Bob Avakian Speaks

December 23, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

In 2012 Bob Avakian's body of work continued to flourish, develop, and deepen. Throughout  the year, new material by BA was released, speaking to the most essential questions of revolution and urgent issues of international significance. The most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of BA's works can be found online at revcom.us.

Two highlights from the past year:

What Humanity Needs: Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism. An Interview with Bob Avakian

At the beginning of 2012, an in-depth interview with Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, was conducted over a period of several days by A. Brooks, a younger-generation revolutionary who has been inspired by Bob Avakian's leadership, body of work, and the new synthesis of communism this has brought forward. From the outset and through the course of this interview, Brooks posed probing questions, dealing with a wide range of subjects, including: the challenges of building a movement for revolution in a powerful imperialist country like the U.S., and initiating a new stage of communist revolution in a world marked by profound inequalities and antagonisms, and repeated upheavals, but also the weakness of communist forces at this time; the content of the new synthesis of communism, its vision of a radically different and emancipating society and world, and how this applies to many different spheres of society and social life, such as art and culture and intellectual inquiry and ferment; previous historical experience of the revolutionary and communist movements; and the personal experience, as well as broader social experience, which led Avakian to become a communist and contributed to his development as a communist leader. The fact that Avakian did not know in advance what the questions would be, and that many of them came up through the course of the interview itself, adds to the liveliness of the interview and the living sense of the method with which Avakian digs into, examines from many angles, and "breaks down" the kinds of far-reaching and often complex questions which were posed in this interview and which have to be grappled with in confronting the challenges of radically transforming the world through communist revolution.

The interview was released in May in Revolution and at revcom.us, and a printed version is also available.

Cornel West Interviews Bob Avakian

In October 2012, the revolution crackled on the airwaves when the Smiley & West radio show (syndicated by public radio stations across the country) aired an interview of Bob Avakian by Cornel West. This interview is sharp and wide-ranging, challenging and inspiring. It gives a living sense of BA and the work he is and has been doing over decades—and that there really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and there is the leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal. The warm, heartfelt introduction by West and his thoughtful questions open the door to listeners to really check out BA if they haven't before, or to get deeper into him if they have. 

Download and stream this interview at revcom.us.

Other works that appeared during the past year:

* * * * *

  • "Tim Tebow and the 'Tuck Rule'" (an excerpt from the interview What Humanity Needs... published in Revolution #258, February 5)
     
  • "Tips for Tim Tebow" (Revolution #258, February 5)
     
  • "An Invitation" (Revolution #265, April 18)
     
  • "The Problem Then... The Problem Now—An Essential Truth About Opportunism" (Revolution #279, September 2)
     
  • Revolution #277, August 12, published a new quote by BA that began:
    "There is very developed theory; there is a very visionary and concrete program for a radically new society, aiming toward a radically different world as a whole, embodied in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal); there is a real strategy for making revolution—preparing for and then, when the conditions have come into being, carrying out this revolution—concentrated in the statement 'On the Strategy for Revolution'; there is the highest level of leadership we could have, in BA, who has brought forward a new synthesis of communism which involves a whole strategic approach to communist revolution; and there is a core of collective leadership, embodied in the RCP, which is carrying out work for revolution based on that new synthesis of communism. What is missing is YOU..."

    Go to revcom.us for the full quote.

Works that appeared earlier in video or audio format and were published in print in 2012:

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