Revolution #237, June 26, 2011

Alejandro del Fuego We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Alejandro del Fuego. Alejandro was a revolutionary communist youth from Houston who devoted the last years of his too-short life to the revolution. At 21 years of age, Alejandro (Alex) lost his battle with cancer. This is indeed a tragic loss. Revolution will be featuring more about Alejandro, his life, and a memorial that is being organized.

 

Alejandro del Fuego, 1989-2011. Photo: Li Onesto/Revolution

Alejandro (Alex) was very enthusiastic about the April 11 event, “On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World.” He was unable to attend the event because of his illness, but he was honored to contribute a video message to the celebration. Below is a transcript of his statement.

 

“All of this is essential to grasp for my generation.”

Good evening, this is Alejandro del Fuego with a message and revolutionary greetings.

Today, we live in tumultuous times. New rattlings and rumblings of the oppressed are ringing around us, while new seeds are gestating and opportunity and a challenge is presented to communists to nurture and lead this development.

This world is crying out for communist leadership and revolution. Bob Avakian represents the pinnacle of that leadership, as he has advanced the science and method of analyzing and transforming the world in a qualitative way. And yet, he’s gone further than that. He’s made this method accessible. He’s illuminating the pathway to a future world, not as a supreme leader with all the right answers but as a brilliant guide enabling others in all he does to understand the richness and complexity of this whole process.

All of this is essential to grasp for my generation.

All the teens and 20-somethings who are desperately searching for something more meaningful in their lives than another hazy, chaotic, and forgotten weekend—they need to know about Bob Avakian and the party he leads. The youth in high school—from those who have never been given the opportunity to dream, to those even in the most elite institutions who see the futility and apathy of a school system designed to socialize and confine, rather than educate and liberate their minds—they need to know about Bob Avakian. For those of us in my generation who are already in and around this, it’s our responsibility to let them know about BA, the BAsics, and to bring them in to changing the world.

Alejandro del Fuego was part of the Revolutionary Summer Youth Project that worked to spread the message and call from the RCP, “The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have,” in Harlem and Washington Heights during the summer of 2009. Photo: Li Onesto/Revolution

To me, BAsics represents a huge opportunity to spread this leadership and this method among masses from all sections of society, at a time when it is desperately needed. Bob Avakian has opened my eyes to the world as it is; although the situation may appear bleak, he has shown that there is much more to the internal contradictions which pervade society and which are not fully apparent without this scientific method he has advanced. He has shown that there is great potential for a future world, which can and must be wrenched from this one. Furthermore, he is actively leading a party and masses of people to take up the science of communism and make revolution here in the United States as part of an entire world revolution.

In his landmark speech, Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About, BA makes the point that this system of capitalism-imperialism is a cancer. Cancer is something I am intimately familiar with as I have been battling its growth within me for a year and a half at this point. Both of these cancers can seem insurmountable on the surface, however, the “game changer” in this situation is science. In terms of the worldwide struggle for communism, Bob Avakian has developed an entire scientific synthesis of the previous experience of proletarian revolution and is continuing to forge a new path.

It is with great pleasure and pride that I’ve been able to at least scratch the surface of his immense body of work, attempting to grasp his exhilarating insights and how it is that he has developed these. This body of work can, in a qualitatively new way, with the release of BAsics, be spread among masses of all strata empowering them to envision and struggle for a liberated planet.

I’m getting ready to get out there and spread BAsics, and this leader we have in Bob Avakian. I’m taking up the $200 Challenge and I challenge you to do the same.

 

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