Posts by issue number/Posteos por número de la edición

Over the next few days, go all out to build for the special broadcast of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show:

An important message from Bob Avakian:

2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror.

Watch it together with friends, family, comrades... everyone you can. Spread the word to others.

Thursday, January 16, 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 5 pm Pacific

YouTube.com/TheRevcoms and @BobAvakianOfficial

DONATE now so that this can reach widely as soon as it’s posted.

** We also want to share a letter we got from a volunteer fundraiser with her experience and insights about raising funds over these last several weeks. If you have ideas, insights, or questions, write to us at info@BobAvakianOfficialEverywhere.org. Especially in light of the announcement above, think big. 

From a volunteer fundraiser:

In this last effort around the Fundraising Campaign to get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere, I raised over $2,200 from about 30 people. The donors I talked to included students and lawyers, an educator, a librarian, immigrants and others. People gave anywhere from $5 to $500. 

After the election, many were shocked and devastated that Trump won. People I talked to really didn’t understand why millions of people voted for him when he was so openly racist, sexist and hated immigrants. There was revulsion to all of that, uncertainty and fear about what the future would bring. And there were big questions about what we could do about it. 

I see the need to get Bob Avakian’s social media messages out widely in society and to reach millions. And I know this will take serious funds. Whenever I could, I played Bob Avakian’s social media messages so people could hear him directly.

In the aftermath of the election, I especially wielded REVOLUTION #102 (“Two Countries” Within This Country—And The Whole Damn System’s Got To Go!); REVOLUTION #104 (How can I talk seriously about a revolution when the fascist Trump just got elected?); and REVOLUTION #111 (We revcoms are serious—and all decent people need to be serious—about actually defeating this Trump/MAGA fascism). 

Hearing BA opened up another way for people to look at the situation, seeing that it wasn’t hopeless. These messages spoke to what people were feeling... and answered what they were agonizing over. After hearing them, the people I spoke with could see the difference it would make if they were heard by the people who in their tens of millions could be a force that could defeat the fascists. People wanted to donate so we could reach all those other people who felt the way they did—that we could not accept a fascist future. Many people who heard a clip wanted to hear more and some said they would spread it to others. 

I showed people the website BobAvakianOfficialEverywhere.org, especially the Intro to Bob Avakian, which has several clips with him that give a sense of who he is, what revolution is, and what kind of society becomes possible having made a revolution. Watching this intro gave people a sense of who BA is. One librarian saw this and said, “He’s very persuasive” and other people said, “He’s telling the truth.” 

I gave people examples of what their donations could do, e.g., if you give $100, these messages could reach 4,000 people, and I got six donations of $100. I found a real openness from new people, especially to learn more about BA and what he is saying. 

To draw some overall lessons:

1) I learned that it really matters that people who are considering giving a donation listen directly to BA himself. And it mattered that I was really familiar with them so I could play people different ones to speak to things they were thinking about and asking. 

2) Ask everyone to donate—go really widely and broadly. You can’t predict ahead of time who is thinking about deep questions. If you don’t ask, people won’t give. And if people say no, you can learn from it. 

3) When you ask someone to donate to get this revolutionary voice impacting society, you are asking them to give to the most important thing there could be—a future fit for humanity. And they are becoming part of a bigger effort with people across the country. We are opening up a conversation and relationship with people by talking to them about Bob Avakian and this revolution. BE BOLD! 

“So long as we are still living under the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, we will defend people against attacks on their lives and on the rights that are supposed to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. But we need a whole different system, with a whole different Constitution—the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America—which will provide much greater rights for the people, including the basic right to have the fundamentally determining role in a new society and government whose purpose and goal is to eliminate all exploitation and oppression, everywhere.”

—WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM

With outright fascists now coming into positions of dominance in all three branches of government, the above point of orientation from We Need and We Demand assumes even greater importance. As does the following, from Bob Avakian’s talk Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed:

This brings up another important dimension of working for revolution—and opposing the fascists as part of doing that: It is necessary to sharply expose and oppose—and fight to politically and practically overcome—the reality that for white supremacists and fascists generally the Second Amendment, the "right to bear arms," has been regularly upheld and given the backing of the law and the courts, and the support of the police and other institutions of the state; while for Black people, other oppressed people, and generally those opposing the oppression and injustice of this system, the "right to bear arms," even in self-defense, has been actively opposed and suppressed.

This is made graphically clear in the book by Carol Anderson focusing on the Second Amendment—The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. This book contains (yet more!) searing exposure of the depraved violence visited upon Black people throughout the history of this country, and speaks to how the "right to bear arms" has never applied to Black people, and instead there has been the perverse "right to kill" Black people, on the part of the powers-that-be and racist whites generally. This cannot be allowed to continue!

And it is not just around what is represented by “the Second Amendment” that a determined fight must be waged, but around the many ways in which the approach to rights that are supposedly guaranteed to people is applied in a highly unequal way, so that oppressed people, and those acting against the oppressive relations of this system, constantly find their rights attacked, “abridged,” or outright denied and suppressed. In waging this fight, it is important to recognize and, to the degree possible, take advantage of this contradiction: In reality, under this system of capitalism-imperialism, rights and liberties are determined, and limited, in accordance with what serves the interests of this system and its ruling class; but, we are constantly told that, under this system, there is “liberty and justice for all,” and the rulers of this system, or at least some of them, feel it is important to maintain this myth. Again, to the degree possible, this contradiction must be seized on, in waging the fight to defeat attempts by the enforcers of this system to violate what are supposed to be basic rights, in their moves to suppress people rising up against this system and its profound injustice.

But, most fundamentally, this fight must be waged with full awareness, a scientifically grounded understanding, of the essential nature of this system, with the orientation and goal of working toward the overthrow of this system and the dismantling of its relations and institutions of vicious exploitation and blood-soaked oppression and repression.

Intense, uncontrolled fires have been tearing through the greater Los Angeles area, forcing at least 180,000 people to evacuate homes, incinerating 12,000 structures, tearing apart many people’s lives. These are the largest in the history of Los Angeles, and among the largest urban fires in U.S. history. The fires have already killed 24 people. 

As we write, the fires have not been contained, and the intense Santa Ana winds continue to whip the fires, which jump from house to house, leap over freeways, and bring hell to the people and environment of Southern California. Dense and toxic smoke hangs over large portions of the city.

Capitalist-Driven Climate Change Sets the Stage for Catastrophic Fires

The fires and the devastation they are causing are a product of three overlapping factors:

• One, Southern California has been in the grip of an extreme dry spell, which scientists point out is linked to climate change, and which has left the area parched and very flammable.
• Two, very intense, hurricane-force winds have made the fires impossible to stop by the currently existing fire departments. The winds have carried burning embers for miles, where new fires start.
• Three, shortsighted, unplanned, and environmentally irrational capitalist development in LA has led to more and more homes being built in forested or semi-forested areas. This makes people more vulnerable and makes fires more likely to ignite from sparks caused by human activities. And on top of building homes where they should not be built, the system has failed to develop firefighting capacity that can deal with the enormity of the firestorm conditions the system itself has created.

Capitalism-imperialism—with its exploitative, profit-based, anarchic development—has burned and continues to burn oil and natural gas. This profit-driven dependence on fossil fuels results in the massive release of carbon and methane that traps heat in the atmosphere. Which leads to rising temperatures and climate change engulfing our planet... that now threatens ecosystems and life itself. (See the resource page: Capitalism-Imperialism Is Destroying the Planet… Only Revolution Gives Humanity a Real Chance to Save It.) 

Climate change and capitalism have created a tinderbox in Southern California, and it has exploded into flames.

Fascist Lies in Service of “Drill, Baby, Drill”

The MAGA fascist, climate-denying/anti-science Trump has seized on the crisis to attack environmentalists and California governor Gavin Newsom. Trump lied that firefighters ran out of water to fight the fire in some areas because of measures to use water to save endangered fish in northern California. Water for saving the fish had nothing to do with the water for fighting the fires. The fire hydrant system in LA was designed for fighting one or two house fires—not hundreds. That is one of the reasons it crashed against limits. 

A System Problem, a Radically Different, Far Better System Urgently Needed 

The reality is that BOTH the Democrats and Republicans have completely failed to do what is needed to respond to climate change. It is the system that they preside over and safeguard that has brought us to this precipice!

For decades, climate scientists have warned of the dangers of burning fossil fuels. For decades they have called for the rapid phasing out of fossil fuels and the radical reconfiguration of economies and societies. Yet here we are...

• There is no massive reduction of carbon emissions... and 2024 was the hottest year in recorded human history.
• The U.S. under Biden-Harris has been producing more oil and natural gas than any other country.
• Trump is promising even more devastating assaults on the environment.

System Problem... Fundamentally Different System Urgently Needed 

The fires in LA—and the ever more horrifying climate change itself—are fundamentally a SYSTEM problem. And the answer is revolution and a whole new and far better system. This revolution is POSSIBLE. It is the ONLY WAY OUT for humanity. And it must be URGENTLY WORKED FOR right now, as the fascist Trump comes to power. 

Don’t be taken in by the profound lie that “there is no alternative.” Bob Avakian (BA) has authored a developed, visionary, and viable plan (see box) for a whole new emancipating society in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America that can actually confront and act on the environmental crisis on the scale, and with the urgency, and planetary perspective required. This encompasses but goes far beyond the environment—providing a sweeping vision, firm foundation and concrete blueprint for transformation in every sphere, and with a degree of the positive freedom to act together to transform the world AND the freedom to—and support for—dissent, critical thinking, and ferment on a scale never before seen anywhere. 

WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM addresses the environment like this:

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons, Finally Abolishing War, and Systematically Addressing the Environmental Crisis

The new socialist government will not develop or use nuclear weapons and will take concrete steps and wage determined struggle to abolish nuclear weapons everywhere, with the ultimate goal of finally abolishing wars among human beings, with the abolition of the capitalist-imperialist system, and all systems and relations of exploitation and oppression, which are the basis for wars. This new socialist government will move, quickly, systematically and effectively, to address the already acute and fast accelerating environmental crisis, with the aim of bringing into being a world where humanity can truly be fit caretakers of the earth.

All this is not just a dream, or a wish—it is what is possible and necessary in the interests of the masses of people in this country and the great majority of humanity, and for the future of humanity as a whole.

All this is why there is an urgent need, and we boldly dare to demand—and we call on all those who hate injustice and hunger for a society and a world where people can fully thrive and give the fullest expression to their humanity, to join in making this the demand of millions and tens of millions—a demand which can finally be made a reality through the fearless, determined struggle of those millions and tens of millions:

The Existing Capitalist-Imperialist System And Institutions Of Government In This Country Must Be Abolished And Dismantled—And Replaced By A New, Socialist System Based On The CONSTITUTION FOR THE NEW SOCIALIST REPUBLIC IN NORTH AMERICA.

What the fires burning now in Los Angeles underscore is that there is no time to lose.

We can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that humanity does not have to live this way.
—Bob Avakian

For how such a revolution could be made, see Bob Avakian’s social media messages Revolution #1-11; and for how this relates to the current situation of a fascist regime coming to power, see BA’s messages Revolution #102-111.

Beginning Tuesday morning, January 7, the largest urban wildfires in L.A. County history, and among the largest urban fires in U.S. history, struck like an explosion. The hurricane-force Santa Ana winds¹ right away spread the fires in every direction. As of Sunday, at least 180,000 people had been forced to evacuate their homes; over 12,000 homes and other structures had been destroyed, including schools, churches, synagogues and mosques. 800,000 people were without power; and—so far—there have been at least 24 deaths and another 16 are missing, with the figures continuing to rise. 

Horrific as it is right now in LA, such fires have been occurring more and more frequently all around the globe. These fires are connected to the larger problem of global climate change—one effect of which is an overall rising temperature of the earth, hotter and drier days, and more fires. This problem of climate change comes from the system of capitalism-imperialism and its need for ever more oil, gas, coal and “fossil fuels.” How and why this is so is covered elsewhere in this issue. We also talk elsewhere about the inspiring way people have been volunteering—and how in a socialist society this spirit could much more fully flower. Here we want to get into some of the ways this has hit people in LA.

Many of the stories are heartbreaking. Among those who have died was a man whose body was found still holding a garden hose he was using to try to save his home, and a grandmother who refused to leave her home despite her family's pleas. A man was found next to his son, who had cerebral palsy and could not walk—their family had been prevented from entering the area to rescue them, and the promised rescuers never came. 

Firefighters and other rescue workers were overwhelmed in the early, most critical period. The two major fires were more than 30 miles apart, and the violent winds blew burning embers for miles while making it impossible to rely on air support for water drops. On top of that, there were not nearly enough fire fighters needed for such a firestorm.

The winds have subsided for now, and helicopters have been finally able to drop water on the fires. Yet the fires are still not contained. The skies over parts of LA are still filled with smoke and ash, and people have been wearing masks whenever going outside. Many have bags packed, unsure whether they may be the next to be forced to evacuate. 

For people living throughout the LA area, there's no escaping the fact of the fires—local television coverage has been non-stop, 24/7, on every channel. Ashes coat almost every neighborhood. Constantly seeing the destruction and terrifying flames is casting a pall, as everyone tries to even imagine what the future will hold.

And now more high winds are projected from Sunday night—with not a drop of rain in sight.

Pacific Palisades, and Eaton Canyon/Altadena

The two largest areas affected are 35 miles apart: Pacific Palisades, with a population of 23,000, is west of downtown LA, sitting atop the cliffs overlooking the ocean at Malibu; Altadena, with about 43,000 residents, is part of the Eaton Canyon area northeast of downtown, in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. 

Pacific Palisades has a mix of wealthy and middle class people. It's home for a great number of actors, celebrities, and artists, many having lived there for decades. From the air, Pacific Palisades now looks as though it were bombed, while most of the beachfront homes along the Malibu coastline have been reduced to ashes. 

This area's fires have been named the most destructive in the modern history of Los Angeles. And now as people whose homes are burned to the ground consider how to recover, they come face to face with the profit motive of the capitalist system. Because the Palisades are one of the five Southern California areas with the highest danger of wildfires, many insurers are canceling home owner policies or refusing to issue new policies. The state insurance commissioner has now blocked insurance non-renewals and cancelations in fire zones. Where things go next remains to be seen. 

This Catastrophe Has Devastated Many Artists and Their Creations

Many artists in both Pacific Palisades and Altadena have lost not just their homes but decades of artistic works. One artist posted on Instagram a list of at least 28 other artists who have lost their homes and their art. One artist said she was mourning “over 20 years of artmaking,” including hundreds, if not thousands, of prints, drawings, and sculptures in metal, ceramic and glass, that she stored in her home studio. “Now it’s evaporated.” 

A celebrated artistic filmmaker and her husband, a conceptual artist, stored their archive—including decades of raw video footage, master tapes, hard drives and paintings—in a temperature-controlled garage, which has burned to the ground. “It’s hard to live to be 62 years old and lose your entire life in one night.” 

Altadena’s Black Community

Altadena is a very diverse, multinational community, with a prominent grouping of artists as well. It has for decades been home to a significant Black community. Beginning with the Great Migration in the early-middle 20th century, when great numbers of Black people were escaping Jim Crow segregation in the South to cities in the northern and western U.S., Altadena was one of the few places where Black and other minority people could purchase homes in metro Los Angeles because the area was exempt from the discriminatory practice of redlining and race-restrictive covenants (agreements that new homebuyers had to sign agreeing not to sell to non-white people). Altadena's population is now 20% Black, with a significant number of Black homeowners.

Now, for a good portion of these Black residents of Altadena, everything they had invested in their homes has gone up in smoke. And because many of them were uninsured, the stress of possibly losing everything can be overwhelming. This can be seen on people's Instagram postings. One Black woman, standing in front of what's left of her home—a concrete foundation and chimney—went from attempting a smile to bursting into tears: “We lived here our whole lives.” 

Another Altadena resident, an older Black man, said in tears: “I used to be a guy who had everything. I lost everything. I spent my whole life helping people. I didn’t think it would happen to me. But it did!”

An inspiring development has been how quickly thousands of people are organizing to provide food and clothing to those forced to evacuate because of the fires. People and organizations are contributing millions of dollars. In Altadena in particular, people have come to donate clothes, to share stories and insights and to find other ways to help. World Central Kitchen—an organization founded by chef José Andrés to feed people in areas of need and which had some of its people murdered by Israeli bombs while they were helping to feed starving people in Gaza—was on the scene in Pasadena. 

But this is a society organized to meet the needs of capital, not the needs of people. And the futures of the people devastated by the fires are now in the hands of that system. 

Who vs What Is to Blame

As the LA fires continue to spread, threatening lives and structures, already the battle over who to blame is gaining momentum. To whatever extent deserved, the targets of attack are solely limited to the mayor and local government, the fire departments, and others. The focus has not been where it belongs, on what is to blame. 

At the same time, it is important that people be supported in just demands for immediate relief, decent housing and what they’ve been burnt out of, and jobs or other means to survive. But even more important, people need to be given the tools with which to understand the roots of the problem, the revolution we need to overcome it, and how to make that revolution.

As the accompanying article points out, “Climate change and the fires in LA are fundamentally a SYSTEM problem. And the answer is revolution and a whole new and far-better system.”  

There are a million ways that the nightmare of the fires currently surrounding Los Angeles cry out for system change—most of all the urgent need for humanity to sweep away the system that is driving climate change, through its insatiable unquenchable thirst for fossil fuels.

But in these smoke-filled days, something has emerged through the ash and rubble that shows both the need and potential to bring a whole different society and system into being. Throughout Los Angeles, there is a groundswell of people looking to help. And under capitalism, there is no rational, collective and socially coordinated way to give that real backing and to unleash the potential of the masses to work together to meet people's needs in this kind of crisis.

Early in the fires, the LA Fire Department requested assistance from off-duty firefighters. This was misunderstood as a request for anyone to volunteer and the phone lines were flooded with people who didn't have training, but who wanted to help. In this situation, it would actually be unsafe to have untrained people on the front lines fighting fires, but it does show the untapped potential of people who want to sacrifice for the greater good.

All over LA, individuals and groups of friends are taking creative initiative: to set up big donation centers, and shelters; to give advice on dealing with insurance companies; to pass out supplies like water and N95 masks. These are popping up at racetracks, high schools, bookstores, art galleries and more and donations are pouring in with word spreading largely through social media. 

There are almost 1,000 GoFundMes and counting with individuals who have lost everything asking for help. And people are responding with real generosity. But this is so anarchic that it ends up, despite people's intentions, intensifying the inequalities and unevenness in our society. Some individuals have more access to social media networks which reach more people. And others don't.

In its day-to-day operation, this system sets people against each other, and forces people to compete. And it fosters a dog-eat-dog, do-for-self ethos. You see in this kind of crisis how much people can rise above that. But they still run up against all the antagonistic social divisions that exist under this system: between rich and poor, between different nationalities and regions.

In a socialist society, on the basis of a whole different economic and political system, we would be able to put the social resources of society to meet human need. We will face huge problems, which will require tremendous struggle and debate. But—unlike this system—a socialist society will be able to fully unleash the potential heroism of the masses of people and the desire to help each other. We will not be beholden to the dictates of an anti-people system driven by profit-above-all-else.

In a beautiful article, written in 2020, Capitalism-Imperialism—The Suffocation of Seven Billion—And the Profound Need for a World on New Foundations, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian talks about what is possible if we overthrow this nightmare of a system. He talks about how precious people are—and what it will look like to have a system that is based on the interests of the masses of people:

This will be a new society aiming for a whole new world, without the suffocation, suppression, and disfiguring of the potential for the masses of humanity to understand and change the world in accordance with what are in fact the fundamental interests of humanity—to live in a world where no part of humanity is subordinated to and dictated to by another part, and where all of humanity is no longer dictated to by the fundamental workings and dynamics of a system that requires antagonistic relations among people, enforced with the continual threat and use of massive violence, where the masses of humanity are no longer reduced to merely a means to make wealth for a small number who rule over them, or are cast off as “surplus” populations that can no longer be exploited in this way.

This new society and world will not be some kind of “utopia” where all problems and difficulties have “magically disappeared”—and it will not come as a “gift” from some non-existent god—but will be the result of the struggle of masses of people to cast off unbearable exploitation and oppression, and to transform themselves and their thinking in close inter-connection with this struggle to transform their conditions—struggle led by those who have taken up the scientific method and approach of the new communism and are winning growing numbers of people to themselves take up and apply this scientific method and approach to transforming the world in an increasingly conscious way on the basis of their voluntary initiative and cooperation.

All this will involve whole new dimensions of freedom, and unleashed initiative and creativity of the masses of humanity, on this whole new foundation, with radically different institutions and relations among people, and radically different ways of thinking that correspond to these emancipating relations among people.

On January 20, Trump will take the reins of power. This will be Trump/MAGA fascism 2.0—now backed by all three branches of government, with the Republican Party fully under his command and a cabinet ready to go that is full of woman-haters, immigrant-bashers, war crimes supporters, white supremacists, science deniers, climate destroyers, racists and shameless liars with no respect for the rule of law. 

The revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has said:

The answer to this cannot be—and must not become—an attempt to “hide” from what is coming, or to somehow just “get through” this fascism, or even just individual expressions of outrage about this fascism. Given what is at stake—for people in this country, and in the world as a whole—there must be active, determined opposition to this fascism, with the goal of defeating it.

[T]his is not a time for demoralization and despair. It is not a time for accepting this Trump/MAGA fascism as “legitimate,” and staying within the confines of “how things work” under this system, as Democratic Party heads and other “mainstream” ruling class representatives are urging people to do. It is not a time for turning inward and attempting to “take care of self” as the juggernaut of Trump/MAGA fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism.

What better time for that—what more important and more necessary time—than January 20, the day that Trump is set to be inaugurated? We are calling on you to be part of nonviolent mass actions and expressions of different kinds on that day against this fascism. These actions must announce to the world that a force is forming that is determined to build a movement so massive and powerful that it can create a political crisis profound enough to prevent Trump from implementing his fascist program.

As we work together to prevent Trump/MAGA fascism from succeeding, we need to open up the question of what kind of system has given rise to this fascism and all the other horrors we face, and what must be done to get beyond all this. The Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity is dedicated to building the broadest possible fight to prevent a fascist America while we work and organize for revolution so that we no longer face intolerable "choices" between fascism and genocide, no longer face a system that is destroying the environment and risking nuclear war. As Bob Avakian has said, “…it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.” The way people could be living is in our important declaration at revcom.us, WE NEED AND WE DEMAND: A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM!

On January 20, in the face of the obscene fascist celebration, join us in declaring:

NO! IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA!

THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS ROTTEN AND ILLEGITIMATE! WE NEED AND WE DEMAND A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM!

Get together with people, wherever you are. Make plans now. Contact us. There is no time to lose.

This list is in formation. Send in info on January 20 protests to Revolution.Reports@yahoo.com. To organize protests in your area, DM @TheRevcoms

Washington, DC

1 pm Lafayette Square
Passenger vans leaving 5 am sharp from Chelsea neighborhood, NYC
DM @revcomcorps_nyc to reserve spot and get pick-up location, $50 round-trip, sliding scale

@revcomcorps_nyc, 917-969-2146
Revolution Books, 437 Malcolm X Blvd/Lennox Ave, 212-691-3345

Los Angeles

12 pm
Little Tokyo, 1st and Central

@revcomcorps_la

Chicago

10 am Trump Tower 
Meet on Wacker between Wabash and Michigan 

Tuesday, January 21
noon at the Arch in Little Village, 3100 W 26th Street
Tom Homan, Trump's Border Czar arrives in Chicago to launch their fascist mass deportations plan. We say NO! ¡TODOS SOMOS ILEGALES! NEW YEAR , NO FEAR!

@RevcomCorpsChi

Austin, Tx

1 pm rally: We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America 
Capitol South Gate
1100 Congress Ave

@TxRevcoms

Bay Area, CA

12:00 pm in Berkeley
Bancroft Way & Telegraph Ave.
@RevComCorps_Bay

Springfield, OH

1 pm (EST)
Limestone & John St.
Southgate CenterDefend the rights and lives of immigrants targed by Trump/MAGA fascism

Supporters of the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity
216-410-9260

Atlanta, GA

2 pm, MLK National Historic Site, intersection of Auburn Ave and Jackson St
 

As of today, we are eight days out from fascist Trump taking office. Already we are witnessing the beginning of what he has promised with his anti-immigrant fascist agenda. On January 7, Border Patrol in marked and unmarked vehicles showed up at a popular gas station in Bakersfield, California, where farmworkers in the area gathered for their breakfast tortas. They began grabbing people as they were coming out of this gas station and asking for their papers, they blocked cars from exiting the lot and demanded to see people’s papers. This was the first place they raided in this operation they are disgustingly calling “Operation Return to Sender.” They loaded two vans full of farmworkers, and others they stopped and grabbed at the gas station.

The REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity drove to Bakersfield to take part in a local protest called by the local Rapid Response Network, “We will not be intimidated by Customs and Border Patrol,” in which hundreds turned out through the day. An influencer with 12.5M followers on TikTok showed up and made a video on the spot calling for people to come out. Her video got about 100K likes in an hour—people came out to that corner through the day and into the night. We were welcomed, and many people were open to connecting and coming together on January 20th in LA for the protest against Trump’s inauguration. The protest in the morning brought together farmworkers, families of those who had been picked up in the raids, and other local groups. We spoke with a few farmworkers who were telling us that for two days farmworkers hadn’t shown up for work because they were afraid, since Border Patrol did a sweep at an orange field and took some people. Families were staying home, not sending their kids to school, living in fear. 

In going out through the town, to the local businesses, talking to day laborers, farmworkers and others, we learned a lot about how much people are in fear right now. We stopped by one of the Home Depots where Border Patrol conducted one of their sweeps and talked to three (out of five) day laborers left in that Home Depot. They told us that on regular days, 25 people would come there looking for work. Since the sweep, that Home Depot has been empty. Border Patrol took some of the day laborers, and others just haven’t come back. One of the day laborers showed us a video he took of Border Patrol pulling someone over across the street at a drive-through fast food restaurant. He said that they cruise by every day looking for who to mess with, and since then, the streets have been empty, people staying home, not coming to look for work or shop. As we were talking to them in the Home Depot parking lot, a guy in a truck pulled up to warn the day laborers that Border Patrol had just been stopped at a shopping center nearby.

At a local business where they witnessed one of the sweeps happen, we talked to all the employees and the business owner. They were all outraged by the situation and shared with us what they witnessed the day of the sweep and the days after. They kept emphasizing that this was targeted at the farmworkers—one employee said she witnessed the people in work clothes get pushed up against the wall and asked for their papers. The owner said he was heartbroken, that people came to his store for food and this is where they were picked up. He said he saw his employee crying that day and it broke his heart. One employee said that in a day, the farmworkers would get hundreds of tortas—the day we were there they had only sold three tortas. She said she hadn’t seen farmworkers come into the store since, and business was very slow. Some anti-immigrant forces called their store to threaten them for supporting the immigrants. One employee said they kept receiving phone calls threatening that they would go protest their business if they continued to speak out in support of immigrants—their response was that they would not stop supporting immigrants. 

Since then, there has continued to be reports of sweeps further north of Bakersfield, at some of the fields where farmworkers are supposed to be picking oranges this time of the year. This was righteous that people came out a few days after the sweeps. Today people came out in Fresno where they were also spotting Border Patrol. This must continue to be opposed and strengthened. People were very glad we were opening up the discussion of the fundamental cause of why all this is happening, a system that creates these conditions in which millions flee poverty, violence, USA-made conditions that force people out of their countries risking their lives and some even losing their lives along the way to get here, only to be living in fear, being persecuted and thrown out. Bringing to people the broadsheet “We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System” and how much better we could live and organize society under a different system. A socialist system that would welcome people who are coming to contribute to building a society, going to work to uproot all forms of exploitation and oppression. We were sharing with people Bob Avakian’s leadership and his @BobAvakianOfficial social media message REVOLUTION #111, and opening up the discussion of being serious about defeating this fascism, which this very system of capitalism-imperialism has given rise to, what kind of resistance and opposition it will take to stop this fascism, and the need to defend the rights and lives of people targeted by this Trump/MAGA fascism. 

A few days back I was part of a team who went down to San Diego and got to talk to migrants on the other side of the wall. One of those interviews which was on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show really touched my heart—the story this brother shared with us, with tears in his eyes, is the story of millions more. A woman who traveled part of the way with him, from Mexico, was fleeing violence, afraid of being sent back to be killed in Mexico. They awaited their future behind a wall between Mexico and the U.S. These kinds of situations are already horrific, and it made me think about how much worse this will get with Trump—the demonization of these people, the persecution and terror that they plan to bring down, and the potential that we can see with people outraged about this, not being silent, but speaking out and calling on others to come out, like that famous influencer, taking to the streets and taking to social media. People discussing how are we going to go at this, how can we stop it? Some people ask, “Is it time to put something on the line to stop this?” The answer is YES!  As Bob Avakian said in social media message REVOLUTION #111:

As I have said before, this is not a time for demoralization and despair. It is not a time for accepting this Trump/MAGA fascism as “legitimate,” and staying within the confines of “how things work” under this system, as Democratic Party heads and other “mainstream” ruling class representatives are urging people to do. It is not a time for turning inward and attempting to “take care of self” as the juggernaut of Trump/MAGA fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism.

The answer to this cannot be—and must not become—an attempt to “hide” from what is coming, or to somehow just “get through” this fascism, or even just individual expressions of outrage about this fascism. Given what is at stake—for people in this country, and in the world as a whole—there must be active, determined opposition to this fascism, with the goal of defeating it.

[T]his is not a time for demoralization and despair. It is not a time for accepting this Trump/MAGA fascism as “legitimate,” and staying within the confines of “how things work” under this system, as Democratic Party heads and other “mainstream” ruling class representatives are urging people to do. It is not a time for turning inward and attempting to “take care of self” as the juggernaut of Trump/MAGA fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/MAGA fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good: the greater good of defeating this fascism.

THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS ROTTEN AND ILLEGITIMATE: 

WE NEED AND WE DEMAND A WHOLE NEW WAY TO LIVE, A FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT SYSTEM

Why do immigrants come here from all over the world? Because the capitalist-imperialist empire of the so-called United States has messed up their homelands even worse than what they have done here—through interventions and invasions on top of the “normal” workings of imperialist plunder, theft, and destruction of the environment.

THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity (Chicago) is serious about building broad unity in opposing fascism, and we are also serious about the actual solution to finally ending all the horrors of this system—revolution, nothing less! 

If you have the heart to fight for something truly worth fighting for, you need to get with THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity. In work after work, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has brought forward a sweeping, reality-based vision of the world humanity could have—a world not only beyond the worldwide hell created by capitalism-imperialism, but far beyond even the best of what previous socialist societies have done and even envisioned.

Follow @BobAvakianOfficial to learn more about and get with this revolution.

Contact us via Instagram @RevcomCorpsChi or via telephone 312.804.9121 to get recruited.

Readers’ Corner highlights views that you, our readers, send us on the big questions about making revolution. Questions about building the movement for an actual revolution. Or responses to, and thoughts provoked by, the social media messages from Bob Avakian—the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism. Thinking and questions you may have on other important documents from Bob Avakian (BA) and the Revcoms. As well as reflections on the new communism brought forward by BA, both overall and in relation to the urgent moment at hand. Now especially is a time for collective scientific grappling.

Please send these to revolution.reports@yahoo.com. If your submission isn't reposted, it will still feed into our overall enriched understanding of what questions we should be speaking to.

* * * * *

A recent letter in the Readers' Corner asked this critical question:

In the history of our project there is a clear “before” and an “after,” that is delineated by the emergence of the new synthesis of communism developed by BA—yes, building on the many lessons and accomplishments of the past, but, crucially, breaking with and discarding a tremendous amount of wrong thinking, wrong methods, and wrong practices, that, despite best intentions, seriously vitiated and contributed to derailing the first wave of socialist revolutions.

We shouldn’t want to repeat any of that! We shouldn’t want even the best of the past socialist revolutions and societies, especially now that we have an even much better theoretical and practical framework to work with! What BA has developed with the new communism really is a NEW path forward for humanity that is very DIFFERENT, and MUCH BETTER than anything that the first wave of socialism/communism was even able to conceive of, let alone put into practice.

How much do we all really understand and appreciate that? Really agree?

Do we really understand the actual content of this in a way that people can represent this new and radically different framework?

We are in a period where things are VERY rapidly changing—Bob Avakian (BA) since the 1960s has given decisive leadership to the theoretical as well as strategic and practical dimensions of revolution, both in the U.S. and internationally. And recently this has included analyzing the imminent rise of fascism and the intensifying divisions between two sections of the ruling class parties (the Democrats and the Republicans) and the urgent need to seize on the potential possibilities of revolution arising within this rare time. Some people who have been observing the revcoms and their leader BA since the election of Trump in 2016 are finally saying “you were right all along” and engaging in ways they have not. Many of them have experiences with revolutions that never had the total transformation of society as their goal, and those struggles have not only lost but been turned into reactionary regimes. “Is there a real alternative to capitalism?” is a huge obstacle objectively weighing down on people's horizons and practical political objectives. 

There is a whole body of work and method that people need to be engaging—a whole new framework for human emancipation that is being applied, and that lives and breathes in how Bob Avakian approaches every single message in the new @BobAvakianOfficial social media. In promotion of this, those following BA need to be advocating and  fighting for the OBJECTIVE and demonstratively game-changing leadership of Bob Avakian. 

In doing so, I would like to recommend that people read, and wield, the recently updated “Bob Avakian Official Biography.” THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity in LA has been wielding this in meetings with broader forces who need to be united in a powerful movement built with the very specific aim of defeating fascism along with the series of @BobAvakianOfficial social media messages REVOLUTION #102-111. Additionally, we have been using it with people who have come into the Revcom Corps as a way to learn about the importance of revolutionary theory and to get an introduction to the actual breakthrough in human understanding the new communism is. 

This biography is also really an excellent introduction to the person who is the kind of leader that has never before existed in this country and whose leadership is of enormous importance for the emancipation of all humanity. It gives a history of the formative experiences that made BA who he is, the times that helped shape him and the critical junctures in the development of those times where his leadership has been decisive—from growing up in Berkeley and his early political life to becoming a communist and communist leader, to the restoration of capitalism in China and the end of the first stage of communist revolutions. It gets into how BA was and is the only thinker and leader in the world today to meet this defeat with the interrogation of that experience in a way that has qualitatively advanced the science of communism. Theory that has met the end of a wave of revolutions in a world that is tragically stymied and existentially imperiled—paving not only a path out of this but a path to a future that not only makes revolution viable again but worth fighting for. Paving the way for a new wave of truly emancipating revolutions throughout the world.

“Part 2: The New Synthesis of Communism” is a compelling, living introduction to what this new framework for human emancipation actually is—that has not existed before. 

To quote Ardea Skybreak, a scientist with professional training in ecology and evolutionary biology, and a follower of BA, from the Introduction to the biography:

The hallmark of Bob Avakian's work [has been] working on building a society that most human beings would want to live in. Bob Avakian has been spending his whole life, decades and decades, developing work that is deepening our understanding of why these problems are not just accidental, or periodic anomalies—how they actually stem from, originate in, the deeper structures of the system, and why it's the system itself, the system of capitalism imperialism, that has to go, and be replaced with a completely different system, before we could really emancipate humanity.  

As the Introduction to the biography goes on to note: “Central to Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism is its thorough and consistent scientific method and approach. ‘The new synthesis represents and embodies a qualitative resolution of a critical contradiction that has existed within communism in its development up to this point, between its fundamentally scientific method and approach, and aspects of communism which have run counter to this.’ "[Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, January 1, 2016.]

And “Part 3: Key Works of Bob Avakian” is a way for people to find, continue to explore and to take up themselves the historic breakthrough this 50 years of work has produced. 

Accessible and inspiring—this official biography of the rare and exceptional leadership we are proud to call our own should be backpacked everywhere! For followers of the new communism, be they experienced, or just learning how to advocate for BA—this is a terrific tool to have. To the old order and its gatekeepers and the barriers they try to put in the way—this biography is dangerous. Let's recognize it, and wield it to ignite the fundamental change humanity needs.

One of the accusations against Trump by Kamala Harris and other liberals during the election campaign was that he was supposedly an “isolationist” who would harm U.S.’s position worldwide and thus its “national security.” 

In reality, the “I” word to describe Trump is not “isolationist” but IMPERIALIST—bloodthirsty, mass-murdering imperialist. Just look at his January 7 press conference, where Trump

• refused to rule out the use of military force to seize the Panama Canal, because it is “vital to our country.” He had recently threatened to retake the canal by force if the Panamanian government, which administers it, did not bend to his demands to lower rates for passage of U.S. ships and cut China out of any role in the canal.
• declared he will push for more U.S. control over Greenland (over the objections of Denmark, a member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance; Greenland is a dependent, autonomous territory of Denmark), saying the U.S. needs it “for national security purposes.” Like with the Panama Canal, he refused to rule out use of military force.
• said “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if Hamas doesn’t release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza by the time he takes office. This would mean even more terror and destruction for the Palestinian people on top of the U.S.-backed genocide over the past 15 months.
• declared in regards to Mexico, “We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring that covers a lot of territory.”
• talked about making Canada, also a NATO member, the 51^st U.S. state because it would be “much better for national security.”

Trump tried to come off as some kind of cold-blooded gangster by threatening not only U.S. foes but “allies” or countries principally under U.S. domination. He served notice to all that the U.S. would be demanding much more submissiveness from its “allies” (thus his humiliation of Canada, Mexico, Denmark). Biden/Harris have been fully backing Israel in its genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza, while hypocritically trying to pose as having “humanitarian” concerns—Trump made clear that when the U.S. carries out or supports murder, mayhem and horrific brutality (in Gaza and elsewhere), it would do so even more openly and ruthlessly. He sent an unmistakable signal that MAGA fascist America would not even pretend to be bound by treaties or national sovereignty (like with the threats toward Panama, Denmark, Mexico, and Canada). And he was staking an open, arrogant claim of undisputed American control over all of the Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the tip of South America, which the U.S. imperialists consider their home base and “back yard.”

China in the Cross-Hairs—and the Threat of World War

Compared to Trump's first term, the U.S. imperialists now face a world with even more dangers and challenges to their global domination, especially from the rival imperialists in China. Even as there are extremely sharp and unprecedented splits between the MAGA fascist and “mainstream” (basically, the Democratic) sections of the U.S. ruling class, a consensus has emerged among the rulers as a whole that China poses the main threat to American dominance of the world and that there is a need to step up preparations for war. During his term, Biden openly departed from the decades-long position of presidents before him by declaring repeatedly that the U.S. would send American troops to Taiwan if China moves to seize the island by force. (China’s rulers claim Taiwan, now governed independently of China, as part of their sovereign territory and have made clear their intention to “reunify” the island as part of China.) Biden also moved to block China’s ability to purchase advanced semiconductor chips, which are crucial to the modern economy, from not only U.S. companies but other countries as well—a step described by some as “an act of war.”

At his press conference, Trump also issued threats against China, with his accusations that China is supposedly “running” the Panama Canal and that Chinese ships are “all over the place” around Greenland. This is yet another indication that Trump is aiming to go after China and prepare for war in an even more openly aggressive and domineering way—with America much more directly asserting its imperialist interests and wielding control. 

The rise of Trump/MAGA fascism 2.0 means the world could be pushed in an even more accelerated way toward an all-out fight between nuclear-armed imperialists over which is the dominant power globally—a war that holds the real possibility of bringing an end to humanity. This is criminal insanity, driven by the needs and dynamics of the system of capitalism-imperialism—a system that functions, and can only function, by viciously exploiting and murderously oppressing masses of people throughout the world… and by beating out imperialist rivals and regional challengers, through wars of mass murder and destruction if necessary, including the use of nuclear weapons.

In this light, revolutionary leader Bob Avakian’s words ring with urgency:

We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.

The Democrats cannot be relied on to fight Trump/MAGA fascism—because, as a ruling class party, they are driven by the same needs and dynamics of this capitalist-imperialist system. As this article has made clear, Biden did not differ with Trump over whether to aggressively go after America’s rivals for chief oppressor, exploiter and murderer in the world—the difference was (and is) over how.

As Bob Avakian pointed out in social media message Revolution #103, “Why Democrats are aiding and facilitating fascism, what this shows about this system, and what decent people need to be doing”:

For the Democrats, the “stability” of the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, even in the form of fascism, is more important than actually defeating fascism.

And:

Once more, the Democrats themselves are driving home the crucial point I have repeatedly emphasized (for example, in my article FASCISM AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM, available at revcom.us): The Democrats, and the “mainstream” section of the ruling class that they represent, cannot fight the fascists the way they need to be fought—and this fight needs to be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole system.

Over the past year, almost the entire population of Gaza has been repeatedly force-marched into so-called “safe zones.” These are death camps. There are no resources there for them to survive. People struggle to exist in flimsy plastic tents in the cold, wet Gaza winter.

Palestinian people in Gaza are subjected to constant psychological torture, tracked and targeted by ever-present drones. At any moment, a U.S.-supplied Israeli missile, bullet or bomb might strike. The situation for the 75,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza is much worse. Israel has turned the north of Gaza into a free-fire zone.

Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the West Bank region of Palestine is accelerating ferociously, carried out by rabidly racist Jewish supremacist “settlers,” along with the Israeli military. 

Starvation, Disease, Torture as Weapons of Genocide

Amidst devastation imposed by Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s farms, fisheries, and bakeries, Israel has now choked off food aid entering Gaza to an all-time low since shortly after October 7, 2023. People are eating grass and animal feed, and drinking sea water (which is poisonous) in an attempt to put something in their stomach.

Israel has systematically destroyed the healthcare system in Gaza. All that remains are a handful of badly damaged hospitals without reliable power, supplies, or personnel to function in any meaningful way. And pop-up medical tents are utterly overwhelmed by an injured, sick, starving population. 

Even in a capitalist profit-driven world, providing modern medical technology, medicine, and technique is doable in Gaza with the resources available to aid agencies. But Israel uses bombs, tanks, missiles, and assassinations of aid workers to prevent that. As a result, emergency amputations are carried out in germ-filled environments without anesthesia. Women give birth without any aid in crowded school classrooms. Medical professionals try to live with the horrible reality that all their training means nothing when Israel is destroying their facilities and denies them medicine and tools to heal people. 

The only effective channel for distributing food aid, the UN’s relief agency UNRWA, has been outlawed in Israel, making it extremely difficult to stage shipments of food into Gaza. Within Gaza, the Israeli military systematically targets civilian authorities who attempt to manage and preserve order at food distribution locations, ensuring that whatever aid makes its way into Gaza falls into the hands of gangs that sell the food at extortionary prices on the black market.  

Death Camps in the South, Free-Fire Zone in the North

Almost the entire population of Gaza has been repeatedly force-marched into so-called “safe zones.” They are starved, shot, and subjected to disease carried through sewage where children play. The drones that track their every move, and carry out assassinations, fill the air with sounds described as amplified lawnmowers. In any group of Palestinians, someone has lost a child, a parent, a neighbor.

Northern Gaza is a free-fire zone. Israeli bombings and earth-moving machinery are continuing to level north Gaza and shoot anything that moves. Israel has cut off even the sadistically meager amount of aid it allows into the south. The hyper-militarized “Netzarim corridor” has walled off the northern section of tiny Gaza. This “corridor” is a two-and-a-half-mile-wide militarized staging area that runs the entire four-mile width of the Gaza Strip. That is one-seventh of all the land in Gaza! Hundreds of nearby buildings, including a hospital and a university, were bulldozed to clear space for it. 

A retired Israeli military official told the New York Times that many of Israel’s military leaders now believe Gaza will be occupied by Jewish settlers and annexed into Israel. Pointing to the Netzarim corridor, he said, “That’s why they’re building all of this.” 

Destroying Education and Culture to Destroy a People

Israel has methodically destroyed Gaza’s schools, blowing up the buildings, massacring students, and killing people seeking safe refuge in these schools administered by the UN. Nearly 700,000 school-age children in Gaza are being deprived of elementary and secondary education, a chance to learn, to play, to socialize, to get a meal.

Israel has destroyed every single college and trade school in Gaza.¹  Historian Rasheed Khalidi told NBC News, “When you destroy those kinds of institutions, you're not fighting Hamas, you're fighting the existence of the Palestinians. You’re fighting their capability to have memory and to have records and to be educated.” 

The Israeli army has assassinated dozens of academic, scientific, and intellectual figures in Gaza. I knew one of them. I hosted an event at Revolution Books in New York City in 2014 with educator, author, and editor Refaat Alareer. It was part of a U.S. book tour that Refaat led, with several young contributors to his anthology Gaza Writes Back. He and his students explored the shelves and displays in Revolution Books with eager curiosity. In his collection of essays, Refaat took particular efforts to give voice to young women writers in Gaza, up against many layers of oppression. When I read that Israel bombed his home, with bombs supplied by the United States, murdering him and his family, I was shaking in tears and rage.

Intensifying Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank

For decades, the West Bank region of Palestine has been under siege by armed, rabidly Zionist illegal settlers, and the Israeli military. Since October 7, Palestinians in the West Bank have been subjected to ferocious, constant, escalating terrorist ethnic cleansing.

Today there are more than 140 official Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are illegal under international law, but officially recognized by Israel. There are also more than 200 “unofficial” settlements armed by the Israeli government. Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has grown steadily, including Israeli Air Force bombing missions.

Crimes Enabled by the USA

Every one of the horrific crimes you just read about, and countless more, have been armed, funded, whitewashed, and justified by the Biden-Harris administration.

Since October 7, 2023, the U.S. has pumped almost $18 billion in military “aid” to Israel. That includes artillery shells, tanks, and 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs used to obliterate whole residential high-rises and the surrounding area. In addition, the U.S. military itself has deployed billions of dollars in operations to directly facilitate Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Over and over and over, when Israel destroys a hospital, assassinates aid workers, gets exposed for running a series of massive torture chambers for Palestinians without any pretense of due process, shuts off aid, kills reporters… the U.S. State Department issues the same template: We are working with our Israeli partners to investigate this and await their report. 

The U.S. has repeatedly blocked ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations, blocked prosecution of Israeli leaders for war crimes, and opposed findings of genocide by world bodies.

The Time to STOP THE GENOCIDE Is NOW

The powerful, inspiring upsurge against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide on a hundred campuses across the U.S. (and beyond) struck a raw nerve for the rulers of this country. It challenged the legitimacy of the U.S.’s political, financial, military, and diplomatic support for Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. And many people were driven to seek out and learn the truth about the state of Israel: that it was and is above all a neocolonial settler state, which today serves the interests of U.S. imperialist domination of the region. 

The empire struck back, with arrests, suspensions, blacklisting, doxing, and firings. And the rulers of this country unleashed a coordinated attempt to paint any and all protests against Zionism as being the same as anti-Semitism. This lie conflates political opposition to a state based on Jewish supremacy with hatred of the Jewish people as a people.

The incoming fascist Trump/MAGA regime threatens “hell on earth” in Gaza when he takes power. In whatever form “hell on earth” might take, that threat must be taken seriously. And people here in the belly of the beast must respond. The time for decent people everywhere to demand an END to U.S. backing for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank is NOW.

Look at Obama yukking it up with Trump at the funeral of former president Jimmy Carter. State funerals for former heads of state are big political deals—and what leaders do at them carries symbolic weight. As one comedian put it, Obama is like “Ha ha, cool joke, guy I just called ‘future Hitler’ for two months.”

But this ain’t funny. Obama is signaling something: “Right now, I (and by extension, you who are watching) have more in common with this fascist than not.” This is the same Obama who “reassured” people after Trump was elected the first time that “we’re all on the same team.” 

This represents the fundamental truth that they are both representatives of this vicious, cut-throat system of capitalism-imperialism.

But all jokes aside, the fact is that these two political gangsters represent very different roads—potentially very sharply opposed and antagonistic roads—for how those who run this system should deal with the multiple crises engulfing their system, here and around the world. Those potential antagonisms, in certain situations (especially if there is massive upheaval from “below”) could explode into open conflict, including within their forces of suppression—and that is part of what goes into making it a rare time when revolution is more possible. But that upheaval is the last thing these Democrats would want.

In speaking of the very similar way that Democrats called on people to accept Trump’s victory right after the election three months ago, Bob Avakian said:

Once more, the Democrats themselves are driving home the crucial point I have repeatedly emphasized (for example, in my article FASCISM AND THE WHOLE SYSTEM, available at revcom.us): The Democrats, and the “mainstream” section of the ruling class that they represent, cannot fight the fascists the way they need to be fought—and this fight needs to be waged as part of fighting to abolish this whole system.

Fascism is not a “swear word”—or just some kind of negative label to put on your opponent in the course of an election. Fascism, as represented by Donald Trump, is a white supremacist, male supremacist, anti-LGBT, immigrant-hating, aggressively environment-destroying, anti-scientific, religious fundamentalist fanaticism, determined to use the power of the government to forcibly compel obedience to its dangerous and destructive lunacy, and to viciously persecute those who oppose or resist. And, now that the election is over, here are the leading Democrats anxious to cooperate with and assist the fascist Trump!

For the Democrats, the “stability” of the rule of this system of capitalism-imperialism, even in the form of fascism, is more important than actually defeating fascism.

Yet another glaring demonstration of the reality that this whole system, and every part of its ruling class, is completely rotten, criminal and thoroughly illegitimate!

As opposed to what the Democrats are helping to impose on people, what is needed is bold defiance and a determined refusal to go along with any of this—now, and in an ongoing way. 

As I said in message #102: This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination.

This brings us back to what’s wrong with commanding obedience to the Ten Commandments.

One big thing that is wrong, right off the bat, is that this is a way of indoctrinating children with a particular religious viewpoint—the Christian fascists’ murderous version of religion.

And a very big problem is what’s actually in the Ten Commandments themselves: They uphold and insist on all kinds of horrors, including slavery.

Fighting the imposition of Christian fundamentalist fascism in schools is a crucial part of the fight to form a force determined “to build a movement so massive and powerful that it can create a political crisis profound enough to prevent Trump from implementing his fascist program.” The fight against attacks on public education, and the intrusion of Christian fundamentalism, is not limited and must not be confined to Texas and a few other “Bible Belt” states.

As BA concluded that same social media message, 

… with what these Christian fascists are doing:

We can recognize the looming shadow of a situation where not just school children, but everyone in society, will be required to pledge allegiance to a white Christian fascist America.

If you have a hard time believing what I have said here—or you want to get into this deeper—you can find analysis of this in Part One of my book Away With All Gods!—particularly the sections “The Bible, Taken Literally, Is a Horror” and “What About The Ten Commandments?”

Yes, people should have the right to religion—and this right is upheld in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which I have authored, putting forward a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a radically different, truly emancipating system.

But that is very different than the government of this system brainwashing children with a murderous version of religion and forcing everybody to bow down to that.

And fundamentally, what is needed, to really be emancipated from every form of oppression, is a revolution to get rid of, and move beyond, this whole system of capitalism-imperialism—a revolution guided by a scientific, not a religious, approach and method. In the words of the final section of my book Away With All Gods!, what people everywhere need—to really, finally get all the way free—is “Liberation Without Gods”: the only real liberation there is.

In what the Center for Constitutional Rights has called an “egregious attack on both academic freedom and Palestinian rights advocacy,” longtime law professor Katherine Franke has been pushed out of her post at Columbia University. Professor Franke was basically coerced into an “agreement” to leave her teaching position. As she said in a January 9 statement: “While the university may call this change in my status 'retirement,' it should be more accurately understood as a termination dressed up in more palatable terms.” 

Katherine Franke is an accomplished scholar in law and gender studies. She has taught at Columbia for 25 years. She was on the executive committee of the Center for Palestinian Studies at Columbia. She has been courageously outspoken in support of students protesting the genocide in Gaza. For this, Franke has been targeted and investigated by congressional fascists and the kowtowing “liberal” administration of Columbia... and subjected to hate campaigns and threats by some pro-Israel professors and students, and Zionist thugs.

As recounted in her January 9 statement, she has been followed from the subway by law school colleagues who yelled false accusations at her; had students enroll in her classes for the express purpose of creating situations that can provoke discussions that they record online and then use to file complaints against her; and has received death and rape threats. Most recently, the university conducted an investigation with an unjustified finding that public comments Franke made violated the campus's non-discrimination policy. 

Regarding the “agreement” with Columbia, Professor Franke stated that “the Columbia University administration has created such a toxic and hostile environment for legitimate debate around the war in Israel and Palestine that I can no longer teach or conduct research.”

The harassment and persecution of Katherine Franke is part of the wider repression against students and professors speaking out against and protesting the U.S.-Israeli genocide in Gaza. This repression is being carried out under the banner that anti-Zionism is the same as anti-Semitism—a lie that equates political opposition to a state based on Jewish supremacy with hatred of the Jewish people as a people. And all this is part of wider moves to establish new draconian rules and disciplinary threats on campuses to squelch dissent, critical thinking, and meaningful protest; to impose Nazi-like thought control over what can be taught and by whom; and to isolate the universities from the rest of society. 

As Bob Avakian has emphasized, “Trump/MAGA fascism aims to make all this more openly and aggressively monstrous.” (from @BobAvakianOfficial social media message REVOLUTION #110, “Trump and Netanyahu—Nazi Madmen on a Mission of Destruction”). And as pointed out in the revcom.us analysis of this latest wave of repression: “The time for everyone to get off the sidelines and resist is NOW—before the fascists are able to fully shut down opposition to Israel's genocide and, along with that, turn campuses into political, moral, and intellectual dead zones.”   

“We will not be satisfied with anything less than the downfall of the oppressors” 

Until a moment ago, she was by your side. You would have been drinking tea together and walking side-by-side in the dreary prison evening. Then she is gone suddenly and forever, never to return. This is the most bitter reality of prison. They come and snatch one of us, and kill her. Sometimes they return her lifeless body to her family, sometimes not. 

The suffering of prison is not because of the walls or the endless futility that never loosens its grip, but from the constant dread that shadows each tedious night: that this night that may be her last, and your hands are tied. The guards will come to take her away, the doors slamming one by one, her voice growing dimmer until it is lost to you. On the last night of her life, sitting or standing, she will wait for the morning call to prayer and the sunrise that will be her sunset.

The anguish of prison is heightened and given new meaning when you see your cellmate sent to the gallows. This kind of suffering changes you, it tears open your soul and toughens you, so nothing can make you tired, nothing can slow you down. You are dissatisfied with anything less than actual liberation. You become a link in what my comrades call the chain of free people, the chain forged from the resistance of friends who continued to cry out for liberation, despite the boots and blows of the dictatorships of Shah² and Sheikh [the Mullahs]… 

During years of living in the environment of security prisons and in forced coexistence with the [prison administration] that rains down endless repression, I have come to believe that we cannot be satisfied with anything less than the downfall of the oppressors. What we see going on today reflects the desperation of the servants of religious and royal tyranny. 

The conditions of struggle are not always the same for all of us, but the important thing is that our resistance is of the same kind…that it is like that of the “Golsorkhis”³ who refused to bow down to the regime’s courts, and put the defending the people ahead of defending themselves.

The above is excerpted from a letter from Evin prisoner Golrokh Iraee⁴ on January 1, 2025. Read it in full on IEC's website. It is providing a visceral as well as lofty view of the leftist political prisoners, especially the women, who are calling on the world to note their humanity and their hopes for liberation and a far better world. 

Kurdish Woman in Danger of Execution Amid Regime’s Rampant Hangings 

The Islamic Republic of Iran lurched into 2025 by lashing out, having hanged some 900 people in 2024 and ramping up death sentences for 2025. At least 54 political prisoners have been sentenced to death in opaque trials, torture and no legal representation, says a recent HRANA report.⁵ First on the list are two women activists of the Kurdish oppressed nationality⁶: Pakhshan Azizi and Varisheh Moradi. 

On January 8, Pakhshan Azizi’s lawyer, Amir Raesian, reported that Iran’s Supreme Court denied her appeal of her July 2024 trial and affirmed a death sentence for the unfounded charge of “armed rebellion.” Pakhshan Azizi is a longtime activist and social worker who rendered humanitarian aid to women and children in refugee camps in war-torn Kurdish regions in Syria and Iraq. She has been subjected to horrific torture, including guards carrying out mock executions and burying her alive 10 meters underground [approx. 33 feet]. If Pakhshan is executed, she will be the first woman political prisoner executed in 14 years, establishing a terrible precedent.⁷ 

The heightened execution threat to Pakhshan Azizi (as well as to Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, two other political prisoners whose death sentences were confirmed) sparked widespread outrage and acts of solidarity. Statements condemning the death sentences came from diverse forces including the Kurdish Women’s Union. Inside Iranian prisons, 68 prisoners signed a statement⁸ protesting the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the death sentences of her and two other political prisoners:

We call on the people of Iran, as well as international forums and organizations, especially human rights organizations, to use all their capacities to take effective measures in order to save the lives of political prisoners who are at risk of the death penalty, as well as the abolition of the death penalty altogether.

On January 9, a letter from a member of Iran’s Teacher’s Union was posted by @burnthecage challenging fellow teachers in saying: 

…teachers have a duty to speak out against the highest level of violence in society, namely structural and targeted violence such as executions. How can one be against violence in school but remain silent about violence in society?... But the problem is not limited to the government, the silence of society in the face of this repression also plays an important role in the continuation of this trend. A society that is indifferent to executions is practically [complicit] in this violence… Without a doubt, as the striking prisoners in the “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign have emphasized, the only way to stop the execution machine is through unity and collective action. Although this path is difficult, by abandoning sectarian behavior and adopting a humane and collective approach, results can be achieved.

On January 10, award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi posted on Instagram a statement condemning the death penalty that said in part, “These executions reflect the political, ideological and economic collapse of the Islamic Republic system.” And rebel rapper Toomaj Salehi’s X account posted these words: “For a free world / For speaking freely / For #PakhshanAzizi / No to executions.” By the next day multiple videos show the same words sprayed onto walls across Tehran, Iran’s capital. 

“We cannot and will not remain silent” — Sepideh Gholian

Sepideh Gholian,⁹  a courageous young journalist and leftist political prisoner held in Evin, responded to the news of Pakhshan Azizi’s death sentence confirmation with a letter posted by @burnthecage. Read this and her second letter in full here.

Pakhshan is a symbol of love for humanity. But now she is facing a death that does not stem from justice but from hatred and revenge…. But this is not just the story of one person…. The story of Pakhshan is tied to the story of all of us, to the story of the expectant mothers whose children's blood is on the streets, to the story of the people for whom "life" has become a dream…. We cannot and will not remain silent. If we do not raise our voices today, tomorrow it will be yet another story. We want you to strengthen this chain. Don't let the story of Pakhshan be an endless story of regret and silence. Be her voice, be her story. We must fight "death" with "life." Let's make a chain out of life, against every loop of the hangman's rope. Will you take my hand to be the next link in the chain?

--Sepideh Gholian, Women's Ward, Evin Prison, January 12, 2025

U.S.: Bloody Hands Out of Iran and the Middle East!

Amidst this situation, the website Akhbar-Rooz reported that former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo spoke at a January 9 conference in Paris, organized and sponsored by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). It is important that Iran’s political prisoners call for a non-sectarian approach to defending and freeing all political prisoners, of diverse political perspectives, given the lack of any semblance of due process in Iran’s fascist theocracy. But it should be noted that there is a section of Iran’s political prisoners such as Golrokh who oppose both the U.S. (who backed the Shah) as well as the current Islamic (mullah) regime. Forces such as the MEK have cozied up to fascist ruling forces in the U.S. for years, including during the first Trump presidency, and do not represent any kind of liberating alternative to the Islamic Republic fascist theocrats.

Stand with Iran’s Heroic Prisoners, Mark Anniversary of Weekly Hunger Strike

The end of January 2025 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the “No to Execution Tuesdays,” the weekly hunger strike launched by political prisoners in the huge Ghezel Hesar prison. It has now spread to 30 prisons throughout the country. People throughout the world should find ways to join or share support for these heroic prisoners. Stay tuned to further news from the IEC on activities in solidarity with this prisoner-led movement against executions in Iran.

In Boston, Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) and Health Care Workers 4 Palestine (HCW4P) called for employees of hospitals and healthcare facilities to call out sick and join the Sick From Genocide Global Vigil on January 6 “to honor lives lost, stand against ongoing atrocities, and demand accountability for the genocide unfolding before our eyes” in Palestine. Refuse Fascism participated in this outcry. 

We had about 60 doctors, healthcare workers, and medical students in front of Mass General Brigham Hospital (MGB) demonstrating against the slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. We denounced the complicity of MGB, and other healthcare institutions, in this genocide as well as condemned their silence in the face of this genocide, which is especially reprehensible given that the medical profession is bound by “First Do No Harm.” (Ironically, MGB sent us a message during the demonstration threatening us.²)

As part of this activity, we opened “The Kamal Adwan Pop-up Free Clinic for the Treatment of Sick from Genocide.” This action was in concert with “Sick Outs” from Portland, OR, to Stanford Medical School to Australia and the Middle East. Four doctors spoke about their disgust with the current situation and their determination to continue to fight against this genocide, and called for further Sick Outs.

A medical professional working with Refuse Fascism spoke starting with “In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America.” He further went on to say,

The reason why we are here today has been the mass slaughter of the Palestinian people and its medical infrastructure beyond what any of us can fully comprehend, done under the auspices of Biden/Harris and the Democratic Party.

But, the prospect of what will happen to the Palestinian people with the Trump/Vance regime coming to power is unimaginable. Mike Huckabee, Trump’s appointee to be ambassador to Israel, does not even acknowledge Palestinians as people.

We need people to act with determination and courage. We cannot allow 11 million immigrants to be criminalized, jailed, and deported. We cannot allow the LGBTQ community to be hunted and criminalized. We cannot allow another woman to bleed to death or be forced to be an incubator. We cannot allow the police and vigilantes to be unleashed and escalate the murders of people of color. We cannot allow these science-deniers to continue to let the planet burn.

And, we cannot allow any more bombs to be sent to Israel.

There are many of us inside and outside of the medical community who have taken the correct stand against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people. But this opposition needs to grow in the streets to millions. We need to stop this juggernaut of the rise and consolidation of fascism without which we cannot stop being Sick From Genocide and the genocide of the Palestinian people.

We pledge to the people of the world:

“In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!”

Over the past 14 months, Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly attacked the small, bitterly impoverished country of Yemen and its Iran-backed, Islamic fundamentalist Houthi movement. The Houthis have been attacking Israel, along with Red Sea shipping related to Israel, in retaliation for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

Now Israel—with U.S. backing—is threatening Yemen and the Houthis, who control the country’s north, with the kind of bloodthirsty, indiscriminate and criminal slaughter they’ve rained on Gaza and Lebanon. The Houthis could soon “share the same miserable fate” as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel’s United Nations ambassador warned this past week. 

Think about this. What Israel has done to the Palestinian people in Gaza—with full U.S. backing—will go down as one of history’s most monstrous crimes ever—the crime of genocide! In Lebanon—again with full U.S. backing—Israel carried out a campaign of mass assassinations, indiscriminate slaughter, and widespread destruction against not only Iran’s ally Hezbollah, but against literally millions of Lebanese civilians. 

Now they are bragging about their crimes and threatening to carry them out again! Whether or not Israel or the U.S. deliver as much death and destruction as in Gaza and Lebanon, they are right now threatening the lives of millions of already suffering people in Yemen, and heightening the already grave danger of a wider region war, which could spread beyond the Middle East! 

The only difference? This time the U.S. is even more directly involved!

THIS MUST STOP!
Years of U.S.-Saudi Aggression Against Yemen 

These new U.S. and Israel threats against Yemen come on top of a years-long military onslaught against the Houthi forces in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), armed and backed by the U.S. 

From 2015 through 2022, Saudi Arabia and the UAE waged a relentless campaign of 25,000 air attacks against Yemen. But that wasn’t all. The Saudis—with support from the U.S. Navy—also blockaded Yemen, drastically impeding the flow of food, fuel and other needed goods. And they bombed the main port, Hodeidah, where between 70 and 80 percent of Yemen’s food, medicine, and other aid comes through. The result: 377,000 deaths due to the war, 60 percent of them from indirect causes like lack of food and healthcare, and a cholera epidemic that impacted more than a million people. Over 21 million Yemenis—two-thirds of the population—were in dire need of humanitarian assistance even before the U.S. and Israeli attacks of the last year and more. 

Back-and-Forth Attacks Over the Past 14 Months

After Israel launched its U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis began attacking ships bound for Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, demanding the “aggression on Gaza is stopped and the siege is lifted.”

Its 130 attacks have seriously disrupted shipping through one of the world’s busiest and most significant trade corridors, which includes the Suez Canal. And the Houthis have launched drone and missile strikes against Israel itself.

Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly attacked Yemen and the Houthis both to stop these attacks, but also to weaken, if not destroy, the Houthis. These attacks have included striking Yemen’s basic civilian infrastructure—including Hodeidah—as the Saudi’s did before them, also with U.S. backing. This further endangers millions in Yemen, especially the roughly 14 million who remain “in acute need of assistance.” (See We Challenge You to Learn About Yemen.) 

The Attacks Escalate

In recent weeks, both sides have broadened their attacks. During the week of December 29, Israel again bombed Hodeidah, as well as power stations and its main airport in Sana’a, killing at least six people. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) was actually in the airport at the time, preparing to board a plane. He was not injured but condemned this indiscriminate attack on a civilian facility. The U.S. then launched a wave of air strikes on Yemen’s capital Sana’a and other areas, targeting the Houthi leadership and weapons production facilities. 

Meanwhile, the Houthis launched at least five missile attacks against Israel, including against Tel Aviv international airport and a power station near Jerusalem. The Houthis also claim to have carried out a drone attack on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, which had just been deployed, with its carrier strike group, to the Red Sea. (The U.S. military hasn’t commented on this.) 

Israel Threatens Even More Bloodshed, Wider War 

Yemen is one front in Israel’s year-long “War of Redemption,” a murderous U.S.-backed rampage across the Middle East aimed at destroying Israel’s opponents and deepening the U.S.-Israeli stranglehold on the entire region. 

As Alan Goodman wrote, “What Netan-Nazi calls a seven-front ‘War of Redemption’ includes genocide in Gaza, genocide in the West Bank, massive destruction in Syria and attacks on forces in Iraq. Plus, mass murder of civilians in Lebanon, destroying desperately needed access to food aid in Yemen, and subjecting Iran to nuclear blackmail.” (See Israel’s “War of Redemption”—A Terrorist Rampage “Changing the Face of the Middle East,” Threatening Even Worse (revcom.us, Dec. 16, 2024)

Now Israel and the U.S. are threatening to seriously escalate their attacks—and atrocities—against the people of Yemen. “We are committed to removing this threat as we are doing on other fronts,” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared this past week. “The arms of the octopus are being cut off, one after another,” he added, referring to Iran. 

Israel’s defense minister threatened to “hunt down all the Houthi leaders, hit them as we have done elsewhere”—in other words, assassinate them as Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon. 

Who Bears Responsibility for the Looming Carnage and Devastation? 

In his @BobAvakianOfficial social media message REVOLUTION #99: While denouncing “terrorists,” the rulers of this country openly support terrorism, Bob Avakian, revolutionary leader and author of the new communism, sums up who’s primarily to blame for this nightmare of violence and destruction now hanging over the region, and the basic conclusion we should draw from that reality:  

And let there be no doubt or confusion about this: The responsibility for the serious escalation of military conflict in the Middle East, and whatever results from this, lies with Israel—and the U.S government, which continues to fully back Israel.

What more do you need to know, to say this whole damn system’s got to go?!

The past year witnessed a powerful, inspiring upsurge against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide on over a hundred campuses across the U.S. (and beyond). These protests—which included many Jewish students—inspired people around the world.

The students exposed the illegitimacy of the U.S.’s political, financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people. This caused many more to seek out and learn the truth about the state of Israel: that it was and is above all a neocolonial settler state, which today serves the interests of U.S. imperialist domination of the region.

To stop this protest, defiance and questioning, the hammer of repression and political attacks came down hard. Simultaneously, a coordinated attempt was made to paint any and all protests against Zionism as being the same as anti-Semitism. This lie conflates political opposition to a state based on Jewish supremacy with hatred of the Jewish people as a people.

Now, as Israel’s genocide has intensified, protests on U.S. campuses have been met with a renewed, and escalated wave of suspensions, blacklisting, brutal police repression, detentions and arrests. And now a Trump regime is coming to power promising even worse.

While some of the students and teachers under attack have bravely resisted, this repression has too much been met with silence, passivity and acceptance on the part of people who should be speaking and acting.

The time for everyone to get off the sidelines and resist is NOW—before the fascists are able to fully shut down opposition to Israel’s genocide, and along with that, turn campuses into political, moral and intellectual dead zones.

Imposing a More Chilling Clampdown

Let’s look more at the pattern of intensifying repression of pro-Palestine protest, dissent, and critical thinking on campuses. 

Take Columbia University in New York City. Early in the wave of campus uprisings against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Columbia banned the school’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. Now, Columbia has further moved to silence dissent by issuing arbitrary, contradictory, and extremely repressive rules for how and when protests must be scheduled and approved by school authorities, essentially banning meaningful and timely responses to world events.

And in what can only be called a lockdown, Columbia has banned “outsiders” from campus. This ban was explicitly announced as a way to ban protest. According to the University’s Interim President, the reason for closing the campus was “increasing evidence that the… campus is a major focus for protest and other activity.” 

Or you could travel downtown to New York University. On December 12, dozens of student protesters were issued persona non grata status (banned from campus) for participating in a demonstration the day before at the main NYU library. According to NYU officials, the banning was because they were disrupting “our academic operations at a particularly critical moment in the semester” (as finals start). Eight protesters were arrested, including at least two faculty members, even though the protesters did not prevent students who had finals from entering the library.

In what kind of world, in what kind of university that is supposedly open to critical thinking, is challenging genocide in Gaza just cause for banning from campus?! Further, NYU prevented the banned faculty members from accessing their offices or teaching their classes. 

There are examples from all over the country—take George Mason University in Virginia, where more than 12 police—including one with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force—broke down the door and raided the family home of two Palestinian American students. The cops seized the students’ phones and computers (which prevented them from communicating with friends and supporters, as well as continuing their studies). The students were told the raid was because they are accused of painting graffiti on a floor. And the two students have been banned from campus for four years, essentially preventing them from continuing their studies.

A massive crackdown is being imposed. Yet the outcry against it has been utterly insufficient!

Fascists Are Moving to Make This Much, Much Worse

Trump is all-in in the support of Israel and has threatened that Israel should "finish the problem.” This is not a statement out of concern for the Palestinian people but a call for, and threat of, faster and more “final” genocide of Palestinians. It is in this context that people appointed to his regime have made clear they will bring down even more repression against those standing up to Israel's genocide.

An article in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz titled “How Trump and the GOP Plan to Dismantle the U.S. pro-Palestinian Movement” paints a chilling picture. 

• Both Marco Rubio, who Trump is nominating for Secretary of State, and Elise Stefanik—the nominee for UN ambassador—have called for deporting pro-Palestinian protesters who have student visas. 
• Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, not only threatened international students but declared that anyone saying “I support Hamas… whether they’re here as Americans or if they’re here on student visas… need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away.” (Whatever you think of Hamas—a reactionary Islamic force—merely expressing support for them is constitutionally protected speech.)
• Trump ordered congressional Republicans to install Rep. Brian Mast as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Mast is a Christian fascist who says at his website that he fought with the Israeli military. Mast said, "I don't think we would so lightly throw around the term 'innocent Nazi civilians' during World War II.... It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians." By that, of course, he is justifying the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian people, including children and even babies by Israel, with U.S.-supplied bombs.

And on May 14, Trump himself threatened, “One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.” And he said protest at Columbia “has to be stopped now.”

STOP Passively Accepting This Assault on Dissent and Critical Thinking!

Over these last months, the intensified repression has been met by too much normalization and capitulation. Institutions "of higher learning" have been locked down, without this being defied. Teachers have been fired and this has not been met by mass protest. 

Yet the necessary resistance to this repression has been largely confined to those who are targeted, or to legal challenges. And while challenging all this legally is important, the scale, range, diversity, and determination of resistance is not at all commensurate with the situation and the dangerous stakes. 

This cannot be accepted. Everyone everywhere needs to stand up against this. And if you don't act to stop this, you are complicit. Complicit with the closing down of critical thinking and academic freedom by suffocating repression; and complicit with the U.S.-supported starvation, mutilation, burning alive and outright genocide of the Palestinian people.

Bob Avakian, BA, the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism, has said:

There is a place where epistemology and morality meet. There is a place where you have to stand and say: It is not acceptable to refuse to look at something—or to refuse to believe something—because it makes you uncomfortable. And: It is not acceptable to believe something just because it makes you feel comfortable.

But this is not only a moral question. BA has more recently said, in the face of the looming inauguration of Trump, that this “is not a time for turning inward and attempting to ‘take care of self’ as the juggernaut of Trump/Maga fascism gains momentum and crushes masses of people. This is a time for reaching out to all the others who feel the same outrage at Trump/Maga fascism—a time for collective action and self-sacrificing struggle for the greater good; the greater good of defeating this fascism.”