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We are still in the early stages of the Campaign to Make @BobAvakianOfficial Reach Everywhere.

This is a campaign aimed at raising tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars... garnering tens and hundreds of thousands of followers... working to reach millions with Bob Avakian's revolutionary leadership.

Bob Avakian is the only leader in this country even talking about making a real revolution. 

And this needs to reach millions quickly. One of the most dynamic ways to do that is through online advertising combined with creative, grassroots on-the-ground impact.

We've already had important reach, going up against what the powers-that-be want people to know—in the funds raised, online advertising and in a big shitstorm of controversy that was kicked off in Chicago and online wielding BA's social media dispatch, Revolution #73: Black people hating on immigrants. Nonsense, and worse, from people who should know better.

Watch episode 212 of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show to hear about this directly.

** Announcing an $8,000 push for 10 days, for Revolution #81: Why I Am Not Running for President. 

As the danger of nuclear war intensifies, and as the planet burns, think about the choices being put before this society: An outright FASCIST maniac with a movement of millions promising a "bloodbath" if he doesn't win the next election. And on the other side, a mass murderer and mass incarcerator. 

These are the leaders this system has on offer! And what are they vying for? In Revolution #81, Bob Avakian makes it plain: The "actual 'job description' of President of this country—head of this American empire of exploitation, degradation, oppression, and massive destruction."

But these are not our only choices.

In this sharpening situation, Bob Avakian is pointing the way forward to the need and potential for a radically different system. Bob Avakian has developed a strategy for an actual revolution to overthrow this system of capitalism-imperialism and a vision for a whole different, liberating way to organize society. Bob Avakian is sounding the alarm on the extreme danger that too many people are trying to ignore, and even more, the heightened positive potential for revolutionary change if there is a force getting organized for this. He is breaking all this down, and bringing it alive, regularly via his social media messages.

As he says himself in #81, he is "Working everyday, with everything I have, to provide the leadership that is necessary for this truly emancipating revolution, to bring about this fundamentally different and much better system."

As the next nodal point within this campaign, we are calling for a concentrated push with Revolution #81: $8,000—raised by September 26—will fund a targeted push on YouTube in combination with a concerted postering campaign. For more on what $8,000 can do, see the side bar.

The on-the-ground postering and the online advertising combined can contribute to creating a stir. If you can give $20, this could result in Revolution #81 being put in front of about 6,000 people with about 200 people watching it in part or in full—200 people who are looking around on YouTube agonized... looking stuff up about the elections, about climate change, about capitalism... and they encounter Bob Avakian speaking the truth like no one else! Reaching people who hate what this system is doing but never really stepped back to question its actual nature and what that means the job of the President really is... challenging those who are deluding themselves or hyped up around Kamala even though they hate what's happening in Gaza. And reaching the broad numbers of people who are right now going along with things but who need to be shaken awake... to have their sights lifted to the need and possibility of a whole different way the world can be.

Key in this will mean reaching broadly with this specific dispatch and asking people to donate themselves to getting this in front of others—reach out online or on the street, through phone calling and mass emailing. Ask people very broadly to get this truth in front of millions.

** As long as we're fighting for revolution—and not some short-term goal:

As we've said before, this campaign to make @BobAvakianOfficial known everywhere is controversial—and we welcome that controversy because the fight for people to get into what BA is doing on his social media is a fight that concentrates the big questions of the revolution. Who should people be looking to? Who should they be following? How you answer that depends on what you think is needed and what people should be fighting for!

If you want to see a real revolution, in this time, and not something short of that, then it shouldn't be difficult to find all kinds of creative and dynamic ways to fight for BA. Because BA is about—and he concentrates what is required—to make that revolution, and have that be a revolution that is not about revenge but about emancipating all humanity.

This goes against the tide—and that is a very good thing. Because "the tide" is going along with the vicious and daily exploitation and oppression brought down by this system... "the tide" is legitimizing the genocidal slaughter in Gaza, white supremacist terror of this system, the mass deportation of immigrants, the constant sexual assault and degradation of women and the dangerous destruction of our environment. 

In launching this campaign, some people made a "suggestion" that we should "put forward other people," rather than BA. What this "suggestion" reflects is that there is no getting around, or watering down, what Bob Avakian is actually all about: a real revolution to overthrow this system, and bring into being a whole different world. Whereas if you avoid putting forward BA, with his actual “heft” and historical significance, then you can more easily “slide around” what this is all about and you can fall into tailing “what’s out there,” letting all the reformism, lowered sights and identity politics set the terms. If you avoid really fighting for BA, then you can “tailor” what you put forward to fit into what people are already thinking (thinking that is shaped by the system). But if you really "center" and fight for BA, that means you have to challenge and fiercely struggle against all the bullshit out there, including among better people.

To put it sharply: If you are seeking, and want to put forward, something different and less than an actual revolution, and a communist world, then BA does get in the way.

The fact is that there is simply no one else like Bob Avakian in the world—no one even near the same level—no one else even attempting to lead in the way he is, with the same orientation and methods, toward the tremendously emancipating goals his leadership represents. And this needs to be said to people, straight up. On this basis, there are all kinds of people who will be moved and inspired by BA but are working their way through big questions and differences, who may not all agree with the revolution he's fighting for. If that describes you, there's a place for you in this campaign—engaging BA's work, spreading this social media, contributing funds and raising your questions and differences while we go out together to change the terms in society.

** Finally, we want to hear from you!

This campaign is going to lean into the controversy, so let us know what controversy you're encountering, and we can help answer from the revcoms social media or on The RNL—Revolution Nothing Less!—Show. 

What creative ideas do you have to spread Revolution #81, and @BobAvakianOfficial overall? What sections of people do you think we should be reaching? And what are their cultural interests? (This helps in being able to reach them via advertising.)

Stay tuned to this page to learn how we're doing across the country, and what we're learning!

Donald Trump, the Republican fascist candidate for president, may once again have been the target of an assassination, at his golf course in Florida on Sunday afternoon. Someone there was apprehended shortly after the Secret Service fired shots at someone they said was brandishing a rifle. A short time later, a gun was found in the bushes surrounding the golf course and, shortly after that, a man was arrested as a suspect.

At this point, we don’t know more than that. But there are two things that can be said now. To quote from a message Bob Avakian (BA) posted @BobAvakianOfficial after the attempted assassination of Trump in July, titled “Number Sixty-Four: The Increasing Craziness, The Intensifying Situation and the Possibility of Revolution”:

But whatever the actual motivation of the shooter, and whatever might be involved with this, it has nothing to do with any positive change, and certainly nothing to do with an emancipating transformation of society, which can only be brought about through a revolution, involving millions of people and aiming to sweep away this whole system and replace its relations and institutions of exploitation and oppression, and its putrid culture, with ones that are liberating and uplifting.

Writing at the time of this first incident, BA went on to say:

What is clear is that this attempted assassination of Trump is part of the increasing craziness and chaos going on, in the world overall and particularly within this country.

Now, less than two months after Bob Avakian said the above, we are again confronted with what might be a similar event. Moreover, even in the time since that message there have been further important and even unprecedented events (including the driving out of Joe Biden and the overnight selection of Kamala Harris as the new Democratic candidate). All this and more bear out the importance of BA’s point.

This situation will not settle down. And here too, Bob Avakian’s above-cited dispatch provides important insight:

All this is an expression of the fact the way this country has been ruled for generations, by a basically unified ruling class, can no longer hold. The outcome of all this is very likely to be a radical change, of one kind or another. The crucial question, as I have said before, is whether this will be a radical reactionary change, further intensifying the already terrible oppression and horrific atrocities built into and continually committed by this system of capitalism-imperialism—or will it be a radical revolutionary change, opening the way to abolishing the basis for all this atrocity?

What is said above is not just a “take” or an “opinion”—it is a profound assessment of the times, based on a deeply scientific study of the underlying dynamics that have given shape to and are driving forward this extraordinary situation.  

Further: what is said above cannot be evaded—and nobody should want to evade it. In fact, Bob Avakian also sets forth in these messages, and in his larger work, a way to not only act on but to shape these dynamics and to do so in a way that can set humanity on the road to its urgently needed emancipation.

All this underscores the importance of everyone who wants to see positive change taking up the duty of not just following Bob Avakian’s dispatches and sharing them with others but also struggling sharply with those others to deeply engage with BA’s messages to bring forward the basis and get in position to make a real revolution in this time.

Time is short… and events are accelerating.

In the presidential candidates' debate on September 10, Trump and Harris clashed over Israel. But the terms were not over WHETHER, but HOW to enable Israel to pursue the genocide in Gaza and increasingly throughout Palestine.

Trump set the terms by declaring, “She [Harris] hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now. And I've been pretty good at predictions.” In the last debate, Trump had repeated a similar charge against his then-rival Biden, and followed up by saying that he told Israel to “finish the job” and to effectively keep the press out when they did so.

Harris declared, “That's absolutely not true. I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people. He knows that. He's trying to again divide and distract from the reality, which is, it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy.” 

Harris’s Double-Talk Cannot Hide the Blood on Her Fangs

Yes, Harris lamely tacked on claims to be working “around the clock” for a ceasefire to provide those Harris voters who profess to be troubled by, or even opposed to, the war with an excuse to ignore a reality of mass murder and truly horrible suffering, made in the USA and backed to the hilt by Harris’s Democratic Party. 

In fact, the Biden administration has actually been “working around the clock” to shore up the U.S. position as the dominating power of the Middle East. The main end of that has been providing Israel with virtually unlimited weaponry to murder, maim, torture and destroy. At the same time, they have also advanced certain ceasefire proposals, at least in large part to deceive the vast majority of people around the world who hate what Israel is doing (for more on this, see here and here). And despite the fact Netan-nazi is the main one who has blocked and sabotaged every ceasefire agreement when it nears completion, the Biden-Harris administration has consistently lied that the obstacle to a ceasefire is Hamas, while as a matter of policy “insulating [Israel’s Prime Minister] Netanyahu from [public] criticism.” 

Of course—and again, as a way to keep those Democratic voters who want to convince themselves that they can vote for a genocider and still be a decent person—after going on and on about how rabidly she supports Israel’s right to “defend itself” (carry out genocide), Harris once again added that “how it does so matters.”

Really? Here’s how Israel was “defending itself” on September 10, the very same day as Harris was bragging about supporting Israel her entire career (and calling “weak” the bloodthirsty Trump, who in the last debate called for Israel to “finish the job” and keep out the press when they did so):

Israel dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on defenseless Palestinian people in Gaza seeking shelter in the so-called “safe zone” in Al-Mawasi. Biden and Harris, who supposedly stopped enabling Israel to use 2,000-pound bombs against civilians, didn’t say a word in response! (See the sidebar, “The sky was filled with screams: The Challenge of the Al-Mawasi Slaughter.”)

Israel claimed that this massacre, carried out with these weapons of mass destruction, was a series of “precise strikes” aimed at a few Hamas operatives. That claim is so ridiculous, so outrageous, so intentionally unbelievable as to underline the reality that the real target of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza is not Hamas, but the ability of the Palestinian people to survive as a people.

What the MAGA Fascist Republicans and War Crimes Democrats Have in Common

What Trump (and the Republi-fascists) and Harris and the genocidal Democrats have in common is a recognition of the critical role Israel plays in U.S. capitalism-imperialism dominating the planet. In this, we again return to Bob Avakian’s social media dispatch (#7) from last January:

In the face of all the lies, it is crucial to keep coming back to this basic, essential reality: Here is the entire ruling class of the U.S., and all its major politicians, both Democrat and Republican, fully supporting an apartheid state, Israel, carrying out the genocidal slaughter of Palestinians in front of the whole world….

Why is Biden, and basically the entire government and ruling class of the U.S., supporting Israel in carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people, before the whole world? Here is the answer to that crucial question:

This is not because of “the power of the Jewish lobby”—or because of some ignorant, ridiculous and outrageous notion that “Jews are controlling everything.” It is because Israel plays a “special role” as a heavily armed bastion of support for U.S. imperialism in a strategically important part of the world (the “Middle East”). And Israel has been a key force in the commission of atrocities which have helped to maintain the oppressive rule of U.S. imperialism in many other parts of the world.

What We Need Now

People in this country—the country that is arming, enabling, and whitewashing Israel’s crimes—have a responsibility to do everything in our power to STOP THE GENOCIDE. 

Right now, the rulers of this country are trying to shut down protest against Israel with blacklisting, censorship, suspension from school, and police violence. And, in a one-two punch, they are hitting people with BEB—bourgeois electoral bullshit. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars are being poured into portraying genocide-enabling Kamala Harris as a “lesser evil.”

But you, if you want to call yourself a decent person, need to proceed from the reality that Israel is escalating genocide and that this is being done in your name. You need to proceed from the reality that it has to STOP NOW.

As I said last week:

What we need now—particularly as school starts, and into what will be a politically volatile autumn—is renewed resistance against this U.S.-backed genocide. That resistance must reach out as broadly as possible, uniting all who can be united and waging this struggle as boldly as required to actually end the genocide. And very importantly, we need a movement with full and honest debate about the road forward for this struggle and for the future of humanity overall.

Tonight, September 14th 2024 on the second anniversary of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement and the night of Mahsa-Zhina Amini’s death, more than 25 female political prisoners in Evin Prison have gathered in the yard of the women’s ward.

They have written slogans on cardboard and hung them on the prison walls, chanting them in the hallways and yard:

Woman, Life, Freedom
Freedom, Freedom, Freedom
Lives may be lost, heads may fall, but freedom will never perish
Reformists, conservatives, the story is over
The women of Evin stand united and determined until the death penalty is abolished. We will stand firm until the end.

The issuance of death sentences is the rulers’ revenge on women and Kurdistan, extending to every corner of Iran. They shout the names of the killed and executed and collectively sing the “Bella Ciao” song and “In Your Name, Which Is Our Code.”

In protest of the regime’s policies of repressing women over compulsory hijab, the women prisoners have burned scarves in the prison yard. The protesting women have announced that, in solidarity with the people and the demands of the Iranian protesters, they will go on a hunger strike on Sunday, the September 15.

September 14, 2024

Evin Prison — Women’s Ward

The revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) recently challenged the ugly rise of hateful immigrant-bashing among Black people in an uncompromising social media dispatch titled “Black People Hating on Immigrants. Nonsense and worse from people who should know better.” Everybody knows of the racist lying rants, threats and actions from Donald Trump and his fascist MAGA movement viciously targeting migrants and asylum-seeking refugees. What many don’t know is how these fascists are organizing in Black communities and how way too many Black people are taking this poison up.

On September 8, these Black MAGA fascists and a crew of narrow, reactionary Black nationalists tried to violently break up a public discussion of Bob Avakian's messages at the Revcom Center on the South Side of Chicago. They tried to bum rush the front of the room by punching, shoving and threatening worse, but the revcoms united the audience to usher them out of the Revcom Center. In the days before this assault, these bootlicking Black Trumpers ranted at the local City Council meeting and demanded that official action be taken against the revcoms. And all this took place amidst a shitstorm online. Over the last few weeks and continuing to now, all kinds of lies, slander and character assassination has been spread against Bob Avakian, that he is some kind of "racist," with some posting outright threats. Some of this poison has gone viral in the fascist internet echo chamber, with some things reaching beyond. Some of these anonymous online pigs have tagged federal police agencies. 

These scurrilous bullshit attacks aimed at Bob Avakian cannot be tolerated. This must be forcefully condemned by everyone who cares about a just future for people here and around the world. We know from the history of ugly attacks on revolutionary leaders where these kind of divisive counter-revolutionary lies and threats can lead.

We call on people from all walks of life to defend Bob Avakian. The stakes:

What is the argument that Bob Avakian puts forward in his social media message #73 that has struck such a nerve? Everyone should read his full message. Here we will quote just a portion of what he says in that message. He begins: “One of the most maddening and heartbreaking things these days is to hear Black people, who have suffered so terribly under this system, hating on immigrants—talking about how immigrants are supposedly taking jobs and resources that should go to Black people and ruining neighborhoods where Black people have lived for generations.” After describing how this echoes the terror that Black people faced from white racists when they tried to settle in the north in the period after World War I, Bob Avakian asks: 

So, I have a question for any Black people today who are caught up in this hating on immigrants: Do you really want to be like the rabid white racists?

Or, do you want to put an end to this madness—that you, and the immigrants, are being put through?

It is this system that has put Black people through hell for centuries and is still putting Black people through hell.

Later in his message, Bob Avakian lifts people up to be, and to do, what needs to be done:

Instead of being played to hate on and fight against each other, all the people who are oppressed, exploited, misused, abused, tormented and terrorized under this system—and all people who really care about justice—need to unite to rise up against, and put an end to, this system that is the cause of all this madness, injustice and atrocity.

We are living in a time when it is possible to carry out a revolution that can put an end to this system, and bring into being a radically different and much better system where the fundamental needs and the highest aspirations of people for an emancipating, uplifting way to live can become a reality. All the outrage that people feel, and all the hope and striving for a better way, needs to be dedicated to and focused on working to bring about that emancipating revolution.

At any time, racist ugliness that is spewed against immigrants does harm and divides oppressed peoples who should be uniting against this system. Right now, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The country, deeply divided, is moving rapidly towards an election where everything is potentially coming up for grabs with the threat of violent conflicts and even talk of civil war in the air. Bob Avakian alone has recognized that, within this sharpening situation that holds terrible danger, there is also the rare possibility for revolution. Bob Avakian has developed a strategy, a way to prepare the masses of people to seize this opportunity. We live in a moment that requires all who have suffered so much under this system to unite and work for this revolution now. Part of doing so means defending Bob Avakian. 

While the accusations and slander against BA are ridiculous, they also do serious harm. Those spewing these lies have no idea who Bob Avakian is—a revolutionary leader who has dedicated his life to developing a scientifically based theory, strategy and program for revolution aimed at freeing people everywhere from every form of oppression. And too many others broadly in society are ignorant of this. 

Recognize and defend what we have in the leadership and the road forward that BA provides: 

Who else, besides Bob Avakian, has refused to give up on the emancipatory hopes of revolution that burned over America’s cities in the 1960s and instead took the precious lessons of those times and the previous revolutions to forge a whole new and much more liberating vision of revolution?

Who else, besides Bob Avakian, never gave up on analyzing the deep roots of Black people’s oppression in America and what it would take to really get free? Who, besides Bob Avakian, did all this as part of making revolution, leading revolutionaries to build organization and struggle against lives stolen by police in the1980s and 1990s under cover of the war on drugs? Who else saw before anyone else the rise of Christian fascism, its roots in the system and sounded the alarm? 

Who else, besides Bob Avakian, kept learning from and grappling with the precious lessons of previous revolutions paid for in blood—to come up with a new synthesis, a new communism? Who else forged a way forward to identify and solve the problems of those revolutions so that now we could not just seize power, but create a truly emancipatory society that people would want to live in?  Who else, besides Bob Avakian, has fought hard that a movement for revolution must not be about the first shall be last and the last first, but for a world without “firsts” and “lasts”? And who else, besides Bob Avakian, has concretized all this and more in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for a whole new, and radically different way to organize society?

Who else, besides Bob Avakian, consistently acts as the real best friend of oppressed humanity—the one who talks truth to you when you’re going off course or fucking up, because he knows you’re falling short of what you’re capable of?

WE CALL ON EVERYONE who hates the way that so many are oppressed, terrorized, dehumanized, exploited, and denied a decent life under this system to SPEAK OUT AND JOIN IN STANDING UP TO THESE FASCISTS, THEIR ATTACKS ON IMMIGRANTS, AND THEIR MOUNTING LIES ABOUT AND THREATS AGAINST BOB AVAKIAN AND THE REVCOMS.

We will let this statement from Bob Avakian speak for how he sees the potential of Black people: 

There is the potential for something of unprecedented beauty to arise out of unspeakable ugliness: Black people playing a crucial role in putting an end, at long last, to this system which has, for so long, not just exploited but dehumanized, terrorized and tormented them in a thousand ways—putting an end to this in the only way it can be done—by fighting to emancipate humanity, to put an end to the long night in which human society has been divided into masters and slaves, and the masses of humanity have been lashed, beaten, raped, slaughtered, shackled and shrouded in ignorance and misery.

Send your statements of support for Bob Avakian and the revcoms and reach out to get involved by emailing: getorganizedforrevolutiontour@gmail.com
 

This is the full social media message REVOLUTION #73 from Bob Avakian:

Two years ago this week, the people of Iran erupted in a ferocious rebellion that lasted well over four months. It was centered on the question of women’s oppression in a way that had never been seen before. The clarion call from Iran reverberated around the world and came to be known as the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising. 

The unprecedented uprising was sparked by the in-custody death of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman arrested by Iran’s hated “morality police.” It was something that had happened before—and frankly since—too often in too many places. Yet seemingly out of nowhere, her death was one too many and it lit a long burning fuse. Women—thousands, then millions—poured into the streets defiantly tearing off and even burning their regime-mandated headscarf (hijab) in the face of batons, bullets, and prison. They demanded an end to the religious based laws that govern every facet of their lives, including what they must wear. No country in recent history had witnessed such an uprising that exposed and challenged the raw wound of women’s oppression in such a sustained and massive way. 

Hundreds of thousands of men came into the streets to join these women. Hundreds of thousands of people from oppressed minority nationalities (e.g., Kurds, Baluchis, Arabs, etc.) came out as well demanding an end to their oppression. Millions from all backgrounds raised the demand for freedom that was inspired by the mighty fury of women fighting against their brutal oppression. This unprecedented outpouring of rage and joy shook the foundations of the Islamic fundamentalist regime. The legitimacy of the regime’s right to rule was called into question and the cry for an end to it rang out from many quarters of that society including many artists and intellectuals.

Vicious Repression and Ongoing Courage

Eventually the regime was able to force this outpouring off of the streets, and the struggle subsided. In the months and years since then, the regime has been able to imprison and murder some of those who bravely defied their rule. But Iran’s rulers have not succeeded in killing the hopes and desires of those who stood up! Huge numbers of women in Iran are defying the forced hijab, including by courageous women prisoners in Evin Prison, taking great risks to do so.

Today in the face of rampant executions, torture and official media slanders, heroic resistance continues, most notably actions taken by prisoners against executions. The resistance to the regime continues in different ways as people persist in defying the clampdown on women and girls aimed at reasserting the Reign of Terror from this regime over them. The struggle of the women and the broad masses of people in Iran is our struggle. Their blood is our blood and their cry for real and lasting liberation is one that we must support and join with, fighting to advance this same fight all over the world. Ending the oppression of women is part and parcel of making a real revolution and bringing about a world where humanity as a whole is finally set free.

The U.S. Is NOT a “Friend” of Iran's People

At the same time, it is very important to be vigilant to the threats and machinations of the U.S. imperialists against Iran. Since the overthrow of its brutal puppet Shah of Iran in 1979, the U.S. has regarded Iran as a bone in their throat to dominate that region (and counter China and Russia imperialist influence). Various figures in U.S. officialdom have feigned support for the uprising and also cried crocodile tears about the Islamic regime's brutal repression, including bullshit bills in Congress. Besides economic and diplomatic pressures such as crippling sanctions, the U.S. may use other means, including by working through and with Israel, to attack Iran and restore U.S. domination. These imperialists must not be allowed to subvert the revolutionary aspirations of the people of Iran for their own reactionary ends.

What Will the Future Be?

Two years on, the question is ever more sharply posed in Iran—what next? Within Iran and around the world, there are profoundly different understandings as to what it will take to carry forward the righteous spirit of this struggle and actually achieve lasting liberation for woman and all people. We encourage our readers to go to revcom.us for the many key articles by the Communist Party of Iran, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (CPI[MLM]) that point to the revolutionary process and direction needed to answer “what’s next?” The question they posed on September 13 last year still burns:

The cry for freedom has been on the lips of millions in Iran—but the burning question is, will this be freedom for the oppressed to seize on the turmoil that is tearing apart the old order to make revolution, overthrow the regime along with all relations of oppression and exploitation and replace it with something much better? Or will exploiters and oppressors be free in one form or another, either to continue the old regime or continue the same conditions of oppression and exploitations with new faces at the top?

ALERT: An extremely dangerous new step in the U.S.-Russia proxy war in Ukraine, a step with potentially catastrophic consequences, is being seriously considered by the U.S. and its NATO allies: allowing Ukraine to use NATO weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia for the first time.

In the past the U.S. has been wary doing so for fear of sparking a wider war, possibly directly between the U.S. and Russia, which could damage their interests. But the cold-blooded imperialist calculations of the U.S. rulers may be shifting.

In recent weeks, the U.S. and NATO have apparently been giving serious consideration to authorizing Ukraine to use British and French long-range missiles to attack deep inside Russia. This was reported as being a focus of the September 13 meeting between President Biden and Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer. The New York Times reports that this step “could be far more consequential” than previous U.S.-NATO moves to provide Ukraine with more and more deadly weapons. 

This would constitute the most direct U.S.-NATO intervention in this bloody two and-a-half-year war, and a dramatic escalation—an escalation with unpredictable and potentially deadly consequences for millions, perhaps billions of people. 

Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin immediately warned that such a step “will mean that NATO countries—the United States and European countries—are at war with Russia…. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” 

This is a very ominous declaration from Putin who has repeatedly threatened that Russia would use nuclear weapons if it felt its strategic interests or existence were fundamentally threatened. 

Compounding all this, on September 15, the Guardian and other British news outlets reported that “Britain and the US have raised fears that Russia has shared nuclear secrets with Iran in return for Tehran supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles to bomb Ukraine.” If that story is true, it adds to the pressure in the situation; if it is not, it could indicate forces within Britain and/or the U.S. attempting to add to the pressure. 

Ukraine: NOT a Just War to Defend Ukraine and “Democracy”—a Reactionary Proxy War Between Rival Imperialist Powers

Biden and the U.S. imperialists portray the slaughter in Ukraine as a just war in defense of Ukrainian sovereignty and the front lines of a battle between western democracy and Russian “autocracy.” This was a major theme of Kamala Harris in her recent debate with Trump.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was indeed an act of brutal imperialist aggression. But the U.S. imperialists didn’t respond by fighting for the interests of the people of Ukraine and the world. They responded the only way they could—in line with defending the imperial interests of their system, interests which dictated that it not allow its Russian rival to advance its domination. Instead, they seized on the invasion to try to deal their Russian imperialist rivals a massive defeat. In fact, the U.S. has been using the people of Ukraine as cannon fodder in this proxy war, a war that has already led to estimates of between 600,000 and 800,000 killed or wounded soldiers on both sides and more than 35,000 civilians either killed or wounded in Ukraine. ¹

The U.S. is determined to deal Russia a military defeat and a serious blow to its global influence and ambitions. Both the U.S. and Russia have made clear that they cannot allow the other to prevail. At the same time, they have both maneuvered to avoid an all-out war. 

Yet developments on the ground have forced each to steadily escalate the war in the face of difficulties. Throughout the war Biden has provided Ukraine with more and more deadly weapons after first hesitating: HIMARS artillery, then M1 Abrams tanks, then F-16 fighters and short- and long-range ATACMS missiles. 

Now in recent months Russia has seized more territory in eastern Ukraine, which is reportedly running low on troops and munitions. Meanwhile Ukraine launched a surprise attack and seized a small area of Russian territory. Britain’s prime minister called the next weeks and months “crucial” for the U.S.-NATO war in Ukraine. 

A direct military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia holds the extreme danger of the conflict spiraling out into a nuclear conflict.

In the past U.S.-NATO provided weapons that had been used inside Russia, but only close to Ukraine’s borders. Now Biden is on the verge of authorizing the use of weapons that can strike deep inside Russia. 

U.S. officials and military “experts” have been pooh-poohing the danger that Russia would seriously escalate or resort to nuclear weapons. They claim Putin is bluffing. This is irresponsible, criminal speculation by war criminals who are again gambling with the lives of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of people for their own predatory imperialist aims and objectives. ²

All this underscores the urgency and immediacy of the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian’s declaration that: 

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.

Joy and anger, grief and shared community, sweet melodies and clashing rock riffs, with musical artists and speakers from Palestine, Finland, Iran, Afghanistan, U.S., Egypt, bringing together their music and passion in Helsinki, Finland. Initiated by Osyan/Revolt,³ this very internationalist event felt like a small piece of a better liberating future, where people from diverse artistic expressions across oceans, borders, languages and culture came together to forge a new unity. 

As an Instagram post (translated from Farsi) by @Maosyangarim and @RhymesofResistance summed up:

“Rhymes of Resistance” is the name of the live music concert that was held for Woman, Life, Freedom and Free Palestine last Saturday, August 31, at the initiative of Osyan with the cooperation of many other people and groups in Helsinki. In this concert, different singers and groups from all over the world were present in solidarity with Woman, Life, Freedom and Palestine: The Outernational band from America; Shekib Mosadeq from [Afghanistan, living in] Germany; Egyptian singer Ramy Essam; Mira Shatat, the Palestinian singer; and Finnish rapper Tuuliviiri... 

This completely volunteer-run and nonprofit program was open to the public and more than 300 people from various backgrounds participated in it. All of them aim to show that they stand by the various struggles of people from Iran to Palestine, from Congo to America, and no one is free unless we are all free.

With this program, the message to the fighting people of Iran was to stand against the genocide in Palestine and not to let the message of the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising be kidnapped by pro-Israel Iranian fascists! The message to the Palestinian people was to stand by the Woman, Life, Freedom uprising and not allow the Islamic Republic kidnap the cause of Palestine! The Islamic Republic and Israel are both fascist and anti-human governments. Our fight should be against both and against the whole system that creates such regimes. Our struggle is the same all over the world and this voice was shouted in different languages from the mouths of the singers of “Rhymes of Resistance”. Amplify this sound!

Wish you were there? The revolutionary rock band Outernational is playing two “Welcome to the Revolution” concerts this month: September 19 in NYC @lprnyc and September 28 in LA @theparamountla. This on the heels of their release of the “Welcome to the Revolution” album. Get tickets and find out how to listen to their music here: outernationalmusic.com/connect. Don’t miss it!

As Tyreek Hill, the All-Pro wide receiver of the Miami Dolphins, drove to his game last Sunday, he was stopped by the Miami cops for allegedly speeding. The pigs took Hill out of the car, forced him on the ground and handcuffed him. (A video taken by a bystander shows what happened.)

A couple of his teammates saw this and they got out of their car. When one of them, Calais Campbell, told the cops that he wanted to help out, he was also put in handcuffs. Campbell later said, “I’d seen, I feel like excessive force, so I get out of the car to kind of just try to de-escalate the situation—a bit extreme.”

After the game, Hill, who is Black, said, “I don’t want to bring race into it, but sometimes it gets kind of iffy if you do. What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Lord knows what that guy or those guys would have done.” 

Hill was interviewed on CNN on Monday where he got more into how he felt: “I wasn’t moving fast because you know I got injuries, I got things that I go through. I play a physical sport, I’ve been doing this for a moment now man so I’m dealing with some stuff, so I guess the officers they felt like I wasn’t doing it on their timing. I was doing it but I’m still kind of shell shocked from it.” Later in the interview, he thought about how bad it could have ended: “If I wasn’t Tyreek Hill, worst-case scenario, we would’ve had a different article. Tyreek Hill got shot in front of Hard Rock Stadium, that’s worst-case scenario.”

Hill’s head coach, Mike McDaniel, said that he has never been in the situation that Hill and Campbell were in because while he is biracial, he looks white: “It’s hard not to find myself more upset the more I think about it. The thing that fucks me up, being quite frank, is I don’t know what that feels like.”

To better understand what happened, you have to picture the situation. The pigs pull over a dark-skinned Black man, wearing a tank top with lots of jewelry and driving an expensive sports car. In their eyes, this person is not “legitimate,” so they’re going to fuck him up and put him in his place. This is the point that Hill is making about a “worst-case scenario”—as he and other Black people know, there is a long history in this country of Black people driving in the “wrong” neighborhood being stopped and fucked with, brutalized, even killed.

As revolutionary Bob Avakian says about pigs:

The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and order that enforces all this oppression and madness. (BAsics 1:24)

Once again, the pigs send a message to the masses of people that their “job” is to terrorize, brutalize and even murder them. And that they will do this to anybody, especially Black and other oppressed people—including an All-Pro NFL player. This shit will only end when we end this system of capitalism-imperialism that unleashes their pigs upon the people.