In these rare and urgent times, we should be aiming to make a true household name and unmistakable, repeated point of reference of Bob Avakian (BA), the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism. 

This person, this leader concentrates what is desperately needed, scientifically possible and eminently desirable: real revolution and the emancipation of all humanity. BA has quite simply done, and is doing, the work that nobody else has. He has forged real answers to questions that no one else is even asking, but are the most vital questions that humanity faces. 

Here is a simple fact that lots and lots of people need to know, but which nobody will know if we don’t tell them. Here are some simple things that are demonstrably true, that there is plenty of evidence to support, and that those in and around the revcoms should be saying constantly and broadly popularizing: 

Besides BA and the revcoms he leads, no other person, organization or political force in this country is even talking about making a real revolution. 

I repeat: No other person, organization or political force in this country is even talking about making a real revolution. 

Sure, lots of people out there will use the word "revolution," but they don’t mean anything close to what we mean. They mean some sort of vague “big change.” Or maybe, in fact, they pretty openly and unapologetically mean a small change. Quite likely they mean more “representation” and “agency” for a relatively small number of oppressed people WITHIN the continuation of this brutally oppressive system, or they mean a few additional oppressed people in positions of power carrying out that oppression of others. They sure as hell don’t mean overthrowing this system and emancipating humanity. 

So, we repeat: No other person, organization or political force in this country is even talking about making a real revolution... at a time when the need for real revolution is more pronounced and urgent than ever. 

That fact JUST BY ITSELF should be plenty of reason for anyone genuinely concerned with fundamentally changing the world—or anyone who could be won to this concern—to seriously check out BA. Just that alone! 

Of course, BA is doing far, far more than just “talking” about a real revolution. And people urgently need to know this too. Over a period of decades and in an ongoing way, he has forged a whole new framework of communism, building on, going beyond and in significant ways rupturing from what was understood through the first stage of communist revolution. He has brought forward the scientific method, strategy and vision and is providing the leadership that actualizes the possibility of sweeping away this system, defeating and dismantling its enforcers and institutions and bringing into being an entirely new economic, political and social system on the road to the emancipation of all humanity. He has written a concrete, vivid blueprint for that new system in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. 

If anyone doubts this, or doesn’t understand what that means, they should SEE FOR THEMSELVES. They should have the integrity to look into this free of the blinders of prejudice and preconception of one kind or another. 

I don’t know if this is still the case, but within the last few years the saying “TINA”—“there is no alternative [to the way things are]” was a pretty widespread and popular expression of the fatalism and cynicism of the doom scrollers. 

In any case, it is certainly the case that a great many good people who could be won to this revolution have accepted—and now, with the ascendancy of Kamala Harris, many are even currently excited about—the prospect of the lesser of two evils (if they even recognize it as “evil,”) being the best that humanity can strive for. 

Bullshit! 

We say—and this needs to become a massive theme on the social and political terrain, quickly: Here is the alternative... The only thing that truly breaks out of—and holds the potential to break humanity free of—the existing framework of capitalism-imperialism and all of the horrors that framework imposes on humanity: 

BA... The new communism he has forged... And the revolution he is leading to emancipate humanity from the horrors of this capitalist-imperialist system. THAT is the alternative.  

The Three S's

Now, everything I’ve said above—while critically important—is not actually that complicated. We should put it forward with the three s’s: simplicity, substance and swagger.

Again, the simple fact is: There really is no one else out there like BA and nothing else like the new communism he has brought forward and the revolution he is leading. 

I still don’t think we say this in this simple form nearly consistently enough, drawing immediately visible lines of demarcation around this very simple point.

It is both objectively true... and it has tremendous attractive force. 

Even if initially the numbers of people drawn forward by this are relatively very small, it is still objectively true, it still has tremendous attractive force, and those things in combination with our determined, relentless work to make BA a household name and point of reference, along with further developments in the objective situation, can cause those small numbers to quickly and exponentially multiply into large numbers. 

That is very important to understand. We should soberly recognize that the revcom forces are currently small and this is a bad situation that needs to be transformed quickly. But everything I've said above is true. And we cannot allow where we are at any given time to beat us down or demoralize us or put artificial ceilings on what is possible or what our work can achieve in a given time. 

Part 2: Simple and Complex.