Revolution #259, February 12, 2012
On the occasion of Black History Month:
We are presenting on these pages a selection of quotes from BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian that focus on the oppression of Black people and the fight against that oppression. The struggle against the oppression of Black people is a crucial part of building the movement for revolution, which is aimed at getting rid of all oppression and exploitation and transforming society and the world as a whole.
These quotes from BAsics draw from more than 30 years of work by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. BAsics addresses a wide range of questions on revolution and human emancipation and is a handbook for a new wave of revolutionaries.
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BAsics
from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian
You can’t change the world if you don’t know the BAsics
BAsics 1:1
There would be no United States as we now know it today without slavery. That is a simple and basic truth.
BAsics 5:5
The “Bible Belt” in the U.S. is also the Lynching Belt.
BAsics 1:12
If you want to talk about who owes whom—if you keep in mind everything the capitalists (as well as the slaveowners) have accumulated through all the labor Black people have carried out in this country and the privileges that have been passed out to people on that basis—there wouldn’t even be a U.S. imperialism as there is today if it weren’t for the exploitation of Black people under this system. Not that the exploitation of Black people is the whole of it—there has been a lot of other people exploited, both in the U.S. and internationally, by this ruling class. But there wouldn’t be a U.S. imperialism in the way there is today if it weren’t for the exploitation of Black people under slavery and then after slavery in the sharecropping system and in the plants and other workplaces in a kind of caste-like oppression in the cities.
BAsics 3:17
People say: “You mean to tell me that these youth running around selling drugs and killing each other, and caught up in all kinds of other stuff, can be a backbone of this revolutionary state power in the future?” Yes—but not as they are now, and not without struggle. They weren’t always selling drugs and killing each other, and the rest of it—and they don’t have to be into all that in the future. Ask yourself: how does it happen that you go from beautiful children to supposedly “irredeemable monsters” in a few years? It’s because of the system, and what it does to people—not because of “unchanging and unchangeable human nature.”
BAsics 5:6
Editor’s note: Here Bob Avakian talks about the 1960s.
Between the anti-war protesters and the war planners in the Pentagon; between the Black Panthers and J. Edgar Hoover; between Black, Latino, Asian, and Native peoples on the one side and the government on the other; between the women who rebelled against their “traditional” roles and the rich old men who ruled the country; between the youth who brought forward new music, in the broadest sense, and the preachers who denounced them as disciples of the devil and despoilers of civilization: the battle lines were sharply drawn. And through the course of those tumultuous times, those who were rebelling against the established order and the dominating relations and traditions increasingly found common cause and powerful unity; they increasingly gained—and deserved—the moral as well as political initiative, while the ruling class dug in and lashed out to defend its rule, but increasingly, and very deservedly, lost moral and political authority.
BAsics 5:17
It is necessary to be boldly saying to people: “We don’t need the church, we don’t need the switch, we don’t need the rod, and, no, we don’t need the gangs and the drugs—we need revolution.”
BAsics 2:6
Let’s talk about work and housing together. Look at all these neighborhoods which under the rule of the capitalist system have been allowed and even encouraged to rot. Look at the youth and others just hanging out on the street corner with nothing to do or no way to do anything that doesn’t get them into one kind of trouble or another. Imagine changing all that because now we have the power over society—we go to these youth and we say, “Here, we’re going to give you training. We’re going to give you education. We’re going to bring you materials. We’re going to enable you to go to work to build some beautiful housing and playgrounds and neighborhoods here for yourself and those who live here.” Imagine if we said to them, you can not just work, you can be part of planning all this, you can be part of figuring out what should be done for the benefit of the people to make this society better and to contribute to making a whole different and radically better world. Imagine if for these youth, they could have a way, not just to make a living, building housing, hospitals, community centers and parks and other things people need, but at the same time, they could have the opportunity and the dignity of working together with people throughout society to build a whole better world. There’s absolutely no reason why these things aren’t possible except that we live under this system which makes them impossible.
BAsics 5:21
Do Black people need to take responsibility? Responsibility for what?
Responsibility for REVOLUTION—DEFINITELY! We all need to take responsibility for making revolution—to emancipate all of humanity from this whole system of oppression.
BAsics 3:34
If you want to know about, and work toward, a different world—and if you want to stand up and fight back against what’s being done to people—this is where you go. You go to this Party, you take up this Party’s newspaper, you get into this Party’s leader and what he’s bringing forward.
Bob Avakian—Leadership For a New Stage of Communist Revolution Bob Avakian has dedicated his life since the 1960s to the cause of revolution and communism. He is the Chairman of the RCP, USA. While providing practical leadership to the Party and the revolutionary movement, he has deeply studied and summed up the world historical experience of the communist revolution and the socialist societies it has brought into being—the great achievements and the serious problems and errors—and has studied many other fields of human experience and knowledge. He has advanced the science of communism and made decisive breakthroughs in the theory, method, and strategy of revolution and the final goal of communism throughout the world. It is crucial for growing numbers of people to know about and study his talks and writings...to defend and protect him...to take up the leadership he is providing, which opens new pathways for revolution. |
Get In...Get Out...Get Connected What you have in your hands is a taste of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian. This book is a powerful concentration of the work of Bob Avakian, who has brought the science and method of revolution to a whole new level, so that we can not only fight but really fight to win. Get into BAsics! This book is for everybody who is straining to understand why the world we live in is the way it is. And it is for everyone who dreams of changing that world. Buy this book... dip into it... go deeper... engage it. And talk about it with other people. Get BAsics out into the world! As you read and discuss BAsics — as you “get into” it — get it to others. And... Get connected with this movement for revolution! See if there is a Revolution Books in your area. Talk to people who are part of this movement. Share your questions and thoughts. Or email this newspaper. Read, subscribe to and spread Revolution newspaper. |
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