Updated September 19, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
THE NEW COMMUNISM
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What People Are Saying About Bob Avakian and THE NEW COMMUNISM
“I love it when he talks about my people being all people…. My people across the board—I don’t care who they are…. he always puts the struggle against white supremacy at the center…. Second, the centrality of the issue of gender, the vicious forms of patriarchy inseparable from that white supremacy. Third, empire—invasions, dominations…. And the fourth, the planet—not just global warming. It’s ecological catastrophe that is impinging every day primarily owing to corporate greed and the elites who are in the driver’s seat of a capitalist civilization that cuts across national boundaries—that’s what you find in this text. And last but not least, the concern about our precious immigrant brothers and sisters and the vicious scapegoating that’s going on, the deportations under neo-liberal presidents, no matter what color they are. The attempt to [not] lose sight of their humanity. How do you bring these together in such a way that you have a united front? And that’s in part what he’s calling for, and I as a revolutionary Christian in the name of Jesus will be part of that united front, even given the disagreements that we might have. That’s why I like this text. That’s why it’s important.”
Dr. Cornel West speaking about THE NEW COMMUNISM at the launch for the book.
With america in the midst of a profound sickness evidenced by the continuing slaughter of black people by police recently—it is necessary that a literature be in existence that challenges our assumptions and lets us begin to understand that there is a way out of this suicidal madness. However we eventually get out of this mess it will take a profusion of ideas by fearless thinkers—and Bob Avakian is that.
What I found initially interesting about Avakian was that as someone who was around the black panthers, and while recognizing some of the failures of past counterculture movements, he has continued to push forward and create a dynamic synthesis and literature in a scientific way that gives us a basis to critique the roots and structures here that hold us in chains. He never lost the faith.
Matthew Shipp
During a recent event at Revolution Books in Harlem a patron presented reservations about a revolution, citing Malcolm X and that it would be bloody. This is an issue that Bob Avakian, as always, meets head on without equivocation in his latest book The New Communism. “You don’t make a revolution without tremendous sacrifice,” Avakian writes. This is a reality, he continued, “…you have to go through to get to a better world.” In this book, Avakian honestly and perceptively handles a number of questions about the difficulties of bringing about a total change in an oppressive system. It is a valuable addition to his corpus of work; a splendid exegesis of revolutionary potential.
Herb Boyd, author of the forthcoming Black Detroit—A People's Struggle for Self-Determination (Amistad Press, 2017)
THE NEW COMMUNISM is exciting! Hundreds of pages, decades of research, a method and approach to understanding and confronting reality, and a strategy to actually make a revolution in the 21st century. This is monumental; for the billions of people who catch the worst hell under this system, and for everyone wondering why the world is the way it is and how it could be radically different, Bob Avakian’s work is unrivaled! To get to a new and radically better society on the path to a world free of exploitation and oppression will take nothing short of a Revolution, not an easy task however you slice it. But, in BA’s work and leadership, readers and revolutionaries can discover the scientific method and approach that has been lacking in previous socialist movements, as well as an understanding of how revolutions are made, and ways to move forward today to fight the power and transform the people. Viva BA!
A young woman from West Africa
Having gone and listened to a live, public Bob Avakian speech, as I have, is to be exposed to one of the most provocative, serious and controversial social thinkers of our time. He's an American original who should be heard, debated and critiqued for these dramatic and troubling times.
James Vrettos, professor, John Jay College, NYC
This is a book of “big ideas” in an era where so few have the intellectual courage and the epistemological backbone to analyze social phenomena in their totality and in their mutual penetration... let alone while announcing one’s intentions to lead an actual revolution. The strategy and method of that revolution is drawn from precisely the book’s intricate analysis, which is full of suggestive provocations and sharp indictment of the capitalist system and prevailing culture.
A grad student in sociology
The world has been crying out for The New Communism!
The conditions of the masses of the world are intolerable, they have been awakening to political life and yearning for revolution.
It has been decades since the loss of the last socialist states and we would not be able to have a deep understanding of the reasons that led to the defeat of socialism by the defenders of the old order had it not been for the tireless investigation of BA that has led to the development of The New Communism.
The New Communism is what revolutionaries across the world have been needing to be able to break with the traditional ways of thinking of what true communism and a true revolutionary line based on a higher scientific understanding is, to be able to lead masses of people to emancipation. As Mao said: “The correctness and incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything” and this is what has been lacking in the revolutionary communist movement.
The New Communism, the correctness of the ideological and political line, along with other factors could have put the 1979 Revolution in Iran on a different path; it could have had taken the struggle in Peru to a different level and put Nepal on the map as the next socialist state.
The New Communism is the true meaning of internationalism, it is communism with a true global perspective, The Whole World Comes First, the angle from which communist revolutions need to be led within local boundaries.
The New Communism is as important to today’s world as Marx, Lenin and Mao’s work was to previous revolutionary struggles.
It needs to be taken broadly out to the masses of the world. Without The New Communism, there will not be a radically different socialist economic system; a radically different political system, the dictatorship of the proletariat; and a transition to communism, and the masses of people will suffer endlessly.
Internationalist supporter of BA's new synthesis of communism originally from Iran
Not very long ago I had an opportunity to read parts of and discuss a new book by Bob Avakian, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
His latest book, called THE NEW COMMUNISM: The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation.
As one who saw the movement of the 60’s and 70’s fall short, where there were so much to push one in the direction of a revolution—police beating and murdering Blacks, Natives, Latinos and others in the poor community across AmeriKKKa…. I never understood why there wasn’t a revolution then. Nor did I know what a revolution was, nor what it involved.
This new book by Bob Avakian reads more like a blueprint for the RCP and Revolution Clubs to build a better bridge to understanding even more about the science within a revolutionary movement, and how to seize and maintain control once a change is made!
With this system waging war in every country and even within its own borders! It is time for those being oppressed to utilize this new approach and break away from this stranglehold before we too are choked to death!
In this new, powerful book by BA he discusses the works of Lenin, Marx and Mao and modernizes their works better than anyone else ever has!
He scientifically breaks each one open and gives the reader the knowledge that with this new scientific approach a revolution is not only possible, but capable of being won, and a road to communistic society is foreseeable.
Former prisoner and
Revolution Club member
BA's new book gave me a better understanding of what political line actually means. And what it means to be a leader—an actual leader for the revolution that is yet to come. And that we actually need a science in order to make this leadership happen. Also it showed me that there can be a better society than capitalism. And that made me appreciate it more because as a Black man growing up in this society it was always very, very tough for me. The book gave me a way to understand that we need to make a new society and hope. I am eager to share this book with everybody.
A Revolution Club member
...I particularly enjoyed how BA stated the new constitution is constructed in such a way that you have to repeatedly win the masses of people to stay on the socialist road and ultimately communism. The very last sentence is an in-depth dialogue in its own right, continually winning people over to take up all manner of contradictions, including ones that the dogs put in your way to turn people against you.
I was likewise struck by the way BA issued the challenge that more people should be grappling with the new constitution to show what kind of society we’re fighting for of course. But also to convey how heavy all this is.
Excerpt from Letter from a California prisoner, on reading a pre-publication copy of THE NEW COMMUNISM
Bob Avakian has made trenchant observations and brought insightful analyses to a host of problems confronting contemporary society. He is genuinely concerned about the plight of the masses and has given much critical thought regarding proposed solutions for their uplift.
Norm R. Allen, Jr., author and founder of African Americans for Humanism
Why is the world the way it is?
Is there a way to change it?
Isn’t communism a nightmare?
What is socialism?
What kind of world could we build?
From questions of morality to questions of what is reality, from the science and its role in changing the world. The more crucial questions for human emancipation are not just explored but deeply developed in this book in a very profound way. Have you ever felt in the Matrix as Neo when he took the red pill? Have you ever felt the veil of illusions, ignorance and lies fed to you by this system get dissipated? Revealing, challenging, bold, and very accessible. That is what this book is about, Bob Avakian challenges the ways you think about yourself, and the world, it exposes what ways of thinking represent what interests, it challenges you to take action in the road to emancipate the whole world, not just a group of people, an area or a country, but all of it. And it gives you a way to do so. This is the science, the strategy and the leadership humanity needs for bringing into being a whole new world. It all is in here and is a challenge from beginning to end.
A young woman from Latin America
The first work I read of Bob Avakian takes you to another place; In understanding, Challenging and critically changing this world. From a time I was cynically hardening to a thoroughly US American system, To have this body of work wrench and ground me in reality is beyond amazing. Confronting Topics, Vocabulary and theories I’m continually understanding better, is exciting. To know that The 7 billion around the planet can get to a world without exploitation and oppression ... As BA has said, Why strive for anything less? This needs to be in every hand and mouth; beyond coast and coast; from suburbia to the projects and high rises and even further into those who the system has no place literally on the fringes of society. THE NEW COMMUNISM, Damn, Now THAT’s a book to read.
A young Black woman
Bob Avakian is a fearless revolutionary fighter for the poor and oppressed people throughout the world. From what I see of him throughout my years in the struggle, Avakian has dedicated his life to addressing everything that stands in the way of people getting free, and this book is a product of all that work. Anybody who looks at the world and sees police getting away with murder or people driven from their homes in countries around the world by wars and wonders what, if anything, can be done to stop things like this from happening again and again needs to read The New Communism.
Nicholas Heyward, father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr.—murdered by New York Police Dept. in 1994
Before I was released from prison, I had the opportunity to read BA’s latest work, The Science, The Strategy, The Leadership for An Actual Revolution, and A Radically New Society on the Road to Real Emancipation. This talk which he gave the summer of 2015 touched on a lot of significant points in a very concise manner, while at the same time reinforced key contradictions that we must become better at. The more we strive to reorient people towards approaching the problem and solution from a scientific approach, the better we will be overall in creating a material force—a movement for revolution—that will be capable of carrying out a real revolution in this imperialist country, and once successful, expanding that material basis on an international scale. Because in the last analysis, communism is about fundamentally transforming the whole world and being emancipators of all of humanity not just the proletarians and basic masses within the borders of the United States.
Excerpt from Letter from an ex-prisoner, on reading a pre-publication copy of THE NEW COMMUNISM
Dear Revolution: I am really excited about the publishing of the latest major work by Bob Avakian, "The science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution, and a radically new society on the road to real emancipation", in the form of a book, with an apt new title, The New Communism. I believe this to be an historic event at an historic moment, with world wide ramifications for the future of humanity.
At a time when people in this society are standing up against and resisting oppression and taking a firm stand against police brutality, the timing could not be more opportune. Also, there is a great upheaval in the world, and the Imperialists are having to deal with ever sharpening unresolvable contradictions. This has the potential for sudden jolts in the system of capitalism imperialism.
Besides, the suffering in the third world, (including the South Asian subcontinent, the area I migrated from); the death and destruction caused by wars for empire; the human suffering of displaced persons/refugees; the constant degradation of the environment with catastrophic possibilities, are all crying out for communism.
Since the restoration of capitalism in China in 1976, after the death of Mao, the first wave of communist revolutions practically came to an end. In the new era, Bob Avakian, coming out of the upsurge of the 60's, emerged as a new revolutionary leader, who took over the responsibility of deeply analyzing the whole previous revolutionary experience, studying both their short comings and great achievements, with the aim of finding what led to the reversal of communism in China, and how to move forward from there on.
His painstaking work of several decades culminated in " The New Synthesis". As Ardea Skybreak has rightly said in her interview:".... Bob Avakian's work in this period is actually ushering in a new stage of communism". BA's work has taken the science of communism to another level, and in addition to making significant leaps in many aspects of revolutionary theory, and important ruptures, he has also made crucial breakthroughs and resolved crucial contradictions, putting the science of communism on a far more firm foundation. He has raised Internationalism to a new dimension, completely breaking with narrow nationalism, national chauvinism, identity politics and the like. This is reflected throughout his works: "... the whole world comes first", "...American lives are not more important than other peoples lives", "...emancipation of humanity" and so on. Today, in the era of the second wave of communist revolutions, BA's New Synthesis is the only correct revolutionary theory that can lead to a successful revolution. His breakthroughs and path breaking contributions, put him at a par with the founders of communism, Marx and other great communist leaders, Lenin and Mao.
In the global situation that prevails today, anyone who cares about humanity and its future, has got to get connected with BA, engage with him and spread his vision world wide, so that people can be armed with "The New Communism", to prepare and organize for communist revolution, to deliver humanity from the clutches of Capitalism-Imperialism; end all forms of oppression and exploitation, and build a socialist society, on the march to achieving the final goal of communism world wide.
An internationalist supporter of the new synthesis from South Asia
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