOPS”—deep and defining contradictions of this system—and all the terrible suffering to which this system of capitalism-imperialism subjects the masses of humanity, and why all this cannot be ended under this system.1 Here I am going to focus on the systematic and murderous oppression of Black people, and racial oppression overall—which has been sharply exposed with the outpouring of outrage sparked by the murder of George Floyd—and discuss the basic reasons why this oppression cannot be eliminated under this system, but can (only) be ended through revolution.
The continuing terror and murder carried out by the police particularly against Black people (as well as Latinos and Native Americans) is not fundamentally because the police are racist—although, speaking of the police overall, that is certainly true. The fact that the police are racist is itself an expression and a function of the fact that terror and murder against Black people (and other people of color) is required by this system—is necessary in order to maintain the “order” of this all-around oppressive system—and this would be much more difficult to carry out if the police were not racist.
But, going deeper, why is this terror and murder necessary for this system, in order to ensure its “order” and its ongoing functioning? The answer is that, from the beginning of this country, white supremacy has been poured into the foundation and built into the institutions and the ongoing functioning of this system. Specifically with regard to Black people, the centuries of oppression they have suffered—from slavery days to the days of Jim Crow segregation and Ku Klux Klan terror, to the present time, with the continuing systematic discrimination against Black people, in every part of society (employment, housing, education, health care, and on and on)—all this has resulted in a situation where masses of Black people today, and in particular youth, have been robbed of a means for a decent life, with many maintained in conditions of desperate poverty and deprivation. This, again, is not simply because those who are in the seats of power and deciding government policy are racist (though that is true of most of them). It is fundamentally because of the nature of the system itself and the historically-evolved requirements and dynamics of this system of capitalism-imperialism.
Now, that is a big mouthful (“the nature of the system itself and the historically-evolved requirements and dynamics of this system of capitalism-imperialism”), so let’s break it down. This country was founded on the enslavement of masses of African people, as well as the genocidal subjugation of Native Americans and theft of their land (and its further development involved the conquest of huge parts of Mexico, reducing people of Mexican origin to second-class status as well). This required the propagation of racism to “justify” all the horrific oppression. Then, when the Civil War broke out over the question of slavery, and even when slavery was abolished as a result of that Civil War, given that white supremacy had been, and remained, such a crucial part of the “glue” holding the country together, the only way to “put it back together,” on the foundation of the capitalist system, was to once again forcefully assert white supremacy. That is why, very soon after the end of the Civil War, Black people were subjected to the system of Jim Crow segregation (backed up by systematic terror, punctuated by repeated lynchings), while the genocidal aggression against and theft of the land of Native Americans was stepped up, and immigrants from Mexico were subjected to ongoing discrimination and violence by the enforcers of this system.
Generations later, during World War 2, because of the needs of the rulers of this country in waging that war, large numbers of Black people were able to migrate to the North and get jobs in industries that served the war effort. And then, largely as a result of the fact that the U.S. was on the winning side of that war—and the fact that the war was not fought on its territory and it experienced no damage to its industrial facilities and infrastructure—there was an expansion of the economy in this country after the war. In this situation, significant numbers of Black people were able to continue getting employment in large numbers, including some better-paying jobs in factories (making steel, cars, and so on).
But, at the same time, because of the white supremacy built into the system over centuries—and the fact that really moving to overcome this would tear apart the fabric of the system and crack its very foundation—Black people continued to be subjected to systematic discrimination, including in employment (with “last hired and first fired” an accurate description of the situation of Black people with regard to employment). To cite another ugly example, government policy with regard to housing involved conscious, deliberate discrimination: after World War 2, loans were given to white people to enable them to buy their own homes, and increasingly move to the suburbs, while this was denied to Black veterans (and others) and instead Black people were piled into segregated housing projects in the inner cities. And this was part of the continuing systematic segregation and discrimination to which Black people were subjected.
As a result of the Civil Rights movement and then the more radical Black liberation movement in the 1960s, some concessions were made, and there has been an increase in the number of “Black faces in high places” and a growth of the Black middle class, although their situation is far more precarious than that of white middle class people (something which was cruelly demonstrated in the 2008 crisis, which resulted in large numbers of Black people losing their homes and much, if not all, of any savings they had). And, in more recent times, huge numbers of factories and other sources of jobs for people in the inner city have closed down, often moving their operations elsewhere—particularly to countries in the Third World (Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia) where the desperate situation of masses of people, including children, has left them vulnerable to being super-exploited, at near-starvation wages.
All this, together with increased automation and “cybernation” of production, when combined with the ongoing segregation and discrimination built into this system, has led to a situation where huge numbers of Black people, and especially youth, have, for generations now, not only been unemployed but are left with no prospect of meaningful employment in the regular (“formal”) economy.
Here we see the “toxic combination” of systematic, historically-evolved segregation and discrimination, enforced with brutal violence by the powers-that-be, together with the basic functioning and requirements of the capitalist economy—which involves the greater and greater concentration not just of wealth, but of the means of production (technology, factories and other physical structures, sources of raw materials, and so on) in the possession and under the control of large-scale capitalist enterprises and financial institutions, which are locked in cut-throat competition with each other, not just within a particular country but increasingly on a global scale, and are therefore driven to ruthlessly exploit people and constantly search for ways to even more viciously super-exploit large numbers of desperate people, including children, in a worldwide network of sweatshops. (For example, cell phones and computers depend on the mineral coltan which is mined under horrific conditions by people, including large numbers of children, in the Congo in Africa; and a large part of the clothes that are bought in the U.S. are produced by huge numbers of women working in horrific conditions in the Asian country of Bangladesh.)
In this situation, and especially with the growth of the international drug trade, and its deep penetration into the U.S., many of those, in particular youth, who found themselves locked out of the “formal economy,” have turned to drug-dealing, as well as other criminal activity—something which has been encouraged by government policy that has actually resulted in the movement of large amounts of drugs into the inner city, even as the authorities seize on this situation to carry out systematic repression against the youth in particular, with such things as “stop and frisk.” The result of all this has been a huge increase in mass incarceration, as well as the continual murder of large numbers of “minority” youth by police.
At the same time, the way that the U.S. has continued to dominate Mexico, as well as other parts of Latin America, and to distort the economies, corrupt the governments and bring ruin to the social relations among the people in those countries—all this has resulted in large numbers of people being forced to flee those countries and migrate to the U.S., where they are vulnerable to being viciously exploited in factories and farmlands, and other parts of the economy of this country. And large numbers of the younger generations of these immigrants have also formed (or joined existing) gangs and become involved in the drug trade and related crime.
More recently, however, in at least many of the inner-city neighborhoods, for a number of reasons—including the fact that the “crack epidemic” had taken a terrible toll on people—there has been a decrease in the trade in cocaine and the high profits this brought for the relatively small number of “higher-ups” in the drug trade hierarchy. For a period, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, given their desolation and desperation, the drug trade was a “major employer” of youth in the inner cities, female as well as male, and a major source of at least a basic income for many (even if the promise of “getting rich” remained an illusion for most). Now, even this source of employment and income—as perverse and harmful as it is—has dried up or greatly diminished for many. This has further added to the miserable situation of massive numbers of inner-city youth in particular who have no future—under this system—no future but prison, an early death or a life of desperate hustling, in one form or another, in the attempt to survive and care for loved ones.
All this cannot be changed—cannot be transformed and overcome—within the confines of this system. Despite what any politician (“liberal” or outright fascist like Trump) may say, there is no way that this system could “reverse itself,” bring large parts of industry back to the inner city and provide meaningful employment, with “a living wage” for all those it is now depriving of this. Even if the government had the “political will” to try to do this, doing so (with the employment of millions of formerly unemployed or “underemployed” people at a “living wage”) would seriously undermine the competitive positions of American capitalists in the global economy. And, if they attempted to do this while at the same time trying to seriously overcome the whole historically-evolved relations of white supremacy, this would completely disrupt the social “cohesion” that “holds this country together,” with white supremacy a crucial part of this.
It is one thing for “good-hearted people”—and in particular many white people—to say (and sincerely mean) that it is wrong for the police to just wantonly, cruelly murder people, and to mobilize in protest against this. But imagine what would happen if, under this system and with the way its economy functions, the government tried to adopt policies that would deal with the long-term unemployment of Black people in the inner cities, who have not only been denied jobs but also the training for the jobs that do exist—imagine what the reaction would be of many white people who would in fact lose their better-off positions as a result of these policies. Imagine what would happen if these kinds of policies were applied not just to employment, but to education, and on down the line. (We have already seen the “backlash” that was fostered in response to even minimal efforts to implement “affirmative action” programs in employment and education.)
Again, this is not simply a matter that “white people are racist.” Many are racist, although many do not want to be. But the deeper problem is that given the basic way the capitalist economy works, and how everyone is encouraged to be “out for yourself”—and, more fundamentally, the fact that people are actually driven and compelled to compete with each other in every significant part of life, including employment and education—it would actually create destructive chaos and conflict among the people, and tear apart the “cohesion” of the society, to try to really and fully undo and overcome the reality and effects of centuries of racist oppression—under this system.
This most definitely and emphatically is NOT an argument for holding back from struggling against every form of discrimination, inequality and oppression in every part of society. Fighting back against oppression, and wrenching concessions from the powers-that-be, is very important—in enabling masses of people to feel their own strength in standing up and standing together in opposing oppression, and drawing people from all parts of society to join in this struggle—rather than feeling isolated, beaten down and hopeless. And it is important in contributing to the ability of masses of people to gain the understanding and build up the organization necessary for the final all-out struggle to bring down the whole oppressive system. But that is just the point—as important as these mass struggles are, if they are not built toward, and do not finally get to the point of, taking on the whole system, with the aim of bringing it down, and bringing something much better into being, then, as I have emphasized before, even where concessions are won, “so long as this system remains in power, there will be powerful forces who will move to attack and undermine, and seek to reverse, even these partial gains,” and people will remain oppressed and once more weighed down with a feeling of demoralization, as they are once again divided and pitted against each other.2
The basic and crucial point is that the fight against racial oppression (and all oppression) must not remain confined within the limits of this system, and instead must be carried out and carried forward as part of the overall struggle toward the goal of abolishing this system. The fact that this oppression cannot be abolished under this system is not a reason for giving up in despair—it is a compelling reason why this system must be and can be abolished—and it is the fundamental basis for why people can be won to wage the revolutionary struggle to finally bring it down!
All this is why there will not be any real and meaningful move by the powers-that-be (and any of its politicians and political parties) to overcome the centuries-long experience and legacy of brutal racist oppression and the situation it has led to today, where millions and millions of Black youth and other youth of color have no prospect of a decent future—under this system.
As I have pointed out before: “So what does this system do with youth that have no future and no prospects? It contains them.... contains them violently.”3
And all this is why there is systemic and systematic police terror directed at Black people and other people of color. It is why this is brought down not only on the youth (and others) in the inner cities, but why it can and does lead to harassment, brutality and murder of any Black person, anywhere, even those with more education and status in society. If the system needs the police to “violently contain” the masses of people in the inner cities—and it does—then this is bound to “spill over” and be applied to Black people, and other people of color, more generally. The police have neither the interests, nor the ability, nor the will to make distinctions between “good” ....... (fill in the blank as to what racist terms they use) and “bad” ones. And, beyond that, the “random” nature of the brutality and murder makes it all the more effective in terrorizing people—making everyone, even the “better off,” feel, correctly, that they could be a target of this.
It is for all these reasons that racist oppression will continue so long as people are living under the domination of this system of capitalism-imperialism. It is not only right but crucially important to rise up and wage a determined fight against this, but it is also crucial to recognize that this racist oppression will never be, can never be, eliminated under this system—and, to finally put an end to it, we need a radically different system.
We need a radically different economic system—a socialist economic system (mode of production) that is geared to and proceeds by developing and utilizing the means of production collectively, to meet the needs of the masses of people, materially (for employment, food, housing, health care, and so on) as well as their needs intellectually and culturally, and to provide them with the means not only to live a life worthy of human beings, but also to scientifically understand the basis and need, and to more and more consciously take part in, carrying forward the transformation of society to finally and completely eliminate all relations of oppression and exploitation, and to support that struggle throughout the world. And, as one of its highest priorities and goals, this will involve the determined struggle to overcome and finally eliminate racial oppression in every aspect of society.
The radically different socialist economy (mode of production) will provide the foundation on which the ongoing process of uprooting racial oppression, and all oppression, can be waged on favorable ground, and can finally succeed in overcoming all this. The following from my work Breakthroughs speaks to this key relation and process:
Ultimately, the mode of production sets the foundation and the limits of change, in terms of how you address any social problem, such as the oppression of women, or the oppression of Black people or Latinos, or the contradiction between mental work and manual work, or the situation with the environment, or the situation of immigrants, and so on. While all those things have reality and dynamics in their own right, and aren’t reducible to the economic system, they all take place within the framework and within the fundamental dynamics of that economic system; and that economic system, that mode of production, sets the foundation and the ultimate limits of change in regard to all those social questions. So, if you want to get rid of all these different forms of oppression, you have to address them in their own right, but you also have to fundamentally change the economic system to give you the ability to be able to carry through those changes in fundamental terms. To put it another way: You have to have an economic system that doesn’t prevent you from making those changes, and instead not only allows but provides a favorable foundation for making those changes.4
The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America provides a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for such a radically different economic system, and for government institutions, laws and a legal system, as well as an approach to education, science, art and culture that go along with this mode of production and contribute to its continual development, opening the way to finally eliminating all oppression and exploitation.5 And in Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution (as well as other works of mine) the basic strategy is spelled out for carrying out the revolution that will make it possible to apply this Constitution in working to bring about a world free of all the unnecessary suffering and madness to which the masses of humanity are subjected under the domination of this system of capitalism-imperialism.
This is why, and this is how, racial oppression, and all the oppression, which is built into this system of capitalism-imperialism, can be ended—but only through a revolution to abolish this system.
This is why we continue to emphasize this basic truth: 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!
This is why we continue to boldly raise the slogan: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
1. The text and video of this speech by Bob Avakian (Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution) is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. The statement quoted in this part of this article is from Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. [back]
3. Bob Avakian On Police Brutality And Murder: Consent Decrees Won’t Stop This—We Need A Revolution! This excerpt from a Question and Answer Session with Bob Avakian, after his presentation in 2018 in Chicago of the speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, is also available at revcom.us. [back]
4. This statement is contained in Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, A Basic Summary, by Bob Avakian, which is available at revcom.us. It originally appeared in the book by Bob Avakian, The New Communism: The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation, Insight Press, 2016. Italics in the original. [back]
5. The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, is also available at revcom.us. [back]
The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation, by Bob Avakian
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/671/we-must-act-now-en.html
| revcom.us
This is a very lightly edited transcript of the speech that Andy Zee gave at the Refuse Fascism Public Protest-Assembly in Los Angeles on October 24.
You, All of You, All of Us, We, who are gathered here today are the catalysts... we’re the spark plugs, we’re the triggers, we’re the inspiration, and the magnets, and the organizers of what must become hundreds and thousands and millions who take to the streets day after day in nonviolent mass protest... who by our words... and by what we do and say... and what we put on the line, that: “not one more day must this regime of white supremacists, of anti-women and anti-LBGTQ theocrats, of xenophobic torturers of children and families, of police-state bullies and murderers, of genocidal racists and anti-science lunatics who are killing the planet and hundreds of thousands of people by their arrogant ignorance—no longer should they be allowed to rule this or any other country. There ought to be a golf course in hell with a never-ending sand trap for such people.
I want you to leave here today with two points to think about and act on.
First, the Trump/Pence regime intends to stay in power by any and all means, including stealing the election, and should they succeed it will be a catastrophe for humanity. And I do not use the word catastrophe lightly. The recognition of this is what brought you here today.
Second, the second thing you must leave with is that We MUST ACT NOW! Others have spoken of this. We must not wait until the regime actually steals the election, but be in the streets now putting before the whole world the horror that this fascist regime is bringing and the rightness of our cause and acting in every way we can nonviolently to stop it. TO STOP A COUP YOU NEED TO ACT BEFORE IT IS CARRIED OUT. We can defeat this if we dare to face the truth of that, and to organize ourselves to meet this threat. Coups can be defeated. But NOT by pretending they don’t exist. But only by sounding the alarm in ways that people will not ignore and then preparing people’s minds and organizing them to act accordingly.
So, leave here today committed to act in creative ways that provoke masses of people to not turn away from, but be inspired to act themselves and to organize others to join us and to be a part of the mission of the OUT NOW MOVEMENT which is, again, to act together in sustained mass protest to do what? To demand what? Trump/Pence OUT NOW!
We must vote in big numbers, but if that is all we do, the outcome will most likely be disastrous. We need to put our hearts, our minds, and OUR BODIES on the streets.
We have 10 Days. Ten Days in which it is not an exaggeration to say that the struggle over the future of humanity will go into high gear. And that fight has begun.
WE ARE NOW in the MIDST of a ROLLING COUP—A STEP-BY-STEP THEFT—the GRABBING AND STEALING of an ALL-OUT BLATANT DICTATORIAL POWER WITHOUT ANY SEMBLANCE OF DEMOCRATIC OR CIVIL LIBERTIES BY THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME.
This will mean a qualitative change in the world that we, that you, that everyone lives in.
Right now, they are doing everything they can to deny, to purge, to make as difficult as possible, and failing that, to intimidate those who they fear will vote against Trump—Black, Latino, Native American, and many others. If on election night or the day after if Trump is behind, or he loses, the regime has said outright, and they have shown, in what they are actively doing, that they will do anything and everything to complete their coup and to steal the election. They will bullshit—creating the facade of going through procedures of counting votes while in reality they will be working to disqualify votes; they will be sowing doubt and issuing threats from Trump while their thugs take to the streets. Their TRUMP card (and quite literally so) is the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett that’s scheduled to be rammed through the Supreme Court this week, because their plan is to take their disqualification of the votes for Biden into the state legislatures, into the county boards, then take it through the courts they’ve packed with fascists and then go all the way up to the Supreme Court where they have now secured a majority to ram through this election and bring about a theocratic fascist America.
They have packed these courts with judges who want to return outright to the original Constitution which objectively ratified slavery, didn’t consider Black people human, didn’t give women any rights, and in fact justified the theft of the land and the genocide of the Native peoples. This is what “Originalism” actually is.
The theft of the election is not just after Election Day... it is, as I said, underway now.
But, do not think that Trump might not “win” an election that he has already begun stealing. Do not be drugged by these opinion polls. Such a result would still be illegitimate and MUST BE OPPOSED. Fascism—all that has already been experienced, at the pain of cages, at the pain of concentration camps—all that has been experienced over the last four years is always illegitimate.
And fascism is always illegitimate whether it is brought to power by fair or fraudulent means—and it’s already been fraudulent. THIS, TOO, IS ANOTHER REASON WHY REFUSE FASCISM AND THE TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW MOVEMENT ARE CALLING FOR PEOPLE TO BE OUT NOW EVERY DAY!
***
I began by saying that if the Trump/Pence regime remains in power it will be a catastrophe for humanity—perhaps our very survival. The world is in great turmoil now... big power rivalries are sharpening, regimes all over the world are facing acute crises, not the least of which is the COVID pandemic.
It is unconscionable and of acute danger to have a pathological narcissist with no capacity for empathy, who espouses a genocidal racist program to have his finger on the nuclear trigger with the capacity to incinerate the world.
More, this anti-science regime—that will likely soon include a Supreme Court justice who along with Trump and Pence DENIES the SCIENCE of GLOBAL WARMING—would, if they remain in power, foreclose quite possibly the potential of slowing or reversing global warming and thus burning, and drowning, and suffocating life on this planet.
The STAKES are that high. It IS an existential moment for humanity.
THE HEART OF THE FASCIST PROGRAM IS THREE THINGS: WHITE SUPREMACY, THE HATRED OF IMMIGRANTS, AND THE ASSERTION OF THE MOST TOXIC MALE SUPREMACY AND SUBORDINATION OF WOMEN AND DIFFERENTLY GENDERED PEOPLE THROUGH A THEOCRATIC FASCISM AS LAW ENFORCING PATRIARCHY.
I will say this: What we have seen thus far with this regime is but the tip of an iceberg should they remain in power. This is something everybody has the responsibility to contemplate, to think about and to then act accordingly.
Donald Trump is, as the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has said, a GENOCIDAL RACIST. Mike Pence is no different. Mike Pence, and the movement that he leads, takes the Bible literally. This is a Christian fascist movement that would impose a Handmaid’s Tale on the humanity of women and LBTGQ persons. And maybe the sisters over here in those Handmaid costumes [pointing to those in red cloaks] can stand up for a minute. THIS IS REAL... this is who they are... this is what drives the movement that celebrates vigilantes who MURDER people fighting for Black lives, taking to the streets so that Black people are not routinely and wantonly gunned down by police and disproportionately killed by the COVID virus.
What kind of depravity, deliberately as a matter of OFFICIAL POLICY, ORPHANS LITTLE CHILDREN? 545 IMMIGRANT CHILDREN, TORN FROM THEIR PARENTS WHO WERE SEEKING ASYLUM FROM THE HORRIFIC CONDITIONS IN THEIR COUNTRIES THAT WERE LARGELY CREATED BY WHAT THIS COUNTRY DOES AROUND THE WORLD AND IN LATIN AMERICA? And, now they can’t locate their parents? This is not a bad policy, this is not inhuman. THIS IS TORTURE, straight up. On top of the tens of thousands in concentration camps, detention camps, on this side of the border, with even worse and the most horrific conditions on the other side of the border as the regime, in violation of international law and the right to asylum, throws people back across the Rio Grande border, as human refuse.
NO ONE should accept this. There is no election that can or should tolerate this. And to be complacent in the face of this, to fail to act in the streets, to not do more than just vote, is to be complicit and to collaborate with a great crime.
And this is not just invective and drama for a talk; this is real, very real. And it’s going to get acutely real should we fail to act and do what we have to do. AND THIS IS WHY WE SAY: In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!
***
That is what we stand for. Living this is what we must do and what we must be.
We are not standing out here, the few of us today, to look good, for ourselves, for our group. This is not about us. This is about the world. This is about humanity. When stakes are that high you can’t be worried about how few you are, but know that you’re right and that you reflect what people are actually experiencing and feeling deep in their heart but don’t want to acknowledge... that you have to stand on that and maybe people will come out if you continue to fight hard enough. And in any case it is the thing you should do if you are to be a human being.
And, as I said, we are here because Trump Is Already Stealing the Election. We need to vote, but Trump will not be stopped just by voting!
We are standing together to put our hearts and our minds and our bodies to this task, to the cause of planning, protesting, and organizing to drive a regime from power.
I have said that we are in a rolling coup. A coup that is coming to a head through the election. So, what do we do and when do we do it?
Coups... which are the theft of power... are stopped:
[1] when people plan and when they act BEFORE the coup; and
[2] when people act together in the streets, forging the unity and determination through the hard work of waking up a society to what is required in addition to voting;
[3] and, most importantly in so doing—in being out every day—we establish before the eyes of the world the righteousness of our demand. Through our words and most importantly through what we do, we put forward a pole that represents—that concentrates—the reality that millions of people feel and anguish about, and demonstrates in WORD AND DEED what must be done if justice is to prevail and the regime that is bringing a great disaster down on humanity—the people here and all around the world—is removed from power.
This, people must see from what we do. And they must see it now. They must see it going into the election.
And let me ask you this: Is that not what Refuse Fascism did in front of the Supreme Court putting on those Handmaid’s uniforms, and at the women’s marches all around the country? The brutal, women-life-denying Amy Coney Barrett, that Aunt Lydia... And that was put before the world. And what you did, and what the women who are wearing the Handmaid’s uniform out here did, is still sitting in people’s minds. Do not be deterred by what the immediate response is. People are having to live with you representing the reality that is to come. And the same goes for the cages.
The next 10 days really can count to put the pole of TRUMP/PENCE OUT NOW! on the map, to compel, to inspire people to see that voting is not enough, to recognize that waiting until Trump actually moves to steal the election will weaken the forces of resistance. To see that if we start acting now, OUR SIDE can gain initiative, we can be “the story” in the news now... rather than Trump’s lying bullshit and his QAnon, COVID-spreading rallies. This is what people need to see. We’re not telling anybody not to go out now and organize people to vote, to help them get to the polls and to make phone calls. But if that’s all you do, the story is these fascists on the news. There’s no heart for our side. All of you here, and what we have done, is giving that heart and that’s seeping into the conscience and consciousness of people. And don’t underestimate the effect of this. And yes, what we’re going to do today is talk about why we’re doing this, how to do it, and how to get prepared for the next 10 days.
We need to awaken and organize hundreds and thousands to act now. We cannot predict what will happen tomorrow or next week that could cause masses of people to pour into the streets. You don’t know that and I don’t know that and the people who say it’s not time don’t know it either. We cannot even say for sure that people will act if and when Trump moves to steal the election. But what we can say, is that if we don’t PREPARE NOW, if we don’t ACT NOW, that will weaken and politically disarm people to understand the enormity of what we face, and why voting alone will not be enough.
The Handmaid’s protests, the cages, the kids’ shoes are all a part of “disturbing the air”—making people confront what is happening in their name... and all of this must be tied back to the demand of Trump/Pence OUT NOW!
We also have to dramatize and we have to act to defend the right to vote right now and not let those thugs who in their camouflage costumes and very real weapons have threatened and murdered people for protesting to demand Black Lives Matter. We cannot allow these people to come out and intimidate and discourage Black and other people from voting. We must not let them sabotage and suppress the vote in counties where people like this live. This too, today, is part of preparing for the kind of struggle that will come should he steal the election.
If and when the Trump/Pence regime with the backing not only of their MAGA thugs, but of the Republicans in state governments and the courts across the country, move to steal the election, our struggle will include protesting and uniting with the demand that they not be allowed to disqualify and deny the votes that are for Biden.
But, the struggle to remove this regime cannot just be reactive to the moves of the Trump/Pence regime and the response of the Democratic Party of Biden to that. We, who represent the interests of people in this country and around the world, must act in our interest, which is that the Trump/Pence regime must go! That is not negotiable. There is no compromise with four more years of a fascist America—for that will be a horror for humanity.
Think about this, this is very important. We cannot just be reactive to what the Trump/Pence regime does and the reaction to that by the Democrats. You saw what that brought in the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. The Republicans rushed it through, the Democrats said we don’t have enough votes to stop it, they hardly put up a fight, they raised some questions and did some exposure, and then they said it’s a foregone conclusion. Well, I said this before, and I’m going to say it again, it’s not even in this written speech: but just imagine if there had been 10s of thousands of people in the Washington Mall and in city squares all through that nomination how might have things turned out differently? And I’m going to tell you this. It won’t be any different if he steals the election and they say let’s let this county board decide, let’s let this court decide, let’s stand in front of this place, which we of course should do and force them to be honest, shine the spotlight on them. But if we don’t get out there and fight in our interests, which are the interests of humanity, to demand the Trump/Pence Regime Must Go—they must be gone from power. We must not be just reactive, we will be proactive, proactive for the people of the world.
So I’m going to close where I began. The Trump/Pence regime will be a catastrophe scarcely imaginable.
They are stealing the election now... and we must intensify our efforts and make these next 10 days really count before the election and send a beacon far and wide that now is the time to act and not stop taking to the streets until this regime is gone.
Say with me:
In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.
In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.
Now let’s get busy and get to work.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/669/when-you-take-the-streets-en.html
| revcom.us
When YOU take the streets, then you set the terms. People have to respond, one way or the other. If taking the streets shakes people up, and makes them think, makes them question, even makes them angry—good. Step one is breaking people out of “it’s all good”—or “it’s all bad, and there’s nothing I can do.” If you’re in the streets, you are a living refutation of both.
When YOU take the streets, you define the debate. Think about what happened after the ugly, brutal murder of George Floyd by the police—the terms changed from “it’s really a shame, but the police are just doing their job and there’s really not that much we can do” to “the murder of George Floyd is outrageous and intolerable, his killers need to be charged and jailed, and everyone needs to be in the streets—and everywhere else—asking why this happens and demanding top to bottom change to make it stop.” People took the streets—and suddenly not only were statues coming down, but discussions were going on everywhere about the true history and present-day character of this society, and what needed to be done to change it—now.
When YOU take the streets, you cause different sections of the rulers to move in different ways. Do you think the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military—Mark Milley—would have been compelled to break with his commander-in-chief, the fascist Trump, and to apologize for being with him at that church photo-op and using his troops against nonviolent protesters without people standing up and staying in the streets? Not out of the goodness of his heart—but because YOU were in the streets and YOU were having an effect on everyone and everything, and he began to worry about his own armed forces holding together and the way the whole society was looking at the problems you were so powerfully pointing to.
But when THEY—the fascists, the Trumpites—saw this, they were freaked and they were furious. So THEY took the streets, with their thugs and guns, and tried to change things back. THEY—the fascists, the Trumpites—tried to make the terms “what do we do about rioting and looting” and “law and order”—even as THEY surrounded and hounded and shot and killed and drove cars into people. When THEY took the streets it became all about “the grievances of Trump’s angry base” and the Democrats making concessions, as if the lies and slanders and racism and murder is somehow valid.
Now WE, in our hundreds and thousands now and growing into millions, need to take the streets and re-set the terms and demand that THIS FASCIST REGIME BE DRIVEN FROM POWER. We need to be in the streets to ring the alarm to millions on what this regime is threatening to do: steal the elections and wreak violence and prison on those who resist. WE need to call out the millions of people who love justice and decency to come back into the streets. WE with our actions need to inspire and organize them to say, in loud, united and graphic terms to Trump and Pence and Barr and the rest: DON’T YOU DARE!
We need to make clear: The very act of making those threats is more than cause enough to drive these fascists from office. NOW—before they can carry them out. Then, if the election does happen—and yes, YOU MUST VOTE—we’ll be in a position where we can actually have a chance at fighting through against any chicanery and treachery from these fascists. In the main, essential and most important way to fight it: with millions in the streets.
WE need to show the nonviolent, creative, courageous moral certitude of our movement to the whole world, growing and growing, day after day: Trump/Pence OUT NOW.
WE need to take back the streets: now.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/paul-krugman-blind-spot-brief-reply-en.html
| revcom.us
Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, has been playing a good role in calling out the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Trump/Pence regime. But like many other liberals, Krugman has a blind spot on the U.S.’s role in the world. We have this remarkable statement in his latest column, “Pax Americana,” warning against Trump’s effect on the U.S.’s standing in the world:
Our government’s behavior was by no means saintly; we did some terrible things, supporting dictators and undermining democracies from Iran to Chile. And sometimes it seemed as if one of our main goals was to make the world safe for multinational corporations.
But we weren’t a crude exploiter, pillaging other countries for our own gain.... And we were a country that kept its word.
First, America’s founding was in slavery of Black people and genocide of Native peoples. The government made and broke hundreds of treaties with the Native peoples as it expanded westward and seized the land, contrary to Krugman’s belief and illusion that “we were a country that kept its word,” a falsity from its founding.1
Second, since the dawn of the 20th century, America has been an imperialist power, ravaging and dominating whole parts of the world, from Central and Latin America to the Middle East to Southeast Asia—as part of its rise to global superpower, controlling resources, markets, and whole regions. Go here to learn more about the ugly history of U.S. imperialism’s crimes around the world, from Mexico, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Zaire, Guatemala... and the list goes on and on. Not “saintly” doesn’t even begin to describe the horrors wrought by the U.S.
Third, America sits atop the global capitalist-imperialist system, super-exploiting hundreds of millions throughout the world in an Empire of Exploitation. Where do you think the profit of companies like Apple, Amazon, and Walmart come from? Go here for that.
Trump and his fascist regime are a product and response to challenges faced by U.S. empire—domestically and internationally. This fascist section of the ruling class has a different approach and worldview—concentrated in their slogan, America First. They subordinate traditional alliances to raw U.S. power and interests, militarize U.S. foreign policy even more, and adopt a much more aggressive stance towards countries they consider competitors and threats, like China, Iran, etc. This makes the world a lot more dangerous, especially with the finger of the demented bully Trump on the nuclear button. Liberals like Krugman yearn for a return to the “normal” of Pax Americana, the more “normal” role of the U.S. in the world represented by the more liberal imperialists like Obama, Biden, etc. As we unite this side of the political barricades in the struggle against the Trump/Pence regime, we challenge and invite Paul Krugman and those who share his view to confront and learn more about the actual history and role of the U.S. in the world, and to shed illusions of the U.S. as primarily a force for good.
1. See, for example, “The Oppression of Black People and Other People of Color,” by Bob Avakian; “BA on the genocide of Native people, broken treaties, and ‘peculiar’ development of capitalism in the U.S. See also “It's not just Trump. The US has always broken its treaties, pacts and promises,” Quartz, May 12, 2018.” [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/massive-protests-in-poland-against-fascist-abortion-ban-en.html
Letter from a reader:
| revcom.us
Editors’ Note: The following letter from a reader highlights the mass resistance to the horrendous ban on abortions enacted by the fascist regime in Poland, part of a worldwide trend of fascism that is white supremacist and misogynistic. As the reader highlights, the savage repression against the protesters has not “dampened the spirit and determination of the protesters who are continuing to carry out mass, sustained, nonviolent protest.” We heartily and strongly endorse the reader’s closing comments that not only should people support these courageous protesters, but take inspiration.
Hundreds of thousands of women are taking to the streets of Warsaw and other Polish cities and towns in outraged protest against an October 22 decree by the Constitutional Tribunal banning abortion for severe fetal abnormalities—which was essentially the only form of abortion practiced. While the formal right exists for abortion in cases of rape and when the mother’s life is in danger, the vast majority of women who need abortions are forced to leave the country or obtain an illegal one.
For over a week, women have been filling the streets daily in defiance of this brutal ban which would force women against their will to bring to term babies who have no chance of living healthy, productive lives. They have bravely faced down threats and attacks from right-wing gangs and militias. On Wednesday, October 28, protesters—mainly women but also some men—carried signs like “People before embryos” and “I wish I could abort my government.” They poured out of workplaces in a nationwide work stoppage. Groups of women marched wearing the red robes of the Handmaid’s Tale symbolizing the future of women’s subjugation that this decision represents. Protesters defiantly challenged the oppressive weight of the Catholic church on their lives, disrupting Mass in Catholic churches and staging sit-ins at cathedrals with women holding coat hangers as the symbol of dangerous illegal abortions, which is the fate that many now face.
The battle over the abortion decree has become a concentration point in an overall clash in society over increasingly aggressive moves by the ruling Law and Justice Party to impose a fascist form of rule on Polish society under the domination of the medieval morality of the Catholic Church which has long been a powerful force in Polish society. The Law and Justice Party gained control in 2015 under the banner of the nation “rising from its knees.” The initial focus of their fascist moves was against migrants, in conjunction with anti-immigrant fascist movements springing up throughout Europe at that time. Campaigns have since been launched against LGBTQ people with dozens of localities passing laws declaring themselves to be zones that are free of “LGBTQ ideology.” Since 2015, the Law and Justice Party has moved systematically to take control of the courts, forcing out justices from the Supreme Court to remake it into a rubber stamp for the ruling party and taking full control of the Constitutional Tribunal—the court which has now passed the anti-abortion decree. Through seizing control of the courts, in the face of mass protest, they have been bludgeoning through attacks on the basic rights of the people. Previous efforts by the ruling party to push an abortion ban through Parliament were defeated by opposition forces in Parliament and mass protests throughout society.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the deputy prime minister and main leader of the government, has met this wave of determined protest against the anti-abortion decree with nationalist calls to rally his fascist base. He preaches that the protesters are out to “destroy Poland and end the history of the Polish nation” and denounces those politicians who have dared to support the protesters as “criminals.” Meanwhile, other branches of the government are enforcing his clampdown. The Justice Ministry has ordered prosecutors around the country to target organizers of the “illegal gatherings,” and the education and science minister has threatened to cut funding for universities that have supported the protests, including by canceling classes.
Right-wing nationalist gangs have answered Kaczynski’s call, forming a “national guard” to attack the protesters under the guise of defending the churches with pepper spray and physical assaults. Gangs of “soccer hooligans” have also been unleashed to attack the protesters.
None of this has dampened the spirit and determination of the protesters who are continuing to carry out mass, sustained, nonviolent protest. The marches on Wednesday, October 28 were estimated at 430,000 people in 400 rallies around the country, and Friday, October 30 saw many 10s of thousands flooding the streets of Warsaw.
The decree from the Constitutional Tribunal cannot be appealed and is said to be irreversible. But the masses of women throughout Poland are refusing to accept what is unacceptable, refusing to live in a society that would foreclose on their ability to make basic decisions about their own bodies, lives, and futures. One woman was quoted in the New York Times saying, “I feel a lot of hatred toward the church.” Another woman said, “I’m terrified and this is the main reason I’m here. I don’t want to see my country in such a condition.”
In the face of this continuing and so far irrepressible upsurge from below, the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, who is not the primary leader of the country, has reportedly broken ranks and is suggesting some form of compromise. It’s not clear at this point how things will unfold.
People in this country and around the world should stand firmly in support of these courageous protesters. And everywhere that people are facing the rise and consolidation of fascism and theocracy—including right here in this country—should take inspiration from their brave and determined stand.
Brave women of Poland, out on the streets, protesting against the new extreme abortion ban... so many women all around the world are supporting you... with solidarity, sisterhood. Let women choose! #StrajkKobiet pic.twitter.com/KwR2djGrVR
— Elif Shafak (@Elif_Safak) October 24, 2020
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/670/bob-avakian-kanye-west-ice-cube-en.html
| revcom.us
Apparently Kanye West is mentally ill—and, if so, somebody should get him some help—but there is a “method” (or at least an effect) to his “madness” politically. Only a fool would be fooled by what he is doing. All his talk about being done with Trump is bullshit, or beside the point—what he is doing by “running for president” is helping Trump! If he were to take just enough votes away from the Democratic Party candidate, Biden, particularly in key “battleground” states, that could help Trump win those states and maybe win the Electoral College vote again.
A vote for Kanye West is not a vote for Kanye West. A vote for Kanye West is a vote for the racist-in-chief Donald Trump. Anyone who falls for this is being played for a chump!
Now comes Ice Cube, who is dealing with Trump because Trump has made promises about working with Ice Cube’s so-called “Contract With Black America.” Never mind that Trump is a blatant white supremacist—he is apparently alright with the hustler bourgeois Ice Cube, who rose to fame as part of NWA, with its powerful and wildly popular anthem “Fuck Tha Police,” and now turns around and tries to “make a deal” with the pig-loving Trump, who says police should be even more brutal. Ice Cube tries to give himself “cover” by talking about how all the politicians, both Democrat and Republican, have been bad for Black people—so, according to Ice Cube, it’s fine to work with the genocidal racist Trump, who openly promotes white supremacy and brays about “law and order,” fully backing the police in their murderous terror against Black people.1
And, besides Black people, what about all the other people, in this country and in the world as a whole, whose suffering is being made far worse, and whose future is being rapidly destroyed, by what Trump and his fascist regime are doing? Ice Cube doesn’t care about that either.
Nothing good, and only something terrible—for Black people, for all oppressed people everywhere, and for humanity as a whole—will ever come from working with and helping Trump.
As I have said before: Only someone worse than a fool would want that racist Confederacy-loving white supremacist, pussy-grabbing misogynistic male supremacist, LGBT-bashing, rights-trampling, science-denying, environment-destroying, war-mongering, xenophobic “America first” bloodsucking fascist motherfucker Trump to get re-elected.
1. Donald Trump—GENOCIDAL RACIST, by Bob Avakian, is available—as a series of articles, and to download as a pamphlet—at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/670/bob-avakian-biden-a-doorknob-and-going-through-the-door-en.html
| revcom.us
It is crucial that there be a massive vote against Trump—which means voting for Biden. Now, a lot of people don’t like Biden, or don’t have any enthusiasm for Biden. That is certainly understandable. But it misses the main point: Voting for Biden is the only realistic way to vote against Trump. I have joked with people that, if a doorknob could defeat Trump in the upcoming election, voting for that doorknob would be better than voting for Biden, since the doorknob wouldn’t have all the negative things about it that Biden does. But the fact is that, in terms of the election itself, only voting for Biden, and not a doorknob, provides the means for handing Trump a decisive electoral defeat.
This is a way of emphasizing the important point I made in my August 1 Statement:
To approach this election from the standpoint of which candidate is “better” means failing to understand the truly profound stakes and potential consequences of what is involved. The fact is that there can be one—and only one—“good” that can come out of this election: delivering a decisive defeat to Trump and the whole fascist regime. Doing this would create far better conditions for continuing to wage the struggle against everything represented by the Trump/Pence regime and all the oppression and injustices of this system, and would be a great gift to the people of the world.1
As a fundamental point of orientation, we need to quit looking to any of these politicians to end injustice, oppression, and the destruction of the environment. Oppression and exploitation, and the destruction of the environment—all this is built into this system of capitalism-imperialism that all these politicians represent. Let me say it again: In regard to this election, the only “positive” that can come out of this is preventing the further consolidation of the white supremacist, male supremacist, immigrant-hating, LGBT-hating, science-defying, climate-wrecking, nuclear annihilation-threatening, future-destroying fascist Trump/Pence regime.
And that is a very important positive—it is, really, a matter of life and death.
At the same time, I have repeatedly emphasized that, given the fact that Trump is already stealing the election, through an ongoing rolling coup, simply relying on voting is very likely to lead to disaster. And this is why, while a massive vote for Biden is important, it is crucial that growing numbers of people—in the thousands now, and building to become millions—take to the streets around the country, and stay in the streets, day after day, taking up the call from RefuseFascism.org that the Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!2
And, having prevented the catastrophe that would result from this regime remaining in power, we can carry forward the struggle to build for something very positive—revolution—to put an end to this system and bring a much better system into being.
1. Statement by Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution (emphasis in the original). This Statement is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. In addition to his August 1 Statement, this point (on Trump’s ongoing moves to steal the election, and the need for mass mobilization demanding Trump/Pence OUT NOW!) is emphasized in a number of other works by Bob Avakian, including the important three-part series titled Voting Will Not Be Enough—We Need To Take To The Streets, And Stay In The Streets Demanding Trump/Pence Out Now! (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) which is also available at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Copyright © 2019 by Bob Avakian. All rights reserved.
EXCERPT—ON SOCIAL FORCES:
SEMI-PROLETARIANIZATION, PETIT BOURGEOISIFICATION, AND LUMPEN BOURGEOISIFICATION
Editors' Note: Given what seems to be a definitely negative trend among some Black people, especially younger Black men, of attraction to Trump, the following excerpt from Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, a Basic Summary, is very relevant as a context and scientific understanding of these trends. Bob Avakian has recently written a number of timely polemics against these trends, including KANYE WEST, ICE CUBE—FOOLS, AND WORSE THAN FOOLS, CANDACE OWENS: SHAMELESS HYPOCRITE—SUPPORTER OF WHITE SUPREMACIST FASCISM, etc.
When referring to the quote from Marx’s Grundrisse below, Avakian is referring to the following:
In... speaking to the social mobility that is often raised as one of the great features of capitalist society, Marx, in another major work of his, the Grundrisse, pointed out that individuals may change their social and class position within a society like this, but the masses of people can only escape from oppressive production and social relations by revolutionary means—by overthrowing and abolishing the system that is founded on and embodies those relations.
Editors' Note: Given what seems to be a definitely negative trend among some Black people, especially younger Black men, of attraction to Trump, the following excerpt from Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, a Basic Summary, is very relevant as a context and scientific understanding of these trends. Bob Avakian has recently written a number of timely polemics against these trends, including KANYE WEST, ICE CUBE—FOOLS, AND WORSE THAN FOOLS, CANDACE OWENS: SHAMELESS HYPOCRITE—SUPPORTER OF WHITE SUPREMACIST FASCISM, etc.
When referring to the quote from Marx’s Grundrisse below, Avakian is referring to the following:
In... speaking to the social mobility that is often raised as one of the great features of capitalist society, Marx, in another major work of his, the Grundrisse, pointed out that individuals may change their social and class position within a society like this, but the masses of people can only escape from oppressive production and social relations by revolutionary means—by overthrowing and abolishing the system that is founded on and embodies those relations.
So, what are the backbone, or potential backbone, forces for revolution, particularly in a country like the U.S.? Well, they are the impoverished and bitterly oppressed and repressed masses who do exist in their tens of millions in this country; and this interpenetrates to a great degree with people among the oppressed nationalities, although it is not limited to that. We do have to recognize, at the same time, that there is a phenomenon among many of these masses of what could be called “deproletarianization”—people who were themselves formerly exploited as wage‑workers (or the previous generations of whom were exploited in this way) but who now can’t even find themselves in that position (can’t find a job, to put it simply). This has been accompanied by a lot of what could be called “petit‑bourgeoisification,” as well as “lumpen‑bourgeoisification,” among sections of the oppressed masses—people who get into small‑scale activity, which is essentially petit bourgeois in the sense that it involves small scale ownership and trading, and things like that, and people who are into the life of crime, including those who rise to fairly powerful and wealthy positions within that, even though their situation is often and generally very precarious.
There are these phenomena, and there is the phenomenon that in the realm of culture, for example, a certain, relatively small but influential, section of people has managed to rise from within these masses to basically a bourgeois position. The reason I refer to “lumpen‑bourgeoisification” is that this includes people who have not only utilized the realm of culture but also in some cases the realm of crime to wrench out a position in which they become quite wealthy, and then they invest in lines of cosmetics and clothes, and so on—they become real bourgeois, even as many of them are part of an oppressed nation or people. And they have the corresponding outlook to a very significant degree. I won’t even talk right now about Kanye West! But, more generally, there’s the phenomenon where you are witnessing a profound silence on the part of many of these cultural figures and others on some of the burning issues for the masses today. Some may tweet about different things, but they don’t step out and take a strong stand in response—as a phenomenon there are many who do not step out and take a strong stand around glaring acts of oppression and injustice against the masses of people. And that’s because their position has changed. Not only is there a fairly significant “petit‑bourgeoisification” among oppressed masses but there is also the “lumpen‑bourgeoisification” that I referred to—and there is a culture which mirrors the extremely individualistic and acquisitive character of the dominant culture as a whole.
There is the phenomenon of what could be called “Reaganism among the masses of people,” the whole “ethos” that came in with Reagan in the 1980s, this extreme individualism—and not just individualism in the abstract, but one that is posed in terms of antagonism toward everybody else: “You can’t trust anybody else; nobody else cares about you; you gotta get over on other people before they get over on you.” To a significant degree, this has become a model for the masses, even though (once again going back to Marx’s statement in the Grundrisse) in their masses they are totally incapable of following this path, only a few can do that. In fact, there are millions of talented people in sports, in the arts, and so on, but only a tiny number of them can ever rise to a position of wealth and prominence. Nevertheless, this is held up as a model. Not only is this held up as a way out for people, it is more generally upheld as a model for people to follow and a way that people should think and conduct themselves. This does pose a real problem—and, more than that, it is an acute expression of a much larger problem in terms of the prevailing culture that has to be struggled against. People’s thinking in this regard has to be radically transformed.
At the same time, with all this, there is the poverty and immiseration, and the relentless injustice and oppression, to which masses of people are continually subjected and which, to go back once again to Marx in the Grundrisse, they have no way out of other than by overthrowing the system. Even short of revolution, all this to which they are continually subjected causes people to rise up against the system and its outrages, and provides a powerful part of the objective basis for masses, particularly (though not only) those who catch the worst hell under this system, to be won to, and to play a decisive role in, the revolution that is required to meet what are in fact their fundamental needs and interests. But this will require a tremendous amount of ideological struggle, transforming the thinking of masses of people, while uniting with them in fighting the oppressive powers‑that‑be, winning them to become, not people out for revenge and out for themselves, but emancipators of humanity, and in this way to act as backbone forces for the proletarian‑communist revolution.
As I indicated, this is closely intertwined with the fight to abolish the oppression of Black people and other oppressed nationalities within the U.S. and the whole question of the relation between national liberation and proletarian revolution, particularly in a country like the U.S., which is spoken to in THE NEW COMMUNISM and is addressed, concretely and in an overall strategic sense, in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.41
At the same time as there are these basic forces for revolution, suffering in this way, who have to be won to this revolution through a tremendous amount of struggle, in which transforming their thinking is pivotal, there is a need for a broader united front, with the leadership of the proletariat—not in the reified sense of individual proletarians representing the essence of this leadership, but in the sense of what are the fundamental interests of the proletariat as a class and, going back to Marx, the fact that the proletariat can only emancipate itself by emancipating all humanity, by eliminating oppression and exploitation throughout the world with the achievement of communism. Being based on that understanding, and proceeding in that way, is what is meant by the leadership of the proletariat. And what is in the fundamental interests of the proletariat, and required for the revolution to realize those fundamental interests, is bringing into the revolutionary process as many forces as possible from the broader ranks of society, and continually struggling to win people to the revolutionary communist position. It is a matter of bringing forward those who catch the worst hell under this system, but also—and fundamentally by bringing them forward—working at the same time to bring forward all different strata of the people, including in particular youth and students, who constitute a crucial force that has an important role in this revolutionary process.
This requires a scientific, dialectical materialist approach to the situation and spontaneous sentiments and inclinations not only of the basic masses who can and must be brought forward as the backbone and driving force of this revolutionary process, but also of the middle class in this country, and the different strata within this middle class, whose situation is significantly different than it was 50, or even 20, years ago. It requires a living and constantly deepening understanding of the material position and outlook—the conditions of life and spontaneous thinking—of these different sections of the people and how to carry out the necessary struggle to bring about a profound change in the outlook and values of large and growing numbers of them, winning them to active and increasingly conscious involvement in the revolutionary process whose final aim is the abolition of all relations of exploitation and oppression, all antagonistic relations among human beings everywhere, and all the agony and anguish that is bound up with those relations.
41. Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). Authored by Bob Avakian, and adopted by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, 2010 (RCP Publications, 2010). Also available at revcom.us and thebobavakianinstitute.org. [back]
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/671/ice-cubes-dangerous-bullshit-en.html
| revcom.us
Nothing good, and only something terrible—for Black people, for all oppressed people everywhere, and for humanity as a whole—will ever come from working with and helping Trump.
—Bob Avakian, “Kanye West, Ice Cube—Fools,
and Worse Than Fools”
In late August, let's-make-a-deal rapper/actor/entre-manure Ice Cube unveiled his Contract With Black America. This 22-page proposal purports to address, and provide the road map to meet, the needs of the Black community. It got a friendly reception from the Trump camp, so friendly that they sought out Ice Cube's “advice” for the fascist regime's bullshit proposal (the “Platinum Plan”) to invest $500 billion in the Black community.
I was provoked to study the Contract With Black America after having read Bob Avakian's article on Kanye West and Ice Cube (cited above). The Contract is a thicket of proposals. Some of its demands are just and righteous, especially around the criminal justice system, voting rights, and educational curriculum. But all of this is within the framework of a larger program and outlook that reinforces beliefs and illusions in this exploitative and oppressive system—beliefs and illusions that in turn strengthen the hold of this system over the masses of Black people. As it stands now, Ice Cube has maintained his openness and willingness “to work” with Trump. We'll see how this develops.
With this in mind, let's examine core tenets of the Contract With Black America.
1) Absurd and delusional propositions about what this capitalist-imperialist economy can somehow do for Black people. In its section on bank lending and finance reform, the Contract With Black America calls for the Federal Reserve Bank to “adopt a view...of maximizing employment, housing, and educational opportunities, as well as improving quality of living for Black and poor people.”
Well, you can call on pigeons to “adopt a view” to stop shitting on sidewalks...but biology doesn't work that way. This economic system of capitalism-imperialism operates on the basis of the competitive struggle of capitalists for profit and more profit—profit derived from exploitation. This is NOT an economy that functions according to meeting great social needs. Why do luxury condominiums get built instead of decent, affordable housing for the poor? Because profit rules. Why do Black and Latino communities lack adequate health-care resources? Because that is not a priority of a system divided into have's and have-not's, and that subjects people of color to special forms of oppression.
But now, somehow, with a wave of a “contract” wand, Ice Cube is going to woo the 500 largest financial and industrial corporations that dominate economic life, and the Federal Reserve Bank that works to safeguard and lubricate the workings of this economic system based on to profit, to “do right” by Black people. To “maximize” meeting the needs of Black people? It is a cruel joke.
2) Dripping with toxic imperialist-chauvinism. The Contract With Black America exalts the genocidal U.S. military. In its section on judicial and policy reform, it celebrates the Black population's “contribution to our national defense,” and calls for 5 percent of the Defense Department budget to go towards “beautification, education, and youth programs in predominantly Black neighborhoods.” This measure, the authors of the Contract advise the ruling class, will “build goodwill towards the country resulting in greater patriotism, more successful recruitment efforts, and a generally more enthusiastic military population.” Yes, just what world humanity needs: gung-ho Black soldiers “enthusiastic” for imperial slaughter and conquest.
3) Disciplining and controlling the Black population...“take responsibility” and stop blaming the system. In the section on “police reform,” the Contract issues the tired and bankrupt call for “community policing”—tired and bankrupt because, like police review boards and body-cams, these measures have done nothing to stop police terror and murder. Worse than bankrupt, because community policing is a cover for “we'll be able to better keep down the oppressed.” It's a “two-sided” contract, the authors promise the rulers; and from “our” side, when bogus reforms are put in place, “all Americans guilty of a crime [no questions asked] and apprehended agree not to unreasonably resist arrest.”
And in this same section on “Black Americans Responsibility,” the Contract declares: as “we gain social and economic equality, we must begin to dissolve any bitterness in our hearts for past wrongs...” and “step up after we pass the Contract with no more excuse left in the kiddie.” Let bygones be bygones.
This is a program of accommodation with and enforcement of oppression. As Trump erects a fascist police state, complete with armed militias that murder anti-racist protesters in Kenosha and paramilitary federal troops that terrorize and arbitrarily arrest--and gives the “law and order” green light to pigs in the Black community.
4) The insidious myth of Black economic empowerment. Donald Trump, like Richard Nixon in the late 1960s, combines murderous white supremacy with proposals for Black capitalism and Black community empowerment. It has been a ruse to accomplish three things: a) cut government social spending to supposedly “let the private sector take the ball;” b) open up some investment opportunities—like so-called “empowerment” and “opportunity” zones—that do little to change the conditions of life of the basic people; and c) build up a stratum of collaborationist Black entrepreneurs and investors. (Don't forget how government-backed lending programs enabled banks in the early 2000s to profit from sub-prime mortgages in poor and Black communities that ultimately devastated communities.)
These proposals do nothing—have done nothing—to transform deeply entrenched segregation in housing and education, and discrimination in the larger economy. But, always, with the honeyed promises of community economic development come the marauding police and mass incarceration.
A basic and revealing fact: when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, Black people owned .5 percent of the wealth of the country; today it has barely changed, at less than 2 percent! A basic and revealing fact: over the last 50 years, the Black unemployment rate has been twice that of white workers. But zombie-like come the “bold” and “new” calls to “increase access to capital” in Black communities, with the promise that this will solve poverty and inequality. In the late 60s, when Nixon was president, this was part of a deliberate strategy to defuse and suppress the Black liberation struggle. And, now, in the wake of the beautiful uprising this spring-summer against systemic racism and police murder of Black people, Ice Cube is the high-profile messenger of a dead-end program—all the better to eat you with...
5) Because this illusion of Black economic empowerment goes hand in hand with Donald Trump's genocidal racism. Bob Avakian has written incisively and urgently on what Trump actually believes and is prepared to carry out in relation to Black people (see Donald Trump—GENOCIDAL RACIST). Read this series, if you don't believe that Donald Trump would do something as extreme as kill off large numbers of Black people and others of color whom he has demonized and criminalized.
In another article, “Racial Oppression Can Be Ended—But Not Under This System,” Avakian analyzes deep structural changes that underlie the possibility of such a genocidal program. He looks at how developments in the world imperialist system and changes in the U.S. economy, in particular the intensified globalization of production, have
together with increased automation and “cybernation” of production, when combined with the ongoing segregation and discrimination built into this system, has led to a situation where huge numbers of Black people, and especially youth, have, for generations now, not only been unemployed but are left with no prospect of meaningful employment in the regular (“formal”) economy.
In other words, a huge segment of the Black population becomes a “surplus” population—that is, expendable from the standpoint of profit-making production. For decades, police terror and murder and the warehousing through mass incarceration of huge swaths of the Black population have constituted a kind of “slow genocide” of Black people. Under current conditions, given Donald Trump's white supremacist ideology and personality, this slow genocide could become a “fast genocide.”
The enormity of economic and social suffering that Black people experience...the discrimination and inequality...unrelenting, racist police violence—all this is all born of a system, capitalism-imperialism, that has NO solution to these horrors. That is no excuse or rationale for the likes of Ice Cube to wheel and deal with Trump and his fascist regime. No more an excuse or rationale than for the Jewish “leaders” who served on the Judenrat, the Jewish councils that propagated and implemented Nazi polices in Poland and eastern Europe during World War 2...and ultimately collaborating with genocide.
Ice Cube released the Contract With Black America with a video entitled “What's In It For Us?” For the Cube, maybe a few crumbs and more. For the masses, unspeakable horror if Trump secures four more years.
Trump: we need a "final solution" for Black people and everybody who's not a white, english speaking, christian american.
— The Revcoms (@therevcoms) October 19, 2020
Ice Cube: I'll work with anyone who wants solutions.https://t.co/m6IroUzJbi pic.twitter.com/tqBaWDHRfy
Follow: @TheRevcoms
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Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/more-on-ice-cube-and-the-mirage-of-black-economic-empowerment-en.html
| revcom.us
In my article Ice Cube’s Dangerous Bullshit, Or... The Myth of Black Economic Empowerment and The Reality of Trump’s Genocidal Racism, I cite the statistic that when the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, Black people owned 0.5 percent of the wealth of the country, and that today, more than 150 years later, the share has barely changed, at less than 2 percent.
When encountering this telling and revealing fact, some people ask: Why then couldn’t a massive infusion of investment capital into the Black community, like Ice Cube’s Contract with Black America advocates and Trump’s so-called “Platinum Plan” promises, turn this situation around?
The short answer is this: a) the kind of investment Ice Cube calls for is not going to happen on that scale; and b) even to the degree that there would be some increased capital investment, it would not, and could not, lead to overcoming the oppressive—and, for masses of people, desperate—conditions they are subjected to under this capitalist-imperialist system. What follows goes deeper into this.
1) Major changes in the world and U.S. economy over the last 50 years have profoundly affected how Black people are “inserted” into the economic structure and relations of U.S. society. The capitalist quest for the highest possible profit, driven by competition, and the increasing ability of capitalists to invest all over the globe—has led to the disappearance of many industrial jobs in the inner cities of U.S. These manufacturing jobs had been a source of some steady employment for Black workers. But factories have been relocated to suburbs... and much more massively to other parts of the world, especially countries of the “global south,” or the Third World.
The reality of capital investment is exploitation for profit. Capitalists compete with each other for profit and market share. Auto companies, technology leaders like Apple, search out the highest possible profit and invest in efficient/cost-effective ways to make profit. And profit is ultimately based on exploiting wage laborers: those who must, in order to survive and enable their families to survive, sell their capacity to work to capitalist employers... when work is available. This is a global system of exploitation: spanning parts-supply plants in Mexico, garment sweatshops in China and Bangladesh, or in mines in which children work in Congo.
Globalization and automation have contributed to a situation where Black people suffer chronically high rates of unemployment. Where many young Blacks, especially those swept into the horrific vortex of mass incarceration, become “disconnected” from the formal economy of wage work... and are in and out of, or permanently deprived of work. Where many young Blacks have to hustle in “criminalized forms of work” in order to get by.
2) As capitalism-imperialism has grown more highly globalized, the U.S. has also become a more “post-industrial” economy. Major U.S. cities, where large numbers of Black people live, have seen a tremendous rise of investment in real estate; in financial services; in office parks; in high-end medical-educational complexes; affluent “consumer spaces”; and profit-driven gentrification.
It is into these sectors that capital flows: drawn by the magnetic pull of where profits are greatest and by the strategic needs of the U.S. empire to have its financial command and control centers in cities like NYC, LA, and Chicago.
Now Ice Cube comes along and calls for the massive investment of capital in the Black community. But here’s the rub: big capital doesn’t get a “competitive edge” by investing in decent housing and health care in the inner city—or in improving the conditions of life for the broad masses of people. This is not a system that deliberates at the start of the year, “OK, how can we create more good-paying, meaningful jobs for Black people?”
The brute reality is... from the standpoint of profit-making capital, large sections of the Black population are now a “surplus population,” especially among the young and less educated. They are no longer needed. Certainly not because great social needs have been met, or because skills and talents don’t exist... but because they are no longer profitably exploitable.
3) Over and over, when Republican and Democratic administrations alike have set out to create “enterprise” or “opportunity zones” in Black communities... when the government has offered tax breaks, “development incentives,” and subsidies to steer capital into deteriorating Black communities... the results have been predictably and painfully the same.
A few have benefited—while the fundamental conditions of life for the basic people remain impoverishment and punitive control.
These government programs and government-backed private investments have not put an end to segregation and redlining... or to child poverty... or to double-digit unemployment for young workers... or to mass evictions and mass incarceration. Nor could they...
*To bring about those kinds of changes would require a complete and total reordering of priorities and a radical and massive reallocation of resources that conflict with the “profit-driven” logic of capital.
*To bring about these kinds of changes would require the complete and total transformation of the social institutions of America as they have evolved and as capitalist-imperialist America functions as a white supremacist, class-divided society in which production for profit rules. A social structure that locks Black people into savage inequality.
In short, to change these oppressive conditions, requires changing everything... making the revolution to overthrow this system and bring about a society and world in which exploitation and oppression are no more.
As Bob Avakian says in Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, A Basic Summary:
In... speaking to the social mobility that is often raised as one of the great features of capitalist society, Marx, in another major work of his, the Grundrisse, pointed out that individuals may change their social and class position within a society like this, but the masses of people can only escape from oppressive production and social relations by revolutionary means—by overthrowing and abolishing the system that is founded on and embodies those relations.
One last note on Black businesses. Black entrepreneurs might see a potentially lucrative “market” with a more “loyal” customer base in the Black community. But these Black capitalists do not command the resources for large-scale investments. And as capitalists, they must compete with, and many have no chance in surviving the competitive battle with, the dominating likes of Walmart and Amazon—with their extended global supply lines based on savage exploitation the world over.
So these are essential reasons why “Black economic empowerment” is a mirage. And why the Contract with Black America is yet another in the litany of false promises and recycled deceptions.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
On Friday, October 30, a “Biden bus” travelling in Texas from San Antonio to Austin was harassed and threatened by a large number of fascists. A long line of vehicles flying Trump and pro-police flags lay in wait, then swarmed the bus as it drove north. In some images of the incident, the Biden bus appears to be completely boxed in by vehicles with Trump regalia. Rafael Anchía, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, tweeted, “Armed Trump trolls harassing Biden Bus on I-35, ramming volunteer vehicles & blocking traffic for 40 mins.” Democratic Party officials cancelled a Friday campaign event in Pflugerville, an Austin suburb.
At a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, Trump enthused about the attack on the Biden bus, “Did anybody see the picture of that crazy bus driving down the highway, they’re surrounded by like, hundreds of cars? They’re all Trump flags all over the place.” Then he tweeted, “I LOVE TEXAS.”
The bus, part of the Biden/Harris campaign’s “Battle for the Soul of the Nation” tour, contained prominent Texas Democrats. They included the mayor of Austin and Wendy Davis, whose bold filibuster in the Texas Capitol in 2013 temporarily blocked a bill attacking abortion rights—an action that galvanized the state and earned her the hatred of Christian fascists.
Fascist attacks on Biden/Harris supporters are getting increasingly aggressive as the election nears. Just in Texas, just this past week:
Dr. Eric Cervini, a historian of LGBTQ+ politics and culture, was at the scene when the bus travelling to Austin was attacked. In a series of tweets, he wrote: “These Trump supporters ... outnumbered police 50-1, and they ended up hitting a staffer’s car.... The police refused to help. When I flagged down one officer, he said his hands were tied: ‘not my jurisdiction.’... as a historian who studied the rise of the Third Reich, I can tell you: this is how a democracy dies. While Germany still had elections and Hitler was merely a disgraced politician, his militia of Brownshirts interrupted his opponents’ political meetings and incited violence. You know what happened next.”
Violent fascist attacks to steal the vote and suppress Black and Latinx voters are likely to intensify and become more aggressive up to and beyond election day, as these Nazis move to advance their rolling fascist coup. People must vote against Trump, in massive numbers. And anyone who opposes a fascist takeover of this country, and all that will mean for humanity and the planet, must actively oppose these thuggish attempts at intimidation, in massive numbers, in nonviolent protests, to confront and defeat the assaults of these Nazis.
Sources:
Trump Train swarms Biden bus on 1-35, and Trump is delighted, Statesman, October 31, 2020
Trump Cheers on MAGA Caravan That Ambushed Biden Bus, Buzzfeed, October 31, 2020
Democrats Cancel Rallies after Trump Train Swarms Biden Bus, Sparking Safety Fears, My Canyon Lake, October 31, 2020
Biden event in Texas cancelled as ‘armed’ Trump supporters threaten campaign bus, The Independent, October 31, 2020
A film of the scene from Dr. Eric Cervini:
These tactics have no place in Texas, my home state, and no place in America.
— Dr. Eric Cervini (@ericcervini) October 31, 2020
Please vote. Please volunteer this weekend. The future of our democracy is at stake. pic.twitter.com/G0O4yg2vnJ
Follow: @TheRevcoms
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Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
Editors’ Note: The following account is yet another instance of egregious voter suppression and intimidation, especially of Black and Latino people. This is a crucial part of Trump’s stealing the election and threatening violence, and has to be defied through all appropriate nonviolent means, contributing to and as part of driving out this fascist regime from power.
Early Saturday afternoon, a multi-racial group of about 200 people set out from Wayman’s Chapel AME Church in Graham, North Carolina,1 on the “I Am Change” march. Led by Rev. Gregory Drumwright (a social justice activist from nearby Greensboro), and with a number of small children as well as several Democratic politicians participating, their aim was to encourage voting and to condemn police murder. Their plan was to have a courthouse rally at which the niece of George Floyd, whose murder by Minneapolis police in May sparked a nationwide rising, would speak. Then they planned to proceed to the Graham polling station so people could vote.
But that plan was derailed by Graham police and Alamance sheriff’s deputies (some dressed in camo and carrying what appeared to be semiautomatic rifles). These armed thugs twice attacked the entirely peaceful march. As Drumwright explained later: “We never got to the polls because the sheriff’s office worked overtime to find a way to quell our efforts and suppress our voices.”
When the march got to the Confederate Monument at Courthouse Square, marchers held a silent vigil for George Floyd and other victims of police murder—for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the length of time the murdering cop kept his knee on Floyd’s neck. The police later issued a statement outrageously claiming that this made the march “unsafe and unlawful.” The cops ordered the people out of the street, and quickly attacked with pepper spray. The crowd remained peaceful, regrouped, and continued to the courthouse—site of the planned rally—but cops declared that an “illegal assembly,” ordered people to disperse, and again attacked.
The Raleigh News and Observer reported that two sisters, aged 5 and 11, were both sickened by pepper spray and vomited. Their mom said, “My 11-year-old was terrified. She doesn’t want to come down to Graham anymore.” Veronica Holman’s 3-year-old grandnephew also threw up from the spray—Holman said that “They didn’t warn us or anything. We were just sitting on a wall.” A woman in a wheelchair was also affected.
Police arrested at least 12 people, including the organizer of the march, several other local activists, the campaign manager of a local politician, and a photographer for the Alamance News, who was videoed having his arm painfully twisted and yanked over his head. The arrested people were only released on condition that they agree not to return to Graham for 72 hours—in other words, until after the elections!
A poll worker told CNN later that “We thought there would be tons of people coming in after this event. We had extra people come on hand because the idea of this was that this gathering would end at the polls, but they broke it up over there at the courthouse before they ever got here.” Rev. Drumwright said, “There are people that did not vote today because the police released tear gas and pepper spray.”
Faith Cook, one of the few marchers who made it to the polls, said, “I’ve never experienced anything like that.… I think it was their intention, from the moment this march was announced, that we don’t get to the polls in numbers.”
After being released from jail, Rev. Drumwright issued a statement saying the attack “only emboldened us.”
1. Graham is a town of about 15,000, around 70 percent white, about 50 miles from Durham. [back]
Police in Graham North Carolina tackled a black child and arrested him during a peaceful March to the Polls after pepper spraying the crowd.
— Jamie Carter - I Voted Early (@JCTheResistance) October 31, 2020
WTF is going on? #BlackLivesMatterpic.twitter.com/4ysLrDH9uV
ANOTHER ANGLE: In Graham, NC, police pepper-spray voters headed to cast their ballots, sending one woman into a seizure. pic.twitter.com/Iwiwtc3E72
— Anoncat ☭☂️🏴 ➐ (@anoncatanoncat) October 31, 2020
Follow: @TheRevcoms
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Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/scotus-ruling-groundwork-for-potential-election-theft-en.html
| revcom.us
On October 25 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against extending Wisconsin’s deadline for absentee ballots. Wisconsin Democrats had argued that the deadline for counting the ballots should be extended by six days, because of a flood of absentee ballots and other challenges posed by the coronavirus. A lower court had ruled in favor of the extension, but with a week to go before November 3, the Supreme Court ended it.
Wisconsin is a key “battleground” state. The Wisconsin Elections Commission reported on October 28 that more than 287,000 potential voters had not yet returned their ballots, and that about 40,000 of those were from Milwaukee, a Democratic Party stronghold. In a primary vote in April, a federal judge allowed late-arriving ballots to be counted, which added 79,054 votes – a total that is about three times the amount Trump won the state by in 2016. Frontline reported that Kenneth R. Mayer, a politics professor at the University of Wisconsin, “said it is not a matter of whether the court decision could disenfranchise voters, but how many, adding that the number could easily be in the thousands.”
Even more ominous and far-reaching was an opinion in this case by Brett Kavanaugh, a Christian fascist appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump. Kavanaugh wrote that election day mail-in deadlines are set “to avoid the chaos and suspicions of impropriety that can ensue if thousands of absentee ballots flow in after Election Day and potentially flip the results of an election.” First of all, counting all the ballots doesn’t “flip the results,” it gives the actual result. And in the conditions of a raging pandemic, and well-documented delays in mail delivery, some, even many, ballots mailed on time arriving at their destination after November 3 is inevitable.
But Kavanaugh’s justification for his ruling is completely in sync with Trump’s barrage of lies that vote-by-mail is illegitimate and that all the votes must be counted by November 3. On the same day of the Supreme Court decision, Trump tweeted: “Big problems and discrepancies with Mail In Ballots all over the USA. Must have final total on November 3rd.” The next day he told reporters, “It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on November third, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate and I don’t believe that that’s by our laws.”
In reality, the voting is never completely counted by the end of election day, and it’s not against the law. Already, about 46 million ballots have been cast, and it could take days or even weeks to tally them all.
But for Trump and his fascist regime, the law is what they say it is. And he’s loaded the Supreme Court with an additional three Christian fascists who completely agree with that and give the Court a fascist majority. Any attempts by Trump and the Republi-fascists to derail a full vote count in any way is utterly illegitimate and must be rejected with mass outpourings of determined and sustained nonviolent protest, in cities and towns across the country – contributing to and as part of driving out this regime.
Sources:
U.S. Supreme Court Decision Could Disenfranchise Wisconsin Voters, Frontline, October 29, 2020
Supreme Court Won’t Extend Wisconsin’s Deadline for Mailed Ballots, New York Times, October 26, 2020
The radical implications of the Supreme Court’s new ruling on Wisconsin mail-in ballots, Vox, October 26, 2020
Kavanaugh’s Opinion in Wisconsin Voting Case Raises Alarms Among Democrats, New York Times, October 29, 2020
Absentee Ballot Report - November 3, 2020 General Election, Wisconsin Elections Commission, October 28, 2020
Trump questions counting late ballots as Biden preaches unity in Georgia, Reuters, October 27, 2020
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/668/five-ways-the-trump-pence-fascists-are-already-stealing-the-election-en.html
| revcom.us
Many people have been talking about Trump’s threats to steal the election and then violently enforce that theft. Some now say that we should prepare to go into the street after Trump and the Republi-fascists make good on those threats to try to steal the election.
But there’s a problem with that plan: the fascists already ARE stealing the elections and threatening violence to enforce it.
Here are just five of many steps they have taken or are taking:
1 Suppressing the votes of Black and Latino people: Trump and the Republi-fascists are sending—in their own words—an “army” of 50,000 poll watchers (for which they are recruiting ex-military and ex-law enforcement) into Black and Latino neighborhoods to threaten and intimidate voters. On top of that, at the debate Trump told “his” voters to themselves “question” (that is, intimidate) people at the polls.1
2 Attacking mail-in ballots: Mail-in ballots are an important way that people can vote safely without risking the deadly COVID-19 virus. Yet Trump has launched a lying and dangerous attack on mail-in ballots as fraudulent. He is undermining the post office, so that the ballots can’t be received or counted in time. And the Republi-fascists have closed ballot drop-off stations in the cities of states they control, where many votes for Biden will come from.2
3 Preparing an army of lawyers to contest the election in states that go for Biden: The fascists want to tie things up to muddy the waters, create confusion, and allow Trump to use the Supreme Court or other non-electoral means to throw the contest his way—which Trump has admitted to be part of his plan!3
4 Preparing violent fascist mobs to go into the streets: In the presidential debate Trump repeatedly refused to condemn white supremacy and he openly called on the fascist “Proud Boys” to “stand by.” He has also given vocal support to people who have threatened, shot, run over, and even killed peaceful protesters against police murder and white supremacy. Even today these fascists go into the streets and even state legislatures brandishing semi-automatic weapons to threaten and terrorize. They are intimidating people in advance and preparing for what they see as “the real thing”—which for some of them is a one-sided, genocidal “replay” of the Civil War, in which this time the wrong side wins.4
5 Preparing to declare martial law and put into place forces accountable only to him: Trump has taken forces loyal to him in the Department of Homeland Security and especially ICE and Border Patrol—the government agencies charged with controlling, suppressing, arresting and deporting immigrants—and made them into a special force, and sent them to a number of cities. He has said that if people protest his election at all, he will declare it an insurrection and suppress it. He has warned of “special emergency presidential powers” that only he knows about.5
***
These threats and actions on their own are more than serious enough to impeach and drive from office this criminal and his gang. Yet, in the face of Trump and the fascists not only saying that they will do this but beginning to do it, we are told to wait... and wait... and wait. No.
WE NEED TO BE IN THE STREETS—NOW!! We need to answer the call of RefuseFascism.org for massive nonviolent actions in the streets, every single day from here out.
Face it: if you are relying on the normal processes of the election to solve this crisis, you are making a very big gamble, risking the future of humanity itself ... a gamble that will very likely lose. While voting is absolutely necessary, as the revolutionary thinker and leader Bob Avakian has said, “Simply relying on voting to oust this regime will almost certainly lead to very bad, even disastrous results. This is especially true given what this regime is already doing, and what Trump is already saying, in relation to the election.”
Yes, the top Democrats are telling you to wait and see.
But these Democrats are totally relying on the “normal processes” in what are very abnormal times. Will you?
They talk about trying to reach across the aisle and they will try to “live with” Trump if he strong-arms his way in. Can you?
And can any of the people, here and around the planet, who are directly in the sights of these fascists afford that option?
No. We need to be in the streets now, to sound the alarm to the millions and tens of millions who hate what Trump stands for, but don’t yet get the full threat he poses, or have not heard that there is a way to fight this. Remember how the demonstrations after the brutal racist murder of George Floyd commanded the attention of hundreds of millions around the world and, temporarily, changed the whole terms in which hundreds of millions more thought about everything? That is a lesson that we must learn, and apply to the existential crisis humanity now faces.
We need to be in the streets now to build up our organized strength and learn how to work together, and how to resist and neutralize the fascist attacks, not wait until it may be too late.
Most of all we need to be in the streets, in growing numbers reaching the millions, day after day to create the kind of political crisis in society in which sections of the ruling class—those with power in society—decide that they MUST act to maintain their global interests and the stability of their system, and present Trump and Pence with an ultimatum that they either resign or face impeachment and, this time, conviction.
The times, the future, cry out: join now with Refuse Fascism, going day after day and night after night, and not stopping until this regime is fully and finally driven OUT.
(For documentation of the above footnoted points, go to www.revcom.us.)
1. Trump’s “Poll Watchers”: Reviving and Expanding a History of Jim Crow-style Harassment, Intimidation, and Potential Violence Against Voters, revcom.us. [back]
2. The Republi-Fascists’ Multi-Pronged Drive to “Win” the November Elections, revcom.us. [back]
3. The Republi-Fascists’ Multi-Pronged Drive to “Win” the November Elections, revcom.us. [back]
4. Trump Refuses to Denounce White Supremacy, Then Directly Calls Out to His Fascist Thug Followers, in Blatant Moves to Further Pervert and Steal the Election at First Debate, revcom.us.; Who ARE the Proud Boys Trump Told to “Stand By”?, revcom.us. [back]
5. ALERT! Bill Barr is Paving the Way for Fascist Clampdown and Election Theft, revcom.us; “PEADS—Secret Framework for Total Authority” (in Fascist Juggernaut Moves Forward Rapidly and Aggressively), revcom.us; Trump/Pence Regime: Retooling the Governing Apparatus to Enthusiastically Serve Full-out Fascist Rule, revcom.us. [back]
Download (PDF) and distribute everywhere
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/671/statement-initiated-by-faith-task-force-of-refuse-fascism-en.html
Statement Initiated by the Faith Task Force of Refuse Fascism:
| revcom.us
“Suffer the little children to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”
(Matthew 19:14, Bible)
“By the breath of children God sustains the world.”
(Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 119b)
“They are not from us: the ones who do not have mercy upon young children, nor do they respect the elderly”
(Prophet Muhammad, Qur’an)
People of faith, of all religions—and all people of conscience - of such did we see torn from mothers and fathers during the brutal years of slavery in this nation.
Of such did we see in this nation, during the genocidal separation of Native American children torn from their families to deprive them of their language and destroy their culture.
Of such did we see Japanese children and families torn from their homes and isolated in concentration camps across this nation.
Of such did we see when Jewish children and families were torn from their homes to be incinerated in the ovens of the Holocaust during the monstrous Nazi regime of Hitler’s Germany.
Of such do we now see in this nation with immigrant children crying desperately for their parents while locked in cages by the illegitimate, barbaric, Trump-Pence regime that America must expunge for crimes against humanity.
If a nation, a society is judged by the way it treats “the least of these” then how will we, churches, synagogues, mosques, etc., how will we be judged?
***
It is an atrocity that people are being used as pawns to get a wall built;
That children, akin to the era of slavery in America, have been ripped from the arms of their parents; and moreover are being held in detention centers or transported across the country with little hope of ever being reunited with their parents;
That Trump’s executive orders have mandated military concentration camps—indefinite incarceration in military prisons—for immigrants and refugees. Children. Adults. All families.
And to Trump, Pence, Barr, Pompeo, Devos, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the entire White House: Biblical scripture can be used by anyone to justify their twisted beliefs or deviant behaviors. Scripture was used by King George III loyalists. It was used to justify slavery in general and the Fugitive Slave Act specifically. There is little doubt that the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls in Nigeria was similarly justified. It is patently clear that all laws are not just. It is an absolute atrocity that any political figure in twenty first century America could justify the evil evidenced by the irreparable harm being done to thousands of children in these United States of America. And, it is not okay to turn a blind eye and accept lame excuses of “justification” when fathers are shot in the back while their children look on!
We are at a critical moment. There is a rolling coup underway and the Trump/Pence regime is shredding every norm of democratic rule with their destruction of the election. In the hope of justice and peace, it is time for our religious communities, and all others, to join together in solidarity to oppose and stop the growing list of atrocities of the Trump/Pence regime and take immediate, positive action to protect humanity!
Protests Must Continue and Grow! Turn Up The Heat - Stay In The Streets! This Nightmare Must End! The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
Initiated by: Faith Task Force of Refuse Fascism - I Am My Brother’s Keeper - The Trump Pence Regime Must Go! In The Name of Humanity Stop Terrorizing Immigrant Children!
Some of the initial religious-affiliated signatories (affiliations for identification purposes only):
Sara Atkins, Director of Advocacy, Torah Trumps Hate; Rev. Bob Bossie, SCJ, Roman Catholic Priest; Isabel Cardenas, American-Salvadoran Citizen; Bishop Gregg L. Greer, President of Freedom First International; Ernestine Henning, Supervisor (ret.), AME Church; Rabbi Burt Jacobson, Founder, Kehilla Community Synagogue; Russ Jennings, Host, Love in a Dangerous Time; Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, President, Claremont School of Theology; Elly Levy, Immigrant Rights Attorney and Activist; Sara MacDonald, Episcopal Church; Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, Former Pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles; Reverend Drew David Murray, Los Angeles; Rev. Karen Nelson, United Methodist Church, Portland, Oregon; Robert Packenham, Unitarian Universalist of San Francisco; Rich Procida, Bible Study For Progressives; Merilie Robertson, Presbyterian Elder, Pasadena, CA; Stephen Rohde, Interfaith Leader and Civil Rights Activist; Ramona Tolliver, Member, Ward AME Church; Anna Viggiano, Religious Education, Newman Center, Hawai’i; Rev. Gary Bernard Williams, Pastor of Saint Mark UMC LA; Rev. Frank Wulf, Echo Park United Methodist Church, LA
To add your name to this statement, go here.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/deploying-for-a-fascist-coup-en.html
| revcom.us
Government officials at the federal and state levels are mobilizing repressive forces under their command to be deployed in major cities as Election Day nears.
Department of Homeland Security officials recently announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are being sent to DC and preparing to “protect federal property in Washington” if there is “unrest on election day.” Mobilizing ICE and other federal police agencies loyal to Trump is part of the “Protecting American Communities Task Force” established by an executive order he issued in June, as a beautiful uprising of protest against police murder and brutality of Black and Latinx people swept the country. Trump claimed the “task force” was formed to combat “anarchists and left-wing extremists,” as it deployed teams of these heavily armed and often disguised agents, including tactical squads, to brutalize and arrest protesters in DC, Portland, Seattle, and about a dozen other cities.
This week, Texas governor Greg Abbott declared that he intends to send 1,000 National Guard troops to Houston, Austin, and Dallas/Fort Worth before election Tuesday. Abbot said “in the event that there are any protests after the elections are concluded ... we will have adequate personnel in place to make sure that we will be able to address any protest that could turn into riots.” Governors of Wisconsin, Kentucky, and several other states are also mobilizing National Guard forces. Ohio’s governor said he will “do what’s needed.” As of October 30, 10 states were actively planning to involve the Guard in “election-related missions” such as cyber security and staffing polling stations, and 15 more indicated they plan to do so.
The Associated Press reported that the National Guard has also designated military police units in Alabama and Arizona to be “rapid reaction forces” that can deploy quickly around the country “to any potential civil unrest.” The AP article continued that “Military leaders don’t explicitly tie the changes [in potential assignments] to concerns about possible election-related violence, but the nation is bracing for unrest surrounding the tumultuous presidential campaign, particularly if voting results are not known for days or weeks because of the increase in mail-in ballots.”
Federal laws and years of practice have generally kept the U.S. military out of the election process. But the Trump/Pence regime is shredding this longstanding bulwark of the normal functioning of U.S. society as a key component of its rolling fascist coup. These military and paramilitary forces are being mobilized to help steal the election for the fascist regime. They are being mobilized to violently suppress people who righteously rebel against the theft of this election in service of a fascist coup, and won’t accept its legitimacy.
In the face of this fascist mobilization, a statement from Refuse Fascism rings out with great urgency: “We must overwhelm this fascist regime and movement with our mass non-violent protest. If we unite and rise like we did in the spring for Black lives, coming back day after day—united by the demand Trump/Pence OutNow! and refusing to stop till they’re gone—we can change the political situation. Our numbers, our diversity, and our heart for humanity can sustain us through whatever the Trump/Pence regime tries to do to remain in power. As we grow, we will inspire millions more to join this great struggle, until those in power are compelled to concede to our single demand that the regime must go.”
Sources:
In a first, ICE Agents are poised to respond to potential Election Day unrest, NBC News, October 31, 2020.
An Election Day role for National Guard? Maybe, but limited, Associated Press, October 30, 2020.
Abbott: Troops will be 'in position' after election but only deployed in Texas 'as needed', Houston Chronicle, October 29, 2020.
National Guard taps units for rapid response to civil unrest, Associated Press, October 2, 2020.
Wisconsin Joins List of States Deploying National Guard Units on Election Day, Newsweek, October 29, 2020.
Here’s What National Guard Units Across the Country Will Be Doing on Election Day, Military.com, October 31, 2020.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
This week the New York Times reported that the U.S. has expelled at least 200 children from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, to Mexico—a country where they have no family connections and have never lived. The children, who were taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol, seem to have been placed with Mexican child welfare authorities, who oversee shelters operated by religious and private groups.
Word of these expulsions reached the Times when it came into possession of an internal Border Patrol email written by an official critical of the policy. For the eight months this policy was in effect, there was apparently no whisper of objection from anyone charged with carrying it out. This is exactly the mentality that led Nazi officials to carry out deportations and eventually mass murder of millions of Jewish people, including children.
The Trump/Pence regime not only drew on its bottomless pit of immigrant-hating cruelty to inflict this torture on children, it violated its own laws and diplomatic agreements, including one with Mexico that prohibited it from expelling to Mexico people who aren’t from that country. This action illustrates a profound and compelling analysis Bob Avakian recently wrote: “For that is what fascism is: open and aggressive dictatorship, trampling on and perverting the rule of law, relying on violence and terror, on behalf of the predatory capitalist system and as an extreme attempt to deal with profound social division and acute crises (both within the country and in the global arena).”
As Revolution has reported, 545 immigrant children whose parents were deported under the regime’s “zero tolerance” policy have still not been re-united with a parent. Then, beginning in March, child deportations escalated as the Trump/Pence regime seized on the coronavirus pandemic to expel thousands of immigrant children quickly and without hearings.
In March, when harsh new measures to expel adults and children alike were put in place, a top Border Patrol official said “This is a public health order that we’re operating under right now. This is not about immigration. What’s transpiring right now is purely about infectious disease and public health.”
This is not just hypocritical bullshit from people who clearly don’t give a damn about the health of the masses of people in the U.S., much less Mexico and Central America. Right now, the Texas border city of El Paso is under a curfew as it tries to stem the rampaging virus, and border towns from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico have high rates of contagion and death.
No, this is the language of genocide from a functionary of a fascist regime, a regime that has demonstrated over and over that it will stop at nothing in its persecution of immigrants, including children.
Sources:
U.S. Expels Migrant Children From Other Countries to Mexico, New York Times, October 30, 2020
New report finds U.S. is deporting Central American kids to Mexico, PBS, October 30, 2020
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
Editors’ Note: The following is adapted from some orientation notes written to revcoms and others involved in the struggle to drive out the fascist Trump/Pence regime in the wake of the police murder of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia and the righteous protests that followed. This is an orientation of “both/and” to these struggles, not “either/or,” linking up the streams of struggle for powerful mass political resistance.
The October 26 murder by police of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia was yet another clearly outrageous killing by this system’s pigs. According to the Washington Post, Wallace was the latest of the 804 people shot and killed by police this year already. This shows once again that, as Bob Avakian has emphasized (see here and here, for example), brutality and murder by police are fundamental to the oppressive system we live under—it cannot function without this. Now, this has been made all the worse by Trump, and will be made qualitatively worse still should he prevail with stealing the election. If he is able to move forward to a fully fascist regime, there will not even be room to fight against these towering injustices. These cops—who, as Trump himself says, love Trump and who he “loves” back—have actually been incited by him to go on a rampage since the summer’s beautiful uprising against police murder and white supremacy.
A further basic point is that Trump is a white supremacist and indeed a genocidal racist—and it is imperative not only that he be defeated in the election but that Black people are enabled to fully and freely exercise their right to vote, and to come into the streets to demand that this regime be OUT NOW, along with raising righteous outrage against police murder. The voter suppression being carried out by the fascists right now is heavily targeting Black people, as well as Latinos, immigrants and Indigenous peoples.
The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania has ordered the National Guard into Philadelphia. By doing this, the Democrats are actually putting a chill on the activity of the masses. Let’s be clear: the National Guard as a force is being brought in to repress mass political activity and resistance.
First of all, it is not as if the situation in Philadelphia has developed into a violent clash between two sections of the people in which innocent people were getting maimed or worse and there was an objective need to restore order. From what can be seen from news reports, some stores got damaged and some police claim to have been injured while they were attempting to beat, mace and arrest people who were protesting the fact that, once again, they murdered someone in the throes of a mental health crisis.
Second, soldiers of an occupying force standing on every corner hardly creates a situation in which people want to express themselves politically, whether by voting or in any other way. Quite the opposite.
Third, with Philly already having been made a target by Trump for election day intimidation by his thugs—and in a nationally televised debate at that1—the question arises: who do you think this Guard will act against? The fascist thugs who come in claiming to be “volunteer poll watchers”—or the masses who resist attempts by these thugs to repress and harass them?
The police murder of Walter Wallace took place in the very same neighborhood as the MOVE massacre in 1985—the attack on the MOVE organization in which the police not only brutally assaulted their house, but then connived with the DA and mayor to imprison the sole adult survivor of the assault for seven years and tear the one child survivor away from loved ones and place him in foster care.2 This is the same neighborhood that political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal comes from. Mumia is doing a life sentence from a railroad trial in which he was accused of killing a cop but denied legal representation of his choice, and at one point was threatened with death by lethal injection before his death penalty was overturned less than a week before he was scheduled to be executed. In other words, the oppression of Black people and the struggle against it is written all over the streets of this neighborhood.
A further point: the criminalization and police suppression of Black and Brown people, and fascization of the rank-and-file of the police departments across the country, go hand-in-glove with the decades-long Republi-fascist voter suppression schemes3 that have now metastasized into “old Jim Crow” threats of violence—both products of a system that has no answers and in which fascism is now not just a viable alternative but in power and fighting to consolidate that power.
The protests of the people against this latest police murder and calls for justice are righteous and should be supported. This struggle is definitely not in contradiction with the fight for Trump/Pence Out Now. In fact, given the struggle against white supremacy and Trump’s genocidal racism, and Trump’s calls for “law and order” to suppress the righteous rebellion against institutionalized racism and police murder, there are real connections here and a need and basis for people to unite broadly and be out in the streets in struggle in increasingly massive numbers.
1. During the first televised debate with Biden, Trump said that his “poll watchers” (i.e., Republi-fascist goons) were thrown out in Philadelphia—“Because bad things happen in Philadelphia.” [back]
2. See revcom.us America Crime series, Case #99: May 13, 1985: The MOVE Massacre. [back]
3. See revcom.us American Crimes series article on the suppression of the Black vote: Part 1 and Part 2. [back]
Reposted from RefuseFascism.org:
Longer version | Shorter version
Listen to this statement read by Carl Dix:
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
From a Reader:
| revcom.us
Editors’ Note: As the white-supremacist Trump is stealing the elections and threatens violence, as he drums up support for murderous cops in his rallies, people took to the streets in Philadelphia against the police murder of Walter Wallace Jr. We received the following from a reader. The situation is still developing—follow revcom.us
We wake up to another day and look at the news feed on our phone. Damn! ANOTHER video has gone viral of cops shooting and killing a Black man. We push the play button, dreading the sight of yet another cold-blooded murder by the cops. The image is jumpy, but we see two cops in the streets with their guns drawn. A Black man walks out between two cars into the street, and in less than two seconds we hear the pop, pop, pop of gunfire. At least a dozen shots. The man, Walter Wallace Jr., crumples to the ground. His mother and others rush to him as he is dying. You hear people screaming, and a man says, “Bro, they just killed him in front of me... Y'all ain't have to give him that many fucking shots.”
Monday, October 26, late afternoon. The family of 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr. calls for an ambulance because Walter is having a mental health crisis. But instead of medical assistance, the pigs show up. Wallace’s mother tells them her son had mental health issues. The pigs pull their guns out when Wallace comes out of the house. Wallace’s mother tries to restrain her son, to calm him down and de-escalate the situation. She yells at the cops begging them not to shoot.
Did the cops try to de-escalate? Let his mother try to calm him down? Talk to him like a human being? NO. Instead, Walter goes down in a hail of bullets. The pigs say they had to shoot because Walter had a knife and wouldn’t put it down. A neighbor said Wallace was about 20 feet away from the pigs when they shot him. Wallace's father, Walter Wallace Sr., said, "Why didn't they use a Taser? Why you have to gun him down?" In fact, the cops didn’t even have any Tasers.
Walter Wallace Jr. was an aspiring rapper. Some of the themes of his videos were social causes and police injustice, cops shooting people. He was recently married and had nine children, his wife is expecting to deliver another child very soon. He had a family that loved him. But to the pigs he was just another target.
Hours after the murder of Walter Wallace, hundreds of angry people took to the streets—and as the night went on, people’s outrage spilled out. There were many clashes between the cops and the people, and at least 76 people were arrested, some for burglary. One video shows the cops using batons to forcefully move on the crowd, beating anyone who wouldn’t back up. Another shows a Black woman pinned to the ground by cops, one pig repeatedly punching her face as other cops form a blockade around the assault. The pigs were vicious, but the people were determined to stay in the street, and their anger AT THE PIGS was clear. In one video you see dozens of people chasing a large group of cops down the street. Another shows a line of pigs behind their shields as they’re pelted with rocks, bottles, and garbage cans.
Protests continued Tuesday night with even more people—there were reports of at least a thousand in the streets of Philly. And there were also protests against the murder of Walter Wallace Tuesday night in New York and Portland. In New York City, hundreds took to the streets of downtown Brooklyn and then made their way to Manhattan. In downtown Portland, more than 100 protesters gathered for a vigil in memory of Walter Wallace, and then some of the crowd took to the streets for a march.
This is a developing situation. Once again, the pigs have killed a Black man. And once again, the people are manifesting their outrage in the streets. The Democratic governor of Pennsylvania has called in the National Guard. The city has declared a citywide curfew. And the fascist-in-chief and top defender of pig-murderers, Donald Trump, has said he is “prepared to deploy” federal forces to Philadelphia.
Yet another indictment of this murderous system. A system whose armed enforcers kill, time after time after time. A system where all the pigs have to say is that “their lives were in danger” to get a pass, so they can keep murdering the people with impunity. This HAS TO STOP! At a press conference, Walter Wallace Jr.’s 8-year-old son, Zamir said, “These white racist cops got my own dad... Black lives still matter.” Zamir then raised his fist.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/672/planet-cannot-survive-four-more-years-of-trump-part-3-oceans-en.html
| revcom.us
Editors’ Note: We received the following from a reader—the third and final in a series on the destruction of the planet’s ecosystems that has been brought to new levels of devastation and danger under the Trump/Pence regime.
Parts I and II can be found here and here. It is no exaggeration to say that if the Trump/Pence regime stays in power for four more years, the damage they inflict on the planet and its ecosystems, especially in accelerating global warming, and to the continuing survival of large sections of humanity, may well be irreparable.
Life on the planet is believed to have begun in the oceans more than four billion years ago. Today, oceans contain somewhere between 500,000 and 10 million species, from whales to bacteria, most of it is unknown to science. Oceans absorb carbon dioxide, cushioning the planet against global warming and absorb more heat than land. Ocean currents help maintain the seasons.
For humanity, oceans are a source of incredible beauty, wonder, and knowledge. They provide human society with one-fifth of the protein we eat (and more in many areas).
The ocean as we know it today is dying. Global warming is responsible for the acceleration and increasingly severe destruction of the oceans. For example:
Pollution, unsustainable fishing, and toxic waste are causing devastating outcomes in the planet’s oceans. Like climate change, this is rooted in the system of capitalism-imperialism. As Raymond Lotta wrote on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, “The economic models and pricing system of capitalism cannot capture the true measure of these elements of nature. They systematically ‘undervalue’ nature because, historically, these benefits of ecosystems are provided ‘free’ as ‘public goods’—and have been systematically overexploited as imperialism relentlessly and massively commodifies more and more of nature.”
Look at what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, where ocean currents have caused massive amounts of plastic and other garbage, twice the size of Texas, to accumulate. This is one of five similar sites worldwide. As plastics break down, they work their way into every part of oceans, from the surface to the ocean floor. Turtles, seabirds, fish, and marine mammals eat or get entangled in the plastic garbage. Plastic contains toxins, which get concentrated in smaller animals and the animals that eat them. At the top of that food chain are human beings. Studies have found that humans today have plastics in every organ of our bodies.
Even though the environmental harm of plastics has been long known, plastic production has continued to rise, often for useless things such as packaging of consumer goods. Between 2000 and 2010, more plastic was produced than in the previous century. And production of plastic is expected to increase by 40 percent in the next 10 years.
Look at the dead zone that forms every summer off the Gulf of Mexico. Dead zones form when chemicals, such as those used as fertilizer in industrial agriculture, run off into rivers that flow into the Mississippi and eventually into the Gulf. There they cause algae to bloom on the surface, which decreases the oxygen levels below. Thousands of dead fish wash ashore. Fifty years ago, there were 50 dead zones around the world. Today, this has grown to more than 400.
Nonsustainable fishing is also harming the ocean ecosystem. In 2015, one-third of ocean fish stocks were being commercially fished faster than the stocks could replenish. When too many fish are taken out of the ocean, an imbalance is created that leads to a loss of other important marine life—including vulnerable species like sea turtles and corals. Dwindling stocks of fish put millions of people living in poor coastal communities at risk of hunger and loss of their livelihood.
At the same time as the burning of fossil fuels is wrecking the climate, offshore drilling and the spills that can result are damaging to ocean life. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill from BP-operated wells in the Gulf of Mexico released 200 million gallons of oil. This disaster fouled at least 1,300 miles of Gulf shoreline, endangered public health, and killed 10s of thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and fish. In addition to large spills like BP’s, there are many smaller spills. Just in U.S. federal waters, there were 6,500 oil spills between 2007 and 2017. Aside from the devastating impact of oil spills, these wells produce many forms of toxic waste, even when they are running as designed.
We need a society that is based on maintaining a sustainable relationship with the natural world. This is something that capitalism cannot do.
Much of the environmental devastation in the oceans is the direct result of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. This did not begin with Trump; it is the result of a system of capitalism-imperialism, its cutthroat competition, and its quest for profit. But Trump is greatly accelerating the process.
Trump has denied the science of climate change, pulled out of the Paris climate accord, promoted and deregulated coal power plants, repealed rules that would have reduced automobile emissions, cut regulations on methane, approved contested pipelines, and expanded drilling coal mining and fracking. And Trump has damaged the oceans in other ways:
***
Ocean Endangered Species
While much less is known about extinction of marine species than their land-based relatives, a 2019 study in the journal Nature found that ocean species were more vulnerable to temperature change than land species.
Part 1 of this series (on the Great Barrier Reef) covered the situation with coral reefs, which are threatened by rising ocean temperatures. These “rainforests of the sea” could become extinct in coming decades.
***
The leatherback sea turtle is the largest sea turtle, reaching a length of seven feet. They migrate up to 10,000 miles each year. In the last 30 years, the population of these turtles has declined by 90 percent.
The vaquita is a small porpoise found only in the northern Gulf of California, off Mexico. Fewer than 20 of these animals remain, down from more than 600 in 1997. They have been caught in fishing nets and more recently have been hunted because their swim bladders are believed to have medicinal value.
The Hawaiian monk seal, known to native Hawaiians as ilio-holo-i-ka-uaua, or "dog that runs in rough water," is being threatened by rising sea water that is destroying the beaches that the seals need to rest and to rear their young. The seals are also killed when they get caught in fishing nets. There are only around 1,000 of these seals left.
This series has shown that the global environment is on a precipice, and many ecosystems are facing the possibility of collapse. We have seen species on the edge, from the rainforests to the Arctic to the oceans. As has been emphasized throughout this series, even small changes in an ecosystem can have large effects on the entire system. Because all life is bound together, changes to the ocean ecosystem will affect all other species on the planet, including human beings.
Right now, humanity faces a choice with huge implications not only for humanity, but for the planet. Four more years of Trump’s science-denying, nature-destroying, fossil-fuel-emitting fascist regime will be a nightmare for the planet. We must use all available nonviolent means to prevent Trump/Pence from consolidating fascism. AND ultimately, to save the planet, we need to overthrow the capitalist-imperialist system and put in place a system of socialism moving on to communism that is based on, among other things, “Protecting, preserving, and enhancing the ecosystems and biodiversity of the planet for current and future generations.” (From the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian.)
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Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/668/bob-avakian_donald-trump-and-andrew-jackson-racist-genocidal-tyrants-en.html
It is no wonder that Trump has a portrait of Andrew Jackson prominently displayed in the White House. There is almost a perfect fit between the two: Jackson, who was president about 200 years ago, was a vicious slave-owner who also uprooted large numbers of Native Americans from land they owned in the southeast of the U.S. and forced them onto a “trail of tears” death march toward far-away Oklahoma, during which thousands, including many children and old people, died terrible deaths.
But, along with their genocidal racism, there is also another very important parallel between Jackson and Trump. Jackson openly defied the Supreme Court when it ruled that it was illegal for him to carry out this “Indian removal.” Trump’s strategy now is not to defy but to load up the Supreme Court with extreme right-wing and outright fascist judges, so the Court will rule in his favor on crucial questions, including the upcoming election. Like Jackson before him, Trump is defying the law and the Constitution. He is suppressing votes, falsely denouncing perfectly legal voting as “fraud,” organizing and unleashing fascist thugs to intimidate and attack people opposed to Trump, and preparing an army of lawyers to contest results that show him to be the loser in the election—precisely in order to have the possibility of the election being decided by a Supreme Court that Trump has loaded with judges who will rule in his favor, regardless of the actual vote.
This is why, even as “the polls show” that Biden is now well ahead of Trump, including in “key battleground states”—and even if, despite all Trump’s moves to intimidate and suppress votes against him, the actual vote count goes to Biden—simply relying on the vote and waiting for November will very likely lead to disaster. It is a powerful reason why it is crucial to take up now the call from RefuseFascism.org—taking to the streets in sustained non-violent mobilization, and staying in the streets, in greater and greater numbers, demanding Trump/Pence OUT NOW!
*Donald Trump-GENOCIDAL RACIST, by Bob Avakian, is available—as a series of articles, and to download as a pamphlet—at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
Do any of the bourgeois politicians, of either the Democratic or Republican Party, represent anything good?
No. They all represent something very bad: the system of capitalism-imperialism that is based on monstrous, literally murderous exploitation and oppression of masses of people, not just in this country but all over the world.
Are all these politicians—and both of these political parties—“the same”?
No, again. They have real differences over how this system should be governed, and enforced, and how this society should be held together under the rule of this system.
Do these differences actually matter for those who are exploited and oppressed under this system, for all those who aspire to a more just world?
It depends. Most of the time, the differences between these two parties are not significant enough to make it right and necessary to single out one party and focus on opposing it. But, on very rare occasions, these differences do matter that much. This is one of those times.
Why? Because one party—the Republican Party, headed now by the Trump/Pence regime—has become thoroughly fascist. Fascism is “open and aggressive dictatorship, trampling on and perverting the rule of law, relying on violence and terror, on behalf of the predatory capitalist system and as an extreme attempt to deal with profound social division and acute crises (both within the country and in the global arena).”1 And: “If fascism fully takes hold in the most powerful country in the world, this could lead to a catastrophe from which humanity may not be able to recover.”2
The situation today is that the conditions that make possible a revolution to do away with this whole system do not yet exist, and are not immediately on the horizon, but there is the possibility of forcing the removal of this fascist regime through massive, sustained nonviolent mobilization. Right now, meeting the immediate needs of this acute situation—and preparing for the revolution that is the fundamental solution to the horrors in the world that are caused by this system—must focus on removing this fascist regime from power.
As I have emphasized:
Driving out the fascist Trump/Pence regime is urgently necessary. It concentrates the question of whether there will be any favorable basis for continuing the struggle against racist oppression and police terror and every kind of injustice and oppression, as well as the plunder of the environment. It concentrates the question of whether there will be a future—one worth living—for humanity.3
Refusing to recognize this reality, saying it does not matter now which group of politicians is in power, and taking up the worse than meaningless stance that “these politicians are all the same”—this is not simply silly pseudo-“left” sectarian nonsense—it amounts to active collaboration with this fascist regime and the very real horrors it is relentlessly moving to hammer into place.
The conclusion is this: Everyone who really cares about ending exploitation, oppression and injustice, the rapidly accelerating destruction of the environment and the endless wars caused by this system
needs to join those who are already in the streets, who are not waiting for an election that Trump is already stealing through an ongoing fascist coup, and instead are taking up the call from RefuseFascism.org for sustained non-violent mobilization, day after day, raising the demand that the Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!4
1. Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution. This Statement is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. This Is the Situation, These Are the Stakes—emphasis added here. This article is also available at revcom.us. [back]
3. Sleepwalking “Wokeness” and the Trump/Pence Nightmare. This article by Bob Avakian is also available at revcom.us. [back]
4. Sleepwalking “Wokeness” and the Trump/Pence Nightmare—emphasis in the original. [back]
TRUMP IS DETERMINED, AND HAS A STRATEGY, TO STAY IN POWER, AND HAMMER INTO PLACE HIS FASCIST PROGRAM—MURDEROUSLY ENFORCING INJUSTICE, CRUSHING BASIC RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES, ACCELERATING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND HEIGHTENING THE DANGER OF NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION—NO MATTER HOW PEOPLE VOTE. Trump is already stealing the election, he has a plan in place to use key institutions, including the Supreme Court, and violent thugs, in and out of uniform, to keep his regime in power...
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Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/668/bob-avakian-sleepwalking-wokeness-and-the-trump-pence-nightmare-en.html
| revcom.us
“If fascism fully takes hold in the most powerful country in the world, this could lead to a catastrophe from which humanity may not be able to recover.” (This Is the Situation, These Are the Stakes)1
Far too many people who claim to care about injustice and the destruction of the environment, and say they are working for a better world, still come up with ridiculous rationalizations for not recognizing—and not acting in the way necessary to oppose—the fascism of the Trump/Pence regime, and the very real and terrible danger it poses. Here I am going to speak to one of these ridiculous rationalizations.
Far too often, people who claim to be “woke” say that, since Black people have always been subjected to horrific oppression in this country, Trump is no different than other politicians, and there is no reason, and no need, to focus on opposing Trump and building mass mobilization to demand the removal of the Trump/Pence regime. This is like arguing that, since this country was founded in slavery, it makes no difference if slavery is brought back now! People need to understand that Trump is a genocidal racist.2 He may not be trying to bring back literal slavery but he is definitely aiming to take this country back to a situation where overt white supremacy is blatantly promoted, codified in law and court decisions, and enforced through systematic, full-blown white supremacist violence.
This highlights the very real and important “wake-up call” that needs to be made, once again, to people who are ignoring the reality of what Trump is all about, and the terrible consequences of allowing the Trump/Pence regime to remain in power: You think you’re woke, but you’re sleepwalking through a nightmare.
Driving out the fascist Trump/Pence regime is urgently necessary. It concentrates the question of whether there will be any favorable basis for continuing the struggle against racist oppression and police terror and every kind of injustice and oppression, as well as the plunder of the environment. It concentrates the question of whether there will be a future—one worth living—for humanity.
Everyone who really cares about this needs to join those who are already in the streets, who are not waiting for an election that Trump is already stealing through an ongoing fascist coup, and instead are taking up the call from RefuseFascism.org for sustained non-violent mobilization, day after day, raising the demand that the Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!
1. This article, This Is the Situation, These Are the Stakes, is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. Donald Trump—GENOCIDAL RACIST, by Bob Avakian, is available—as a series of articles, and to download as a pamphlet—at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
I began the Statement By Bob Avakian, August 1, 2020, On The Immediate Critical Situation, The Urgent Need To Drive Out The Fascist Trump/Pence Regime, Voting In This Election, And The Fundamental Need For Revolution with this important analysis:
We are confronted by—we are now being ruled by—a fascist regime: relentlessly assaulting civil rights and liberties and openly promoting bigotry and inequality; acting with callous disregard or cold-blooded malice toward those they consider inferior and a drain or stain on the country; on a mission to deny health care to millions who will suffer and many who will die without it; crudely degrading women, as objects of plunder, breeders of children without the right to abortion or birth control, subordinate to husbands and men in general; defying the science of climate change, attacking the science of evolution, and repudiating the scientific method overall; a regime brandishing an arsenal of mass destruction and threatening nuclear war; intensifying state terror against Muslims, immigrants, and people in the inner cities; unleashing and giving encouragement and support to brutal thugs spewing vile “America First,” white supremacist, male supremacist, and anti-LGBT venom—a regime that boasts of all this and declares its intention to do even worse.1
As for vice president Mike Pence: While he might not express things in the same blustering, blatant and vulgar ways as Trump, Pence is a religious fundamentalist fanatic, who represents a powerful force driving the whole fascist program of this regime.
And this is why there is the urgent need to take up the call from REFUSEFASCISM.org, demanding not only the removal of Trump but that the whole Trump/Pence regime must be OUT NOW!
With Pence, we are not talking about the kind of Christianity that seeks to reconcile religious belief with acceptance of science, and interprets the Bible and the message of Jesus as one of peace, justice, compassion and tolerance, loving your neighbor and standing with the poor and oppressed. No, Pence is a dead-eyed “true believer” in an extreme, anti-scientific and cruel, religious fanaticism—a real “Handmaid’s Tale” Christian fundamentalist, driven by virulent male supremacist and anti-LGBT venom, and fully on board with Trump’s white supremacy, aggressive American chauvinism and xenophobia (hatred of immigrants). Pence’s religious fundamentalism is a counterpart to the Islamic fundamentalism of the Taliban or ISIS. Like them, Pence believes that his version of religious fundamentalism should be imposed on people, by force wherever and whenever necessary. But a big difference is that, unlike Taliban or ISIS leaders, whose power and “reach” is much more limited, Pence is a high-ranking official in the most powerful government, with the most powerful killing machine, in the history of the world.
He may seem more “polished” than the crude lying bully Trump, but Pence is all the more dangerous for his “calm” exterior—a “soft-spoken assassin” who practices his own version of the “righteous” lie, in the service of “God’s will” as interpreted through Pence’s lunatic religious fundamentalism. While “old school” NAZIs and armed thugs (like the Proud Boys), are useful as storm troopers for the fascist Trump/Pence regime, it is Christian fundamentalism that is the hard core and driving force of this regime. And, along with Pence, this regime is full of Christian fundamentalist fanatics, in powerful positions—including Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and many others.
Here it is helpful to cite once again important analysis by African-American theologian Hubert Locke. Speaking 15 years ago, Locke referred to the experience of his mentor, James Luther Adams, who observed first-hand the fascism of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s, and spoke sharply to the danger of fascism in the U.S. itself:
A quarter-century ago [during the 1980s], as he watched the emergence of the religious right in this country as a political force dedicated to "taking back the nation for God," Adams said to his students that they would find themselves having to fight "the Christian fascists" in this nation. He warned that the American fascists would not come wearing swastikas and brown shirts. The American variety, he said, would come carrying crosses and chanting the Pledge of Allegiance.2
Once more, this is why the removal not only of Trump, but of Pence, and the whole fascist regime, is an immediate and urgent imperative, and must become a massive rallying cry and overwhelmingly powerful demand thundered by growing numbers of people taking to the streets, and staying in the streets, demanding that this regime must be OUT NOW!
1. This August 1, 2020 Statement by Bob Avakian is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. Reflections on Pacific School of Religion's Response to the Religious Right, by Dr. Hubert Locke, is also available at revcom.us—emphasis added. [back]
See also:
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/657/bob-avakian-capitalism-imperialism-the-suffocation-of-seven-billion-en.html
| revcom.us
The rulers of this country, and those who represent their interests, are forever boasting about the supposed “freedom, initiative and creativity” that, according to them, the capitalist system (and only the capitalist system) makes possible, and the great wealth this has created for people in this country especially. And they continually slander communism as a repressive system where people have no freedom and their initiative and creativity is not encouraged and rewarded but stifled and suppressed. All this is fundamentally wrong and completely upside-down.
First of all, the wealth that these people boast about is extremely unevenly distributed, even within this country, where a very small percentage of the people control the great bulk of the wealth. But, beyond that and more essentially, this wealth rests on a foundation of unspeakable crimes against humanity, historically and right up to the present time. To begin with:
The USA is a country which established its territory and built the foundation of its wealth through the armed conquest of land, genocide, slavery, and ruthless exploitation of successive waves of immigrants to America.1
And today, “the wealth and power of the U.S. rests today on a worldwide system of imperialist exploitation”—an international network of sweatshops, mines and corporate-controlled farms—“that ensnares hundreds of millions, and ultimately billions, of people in conditions hardly better than those of slaves.”2
This system of capitalism-imperialism—a system resting on ruthless exploitation, and super-exploitation, of masses of people, and marked by the cut-throat competition between major capitalist enterprises and financial institutions, and rivalry between capitalist states—suffocates the freedom, initiative and creativity of billions of human beings (the great majority of the more than seven billion people on the earth) including the huge numbers of children who are slaving away at near-starvation wages, and the vast masses of people who have been uprooted from the countryside, throughout the Third World (of Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia) and are crowded into swelling shantytown slums in rapidly expanding urban areas, where most can only survive by hustling in the “informal” economy, legal and illegal.
The freedom, creativity and initiative of literally billions of women is suffocated and suppressed, often with extreme brutality, under this system, with the patriarchal male supremacy that is built into it.
Tens of millions of people have died, and countries have been devastated, in wars directly waged by rival imperialists (such as World Wars 1 and 2), or wars in which they have backed contending local forces—all to gain (or maintain) control of strategic parts of the world, in the bloody pursuit of key natural resources, markets, and domination of populations whose desperation leaves them vulnerable to life-stealing exploitation.
Here is a “snapshot” of the ugly reality beneath all the grand talk about the “greatness” of this system of capitalism-imperialism:
we live in a world where large parts of humanity live in stark poverty, with 2.3 billion people lacking even rudimentary toilets or latrines and huge numbers suffering from preventable diseases, with millions of children dying every year from these diseases and from starvation, while 150 million children in the world are forced to engage in ruthlessly exploited child labor, and the whole world economy rests on a vast network of sweatshops, employing large numbers of women who are regularly subjected to sexual harassment and assault, a world where 65 million refugees have been displaced by war, poverty, persecution, and the effects of global warming.3
And the very future of humanity is seriously, and increasingly, endangered by this system with its accelerating destruction of the environment as well as its ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation.
Within the U.S. itself (this “richest of all countries”) tens of millions, especially in the inner cities, are living in conditions of severe deprivation, with many denied the opportunity to find work at a “living wage,” or denied the opportunity to be employed at all (in the regular “formal economy”) while they are also subjected to discrimination in education, housing, health care, and every other dimension of society—with all this enforced through continual police terror, punctuated repeatedly by outright murder.
The current COVID-19 pandemic has both highlighted and heightened the profound inequalities, in the world as a whole, and within this country, as people who were already bitterly oppressed and impoverished, and denied access to decent health care, have been hit hardest by this pandemic.
And, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, with its crushing effects on the livelihood of masses of people, tens of millions in this country who had been regularly employed were living paycheck-to-paycheck, striving to provide for loved ones and hoping to provide a better future for their children, with many saddled with huge debt and only a serious health crisis away from financial ruin, while their work created wealth for a capitalist (or capitalist corporation) dictating the conditions of work, treating people as cogs in a machine or in many cases the extension of a machine—whether on an assembly line or a computer—work that, in these conditions, can only be alienating and mind-numbing.
In these (and countless other) ways, this system crushes and deadens the human spirit as well as grinding away the life—or outright stealing the life—of billions of people in every part of the world.
Think of the tremendous waste—and outright destruction—of human potential that results from all this. All this is the consequence of the fact that the world, and the masses of humanity, are forced to live under the domination of this system of capitalism-imperialism.
All this is the basis on which a relatively small part of the people within this country, and a very small part of humanity as whole, has the conditions and the “freedom” to develop and apply their initiative and creativity—only to have this serve, under this system, to reinforce the “lopsided,” highly unequal and profoundly oppressive conditions in the world as a whole and for the masses of people in the world.
And all this is completely unnecessary.
Even under these conditions imposed by this outmoded, monstrous system of capitalism-imperialism, creativity bursts through repeatedly in many different ways—and notably in music, literature and other expressions of art and culture—from every part of society and every part of the world, including among those most downpressed and despised by this system and its rulers. Think of how much greater this creativity could be—and all the ways it could be unleashed to meet the needs of the masses of people, materially as well as culturally—if the ways in which billions are chained down and suffocated by this system were shattered and cast off through revolution.
Through the decades of work I have carried out, drawing crucial lessons from the previous experience (positive but also negative) of the communist movement and a wide range of human experience, I have developed a more consistently scientific communist theory, the new communism, which provides the basis for leading this revolution: the methods and principles, and the strategy for carrying out this revolution and, in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a radically different and much better society, on an entirely new foundation—a radically different economic system (mode of production) based not on exploiting the masses of people but on unleashing their creativity and initiative to do away with exploitation and oppression of every kind.4 With this socialist mode of production the means of production (land, raw materials, machinery and other technology, factories and other physical structures, and so on) will be publicly owned (not privately owned by capitalist exploiters locked in chaotic and destructive competition and rivalry). This public ownership will make it possible to marshal and utilize the resources of society in a planned and flexible way, to meet people’s needs, both materially (for food, shelter, health care, and so on) and culturally and intellectually, in a continually expanding way, and to respond in a timely way to unforeseen developments and emergencies, while supporting the revolutionary struggle worldwide toward the goal of eliminating all exploitation and oppression everywhere with the achievement of communism throughout the world.
With this mode of production, people’s initiative and creativity will be encouraged and fostered, and there will be the basis for people to apply this initiative and creativity, in unprecedented ways, in the interests of the masses of people, and ultimately all of humanity: Everyone will be able to work and to acquire the basis for a decent life, while contributing to the development of society on the road to overcoming exploitation, inequality and oppression—contributing through their ideas as well as their work—without being forced into relentless competition with each other in order to survive, or striving to advance at the expense of others (a poisonous way of thinking that will be continually struggled against).
It is a fundamental understanding and principle of communism, which is given great emphasis in the new communism, that people are the most important productive force—not just as “producers” of the social wealth but also as conscious participants in the planning and overall development of the economy, not only for the benefit of the people in the particular country but most fundamentally to serve the revolutionary transformation of the entire world toward the goal of communism. And:
The development of the socialist economy has as its source and relies upon the initiative and work, intellectual as well as physical, of the masses of people, of the members of society broadly, in conditions which are increasingly freed from relations of exploitation, and with the aim of overcoming all vestiges and aspects of such relations, and the effects of such relations, not only in... [a particular socialist country] but everywhere on the earth.5
Along with, and fundamentally on the basis of, this radically different mode of production, there will be radically different political institutions and processes, and an ongoing struggle to transform the social relations which have embodied oppression, with the goal of abolishing and uprooting all relations of oppression as well as exploitation. There will be a radically different approach to education and culture—one which fosters and unleashes the scientific curiosity and artistic creativity of masses of people and “embraces” all this and enables it to contribute, “through many divergent paths, to the advance along a broad road toward the goal of communism.”6 There will be a radically different relation with the rest of the world—not exploiting and super-exploiting people around the world but supporting the struggle everywhere to throw off the rule of exploiters and oppressors and advance toward the goal of eliminating and uprooting all exploitation and oppression. And there will be a radically different relation with the environment—where human beings, instead of being chained to a system that plunders and destroys the rest of nature, are working together to be fit caretakers of the earth.
This will be a new society aiming for a whole new world, without the suffocation, suppression, and disfiguring of the potential for the masses of humanity to understand and change the world in accordance with what are in fact the fundamental interests of humanity—to live in a world where no part of humanity is subordinated to and dictated to by another part, and where all of humanity is no longer dictated to by the fundamental workings and dynamics of a system that requires antagonistic relations among people, enforced with the continual threat and use of massive violence, where the masses of humanity are no longer reduced to merely a means to make wealth for a small number who rule over them, or are cast off as “surplus” populations that can no longer be exploited in this way.
This new society and world will not be some kind of “utopia” where all problems and difficulties have “magically disappeared”—and it will not come as a “gift” from some non-existent god—but will be the result of the struggle of masses of people to cast off unbearable exploitation and oppression, and to transform themselves and their thinking in close inter-connection with this struggle to transform their conditions—struggle led by those who have taken up the scientific method and approach of the new communism and are winning growing numbers of people to themselves take up and apply this scientific method and approach to transforming the world in an increasingly conscious way on the basis of their voluntary initiative and cooperation.
All this will involve whole new dimensions of freedom, and unleashed initiative and creativity of the masses of humanity, on this whole new foundation, with radically different institutions and relations among people, and radically different ways of thinking that correspond to these emancipating relations among people.
 
1. From The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In The Name of Humanity We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible. Video of this speech by Bob Avakian is available at revcom.us. [back]
2. BAsics 1:4 (Basics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian). This statement by Bob Avakian is originally from Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy, which is available in BA’s Collected Works at revcom.us. [back]
3. This is from Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. Video and the text of this speech by Bob Avakian are available at revcom.us. [back]
4. The strategy for revolution is spoken to in depth in the speech by Bob Avakian Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution (video and the text of which are available at revcom.us), and further thinking on this is contained in A Real Revolution—A Real Chance To Win, Further Developing the Strategy for Revolution (which is also available at revcom.us). The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, is also available at revcom.us. [back]
5. From Article I, Section 2, sub-section A2, page 19 of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. The principles and guidelines for the development of the socialist economy are more fully laid out in Article IV of this Constitution. [back]
6. From the “Preamble” to the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/646/bob-avakian-on-emancipation-from-mental-slavery-all-oppression-en.html
| revcom.us
In 1863, mid-way in the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln finally issued the Emancipation Proclamation and, as a result of the Civil War, Black people were formally freed from literal, physical slavery. But today the question is: When, and how, will Black people finally be free from all forms of slavery and oppression? And this poses straight-up this big question:
When will Black people finally emancipate themselves from the mental slavery of religion?!
We have seen the possibility of a world without oppression powerfully expressed in the not-too-distant past, during the radical upsurge that took place within this country and throughout the world during the 1960s and early 1970s.1 Within this country, the struggle of Black people was at the forefront of all this, and as that struggle became more radical in opposition to the system itself, and groups like the Black Panther Party, driven by the impatience and daring of Black youth, grew and gained influence, the advanced role of the struggle for Black liberation exerted an even more powerful positive role. And, as a very significant part of the widely and strongly held conviction that it was not only necessary but possible to put an end to the nightmare that had been endured for so long:
among Black people—who we’re always told are just sort of inherently religious—there was a massive turning away from religion, especially among the youth. Why? Because people were filled with hope, they didn’t believe that there was no hope for a better world. They were full of hope for a better world right in this world. And so, among Black people, there was, on the part of the youth in particular, a major turning away from religion and from all the old conventions that went along with religion that were conservatizing influences holding down the people.2
But the great promise of the 1960s radical upsurge, and the hopes that it raised, were not realized—fundamentally because things did not go all the way to an actual revolution. And, over the decades since then, through conscious policy by the ruling powers to foster the growth of more bourgeois and petit bourgeois strata among Black people, while at the same time maintaining and containing the masses of Black people in conditions of deprivation, oppression and vicious repression, this bitter reality has resulted:
Among the basic masses of people, including Black people (not the more middle class strata being developed through conscious ruling class policy, but the masses of oppressed people), there was a tremendous amount of demoralization and sense of defeat, and the introduction (including through deliberate ruling class policy and action) of massive amounts of drugs further intensified the desperate conditions of the basic masses and further reinforced the sense of demoralization. A lot of people were dying or being reduced to broken wretches on the basis of turning to drugs out of despair—the lack of hope, or the death, in immediate terms, of the hope that inspired so many people, on a real basis, through the course of the 1960s upsurge, which had now ebbed and been transformed. And this situation was made even more desperate and demoralizing with the growth of gangs in the ghettos and barrios of this country (as well as internationally), with youth drawn to the gangs in conditions of increasing deprivation and desperation and what was for most the illusion of getting rich, with the orientation of “get rich or die trying,” fueled by the growth of the drug trade and the influence of the putrid culture promoted throughout society that fostered and extolled the exploitation and degradation of others as the means for making it big, whether on Wall Street and on the world stage, or on the streets in the neighborhoods of the inner city.3
In the face of all this, amidst a feeling of fatalistic hopelessness, there has been, on the part of large numbers of Black people, a retreat into religion. It is often claimed that religion is what has allowed Black people to endure and persevere through all the trials and tribulations—the very real horrors—they have been subjected to throughout their experience in America, and that this remains the case now. But this is a logic of defeat—it rests on the underlying assumption (spoken or unspoken) that the system will basically remain as it has been, and that Black people will continue to be despised and discriminated against, persecuted, brutalized and terrorized, and the best they can hope for is to somehow survive, and strive to thrive, through all this—or, if you suffer in this life but you “get right with the Lord,” or submit to Allah, you will be rewarded in some “next life.”
Once more, the question is sharply posed: How can Black people be finally and fully emancipated from centuries of oppression, and how does this relate to ending all oppression, of all people, everywhere?
The answer is that the possibility of this is real, but it can happen only on the basis of a scientific approach to changing the world and the scientifically-grounded understanding that this oppression is rooted in and caused by the system of capitalism-imperialism—the same system that is viciously exploiting and murderously oppressing people not just in this country but all over the world and is plundering the natural environment—and that this system must and can be overthrown through an actual revolution and replaced by a radically different and far better system: socialism, whose final goal is a communist world, without any oppression or exploitation of anyone, anywhere.
As I have put it, expressing a simple and basic truth: “in fundamental terms, 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!”4
And, in relation to this, I have also spoken to this profound truth:
There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.5
But here is another way that, in fundamental terms, there are two choices: either cling to the mental slavery of religion and remain oppressed, or cast off the mental chains of religion while rising up to fight with a real chance to get finally and fully free, in putting an end to all oppression and exploitation.
Religion may seem to give people comfort in the face of the oppression and anguish they are forced to endure, or to make people feel that with religion they can keep from “doing wrong”—or, even though they may “do wrong,” they still have some worth. And it is true that, for some people, their religious views are a motivation to fight against various forms of oppression, and many people who approach things from a religious standpoint have insights and knowledge that it is important to know about and learn from. But it is also true that, as a way of thinking and a guide to acting, religion relies on the invention of supernatural beings that do not exist but which are said to ultimately shape and control reality, including the fate of human beings. Religion calls on people to submit to those imaginary supernatural beings (or, to very human authorities speaking in the name of those imaginary supernatural beings) and to follow scriptures that in reality do not lead to ending oppression but actually promote and reinforce all kinds of degradation and horror. (This is something I have illustrated very concretely in the book Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World, particularly with regard to the three main monotheistic [one-god] religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.6) In this way religion stands in direct opposition to taking up a consistently scientific approach to understanding reality and waging a scientifically-grounded fight to end all oppression.
This is why the powers-that-be, whose very existence, wealth and power rest on oppression and exploitation, continually promote religion. It is why the very same slavemasters who prohibited Black people from learning to read (and severely punished those who did) actively encouraged their slaves to take up religion and get down on their knees in prayer. And it is why today, the ruling powers in this country are only too willing to provide a platform for, and parade around, any Black people who are inclined to engage in passionate “god-talk.” This may be painful to hear, but the question is: is it true, or not? Think about it.
It is neither possible nor principled—and no one should ever try—to force people to give up beliefs they hold at any given time. In the most fundamental terms, emancipation—from every form of slavery and oppression—must be the voluntary and conscious act of people. But there is a great need and importance to waging ideological struggle, in a principled way but as sharply as necessary, to win people to take up a scientific approach to understanding, and changing, the world and break with ways of thinking that actually contribute to keeping them, and others, oppressed.
Again, it is true that many religious people take part now in important struggles against oppression; and it is also true that many religious people will be among the millions taking part in the revolution to do away with this whole oppressive system. But this revolution, and the continuing struggle to end all oppression and bring about real and complete emancipation, must be led by those, among the most oppressed, and others as well, who have taken up a scientific approach to changing the world and have cast off the mental slavery of religion, along with every other way of thinking that promotes, or at least rationalizes and objectively justifies, oppression.
A bitter truth is this:
Oppressed people who are unable or unwilling to confront reality as it actually is, are condemned to remain enslaved and oppressed.7
But, an even greater, emancipating truth is this:
The notion of a god, or gods, was created by humanity, in its infancy, out of ignorance. This has been perpetuated by ruling classes, for thousands of years since then, to serve their interests in exploiting and dominating the majority of people and keeping them enslaved to ignorance and irrationality.
Bringing about a new, and far better, world and future for humanity means overthrowing such exploiting classes and breaking free of and leaving behind forever such enslaving ignorance and irrationality.8
 
1. In HOPE FOR HUMANITY ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS, Breaking with Individualism, Parasitism and American Chauvinism (available at revcom.us), Bob Avakian speaks to this major change taking place during the 1960s:
In the 1960s, masses of people all over the world, including in this country, were filled with hope and determination about the prospect of bringing into being a radically different and better world. Throughout the Third World, there were liberation struggles aimed at throwing off the yoke of colonial oppression that had been imposed on them for decades, generations and even centuries. And in the imperialist countries themselves—including, in particular, the U.S.—the generation that came of age in the 1960s had both the understanding of the need and a real belief in the possibility of bringing a radically different and better world into being, and was not interested in hearing all the arguments about why things had to be the way they are. [back]
2. HOPE FOR HUMANITY ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS.
In Bob Avakian Responds to Mark Rudd on the Lessons of the 1960s and the Need for an Actual Revolution (available at revcom.us), this point is emphasized:
in moving from the limitations of the civil rights movement to the more advanced position of demanding Black liberation and linking this with liberation struggles in the Third World, those Black revolutionaries exerted a powerful positive force in influencing the movements of those times, including among educated youth, toward a more revolutionary orientation, even as that orientation was (in the parlance of those times) a “mixed bag,” involving a complex of conflicting tendencies, including the revolutionary communism that was coming from China as well as various revolutionary nationalist and other contradictory trends. [back]
3. HOPE FOR HUMANITY ON A SCIENTIFIC BASIS. [back]
4. In the speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, from which this quote is drawn, Bob Avakian speaks to those crucial questions. The text and video of this speech are available at revcom.us. And in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian, (available at revcom.us) there is a sweeping vision and a concrete blueprint for a socialist society aiming for the final goal of communism throughout the world. [back]
5. This statement, along with other works by Bob Avakian speaking to the oppression of Black people and the road to their full emancipation, is available at revcom.us. [back]
6. Bob Avakian, Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World, Insight Press, 2008. [back]
7. BAsics 4:1 (BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian). [back]
8. BAsics 4:17, emphasis added. [back]
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/662/on-the-need-for-the-new-communism-not-dogmatic-posing-en.html
| revcom.us
The response by Noche Diaz to a Facebook post by a dogmatic narrow Black nationalist, claiming to be a “Revolutionary Marxist‑Leninist‑Maoist,” is very important. In responding to this dogmatic attack on Bob Avakian’s Statement of August 1, Noche hits the main points very well. And it is worth looking further into the claim by this dogmatist that both the bourgeois political parties are fascist—that there are the outright fascists of the Republican Party and the “liberal” fascists of the Democratic Party (whatever that means). If this were true, it would mean that we have been living under fascism for decades now, and the Trump/Pence regime represents nothing essentially different.
People who make ridiculous claims like this are playing around in their own heads and not dealing with the actual reality. This kind of thinking is typical of dogmatists: in place of a scientific analysis and synthesis of reality, and its motion and development—and where the interests of the masses of humanity lie on that basis—we get the attempt to impose on reality “religious articles of faith” (such as: never, under any circumstances, vote for a bourgeois politician). Especially in today’s extreme circumstances, with the momentous stakes involved, this kind of thinking is not simply foolish but very harmful.
If there were really fascism ruling over us during the administration of Obama and Biden, for example—as the extension of a fascism that had been in power for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations—then there could have been nothing like the mass outpouring of protest against the police murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson. Such protests would simply have been outlawed. Any attempt to hold such protests would have been immediately and thoroughly crushed, and anyone taking part would have been sent to prison, or to concentration camps, and perhaps quickly executed. This is precisely the kind of thing Trump would want to do, what he is making real moves toward doing now, and what he would very likely do, on a truly monstrous scale, if his regime—which is nothing less than fascist—is able to make further leaps in fully consolidating its fascist rule.
It is true that, in the “Ferguson uprising,” and today in the beautiful rising against white supremacy, police brutality and murder, there has been vicious repression carried out by police (and National Guard troops), ordered by Democratic Party politicians. That is a reflection of the fact that we live under a dictatorship all the time—the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (capitalist class). But, before the Trump/Pence regime, this has been a dictatorship that has been exercised in the form of bourgeois democracy (democracy that is based in, conforms to and remains within the confines of the capitalist system and rule by the capitalist class over the masses of people). That contradiction—between the outer democratic appearance and the inner essence of dictatorship—has real meaning. It means that, so long as the form of bourgeois dictatorship is “democratic,” in order to maintain that democratic shell, the political and legal representatives of the ruling class have to allow certain “civil rights and liberties” to be exercised, up to a point, and at least make a pretense of respecting a “rule of law” that is not simply and nakedly the exercise of brute force over society as a whole, and against any attempt to oppose what the government is doing.
The reason that some people think that any kind of severe repression equals fascism is basically because they are fooled by the outer appearance of democracy—and in their minds “democracy” means that there is not supposed to be any repression, or at least not any severe repression—so when there is such repression, even in “normal times,” they believe that this is something other than democracy, when in fact the exercise of bourgeois dictatorship includes plenty of brutal repression when that dictatorship is exercised in the “democratic” form. But that is still qualitatively different than an actual fascist bourgeois dictatorship, which essentially drops all pretense of “democracy” and rules openly through violence and terror.
At times, times like now, the contradiction between the appearance of democracy and the essence of dictatorship can become very acute for the bourgeois ruling class. The fascists—the actual fascists concentrated in the Trump/Pence regime who are now in power, not the imaginary “liberal fascists” in this dogmatic narrow nationalist’s head—have been acting with a vengeance, and in an accelerating way, to resolve this contradiction by moving towards undisguised dictatorship, relying openly on terror and violence against those who oppose this regime and everyone this regime regards as a threat, without the pretense of allowing dissent and protest.
To act as if it makes no difference to the masses of people—and to any movement against oppression and injustice, let alone any movement for an actual revolution—whether these very real fascists succeed in fully consolidating their fascist rule, is not simply to be out of touch with reality. It is to be out of touch with—and acting against—vital, indeed life-and-death, interests of the masses of people, not just in this country but throughout the world.
The reason for referring to this person as a “dogmatic narrow Black nationalist” is not simply because of their positive reference to the New Afrikan Black Panther Party. This line of argument—that there is really nothing new, or qualitatively different, in the fascism of the Trump/Pence regime—is something that is representative of a certain outlook, particularly among some bourgeois and petty bourgeois Black people who refer to the horrific oppression that is already being inflicted on Black people in this country to deny (or minimize) the very real danger—the far worse horror for Black people, for all oppressed people and ultimately for all of humanity—that is posed by the Trump/Pence regime and what it is moving to do, and will be in a greatly strengthened position to do, if it remains in power, and especially if it is given a re-election “mandate.”
This calls to mind a routine by Richard Pryor. He talks about how some Black people say, “I ain’t scared of no NAZIs, I’ll tell those NAZIs...” You won’t tell those NAZIs shit, Pryor retorts—except maybe, “Oh, nice boots you got there.” In other words, all this downplaying of the danger posed by real (not imaginary) fascists, who are already in power, will lead to craven capitulation to them when confronted with the reality and the full force of even more firmly consolidated fascist rule.
As Bob Avakian emphasizes in his August 1 Statement, using all appropriate means to remove this fascist Trump/Pence regime from power—including but emphatically NOT RELYING ON voting for Biden, if it comes to that, but with primary reliance on the continuing mobilization of masses of people around the demand that Trump/Pence must be OUT NOW!—is of crucial and urgent importance to prevent the full consolidation of fascist rule, with the even greater horrors this will involve, and to build toward the revolution that is needed as the fundamental solution to all the ongoing outrages caused by this system of capitalism-imperialism which, as Bob Avakian has also repeatedly emphasized, has given rise to this fascism.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
It is true that, in the “Ferguson uprising,” and today in the beautiful rising against white supremacy, police brutality and murder, there has been vicious repression carried out by police (and National Guard troops), ordered by Democratic Party politicians. That is a reflection of the fact that we live under a dictatorship all the time—the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie (capitalist class). But, before the Trump/Pence regime, this has been a dictatorship that has been exercised in the form of bourgeois democracy (democracy that is based in, conforms to and remains within the confines of the capitalist system and rule by the capitalist class over the masses of people). That contradiction—between the outer democratic appearance and the inner essence of dictatorship—has real meaning. It means that, so long as the form of bourgeois dictatorship is “democratic,” in order to maintain that democratic shell, the political and legal representatives of the ruling class have to allow certain “civil rights and liberties” to be exercised, up to a point, and at least make a pretense of respecting a “rule of law” that is not simply and nakedly the exercise of brute force over society as a whole, and against any attempt to oppose what the government is doing.
The reason that some people think that any kind of severe repression equals fascism is basically because they are fooled by the outer appearance of democracy—and in their minds “democracy” means that there is not supposed to be any repression, or at least not any severe repression—so when there is such repression, even in “normal times,” they believe that this is something other than democracy, when in fact the exercise of bourgeois dictatorship includes plenty of brutal repression when that dictatorship is exercised in the “democratic” form. But that is still qualitatively different than an actual fascist bourgeois dictatorship, which essentially drops all pretense of “democracy” and rules openly through violence and terror.
At times, times like now, the contradiction between the appearance of democracy and the essence of dictatorship can become very acute for the bourgeois ruling class. The fascists—the actual fascists concentrated in the Trump/Pence regime who are now in power—have been acting with a vengeance, and in an accelerating way, to resolve this contradiction by moving towards undisguised dictatorship, relying openly on terror and violence against those who oppose this regime and everyone this regime regards as a threat, without the pretense of allowing dissent and protest.
To act as if it makes no difference to the masses of people—and to any movement against oppression and injustice, let alone any movement for an actual revolution—whether these very real fascists succeed in fully consolidating their fascist rule, is not simply to be out of touch with reality. It is to be out of touch with—and acting against—vital, indeed life-and-death, interests of the masses of people, not just in this country but throughout the world.
* This is an excerpt from the article “On the Need for the Science of the New Communism, Not Dogmatic Narrow Nationalist Posing,” which is available at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
| revcom.us
This line of argument—that there is really nothing new, or qualitatively different, in the fascism of the Trump/Pence regime—is something that is representative of a certain outlook, particularly among some bourgeois and petty bourgeois Black people who refer to the horrific oppression that is already being inflicted on Black people in this country to deny (or minimize) the very real danger—the far worse horror for Black people, for all oppressed people and ultimately for all of humanity—that is posed by the Trump/Pence regime and what it is moving to do, and will be in a greatly strengthened position to do, if it remains in power, and especially if it is given a re-election “mandate.”
This calls to mind a routine by Richard Pryor. He talks about how some Black people say, “I ain’t scared of no NAZIs, I’ll tell those NAZIs...” You won’t tell those NAZIs shit, Pryor retorts—except maybe, “Oh, nice boots you got there.” In other words, all this downplaying of the danger posed by real (not imaginary) fascists, who are already in power, will lead to craven capitulation to them when confronted with the reality and the full force of even more firmly consolidated fascist rule.
As Bob Avakian emphasizes in his August 1 statement, using all appropriate means to remove this fascist Trump/Pence regime from power—including but emphatically NOT RELYING ON voting for Biden, if it comes to that, but with primary reliance on the continuing mobilization of masses of people around the demand that Trump/Pence must be OUT NOW!—is of crucial and urgent importance to prevent the full consolidation of fascist rule, with the even greater horrors this will involve, and to build toward the revolution that is needed as the fundamental solution to all the ongoing outrages caused by this system of capitalism-imperialism which, as Bob Avakian has also repeatedly emphasized, has given rise to this fascism.
 
* This is an excerpt from the article “On the Need for the Science of the New Communism, Not Dogmatic Narrow Nationalist Posing,” which is available at revcom.us. [back]
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Permalink: https://revcom.us/a/651/bob-avakian-radical-change-is-coming-en.html
| revcom.us
Editors note: This article written by Bob Avakian in June 2020 during the Beautiful Rising is highly relevant right now, especially in the context of recent events, and we highly recommend this to our readers.
For those who cannot help but hunger for a “return” to some kind of “normalcy” as an answer to the madness of Trump, Pence and the rest—forget it, it is not going to happen!
And nobody should want a return to the “normalcy” of this system. The “normalcy” of this system has always included the barbaric oppression of Black people and other people of color, with systematic terror, brutality and murder to enforce this oppression. It has always included vicious discrimination, bigotry and violence against immigrants, women, LGBTQ people, and any others regarded as inferior and “alien.” It has always included unjust wars for empire, and continuing crimes against humanity. It now poses a threat to the very existence of humanity through its increasing devastation of the environment and the ever present threat of nuclear war.
The outpouring of protest in response to the cruel, sickening murder of George Floyd—yet another link in the seemingly endless chain of murders of Black people and other oppressed people by police, acting with a smug sense of impunity, without fear of punishment—this powerful outpouring of outrage, bringing together not only Black people but others, of all races and genders and from all parts of the world, has begun to change the whole political landscape and culture, seizing the initiative in a very positive way from the ruling Trump/Pence regime and its fascist “base,” and challenging the whole paralyzing notion that the brutal reality of this system and its “norms” is the only possible reality and everyone just has to find their place within this and “do for self” as best as possible.
Faced with this rapidly changing situation, Trump has reacted with predictable threats, bullying and intensified repression, while others—who represent the same system but feel it is important at times like this to harness, “pacify” and “domesticate” the outrage—speak once again in terms of meaningless “reforms” and advocate a supposedly “softer” but still vicious version of the “law and order” which oppresses masses of people and represses any who dare to stand up against this oppression. Recognizing that it is likely to further inflame things to simply call for a return to the way things were before this outpouring of righteous rebellion broke through the suffocating routine of life under this system, there are voices representing a section of the ruling class, such as CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who are now speaking of the need for “a new normal” that will supposedly be more “just.”
But there is no “normal” of this system that does not involve systematic injustice, continuing outrage and horror, for people here and all over the world.
And the fascist Trump/Pence regime, which now controls key levers of power, and has called forth and cohered a mass base of fanatical followers, will accept no “new normal,” except one that carries the monstrous oppression of this system to even more barbaric extremes. If anyone is looking to the scheduled election in November as the way to solve things—painlessly and without turmoil and upheaval—first of all, it is not even certain that this election will actually be held. There is a definite possibility that Trump will find a way to “postpone” it, seizing on the continuing coronavirus crisis and/or some other pretext. (Yes, using COVID-19 as an excuse for canceling the election would be hypocritical, given the reckless way the Trump/Pence regime has approached this from the beginning—but who should be surprised by hypocrisy on their part?!)
Even if the election is held, there is a real chance that Trump could “legitimately” win, given the character of the “opposition,” from Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
And anyway, Trump is already preparing the ground to say the election was “rigged” if he is not declared the winner. Remember how, before the last election, he refused to say he would abide by the results if he lost? Now, he is proclaiming that in Michigan, and some other states, preparations for people to vote by mail is massive “fraud”—when, in fact, this is not only legal but highly sensible in the conditions of the coronavirus. At the same time, Trump and the Republican Party are making other moves to suppress votes, especially of people very likely to vote against them. And all this will almost certainly go on, in an even bigger way, as the time for the election approaches.
Further, if the election is held and Trump is not declared the winner but refuses to accept the results and insists he is still president, what about all those fascist followers of Trump, some of whom are already parading around with weapons and threatening people, including elected officials—what do you think they will do if Trump calls “fraud!” and calls on them to rally to his support? Remember how, during the 2016 campaign, Trump threatened his opponent, Hillary Clinton, talking about what “those Second Amendment people” might do to her? Remember how Trump has openly talked about how he has lots of supporters, among the police and the military, and among bikers and other “tough” people? And then, just recently, Trump has threatened to use the military to violently suppress protests against police brutality and murder.
Even if the election takes place and Trump loses, and he is prevailed upon to accept the results, and his MAGA-hatted madmen and women do not “rise up in arms” in the short run, do you really think they are just going to “go away,” or slink off passively, waiting for the next election?
Whatever takes place in relation to the election scheduled for November, nothing good will happen, and really terrible things are bound to happen, if those who cannot stand what is going on now with this regime—and the very real threat of far worse—do not find the ways, even in the conditions of COVID-19, to powerfully manifest that they are determined to drive this regime from power, without waiting for, and regardless of what goes on around, the scheduled November election.1
Digging down even deeper, the basic fact has to be faced that—even while Trump might very well use extra-legal (that is, illegal) means to remain in power—this fascist regime actually came to power in the first place not through a military take-over or some other violation of the principles and functioning of this “great democracy,” but through the “normal workings” of this system. And those “normal workings” will continue to wreak havoc in the world and on the masses of people in the world, through destruction of the environment, wars, massive displacement and desperate migration of people, on top of the ongoing savage inequalities, crushing exploitation and murderous oppression “written into the DNA” of this system and carried out by its brutal enforcers.
Because of all this:
in fundamental terms, this notion of a “return to normalcy” is an illusion that will be exploded by the nature and workings of the system of capitalism-imperialism to which the masses of humanity are subjected.2
For some time now, in speaking to the conditions of women, I have been calling attention to the fact that, with the changes in the U.S. and the world economy:
The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances—this is a powderkeg in the U.S. today.
And:
It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms and through extremely violent means. 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.3
This is true not only with regard to women, as important as that is, but for all those who are oppressed, degraded and brutalized under this system. It is true not just for the U.S., but throughout this highly interconnected but terribly unequal world, dominated as it is by this system of capitalism-imperialism.
In the beautiful outpouring of determined resistance to institutionalized racism and police terror, marked by a growing sense that this is somehow bound up with the very nature of this system and the many other injustices it continually perpetrates, we can see the potential for the revolution that can shatter those chains of oppression and open the way to a radically different and far better world, on an entirely new foundation. What remains to be done is to develop that potential into reality, bringing forward greater and greater numbers of people—through this present upsurge sparked by the murder of George Floyd, and through many diverse spheres of life and many different streams of struggle—who are fired with a determination to put an end to all oppression and are gaining the scientific understanding that this system of capitalism-imperialism is the source of all these inter-connected horrors, and are driven by the need and inspired by the possibility of bringing this system down and bringing that far better world into being.
1. Many of the points spoken to in this article regarding the dangers posed by the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and the possibility of this regime remaining in power regardless of what happens with the election scheduled for November, are spoken to and elaborated on very compellingly in The Worst-Case Scenario is Continuing to Accept a Fascist America by Coco Das, which is available at revcom.us, reposted from RefuseFascism.org. [back]
2. The Deadly Illusion Of “Normalcy” And The Revolutionary Way Forward. This article by Bob Avakian is available at revcom.us. [back]
3. This quote and the one above it are from a statement by Bob Avakian that was first published in 1985 and has been cited in a number of works since then, including Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution, Part III: “The New Synthesis and the Woman Question: The Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution—Further Leaps and Radical Ruptures,” which is also available at revcom.us. Emphasis has been added here to the second quote. [back]
See also:
THE DEADLY ILLUSION OF "NORMALCY" AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAY FORWARD
by Bob Avakian
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Editors' Note (March 9, 2021): The following piece by Bob Avakian was written in the first week of the beautiful rising against the murder of George Floyd and white supremacy.
I began the article “Radical Change Is Coming” with this blunt statement:
For those who cannot help but hunger for a “return” to some kind of “normalcy” as an answer to the madness of Trump, Pence and the rest—forget it, it is not going to happen!1
I went on to speak to ways in which the fascist forces aligned with Trump (and Pence) are preparing to rea