We are excited to share the following invitation from The Bob Avakian Institute.
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RSVP HERE
The Bob Avakian Institute is hoping to involve those just learning about the new communism. If you have questions about criteria for participation, write to them at info@TheBobAvakianInstitute.org.
Join The Bob Avakian Institute for a weekly four-part Zoom introduction to the new communism that’s been developed by the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian.
In a time of rapidly consolidating MAGA fascism, impending threats of all-out world war between nuclear-armed powers, and cascading environmental crises, the world desperately, urgently cries out for radical change. It cries out for serious grappling with questions of revolution and the new communism. But what is “new” about the new communism? How does it radically differ from both previous communist theory and revolutions, but also from what passes as radical, anti-capitalist, and even “socialist” or “communist” thought today? Why are we in the situation we're in, and is another radically different—and far better—society and system possible?
Join us for a four-part Zoom discussion, Tuesdays, 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, starting July 22. To join these discussions, you do not have to be steeped in communist theory but you do have to want to learn, and engage. Bring your curiosity and your heart.
Finally, while we understand that things come up, we want to ask people—to the greatest degree possible—to commit to the four parts of the discussion.
Week 1. Tuesday, July 22:
Communism as a science: truth is objective, not subjective. It's not based on identity, and it's not personal (i.e., my truth, your truth). You need a scientific approach to understanding the truth to make an emancipating revolution. We'll get into why this is so.
The new communism represents a qualitative breakthrough in putting communism on a more thoroughly scientific foundation, rupturing with anti-scientific methods that have existed as a secondary contradiction to the overall scientific breakthroughs in communism since Marx. This also stands out in sharp contrast to the dominant modes of thinking today.
"Everything that is actually true is good for the proletariat, all truths can help us get to communism." – Bob Avakian, 2004
We'll watch: What is new in the new communism? (From the January 2025 interview with Bob Avakian),
Week 2. Tuesday, July 29:
A radically different vision of socialist society — dissent, ferment, the rule of law, and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.
The vision of socialism concretized in the new communism recognizes the need for a qualitatively different form of state power. From Bob Avakian regarding the Constitution he authored:
It is a fact that, nowhere else, in any actual or proposed founding or guiding document of any government, is there anything like not only the protection but the provision for dissent and intellectual and cultural ferment that is embodied in this Constitution [for the New Socialist Republic in North America], while this has, as its solid core, a grounding in the socialist transformation of the economy, with the goal of abolishing all exploitation, and the corresponding transformation of the social relations and political institutions, to uproot all oppression, and the promotion, through the educational system and in society as a whole, of an approach that will “enable people to pursue the truth wherever it leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity, and in this way to continually learn about the world and be better able to contribute to changing it in accordance with the fundamental interests of humanity.” All this will unchain and unleash a tremendous productive and social force of human beings enabled and inspired to work and struggle together to meet the fundamental needs of the people—transforming society in a fundamental way and supporting and aiding revolutionary struggle throughout the world—aiming for the final goal of a communist world, free from all exploitation and oppression, while at the same time addressing the truly existential environmental and ecological crisis, in a meaningful and comprehensive way, which is impossible under the system of capitalism-imperialism.
We'll watch this excerpt from the January interview with Bob Avakian on the above paragraph.
Week 3. Tuesday, August 5:
What is capitalism? How does it operate on a global scale, and why can't it be reformed? Everyone hates capitalism, but most people don't understand what it is and how it functions. The problem isn't CEOs or greedy politicians, the problem isn't “white people” exercising their “privilege.”
Building on what came before, the new communism represents a more scientific and dynamic understanding of capitalism-imperialism and its drivers, in the world today.
We'll watch two questions from the recent Interview on what capitalism is and is not.
Week 4. Tuesday, August 12:
Defeating Trump/MAGA fascism, the sharp divides among the rulers of this system, why it's a rare time when revolution is more possible.
From Bob Avakian's social media, we'll listen to:
Revolution #118: This system has brought forth Trump/MAGA fascism: People, in their millions, must put an end to this fascist regime—NOW—before it is too late!
Revolution #104: How can I talk seriously about a revolution when the fascist Trump just got elected?
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BACKGROUND:
The new synthesis of communism (or the new communism as it's popularly called) is a theoretical framework for a whole new stage of communist revolution, not just in this country but in the world as a whole.
Fundamental and essential to this new synthesis of communism is its emphasis on applying a thoroughly and consistently scientific method and approach to understanding the dynamics of society and to charting pathways for its revolutionary transformation. By breaking with aspects of communism that have run counter to its scientific method and approach, Bob Avakian has qualitatively advanced communism as a science.
On the basis of a consistently scientific method and approach, BA recognizes that the goal must be nothing less than an all-out revolution to emancipate all humanity. He has emphasized that “the new communism thoroughly repudiates and is determined to root out of the communist movement the poisonous notion, and practice, that ‘the ends justify the means.’”
The readings below are not required, but are suggested entry points to further engagement with the dimensions of the new communism discussed in this four-part series, which is itself not exhaustive!
OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL READING AND LISTENING:
WEEK 1, Tuesday, July 22:
• Revolution #108: “Lived Experience” Is Important—But It Doesn’t Tell You the Most Important Things You Need to Know. Now, More Than Ever, We Need Science.
• Philosophy and Revolution Part 1
Objective reality and truth, in opposition to paltry yet poisonous opportunism—perversions of communist theory in the name of proletarian/communist revolution
• A scientific approach—knowing and changing the world
from The Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution Nothing Less!—Show, 2022
WEEK 2, Tuesday, July 29:
• The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, Article III. Rights of the People and the Struggle to Uproot All Exploitation and Oppression, PDF.
• from The BA Interviews, in 2022, What was the problem you were working on in developing the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic?
Week 3. Tuesday, August 5:
• “Anti-Capitalist”—But Don’t Know What Capitalism Is
• Living Marxism vs. Vulgarized Marxism: Liberating Revolution, Not Lifeless Reformism, 2021
• Exploitation: What It Is, How to Put an End To It, 2023 (you can also watch the illustrated video from The RNL Show)
Week 4. Tuesday, August 12:
• From the January Interview with BA: