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Share this article and links to revcom.us everywhere, now.
Share the “No More Generations” meme (below) and print up and get out with posters of this.
Get out and make a scene with these posters (and posters of the Stolen Lives—below)! Get people to pose with the quote and share their pictures and to speak up about their own experiences with these brutalizing police. Read the quote from Bob Avakian out loud, and get others to do that. Challenge people to act, and get with the movement for revolution.
Murder and Brutality by Police Is Unjust, Immoral, and Illegitimate
Updated June 14, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In just a matter of a week, infuriating, outrageous, and defining images of a vicious, violent, degrading war on our youth were flashed across the globe, shining a light on the nature of the system that rules the USA: To be Black or Latino in AmeriKKKa is to live knowing that any moment you can be insulted, assaulted, terrorized, criminalized, locked up, and murdered by police—for nothing.
* * *
There was the disgusting, humiliating assault on Black teenagers doing nothing more than trying to enjoy a pool party in McKinney, Texas, on June 5. As part of a police assault on these youths, a manic pig threw a young sister to the ground in her bikini and kneeled on top of her for no reason—and pulled his gun on the teens! A white youth who made and distributed the video of the assault said, “You can see in part of the video where he tells us to sit down, and he kinda like skips over me and tells all my African-American friends to go sit down.” Other whites on the scene have also called out the racism in the attack. For what? For doing what kids do, for daring to have a pool party on a hot day.
* * *
In Cleveland, a so-called independent investigation of the murder of Tamir Rice by the sheriff's department resulted, on June 6, in no recommendation for indictment despite the fact that the whole world saw a pig blast this 12-year-old playing with a toy gun in a park just two seconds after he rolled up on Tamir. There are demands being raised in the wake of this that the murdering police must be indicted NOW and a judge ruled there is probable cause to bring the police to trial. But there is STILL no indictment. Still no arrest! Indict! Convict! Send the killer cops to jail! The whole damn system is guilty as hell!
* * *
Kalief Browder was sent to New York City’s hellish Rikers Island prison in 2010 when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. He spent three years being tortured there without trial. He was repeatedly beaten by guards. He was subjected to violence from other inmates—a culture fostered and provoked by prison conditions. He spent two of his three years at Rikers in solitary confinement—something globally recognized as torture. After three years, charges were dropped and Kalief was released and his case became a national scandal. He never recovered from the torture he was subjected to, and on June 6 he took his own life. (See “Statement by Carl Dix: Kalief Browder’s Life Was Stolen by This System.”) And nothing has changed at Rikers Island. Just four days later, an 18-year-old held at Rikers for “a parole violation” took his life in this hellhole. NO MORE! Close this hellhole down right now!
* * *
Black and Latino people can't even go to a concert and have some fun without being assaulted by cops. People who paid hundreds of dollars for tickets to New York City's Hot97 Summer Jam on June 7 were told by authorities they couldn't get in because some people were trying to get in for free. People expressed outrage and resisted assaults by police in militarized armored personnel carriers and in riot gear who sprayed people with tear gas and pepper spray, and blasted them with deafening noise. Dozens were arrested.
* * *
On June 8, Shabaka Shakur, a Black man who spent 27 years of his life in prison for murder had his conviction overturned and was released from jail. A New York State Supreme Court justice ruled that there was “a reasonable probability” that the confession that was the basis of his conviction “was indeed fabricated” by former New York Police Department detective Louis Scarcella. A 2013 New York Times investigation reported that Scarcella used “the same eyewitness, a crack-addicted prostitute, for multiple murder prosecutions” and repeatedly produced “confessions” from defendants who insisted they had not made them. Scarcella’s “investigations” played a role in sending countless people to jail, many serving long sentences. As evidence of his frame-ups comes to light, the NYPD continues to cover them up—just last week refusing to turn over Scarcella’s notes on a 25-year-old homicide conviction.
* * *
And the list goes on and on. On June 8, Mario Ocasio was Tased to death by police in the Bronx, New York. They initially claimed he was carrying a pair of scissors. As if carrying a pair of scissors warranted a police execution! But then—after every mainstream media outlet had put out this “justification” for the police killing Mario Ocasio, small articles carried news that “a police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the death was still under investigation, acknowledged that Mr. Ocasio did not have the scissors in his hand.” And family members say, “Mario was laying on the floor, calm” when he was killed. Friends were concerned that he was having a mental breakdown and had taken some bad drugs. Police who responded are part of a unit specially trained to “handle” people with emotional or psychological problems. They “handled” the situation like murderers.
* * *
Albert Woodfox (Photo: solitarywatch.com)
On Monday, June 8, a district court judge ordered the release of Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3, after over 40 years in solitary. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture has said that the long solitary confinement Woodfox has been subjected to “clearly amounts to torture.” In 2012, Albert Woodfox said, “I do not have the words to convey the years of mental, emotional and physical torture I have endured. I am not sure what damage has been done to me, but I do know that the feeling of pain allows me to know that I am alive. If I dwelled on the pain I have endured and stopped to think about how 40 years locked in a cage 23 hours a day has affected me, it would give insanity the victory it has sought for 40 years.” The Angola 3 were falsely convicted of killing a guard in Louisiana’s notorious Angola prison, based in part on their membership in the Black Panther Party. (See “Herman Wallace of the Angola 3—Full of Courage and Revolutionary Spirit to the End.”) Even the widow of the guard who was killed said that after looking at the evidence, “I believe the Angola 3 are innocent.” Despite the June 8 court order that Albert Woodfox be released, Louisiana authorities have appealed, and on Friday, June 12, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a decision to stay his release pending the outcome of the appeal.
* * *
We are out of space and time here, but police continue to murder. On June 11, Miami police shot Fritz Severe, a 46-year-old homeless man, five times outside a public library. They claim he failed to drop a stick he was holding—as if (if true) that could possibly justify murder. The police murdered Fritz Severe in front of dozens of traumatized children attending a YMCA summer camp taking place at a park nearby.
Murder and brutality by police is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. It has to STOP.
Carl Dix is the co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Kalief Browder's Life Was Stolen By This System
June 11, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The blood of Kalief Browder is on the hands of this system. Kalief took his own life on Saturday, June 6, hanging himself at his parents’ home in the Bronx. He was driven to do this by years of torture and brutality he was subjected to while being held at the Rikers Island prison for three years.
Kalief Browder. Photo: Screen Grab from ABC News
Kalief was arrested in the Spring of 2010, at the age of 16, accused of stealing a backpack. He was held in solitary confinement for two of the three years in Rikers, and repeatedly beaten by prison guards and other inmates. Prosecutors several times offered to release Kalief from jail if he would plead guilty to stealing the backpack, but he refused those offers, insisting on his innocence.
After three years in prison, prosecutors dropped the charges against Kalief, and he was released from Rikers. But Kalief was unable to escape the damage that years of torture and abuse by the system had inflicted on him. He was constantly afraid of being attacked on the subway or in his home. In December of 2014, he was hospitalized on a psychiatric ward at Harlem Hospital Center. This past Saturday, Kalief’s mother heard a noise and went out to her backyard. She saw Kalief hanging from a 2nd floor window with a cord around his neck.
The criminal injustice system stole Kalief’s life. It subjected him to the torture of solitary confinement for two years. The prosecutors who refused to indict the cops who murdered Eric Garner, Anthony Rosario, Nicholas Heyward Jr. and so many other victims of killer cops; and who forgot how to prosecute when charges were brought against the cops who murdered Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell; persecuted Kalief for years on a charge of stealing a backpack! They used brutal beatings inflicted on him by prison guards to try to pressure him into copping a plea.
NY Mayor Bill de Blasio released a statement after Kalief died saying his “story inspired our efforts at Rikers.” What a fucking hypocrite. He and his police commissioner, Bill Bratton, are presiding over “Broken Windows” policing that unleashes the NYPD to go after Black and Latino people, especially the youth, for minor violations and even when they’ve done nothing wrong. This criminalization will steal the lives of many more youth, and it is a big part of why this system must be gotten rid of in the only possible way – thru revolution.
On June 10, Barack Obama announced he was sending “450 additional U.S. military personnel to train, advise, and assist Iraqi Security Forces at Taqaddum military base in eastern Anbar province”—a new base in western Iraq, where the Islamic State (or ISIS) has been on the offensive. This brings the total number of U.S. troops and “advisors” in Iraq up to 3,500.
Two U.S. invasions of Iraq, and a decade of occupation in various forms, have turned Iraq into a living hell for the people there. Since 1991, U.S. invasions and sanctions have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people, with children, the elderly, and the most vulnerable suffering the most. Millions of people in Iraq and neighboring Syria, which is wracked with a war between reactionary powers that has been in large part exacerbated by the U.S., have been driven from their homes.
In Iraq, the basic physical and social coherence of society has been shredded, depriving people of basic necessities like clean water, medical care, sewage, and education. Brutal Sharia law (Islamic fundamentalist rules that, among other things, mandate severe oppression of women) is in effect. Iraq’s culture was literally looted from museums as a direct result, or as a byproduct, of U.S. occupation.
Any new U.S. troops Obama is sending to Iraq will add to all those horrors. They represent a new step in a set of related moves by the Obama administration to re-insert the U.S. military into Iraq.
For over 100 years, capitalism-imperialism has carved up, exploited, and oppressed the peoples of Iraq and the Middle East—a region with the most concentrated source of petroleum in the world and a crossroads between global and regional powers. That is still why the U.S. is so deeply embedded in the region.
The 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq was intended to be part of radically restructuring the whole region in the interests of the U.S. empire. But that invasion and other U.S. actions gave new life to the rapid spread of reactionary Islamic jihadist forces, many of which are in conflict with the U.S. The defeats and difficulties the U.S. has run up against in all this have opened up opportunities for regional and global rivals and called into question the credibility of the U.S. to violently enforce its will and rule anywhere and everywhere.
The 450 U.S. troops on their way to Iraq are part of the Obama administration’s plan to respond to the situation. They will become part of, and expand, a network of bases around Iraq. The stated purpose of these bases is to train and direct the Iraqi army, along with other militias, with the idea that these forces can be deployed to kill and die for those objectives of the U.S. empire. Not stated in public pronouncements, but very importantly, this network of bases could serve as an infrastructure and scaffolding that could be quickly built up and expanded if and when the U.S. sees a necessity to send many more troops into Iraq at any point, for any reason.
These bases already exist in the Iraqi cities of Al Asad, Besmaya, Erbil, and Taji, where more than 9,000 Iraqi troops have already been trained, with an additional 3,000 currently in training, essentially under the command of 3,000 U.S. “advisors” (and, according to many reports, about an equal number of “private contractors”).
Above: Iraq and neighboring countries. Military bases from which U.S. "advisors" are operating in Iraq are indicated in blue
On a strategic level, the re-insertion of more U.S. troops in Iraq is intended to cohere and provide on-the-ground military direction to the military forces of the U.S.-installed Iraqi regime. And U.S. military forces are intended to shore up, direct, and stabilize that hated Iraqi regime—or reconfigure something out of this regime (which might end up being a formal “federation” of different ethnic groups and religious factions, or might be separate states), that will serve the interests of the U.S. empire, which is facing a rapidly deteriorating situation in the whole region.
Conflicts in the Ruling Class vs. the Interests of Humanity
Sections of the U.S. ruling class, in views articulated by people like John McCain, insist the U.S. never should have “left” Iraq and that what are needed are many more U.S. troops. Other sections of the ruling class (as articulated by Obama) see too many (U.S.) “boots on the ground,” particularly in direct combat, as a failed and unsustainable strategy. They insist on violently defending and projecting U.S. interests with more reliance on enlisting, training, managing, and orchestrating the army of the Iraqi regime and various militias.
First, it is not like the U.S. “withdrew” from Iraq or the region under Obama. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad is the largest the U.S. has in the world and is basically a “colonial” fortress, full of spies, military personnel, and other operatives dedicated to maintaining U.S. influence in the country. Over the past year, U.S. planes and missiles have carried out hundreds of strikes, killing untold numbers of innocents. And the U.S. has never stopped waging war in various forms across the region: supporting Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, helping foster the inhuman slaughter that’s taken over 200,000 lives in Syria, turning Libya into a free-fire zone for reactionary jihadists, backing up tyrants in Egypt and Saudi Arabia which waged military assaults in Libya and Yemen, continuing its ongoing murder-by-drone campaign, and trying to broker a deal with Iran in order to help it keep the whole foul U.S.-dominated regional order more or less intact.
But none of that has “worked” from the perspective of the U.S. empire. And the rulers don’t have any “answers” except various versions of more of the same and worse.
How to Bring Forward Something Completely Different Than Western Imperialism or ISIS
If you want to solve a problem, you have to have a basic scientific understanding of what that problem is! In that light, the following quote from Bob Avakian, which sharply identifies the nature of the clash between Western imperialism and Jihad, demands study and wrangling with:
What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade 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.
—BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian (1:28)
In this light, what people in this country do right now, or don’t do, can make a big difference.
Our starting point is the advance of the world revolution. We are working to get the real, radical alternative to capitalism-imperialism—Bob Avakian’s leadership, vision, and strategy for a really visionary and viable communist revolution—on the map worldwide. In that context, imagine how different the “options” would appear around the world if and when a revolution took place in the United States!
And we need determined and uncompromising opposition to all moves by the U.S. to shore up and extend its interests in the region. Again: all moves. Obama’s bombing runs and “advisors” are no better than the Republicans’ calls for even more “boots on the ground.” These fights over whether and how to enlist Iran in their plans are disagreements over how to enslave people.
The more that the people of the world see determined, uncompromising opposition to the crimes of “our government,” the more the door is opened for people to look for, and take up, another way, completely outside the paradigm of either reactionary force in this clash of “two outmodeds.”
STOP Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity
They Won't Listen to "Reason"—U.S. Wars Must Be OPPOSED with Mass Resistance
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Some people—including people who have actively opposed crimes of the U.S. and its ally, Israel, in the Middle East—frequently express frustration that the Obama administration doesn’t seem to realize (as these forces see it) that every escalation of U.S. military involvement in Iraq and the region escalates the conflict with ISIS, drives more people to ISIS, and digs the U.S. into deeper quicksand.
But from the perspective of the rulers of the U.S., they cannot do otherwise. The U.S. rulers understand that the Middle East has become a volatile and rapidly shifting cauldron of contradictions, with new fissures breaking open suddenly, and unpredictably. None are eager for yet another major war there. But they also understand that maintaining U.S. control (and relative stability) there is crucial for U.S. global interests and domination. So the U.S. rulers feel they have no choice but to try and deal with the Islamic fundamentalists and the whole regional situation, even as they understand any course is full of risks. In other words, they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. And all of this is taking place in the context of the larger global picture, including the rise of global and regional rivals like China and Russia and other reactionary ruling regimes and forces within the Middle East and central Asia.
The critical point here is that oppressive criminal wars are built into the DNA of this system. The rulers will not “listen to reason”—they have their own logic. Instead of appealing to them to be “reasonable,” people must oppose their wars by determined, mass resistance.
And to emphasize the point: neither side in the debate in the U.S. ruling class over how to defend their interests in Iraq represents anything positive for the people!
One of the cities in Iraq currently being fought over by the U.S.-installed regime and ISIS is Fallujah. The recent history of that city tells you much about how things got to where they are today. In March 2004, during the second U.S. invasion of Iraq, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force invaded Fallujah with tanks and armored vehicles. The invasion was in retaliation, in part, for the death of four Blackwater operatives. These mercenaries were contracted by the U.S. to privatize the mass murder of civilians in Iraq and carry out crimes the U.S. didn’t want to be overtly associated with.
U.S. Marines walk past bodies of people killed in the U.S. assault on Fallujah, Iraq, 2004. AP photo.
The Marines were sent by former President George Bush II, who told his generals: “Kick ass! If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal. ... There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!” (From the memoir of U.S. General Ricardo Sanchez: Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story (2008), pages 349-350)
That first U.S. foray into Fallujah met with unexpected resistance, and the U.S. was forced to pull troops out of the city. But in the winter of 2004, the U.S. re-invaded Fallujah with a hellish vengeance. By the time they were done, the city was devastated. As many as 2,000 Iraqis labeled “insurgents” and another 800 or more civilians were killed. Sixty of the city’s 200 mosques were destroyed. Some 200,000 residents were forced out of the city and into internal exile. The Italian film Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre documented—in large part through testimony of U.S. Iraqi war veterans (who turned against the war)—how the U.S. government indiscriminately rained white phosphorous chemical fire down on that city and melted men, women, and children to death. U.S. forces also used depleted uranium weapons against the people of Fallujah, leaving a legacy of birth defects to this day.
And now the U.S. empire and its “allies” are girding for another clash over Fallujah—a clash that is emblematic of the whole conflict.
A Revolutionary Summer Solstice, June 20-21: Bringing BA to the Start of What Could Potentially Be "A Long, Hot Summer"
June 1, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Photo: Special to revcom.us
Kick off this summer with the most meaningful thing you can do, with the revolutionary élan and joy that comes from radically changing the world—with others like you, in a process of learning and discovery as we do this: Taking revolution and Bob Avakian, BA, to the people in an atmosphere of charged political ferment, and questioning.
Let’s look at what has led into this summer. Youths cast out by the system defiantly rebelling against police murders, in Ferguson, in Madison, and in Baltimore. High school and college students joined by others occupying streets, freeways, and bridges in outbreaks of mass resistance, bringing a halt to business as usual. This is sparking bigger questions and discussions not only about what is understood as “the system,” but also the history and place of Black people in this society. Thinking has been shaken loose, and there is a lot roiling under the surface. This moment holds tremendous potential towards hastening a time when revolutionary change is much more the order of the day.
The powers-that-be are responding, with not only a lot of “talk” and minor reforms, but intense repression and charity programs, all the while firmly affirming and supporting the police. THEY HAVE NO ANSWER, not only to the police murder of mainly Black and Latino youths—but also to the continuing degradation of women, the wars of empire, global warming, and the criminalization of immigrants.
The plain scientific fact is that it does NOT need to be this way, and a radically different world—without all these horrors and this madness—is possible through communist revolution. This is what is fundamentally represented by BA, Bob Avakian, his leadership and his vision, based on a scientific approach to what underlies all these horrors, the problem, and what it will take to get beyond it, and how to get there, the solution. This changes how people look at what is tolerable, and what is needed right now, including righteously and defiantly standing up, rebelling, and organizing in various ways to fight the power.
Even as you are learning, and thinking about this, agreeing, disagreeing, provoked, and challenged by what BA says, if you feel this—BA and his vision—needs to be out there, sparking discussion and debate about revolution and a radically different world, JOIN US to raise funds and project this everywhere, BA Everywhere, an actual campaign of the same name, to achieve this objective. Imagine the Difference ... This could be part of changing everything, like the beginning of the 1960s, but more scientific, radical, and emancipating in vision.
Link up with the Revolutionary Summer Solstice, the Weekend of June 20-21, the start of what could be a potentially “long, hot, summer” politically in this country. Different cities have diverse plans, and you should be part of shaping this, with your suggestions and ideas on places to go and things to do. Common threads of the vision and plans are:
* Crews rolling with T-shirts of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! in outdoor parks, basketball courts, concerts, and cultural institutions. Wearing, selling, and fundraising for it. With a revolutionary élan, even as many wearing these shirts are in the process of grappling with what this revolution is all about.
* Fundraising for, publicizing, showing, and distributing REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN. Scenes of people gathering around large projections on walls to watch excerpts from the film, or at a rec center in the projects, all the while raising money so that word can spread, and discussing and debating what they saw. Tens of thousands of palm cards for the film distributed, and posters everywhere, “saturating” key neighborhoods, making an unmistakable presence and compelling people to check it out. For it matters, for the world and for humanity.
A common theme in the responses of those who have watched the Dialogue has been hope, the raising of sights on a scientific foundation—not only about what BA represents in the “way out” of all this madness and horror, but also in the kind of movement envisioned that has BA and Cornel West, with their differences, but with mutual respect, united in their concern for those who are “the least among us.” A woman in West Baltimore watching the Dialogue was reported to be “‘worried’ because she felt so good. She felt so full of hope.” Commenting on the Dialogue, Ardea Skybreak has said: “It was like there was magic in the air. It was one of the most hopeful things that I’ve seen in a very long time. ... I felt like I was able to see a great demonstration of morality and conscience applied to dealing with the problems of humanity—that both speakers stood out this way...”
Two ways to donate to BA Everywhere and for more information:
Bob Avakian Institute: For info and mission statement, and to donate online, go to thebobavakianinstitute.org
via mail: The Bob Avakian Institute, 1016 West Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60607
via mail: RCP Publications, PO Box 3486, Chicago, IL 60654
For more info on BA, the movement for revolution, and BA Everywhere: revcom.us.
* Celebratory and fundraising dinners for the BA Everywhere campaign, where people get together to break bread, watch excerpts of the film, share their experiences through the weekend, and watch and listen to music and cultural performances. A community and culture more in line with the world we are trying to bring into being, without all the oppressive and exploitative relations, especially what has become the all too common standard in the revolting popular culture of degrading women.
There are tens, if not hundreds, of thousands across this country who are searching for answers, open to radical questioning and radical change, looking for leadership, but who don’t yet know about BA.
With revolutionary energy and enthusiasm, rolling in the streets wearing the T-shirts of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, showing and watching BA in Dialogue with Cornel West, with hundreds of youths and thousands of others, on large screens or small portable DVD players, raising sights and provoking debate, fundraising from pennies to hundreds of dollars, forging community as we break bread together―this is how we are going to start changing this.
What is needed is YOU! There is a place for you, depending on how you’d like to contribute.
Plans for a Revolutionary Summer Solstice, June 20-21:
Bringing BA to the Start of What Could Potentially Be “A Long, Hot Summer”
Updated June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Kick off this summer with the most meaningful thing you can do, with the revolutionary élan and joy that comes from radically changing the world—with others like you, in a process of learning and discovery as we do this: Taking revolution and Bob Avakian, BA, to the people in an atmosphere of charged political ferment, and questioning. Find out about the Revolutionary Summer Solstice here.
NYC: June 21, Sunday, 2-5 pm
Kick Off a Revolutionary Summer! Picnic and Talent Show hosted by the NYC BA Everywhere Committee and Chenchita’s Angels Community Garden on the theme of Bob Avakian’s quote from BAsics 1:13, “No more generations...” At Chenchita's Angels Community Garden, 1691-93 Madison Avenue at 112th St., East Harlem (El Barrio); take #6 train to 110th St. $5 donation & bring a dish to share. For info on BA Everywhere and the picnic/talent show, call the NYC BA Everywhere Committee: 347-835-8656. For info about Bob Avakian’s work go to revcom.us.
CHICAGO: June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday
We're going to the South Side, West Side and Wicker Park
Crews rolling with T-shirts of "BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less!" wearing, selling and fundraising.
Fundraising, publicizing, showing and distributing REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN
Revolution Books — Opens at noon Saturday and Sunday. Drop in.
Contact: 312-860-8167 for meet up times and places
June 20, Saturday, 7 pm
Celebratory and Fundraising Dinner for BA Everywhere
Break bread, watch excerpts of Revolution and Religion, share experiences of the weekend
Revolution Books, 1103 N. Ashland Ave
Potluck or $10 Donation—Families sliding scale—No one turned away.
LOS ANGELES: June 20, Saturday, 5-8 pm
We'll be going to South Central, Downtown Skid Row, Pico Union areas and more—with short marches, wearing Revolution—Nothing Less! t-shirts, a sound system, banners, revolutionary change jars and DVD players showing the Dialogue with BA and Cornel West on Revolution and Religion.
Friday, June 19 * South Central LA: Meet at 11 am at Slauson and Central.
Saturday, June 20 * South Central LA: Meet at 11 am at Slauson and Central.
* Hollywood, Silverlake, Echo Park: Meet at Revolution Books (RBLA) at 10 am, 5726 Hollywood Blvd. LA 90028 (just west of Wilton). *BA Everywhere fundraising dinner on the rooftop of Revolution Books, 5 to 8 pm—fresh from taking BA out to the people, come together to break bread and meet others, share experiences, make plans, enjoy Dialogue film clips and revolutionary culture on a warm summer night. $5 to $20 sliding scale; volunteers needed! Call 213-304-9864.
* Grand Performances downtown LA, 8 pm, free summer concert series this year is called "Los Angeles Aftershock"—cultural aftershocks of pivotal events in 1965 and 1992. A team will leave at 6:30 pm from the RBLA dinner to go.
Sunday, June 21
* Downtown Skid Row: Meet at 10 am at the Farmer's Market at 5th and Spring. *Pico Union: Meet at 11 am outside the Alvarado Metro Redline station near 7th St.
Vans Warped Tour will be in Southern California on Friday and Sunday. This is a "shout-out" to anyone going: contact us to get Dialogue palm cards, Revolution newspapers, Revolution—Nothing Less t-shirts or other materials to distribute inside to the thousands of youth who will be there!
SAN FRANCISCO: June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday
June 20, Saturday
1 pm, San Francisco: We'll go out to Yerba Buena Gardens in S.F. which is on Mission St. between Third and Fourth Sts. Meet at 1 p.m. at the grassy area in the center of the gardens. 1 pm, East Oakland: Meet at 73rd and International to go out into the neighborhood, getting out Revolution, showing clips from the Dialogue, marching with banners and whistles.
June 21, Sunday
12 pm, Berkeley: Juneteenth in Berkeley, Meet at 12 noon at Alcatraz and Adeline Streets in Berkeley. 3 pm, East Oakland: Fundraising picnic sponsored by BA Everywhere and Revolution Club Bay Area. Arroyo Park, between 77th and 81st Ave. at Bancroft. 6 pm, Berkeley: Open House and Reception at Revolution Books. Showing of excerpts from a new film, REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN. Refreshments.
ATLANTA: June 19, 20, 21
Atlanta plans postponed—we are in Charleston this weekend
Contact us for details at: revbooksatl@hotmail.com or 770-861-3339.
BALTIMORE, June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday
June 20, Saturday 10 am—Go to Waverly Farmers Market, 32nd & Able Ave, to connect with people of all walks of life who frequent the market. Noon—Go to Afram African American Festival at Camden Yards (between the two stadiums). 3:30 pm—We will join the Rekia's Rally/#BlackWomenandGirlsLives Matter march. Start at Catheddral & W. Franklin Street. Rekia Boyd, 22-years-old, was murdered by Chicago police.
Throughout the day we will be spreading the word about the film Revolution and Religion: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion, a Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian, including a special screening of excerpts on July 5.
June 21, Sunday, 6 pm
After the "Word Up for the Revolution Club" benefit at LitMore Center for Literary Arts, 4-6 pm, at 3326 Keswick Ave., weather permitting, join us to mix and talk with the Revolution Club and about the revolution and Bob Avakian at a nearby park. A Caribbean restaurant in Sandtown is sending its truck and selling platters of Caribbean food as part of this.
Email, call or text if you will be joining us for any or all parts of this or for more info. There are many different ways to participate. 443-240-9972. RevBmore@gmail.com.
DETROIT, June 20-21, Saturday and Sunday
June 20, Saturday 5 pm: Gather at Revolution Books Detroit for celebratory and fundraising (pot luck) dinner for the BA Everywhere campaign
June 21, Sunday, 11 am: Meet at Revolution Books Detroit, then go out to church(es) and the neighborhood with BA Everywhere campaign materials and to promote REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN
HOUSTON: Sunday, June 21st, 12pm to 3pm
Celebrate a Revolutionary Summer Solstice/A fundraiser for the BA Everywhere campaign.
Where: Room 112 at the Montrose Center,
401 Branard St., Houston 77006
SEATTLE: June 20, Saturday, 1 pm
Meet at Revolution Books to take BA Everywhere out into the community. Roll with a crew wearing Revolution—Nothing Less! t-shirts, getting out palm cards with BAsics quotes, and playing Bob Avakian's "New Year's Message—-A Call to Revolution" over a loud speaker—all while raising funds to spread BA Everywhere.
BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE: Saturday, June 20
Meet up at Revolution Books (1158 Mass Ave., 2nd floor, Cambridge, 617-492-5443) at 1 pm to head out to the 8th Annual Make Music/Fête de la Musique. Make Music Harvard Square features musicians playing rock, pop, hip hop, and jazz in 12 outdoor venues on international Fête de la Musique day.
CLEVELAND: June 20, Saturday, 3:30 pm
"Take Bob Avakian (BA) to the People" fundraising potluck dinner. Luke Easter Park, corner of Kinsman and Martin Luther King Dr. Look for the big "Stop Murder by Police" banner.
Court Upholds Ruling Likely to Close All but Eight Abortion Clinics in the Entire State of Texas
June 13, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
We received this from Stop Patriarchy, the movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women.
On June 12, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled to uphold Texas law HB2, the draconian anti-abortion law, that already led to the largest wave of clinic closures since Roe v. Wade. The law requires that abortion clinics meet the hospital-like standards of ambulatory surgical centers (ASC), and requires abortion providers receive admitting privileges from nearby hospitals. There are completely medically unnecessary restrictions whose sole purpose is to shut down clinics.
This 100% illegitimate, immoral law will have devastating effects on the lives of women. This means that all but eight abortion clinics in the entire state will be forced to close. (The ruling temporarily allows one clinic, Whole Woman’s Health in the Rio Grande Valley, to remain open until an abortion-providing ASC opens in the area.)
After these shutdowns, almost a million women of reproductive age will live more than 150 miles from the nearest abortion provider. For women in El Paso, this is a round trip of more than 1,000 miles to the nearest clinic. That’s a 16-hour drive for an abortion unless they go out of state. Clinics in Texas are already overwhelmed with trying to provide for so many women who urgently need their services.
This is unacceptable! ALL women’s lives matter! Including the more than 900,000 in Texas who will soon face even more difficulty obtaining a safe, legal abortion. Last summer, when Stop Patriarchy organized the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride 2014: Ground Zero Texas to fight HB2, a provider in Houston told us that his office was already seeing a notable increase in the number of women coming into the clinic who had tried to self-induce, putting their lives in real danger. This will dramatically increase. Thousands more will have their lives foreclosed by being forced to bear children they do not want—shattering their dreams, trapping them in abusive relationships, and/or driving them into humiliating and dangerous poverty. Rural, poor, immigrant, and women of color will be hardest hit.
From the Fifth Circuit Court on the ruling (citing the language of the original Roe v. Wade decision): “Id. at 150. The Court likewise credited an interest in protecting potential life: ‘as long as at least potential life is involved, the State may assert interests beyond the protection of the pregnant woman alone.'”*
There you have it, forced motherhood, female enslavement, codified into law.
If you do not want to see women slammed further and further into the dark ages, you must take a stand against this escalating assault on abortion rights. On July 1, take your outrage to the streets. Join with Stop Patriarchy in bold, defiant outpourings nationwide to demand an end to abortion restrictions in Kansas, Tennessee, Texas, and elsewhere. Sound the alarm on this war on women, and shine a much needed light on the situation for women.
Attacks on abortion rights anywhere are attacks on women everywhere. Take a stand. Stop the war on women! ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY!
Revolution Books Berkeley Is Moving—Raising Funds and Reaching Out
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From the staff of Revolution Books, Berkeley:
It’s not your old grandpa’s communism—It’s something else. It’s a deep, spirited analysis. I grapple with these guys all the time, from another point of view, but I love ’em and respect them and they need your help. And if you want independent thought, independent books, independent ideas to exist you have to step up. You have to help.
Revolution Books Berkeley is making a bold and exciting, but challenging move. We’ve been at our current location (2425 Channing Way in Berkeley) for over 27 years, but to stay open we’ve had to scramble each month for donations and sustainers above and beyond our sales. But this trajectory wasn’t sustainable. More importantly, the times are changing and there’s a great urgency for Revolution Books to expand its reach and amplify its mission.
So, after a lengthy, often public, battle with our landlord, the City of Berkeley, we’ve signed the lease for a new and better space at 2444 Durant, which is also in the Sather Gate Mall. It’s closer to the UC Berkeley campus—a little more than a block away—and it’s a space we can renovate and refurbish from top to bottom. Our aim is to re-launch our store and expand its mission to be better and more fully able to contribute to the urgent tasks of the movement for revolution, broadly promoting BA’s leadership and work in particular. We aim to become a much brighter beacon for revolution and the new synthesis of communism across the intellectually and politically charged San Francisco Bay Area. And in particular we aim to have a much greater connection with and impact on the intellectual and political life at UC Berkeley, one of the country’s most important elite universities. (In all this, studying Ardea Skybreak’s interview at revcom.us has been extremely helpful and clarifying.)
We’re finding a lot of interest in our move, and a lot of potential to make it successful. Our experience at the Oakland and Bay Area Book Festivals (see below), as well as moving statements of support such as the video message from actor, author, and Zen Buddhist priest Peter Coyote, testify to that.
But it’s also a big and challenging task. Overall we need to raise at least $35,000 to renovate and move in by August 1. We’ve now launched an Indiegogo.com campaign to raise $20,000 of that, and there’s tons of work to do to make the campaign successful. So we’re encouraging everyone to:
Donate to the Indiegogo campaign, make comments on the site, and share the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. People can donate publicly or anonymously, a lot or a little.
Write a check payable to Revolution Books, mail to Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704.
Donate in person and call us at 510-848-1196 to volunteer, help fund raise, order your books for classes, or learn more about how you can get active with Revolution Books.
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Oakland Book Festival & Bay Area Book Festival
Two different book festivals debuted in the Bay Area in recent weeks. The first was on May 31, the Oakland Book Festival. The second, the Bay Area Book Festival, was held June 6-7 in downtown Berkeley. Both were launched to meet what the organizers said was a felt need to talk seriously about ideas and promote books. And the packed and diverse panels and prominent authors of both fiction and non-fiction works testified to the hunger for this kind of serious engagement.
The Oakland Book Festival was promoted as being about ideas, not just books. “What we want to do is show complicated, intellectual ideas in an accessible way,” said one of its organizers, Kira Brunner Don. “We believe that people are intelligent, and they want to talk about ideas. And it does not have to be done in academic jargon; it can be done so that everyone can be involved in the conversation. And that’s what we hope to do. We want our conversations to be complicated, and we want everyone to be part of them.”
Thousands of people converged on downtown Berkeley in the first Berkeley-based Bay Area Book Festival. Book lovers came to hear well known authors, like Judy Blume, Daniel Handler, Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman, and Peter Coyote, as well as international authors.
A 10-block area was blocked to traffic and filled up with people checking out the booths—of independent bookstores, publishing companies, and authors. Stages featured authors and music. If you love books, it was the place to be that weekend. In the middle of the festivities, there was an art installation packed with 50,000 books free to be taken by festival goers. Most were gone by the first day.
A steady stream of people came by the booth, some drawn to the signs that said “Save Revolution Books,” and the posters of the Stolen Lives. Many were interested in the new compendium about the Constitution. People from the store went to some of the panels and talked to hundreds of the festival goers about the big questions about capitalism—is revolution possible, what kind of revolution and how would you bring it about, what about the history of socialism and communism.
At our booth, we had several authors who signed copies of their books: Scott Saul, author of Becoming Richard Pryor; Elmaz Abinader, author of This House, My Bones; Osha Neumann, author of Up Against the Wall, MotherfXXker; Elias Castillo, author of Cross of Thorns: The Enslavement of the Indians by the Spanish Missions; Larry Everest, author of Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda; and Peter Coyote, author of The Rainman’s Third Cure. Several also made video statements calling on people to support the bookstore.
Many of the panel presentations took up important issues: The Ocean Planet, Futurism, Fatalism and Climate Change, World in Flux, How Poems Change the World, The Roots of Violence, and the surveillance state. This was a thinking crowd and the sentiments were clearly against the system’s crimes and sympathetic to the people, and many of the authors and presenters were open to reading at or helping support Revolution Books. But the discussions, while often highly critical of the status quo and with important insights, were hemmed within the basic parameters of that status quo, and this spoke to the urgent need and basis to make BA’s leadership and work a point of reference society-wide. Revolution Books, through participating in some of the question/answer periods and through the bookstore’s booth, stood out in getting into the question of the real problem is capitalism and revolution is the solution to ending all of the horrors that face humanity.
This book festival was a great opportunity to talk to lots of people and involve them in supporting the store and the overall movement for revolution. We learned a lot and had a positive impact on the whole event.
Same-Sex Marriage, Texas, and Thoughts from a Reader on the Coming Civil War and Repolarization
March 9, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
Bob Avakian’s short statement “What Is a Revolutionary Situation?” is packed with deep scientific insight. It merits returning to repeatedly. Not merely to memorize a list of components making up such a situation—but everyone working towards revolution, everyone who wants a better, radically different world and understands on some level that such a world is possible, needs to grapple, in an ongoing and ever-deepening way, with the kinds of developments we need to not simply be “looking for,” or waiting for, but actively working upon and prepared to pounce upon and shape in order to bring forth the full possibilities for revolution.
Revolution recently wrote of two developments last fall, the powerful actions all over the country against murder by police and the Dialogue in New York between Bob Avakian (BA) and Cornel West, REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion, and said that “These two things, together with other developments and acute contradictions in the world, could be part of opening up a real possibility to make revolution—if we rise to the challenge. Such revolutionary situations don’t arise very often—and nothing would be worse than squandering such a possibility, or even missing its possible emergence.”
It was with all that in mind that some recent developments have provoked me to think about the opening section especially of BA’s statement, beginning with this: “What is a Revolutionary Situation? A deep crisis and sharpening conflicts in society and in the government and ruling circles, where they cannot find a way to resolve these conflicts...” (the entire statement by BA should definitely be studied).
In particular, observing the ongoing, intense conflict over same-sex marriage in Alabama, and the recent inauguration of an overtly Christian fascist state government in Texas (and the venomous upsurge of threatening outbursts this has already inspired among its fascist social base) has compelled me to look atways in which geographic divisions in the country can be understood as a partial expression of the political polarization in the U.S. as a whole. This includes understanding the depth and volatility of the ongoing conflict within the ruling class over contradictions—including conflicts over morality—this capitalist-imperialist system cannot resolve, and the contention within the ranks of the system’s rulers these deep differences give rise to.
And most importantly—what all this has to do with preparing for, hastening, and making and winning an actual revolution.
The Attack Dogs Get a Longer Leash
In Alabama, a section of the federal court system and the Alabama state courts have been engaged in an intense back-and-forth legal battle over the recognition of same-sex marriage. This battle, now contained within the courts, very directly impacts the lives of many people in Alabama, and has important implications for people throughout the country: whether people who desire same-sex marriage are full human beings with the same rights as others, or a separate category who can be discriminated against in the legal code.
A federal judge ruled in January that Alabama probate judges, who issue marriage licenses in that state, must issue them to same-sex couples. But this was contested by Roy Moore, Alabama’s Christian fascist Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The result was that most probate judges refused to issue licenses to same-sex couples, while a few, especially in the larger cities of Mobile and Birmingham, did. But just this week, the entire Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the Alabama ban on same-sex marriage is legal, and that the federal court order should be ignored pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, licenses for same-sex marriage are not being issued anywhere in the state.
In Texas, since the November elections, the state government is completely controlled by fascists—Christian fascists, Tea Party fascists, or some combination of the two. Something similar is taking place in most, if not all, of the so-called “deep red” (i.e., completely dominated by Republicans) states, which are mainly in the South, Midwest, and Rocky Mountain West. I think there’s an important distinction between saying the state government is completely controlled by fascists and saying fascism has been imposed in those states. But, “you can see there from here.”
What’s happening in Texas is actually a leap beyond what previously existed there. And considering what previously existed—governments led by the likes of George W. Bush, Rick Perry, Tom DeLay, and others, governments which consistently executed and imprisoned record numbers of people, sent armed troops to patrol the border against children, forced anti-scientific ignorance into public school teaching, moved systematically to abolish all access to abortion in the state, took measures to ensure that they and their ilk would remain in power unchallenged, etc.—well, that means things have gotten very ugly indeed.
But, I think it’s an objective, scientific assessment, not exaggeration, to say that fascists are in control of the state government in Texas, and outside of a few big cities and some areas of the Rio Grande Valley, virtually all other levels of government as well. These people came to their offices on a program of outlawing abortion, mass criminalization of Black and Latino people, further militarization of the border, denial of science, opposition to same-sex marriage, exalting Christianity above other religions, and a “free market capitalism” rid of federal government oversight.
There are divisions and disagreements among these people, but as a group or movement they didn’t come this far just to water down what they’re about, or to concede to the federal government what they perceive as “rightfully their authority,” especially one in which Democrats hold significant power. They also are not just some backwoods ignoramuses who’ve been out in the Texas sun too long, but in fact represent, and some are part of, a powerful section of the ruling class. A point in the important revcom.us article “The Shutdown, the Showdown, and the Urgent Need to Repolarize ... for Revolution” is very relevant here, and it is important to really “get” its implications: “...understand this: For the most part, these fascists really believe what they say, and they are more than willing to fight for it, if it comes to that.”
Three events that occurred in the first few weeks of the new Republican administration of Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick give some sense of the direction these people want to take things in society. Both Abbott and Patrick repeated the phrase “come and take it” as part of their inaugural speeches. They did this in the context of mocking and challenging Obama in particular and the federal government in general. By “it” they meant not just various measures taken in Texas in defiance of the federal government, or to undermine federal mandates or direction, but, even more, how they see the state’s “sovereignty” (self-rule).
“Come and Take It” is the slogan of the “Open Carry” movement. Open Carry is a movement coalescing in Texas around the demand that everyone in the state should be able to openly carry any weapons anytime, anywhere. Members of Open Carry have staged ugly demonstrations of heavily armed white men in several Texas cities, and are among the racist vigilantes patrolling remote areas along the Texas/Mexico border.
This group has, I think, the real potential to become something similar to the “Brown Shirts” of the Nazi Party in Germany—thugs used in that situation to attack communists, unionists, and Jews, burn down synagogues, and other violent acts that helped propel Hitler and the Nazis to national power.
“Come and Take It,” a taunt aimed at government authorities, is on all the Open Carry flags and banners, along with an image of a firearm. On the day Abbott and Patrick were inaugurated in Austin, armed Open Carry fanatics swarmed all around the Capitol grounds and in the Capitol building itself. In an incident widely publicized in Texas, they stormed into the office of a state legislator from a border town they consider to be not sufficiently anti-immigrant, and repeatedly threatened him. In the incident’s aftermath, they not only refused to back off these threats and apologize for their Brown Shirt-type actions, but their threats became uglier and more intense. In fact, the legislator and his family still need to have body guards.
Even more noteworthy is that both Abbott and Patrick declined to dissociate themselves from these actions and threats, despite being asked their thoughts on it several times, including why their inauguration sparked this kind of activity. Using the phrase “come and take it” in their inaugural speeches was a deliberate, conscious way for the new governor and lieutenant governor of Texas to associate themselves with the thuggish goals and methods of Open Carry.
About a week later, a group of Muslims from across the state came to Austin for their annual “Muslim Capitol Day.” This event has been going on for about 10 or 12 years, and has been a day for people to meet their state representatives, tour the state government buildings, etc. This year the people who participated were ridiculed and assaulted by an organized mob of Tea Party anti-Muslim fanatics. Among those bullied and ridiculed by these fascists was a group of schoolgirls wearing head scarves and singing patriotic songs.
Hateful, threatening comments made by a leading Republican legislator allied closely with Dan Patrick got a lot of publicity (she said the Muslims needed to publicly renounce Islam and accept the Constitution before they got into her office). Once again both Abbott and Patrick pointedly refused to comment, or distance themselves in any way from the mob or the ignorant invective of their colleague.
Finally, towards the end of January and in the context of controversy around the movie American Sniper, and in particular some comments on the film made by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, Greg Abbott ostentatiously declared February 2 to be “Chris Kyle Day” in Texas. Abbott called Kyle, a cold-blooded killer and racist hater of all Muslims, an outstanding son of Texas and an American hero, which this sociopathic mass murderer undoubtedly was.
So, that’s a lot of damage in less than a month. But I think there is something very important for revolutionaries to understand about what is developing, what deeper underlying contradictions reactionary displays like these reveal, and what they mean for the work of revolutionaries.
BA has made an important pathbreaking analysis of this whole Christian fascist movement. (See The Coming Civil War and Repolarization for Revolution in the Present Era.) Drawing from that analysis, it has been said that the Republicans treat their social base as trained attack dogs kept on leashes that can be slackened or tightened as the situation demands, while the Democrats send what they see as their social base to obedience school. A central point these examples illustrate is that some prominent political leaders are willing, even eager, to provide the “attack dogs” a lot more leash these days.
And it is crucially important for revolutionaries to understand what this tells us about the schisms and chasms that divide and polarize this society, the seriousness of the divisions within the ruling class over how to deal with these chasms (as well as with all the international challenges U.S. imperialism faces), and what it all means for revolutionary potential to burst forward, perhaps from unexpected places and in unexpected ways, perhaps seemingly abruptly.
The Outlines of a “Hot Mix” with Revolutionary Potential
Abortion Rights Freedom Riders traveled across the state of Texas for five weeks in August 2014 confronting the assaults on women's rights.
It is worth thinking through various possible scenarios of the way a “hot mix” of contradictions began to come together in Texas last summer. The Abortion Rights Freedom Ride spent five weeks traveling across the state to oppose laws intended to shut down all but a handful of clinics in the state, and millions of people were positively impacted by its courageous actions and slogans; at basically the same time, along the border with Mexico, the federal and state governments unleashed vicious attacks upon immigrant women and children, mainly from Central America, and protests against the heartless assaults began shaping up all along the border region; in the middle of the Freedom Ride, the fight for Justice for Michael Brown burst forward in Ferguson and soon people in cities across the entire country, including in Texas, were taking over freeways, holding sit-ins, and other forms of protest to bring out that “Black Lives Matter.”
This illustrates some important points. One is that revolution is never a simple, linear affair; in fact, even massive outbursts of protest aren’t. But none of this is “under the control” of the rulers, and when people in their millions are compelled to confront the questions (for example) of whether or not women will be recognized as full human beings, and whether it is right for the government to utilize overwhelming force against starving children, what the revolutionaries do makes a huge difference in affecting what people think and do, and what comes out of such a situation.
Another point is that it is important to understand the reality we are acting upon in all its complexity and texture; understand it as fully and scientifically as possible, from the perspective of making revolution. Even in places where it seems as if the most overtly reactionary elements of the ruling class have a stranglehold on political life, there is tremendous unevenness, and enormous potential for revolutionary advance.
Several aspects of BA’s new synthesis are very relevant in grappling with the significance and implications of these types of developments mentioned and touched on above: the “pyramid point,” about the roles of the Democrats and Republicans and the social bases they strive to represent; BA’s analysis of identifying Christian fascism as being a possible “stage manager” for the emergence of a crisis of legitimacy, and even a revolutionary crisis in this society; BA’s emphasis that we can and must do better than democracy in making revolution.
Key elements of the RCP’s overall political analysis are also very relevant in understanding what’s underway: regional crisis in the Southwest as a potential triggering factor for a larger legitimacy crisis; conflict around how to develop policy towards the U.S./Mexico border and towards Mexico itself as a concentration of the intense contention within the U.S. ruling class; the question of women’s emancipation or deepened oppression as something that will be radically resolved, one way or another.
Same-Sex Marriage, the Supreme Court, and the Eruption of Societal Conflict
All this bears on a U.S. Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage that is likely to come this year. This decision has the potential to be a very big deal, in several ways. Arguments are expected to be heard, to my understanding, in April, with a decision expected in late June. The Court’s decision could go several ways, and I’m not trying to predict the exact outcome.
If the Court does rule favorably for advocates of same-sex marriage, or even if the ruling is mixed but largely favorable, I don’t think these Christian fascists in Texas, Alabama, or elsewhere are going to accept it. I don’t think their response will be, “Well, we disagree, but now that this is the law of the land under our Constitution, we’ll just have to live with it.”
I’m not predicting secession (or any other particular response), but I think there’s an analogy to South Carolina (soon followed by other states) leaving the Union when Lincoln was elected. It’s very possible that these people just won’t recognize such a decision as being legitimate, and they’ll look for ways to oppose it. Christian fascists and Tea Partiers will likely use a form of the old racist, reactionary arguments used to justify slavery, secession, and Jim Crow—“states’ rights” and “nullification”—as the legal basis of their opposition, buttressed by fundamentalist Christian theology as their philosophical foundation and ultimate justification.
What would it mean if state governments in sections of the country won’t go along with a Supreme Court decision? Divisions in the ruling class are deep and serious today, as BA has repeatedly analyzed, and I think a decision along the lines of the one mentioned above could be something that sets things off in society in unpredictable ways; it could be, I think, in the overall context today, the sort of thing that really inhibits the ruling class as a whole from “ruling in the old way” (one of the criteria for the emergence of a revolutionary situation, as expressed by the great communist leader, V.I. Lenin).
I’m not really up on all the legal issues involved in the same-sex marriage cases and decisions, and the full and apparently rather complex lineup of social forces on different sides of this question. But I do think this is a matter we should be able to address deeply when this case goes to the Supreme Court. (Another outcome worth thinking about is a decision that does leave it up to the states—what would be the implications, not just for the question of same-sex marriage, but even more for revolutionary possibilities—if the Supreme Court’s decision does leave things up to the states, if same-sex marriage remains legal in states like Massachusetts and California, while outlawed in Texas and Louisiana; what would such growing geographic social and political fragmentation, expressed around acceptance or denial of such a basic right, as well as around many other questions, mean for the growing polarization in society, and for carrying out the RCP’s strategy for revolution?)
An Exponentially Growing Audience for “Our Kind of Music”?
A brief point on the Democratic response to what’s underway in Texas. They are gripped by paralysis, powerlessness, irrelevance, and delusion. They say the Republican dominance in the state is due to the gerrymandering institutionalized by Tom DeLay, the fact that for various reasons something like seven million adults aren’t registered voters, and that sooner or later demographics will kick in (white people are a minority in Texas) and the Republicans will be voted out.
People who go along with this line of reasoning need to look at some basic facts. Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, who has always been a straight-up Christian fascist and makes no bones about it, claims he now has a “mandate.” In last year’s Republican primary, where “everybody knows” the general vote was decided, less than three percent of registered voters selected Patrick, who then won by a landslide in the general election, through which Patrick laid low and never spoke to what he’s all about. Needless to say, he’s not been deterred from ramming through his hateful agenda since he came to office.
My point in raising this is that the potential audience for “our kind of music” could grow significantly if things come to something of a head around the same-sex marriage case, and the Democrats are cautioning people to “wait until the next election cycle,” or until more “minority” (actually a majority in this state) people vote. In short, I think we should think big about this upcoming ruling, and be prepared to really speak to, and lead, millions.
This is essential to being poised to pounce on and maximize, as the RCP’s “On the Strategy for Revolution” states, “major events or big changes (that) can happen in society and the world and can come together in such a way that the system is shaken to its foundations ... deep cracks appear and magnify within the ruling structures and institutions ... the raw relations of oppression are more sharply exposed ... conflicts among the powers-that-be deepen, and cannot be easily resolved, and it becomes much more difficult for them to hold things together under their control and keep people down. In this kind of situation, the ‘legitimacy’ of the current system, and the right and ability of the ruling powers to keep on ruling, can be called seriously and directly into question, with millions hungering for a radical change that only a revolution can bring about.”
Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail!
The Whole Damn System Is Guilty As Hell!
Outrage and New Twists in the Fight for Justice for Ezell Ford
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Tuesday afternoon, June 9, following a raucous three-hour public session at LAPD Headquarters, the Los Angeles Police Commission ruled that LAPD cop Sharlton Wampler’s use of deadly force on Ezell Ford—a 25-year-old mentally disabled Black man from South Central LA—violated LAPD policy and was not justified. The Commission also disapproved of LAPD cop Antonio Villegas’ decision to draw his weapon during the initial moments when Wampler and Villegas stopped, attacked, and then shot down Ezell Ford. But the Police Commission concluded Villegas was right and correct to shoot at Ford, because Villegas was supposedly trying to protect his partner, Sharlton Wampler. (For more on the murder of Ezell Ford, including the LAPD having no right whatsoever to stop, attack and shoot Ezell Ford, see “Justice for Ezell Ford! 25-year-old Black man murdered by the LAPD.”)
This decision by the LA Police Commission does not mean the cops who murdered Ezell Ford will be indicted and put on trial. This Commission has no legal right or responsibility to charge any cop of a crime. That responsibility falls to the District Attorney’s (DA) office in Los Angeles County.
This decision by the LA Police Commission is not justice, but it does reveal the concern this system has of losing legitimacy of its “right” to use state-sanctioned violence and murder against oppressed people, especially Black and Latino people, at a time of high stakes for the powers-that-be and for the people.
The LAPD and Inspector General had deemed the murder of Ezell Ford justifiable homicide just days before the LA Police Commission ruling. Since the year 2000, at least 243 people have been killed by the LAPD, and in only two cases in this period, according to Los Angeles Times statistics, has the LA Police Commission disagreed with the LAPD on whether cops justifiably gunned someone down. In other words, the LA Police Commission “rubber stamps” damn near every murder the LAPD carries out, and traffics in covering up mass brutality and murder by the LAPD.
While some are saying “The LA Police Commission sided with the people...,” what instead is taking place is the powers-that-be are scrambling, in a national context of powerful protests and rebellion to stop murder by police. This is a crucial to grasp, because for justice to be won in the case of Ezell Ford—these murdering cops need to be indicted, convicted, and sent to jail. And, for that to happen, only determined mass resistance in the streets has a chance of creating a situation where the powers-that-be are put on the defensive to such an extent that they are forced to indict and convict these pigs and send them to jail.
Achieving justice for Ezell Ford and stopping this slow genocide of Black people, which the LAPD murder of Ezell is one concentration of, can’t be won by lining up behind one section of ruling class representatives vs. another, nor by promoting illusions that these instruments of power—whether the LAPD or the Police Commission—can be pressured to serve the people’s interests.
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This LA Police Commission ruling comes at a time when in the face of a national upsurge and uprising to stop murder by police the U.S. authorities and their police are “doubling down.” Police continue to kill on average more than 100 people a month and the exoneration of numerous killer cops nationwide has occurred one after the other during these past two months. (See “In One Week: Murdering Police Go Free All Over the USA—THIS MUST STOP!”)
The credibility of the “reformed” LAPD as well as the supposed “impartiality” of the Police Commission might have been questioned by far greater numbers of people and sections of society if the commission had rubber-stamped the murder of Ezell Ford. In recent years, the authorities have been able to “get over” in a significant way with this mythology (that the LAPD is “reformed” and the Police Commission is “independent and impartial”)—even at a time when the LAPD leads in the nation in killings by police!1 But powerful resistance to murder by police has come forward in the U.S., and much is at stake for this system and its ability to shore up these illusions at a time when there is a spotlight on the historic and present-day brutality and murder visited on Black people in the U.S.
This decision by the Police Commission does—at least potentially—heighten expectations among broad sections of people that an indictment should come down on these murdering cops. So, while this Police Commission decision momentarily gives the mayor of Los Angeles (and other ruling class representatives) an opportunity to crow about how great this system works, it also raises expectations that there might actually be some justice here. But criminally indicting these LAPD cops is an entirely different matter, especially at a time when the police are being unleashed in an intensified crackdown on the people—“doubling down” (not backing down) as a response to the national protests, and the rebellions, aimed at stopping murder by police.
The Los Angeles District Attorney is Jackie Lacey, who heads up the largest local prosecutorial office in the U.S. However, Lacey hasn’t been in the business of prosecuting many police for the brutality, frame-ups and murders they commit. Lacey has been with the District Attorney’s office for 29 years, a front-line prosecutor half that time, and has been head DA in LA for over two years. During this entire 29-year period, not one LAPD cop has been indicted and convicted of murder for an on-duty killing of any one of the hundreds of people shot down or beaten to death by the LAPD. Again, for an indictment and a conviction of killer cops to happen in the case of Ezell Ford, a ferocious political battle must be stepped up.
The Police Commission’s ruling that the cops shooting of Ezell Ford was “out of policy” is meant to rope people into believing they should now sit back and the “let the system work.” No! Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail!
Protests Against the Exoneration of Killer Cops
Last week’s decision by the LAPD and Inspector General to exonerate the two LAPD cops in the murder of Ezell Ford were responded to by groups holding protest actions over the weekend leading into the LA Police Commission decision. Stop Mass Incarceration Network and the Revolution Club-LA led a protest march immediately after hearing the decision, beginning on the street where Ezell was murdered. The protests received significant media coverage. Tritobia Ford, Ezell Ford’s mother, spoke as did another relative. Then Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles “occupied” Mayor Garcetti’s home street for a creative 48-hour protest. At one point. Garcetti tried to slip out of his house unnoticed, but was caught doing so by the protestors, who blocked the path of the SUV he was driving. This Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles action was reported by media in LA and nationwide. A main demand of Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles is for Mayor Garcetti to fire LAPD Chief Beck.
The Police Commission hearing itself was a wild affair, punctuated by dozens of outraged public speakers, dramatic exposure, and sometimes theatre. One man likened Police Commission President Steve Soboroff to Hitler, and tossed scores of public speaker sign-up cards into the air, saying none of the people the LAPD has killed can be here to speak. The LAPD and their masters could not accept the disruption of “the process” they want everyone to obediently follow. So the LAPD brutalized and arrested the man right outside the doors of the Police Commission hearing room while the hearing was going on! Another man was dressed in a KKK outfit—he went to the microphone when his name was called, took off the KKK hood, and voiced outrage at the indignities, injustice, and disrespect of Black people that never ends and only gets worse. Then, after more angry speakers, the Police Commission got up and left the podium in the middle of the proceedings, and dozens of protestors took over the front of the room, chanting “Black Lives, They Matter Here!” The Stolen Lives poster from revcom.us, exposing the national epidemic of murder by police, was in the mix.
That afternoon, after the public session, the Police Commission deliberated in private for several hours and came back with their ruling. News of the ruling has gone out far and wide, here and around the world. How to understand the significance and meaning of the LA Police Commission’s ruling, and what needs to be done now, are urgent questions!
1 According to The Counted, a project of the Guardian newspaper, which counts the number of people killed by police and other law enforcement agencies in the U.S., of the 18,000 police agencies in the U.S., killings by the LAPD are the highest of any police agency so far in 2015. These include the March 1 execution of Brother Africa on Skid Row (captured on video and seen by millions) and the May 5 gunning down of Brendon Glenn in Venice, CA (a video exists, but it being hidden by the LAPD). [back]
Baltimore Authorities and Media Lie about Drugs Stolen from Pharmacies
June 9, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader:
Federal, state, and local authorities have unleashed a vicious counter-insurgency campaign to vilify the beautiful and righteous Baltimore rebellion, set middle class people against those at the bottom of society who were on the front lines of the rebellion, slap heavy federal charges with potentially long prison sentences on those involved in the uprising, and send a message broadly, and especially to those on the bottom, that if you dare to stand up against the brutal occupying police, they will use all means at their disposal to try to crush you. They also have in mind, and are out to prevent, the possibility of a “long, hot summer” in Baltimore as well as elsewhere.
During May, in the month after the Baltimore uprising, there was a big spike in the number of murders in the city, with 43 killed in total. (Baltimore Sun, May 31, 2015) It was the highest rate of murders in Baltimore since 1972. (CNN, June 4, 2015) The police have put forward very little evidence about who they believe were involved in these murders, despite the fact that they have 300 cameras around the city watching people all the time.
Now the authorities claim to have figured out that the spike in murders is due to the city being “swamped” in prescription drugs stolen from pharmacies during the rebellion in April. In other words, the youth who rose up against the murdering police are responsible and need to be caught and punished! Local authorities have declared an emergency. Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said, “Collectively, we’ll return this city back to normalcy,” and, “This is an all hands on deck—all hands, every single resource, every single body, every single personnel on the streets of Baltimore.” (Baltimore Brew, June 4, 2015)
Outright Lies and Distortions
Using the excuse that controlled substances, that is, prescription drugs, were stolen, nearly every federal agency with law enforcement powers has been brought in to Baltimore to go after those involved in the rebellion, and especially the youth. For example, the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) has been brought in to investigate fires at the pharmacies, and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) to investigate who stole the drugs. The hysteria was ramped up even more on June 3, when authorities declared a potential danger of identity theft for people who had their personal information on stolen prescriptions.
But the authorities’ claims are outright lies or distortions of partial truths. Police Commissioner Batts told the media there were more than 175,000 units, or doses, of prescription drugs taken from 27 pharmacies and two methadone clinics. He said, “There’s enough narcotics on the streets of Baltimore to keep it intoxicated for a year,” and, “That amount of drugs has thrown off the balance on the streets of Baltimore.” (Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2015) Gary Tuggs, the DEA agent in charge in Baltimore, put this “theory” forward: “I think that part of it’s connected to turf battles between gangs and independent drug dealers. You also have a new source, a new inventory of drugs on the street that people have to sell.... They’re selling to a limited number of people, so they’re vying for that customer base.” (CBS Baltimore, June 3, 2015)
Let’s take apart their story.
First, it should be noted that almost all mainstream media outlets in Baltimore have repeated everything the cops and other authorities have said as the absolute truth, without questioning any of it. And these stories are being repeated all over the media nationwide to portray protesters as drug dealers and murderers. (Questions were raised by Baltimore’s The City Paper and the Baltimore Spectator, and we thank them for helping us to understand the situation.)
The authorities say 175,000 doses were stolen, enough to keep the city high for a year. They use the word “narcotics” to describe the prescription drugs, conjuring a picture of a city soaked in things like heroin and cocaine, even though the prescription drugs can be medication your dentist gives you when you have a root canal, or your doctor provides when you break a bone or have chronic pain.
And notice that they say doses or units, not 175,000 different prescriptions. (DEA agent Tuggs says the number could go higher, to as much as 200,000 doses.) One doesn’t need to understand exactly how all these drugs work or what they do at different dose levels to recognize that 200,000 doses, even of the strongest variety, is not enough to keep the entire adult population of the city of Baltimore high for a year. Do the math. Two hundred thousand doses over 365 days amounts to only 548 doses per day. This would be enough drugs to keep a little more than 500 people “high” for part of a day. Even if we’re talking about the strongest prescription drugs—and in many cases we’re not—it’s still only 548 doses a day.
The mainstream media has never questioned this ridiculous claim that enough drugs were stolen to keep the entire city high for a year—an obvious lie that should and does cast doubt on the entire story by the DEA and Baltimore Police Department.
Where Is the Evidence?
What this effort to induce hysteria and paint the protesters as monsters takes advantage of are the misconceptions and biases many people have about prescription pain medication. In the last few years, for example, the authorities have been criminalizing people who are prescribed these drugs for legitimate reasons by their doctors.
Second, we have no way of knowing whether the number is valid at all. The authorities cite no basis for it. How did they come up with 175,000 or 200,000? No evidence is given.
Third, how do we really know that all 27 pharmacies were actually broken into and that prescription drugs were actually stolen from all of them? That sounds like a large number for a moderately sized city like Baltimore, and for the limited number of neighborhoods in which the break-ins reportedly occurred. And there’s also the fact that these drugs are supposed to be locked in safes! According to various press accounts, Rite Aid closed five stores after the rebellion and CVS said eight of its stores were targeted. (Mass Market Retailers, April 29, 2015) An article that came out a few days after the uprising said that five other pharmacies were broken into, for a total of 18. (Baltimore Sun, May 8, 2015)
Where are the other nine? The number 27 was not used until a few days ago, in the Baltimore Sun, and until then, there had been no mention of two methadone clinics having been targeted.
Here are some things we do know:
There has been a major clampdown by federal and state authorities resulting in changes in the distribution of these types of prescriptions. Pharmacies are only allowed to stock certain amounts, they must be locked inside a safe or other device, and only certain employees are allowed to access them. A person needs a written prescription for the drug in question (no phone calls from doctors permitted), and there is a limit on how much can be prescribed each month. No refills are allowed. Some people have had difficulty filling prescriptions because of these restrictions, even terminal cancer patients. And the more powerful the drug, the stricter the restriction.
The pharmacies most affected by the rebellion in Baltimore were national chains like Rite Aid and CVS. Their prescriptions are computerized, and pharmacies that dispense drugs in Maryland must report each prescription within three days online, electronically. There are no customers’ names and other personal information lying around, except for those prescriptions that have already been filled and are waiting to be picked up, so the “identity theft problem” is being way overblown. Yes, there were pharmacies targeted and some prescriptions were no doubt stolen, but the authorities are lying big time about the extent of this. (For example, we could find only one news report of a safe stolen from a pharmacy.) And there is, of course, no mention that some of the drugs taken were things like medication for the epidemic of diabetes that especially poor people are forced to endure under this system.
The Drug Enforcement Agency is now releasing photos of 70 people they claim were involved in the prescription drug thefts. But the majority of these photos show people standing in front of pharmacies, not breaking into them. And in an effort to bolster snitching, they are offering a $2,000 reward for information.
It’s unclear who or what combination of forces and factors may be responsible for the increase in murders in Baltimore during May. But it is clear that the police and other law enforcement authorities are just plain lying about any connection between those murders and the theft of some prescription drugs during the rebellion. And, yes, the question needs to be raised: What role are the police and other authorities themselves playing in this spike of deaths? They and the system they enforce stand to gain quite a bit if their lies are swallowed by people, if they can create divisions among the people, and if they can succeed in suppressing protest and rebellion.
So there’s a lot at stake in exposing and responding strongly to their efforts to turn upside down right with wrong. We can’t fall for the hype and get played by a system trying to justify brutal police murder and brutality and stem the growing tide of opposition against it.
Angry Crowd Protests When Cleveland Police Shoot at Fleeing Black Man
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers in Cleveland
On Sunday morning, June 14, a 22-year-old Black man was injured when police fired at least four shots at him in a poor, diverse area of Cleveland’s Westside near where police murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice seven months ago.
The man has not yet been identified, but police say he was running from them when they opened fire in a densely populated area near a city park where young kids play and swim. Police admit firing four shots, but people in the neighborhood say they heard many more. Police say he cut himself and none of their shots hit him but many who gathered on the scene immediately said they do not believe what the police say about much of anything especially when it comes to Black people. The man was taken to the hospital when police captured him.
Cleveland, June 14. (Photo: Special to revcom.us)
Quickly, an angry crowd of about 90 people, mostly Black people from the neighborhood, poured out into the street. People were feeling the outrage and pain of the killing of Tamir Rice, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, Brandon Jones, Tanisha Anderson and other victims of police murder in Cleveland, as well as the recent not guilty verdict on cop Brelo in the savage murder of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.
A consent decree for Cleveland police was signed by a judge on Friday that the powers-that-be claimed was supposed to change things. But police continue to blast away at people. People yelled out, “They kill us, they kill us! Let us live, Let us live!” For hours people expressed outrage, demanding of the police: “Get out of our community.” And “Leave us alone!”
Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams showed up to try to chill people out. He had the gall to claim people were angry for no reason: “We're in an environment where people try to find a reason to be upset." And he tried to act like we are all friends who need to work together. People in the crowd responded, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, the police.” The more he talked, the angrier people got, including yelling “137 shots is why we call you pigs” (referring to the 137 shots cops fired at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams) and calling him and other Black cops “house niggers.”
At one point the police tried to push the people away by extending the yellow crime-scene tape around the scene. That only made people angrier, and the tape was broken. People grabbed stickers calling for indictment of police for the murder of Tamir Rice, and got them out to others, as well as Carl Dix’s statement on the acquittal of cop Brelo: "137 Shots—The Whole Damned System Is Guilty! Cleveland Judge Lets Cops Involved in the Killing of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams Walk!" One man who got the Carl Dix statement read the whole message to the crowd. For several hours, anger and outrage poured out, with many people getting on the bullhorn and speaking about the constant abuse by police and about relatives who were killed.
Police—who storm through the communities like an occupying army of murderers—appointed themselves as advisors to the crowd on what kind of leadership people need to STOP police murder, and told people that revcom.us is using them. But people insisted on holding up the big Stolen Lives posters and engaging with us revolutionary communists about why Black people are treated this way, for so long.
We told people to go to revcom.us to check out the film of the dialogue between Bob Avakian and Cornel West: REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion, and articles about the cause of and solution to the horrors of the system, including the oppression of Black people and how to stop it once and for all through revolution. When it started to rain, we huddled in a bus shelter, and people were asking what actions were going on for them to fight police murder here, that they want to act. We told them to come out with us on Tuesday to protest outside the NBA finals game in Cleveland.
The outpouring that went on for hours today comes from months and years of brutal and often deadly confrontations Black people have had with the police here and around the country. From talking to people, there was a sense that the white supremacy that they face is so hard and horrible, almost unbearable, but that they want to fight it and are open to a revolutionary solution.
Cleveland: Taking the Fight Against Murder by Police to the Cavs-Warriors Game
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
Fifteen young Black and white activists and revolutionary communists went out to the NBA finals game between Cavaliers and Warriors to reach out to the thousands of fans about the protests against the police killings in Cleveland. Photo: Special to revcom.us
Thursday, June 11—15 young Black and white activists and revolutionary communists went out to the NBA finals game between Cavaliers and Warriors to reach out to the thousands of fans about the protests against the police killings in Cleveland. People, mostly Black people, were receptive to our message: “Stop the Police Murder Now” and “Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail/The Whole Damn System Is Guilty!” Lots of posters of people killed by police were held high for all to see, and many people put on stickers from revcom.us calling for the indictment of the cops who murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice. A young Black woman got on the bullhorn and said, “There is injustice here every single day. It’s time to open your eyes... They are killing your children, for no reason. He [Tamir] had a toy gun and got a death sentence.” Even though the police tried to disrupt us from reaching the people, we continued, including speaking to why white people need to see the killings by police as not an issue for Black and Brown people only, but as an injustice that should be taken up by all people. We briefly occupied the street in front of the arena. In summing up the protest, people said we impacted thousands of people, including waking up some people who were uncomfortable with our message. We will be back on Tuesday for the next finals game.
Protesters briefly occupied the street in front of the arena. Photo: Special to revcom.us
Refusing to Tolerate Business-as-Usual Police Brutality in McKinney, Texas
June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
We received the following report from Revolution newspaper distributors who joined a protest in McKinney, Texas, against the police assault on Black teenagers trying to enjoy a pool party on Friday, June 5.
McKinney, Texas, June 12. (Photo: Special to revcom.us)
On Friday, June 12, as we drove into McKinney, we ran into barricades blocking off neighborhoods, the police station, and the library. Nearly 200 people gathered to rally and march to demand an end to police brutality. In the midst of the rally, confrontations broke out between protesters and several dozen pro-police counter-protesters who were trying to drown out the rally. Several speakers at the rally spoke about how they would not stand by any longer and watch their children be mistreated. And they called for authorities to arrest Eric Casebolt, the cop who threw a young Black woman to the ground and kneeled on her back, on civil rights violations.
McKinney, Texas, June 12. (All photos: Special to revcom.us)
A person with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN) brought bags of signs of the Stolen Lives posters with the faces of dozens of people, mostly Black and Brown, murdered by the police, and offered them to the protesters to carry. After the SMIN activist and a revolutionary communist spoke, many people came up to find out how they can get involved in Rise Up October to STOP Police Terror and get copies of Revolution newspaper.
A Black woman who had gotten a copy of Revolution came up to us and wanted revcom.us to know about the situation in McKinney. She talked about how her husband and nephew were brutalized by police and nothing ever happened to the police. She said, “This is not just an isolated incident. There are more officers who’ve done more stuff. Collin County has a problem.”
The family of Ruben Garcia came out to support the protest. Ruben Garcia was murdered by police in Euless, Texas, on February 20, with his hands up, and the police were not charged. A woman came up to us and, pointing at the picture of Ruben Garcia on the Stolen Lives poster, said, “That’s my nephew.” His brother-in-law said, “We want this situation to stop. We don’t want no more families to be broken. We don’t want families hurt with their [the police] actions. They need to stop. They need to get better training. They need to get better because we are not animals. We are human beings. We’re not just a piece of meat. We deserve to be treated with respect.”
After the rally, people marched through the streets into the night, chanting and encouraging onlookers to join the march. Two of the young women involved in the swimming pool incident joined the protest for a while. Outside the Collin County courthouse, marchers stopped to deliver a message that the protests won’t stop until there is justice. The protest concluded by taking over the feeder road of North Central Expressway while a small group broke off and attempted to stop traffic on Highway 75. One person said, “Overall the march was successful in letting authorities know that the people of McKinney are fed up with business as usual and refuse to take it. No More.”
After the protest, we talked with several protesters who wanted to tell their own personal horror stories about the McKinney Police Department. Apparently this racist behavior by the McKinney cops has been going on for quite some time. We also spoke with a white man in his 20s who is a videographer. He expressed to us that what finally moved his consciousness level was that while attending law school, he began to understand the way the laws are written—that the police are not breaking the law, but the law itself is unjust and actually protects the cops. So he has decided to use his skills to bring out the truth. A man from McKinney said that he has had enough of all the police brutality and murder going on in this country. He said that he and other families have to worry all the time about what the police may do to their kids. He said that more needs to be done and that he wants to help organize a bus from the Dallas area to go to New York City for Rise Up October on October 24. Several young activists said that they want real solutions and feel more inclined to revolution. Some were interested in getting the DVD of the film REVOLUTION AND RELIGION: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between CORNEL WEST & BOB AVAKIAN, and getting connected with the movement for revolution.
Above: Protest in support of hunger strikers. Video: Puente Human Rights Movement
Saturday morning, June 13, more than 200 immigrants being held at Eloy Detention Center, 50 miles outside Phoenix, Arizona, sat down in the recreation yard and declared a hunger strike. They demanded investigations into recent deaths of detainees at the Eloy facility; an end to brutal and inhumane conditions; and proper medical treatment. The wife of one of the immigrants on strike said her husband “has to fear for his life because of the way guards are treating people detained in Eloy.”
Thirty-one year old José de Jesús Deniz-Sahagun was found dead in his cell on May 20. According to ICE, there were no signs of injury. But in a letter made public by Puente Movement, an immigrant advocacy group in Phoenix, another detained man wrote: “I witnessed how they beat a man who had his hands up and begged for his right to see his lawyer. ... [I]n response the immigrant was met with aggression and excessive use of force leaving him dead at the hands of the CCA guards.”1 Another detainee wrote that the man was “brutally beaten” and placed in solitary confinement for days before his death. Immigrant detainees with mental disorders also wrote that they were not being given the proper medicine.
A hundred protesters joined them outside the detention center all day in 100-degree heat, holding signs showing their solidarity with the strikers. Deniz-Sahagun was the fourth detainee to die in ICE custody in the U.S. this year. In 2013, two detainees committed suicide while being held at Eloy Detention Center.
Karnes Detention Center, Texas
At the beginning of April, 78 immigrant women with children being held at Karnes Detention Center in Texas began a hunger strike. They demanded to be released along with their children while they pursued their asylum claims. There are hundreds of Central American women being held with their children at Karnes, part of the 68,000 families who crossed the border without documents beginning last June. Along with an estimated 68,000 unaccompanied children, they were fleeing the chaos and violence that U.S. imperialism has created in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
In response, the authorities placed at least three of the women and their children in isolation rooms, according to a lawsuit filed three weeks later. They were held in “an isolation room with a bed, a toilet, a sink from which you have to cup your hands to drink water, and lights off until meal time,” according to the director of RAICES, a legal group representing many of the women in Karnes. A mother with an 11-year-old son said she was humiliated because she had to use the toilet in front of him. Other women were told by guards that if they took part in the hunger strike their children would be taken away from them. (For more on this hunger strike, see “80 Women at Texas Immigration Detention Center Start Hunger Strike.”)
The immigrants are being held without bond, or on bonds up to $10,000. The Obama administration has chosen to imprison women and children from Central America indefinitely in order to “send a message” to the people in these countries, suffering from “made-in-the-USA” misery, not to try to escape. Protesters had converged on Karnes City last October after it was learned that women at the detention center had been sexually abused by the staff.
Demonstrations Spreading Nationwide
In early March of this year, in response to a lawsuit by the ACLU and the University of Texas Immigration Clinic, a federal judge ruled that the Obama administration could no longer detain women and children as a tactic to deter migration from Central America. In spite of the ruling, families, including small children, continue to be held in these family detention camps. This includes many who have passed their “credible fear” interviews, making it likely a judge will find they can remain in the U.S.
Demonstrations are now spreading nationwide demanding that the Obama administration release the women and children being held in the detention centers. Protests were held in five major cities on March 24. In their press release announcing a rally in Austin, Texas, demanding release of women and children from two private Texas detention centers, Grassroots Leadership wrote: “Family detention centers were almost non-existent in the U.S. until last summer, and now there are two new, massive detention camps for families with the capacity to hold 2,900 individuals. ... [T]he sister of a detained mother who has been locked up in Karnes for almost 9 months with her 10 year old son, said, ‘My sister has been incarcerated for 9 months, what did she do to deserve this? She was escaping a terrible violence and now she is living another nightmare at Karnes with her son.’”2
Bob Avakian, "Why do people come here from all over the world?"
1. Corrections Corporation of America, CCA, is a private company that owns and manages prisons and detention centers around the country. [back]
2. “Nationwide Protests Demand the Obama Administration Release Women and Children held in Detention Camps,” Grassroots Leadership, March 22, 2015 [back]
Why People Are Stepping Up to Sustain RCP Publications and Why You Should Too!
Updated August 10, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Times are changing... there is an ever greater urgency for the work of RCP Publications to impact society and the world. That work includes producing revcom.us, Revolution newspaper, and promoting the work of Bob Avakian (BA)—a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and crucial leadershipfor that.
There is nothing else like this. At this critical moment, YOU can make it possible for us to vastly expand our reach by making a generous donation now, and becoming a regular sustainer. If you find things at this site that you know the world needs to be engaging with, click—right now—to DONATE, SUSTAIN, AND SPREAD THE WORD.
As people send their donations and pledge as sustainers, they are sending notes to challenge others to do the same. Here are some of the comments:
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The comment below was accompanied by a $100 donation:
Thank you for all you do. We are not in a position to become a sustaining member at this time, but at least we can contribute something to this all important effort to remove the chains of slavery.
from Wisconsin readers
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We can’t be behind, we gotta be the vanguard. If we don’t have the resources, in terms of the newspaper and the website, it will deviate the direction of the movement for revolution. Because we gotta win the argument with the masses, so that they see that this is the group, the RCP and BA, that they should follow. When you got a solid purpose—and our, the Party’s theory and understanding of revolution, you have to get it out there, because there are a lot of reformers that sound like revolution but they have their doubts are not really for revolution.
Reader in San Francisco Bay Area
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I hope this donation goes at least in part to support the work of Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor. Mr. Dix is doing outstanding work concerning mass incarceration and Ms Taylor is doing excellent work with her StopPatriarchy organization and writing for the paper. Both deserve as wide a venue as possible to promote their ideas and efforts and I hope Revolution news provides every opportunity for this to happen.
—From a reader who is sustaining for $10/month
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As a high school student, I decided to make a donation because I came to the realization that we need more bookstores like Revolution Books. If it was not for the couple months I volunteered and attended events, I would not have thought change and revolution was possible. And thanks to the organization, I am beginning to make sense of things at my own pace, and bringing others with me throughout the process.
—Black woman from Harlem who just graduated from high school, about to start college, who’s going to donate $5 a month to revcom.us and $5 a month to NYC Revolution Books
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"To strengthen RCP Publications I recently became a sustainer. I am contributing $50 a month. I think RCP Publications is important because it does something nobody else is doing at the present. It is giving humanity a scientific way out of the horrible situation that we are stuck in. When I first started reading Revolution and BA over a decade ago I was afraid of what was being said. The idea of getting rid of this society was something I never thought about in a real non idealistic way. The paper and Bob Avakian brought this to life. When I read the paper the first time years ago I became frightened by its radical vision and I stopped reading the paper after a few issues. However, within a year I had renewed my subscription and have not missed a paper for many years. I read and re-read all the works of BA. The idea of a communist revolution is real to me and is needed for all. That is part of the reason that I am and others should consider sustaining RCP Publications."
—From a high school teacher in the Midwest
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"People need this newspaper because they are kept so ignorant and believe in the system and the Democratic Party, but also they need the leadership of Bob Avakian, because it isn't just needing to rebel, we need a whole different world and that is possible. We don't want a situation like in Egypt, where people rebelled and even drove out a dictator, but what did they get—another dictator!"
–From a supporter on a fixed income who donated and will sustain at $5 a month
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“I donated $20 and will sustain at $5/month because there are people on the front lines catching hell. People like in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Chicago. We have to reinforce them and support them, either giving what I can or spreading the word and the newspaper.”
—a supporter
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“If you want to know about the world, and get connected; if you want to stand up and fight back against what is being done to people, go to this Party, take up this Party’s newspaper. If you want revolution, we have a strategy for revolution. This newspaper is a key component of this strategy. The newspaper is the voice of the RCP and provides the foundation and guideline for the whole process for revolution, especially through publishing the works of Bob Avakian through articles. This paper exposes and expresses why things are the way they are, it does not have to be this way. The newspaper is the guideline so thousands of people can stay connected and learn. I am donating $10/month and also collected $20 from a friend and am letting others know about the website, especially to watch the Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian.”
―an Iranian supporter of the RCP who lives in the U.S.
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“I will support the courage of RCP as a donator and sustainer. Why? Because of the commitment of BA and what I’ve come to know is the only way out of capitalism in all its forms. I’ll donate $5 to $10 a month to sustain RCP Publications.”
—a devoted reader on a fixed income
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“There is so much injustice and suffering going on in this capitalist-imperialist country and around the world, and I believe RCP Publications and Bob Avakian’s leadership need to be widely promoted in order to prepare the people to fight and bring about a much better society and world through revolution. I am giving $20 to the RCP Publications fund drive. I encourage whoever is yearning for a better world to do away with all this suffering, to contribute in any way, whatever you can. And if you can, SUSTAIN the work—consistently apply the method of analyzing and changing the world, and consistently give money to the revolution. It is hard work, but it must be done and we can do it if we apply the revolutionary method and not take it for granted. We sometimes get complacent, but we can and need to change, and we can all contribute so much more to emancipate humanity!”
—an Iranian supporter of the revolution who lives in the U.S.
~~~~~~~~~~
“This is a time when a revolutionary crisis can make a big leap. In Ferguson and Baltimore, people are fed up and are open to see what revolutionary forces are saying. The system has this big contradiction: They can’t give up on the oppression of Black people that makes people resist; yet they can’t allow them to rise up without repressing them; but they can’t keep repressing them without them rising up. It is a big contradiction for them.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“With the work of the revolutionaries and the newspaper, the system is more and more exposed. The activities of the Party need to increase to bring the truth to people. On the TV they only show the looting and not what causes it. They try to portray brave and courageous people as ‘thugs.’ We need to expose the whole system is the problem, no matter who is president―the police are instruments of repression, and these crises can lead to something else—a revolutionary situation.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Why I am Supporting RCP Publications Fund Drive—And Pledge to Do More
“I am a regular sustainer to revcom.us/Revolution newspaper, but I see the need to increase my donation to support the call to put RCP Publications on higher ground so that more people can learn about it. I want to support it, so they can carry out the work of helping to build even further the movement for revolution and introduce Bob Avakian, leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA to even more people, not just here in the U.S., but to millions and millions of people around the world. That revolution and communism is not ONLY desirable, but eminently possible!
“What have I learned from revcom.us/Revolution newspaper? I am learning and struggling to view things on a scientific basis and go on the basis of reality and not what seems to be ‘practical’ or the easy way out.
“One of the things that revcom.us/Revolution newspaper has been very good at is pointing out various proposals that different people have made in response to the current epidemic of police murder and brutality. For example, there are people who suggest that waiting for the IN-justice Department to do an investigation is helpful.
“Nothing could be further from the truth—for months Mike Brown’s family and many other people waited for the IN-Justice Department’s report on Ferguson—and when it came out, it was a slap in their faces and pouring salt on their wounds! The report did expose some of the vicious methods used to exploit people—like jailing them if they did not have the money to pay fines from traffic tickets piling up, but otherwise, Eric Holder and others in the ruling class just gave the murdering cops a pass and a free ride, and said that they couldn’t find any basis to indict Darren Wilson for Mike Brown’s murder. This was a dead end that the system wants people to get into—to stop struggling and rely on this criminal system which is incapable of doing anything halfway decent for any human being on this planet.
“There wouldn’t have been ANY IN-Justice Department report on Ferguson if it wasn’t for the fact that the people of Ferguson stood up, rebelled, defied the system and decided that the murder of Mike Brown and everything else is intolerable.
“You DO NOT have to agree with all or even some of what revcom.us/Revolution newspaper is about in order to engage with it. What IS required is that you have the questions and curiosity as to what is going on in the world and what to do about it.
“I am going to double what I currently am donating, even though that would be a financial sacrifice due to my current situation. I am also challenging other people to step up and donate to revcom.us/Revolution newspaper and donate what they can.
“I am donating $100 to the fund drive. It is very important for everyone to seize the time and the opportunity to do even more to contribute to RCP Publications and its work.”
—a longtime supporter from Iran of the RCP and the new synthesis
~~~~~~~~~~
“I donated because the world needs to be better than what it is now. And the RCP are the only ones consistently fighting for that world to become a reality.”
―a teacher from Texas
“Without money, RCP Publications would be unable to do the important work that it needs to do. If you don’t have money—have bake sales or flea markets to raise money for this precious newspaper, and commit to being a regular sustainer. If you have funds, dig deep and give a large one time donation and become a sustainer on a regular basis.”
~~~~~~~~~~
June 4, 2015
“Why I Sustain?
“I’ve been a sustainer for a number of years. I sustain because the RCP and the newspaper Revolution/revcom.us is the only thing going in the world today. When I was young I had high hopes for Mao’s China but that revolution got turned back by a capitalist line. I had high hopes with the revolutions in Peru and Nepal until a capitalist, status quo line turned those revolutions around, too.
“Other than the RCP and what’s left of the RIM [Revolutionary Internationalist Movement] all the other lines in the world represent capitalism, feudalism, slavery or barbarism. No, things aren’t going to get better by ‘falling apart.’ This kind of anarchism is no solution. The world needs to see that right here, in ‘the belly of the beast,’ in Babylon itself there are those who can see beyond the horror and have a plan and strategy to achieve a much better world for us human beings.
“So, to all those whom I’ve heard say, ‘tell me when you’re having the revolution and I’ll be there,’ well the time is now. Give some money and be a part of it. It’s the least you can do. Get some literature and spread the word, that’s something you can do also.”
"When I read the Revolution paper, it gives me conscious education. The paper is my thoughts, emotions, and desires."
—From a new sustainer to RCP Publications whose son is doing life in prison
~~~~~~~~~~
“The revolutionary press is real important. There is a lot of new media but this paper is still the standby.”
―a longtime reader of Revolution from Texas
~~~~~~~~~~
I became a monthly sustainer for RCP Publications because I want to see copies of BAsics in Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, Korean, and any other language you can think of. I want to see the works of Bob Avakian and the new synthesis of communism reach all corners of the earth and all sections of society so the oppressed everywhere know there is a way out of the horrors this system subjects people to and that way out is Revolution. I also want to help people connect up with the Revcom website and revolution newspaper so they know that there is a party with the strategy and leadership that makes an actual revolution in this country possible.
—From a student/unemployed member of the Revolution Club and a new sustainer for RCP Pubs
~~~~~~~~~~
I am subscribing as a monthly sustainer for $10.00 per month. I wished I could do more, but is what the current pocket can bear. I have selected 5 organizations to assist in their efforts for a very different world, and as a Socialist, Communism of course is a long term goal...
Thank you for all your work.
—Love/Peace/Force
~~~~~~~~~~
"I just want to say what inspired me most was the way the RCP threw itself into the mix in Ferguson, NY City and Baltimore, seriously determined to raise the level of understanding and resistance—and provide leadership. I said to myself these people are serious about making revolution and not just paying lip service to it. I was seeing RCP banners and t-shirts on news sources other than revcom."
—From a reader who made a substantial donation and doubled his sustainer commitment
~~~~~~~~~~
"I donate because an Actual Revolution is the only sane and logical way forward for humanity and the planet! And even though I may be separated from the high energy areas of the country, I get a rush thinking about the youth, with the Revolution Newspaper in their hands for the first time, kinda like a modern day singing telegram for the oppressed!"
—From a reader on a fixed income in a very small town
~~~~~~~~~~
“I want to support the courage of others trying to change the world—hopefully for a better future for others to come. People are risking the most valuable thing they have, which is their life, for a good cause, and that is admirable.”
—A woman who grew up in a country dominated by U.S. imperialism and
who is pledging $25/month to sustain RCP Publications.
~~~~~~~~~~
"I am donating a $100 towards the fund raising, in addition to my monthly sustainer for Revolution newspaper. I am donating this amount because I feel at this critical juncture people need to connect with the leader of revolution, Bob Avakian, to really put an end to police brutality and murder of unarmed black and brown youth, and all the other horrors of this System; and build a far better world. For this purpose a lot of funds are required to upgrade Revolution newspaper, distribute revolutionary literature, videos, books and other works of BA, so that people can learn about his vision and strategy for revolution and become part of the movement for revolution for emancipation of humanity."
—A reader in Texas
~~~~~~~~~~
“I urge everyone to help raise funds and donate to help put RCP Publications on a higher ground:
Because black, brown and poor are being murdered by the police in the 'Land of the free.'
Because the capitalist imperialists are committing crimes against the planet and humanity.
Because women are denied their basic rights in different forms, being raped and sold to sex slavery.
Because millions are homeless, refugees and crying out for change, as they are caught between two outmoded reactionary forces of capitalist imperialists and backward Islamists fundamentalists who seem to many as the only alternative!
Because the science, theory and the leadership is there to end all of this and prepare the masses for an actual revolution, but there is a huge gap that can be fulfilled by putting the idea and leadership out there.”
This writer is sending this letter to friends. He made a generous donation and became a monthly sustainer.
Hi Friends,
I know all of you are concerned with justice, progress, and the environment in some way or another. I wanted to share with you my perceptions of things right now.
I see a world in crisis with sharpening contradictions. Here are the main contradictions I see now.
Endless war and conflict as U.S. imperialism seeks to extend/manage its control and influence through invasion (Afghanistan/Iraq), CIA terror, torture, drone strikes, and assassinations.
The deepening oppression of women here (rape culture and attack on women’s right to abortion) and around the world. (Rape is being institutionalized as a form of reactionary warfare.)
Police terror and murder in our oppressed communities combined with Mass Incarceration.
The fate of Mother Earth is in the balance as capitalism-imperialism pollutes, devours rain forests and resources, drills and drills for oil in a predatory drive for profit. No regard for the planet, future generations, or science exists in any meaningful way.
Millions of humanity are in refugee camps or forced to migrate because of war, poverty, and climate change. And these brothers and sisters are targeted as the problem as the capitalist countries build walls, fences, and work at other ways to keep them out.
And these millions will become millions upon millions in the future.
I’ll be honest. I had convinced myself that the “system” could be reformed. But this was an illusion. In some ways a self-induced illusion.
You know the “Walking Dead”? In the past few years even though I had remained active in some ways—anti-Iraq war and climate change demonstrations, I was living a life in “quiet desperation.”
What brought me back to life was working a year at Home Depot and reading Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow about the mass incarceration of our Black and Latino youth. I was stunned and angry that this had happened on “my watch.”
I saw a YouTube video of Cornel West and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network which he founded with Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). I began to get involved with this movement which led me back to my radical roots and the RCP.
I went to the RCP website revcom.us and found that the RCP line had evolved in positive ways. And was putting forward a “New Synthesis of Communism” which resonated with me on many levels. Especially the emphasis on “humanity coming first” and not sugar-coating the need for real revolution and the challenges it will take to realize it.
I invite you and urge others to visit the website and critically evaluate it yourselves.
I hate this system and the “take care of me and screw everybody else” culture it promotes and shoves down our throats. I hate its everyday crimes that it numbs us to accept. I hate the way it isolates us from each other and makes us wonder, “Am I crazy? Am I the only one who hates this shit? Is this it? This is the best humankind can do?”
I am asking you to check out revolution. I am asking some of you to check out revolution again.
I need you. We need you. Above all humanity needs you.
There is a fundraising drive going on. Please contribute to it. Get involved in some small way in bringing forward a new vision, a new way, a new world.
Is this guaranteed? Nope.
Do I agree with everything on the RCP website? Nope.
But do I think that in some ways this might be humanity’s best hope? Yup.
I am determined that I will live the rest of my life trying to bring forward fundamental revolutionary change in the most honest way I can. Do I still feel “desperation”? Almost every day. But it will no longer be quiet. And amidst that desperation there will be moments of revolutionary joy and love.
The winner in Turkey's parliamentary elections: democratic illusions
by Ishak Baran | June 15, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
9 June 2015. A World to Win News Service. The parliamentary elections held in Turkey on 7 June resulted in a major setback for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's efforts to consolidate the grip of his AKP (Justice and Development Party), which had been in ascension since 2002. He had hoped the election would bring an even bigger majority and further legitimacy, or, in other words, a mandate to push through a constitutional reform that could include the legal framework for replacing the current parliamentary system with a presidential system, vastly increasing his powers and the further Islamisation of public life. These plans were dramatically upset when the HDP (People's Democratic Party) drew votes from former AKP supporters, particularly in Kurdistan, and gained entry into parliament.
The HDP has positioned itself as both the main opposition to Erdogan's power ambitions and the strongest voice demanding the resumption of the peace talks between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) and the government. By assembling the leftist parties and organizations in Western (non-Kurdish) Turkey around them, the HDP has been transformed from a pro-PKK party into an umbrella organization aiming to represent "the excluded"—all opposition identities, the forces of a real "democraticization" of the political system—against the authoritarian AKP.
No party now has a parliamentary majority to form a government. A coalition seems to be necessary to resolve this problem. But Erdogan is not backing off. He is blaming his opponents for creating this potential crisis and calling on them to assume their responsibility for ensuring and protecting political stability. Even though this is addressed to all parties, it is particularly leveled at HDP. The assistant prime minister has already started articulating this, warning, "Mouthing the word honey doesn't sweeten your mouth, and repeating the word peace does not produce peace." Now that HDP has 13 percent of the votes and 80 seats in parliament, "they should call on Imrali [the island prison where PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is being held] and Kandil [the mountain headquarters of the PKK military commanders] to put down their guns." This is raising the bar for peace negotiations by demanding, as a precondition for moving forward in this process, that the PKK decommission their weapons. HDP is to be held responsible for making sure that this happens. It is being told that if it is to be allowed to function within parliament, it must act as a representative of the interests of the Turkish state. And rival parties to the AKP are being told that only the AKP is capable of leading this process. In response to the criticism that Erdogan is acting out of personal ambition, and the denunciation of him by Turkish ultra-nationalists for negotiating with "terrorists," he is appealing to his rivals to close ranks behind him in the broader interests of the state.
Despite the euphoria among HDP supporters and other opposition forces following Erdogan's electoral setback, these are the terms in which political infighting is being carried out among the ruling class and its representatives, and HDP will be obliged to be a part of this.
The Turkish ruling class is making very clear allusions to Ocalan's defence at his trial following his capture in 1999, when he argued that, in hindsight, taking up arms was not the right thing to do, but the Kurds were provoked and forced into it because of the denial of their national identity, because they needed to be heard and plead their case. Now there is a growing chorus, starting on the eve of the elections, saying, "No more excuses. Now you've been heard. Now you have to distance yourselves from the terrorists in the mountains." This is the insidious underside of HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas being called "the Kurdish Obama." The AKP and others are saying that now that the Kurds have been gifted with democracy by being given a place in the Turkish parliament, they have to represent the whole of the Kurdish population, meaning the burgeoning capitalist class in Kurdistan, and the interests and concerns of Kurdish political big shots who have been supporting the AKP. This is an effort to bring Kurdish resistance into "the mainstream," which means the existing reactionary political structure.
This is made acceptable to the people by presenting it as the "victory of democracy," the expression of the will of the masses in Kurdistan and the rest of Turkey through the electoral process. Yet in reality, what is going on is more than just a demand for Kurdish forces to definitively capitulate and be integrated into the state. It is also part of a countrywide effort to muffle and manage various manifestations of resistance to the economic, social and political system, as seen, for instance, in the Gezi Park protests that spread like wildfire from Istanbul to other major cities in June 2013. The same potential explosiveness has also been seen in the angry reaction to the deaths of miners in Soma in 2014, and the growing outrage and struggle by women to traditional patriarchal relationships and the brutality against women, and a wave of murders in the context of the increasing Islamisation of society. The AKP has used violent repression, but has faced serious difficulties. Now the HDP, claiming that its policies, like requiring 50 percent of its deputies to be women and 10 percent LGBT (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex people), make it a representative of all the oppressed and excluded, is contributing to the encirclement and taming of protest, bringing potential forces of revolt back into the fold, and reassuring people that this system can be made to alleviate its irresolvable contradictions.
Further, numerous forces that consider themselves revolutionaries and even communists have been enlisted into this process, because they are convinced that the overthrow and radical transformation of the system is impossible and are lured by the prospect of obtaining a place in the system and the possibility of some reforms. Ironically, they justify their unconscionable activity theoretically by claiming that Turkey is fascist and their entry into parliament is a blow for democracy, when in fact promoting illusions about bourgeois democracy is just as necessary to the ruling class as more openly brutal means of protecting their class dictatorship.
The jubilation in the streets of Diyarbakir and the squares of other Kurdish cities celebrating the HDP's electoral advance was sharply contradictory. There was the joy of being able to overcome some of the limits set by the system, such as the election threshold requiring parties to win a minimum of 10 percent of the vote countrywide to enter parliament, which was established to keep out Kurdish parties. But at the same time people who hate what this system does to themselves and others find themselves hemmed in by its horizons. For instance, thousands of people waved the flag of the Turkish state and portraits of its founder Ataturk, who brutally repressed Kurdish rebellion, along with portraits of Ocalan, robbing the Kurdish struggle of its revolutionary and emancipatory potential.
What makes the reformist efforts even more out of touch with reality is the underlying assumption that Turkish society can be protected from the clash between Western imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism that is raging throughout the region, including right on the country's borders, reflecting contradictions that certainly run through Turkey itself. Many Western imperialist political counsellors and spokespersons understand this much better. They were generally unanimous in hailing the setback dealt to Erdogan, and many even called for the HDP to enter parliament before the elections that made this the "will of the people."
While representing and promoting the flourishing of capitalism in Turkey in subordination to the imperialist system, Erdogan's Islamisation drive and ambition to put himself at the head of a resurgent Moslem world are problematic for the U.S. Also, Islamist forces whose rise is fueled by the development of capitalism itself are seeking to legitimize their claims for their due place in the global system of exploitation and are mobilizing people under their leadership who are in conflict with the political and ideological models imposed by the West. Erdogan has been compelled to support Islamist forces throughout North Africa and the Middle East, including Syria, because his legitimacy, the ideological cohesion that holds his movement together and the political strength of his regime, depend on it. Erdogan may not be Taliban, Bin Laden or Daesh [also known as ISIS or Islamic State], but his project is both a product and an agent of the clash between these two "outmodeds" (Western imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism) in the region and globally, a clash that engenders drives and tendencies that cannot be controlled. For instance, Erdogan could not avoid offending Kurdish voters with his refusal to aid the Kurdish forces fighting Daesh in Kobani (in northern Syria). He is inevitably brought into conflict with the U.S.'s plans and efforts in the region. This sharpening polarization between imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism is generating new alignments throughout Kurdish cities in Turkey and all of Turkey. Erdogan's policies, often wrongly reduced to simple signs of personal ambition, such as his moves to increase the powers of the presidency and reduce the independence of the judiciary, reflect the same polarization and its necessities. These contradictions, like all the other fault lines in Turkey, cannot be resolved by elections. Framing the question as a fight between "liberal, pluralist democracy" and "authoritarianism" ignores the real forces at work and leads people into a trap.
The shadow of the U.S. looms at least as large here as that of Islamic fundamentalism. The PKK, HDP and most of the Turkish Left looked favorably upon the U.S.'s criminal role in the war tearing Syria apart, including its bombing raids. Whatever the U.S. does in Kobani or anywhere else is part of its fight to preserve and extend its empire. The positive evaluation of and even praise for the U.S. in relation to Kobani now has been followed by even more outrageous capitulation: People are tolerating statements such as "the Left should learn a few things from imperialism instead of rejecting it wholesale." The long insurgence against national oppression in Kurdistan is being enlisted in an effort to modernize and reinforce the Turkish state, which is totally linked to imperialism, and even to serve the world's number one oppressor power, the U.S. In turn, Erdogan uses this to strengthen his regime and its ideological appeal by crying that he is the victim of a foreign "plot."
Along with the extremely tragic fact that so many people are dragged and driven into the arms of one or the other of these outmoded forces, there is another tragedy: that some people are not only dreaming of mitigating the conflict between these two outmodeds but are making this the foundation of a political programme and doing their best to inflict their blindness on millions of others, including those who are now awakening to political life and struggle and searching for a way to a different world. In reality, what practical alternative is there to imperialist and fundamentalist mass murder and murderous ideologies except the revolutionary overthrow of the entire social order and the total reorganization of society and eventually the world? However, these same contradictions are also the potential basis for a different solution if people with a thoroughly scientific, communist understanding of the problem and solution work to transform the struggles around the basic, burning contradictions in society and the people waging them into streams converging into a movement capable of actually making a revolution.
A World to Win News Service is put out by A World to Win magazine, a political and theoretical review inspired by the formation of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the embryonic center of the world's Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations.
Sunday, June 21, 4-6 pm
at LitMore Center for the Literary Arts
3326 Keswick Avenue (2nd Floor)
In Hampden, off of 33rd Street)
Baltimore
Baltimore has been thrust onto the front lines of the struggle to STOP murder by police by the response of the people to the murder of Freddie Gray. Things have to go much further. All the way to convicting and jailing the cops who murdered Freddie Gray. And this fight needs to be developed as part of the struggle to STOP the horror of this system giving police a green light over and over again to brutalize and murder Black and Latino people.
From day one, the young revolutionaries of the Revolution Club left homes, jobs, etc. and have been in thick of this struggle, organizing for an actual revolution, including spreading the handbook for revolution, BAsics from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, thousands of posters have been distributed (see right, below), and much more. They need your financial support.
Revolutionaries will be at the benefit to speak more on the mission and work of the Revolution Club.
Surprise guests: young poetic West Baltimore voices now running with the Revolution Club will share some of their poetry from the Uprising.
Poets presenting their poetry:
Rachel Alton, Not Your Typical Love Poems, Hidden Clearing Press
Alan Barysh, co-winner, City Paper Best Poem of 2015
Marcus Colasurdo, founder Gimme Shelter Productions and activist for the homeless
David Eberhardt, member of Baltimore 4 (with Father Philip Berrigan and 2 others, poured blood on draft files, 1967), prisoner rights activist
Julie Fisher, co-editor Octopus Dreams Anthology
A. J. Hayes, founder, Hidden Clearing Press
Slangston Hughes, dewMoreBaltimore - Where Art and Activism Collide
Music by:
In the Clear (Irish and traditional folk music)
Suggested donation: $5 to $10
For more information on the Revolution Club: 443-240-9972 / RevBmore@gmail.com
Come Hear Cornel West & Carl Dix
Speaking to Plan a Huge National March
in NYC in October 2015
#RiseUpOctober
Stopping Police Terror:
Which Side Are You On?
June 30, 2015 Tuesday 7 PM
The Unitarian Church of All Souls
1157 Lexington Avenue (at 80th), New York, NY
Ferguson, New York, Baltimore, Charleston...
In the last year, America has been split open over whether police and racist vigilantes getting away with murdering Black and Latino people must be STOPPED; or whether it's okay for racist killers, in and out of uniform, to shoot down or beat and choke to death Black people on a more than daily basis in the streets, or in their homes, or in their churches.
Many, many people have taken to the streets to STOP these horrors, but way too many people are still on the sidelines, and the killings still go on. The question that must be sharply posed to millions and millions of people, here and around the world, is this: Which side are you on? And what are you going to do stop the killings?
The National March to STOP Police Terror on October 22-24 aims to make everyone in America choose sides for real and change the whole way people fall out around police and out of uniform white supremacists getting away with murder as part of STOPPING these horrors. Cornel West and Carl Dix challenge you to join this historic effort!
Updated June 26, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
STOP THE ASSAULT
ON ABORTION RIGHTS!
BREAK ALL THE CHAINS
THAT ENSLAVE WOMEN!
A Talk by Sunsara Taylor
Sunsara Taylor at New York City kickoff for Summer 2015: Take Patriarchy By Storm. (Photo: Stop Patriarchy)
An all-out assault on women's right to abortion is leaving 600-mile stretches between abortion clinics, and banning abortions at earlier and earlier points in the pregnancy. Why does it matter whether or not women have the right to abortion? Sunsara Taylor will bring a true picture of what it means to be living through a war on women, where all this comes from, and why the domination of women by men is not human nature. She will bring alive how a real revolution can liberate women and what must be done today to build the fight for real and lasting emancipation.
Thursday, June 25 7-9:30 pm
This program will be held at:
112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor
Between 6th and 7th Avenues
New York City
[R,N,1 to 28th Street]
$10 donation requested; no one turned away
Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper and key initiator of End Pornography & Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women (StopPatriarchy.org)
Video will be available: This talk will be filmed and available at the Revolution Books New York City vimeo channel by Saturday, June 27. Schedule group showings to build for Summer 2015—Take Patriarchy by Storm!
Scheduled video showings:
» Berkeley: Monday, June 29,
7 pm.
Revolution Books,
2425 Channing Way
An all-out assault on women's right to abortion is leaving 600-mile stretches between abortion clinics, and banning abortions at earlier and earlier points in the pregnancy. Why does it matter whether or not women have the right to abortion? Dare to confront a true picture of what it means to be living through a war on women, where this comes from and how to end it, and be challenged to act accordingly, aiming for true liberation. Join this event sponsored by Stop Patriarchy and hosted by Revolution Books, to watch video of a timely talk being given Thursday from Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper and key initiator of End Pornography & Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women (StopPatriarchy.org)
» Cleveland: Sunday, June 28, 4 pm. Revolution Books,
2804 Mayfield Rd (at Coventry),
Cleveland Heights
STOP THE ASSAULT ON ABORTION RIGHTS! BREAK ALL THE CHAINS THAT ENSLAVE WOMEN!
Film of a Talk by Sunsara Taylor
» Detroit: Friday, July 3, 6 pm. Revolution Books, 4152 Woodward Avenue, lower level, enter from back of building (Look for Zef's Cafe on street level)
STOP THE ASSAULT ON ABORTION RIGHTS! BREAK ALL THE CHAINS THAT ENSLAVE WOMEN!
Film of a Talk by Sunsara Taylor
» Seattle: Monday, June 29, 7 pm and Monday, July 6, 7 pm. Revolution Books, 89 S Washington St.
STOP THE ASSAULT ON ABORTION RIGHTS! BREAK ALL THE CHAINS THAT ENSLAVE WOMEN!
Film of a Talk by Sunsara Taylor
Will you stand up against the massive assaults on abortion rights in Texas, Kansas, Tennessee, and nationwide? PROTEST! Wednesday, July 1
Fetuses are NOT babies! Abortion is NOT murder! Women are NOT incubators!
Stop Patriarchy, the movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women, is calling for national actions on July 1st to protest HB2 in Texas and new abortion restrictions scheduled to go into effect in Kansas and Tennessee that day.
June 9, a Federal Court upheld the Texas anti-abortion law HB2 which means that all but 8 clinics in the huge state of Texas will be forced to close. On July 1st, new restrictions on abortion are scheduled to go into effect in Kansas and Tennessee.
These laws are part of a national onslaught against abortion rights and birth control. Read more
Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution
Austin, Texas, August 2014
#RaiseHellJ1
On July 1st, as abortion clinics are forced to close in Texas and Tennessee and when new unprecedented new abortion restrictions go into effect in Kansas... Join in defiant protest.
We will stand, side by side, carrying the faces of women who died from lack of safe, legal abortion. We will read their stories. We will wear faux bloody pants, representing the women who lost their lives, and those who will die, as a result of the escalating assault on this basic right. We will RAISE HELL and demand that women be treated as full human beings!
Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!
Forced Motherhood is Female Enslavement!
Who Benefits from the Wall-to-Wall Coverage of Rachel Dolezal?
June 17, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Rachel Dolezal was, until recently, the head of the Spokane Washington chapter of the NAACP. About a week ago, a white couple announced they were her biological parents. Rachel Dolezal had, until that point, identified and been known as a Black person. Mainstream media made this a huge national story, devoting hours to controversy over Rachel Dolezal identifying herself as Black.
In light of the Rachel Dolezal “revelations,” revcom.us is posing four questions for our readers to ponder and discuss with others. All who read this should think about these questions in light of what these “revelations” have to do with focusing people’s attention away from the crimes committed every day in this society against Black and Latino people, from the murder and terror by police and the daily struggle people face just to work and survive. Over the last months people across this country, from all corners of society, have stood up to oppose murder by police and unity between different people has been built. And now, all we hear about is Rachel Dolezal. So why is this the big story people are being asked to focus on?
Think about these questions:
1. What has been the impact of the media changing the subject of the national conversation from police brutalizing and murdering Black people and others across the country, to the supposed scandal around Rachel Dolezal? What is the impact of changing the subject? The subject is the oppression by this system—and rampant murder of—people at the hands of this system and its enforcers.
2. Whatever Rachel Dolezal did or didn’t do is not the issue and not the story. And what’s the big crime? That somebody who identifies themselves as Black wants to take up the struggle for equality and freedom for Black people—what’s wrong with that? What’s with the “policing of boundaries” between Black and white people and making sure that people who are white identify themselves as white and “own their whiteness”? And why should anyone want to do that? Black people in this country face the most brutal oppression every day, and they face murder by police at any time—what’s wrong with standing with the oppressed?
3. To those who would say Rachel has no right to speak to the oppression of Black people, here’s a question: What’s so great about Black people “owning” their oppression and excluding all others from standing against this oppression? Doesn’t everyone have the right and responsibility to oppose white supremacy?
4. And again, who benefits from this wall-to-wall coverage of Rachel Dolezal? And whose interests does this serve?
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Outrage in Charleston— This IS America!
June 18, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Carl Dix is the co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and a representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Outrageous! A white supremacist motivated by racist venom enters Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, during a Bible study class. He sits down with people there for a while and then starts shooting them, murdering six Black women and three Black men. He calmly reloaded in the course of carrying out these foul murders, telling his victims that he had to do this “because you [meaning Black people] rape our women and are taking over our country"!
Mass murder carried out in a church—a place that is supposed to be a sanctuary in the face of injustice. This brings to mind the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963 which killed four little girls. And the wave of burnings of Black churches in more recent decades.
Mass murder carried out at this church, which has a history of being a place Black people gathered to organize themselves to stand up to the savage oppression this system has enforced on them for centuries. This history goes back to the church's founding in 1816. Among its founders was Denmark Vesey who was hung in 1822, along with 35 other Black people, for planning a slave uprising.
QUESTION: WHY THE FUCK IS THAT GODDAMN SLAVEHOLDERS' RAG STILL FLYING AT ALL ABOVE THE CAPITOL OF SOUTH CAROLINA? And what does the fact that it is have to do with the atrocity carried out there this week?
If you are angry or hurt or agonizing over the atrocity in Charleston, if you burn for and dream of human emancipation and an END to all oppression and oppressive divisions... if you think about revolution and want to learn more... then be with us this weekend!
What kind of society IS this? How long must we put up with it? What can we do to end this madness and emancipate humanity?
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The time for healing is once the disease has been diagnosed and rooted out, not while it is still raging.
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What happened in Charleston is not about gun control or mental illness—it is about racism. And the violent insanity that marks this society flows from the genocidal, slavemaster roots of American capitalism and the predatory gangsterism that enforces U.S. imperialism around the world.
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The blood of the nine people murdered in Charleston is on the hands of the rulers of this country. Whether this guy acted alone or not, he was acting within a climate that has been deliberately whipped up. White supremacy has been ingrained in the fabric of America from its very beginning. This country was founded on theft of land from and genocide inflicted on the native inhabitants and the dragging of millions of Africans to these shores in slave chains. And white supremacy remains at the heart of this society right down to today.
What does it tell you about this country that George Zimmerman could murder Trayvon Martin as he walked home carrying Skittles and iced tea and walk away with no punishment. That cops could choke Eric Garner to death, ignoring his cries of “I can't breathe,” and get off scot free. That a South Carolina cop could feel he could get away with shooting Walter Scott in the back as he ran away. That Black communities are built on toxic areas that poison people. That Black couples with good credit were steered to sub-prime loans that led to them disproportionately losing their homes in the 2007 economic meltdown. That 2+ million people are imprisoned in this country, vastly disproportionately Black and Latino. These and more amount to a genocidal program of suppression and deprivation targeting Black people. And they have contributed to a climate in which it is legitimate to view Black people as criminals and justified to murder them. In these and a thousand other ways a message is delivered that Black life doesn't matter.
All this faces us all with an urgent question: Which side are you on? Are you on the side of the savage oppression and brutality this system enforces on Black people? Or do you stand against these kinds of horrors?
The crocodile tears being shed by those who preside over the brutality and murder this system inflicts on people are worse than useless. It will take revolution, nothing less, to uproot white supremacy and end the oppression of Black people and all the other horrors this system inflicts on humanity. If you want to see these horrors stopped, there is a movement you can get with, a movement for revolution that the Revolutionary Communist Party is building. To get information and to join in dealing with the questions and obstacles this revolution faces, go to the website: www.revcom.us.
Everyone should understand that there is no middle ground in this struggle where people can be neutral while this system grinds away, crushing the bodies and breaking the spirits of those on the bottom of society. If you have an ounce of humanity, you must add your voice to those demanding that horrors like these STOP! Right Now!
Albert Woodfox (Photo: solitarywatch.com)
Abortion Rights Freedom Riders traveled across the state of Texas for five weeks in August 2014 confronting the assaults on women's rights.
Cleveland, June 14. (Photo: Special to revcom.us)
McKinney, Texas, June 12. (Photo: Special to revcom.us)
McKinney, Texas, June 12. (All photos: Special to revcom.us)
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Sunsara Taylor at New York City kickoff for Summer 2015: Take Patriarchy By Storm. (Photo: Stop Patriarchy)
