Revolution—Nothing Less!

A Powerful Week of Resistance and Struggle—A Need to Take It Higher and Further

July 11, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

This has been an intense and painful and—because of the struggle of the masses—a very positive week. It began last Tuesday with the police cold-bloodedly murdering Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for nothing. It went on with the murder by Falcon Heights, Minnesota, police of Philando Castile, and then the abusive arrest of his fiancée as she watched and courageously live-streamed it on Facebook. People rose up in protest for the first time in a long time, and righteously so. Then the authorities tried to seize on an incident in Dallas where five police were killed (at a time when more than 500 civilians have already been killed by police this year) to suppress protest.

It didn’t work. This weekend saw the inspiring sights of people not only refusing to go along with the efforts of the rulers to tamp down and squash righteous resistance to police murder, but a stepping up of protest in key cities and a heightened militancy. People are beginning to make very clear that those who want to protest and rebel against this are NOT going away, and they are NOT going to be quelled by calls for dialogue, for letting the system work, etc. The people are not going to be shoved off the streets or out of public awareness by a massive effort on the part of the rulers to “change the subject.” And they are not going to allow the violent attacks by the police, the threats with automatic weapons, the tear gas and pepper spray, to stop this.

These protests have already accomplished a great deal. They have forcefully demanded that this outrageous running sore of this system be stopped, and have made clear there is a growing section of people, from many sections of society and different nationalities, who are not going to be turned around. They have raised major questions about why this keeps happening, over and over, and what must be done. They have compelled people to confront that what has been promised and done up to now can in no way cut it. The protests have forced Obama to address this at a goddamn NATO conference in Europe and done damage to America’s totally hypocritical efforts to pose as the “champion of human rights.”

And these protests have raised in the minds of the rulers and their spokespeople in the media the real fear that millions of people will come to believe that the armed power and force of this system is ILLEGITIMATE and should not be allowed to continue. More than a few—including Obama—have referred to the last great period of revolutionary upsurge in this country, the 1960s.

Obama, of course, said that this was NOT [yet] on the scope and scale of the 1960s, as have others. But two things on that. One, the fact that they are having to even raise this and address it indicates both the possibility for things to develop to that scale (and beyond) and their real fears of that happening. And two—and this is something pointed to by some of their commentators—the underlying contradictions in this society today are even more potentially explosive than they were “back in the day.” This is a “jolt” in the normal workings of the system which forces millions to suddenly think about things that they have not been thinking about; and it could, with the work of revolutionaries as well as other developments, lead to an even deeper crisis. (See the RCP’s statement “On the Strategy for Revolution” for more on this.)

The protests in Baton Rouge and Minnesota and elsewhere must continue, grow, and intensify. The protesters and defiant ones must be defended against the vicious attacks and intimidation carried out by the police, who have now arrested several hundred people across the country, beating on people and spraying them, and brandishing guns at protesters. And as people rise up, the question is posed: WHY do these murders by police keep happening? WHY do these police come down with vicious repression whenever people stand up? The fact is that there IS a way out of this madness and horror, through actual revolution, overthrowing this system at the earliest possible time, based on a scientific analysis of the history and structure of this society. We have the strategy and leadership for this, in Bob Avakian, and we are working right now to hasten the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win.

Find out more about the revolution         Find out about BA, the leader of the revolution

The revolution must be much more powerfully present. People need to be getting and distributing the RCP Central Committee’s Message, “Time To Get Organized for An ACTUAL Revolution.” People need to hear about and get into the leadership of Bob Avakian, get his quotes and works and see his image. People need to be hooked up with revcom.us. The revolution needs to tap into and give expression to people’s desire to participate in all this, to dig more deeply into the problem we face and the solution of revolution, and to get organized into the movement for revolution, to contribute in whatever way they can.

So far, the Revcoms in the Revolution Club have played a very positive role in all this. Many have sacrificed to travel long distances to be on the front lines and spread revolution. Some have stepped to the forefront of mass rallies, agitating and giving shape and revolutionary direction to things. Now is the time to step all this up, to forcefully project the Club and to bring new people into it. As one part of this, the chants and slogans and posters and banners and T-shirts of the Club must be spread and others enabled to take this up. As another, there need to be meetings on the spot with people who want to dig deeper into where this comes from, how it’s linked to other outrages, and what it’s really gonna take to bring down this monster and end this 400-year reign of terror against Black people, as well as all the other horrors of this society.

All this, including the healthy and sometimes vigorous struggle it will give rise to among the protesters themselves, will actually strengthen the resistance, as people debate and test and apply different ideas, searching for what is true and correct.

This resistance against police terror and murder must also find powerful expression in Cleveland, a week from now, when the Republicans nominate an outright fascist—which itself says volumes about the utter illegitimacy of the system. Cleveland, remember, was the home of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, murdered in cold blood by Cleveland pigs—pigs who walked totally free. And it was the home of Timothy Russell and Melissa Williams, unarmed Black people murdered, shot at 137 times by Cleveland pigs—who, again, walked totally free. Everybody who is outraged around these murders needs to build for, support, and come out to the week of defiance now being planned, right up in the face of the anointment of this utterly illegitimate racist, misogynist, and poisonous national chauvinist.

And this must also be a major focus of struggle in Philadelphia a week later when the Democrats—including Hillary Clinton (with her long history of repressing Black youth which she must not be allowed to run away from)—gather. This, too, is a city with a long history and present-day reality of police terror and murder against Black people—including the bombing of a house of Black radicals from the MOVE organization in 1985 by a Black Democratic mayor—a bombing that killed 11 people, including three children—and where the only person who did a lick of time was MOVE member and bombing victim Ramona Africa!

Finally, we are re-running the basic reality checks that we published on Friday, July 8, when the offensive against this movement began.

 

 

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