Posts by issue number/Posteos por número de la edición

We are in a dangerous situation of rapidly advancing fascism—one which is raising deep questions for many millions about what is happening and why. Among many, there is anguish… and a waiting for someone else to step in. Among others—and this is growing—there is a desire to fight… but not knowing how.

Some have begun to take to the streets—from Latino high school students, to long-time Democratic voters fed up with inaction, to concerned young people just starting out their professional lives, to those who love nature or science or the rule of law or just don’t want to cave to the inhumanity of fascism. And there are many who don't recognize what we need to fight or how to win. (The Voices of Resistance page on this site gives a notable representation of the growing breadth of opposition and the corresponding breadth of views.)

Such a time cries out for a voice that speaks with extreme clarity, foresight and vision to this whole situation, how we got here, what is necessary to defeat this fascism. That voice is the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian—who speaks as well to how do we wage and win this fight as part of getting to a whole better world. Bob Avakian has brought forward the new communism and written the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. He's also been analyzing the rise of fascism in this country for 30 years! 

This voice needs to reach the agonized millions, urgently. 

That's the mission of the Campaign to Get Bob Avakian's Social Media, @BobAvakianOfficial, Everywhere. As part of this, we are in the midst of a drive to raise $30,000 by March 31.

In early January, Bob Avakian released a major statement for New Year's: 2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And A Profoundly Positive Way Forward In the Face of Very Real Horror.

This was followed up by a substantive and gripping interview that digs into question of fascism, the nature of capitalism, the kind of mass protest needed now, questions of method and sacrifice. Very soon, Part 2 of this interview will be released.

If you are someone who cares about the future, if you care about your neighbors and if you care about people all over the world—you need to hear all this! 

FUNDS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED TO AMPLIFY THIS VOICE

Right now is a time to reach people on a big scale with Bob Avakian's work, and this Campaign. Funds will go towards online advertising, a grassroots movement to spread this with posters, stickers, flyers and more... and in addition to this $30,000 goal, we are aiming to raise an additional $25,000 for a national guerrilla postering campaign.

That means getting the letter asking for funds in front of hundreds and thousands (through mass emails, mailings, slipping it under people's doors). And it means creative ways of pulling people together to raise funds and mass fundraising on the street. It means talking with friends and family about who they know, pulling people together to watch and listen to BA's social media messages, the New Year's message and the new Interviews. We are enclosing below two examples where people stepped out with the need for funds, straight up.

Most people who contribute are still going to be learning about BA and working through their own questions. That's good! At the same time, there is an urgent need to break open this debate throughout society—sounding the alarm, shaking people awake and raising their sights! 

We want to re-share these two essential points in fundraising which we wrote a few months ago:

1. If you don't ask for a donation, you will not get a donation. That’s important enough to repeat and to amplify: IF YOU DON’T ASK FOR A DONATION, YOU WILL NOT GET A DONATION.

2. For every person who decides to give, a lot of people will decline (at least the first time around). So this means you have to ask a lot of people—reaching widely and broadly.

If people decline to give a contribution, ask them why so that we can learn from this. Send your thoughts, questions and experience to info@bobavakianofficialeverywhere.org.

Reaching Thousands at a High-End Art Fair with Bob Avakian's Voice

A small team of revcoms went to a major international art fair to raise funds for the National Campaign to Get @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere. The art fair, Frieze, draws thousands of people including artists, art lovers, academics and art school students, museum curators, art dealers and wealthy art collectors.

In addition to distributing materials, and talking with dozens of people, we raised $815 over two days. 

The campaign guidance on revcom.us has called for reaching very widely, recognizing there are millions of people agonized about the moves of the Trump/MAGA fascist regime and what to do about it. It has called for being bold and direct about the active call to donate to “chang[e] what people understand, which will change what they do. Donate to shaking people awake and raising their sights. Donate to impacting society with what the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian calls ‘the profoundly positive way forward in the face of real horrors.’” And that guidance has called for, when possible, going out in ways that have mass impact especially directly with what Bob Avakian is saying. 

We've also appreciated the importance of stepping out with the need for funds as a mass question. This puts up front that these are not just "important ideas"—though they are that—but a revolutionary voice aimed at changing the world. And the call for funds, again up front, forces people to think about what's worth putting your resources behind.

At Frieze, we set up for mass impact on a pathway into the event, with a 6-foot A-Frame of the Mein Trumpf—A Thoroughly American Fascist Pig poster. We played audio of BA’s New Year message. People sorted themselves out when they saw the poster, and those who stopped to study it more closely or take pictures also got to hear pieces of BA’s message directly. One person who saw it after having gone through the art show commented “this is the best art I've seen all day." Many thanked us for being there. Others attempted to ignore it, and several made clear they supported Trump. 

By the second day, we brought the call to donate even more to the fore, highlighting the DONATE display with a goal and thermometer for the day. We challenged people to give generously on the spot. 

Among a significant number of people we found deep and active agonizing about Trump fascism. People wanted to talk about what it would take to defeat this fascism and had big questions of the possibility of millions in the streets. We had a lot of struggle with people to really confront and act commensurate with what is happening. There was also a great deal of serious discussion, interest in and struggle about the new communism that Bob Avakian has brought forward. This kind of discussion and even brief engagement with BA on the spot compelled people to donate, ranging from $20 donations to $200. In one instance, talking to two friends in their 60s, one was frustrated with the lack of outrage in society now, talking about how during Trump’s first presidency, millions did take to the streets, “where are the pussy hats now? And blocked the airports in against the Muslim ban?”, while her friend kept trying to pull her away. In response to the challenge to donate the price of their tickets, the woman who was engaging pulled out $20 and then pulled out another $20 “for her friend.”

Mass Fundraising At a Medical Strike

Inspired by an example of people doing mass fundraising at an art event, a couple of us went out to the picket line at a major medical center where service and patient care workers were on a 2-day strike. Thousands of people statewide struck over unfair labor practices, poor working conditions and low pay. When we were there, over a hundred people marched and loudly chanted, with others gathered on the sides resting and talking. 

We brought a big enlargement of the Mein Trumpf sign from revcom which drew a lot of attention and appreciation. Most people agreed that Trump is "a thoroughly American fascist pig" and were agonized about Trump's attacks on science and healthcare. Some nodded when we brought out that Trump was brought to us by this rotten system.

In addition to talking with people about the need urgently to defeat this fascism, we talked with people about the importance of Bob Avakian's clarity and leadership reaching millions throughout society now.  

One woman said she opposed everything Trump is doing, but did not know what to do about it since he had been elected. She said, "well you people know what to do" and she wanted to support our efforts. 

One Black woman said she was one of those millions of people who hate Trump and what he is doing. She donated a little and said she would donate more online. She knew people from her church and other friends who feel the same way who she thought would support this. She took more of the fundraising leaflets and other materials to get out to other people and will see if she could pull some of them together to watch some of Bob Avakian's talks. 

This was the first time we really stepped out in a mass way with the direct ask for fundraising. And it was important to do! We only had an hour to be there and were able to talk to about 25 people who were serious, looking for answers and a willingness among some to give support. 

Last Friday, Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance hosted Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, to discuss negotiations over settling the war between Russia and Ukraine. Russia attacked Ukraine a little over three years ago and hundreds of thousands have died as a result—soldiers and civilians alike. The U.S./NATO alliance backed the Ukrainian military effort, but sent no troops. They used Ukraine to wage a proxy war against their Russian imperialist rival. Trump came in determined to settle the war and has been working to change relations with Russia. 

In the White House negotiations, Zelensky did agree to allow the U.S. a large stake in valuable mineral resources in Ukraine—including rare earth minerals that are essential for microchips and other modern technology. This was cast as repayment for U.S. aid to Ukraine during the Biden administration. But Zelensky argued that going forward in ceasefire negotiations would require a U.S. “security guarantee” in the event of a future Russian attack—that is, at minimum, U.S. military aid. Trump refused to commit to that. Go here for background on the war.

At the close of negotiations, Trump brought Zelensky out for a session with the White House Press Corps. At this session, Zelensky repeatedly pressed his insistence on security guarantees and continually warned against Putin’s untrustworthiness. (Of course, Zelensky did not bring up that the U.S. had violated assurances to Russia that the U.S. would not interfere in Ukrainian affairs and that the U.S. would not consider admitting eastern European countries near Russia into the U.S.-led NATO military alliance—promises that were both repeatedly violated.) Toward the end of the press conference, Vance stepped in and chided Zelensky for disrespect, for not really coming to grips with the dire position of Ukraine in the war, and for not sufficiently thanking the U.S. Trump then came in to berate and belittle Zelensky. He told Zelensky that he was in no position to dictate terms; that without the U.S., Ukraine had “no cards”; and that Putin would respect any agreement he made with Trump—but that unless and until Zelensky changed his attitude to one of gratitude, things would not go anywhere. In short: take the deal or stay in the war on your own.

U.S. NATO allies in Europe, along with liberal politicians and commentators within the U.S., reacted with shock and anger to the open strong-arming of Zelensky. In the wake of this, there has been a lot of obfuscation—that is, covering up and “spinning”—of reality by different imperialist (and reformist) politicians and commentators. This is a very high-stakes and complex situation, in which things are radically changing, almost by the day. It’s crucial to approach this with a scientific methodology that enables you to drill down beneath the surface to the truth. That requires clearing away the lies and penetrating to the underlying living dynamics setting the framework and the real material interests behind the posturing and words of different contending forces.

1. The Lie: That Donald Trump was fighting for peace and working to prevent nuclear war when the ungrateful Zelensky recklessly disrespected him and tried to ruin those chances.

The truth: Despite his posturing, Donald Trump was neither fighting for peace nor still less principally trying to prevent World War 3. 

In the wake of Russia’s invasion, the U.S./NATO alliance intervened on the side of Ukraine with massive amounts of military aid, intelligence assistance and military advice, as well as waging severe economic warfare against Russia. Thus the U.S.-NATO alliance transformed that bloody conflict into an inter-imperialist proxy war between them and Russia. This greatly heightened the danger of a nuclear war breaking out that could end civilization. 

Trump had long opposed this war as a distraction from more fundamental imperialist interests—especially contention with China, the rising imperialist power that is increasingly challenging U.S. dominance. But as we dramatically saw Friday, this war has yet to be settled. Further, any “settlement” will not and cannot speak to the root causes of the war. Those causes lie in the capitalist-imperialist system and the way in which the “expand-or-die” logic of that system compels imperialist powers to fight to enlarge the spheres they dominate… at the inevitable expense of other imperialists. 

At the same time, the fallout of the Friday clash between Zelensky and Trump-Vance further intensified what had already been a sharpening conflict between the U.S. and what have been for the past 80 years its closest allies, the nations of Western Europe (Germany, France, Britain, and others). Over those decades, these nations have subordinated themselves to and supported U.S. policies principally to better pursue their own imperialist interests under the NATO umbrella. Now all that is being called into question and the unprecedented public argument with Zelensky was part of that. 

Last week we reported on the ways in which JD Vance and Elon Musk had given backing to the “neo”-Nazi party in Germany; and it is worth noting that Trump spoke at the “Conservative”¹ Political Action Conference that was full of European fascist parties and at which Steve Bannon gave his Nazi salute. 

By early last week, Friedrich Merz, the newly elected Chancellor of Germany—the most powerful country in Europe—said that his priority now was to “strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that we achieve independence from the U.S., step by step.” Merz went on to say that the “interventions [in German elections] from Washington were no less drastic, dramatic, and ultimately no less brazen, than the interventions we have seen from Moscow.” Fareed Zakaria spoke for other liberal commentators when he called this overall trend a “seismic” (earthquake-like) shift. The incident with Zelensky heightened this.

There are no “good guys” in any of this, no “better force” to side with. These are capitalist-imperialist powers, each driven by the logic of “expand or die”—and each doing so on the broken bodies and spirits of billions of people and of the environment of the entire planet. This logic drives them into war—war against the masses when they rise up, and war against each other over who will dominate. 

Here is an irony: Among his many distortions and lies, Trump spoke one profound truth—the conflict in Ukraine did and still does carry the possibility of escalation into World War 3. But Trump’s aim in pushing these negotiations is not driven by a desire for peace, but an arrangement in which the U.S. will be in a stronger position to contend with its principal rival, China. Where this will go is impossible at this point to say. 

2. The Lie: That Trump endangered one of the “great achievements of history,” the (so-called) “rules-based international order," formed and headed by the U.S.

The truth: The U.S. capitalist-imperialist domination of the world for the past 80 years has been marked by hunger, horror and relentless violent oppression on a mammoth—and totally unnecessary—scale. 

Despite the relentless and, frankly, morally blind commentary of nearly every liberal opinionator and politician, this does not mark the end of a U.S.-“led” global order “in the service of freedom and democracy.” These last 80 years have been an era of U.S. global domination in the service of expanding their empire of exploitation, and beating back challenges to maintaining their grip on this domination. The U.S. came out on top after World War 2, and since then the world has seen over 500 million children die of starvation or curable diseases. Billions have been and continue to be ground up every day in pitiless exploitation to create the great wealth of the capitalist-imperialists, including 150 million children working in the mines, farms and sweatshops of the world. Nearly 10 million people have died due to direct U.S. wars and U.S.-directed military intervention in scores of countries since the end of that war. The “rules” that this system upholds are in the service of enforcing this.²

All this is compellingly put in Bob Avakian’s 2025 New Year’s statement, 2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges—And A Profoundly Positive Way Forward In the Face of Very Real Horror, and it’s worth it to listen to it again here. 

3. The lie: Volodymyr Zelensky is a true hero in standing up to Trump.

The truth: Volodymyr Zelensky is the representative of the ruling class of a lesser capitalist power, struggling for the best deal for his country within, and as part of, the U.S. capitalist-imperialist bloc.

What Trump, along with his contemptible toady Vance, did to Zelensky was a disgusting display of bullying. Volumes could be written about what this revealed about the character and morality of these fascists.

And the fact is that Putin is a butcher who has carried out terrible war crimes against the Ukrainian people—again, in the service of imperialist interests. But these crimes have certainly been no greater than the horrors carried out by Israel and financed by the U.S. against the people of Gaza—also in the service of capitalist-imperialist domination. It is this capitalist-imperialist system that requires monstrous deeds and makes monsters of those who order and carry them out.

The Ukrainian people have been badly and cynically used in all this and suffered greatly. But shed no tears for Zelensky—he cast his lot by siding some time ago with the most vicious empire in history, the U.S. He presumably did so in the hopes of advancing what he perceived to be his country’s interests in getting part of the spoils of that murderous empire. His fight was not to overturn the imperialist banquet table, but to get a more secure seat at it. Now, like many before him, he is coming to find out that when push comes to shove, the very logic of the system he serves finds him and the people he leads very “expendable.” 

***

What has been on display over the past two weeks is neither a bold move by Trump aimed at lessening the threat of imperialist war, nor is it a case of a supposedly great achievement (the U.S./NATO alliance) now in danger of being tragically abandoned. These two weeks instead have shown the imperialist system overall accelerating into an increasingly unstable and dangerous situation for humanity—one that cannot be dealt with within the confines of that system.

Trump and the MAGA fascists are hell-bent on silencing all opposition to their regime, by any means they deem necessary. 

As a crucial part of this, that regime is taking outrageous and unprecedented steps to whip the major news media outlets into line. The aim is to turn these media into a combination of simpering right-wing lapdogs who idolize Trump, along with formerly “respected” newspeople (owners, editors, journalists) who have been taught that “if you want to get along you have to go along”—and that means you do NOT challenge the regime, its horrific crimes, or the torrent of lies with which they cover them up. 

This is happening right before our eyes—and up to this point there has been precious little serious opposition to it from the news media or anyone else. This has high stakes for the fight for the truth, and the fight against fascism. And this is so even though the mainstream media represent and serve the interests of this system as a whole—and just like the rulers of this system, they are sharply divided. In his social media message Revolution #98, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian asked:

What is the difference between fascist ruling class liars and “mainstream” ruling class liars?

"The answer," he continued, “is that the fascists lie comprehensively and systematically, while 'mainstream' ruling class representatives lie 'situationally' and 'instrumentally.'" And later in that message, he explains:

Unlike the fascists, for “mainstream” ruling class representatives (like the politicians of the Democratic Party and those who run major media like CNN and the New York Times) reality does matter—BUT when reality gets in the way of the interests of this system of capitalism-imperialism, they will distort reality and lie as grossly as the fascists.

But what the fascists need goes beyond the propagation of lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, lies about the U.S.'s role in the world, lies about police terror inside the U.S. The fascists need for there to be “no such thing” as the “truth,” other than whatever they say it is at any given time. And this is a big part of the clash between the two sections of the ruling class, and for their vendetta against mainstream news media.

Targeting the Associated Press 

Just look at what happened with the Associated Press (AP)—one of the largest news services in the world. On February 12, the Trump administration indefinitely banned the AP from the Oval Office and from Air Force One (Trump’s plane), thus largely depriving them of the opportunity to ask Trump direct questions, hindering their ability to cover the regime and setting an example.

And WHY? According to Trump's deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, AP showed a “commitment to misinformation” by continuing to call the Gulf of Mexico… “the Gulf of Mexico,” even after Trump claimed to have renamed it “the Gulf of America.”

This is ridiculous! The Gulf of Mexico is not a U.S. territory—it is an international body of water that was named over 400 years ago. So the U.S. has no right or ability to “rename” it, and so far, no other country in the world recognizes this name change. But in Trump world, whatever—whatever—Der Trumpff says is “true,” and failure to treat it as true shows a “commitment to misinformation” that will be punished.

So this ban on AP is a dangerous warning to the media as a whole. And it should have provoked immediate defiance from everyone claiming to be a journalist. For example, the rest of the White House Press Corps should've reacted strongly—by boycotting press conferences, by only asking questions about the ban on AP, or in other ways. Instead, they’ve been shamefully hustling their way from one White House press event to another, apparently just grateful to be allowed in.

The journalist and writer Mark Jacob wrote, "The news media needed an 'I am Spartacus' moment. Instead, the message was: 'I’m definitely not Spartacus. No way. That’s him over there.'"

This is referring to the climax of the film Spartacus where, instead of turning over the leader of the slave rebellion to save their own skin, the slaves stood together. Watch the scene: 

Handpicking the White House Press Corps… and Adding More Fascists to the Mix

Having met no serious resistance to their attacks on AP and others, the fascists have already taken another outrageous step. Press secretary and fascist parrot Karoline Leavitt announced that from now on, the White House will decide which journalists will be allowed to come to press events, overruling the decades-old system whereby an organization of White House correspondents made this selection.

This allows the fascists the ability to bar any journalist for not being properly subservient to Trump—while they're inviting in fascists, neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorist podcasters and other right-wing spreaders of lies, and treating them as legitimate journalists. In fact, if you watched the ambush/beatdown of Ukrainian president Zelensky last Friday, you could hear the voice of “journalist” Brian Glenn joining in, harassing Zelensky for supposedly “disrespecting” Trump by not wearing a suit! (See "Three Big Lies—and Important Truths—from the Break Between Trump and Ukrainian Leader Volodymyr Zelensky"). And who is Glenn? A correspondent for far-right outlet Real America’s Voice. Now that’s the kind of “journalist” MAGA can get with!

And again, these new “arrangements” have basically been accepted by the media, at least so far.

Washington Post Silences Itself

The Washington Post has historically been one of the two most influential newspapers in the U.S., and has been a vehicle for more liberal sections of the ruling class to contend with more right-wing sections. For instance, in the 1970s, it was the Washington Post that exposed Richard Nixon’s connection to the “Watergate break-in,” which led to him being impeached and forced to resign. And its editorial policy has opposed Trump ever since he declared his candidacy in 2015.

The Post is owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who previously opposed Trump but has since capitulated in a number of ways. For the first time in decades, the Washington Post's opinion page did not support a presidential candidate—even though an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president had already been drafted. And when Trump won, Bezos donated a million dollars to his Inauguration as a show of fealty and submission. 

That was already shocking; thousands of Post readers cancelled their subscriptions, and a number of prominent journalists quit. But worse was to come. On February 26, Bezos ordered that the Post’s “Opinion” section would now advocate “personal liberties and free markets.” This is code for unfettered capitalist exploitation and is very similar to the slogan of the pro-Trump Wall Street Journal, “Free markets, free people.” 

Bezos declared, “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else.” Bezos made clear that no dissent would be tolerated, and that "viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others." This was heralded by Elon Musk and other fascists, including Charlie Kirk, the Christian fascist leader of Turning Point USA, who gloated: “Good! The culture is changing rapidly for the better.”

So in a matter of weeks, one of the country’s leading "liberal-moderate" papers swung sharply to the right. Why? Martin Baron, a former Post editor, said “There is no doubt in my mind that he [Bezos] is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests.” And Baron went on: “He’s basically fearful of Trump. He has decided that, as timid and tepid as the editorials have been, they’ve been too tough on Trump.”

Ridiculous Lawsuits… and Craven Capitulation

Trump and other MAGA fascists have launched a series of lawsuits against media coverage of Trump. He sued ABC News for libel after anchor George Stephanopoulos said on the air that Trump had been found civilly liable for rape in New York. (Trump was found liable for “sexual abuse” in the form of forced vaginal penetration with his finger, which is not considered “rape” under New York law. However, the judge himself described it as meeting the common understanding of “rape.”) 

Legal experts thought that ABC would win the case, but ABC did not go to trial. Instead, they settled out of court, donated $15 million to Trump’s “Presidential Library,” and Stephanopoulos publicly apologized.

In the U.S., for a public figure to be found to have libeled, there has to be proof that whatever was said was said maliciously, and not just mistakenly. In this case, it is clear that Stephanopoulos was genuinely confused and believed that Trump had been found liable for rape, but he was mistaken. 

This is important—while media should strive to be factually accurate, it would obviously have an extremely chilling effect on free speech and press if any honest mistake—or unconventional viewpoint—could subject you to a crippling lawsuit. Although the case didn’t go to trial and hence there is no legal precedent established, ABC’s capitulation on this set of facts can only encourage more lawsuits like this. 

Along the same lines, Trump is suing CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Trump claims that one of Harris’s quotes was edited to make her look better! If this went to trial, it seems very clear that CBS would win. But Paramount—parent company of CBS—is seeking an out-of-court settlement. 

While it is impossible to know for certain why these two mega corporations chose to settle cases they were very likely to win, it is hard to imagine that Trump’s open policy of using presidential power to punish his “enemies” doesn’t factor into this in an important way. And, as one attorney commented, “What gets rewarded gets repeated.” Trump has multiple similar lawsuits ongoing, including one against the Des Moines Register in Iowa because it published a poll before the election saying Trump would lose in Iowa, but then he won! (To its credit, the Register is so far not seeking a settlement!)

Do Not Accommodate or Collaborate!

The fascists are aiming for and moving RAPIDLY to drown all criticism and exposure of their lies. They want to make their fascist program and the lies that justify it the only voice people are hearing, day in and day out. The point is to enlist those who can be enlisted in their criminal plans, and to disorient, demoralize and crush those who oppose them. 

As Bob Avakian wrote last week:

What is happening now is that Trump is moving to make this a dictatorship, not of the ruling class as a whole, but of a certain—fascist—section of the ruling class, to the exclusion, and with a determined vendetta against, the other (“bourgeois-democratic”) section of the ruling class. At the same time, this can have tremendously negative consequences for the masses of people—because, to put it in basic terms: If the fascists can do this to people who have been part of the ruling class, think of the implications for what they can do to “ordinary people.”

This must be stopped and opposed in every corner of society—with millions acting, with self-sacrificing courage and collective action aimed at defeating this fascism. 

On Sunday, March 2, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to halt all humanitarian relief coming into Gaza. 

This is an outrageous violation of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Hamas (see below), as well as being the war crime and crime against humanity of using starvation as a weapon of war—ceasefire or no ceasefire. 

And that’s not all. Israel’s March 2 statement declared it could unilaterally break the agreement and restart its assault on Gaza “if it gains the impression that the negotiations have been ineffective.” (New York Times)

15 Months of Genocidal Slaughter  

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has pummeled the two million Palestinians in Gaza from the land, air and sea. More than 48,000 have been slaughtered, including more than 18,000 children, and more than 100,000 injured. Some 90 percent of the homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Israel has systematically targeted Gaza’s entire infrastructure—its hospitals, water and sewage systems, farms, bakeries, schools, universities, relief agencies and more. 

During the more than 15 months of fighting since October 2023, Israel has used starvation and disease as weapons of war, systematically blocking deliveries of food, water, medicine and other urgently needed goods.³

These actions all constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity, and now Israel is once again denying the people of Gaza the basic necessities of life—again a war crime and crime against humanity. 

Israel Aims for “Final Solution” to the Palestinian “Problem”

Israel claims all this death and destruction is directed at Hamas, the reactionary Islamic fundamentalist organization that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, unjustly killing more than 1,000 Israelis—mainly civilians—and taking some 250 hostage. 

Yes, Israel is out to destroy Hamas and uproot its presence in Gaza (even though Israel, for its own reasons, helped bring Hamas to power in the first place). But that’s not its main objective. As Alan Goodman wrote at revcom.us: 

Israel seized on the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, to attempt a “final solution” (a term Hitler used to refer to the elimination of the Jewish people in Europe); that is, making it impossible for the Palestinian people to survive as a people in the historic homeland of Palestine—whether through mass murder, exile, imprisonment, even more brutal oppression… or all of the above. This has taken the form of some of the most horrific crimes in modern human history.

This towering, world-historic crime is now being backed in full and accelerated by Donald Trump and his MAGA fascist regime. And this makes the situation all the more fraught and dangerous, for the people of Palestine and the world.

The Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement—and Duplicitous U.S.-Israeli Moves to Destroy Palestine

Phase 1 of the ceasefire agreement Israel signed with Hamas formally ended on the night of March 1. Under the agreement, negotiations for Phase 2 were to have already begun. This phase would negotiate a formal end to Israel’s assault, the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, and the return of all Israeli hostages—living and dead.⁴

The Netanyahu government went along with Phase 1 to some degree because of the enormous political pressure within Israel to focus on the return of the hostages being held by Hamas.

But Israel never fully adhered to its end of the deal. It didn’t allow key relief items such as tents and mobile homes to enter Gaza. (This week seven babies froze to death in Gaza due to the freezing cold and lack of adequate shelter.⁵) Israel refused to begin Phase 2 negotiations. It refused to start withdrawing its forces from the Philadelphi Corridor (separating Gaza and Egypt) on March 2 as promised, and it recently declared it never would. 

Now—with U.S. backing—Israel is attempting to rupture the whole framework of the ceasefire agreement by calling for a new deal. This one, reportedly proposed by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, would force Hamas to release half its remaining hostages immediately without any guarantee there would ever be serious negotiations to end Israel’s assault on Gaza and withdraw its forces. Hamas has already rejected the deal.⁶

Israel Never Abandoned Its Goal of Genocide in Gaza 

Israel has used the ceasefire to buy time, win the release of some Israeli hostages, and to appear—for international public opinion—interested in peace and a just solution in Gaza.  

Israel has never abandoned its overall goal of genocide in Gaza.⁷ And now Trump and his MAGA fascist regime are openly stoking the flames of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—from Trump’s February 4 call for it, to his recent video celebrating it, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that the U.S. is sending Israel another $4 billion in military aid.⁸

There have been numerous reports that Israel’s military has been planning to restart the assault on Gaza, and now the Guardian is reporting that Israel has presented a plan to the UN for post-war Gaza that doesn't involve withdrawing from Gaza, but rather tightens its control. Aid officials said Israel’s plan “was presented as a fact, with Israeli officials claiming it had full U.S. support.” 

Itamar Ben-Gvir, powerful Israeli politician and former Minister of National Security, hailed Netanyahu’s March 2 aid cut-off and threats of renewed war:

“I welcome the decision to stop humanitarian aid if it is indeed implemented. Finally, the decision has been made—better late than never.… Now is the time to open the gates of hell, cut off electricity and water, resume the war, and most importantly—not settle for just half of the hostages. Instead, return to President Trump’s ultimatum: all the hostages immediately, or hell will be unleashed on Gaza.”⁹

The past week or so has seen the beginning revival of the movement against this oppression on campuses. What is urgently required now is broadening this movement to encompass all those opposed to the genocide and to the repression on the campuses… digging into and debating the real causes of it… and linking this powerfully to the overall struggle against the fascist Trump/MAGA regime now openly celebrating the possibility of “ethnically cleansing” Palestine of non-Jews.

Last week, there was a news “leak” that ICE would be coming to Los Angeles; the ICE actions did not materialize until Friday when three homes were raided. All week long, community defense coalitions and rapid response networks organized by social service agencies and legal groups patrolled and canvassed, while ways to report ICE went up on ad hoc civilian platforms and TikTok accounts widely used by immigrants. Nine million “Know your rights” cards—known as “red cards”—have been distributed nationally, and the LA Times and Spanish media have printed extensive articles so that people know their rights. Because of this, many do not open their doors or speak to ICE if those agents don’t have the proper legal warrants. ICE said their goal was to arrest and detain 120 people over the weekend—by Sunday night, they had 12 people in custody.   

There were three private homes raided on Friday in Pico Union and South Central. At one of them, ICE broke the doors down before even showing a warrant. Like Gestapo storm troopers, they busted down the doors, turned everything in the home upside down and punched holes in the walls. At one place, ICE claimed they were looking for human traffickers but left with an 18-year-old woman who had missed an immigration hearing and had no criminal record. At each home they raided, ICE agents were met not only by organized resistance but people in the neighborhoods coming out of their houses to help their neighbors. People in the neighborhood took videos and called on friends from nearby to come. Crowds yelled at ICE and the LAPD which was also on scene. (The LAPD is prohibited by city sanctuary laws from participating in immigration enforcement.) Some even blockaded the streets with their cars. The fear that normally has people retreating more deeply into the shadows is breaking, and there is a feisty mood—lifted by the large outpouring of people who took the freeways and walked out of schools in early February to say: we are here, we are human beings, this is our home and we are not going anywhere. 

Immigrant March Through Downtown Los Angeles 

On Saturday, the interfaith religious coalition CLUE mobilized hundreds of people from different congregations, social service organizations and the labor union UNITE in a march for dignity. The march brought out a spirited and much-needed show of other nationalities and concerned clergy, teachers and professionals standing together with the immigrants. The spirit of the people was loud and joyous, with people bringing horns, noisemakers and bullhorns and chants that echoed off the buildings downtown. Families came with their kids who carried their own toy bullhorns, fiercely leading chants. “No one is illegal here—power to the people.” There was a real sense of urgency that Trump is moving to shut down the sanctuary cities and that people would have to unite in love and mass mobilization to defend the sanctuary laws which stand as a real impediment to the declared intentions to ethnically cleanse the country of immigrants. The rally closed with a rabbi with the coalition letting people know that when the federal government comes for the immigrants, they are not only coming for the immigrants—that we are here to stand with them. 

Refuse Fascism brought out a contingent to march in unity and to bring the message that these raids, the ominous opening of detention camps at military bases where immigrants will have NO access to due process, the deployment of thousands more U.S. military to the U.S. border, and Trump’s executive order designating English as the “official language” of the U.S. is reminiscent of what happened in Nazi Germany. This is fascism—fascism that is blatantly stripping trans people of their civil rights, fascist white supremacy that is criminalizing DEI (“diversity, equity, inclusion”), including as the rationale for shutting down of whole agencies in the federal government. 

“Fascism changes the way the country is ruled. Fascism eliminates basic civil and democratic rights. Openly oppressive and repressive, fascism rules by decree, backed up by brute force and violent thugs. Fascism has direction and momentum. Dissent is criminalized. The truth is bludgeoned. Group after group is targeted along a trajectory that leads to horror. It is necessary, but not enough, to fight each attack as it comes. We must take the offensive against the whole Trump/MAGA program and direction.” (from Refuse Fascism statement, February 2025) 

THE REVCOM CORPS For The Emancipation Of Humanity also joined the march, distributing the important new statement from Bob Avakian: “Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate.” People appreciatively reached for the printed flyer of the message that gave not only the sober and urgent assessment of the situation, but also outlined how Trump/MAGA fascism can be defeated. 

Scattered throughout the crowd were homemade signs calling Trump a fascist, and during the march the revcoms talked with members of the clergy, many who definitely think what we are facing is fascism but did not necessarily see why it needed to be named. It needs to be named because it is very hard to win a fight if people don’t know, or won’t really confront, the nature of the enemy, and they won’t be able to do that if those who do say they know withhold that information!!

People wanted to know why we felt this fascism could be defeated, how millions could be mobilized in time, or if the American people had it in them to do this. People were themselves grappling with, but at the same time not fully confronting, the problem with waging defensive battles as group by group are bludgeoned. The lessons of history are that far too often  people have played it safe and waited until it was too late. This is the question of the hour for people in the institutions to really reckon with. Good work and service will most certainly not survive by operating inside the rules allowed by a regime rapidly and forcibly hammering into place a fascist form of open dictatorship that is far more dangerous than the monstrous crimes Hitler's rise to power brought to the world. 

Refuse Fascism Masses at the Detention Center

Later that afternoon, Refuse Fascism assembled in front of the federal detention tower where the immigrants being detained in LA are held. Family members of the people being held here have shown up daily to bring signs with messages written for their loved ones and telescopic lenses to look in the windows, just hoping to catch a glimpse of their family members. For a few hours, Refuse Fascism held a speak-out to deliver its message to the detainees and an art-build where they painted a 25-foot banner on black material with the message “Trump Must GO.” 

People in the detention center could see the speak-out from their windows and flashed mirrors to let us know they could hear us on the sound system. They made so much noise that the banging coming from inside the tower could be heard on the street below. People took the mic to deliver messages to the detainees. A high school student from Friday's walk-out in the San Fernando Valley spoke about having been in foster care since she was eight and knowing what it's like to suddenly be removed from your family and to no longer be able to make those memories; she expressed her love and sorrow for what people are being put through. A young woman who has been protesting since the freeway takeover asked people to say the name of Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, a high school student from Gainesville, Texas who committed suicide after being bullied and threats made to Latino students that their families' immigration status would be reported and their parents would be deported. She recounted her own memories of coming home at age nine and her parents telling her if they did not come home, it was not because they did not love her or had abandoned her but because they had been deported, and the mark that leaves on your life. She spoke to how her parents had made it possible for her to live a life that she has dedicated to taking care of cancer patients, and she said that now she does not care what happens to her—she has thrown herself to making this nightmare of fascism stop. 

A speaker for the Refuse Fascism LA chapter said, “This isn’t about politics anymore. This is right vs. wrong. This is about racism and hatred. This is fascism. This has to be stopped now. We don’t have time to wait. Innocent people are dying and their blood is on the hands of the American government.” 

As people came to the mic and played music, they also made plans for a march in West Hollywood on March 8 International Women's Day (IWD). They also planned on watching Trump's Tuesday address to Congress in West Hollywood while they fan out to get the local businesses and people living in a vibrant neighborhood that is a center of LGBTQ life to plaster the area with posters for the nationwide protest IWD: Stop the War on Women and LGBTQ People/In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America/The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

As we wrote last week, with the firing of the Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and other top military officers, the future of the U.S. armed forces, and the future that the fascists are preparing for, came into sharp focus. As that article pointed out: “the armed forces of this system have carried out towering crimes in defending the core interests of capitalism-imperialism. But the intent in these moves by Trump should be clear: the transformation of the armed forces into a qualitatively more white supremacist, misogynist, anti-gay, unhindered, and—above all—loyal-to-Trump force.”

Trump, his defense secretary Pete Hegseth, and other fascists are definitely not finished with their moves to “whiten and masculinize” the U.S. military. Here are two examples.

Ouster of Black Head of Virginia Military Institute

On February 28, the board of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) announced they would not renew the contract of the school’s superintendent, Major General Cedric Wins, who is Black. Founded in 1839, VMI is the oldest public sector military college in the U.S. and one of the largest producers of officers for the U.S. military. Wins is the first Black superintendent of VMI. 

Wins took over at VMI in 2021 shortly after a major scandal broke into the open about how Black cadets at the school were victims of ugly, pervasive racism. After an incident in which a Black VMI cadet was threatened with lynching by a white sophomore, the state of Virginia ordered an investigation. Five of the 12 Black cadets interviewed in the investigation said that the period of "hazing" for new students promotes “racial intolerance and/or discrimination.” This period is called the “rat line” and involved physical and mental torture for new students, including things like waterboarding. But the investigation did not recommend any actual changes.

In fact, the school has long had an open affinity for the Confederacy—the losing side of the slave owners in the U.S. Civil War. It was not until 2020 that VMI was forced to put a stop to an annual “reenactment” of a Civil War battle in which the school’s cadets played the part of Confederate soldiers. 

One of Gen. Wins’s actions after he took over as superintendent was to remove the statue of a Confederate general, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, which had been at a prominent place on the campus. Wins also initiated measures promoting diversity. In response, according to the New York Times, “an alumni group known as Spirit of V.M.I. campaigned to end what it called a ‘woke’ assault on the college.” When the white supremacists and fascists attack DEI (“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”) and what they call “woke,” what they most often mean is that any and all attempts to reform the blatant discrimination, segregation, exclusion and erasure of Black and other oppressed people must be done away with—and the overt racism that characterized all aspects of life in the U.S. until just 75 years ago restored.

And now, with Trump/MAGA in the White House, Wins has been forced out. 

Firing of the Military Lawyers—and Greasing the Skids for Open Violations of Rule of Law

As we reported last week, the firing of the top lawyers in the Army, Navy and Air Force means that they can “now bring in people who would be more lenient on war crimes.” Even as many war crimes by the U.S. military routinely go unpunished, even the tiny percentage of perpetrators that do receive any punishment is too much for the MAGA fascists.

Actually, the dangerous impact of the firing of these military lawyers—called judge advocate generals, or JAGs—goes beyond the possibility of even more war crimes being carried out by U.S. troops. In a significant opinion piece in the New York Times, Frank Kendall, secretary of the Air Force under Biden, wrote that JAGs are supposed to have “independent legal authority to tell any military commander or political appointee that an order from the president or the secretary of defense is unlawful, cannot be given and should not be obeyed.” 

In other words, if Trump were, for example, to order troops to shoot at protestors in the street (as he wanted to during his first term), the previous JAGs may have been a potential impediment by telling commanders that the order went against the Constitution and should not be obeyed. Now, with the axing of the JAGs along with the Chief of Staff and other top military officials, Trump and Hegseth have removed that impediment and can replace them with those who will faithfully obey orders even if blatantly illegal. Hegseth said outright that the ousted JAGs represented “roadblocks”—when asked what he meant, he replied, “It’s roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.”

In his Times piece, Kendall gets further into the significance of the move by Trump and Hegseth to replace the JAGs: “One has to ask why JAG leadership was singled out for replacement. This is part of a much larger pattern of disrespect, even disdain, for the rule of law…. Our country is in uncharted territory. We have an administration that is waging war against the rule of law. The evidence is everywhere. We don’t yet know how far it will go as it seeks to control, reinterpret, rewrite, ignore or defy legal constraints, including the Constitution itself. The replacement of the military JAG leadership is one skirmish in that war….”

It is a big deal that a former secretary of the Air Force is sounding the alarm in this way, and while he is speaking from the perspective of maintaining and upholding this system, the alarm should be heard and heeded.

Time Is NOW for Those Who Oppose This to Act

The revolutionary leader Bob Avakian wrote an important statement this week, Trump’s fascist rule, like Hitler’s before him, is a regime of horrors—and is completely illegitimate.

This statement ends with this call:

Before Trump’s fascist rule can become fully consolidated and carry out even far worse horrors than what it is already perpetrating, it must be defeated through powerful mass mobilization—overcoming all “divide and conquer” schemes, uniting all who can be united, from many different viewpoints and perspectives, in actively opposing, defying and resisting this fascism, in continually growing numbers—moving to quickly involve millions, determined to create such a profound political crisis that Trump cannot govern the country and continue to implement his fascist program, with all its terrible consequences.

Noche Diaz is a national spokesperson for the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity

Leo Pargo is a leader of the Revcom Corps in Chicago

On February 1, Noche Diaz and Leo Pargo were part of an emergency protest called by the Revcom Corps, which converged with another protest of mainly Latino youth against the ICE raids being launched by Trump. Together, hundreds of people marched through downtown Chicago to protest mass deportations and the whole Trump/MAGA fascist program.

Right in front of Trump Tower, Noche Diaz spoke from atop a bus stop and led the crowd to chant: “NO! In the name of humanity, we refuse a fascist America! Into the streets, day after day. Do not stop. Make this country ungovernable!”

A swarm of Chicago police, including a Deputy Chief, violently pushed into the crowd, endangering many protesters, and illegitimately arrested Noche and Leo.

The two have since been released and face Class A misdemeanor charges, the most severe type in Illinois law. Noche is charged with Reckless Conduct and Leo is charged with Obstructing an officer. Both charges carry up to 364 days in jail and a $2,500 fine. As shown in the video, these charges are ridiculous and illegitimate. This is a straight up violation of basic First Amendment rights.

Since Trump’s inauguration, people have been hit with a fascist whirlwind of government purges, attacks on immigrants and trans people, anti-scientific lunacy, and destruction of rule of law itself. There are beginnings of important resistance, but this is nowhere near enough! Noche and Leo not only had a legal right to do what they did, THEY WERE RIGHT! They are doing what everyone needs to be doing right now.

Inspired by the message from the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian that “This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination,” they told the truth, acted with courage, and inspired others to do the same.

Everyone who values the right to free speech, and doesn’t want to see people brutally arrested for exercising that right, should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Everyone who is outraged about the terror being inflicted on immigrants, and the fact this supposed “sanctuary city” is prosecuting protesters who stand up for immigrants, should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Everyone who recognizes the grave danger we are facing with Trump/MAGA fascism, and the importance of mobilizing millions to defeat this, should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

Everyone who recognizes that there’s something fundamentally rotten about the current system and appreciates the work of these revolutionary leaders fighting for a positive way forward — and doesn’t want to see them targeted and suppressed — should demand: DROP THE CHARGES!

On the night of March 4, Donald Trump will go before a joint session of the US Congress to boast about his “accomplishments” – terrorizing immigrants, purging the federal government, defying court orders, gutting the rule of law, threatening any country that doesn’t submit to US power, and much more.

Trump is moving quickly to consolidate fascism. His regime is stomping on Congress’s power, and their answer is to invite him to speak. This makes clear that Congress will not stop this nightmare. Half of them are MAGA fascists, and the rest can’t even call this fascism what it is, or call the people into the streets to defeat it.

It is up to the people to stop Trump/MAGA fascism! 

Because Trump/MAGA fascism is consolidating in the world’s most powerful country at a time when humanity’s future is threatened by climate destruction and nuclear war…

Because history shows that fascist rule must be stopped before it becomes entrenched across government and society…

Because fascism, no matter how it comes to power, is never legitimate…

Because nothing decent can be accomplished for humanity and life itself as long as the Trump fascist regime holds power… 

BE IN DC TO DECLARE TO THE ENTIRE WORLD:

IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY, WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT A FASCIST AMERICA!

THE FASCIST TRUMP REGIME MUST GO!

On March 4, let us show the world that there is a non-violent mass movement that is bold, powerful, and determined to stop Trump/MAGA fascism in the name of humanity, growing and refusing to stop until we create the kind of profound political crisis such that Trump cannot govern the country, implement his fascist program, or maintain his hold on power. 

When the whole world is watching: be in the nation's capital March 4!

If you can do more than just attend…
VOLUNTEER to help organize the Refuse Fascism contingent 
in Washington DC March 4
Help organize this protest and help on the ground in DC throughout the protest.
Many hands and different skills are urgently needed!

VOLUNTEER with Refuse Fascism in DC March 4

Trump rode into his second term on a wave of unbridled misogyny. Vengeful bro-culture. Sexualized “Daddy’s Home” patriarchy. All this in a country where Trump's fascist Supreme Court picks already ripped away abortion rights, turning women into second-class citizens. Tens of thousands of women have had their lives foreclosed through forced motherhood. Women brought to the brink of death, or dying, from sepsis. Christian fascists at the heart of MAGA are determined not only to ban abortion nationwide, but even to ban birth control. Their violent patriarchal order means forcing LGBTQ people back into the closet and targets on the backs of trans people, with genocidal implications.

The open and brutal subjugation of women to men in all realms of society and life, and the total erasure of LGBTQ people, are major pillars of Trump/MAGA fascism. It is Trump blaming plane crashes on DEI. It is JD Vance denigrating women who don’t have children. And these towering misogynists have the audacity to claim their attacks on trans people are in the name of “protecting women.”

NO! HELL NO! The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

Look at what this regime has done in just four weeks! Open white supremacy. Xenophobia. Threats against whole countries. Demonizing group after group and gutting civil and democratic rights – to make everyone left standing helpless to oppose their total domination. Much worse is to come if we do not wage a massive and unrelenting struggle to stop Trump/MAGA fascism.

Now is the time to stand up, resist, protest, to call millions into the streets, in growing numbers, again and again and again, until Trump/MAGA fascism is driven from power.

International Women’s Day must be a day to fill the streets in towns and cities across the country with everyone who cares about women and LGBTQ people, everyone who refuses to be silent, everyone who doesn’t want a fascist America. We won’t go back. We won’t submit.

We say: NO! In the Name of Humanity, We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!

Stop the War on Women and LGBTQ People!

The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go!

Reach out to find a protest, for organizing materials, or to register your protest on the national website.

RefuseFascism.org        ***        @RefuseFascism

Hundreds of highly-skilled doctors and other medical personnel snatched from hospitals across Gaza by the Israeli military. Taken hostage without explanation. Secreted to prisons in Israel, held without charges, then subjected to months of barbaric torture—constant humiliations, regular beatings, attacks by dogs, baton rape, genital mutilation, electrocution, starvation, denial of medical care and legal rights. Their jailers brutally try to make it impossible for them to ever practice medicine again.

This is what’s recently been revealed by two new, in-depth investigations. One by the Guardian newspaper and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), who interviewed eight of Gaza’s most senior doctors, all who’d been imprisoned and tortured.¹ And a report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel titled “Unlawfully Detained, Tortured, and Starved: The Plight of Gaza’s Medical Workers in Israeli Custody.”

While the fascist Trump goes on and on about the mistreatment of Israeli hostages, held by Hamas since the reactionary attack on October 7, 2023, he is of course silent about Israel's detention, abuse, and torture of thousands upon thousands of Palestinian prisoners, over years and decades. Because to this fascist regime, and to the American empire, the Palestinian people count for nothing! 

To be clear, torture under any circumstances by any party is wrong, a crime against humanity. And Hamas, a reactionary Islamic fundamentalist organization, abducting civilians to be held as collateral should be condemned. But the outright, open abduction and torture of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel in Gaza is a genocidal act which has been largely ignored, covered up, or excused.²

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 300 doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers from Gaza were detained by Israel.³  And at least 1,000 have been killed since October 2023 in Israel’s vicious onslaught against Gaza. Two senior doctors have died in Israeli detention. 

These reports are focused on the treatment of doctors and healthcare workers, and they document in great detail Israel’s systematic, deliberate violence and Nazi-like depravity. They expose Israel's utter immorality and trampling on international law, including protections for medical personnel. 

To be clear, this sadistic mistreatment is not limited to medical personnel, but illustrates how Israel treats all its Palestinian prisoners. 

To take one current example, many of the Palestinian prisoners recently released as part of Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hamas “showed clear signs of torture, starvation and severe medical neglect.” As one put it, “The period of captivity was not just being held captive. It was torture, torture beyond description.⁴

This terror must not be ignored or covered up.⁵

Here are devastating excerpts from some of the doctors’ testimonies. 

Dr Issam Abu Ajwa of al-Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza. He was in the middle of performing a surgery when Israel soldiers burst into the operating room. 

“I asked them what they were doing coming into the operating theatre. One of the soldiers pointed at me and said: ‘Are you Dr Issam Abu Ajwa?’ I said: ‘Yes, that’s me.’ And then the beating began.”

He was dragged out, handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped, and driven to a detention center in Israel where he was handcuffed for 24 hours a day.  

“There were no rules… They would throw me on the ground. One would hit me on the head while the other opened my ear and poured water inside.” 

“There was a bathroom [in the interrogation room] … [they] would take a toilet brush and tell me ‘today we are going to brush your teeth.’ I was tied up, blindfolded and three or four of them held my face, pinned it down and kept scrubbing.” They even broke his teeth. “They have no humanity.”

“One of the senior interrogators had given instructions that because I was a senior consultant surgeon they should work hard to make sure that I lost [the use of my hands] and became unable to perform surgery…. They said they wanted to make sure I could never return to work.” 

He has been released, fixed his teeth and returned to work. “As for the interrogator who was determined to make me lose sensation in my hands, I say: ‘no matter what you do … I am a doctor, and I will practice my profession. I will always continue, until my last breath, to be in the operating theatre.”⁶

Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza. He was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint in November 2023 after being ordered to evacuate his hospital. 

“When I told them my name, they pointed their weapons at me and their laser [sights] at my head and chest and I was immediately detained … as if they were waiting for me, as if they had seized a big prize.” 

“They stripped me naked, put a blindfold over my eyes and handcuffed my feet. The beatings started from this first moment…. They beat me with rifle butts and chairs. After that, they poured sand over my head and shoved dirt into my mouth.” In prison he was also attacked by dogs.

“There was little to no food, no personal hygiene, no soap inside the cells, no water, no toilet, no toilet paper … I saw people who were dying there.”

“Every day is a humiliation, every day is degradation. There you are just a number, you are not a hospital director or a human being. I was beaten so badly I couldn’t use my legs or walk. No day passes without torture.”

“Frankly, no matter how much I talk about what I experienced in detention, it is only a fraction of what truly happened.”⁷

Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British-Palestinian associate professor of surgery, who volunteered as a doctor in Gaza. He says the torture and humiliation of senior medical staff in Israel’s prisons is “beyond devastating.”

“These are some of the most revered, most respected and senior members of their communities,” he says. “It is nothing short of a deliberate attempt to subjugate and violate the whole of Gazan society.” ⁸

Dr. Khaled Alser, a surgeon at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. He was abducted from Gaza and held in Israel for seven months. 

“Anyone inside Sde Teiman [the prison where he was being held], at least once faced beating by batons, by fists, kicking, or even get bitten by the dogs.” 

“They entered every one week or twice weekly.... They ordered all the prisoners on their tummy. And after that, they choose randomly anyone inside the prison to beat him with a baton or to spray him with pepper spray. And sometimes — I heard a lot of testimony from prisoners inside the prison.” 

“They came to me seeking a medical advice, because they have been sexually assaulted by the soldiers using batons and sometimes using the electrical guns in their sensitive areas. And sometimes they spray their faces and their private parts by pepper spray. All of this happened to me.”⁹

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. This renowned Gaza pediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital was not able to speak to the Guardian or Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. He was abducted by Israel last December and remains imprisoned. A video was recently broadcast on Israeli TV, showing him hobbled and in shackles, between two prison guards.  His family denounced the broadcast: “We… reject any media outlet publishing the video without addressing the psychological terrorism involved and exposing the manipulation of his statements. The sight of our father shackled and unable to move should prompt immediate and continuous action to ensure his immediate release.”¹⁰

++++

Naji Abbas, the Prisoners and Detainees Department director for Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said:

"...we started to understood that the doctors were arrested mainly for collecting information. When you hear a doctor saying that he was forced to draw a map of the hospital, when he was asked about his colleagues... you can understand that there’s a pattern of questioning looking, fishing — fishing for information. And they weren’t accused or charged with anything. All of the doctors, more than 100 medical staff who’s still, 'til now, in detention, have the same story... They weren't charged or accused as individuals with any offense. But all the interrogation were collecting information about their workplace, about their colleagues, about the health system in Gaza. And beside the doctors who were arrested inside the hospitals, we met doctors who were arrested through checkpoints of Israel’s army inside Gaza when they were trying to move with their families. So, if a soldier heard that he’s a doctor, he was arrested. So you can understand that they were targeted directly because of their profession."

All these arrests, and the torture of doctors and the medical personnel has had "a catastrophic impact on civilians." It denied the sick and the wounded any chance adequate medical care, according to the UN Human Rights Office report. This—along with the bombing of hospitals, and cutting of all medical supplies into Gaza—has led to "the almost total collapse of Gaza's healthcare system."¹¹ 

This has contributed to the death of at least 48,000 Palestinians (and perhaps double that) due to Israel’s military onslaught since October 2023.

The targeting and torture of medical workers, especially experienced doctors, and the collection of information about Gaza’s medical system are parts of Israel’s systemic campaign to destroy that medical system... and the basic ability for the Palestinian people to survive in Gaza.

All this underscores the truth and urgency of “A Timely Provocation from Bob Avakian,” the revolutionary leader and author of the new communism:

The following is a companion to my statement that: After the Holocaust, the worst thing that has happened to Jewish people is the state of Israel.

Israel has done something truly incredible—Israel has managed to turn Jews into Nazis!

This is the terrible but unavoidable conclusion that has to be drawn from the whole history of Israel, in its murderous oppression of the Palestinian people, and the current genocidal actions of Israel, along with the statements of high officials of the Israeli government, as well as backers of Israel, in attempting to justify all this. 

It also has to be said that none of this could have happened without the full, unwavering support of U.S. imperialism for Israel’s continuing crimes against humanity and war crimes: its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, its apartheid rule over them for generations, and now the heightened genocidal slaughter in Gaza and the mounting violence of illegitimate settlers, backed by the Israeli army, against Palestinian people in the West Bank.

This puts a special responsibility on the people in this country to stand up and demand that the U.S./Israeli Genocide of the Palestinian People STOP!

On Saturday, March 1, Donald Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official national language—the first time in the history of the U.S. this has been done. The order revokes a policy issued by President Clinton that required federal agencies to provide assistance programs for people with limited English proficiency. For the moment the order allows agencies to voluntarily keep those support systems in place. But there's no guarantee that will continue.

What will be the impact? It will make it even more difficult for those who do not speak English, or do not speak it as their first language, to navigate an already oppressive society. The damage caused especially by enforcing English as the “official language” in schools will be lifelong. There has been a decades-long battle over enforcing “English only” versus providing bilingual education in public schools in California and other states. Researchers have found that where young students are taught other subjects in their native language while they are learning English, students learn English faster, their test scores and graduation rates are higher, and they are better prepared for college.⁸

And on a deeper, societal level, Trump’s order on “official language”—which is in fact “English only”—is designed to dehumanize and humiliate people who do not speak English, or even speak it with an accent. It will not just send the message but enshrine in law, and justify, the idea that English-speakers are superior beings who deserve the right to lord it over others. What's the difference between this and the "whites only" laws and signs that were perfectly "legal" in this country until the mid-1960s? This is an integral part of the fascist “America for Americans” outlook justifying the war on undocumented immigrants being carried out by Trump and MAGA fascists today.

Compare this with the liberating vision and blueprint for a radically new society in the Constitution of the New Socialist Republic in North America, written by revolutionary leader Bob Avakian, that an actual revolution will make possible (see accompanying piece below). Discrimination against minority nationalities, in every sphere of society, including segregation in housing, education and other areas, will be outlawed. All education will be conducted in Spanish and English equally, and where significant sections of the population have another principal language there will be efforts and resources to provide education in that language as well. And in the new society, the state is going to encourage and assist everyone to become fluent in both English and Spanish and, as far as possible, to acquaint themselves with other languages.

Bro culture seething with the hatred of women. Gleeful taunts of “Your body, my choice.” Fascist enforcement of patriarchal gender codes. Trump/MAGA 2.0 is moving at lightning speed. Alongside his genocidal racism, his threats against the people of the world, and the sledgehammer he is taking to any remaining democratic norms or basic rights of the people, Trump is pushing for the open enslavement of women and complete erasure of trans people.

We Stand At A Crossroads

Never before have so many women in so many parts of the world broken free of so many traditional chains of patriarchy. Women have fought their way into public life and into every profession. In the U.S., women outpace men in higher education. Women dominate pop culture. Growing numbers boldly reject the shame that has long attached to female sexuality, to abortion, and to being a victim of sexual assault. Meanwhile, LGBT people have become widely visible, won important basic rights and achieved growing respect and acceptance.

Yet, not only has the oppression of women and LGBT people never let up, in direct opposition to every hard-fought advance, a pressure cooker of hateful patriarchal resentment has been building and now is erupting into new levels of bigoted violence and depravity. Incels openly uphold the “right” to rape women or slaughter those who will not submit. Trump brags about sexual assault and uses the force of the state to utterly erase trans people. JD Vance's Christian fascist “theo-bros” salivate not just for a national abortion ban, but for a ban on birth control, on divorce, even on women's right to vote. And all around the world women face femicide and torture, forced veiling and “honor” killings, the industrialization of sexual slavery of millions of women and girls, and rape as a weapon of war.

Such a wildly divergent situation cannot go on for long. One side or the other will win out.

Bob Avakian, A Prescient Voice Who Must No Longer Be Ignored

The revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) foresaw this coming showdown forty full years ago. In 1985, he wrote:

The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances—this is a powderkeg in the U.S. today. It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms and through extremely violent means. The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement.

Bob Avakian didn't just identify this trajectory towards all-out confrontation which is currently coming to a head. BA deeply analyzed the material roots of women's oppression in the system of capitalism-imperialism we live under and the powerful ideology of male supremacy and patriarchal gender roles that are woven into thousands of years of oppressive, class divided societies. Over decades, BA has consistently called out this oppression and diagnosed it as it has further developed and morphed. BA has called out dead-ends and false paths that have caused the well-intentioned efforts of many to run aground, while providing strategic leadership for how this fight can actually be won. And BA has done all this while advancing humanity's understanding of what it will take to make the kind of radical and sweeping revolution that enables us to finally uproot and abolish all oppression based on sex, gender and sexual orientation as part of a struggle that moves past exploitation and oppression in every form here and all over the world.

But instead of engaging this incredible work that is of life-and-death importance to billions of people, all too many have refused to engage this because Bob Avakian is an “old white man” and a communist.

If we are to have a future of real liberation, and not one of brutal enslavement, this has to stop.

So, before you give in to the knee-jerk urge to dismiss this because you've been socialized your whole life to wince and retreat from critical thinking in the face of the word “communist,” recognize that doing so would only mean allowing yourself to be played by the very system that enforces all this oppression.

And before you give in to the knee-jerk urge to dismiss this because you don't want to hear “an old white man 'mansplain' about women,” recognize that if it is an oppressive lie to claim that women are hard-wired to be submissive and obedient and less smart and the rest, it is no less harmful to dismiss the insights of a serious revolutionary scientist and innovator because he happens to be old, white and a male.

Truth is truth. It is what corresponds to objective reality. And when truths are discovered that shed light on how we can get free, then everyone has a responsibility to take them up and fight for them if you really want to get free.

Where Would We Be If This Work Hadn't Been Ignored?

Ask yourself this:

Where would we be today, if over the last 40 years since BA said the above, more people had listened and joined the fight to build up the side of all the way liberation?

Where would we be if, rather than wasting decades following the Democratic Party's morally defensive attempt to seek “common ground” with Christian fascist women-haters, more people had heeded BA's recognition as far back as the 80s that the assault on abortion was never about “babies” but had always been about controlling and enslaving women? Where would we be if, in 2022, as the Supreme Court moved to overturn abortion rights, more people had joined with me and others in leading a massive fight to prevent this rather than attacking this fight by demonizing Bob Avakian and myself for following him?

Where would we be if more people had listened to Bob Avakian's courageous clarity in calling out the way that the mainstreaming of ever more violent and degrading pornography—alongside the mushrooming of industrialized sexual slavery on a global scale—was part of a violent revenge against women, not something to rebrand as “empowerment” or attempt to “own”?

Where would we be if, rather than remaining trapped within the terms of this system of capitalism-imperialism, people had listened to Bob Avakian's scientific insistence that in order to fully liberate women and put an end to all oppression based on sex, gender and sexual orientation, we need a revolution that brings about a radically different mode of production? Take the time to dig into this. You've probably seen the sign held up by righteous furious women protesters: “I can't believe I still have to protest this shit!” Well, BA's analysis provides the answer to why we are still having to protest this shit—and to how we get beyond this!

Where would we be if more people had had the intellectual curiosity and integrity to engage what is radically new in the new communism that Bob Avakian has forged, including the way he was willing to interrogate and break with long-standing traditions in the communist movement that downplayed the need to take up the fight against women's oppression in its own right and which included outmoded and oppressive views about gender and sexuality? Where would we be if more people had seriously engaged his breakthroughs in grasping the centrality of the fight against this oppression to ensuring the revolution we make moves all the way forward to complete emancipation?

There's much more I could cite—ways that Bob Avakian has gone hard against the erasure of women, the way he's led the fight against the relativist epistemology and woke lunacy that leads to and has fed this erasure, the way he's consistently challenged men to see that they have to take this fight up as their own, the way he is providing leadership for defeating Trump/MAGA fascism, the way he has identified that we are in a time when revolution is more possible than it has been in generations and much, much more.

A Challenge for International Women's' Day 2025:

Instead, I'll end with a second quote from Bob Avakian, and then a challenge:

You cannot break all the chains, except one. You cannot say you want to be free of exploitation and oppression, except you want to keep the oppression of women by men. You can't say you want to liberate humanity yet keep one half of the people enslaved to the other half. The oppression of women is completely bound up with the division of society into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, and the ending of all such conditions is impossible without the complete liberation of women. All this is why women have a tremendous role to play not only in making revolution but in making sure there is all-the-way revolution. The fury of women can and must be fully unleashed as a mighty force for proletarian revolution.

—BAsics, 3:22 

As we approach International Women's Day, March 8, 2025, the forces of women's enslavement and LGBT hatred are breathing down the neck of every woman and non-gender conforming person on this planet—and yet the possibility of the most radical and liberating revolution in human history is greater than it has ever been if we dare to learn about it and fight for it. Isn't it time for you to put aside any ill-founded prejudice and seriously and with an open mind engage this far-sighted, deeply scientific, big-hearted revolutionary leader humanity is lucky to have?

The newly-formed organization Stand Up for Science has been organized mainly by science students and graduate students who felt an urgent need to respond to the big attacks on science coming from the MAGA Trump regime. Since they did not see anyone else doing what they felt was needed, they called for protests around the country on March 7. They are raising the slogan “We’re Standing Up for Science—because science is for everyone.” Their website raises three demands: 1) Secure and Expand Scientific Funding; 2) End Censorship and Political Interference in Science; 3) Defend Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Science. 

Stand Up for Science has spread around the country. Their main protest is in Washington, DC, and over 30 other cities have announced protests with more cities still joining in. The list of cities holding protests now sponsored by Stand Up for Science can be found here. A map with sponsored protests and not-yet-sponsored protests can be found here. 

It is very important that scientists, science students, and supporters of science across the country are taking to the streets at this urgent time and standing in opposition to the assault from Trump MAGA fascism. As Bob Avakian talks about in his new interview, many will be starting out thinking that the government will listen to their very sensible and rational voices. It is very important to bring to these protests a bigger picture of just what Trump represents, that this fascism is a product of this system, and that this is a time when an emancipating revolution is more possible.

The Trump MAGA Fascists Are Carrying Out a Many-Sided Attack on Science

Under a blizzard of lies, including that they are “cutting the bloated government budget,” Trump and his regime have carried out a massive assault on science, at this point mainly focused on government science and scientists. Government science websites with vital health information have been stripped. Crucial research projects of many different kinds—including health, climate change, biology and many other fields—have had funding suddenly slashed, important research derailed. There have been mass firings in branches of the government carrying out important scientific work, including scientists who work on things like predicting weather. Meetings on public health have been abruptly cancelled because the titles of the discussion include words that Trump has banned—those who attend such meetings might have their funding slashed. 

To give a sense of the words that have been banned from government funded science (and a big part of science in the modern world is funded by the government—the majority of the funding for research into fundamental scientific questions in the U.S. is funded by the government), one list of banned words circulating at the National Science Foundation includes: women, disability, bias, status, trauma, Black, Hispanic communities, as well as socioeconomic, ethnicity and systemic. And there are other lists percolating through the government that include "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."

Banning these words will have immense and devastating effects. Even the ability of doctors to access health information from government websites (one of the key places certain kinds of medical information is systematically gathered) about conditions among “banned” sections of the population is thrown into doubt. Banning the words translates quickly: into the erasure of transgender people from public existence; into the even more naked, raw and brutal oppression of Black and Latino people. The effects on the health and lives of millions will be devastating and has already begun. Many people will die, and this is fully understood by the fascists in power. 

At the Heart of the Attack on Government Science Is an Attack on Science and the Scientific Method Itself

Amid what can seem to be the bewildering complexity of the many-sided assault on government science there is a core. This is why among the banned words you find “evidence-based” and “science-based.” Science, and scientific thinking and method, is at odds with what the fascists need to and must instill in their fascist base and in society as a whole. This excerpt from the article “Trump’s Cabinet: Forging a Fascist Machine—Part 2: Public Health—'Belief’ and Prayer vs. Reality-Based Science” lays out what is involved:

In “Conspiracy Theories, ‘Certitude,’ Liberal Paralysis, Or A Scientific Approach to Changing the World” (short version), Bob Avakian quotes Ardea Skybreak (a professionally trained scientist and advocate of the new communism) on the meaning and importance of science:

Science is very different than religion or mysticism, or things like that, which try to explain reality by invoking imaginary forces and which provide no actual evidence for any of their analyses. By contrast, science requires proof. It requires evidence.

and

Without science you are at the mercy of being manipulated, of having your thinking manipulated and not being able to tell what’s right from what’s wrong, what’s true from what’s false.

This goes a long way to explaining why fascists like Trump oppose science, and in fact deny the existence of “objective truth” altogether. Their project depends on manipulating the grievances, feeding the prejudices and stoking the anger of their supporters, in order to weld and wield them as supporters or shock troops of open violent dictatorship. And it depends on intimidating, paralyzing and rolling over their opponents. 

There is an overriding aim of the fascist assault on science, including on climate science—to smash down the influence of science in society, to undercut the prestige and social reach of scientists and the scientific method. Even as the fascists, running a modern imperialist society, have to maintain and develop a cadre of scientists for economic and military reasons (they want new powerful weapons, for one thing), at the same time, they have to do everything they can to train masses of people in completely unscientific and anti-scientific methods of thinking, and to beat down the hold of actual scientific thinking among the people. 

If the fascists can fully carry out this assault on science, it increases their ability to cohere their grip on society overall.

March 2025

For nearly three decades, the policy of U.S. imperialism towards Russia (which was formed with the collapse of the capitalist state of the Soviet Union in 1991) has been to limit its development and prevent Russia from integrating with Europe.⁹ Now, Trump and his senior officials say that this policy was wrong and must be changed. In the course of ending the war in Ukraine, U.S. imperialism is now trying to make Russian imperialism its ally in hegemony over parts of the world, and it intends to do so without the interference of European imperialists and outside of NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization], the pact which for 76 years defined the military-security relations between the U.S., Canada and Western Europe.

In fact, the policy of U.S. imperialism has made a 180-degree turn. When Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, the policy of the U.S. and European countries (in other words, the NATO military alliance) was that the unstinting aid from the U.S. and European countries would flow to Ukraine until Russia was completely and decisively defeated in this war. Ukraine was referred to as a bulwark for the defense of “democracy” against “tyranny.” Now, Trump even claims that Ukraine and its clownish President Zelensky started the war! 

This change has stunned the imperialist powers of Europe—especially because the change in policy toward Russia is also a change in the policy of nearly eight decades of alliance between the U.S. and Europe. When Trump announced 25% tariffs on some European products, CNN wrote that with this policy [shift] “the American Century in Europe is over”! In Brussels, Trump's defense secretary told European leaders that the security of this continent is your responsibility,¹⁰ despite the fact that the European powers have played a major role in advancing all of America's criminal wars, including its proxy war in Ukraine. For 76 years, [Europe] has participated in NATO under the leadership of the U.S. Together with the U.S. military, they have caused destruction and massacre in several countries (Yugoslavia, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) over recent decades, and have unhesitatingly assisted Israel in the genocide of the people of Gaza, and the actions of their military forces in Africa have included ethnic cleansing and looting of mines, killing different people, assassinating leaders, coups, etc.¹¹

It is important to note that although the change of this 76-year-old policy has occurred upon the election of Trump as president, it is a policy that a large part of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie is behind and is determined to push forward. 

There are many pitfalls confronting the U.S. and the specific policies that Trump represents. Trump says he wants “peace.” But the imperialist capitalist system is driven by deep necessities and is a slave to its “expand or die” logic. This logic pits the powers of imperialist capitalism against each other in hostile rivalry, is the driving force behind their wars of aggression, and has produced the fascist regime that today heads U.S. imperialism and fascist parties that have spread across Europe. For years, this situation within the world capitalist system has evolved relatively slowly. But now it is moving forward in astonishing leaps and jolts.

Thus, the relations between the imperialist powers are like tectonic shifting of the continental plates. What really determines the policy and approach of U.S. imperialism towards various aspects of its international relations is the need to halt the decline of U.S. imperialism, while simultaneously confronting the challenge posed by imperialist capitalist powers like China. Confronted with this situation, Trump's solution is completely different from that of the other section of the U.S. bourgeoisie represented by the Democratic Party. However, their goal is the same: to preserve the U.S. global empire and prevent an internal split within the U.S. that today, in the words of Bob Avakian, is divided into “two countries within this country.” (Bob Avakian, “‘Two Countries’ Within This Country—And The Whole Damn System's Got To Go! This is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination,” November 7, 2024)

The accelerating decline of U.S. imperialism is a well-known fact, and the possibility that could implode is a matter of concern for America's rivals as well. Even an event that came close to a collapse could cause such a rupture in the entire fabric of the world's imperialist capitalist system that it could spin out of control, presenting opportunities for revolution in places where preparations for revolution are underway—especially in the U.S. itself,  where  Bob Avakian’s analysis is that “this a rare time when revolution becomes possible.” 

The Trump/MAGA regime, in order to consolidate the rule of the bourgeoisie within the U.S, will systematically and comprehensively carry out its crusader-fascist agenda, along with causing widespread impoverishment, anti-immigrant actions, the punishment of women, Blacks, and Latinos, and the suppression of dissent. At the same time, it is determined to reconstitute its alliance with the European imperialist countries on the basis of strengthening similar fascist forces in Europe.

The IRI and Its Disgraceful Claim of “Independence”

This change in policy has shaken the leaders of the IRI, especially [Ayatollah] Khamenei. They know that they are facing a change in policy that goes far beyond ending a war (in Ukraine) and they smell a rat in the deal made by Russia. The first round of talks between the U.S. and Russia, known as the “Riyadh Conference,” was held in Saudi Arabia. The two imperialist powers announced that an important part of their negotiations would be over the political, security, and economic structure of the Middle East, including the fate of the IRI.¹² At the end of the conference, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio said that the third of four points in the talks was: Discussion and consideration of geopolitical and economic cooperation that could result from ending the Ukrainian war. Trump's policy toward the Middle East and Iran is conditioned by his overall foreign policy. In exchange for halting the war in Ukraine and reintegrating its energy pipeline into Europe, Russia must force the IRI to surrender to the U.S. This is how the great game of the imperialist powers is currently unfolding.

The IRI's dependence on various imperialist powers, and on the imperialist capitalist system in general, is clear. Its alleged “independence,” that Khamenei preaches and his [followers] dutifully recite, is nothing more than a sham. Khamenei is deeply concerned that he will be auctioned off by Vladimir Putin in Russia's strategic dealings to the U.S.¹³ For this reason, in his speech on February 18, 2025 (on the resistance of the people of Tabriz against the [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi] Shah's regime),¹⁴ he quotes Sattar Khan [figure in Iran’s 1905-11 constitutional revolution] as saying that, in the face of pressure from the Tsarist Russian army which demanded that he raise the white flag of surrender, he had responded: “I follow the banner of Aba al-Fadl al-Abbas, I will not come under the banner of anyone else.”¹⁵

While Russia is not currently at war with the IRI, it plays a major role in the IRI’s international security structures, diplomacy, nuclear technology, and internal repression. One of the intellectual authorities for these theocrats is even a Christian fundamentalist philosopher close to Putin.¹⁶ To remain a player, the IRI will be forced to take big military and political gambles. With the IRI’s proxy forces destroyed, all that is left is a poverty-stricken and starving country that operates on the use of gallows, and the billions in debt owed to various Chinese and Russian companies and banks that it borrowed to finance the building of nuclear power plants.¹⁷ The IRI's proxy wars beyond its borders and its so-called nuclear “deterrence” have brought about a generalized poverty and destruction of the land under the domination of gangs of monstrous capitalists.

It does not matter to these criminals that they have pushed 80 percent of the population below the poverty line. They have also used the sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European imperialists to add to their billion-dollar fortunes, and they have done so with the help of not only China and Russia, but also the support of Western financial and credit sectors.¹⁸ Just look at the mullahs and the military who live in penthouses, look at the partnership of Iran's Islamist capitalists in Dubai, Qatar, and London. And now look at their 2025 budget that allocated a cool one trillion to 20 religious propaganda institutions and that tripled the military budget. The religious palaces of the mullahs (the shrines to “The Imam, His Holiness” Khomeini, etc.) were built with the blood of the Iranian people. The scum who call themselves “Islamic servants of the Custodian of the Holy Shrine” are building a free trade zone on the backs of the impoverishment of the people of Khorasan.¹⁹

For Khamenei, “independence” means [Islamic fundamentalist] “identity”: enslavement of women with veils, obscurantism and the chains of social slavery; the plundering of workers' lives, the destruction of the talents of the youth, the beheading of freedom-fighters. He will not hesitate to do whatever it takes to maintain this miserable “independence,” even if it means turning Iran and the Iranian people into a fortress for Russian and Chinese imperialism—or for U.S. imperialism, if that becomes necessary. 

Over the last eight years, in order to explain the IRI’s dependence on Russia for funds to develop key enterprises, Khamenei has said that his slogan, “neither the West nor the East” no longer applies because “the East” no longer exists. He forecast that the world would become “multi-polar,” and that one of those poles (the imperialists of Russia and China) would willingly embrace the IRI. Certainly, the rifts between the imperialist powers will widen in various ways and new ones will emerge (e.g., [if there is] a direct confrontation between the U.S. and the European Union, and an escalation of the conflict between the U.S. and China), and this would give the IRI the possibility, the opportunity, and the temptation to make more desperate maneuvers. However, the “playing field” is much more slippery now than before. Most importantly, the explosive movements of the people, hungry and disgusted with this regime and its ruling thugs, are severely reducing the regime's capacity for such maneuvers. The regime has even lost its traditional footholds. As one of the regime's critics, Abbas Abdi, said, “There is no longer an element called “the people” in this government. Bringing some people out to its rallies will not solve its problems.”²⁰

Let's seize this opportunity to build a completely different future.

The world is at a nodal point. In other words, all the contradictions of the imperialist capitalist system that dominates the world are knotted together and it is not possible to resolve them in a case by case way within the framework of the existing situation. This situation has negatively impacted reactionaries of all countries, including the IRI. In this way, it is diminishing their internal cohesion and ability to control the people. In Iran, the people have repeatedly rebelled against the IRI and have repeatedly been defeated. But they will rebel again, and the waves will be louder than before. However, [these rebellions] have also increased the great opportunities to turn these waves into a tsunami that will bury the IRI and create a completely different society. 

We must recognize that the whole world is passing through a time machine, and in a few years, the world will be astonishingly different from the current world: much worse or much better. If we want the situation to move in a direction that will qualitatively improve the situation for the majority of the people in the world, including Iran, we must make a revolution. The weakening of the IRI is a great opportunity for the growth and expansion of a “movement for revolution” that can both mobilize the people to overthrow the IRI and confront the imperialists' war plans and other maneuvers—and at the same time stand up to the reactionary alternative forces who want to take the place of the IRI. Whatever the outcome, this situation holds great danger along with great opportunities for the expansion and growth of a “movement for revolution.” 

Confronting war and the dangers that threaten the lives and futures of millions of people is one of the tasks of this movement. It is the task of this movement, in addition to weakening the levers of intellectual and organizational control of the reactionaries over the people, to use the space created to consciously mobilize and organize large sections of the people in a movement for revolution. It is the responsibility of this movement to confront not only the IRI but all the alternatives that the imperialists want to impose on us in the guise of a “transition period.” 

At this juncture, we must be able to open a path for the people that is completely different from the detours represented by those who claim to be the “transitional leadership” of the “national revolution” and who are waiting for the imperialist’s military intervention in Iran or for a coup “from within the system.” It is the task of the “movement for revolution” to prevent the explosive strata of society—of women, youth and workers to the people of oppressed nationalities—from taking these detours.

It is a time in which it is possible to prepare the ground for a different future. Let us carry out this preparation with eyes wide open, with knowledge of what is happening and where the interests of our people—and of oppressed humanity in general—lie. At the same time, this preparation requires that we fight for a liberating worldview, free from the ideas and methodology that is produced by the existing order. 

What is meant by “ways of thinking produced by the existing order,” is the method and approach that gets promoted among the people by the IRI and by the capitalist-imperialist system, and political forces affiliated with them. An unscientific method and approach prevents us from seeing the possibility of building a society that is fundamentally different from the one that exists. Therefore, in various ways, we must engage a large number of people in ideological struggle and change their way of thinking, so that they can separate themselves from the empirical, superficial, and determinist ways of thinking, and can look scientifically at the current situation and how it can be changed in the interests of the majority. With a scientific method and approach, we can understand how to proceed step by step along the path of the revolution, and where we can make leaps forward.

For the struggles of this period, we must set goals and form a broad alliance within the framework of opposition to [both] the IRI and imperialism and that take an internationalist approach. There are different fronts to the practical preparations aimed at overthrowing the IRI and the capitalist class—both in and out of power. But these all are based on one set of strategic goals: 

• Release of political prisoners and abolish executions;
• immediate abolition of the hijab law and all religious laws against women;
• complete freedom of expression, publishing and art;
• end the allocation of the people’s wealth to militarism, nuclear industries, bomb-making and proxy wars that has impoverished the people and has eliminated budget for education, health and public services;
• end the funding of religious, ideological and cultural programs by the IRI and its institutions, despite these programs’ reduced effectiveness to fool the people and create a pro-government sentiment, they are kept afloat with large budgets;²¹
• having an internationalist outlook, culture, and practice in the form of clear lines of demarcation against all imperialists and their wars, and specifically by supporting the people of Palestine against Israel's genocidal wars;
• having a line and standards of conduct that don’t tolerate misogynistic, LGBT-phobic, racist, and fascist culture, and that encourages a culture of unity around opposition to any form of oppression and exploitation and that supports rebellion against any crime or oppression, whether “internal” or “external” [to Iran].

To move forward along this different path, we need to create a “movement for revolution” abroad with this same content, among hundreds of thousands of immigrants, students, and refugees from Iran and Afghanistan. We need to forge broad, organized alliances that take part in strengthening the anti-fascist movements in the U.S. and Europe. Synergy at home and abroad will exponentially increase the power and influence of the “movement for revolution.” Having deep-rooted international ties with the struggles of the people of the world will, in practice, broaden the horizons of our people and increase the hope and energy for fundamental change in the world for the benefit of all humanity. We cannot succeed in building a different future just with noble thoughts, good intentions and dedication. We must “organize, organize, organize” around these desires. Intellectuals have an important role to play in teaching people to analyze scientifically, think scientifically, plan scientifically—and to organize! 

A civil suit was filed in Orlando, Florida on February 10, 2025 against Parviz Sabeti, a former head of the SAVAK, secret police under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Shah of Iran. (Installed in a U.S. CIA coup in 1953, the Shah was overthrown in 1979.²¹) An “exclusive” article in The Independent (UK)²² summarized much of the lawsuit. Below are extensive excerpts from the lawsuit which detail the crimes of the late Shah’s regime, but also expose the links to the current Islamic regime in Iran.

Three former political prisoners during the Shah’s reign (John Doe 1, 2, 3), now living in California, allege that Sabeti “…planned, supervised and advocated for the arrest, detention and the extended torture of perceived political opponents of the Shah’s repressive regime—frequently merely artists, writers, playwrights, and students—in violation of laws against torture and crimes against humanity…” (#6 of lawsuit). There are already threats circulating against the lawyers/firm who filed this lawsuit by the late Shah’s fascist social base monarchist thugs in the U.S.

The suit says Sabeti hid his location and identity for 40 years but resurfaced during the 2022-2023 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising. “The former Shah’s son, Prince Reza Pahlavi, and even Defendant Sabeti have been presented by Monarchists as the leaders who should replace the Islamic Republic.” (#12) The three California residents (ages 72, 85, 68), like millions of others in the Iranian Diaspora, want justice and fear potentially even greater horrors if a new version of the Shah’s regime returns to Iran.

Depraved Sadism of U.S.-Shah’s SAVAK and Henchman

Under “Statement of Facts,” the lawsuit’s visceral and sickening descriptions of Sabeti’s and the SAVAK include (#34) “SAVAK functioned both as an intelligence agency and security force, with functionally unlimited power to censor the media, screen applicants for government jobs, and use all means necessary to hunt down and persecute dissidents. SAVAK played the role of police, prosecutor, and magistrate in Iran, as recognized by the U.S. Department of State.” 

The “Facts” section of the lawsuit states that SAVAK carried out “…mass arrests and torture of thousands of perceived political opponents, including lawyers, writers, theater directors, university teachers, members of ethnic minorities groups, intellectuals, students, activists, artists and political rivals…without judicial oversight, and detainees were not informed of charges against them…” (#36)

The SAVAK also hunted down Iranian students and other dissidents abroad including in the U.S. It was popularly known among activists and academics that the SAVAK was trained and managed by the U.S. CIA and Israel secret police Mossad.²³

The gruesome list of SAVAK torture techniques listed in this “Facts” section includes: beating bloody the bottom of detainee’s feet, “…sleep deprivation; extensive solitary confinement; glaring searchlights; standing in one place for hours on end; nail extractions; snakes (favored for use with women); electrical shocks with cattle prods, often into the rectum; cigarette burns; sitting on hot grills; acid dripped into nostrils; near-drownings; mock executions; and an electric chair with a large metal mask to muffle screams while amplifying them for the victim. This latter contraption was dubbed the Apollo—an allusion to the American space capsules. Prisoners were also humiliated by being raped, urinated on, and forced to stand naked… Mehdi Rezai, a political prisoner, recounted his torture by SAVAK in open court and accused Sabeti of having urinated in his mouth.” (#40)

Publicizing confessions coerced under torture was one of the SAVAK’s specialties inherited by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This is the supposed benevolent regime of the Shah (and his SAVAK) who was warmly welcomed and hosted by the late U.S. president Jimmy Carter in 1979 at the White House.

SAVAK of the Shah Is SAVAMA of the IRI

Under the section “Absence of Available Remedies in Iran” there is searing exposure of the transformation of the Shah’s SAVAK into the Mullahs’ SAVAMA, and the ongoing active relations between Sabeti and the current IRI regime. It asserts, “Upon the removal of the Shah from power in 1979, the newly formed Islamic Republic of Iran … apprehended some members of the former regime, including some high-ranking officials associated with SAVAK. However, … rather than eliminating SAVAK, the Islamic Republic effectively rebranded it as a new security entity…(‘SAVAMA’). …SAVAMA was to serve essentially the same purpose as SAVAK—to stop the proliferation of opposition organizations in Iran and acquire intelligence on Iraq by employing the experienced ex-intelligence officers of SAVAK and the military. …SAVAMA contained many of the same staff members and senior leaders as SAVAK, thereby functionally continuing SAVAK's reign of terror. The appointment of General Hossein Fardust, a former Deputy Director for SAVAK, as the head of SAVAMA exemplifies the collaboration between former SAVAK personnel and the Islamic Republic. …Members of SAVAK were also integrated into Iran's intelligence system” (#116-#119).

The facts marshalled in this lawsuit not only serve to inform the mostly younger activists in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora who did not experience the horrors of the Shah’s regime, they also objectively indict the U.S. imperialists who were the Shah’s chief backers. The lawsuit also directly denounces²⁴ the efforts of some imperialist forces to use the former Shah’s son, “Prince” Reza Pahlavi (PRP), as a vehicle for an imperialist-backed regime change which would more effectively repress the people’s movement from below. The “Prince” brags of having close connections with and support from military and paramilitary forces in the IRI.²⁵ Sabeti’s ongoing connections are probably one key to this.

Too many otherwise informed activists in the Iranian Diaspora have focused their efforts on lobbying to get the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp) labeled as a “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO) by the Western imperialists like the U.S.—which the U.S. did do in April 2019. The facts exposed in this lawsuit demonstrate the foolishness and irony of these efforts, which objectively let the U.S./CIA (or Mossad) off the hook and show (willful) ignorance of history and reality. As the IEC keeps repeating, our Emergency Appeal insists that:

The governments of the U.S. and Iran act from their national interests. And, in this instance, we the people of the U.S. and Iran, along with the people of the world, have OUR shared interests, as part of getting to a better world: to unite to defend the political prisoners of Iran. In the U.S., we have a special responsibility to unite very broadly against this vile repression by the IRI, and to actively oppose any war moves by the U.S. government that would bring even more unbearable suffering to the people of Iran. We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW! We say to the U.S. government: NO THREATS OR WAR MOVES AGAINST IRAN, LIFT U.S. SANCTIONS!

On one side, many in the U.S. “left” refused to support this campaign with the refrain that the IEC was “helping the U.S.” by exposing the crimes of the IRI, while those on the opposite side of the same stupidity charged that we were aiding the IRI by our second demand to the U.S. government. In the “background” section of the “resources” tab of the IEC’s website, there is this all important analysis that frames what IEC initiators and organizers see as crucial: 

Some of us working on the Campaign have been inspired by the groundbreaking analysis of the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian on the global clash between imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism. We find this analysis to be an accurate framework to understand the global dynamics and symbiotic relations between these two contending oppressive powers. We wanted to share this with IEC supporters and activists, and others fighting on behalf of Iran’s political prisoners even as it has bigger applicability in our current world (e.g., U.S. vs Afghanistan, Russia vs Chechnya, etc.) 

In BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian (1:28), he writes,

What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade [increasingly globalized western imperialism] on the other hand, are historically outmoded strata among colonized and oppressed humanity up against historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system. These two reactionary poles reinforce each other, even while opposing each other. If you side with either of these "outmodeds," you end up strengthening both.

While this is a very important formulation and is crucial to understanding much of the dynamics driving things in the world in this period, at the same time we do have to be clear about which of these "historically outmodeds" has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system, and in particular the U.S. imperialists.

Political Prisoner Golrokh Iraee Writes from Evin

Golrokh Iraee is a long-time fighter for women’s rights who is in Evin Prison, sentenced to 6 years for "assembly and collusion against national security” and 1 year for “propaganda against the regime" for alleged plans to join the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in September 2022.²⁶

Her Instagram account recently posted two notable messages:

*On the lawsuit against Parvis Sabeti, it said, in part: “The end of this current dictatorship is possible by cutting off this Washington-based proxy group and the hidden arms of power. Until people’s courts are held in Iran and all murderers and torturers are tried and punished.” (2/25/2025) By “Washington-based proxy group,” she refers to the monarchists grouped around Reza Pahlavi, and rejects their strategy of relying on forces of the current IRI. 

*The day before, her IG post called for a broad movement of the oppressed people “willing to pay the price” to stop executions, in contrast to waiting on some kind of “spontaneous” change by the IRI.

Appearing in front of prisons, which was recently carried out in connection with the “Tuesdays No to Execution” campaign, is a big step towards drawing public opinion to the horrific dimensions of the death penalty. Every year, dozens of people lose their precious lives on political charges and hundreds are killed for murder, drugs, robbery, etc. These dear souls, no matter what they are accused of, even if they deserve to be punished, must rise up against their death sentences and force the rulers to abolish this brutal punishment. The cycle of government killings will stop, but not spontaneously and not at the will of the rulers. This is possible only if we the oppressed people stand tall against it. Until the abolition of the death penalty and the overthrow of the foundation of oppression….

In order to bring about fundamental changes and break the laws that are the backbone of the system for domination, repression, and intimidation, we must pay a price. If the opposition to the abolition of the death penalty is public, tangible, and on the ground, the regime cannot take thousands of lives every year with brazenness and evil.

In the increase in the number of executions, the finger of blame is pointed, after the tyrannical rulers, at ourselves, who despite 46 years of murder and crime, have always been a bystander and have not been able to draw public opinion to the horror of what is happening. Unlike in the past, the Islamic Republic seeks to … obtain approval from public opinion in order to justify the issuance and execution of the death penalty. Therefore, in such circumstances, it is the responsibility of the progressive forces to make public opinion more aware of the horrific dimensions of the incident than ever before, and to prepare the ground for protest and turn the field into an arena of struggle until the abolition of the death penalty.

We think Golrokh’s comments have important relevance to this historic and tumultuous time in our world. We call on all justice loving people of the world to stand in solidarity with, and continue the struggle for, freeing ALL Iran’s political prisoners with due compassion, passion and urgency.