A Weekend of Preview Showings—A Very Positive Beginning

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

By all accounts, the preview weekend in several cities was a very positive beginning. This provides a real basis for this speech to “be seen by thousands, and then millions, and make a huge difference in how people view what is possible and what they will do.” The following is one early report revcom.us received that gives a sense and feel for the potential of this film to “spark and guide a movement and open up the road to revolution everywhere.”

From the Revolution Club Chicago:

Thirty people, including members of the Revolution Club, attended the showing of the film of Bob Avakian’s new talk, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, at our organizing center Saturday on Chicago’s South Side. The diverse mix, some visiting our center for the first time, included a couple who drove three hours from out of state, three people from a suburb north of Chicago, a foreign-born professor, a young man whose father had to leave El Salvador in the 1980s because of threats from the U.S.-backed death squads, as well as people from the neighborhood of the center and other parts of the South Side.

The film was punctuated from the audience by outbursts of laughter, applause, thoughtful comments, and shouts of “All Played Out.” After the film, the MC highlighted the point from the end of the film that all of us who hunger for revolution need to go to work on making this revolution. He put to everyone there the invitation and challenge to join the Revolution Club and announced the upcoming orientation for people who want to do that. He also put to everyone there the immediate needs of the revolution: 1) It is up to us how hundreds seeing this film in previews this weekend will become many thousands watching it online when it premieres on October 19; and 2) The importance of acting now in relation to the ongoing trial of Jason Van Dyke, the murdering pig who killed Laquan McDonald with 16 shots, and told people how they can get involved.

The rest of the time we were together—and most people stayed well past the announced ending time—was spent talking about the film and laying plans for its promotion. A number of people took up the call on the spot to make video responses to the film to popularize it and call on others to see it, going through our “video station” setup in the back. Others picked up organizing kits and other materials from tables staffed by Club members. Still others joined breakout groups to brainstorm about and forge plans for hosting and organizing more preview showings, fundraising, social media promotion, and street team promotion.

Preview showings are being planned for a Chicago suburb, a city near the Wisconsin border, a city in another state, and among family and friends of people attending. There was some beginning brainstorming about fundraising which included organizing a benefit in an area of artist galleries and holding a back-alley nighttime party at our center. People were encouraged to donate on the spot, and some did, including at the new fundraising site. People signed up for and talked about the plan to have 500 people post the video on their social media platforms when it premieres, and promoting it on their platforms between now and then. Ideas were discussed of doing an outreach day on the trains (like the one recently done in Los Angeles), and doing a flash mob promotion of the film.

The organizing kits we prepared for the showing were simple, developed with thinking of how people could get involved without expecting them to know everything and do everything all at once. They were clear plastic bags that included 10 copies of HOW WE CAN WIN and a stack of palm cards for the October 19 premiere. We made sure everyone got a copy of the BA biography and the flyer on how to be part of a mass movement to spread BA’s speech.

Comments from people included: “Bob Avakian presents important ideas and concepts I haven’t heard from other political leaders”; “What I took from this film was a very powerful message from Bob Avakian about how we can actually win an actual revolution”; “People could come and see this film to know what we have to do to get millions of people—thousands and then millions of people—to learn, to engage, how to really make an actual revolution and overthrow this system once and for all”; “What I got out of it is a very non-compromising answer how to change society and the world itself and change our ethos”; and “It’s time to get serious, it’s time for a revolution.”

We have a second preview Sunday afternoon in a meeting room at a downtown library near many downtown colleges.

The Importance of Protesting the Supreme Court Confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh... and Doing So on the Right Terms

October 8, 2018 (updated and reposted from an earlier article) | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

(New editors note added at end.)

Brett Kavanaugh represents a grave threat to the future of humanity, and his nomination to the Supreme Court should be thoroughly rejected. As we have written:

Brett Kavanaugh has a long ugly history in both the executive and judicial branches of the U.S. government in pursuing a reactionary Christian fascist agenda. This proven public record is why his nomination to the Supreme Court should be and must be stopped. Kavanaugh played a thoroughly reactionary role in the Republi-fascist Starr Commission’s inquisitional attempt to impeach Bill Clinton in the 1990s. As a member of the Bush regime he justified torture. Later he said that the president should be immune from prosecution. And his judicial decisions in the last decade trampled on basic constitutional rights especially regarding women and LGBTQ people.

If he is approved for the Supreme Court he would lock in a pro-fascist majority in a branch of government which can decisively affect all parts of the government, as well as the rights of the people to speak out and dissent. Further: The decisions he would almost immediately participate in will significantly intensify, to put it mildly, the oppression and degradation of women and LGBT people. The protests of the past two weeks have been righteous and should continue.

In short, Kavanaugh has done great harm throughout his life, and if given the chance to ascend to the Supreme Court he will do far, far worse.  

What we knew and what is even now further coming to light concerning Kavanaugh’s views on the rights of women to control their own reproduction, especially but not only the right to abortion, as well as a number of other serious issues, including torture and executive power, to name a few—which in every case he has verged from stonewalling to deception to outright mendacity—all argue that his ascension to the court would do grave and incalculable harm and must be opposed and STOPPED.

Up to now, despite the efforts and sacrifice of several thousand people who did turn out in DC, with many getting arrested, the struggle to stop this has NOT been commensurate with the threat posed. As for the top Democrats, they have exposed some of Kavanaugh’s record and complained about the cover-ups, but they have not brought out anything close to the full extent and substance of it nor have they pinpointed it as fascist, they have not called out masses, nor have these Senators simply stopped the hearings as illegitimate until a full disclosure was made and a full interrogation allowed; in the main they have basically gone through the motions. 

Yet it is not too late to mount the major struggle required—if masses of people are led to grasp the depth of the harm Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Court will do and its connection to the overall fascist program. But this struggle must be fought on the right terms.

The Accusation Against Kavanaugh of Sexual Assault and Attempted Rape

Early in this whole process, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford told her congressional representative that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her when she was 15 years old and he was 17. At this point, other than those who were in the room, nobody knows the exact truth of this allegation; yet many are speaking with utter surety, with no real basis to do so beyond hunches and what they know from press accounts, as to what did or did not happen. To deem something true because it comports with your experience, or is consistent with larger pervasive social phenomena (the outrage of sexual assault in this case), or what feels right to you does NOT lead to actually correctly understanding reality; getting to the truth requires a serious and open-minded sifting of concrete evidence. To act on the basis that something seems true without such evidence can lead, and has led, to very bad outcomes.

At the same time—and this is also very important—some basic truths that have been underlined in this past period include the fact that many women do in fact wait years before bringing truthful accusations precisely because of the huge social forces arrayed against women when they do so, including shaming and outright revenge attacks, all of which multiply in vitriol and pervasiveness in the age of social media. Connected to that, most women do not make such accusations lightly; and virtually all women have stories of harassment, abuse, beatings, extortion, or rape perpetrated by men and boys in their backgrounds. That this is so is one extremely important reason for revolution, for overturning this social order and its putrid relations between people and values (relations and values fostered and reinforced by virtually every institution in society), and replacing it with a genuinely emancipatory one; indeed, were this pervasive harassment and abuse the only thing wrong with this system, that would be reason enough to make revolution. However, this larger social truth does not itself determine the truth, or falsity, of any particular assertion.

Following the emergence of this accusation, for many people the truth or falsehood of this charge has become the decisive issue in the Kavanaugh nomination. And even some people who have up to now opposed Kavanaugh for the more overriding reasons we enumerated at the beginning of this article are shifting their emphasis to make this the principal issue. All of this is wrong. Even if the evidence eventually points unambiguously to Kavanaugh’s guilt, that should not be the decisive question or even the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

How Should We Judge a Person’s Past?

First, even assuming that the weight of evidence brought forward proves the charge leveled against Kavanaugh, what someone did at 17 years old has to be mainly looked at in relation to their entire life. People at 17 are not fully responsible adults; they are still in the process of becoming who they will be.^*

The decisive question is not what someone did as a youth but what has been the subsequent arc of their life. People can change; the question should not be whether they did bad things as a youth, but: have they fundamentally confronted and broken with that—or have they continued in the same essential direction? In the case of Kavanaugh, these facts are beyond clear: whatever he did (or did not) do as a teenager, as a full-grown man he has been a major player in strengthening patriarchal oppression and in driving forward the overall fascization of the U.S.—and this is true no matter how many women who knew him way-back-when say that he was a polite teenager, or whether Dr. Blasey’s accusation proves to be true or not. It is for these reasons that Kavanaugh must be opposed or defeated.

The Importance of the Right Terms

This leads to the second point. If Kavanaugh is to be rejected not mainly, or decisively, for his proven record as an adult but for accusations—even if they prove to be true—of what he did as a juvenile, on what basis will the nominee who will surely succeed him (for instance, if it is the even more right-wing, if that is possible, Amy Barrett) be opposed?

More important: what kind of society are we going for? One in which errors and even crimes in people’s youth are brought forward and wielded against them when they are adults, and in which these are deployed for political ends (no matter how just and correct those ends may seem in the short run)? Or one in which people are judged on the arc of what they dedicate their lives to and in which there is a fundamental moral unity between means and ends?

The Struggle Against Kavanaugh Must Intensify

Again, the struggle to prevent Kavanaugh from being seated must not only continue but intensify, with the correct focus—on his thoroughly fascist history and what that portends for the future of humanity. Revolutionaries and radicals should be wherever people are struggling against this nomination, exposing the full weight of the danger involved with this nomination and directing the outrage against the fascist reshaping of the Supreme Court, the Trump/Pence fascist regime overall, and the capitalist-imperialist system which brought forward this whole nightmare.

* For this reason, comparisons between this situation and Anita Hill are not entirely apt. Hill brought her accusations against a grown man who had authority over her in a governmental agency. [back]

Did You Know...?

Q & A Fact Sheet on the Police Murder of Laquan McDonald and the Trial of the Killer Cop Van Dyke

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Did you know that Laquan McDonald was shot 16 times by a cop while he was walking away with his arms at his sides—and that civilian eyewitnesses and a top expert on police use of force all said in court that Laquan posed absolutely no threat at all when he was gunned down?

Did you know that none of the at least seven officers on the scene gave Laquan first aid or even checked his condition, even though he was still alive after the shooting—as he lay there suffering from the bullets that tore through his body and shattered his bones? What does this say about how much those who “serve and protect” (this system) value human life?

Did you know that the officers on the scene conspired to cook up a phony story to defend their murdering fellow cop, Jason Van Dyke—lying outright in their report that Laquan was “swinging” the small knife he had in “an aggressive, exaggerated manner,” pointing it at Van Dyke, who “backpedaled” while firing his gun, and that Van Dyke continued to fire because Laquan, on the ground, was “continuing to point the knife” at the cop?

Did you know that Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the state’s attorney, the police “review” board, and the entire Chicago Police Department—including the superintendent, the deputy superintendent (who was promoted to be the current chief of police), and the commander in charge of the internal “investigation” of Laquan’s shooting (who was also promoted and then allowed to retire with full benefits even though the Inspector General’s office said he should be fired)—all covered up the video of Laquan’s murder and prevented it from going public for over a year?

Did you know that of the at least seven officers on the scene, and many others in the CPD, up to the chief of police, involved in the cover-up of Laquan’s murder, only three aside from Van Dyke are charged with anything at all?

Did you know that the newspapers and media have given all kinds of sympathetic coverage to Van Dyke, including extensive interviews (in violation of a court gag order) with the Chicago Tribune and the local Fox TV channel?

Did you know there is only ONE Black person on a jury of 12 in the Van Dyke trial, in a city where more than one in four people are Black?

Did you know that the prosecutor—whose job supposedly is to get convictions—is doing the opposite, like putting on the stand Van Dyke’s cop partner, who then acted out for the jury the scenario about Laquan raising his knife in a “threatening” way (a lie that was exposed by the video)?

Did you know that while Van Dyke’s lawyers demonize Laquan as a “violent” person who had been on a “wild rampage” before he was shot, the prosecution has done nothing to bring out Laquan’s humanity and how he is remembered by family and friends as a kid with a big sense of humor who, as a cousin said, “kept everyone together and smiling”?

Did you know that the judge forbade the prosecution from using the word “victim” to describe Laquan through the main part of the trial?

Did you know that a Latino man and his son, who saw Van Dyke shoot Laquan in cold blood, were told to go away by the police on the scene—and later stepped forward to tell what they had witnessed because they thought justice was not being done?

Did you know that Trump’s white supremacist attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has come to the Chicago area twice during the Van Dyke trial to blame protesters for the rise in violence among the people and promote the idea that cops should have no restraints put on them?

Now consider these questions:

What would have happened if one of our youth had been righteously defending themselves against such a wanton police attack? If that youth were even still alive, what kind of media coverage would they be given? How much time would they spend walking the streets free on bail before and during the trial? How much latitude would their lawyers be given in court?

And here are three more questions: What kind of system does this not just to Laquan McDonald but to Black and Latino youth more generally? Why is that system legitimate? And what must be done to that system?

For answers to those questions, go to WWW.REVCOM.US.

Justice for Laquan McDonald!
Convict Van Dyke and Throw Him in Jail—
The Whole Damn System Is GUILTY AS HELL!

Revolution Club, Chicago
(312) 804-9121
Revclub.chi@gmail.com
Facebook.com/revclubchi/
1857 E. 71st Street
Chicago, Illinois 60649

Laquan McDonald was murdered by Chicago police. His murder was covered up for a year. His killer is now on trial. Do you know the real facts about his life, his case, and his trial?

Download PDF of fact sheet from Revolution Club Chicago

Download PDF of fact sheet with space for local information for Revolution Club in other cities

Download PDF of fact sheet for distribution by any organization (blank address information)

Thursday, September 27:

16 Minutes of Action for 16 Shots
Convict Van Dyke and Throw Him in Jail! The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell—and Needs to Be Overthrown!

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From the Revolution Club, Chicago:

As the trial of murderous pig Jason Van Dyke enters the third week and the “defense phase” of the trial, now is NOT the time to be silent or “wait and see.” NOW is the time to act and draw the lines: WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Convict Van Dyke and Throw Him in Jail! The Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell—and Needs to Be Overthrown!

In Chicago:

Thursday, September 27—16 minutes of action for 16 shots

TBA—Follow @RevClubChi on Facebook and Twitter

Also:

Monday, September 24—Trial enters “defense” phase.

8 am Rally at the Cook County Courthouse (26th & California)

7 pm Join in with a candlelight vigil at 40th & Pulaski

Tuesday, September 25—Laquan McDonald’s Birthday

6 pm at 26th & California. Balloon release and birthday celebration of what would have been Laquan’s 21st birthday.

When the Verdict Comes In—Time and place to be chosen soon (follow @RevclubChi) to gather when the verdict comes in. If Van Dyke IS found guilty, CELEBRATE the struggle that achieved this. IF Van Dyke is allowed to go free, business as usual NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN.

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A Call To Action From The Revolution Club Chicago:

Justice For Laquan McDonald!
Convict Van Dyke and Throw Him in Jail—
The Whole Damn System Is GUILTY AS HELL!

Updated September 23, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Van Dyke must not walk free! Murder after murder by police MUST STOP. Because of the video of Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by Jason Van Dyke, and what people did in response through waves of protest in Chicago and around the country, this murdering pig is now on trial.

But the skids are being greased to let another killer cop loose. This murder and the massive cover-up that followed reveals the lengths to which this system will go to protect and enable these killer cops. Already in this trial, the judge has ruled that Laquan Mcdonald, whom Van Dyke is supposed to be on trial for murdering, cannot be referred to as a “victim.” Yet Van Dyke’s lawyers can paint Laquan as a threat and bring up his past to paint him as a violent “monster” who this cop had no choice but to kill. The judge forced Laquan’s mother to appear at a pre-trial hearing to answer questions from the Van Dyke lawyers (no doubt about Laquan’s alleged “violent” past). A jury has been seated with ONLY ONE Black juror in a city that is almost one-third Black...

From the slave catchers, to the KKK, to the killer cops of today. Black people have been terrorized and oppressed since the beginning of this white supremacist country, and those who run this system have always used the law to murderously repress and control Black people, along with stoking a fear of Black people through demonization and criminalization. While Van Dyke is on trial this time, and Laquan IS the victim of this murdering cop, this is an example that represents what future this system has for millions of youth just like Laquan, and whether that will be allowed and further unleashed. After all the struggle people have waged, another killer cop walking free would be another green light to genocide—under a Trump/Pence fascist regime that would be more than happy to take this to horrific new extremes and has called on police to be even more brutal, to “take the gloves off,” and to be let loose on Chicago.

Ways we can act now. Stakes are high—WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Everyone everywhere who has a heart and a conscience right now needs to stand on the right side and refuse to accept what for too long has been accepted as “normal.” We have to bring our outrage and heartbreak into the streets, where we work, where we go to school, where we live.

• Protest in front of the Cook Country Courthouse (26th and California) every Monday at 8am.
• Make Thursdays “Laquan Day.” Take 16 minutes of action for the 16 shots. Hold a silent protest, organize a “die-in”, hold a speak-out, a walkout, or occupy a space for 16 minutes.
• Take videos and pictures and spread them on social media. Share it with us on FB/TW:@revclubchi or revclub.chi@gmail.com
• Mobilize when the jury goes to decision. If Van Dyke IS found guilty, CELEBRATE the struggle that achieved this. IF Van Dyke is allowed to go free, business-as-usual NEEDS TO BE SHUT DOWN.

Get with the revolution. Making revolution to overthrow the system these murderous pigs really “serve and protect” is the only way to end the many outrages rooted in this system from the genocidal police terror and mass incarceration of Black people and other oppressed nationalities, to its wars and destruction of people and the environment, to the oppression and degradation of immigrants, women, and LGBTQ people. Everyone who wants to go to work on making revolution now should join the Revolution Club, and see this new filmed talk from Bob Avakian, WHY WE NEED AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION AND HOW WE CAN REALLY MAKE REVOLUTION. This film will let everyone who sees it learn that there IS a way out of this madness, and there is leadership for the struggle to make that way real. Go to revcom.us for Sept. 22nd-23rd preview showings and/or Contact the Revolution Club Chicago at 312.804.9121 or revclub.chi@gmail.com

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From the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

To Do This, We Need To Know:

Why we need an actual revolution.
What we need to do now.
How we could defeat them.

ABOUT THE BOOK, ORDER HERE

See excerpts HERE

Pre-publication PDF of this major work—including the appendices—available HERE

Insight Press has announced that in addition to the print book, THE NEW COMMUNISM is now available as an eBook at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble and other retail and library websites.

Points of Attention for the Revolution

The Revolution Club upholds, lives by and fights for the following principles:

1 We base ourselves on and strive to represent the highest interests of humanity: revolution and communism. We do not tolerate using the revolution for personal gain.

2 We fight for a world where ALL the chains are broken. Women, men, and differently gendered people are equals and comrades. We do not tolerate physically or verbally abusing women or treating them as sexual objects, nor do we tolerate insults or “jokes” about people’s gender or sexual orientation.

3 We fight for a world without borders, and for equality among different peoples, cultures and languages. We do not tolerate insults, “jokes” or derogatory names about a person’s race, nationality, or language.

4 We stand with the most oppressed and never lose sight of their potential to emancipate humanity—nor of our responsibility to lead them to do that. We work to win people of all backgrounds to take part in the revolution, and do not tolerate revenge among the people.

5 We search for and fight for the truth no matter how unpopular, even as we listen to and learn from the observations, insights and criticisms of others.

6 We are going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way beyond the destructive, vicious conflicts of today between the people. Because we are serious, at this stage we do not initiate violence and we oppose all violence against the people and among the people.

Now is the time to spread these messages to all of society

"HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution" is a companion to the Message from the Central Committee of the RCP, USA posted on www.revcom.us on May 16, 2016.  Get "HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution,” together with “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution,” out everywhere.  Now is the time to spread the word to all of society.

Download "HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution" HERE (36”x24” PDF): ENGLISH  | ESPAÑOL.  Download “Time to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution” HERE (17"x 22" PDF): ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL.  Our suggestion is that they be printed on white bond paper and posted together in the appropriate ways all over the place. Here’s a rough picture of what this could look like.

“HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution” now in booklet form!

Printing Instructions:
The PDF of a booklet that includes “HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution,” “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution” and the “Points of Attention for the Revolution”is now available. This booklet is 16 pages long. The size of the laid-out pages is 5 1/2" x 8 1/2". It can also be printed 6" x 9". There are two layouts here. 1) One is a single PDF with 16 consecutive, individual pages. 2) The second is a printer's spread; that is, the first spread is page 16 and page 1, the second is page 2 and page 15, etc., so that when it prints and is folded, the pages will be in order. Printers can tell you which layout they need. Readers should make plans for printing this 5 1/2" x 8.5" booklet, raising money, and getting it out in the tens of thousands everywhere as soon as possible.

ENGLISH:
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, single pages
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, printer spread

SPANISH:
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, single pages
Download 5.5x8.5 PDF, printer spread

From a member of the Revolution Club:

Some Notes on Tim Wise, Identity Politics, and Fascist Repression

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Notable anti-racist author and activist Tim Wise, who has done a lot of great work exposing and educating about white supremacy in this country, recently came to speak at a campus that a couple of us in the Revolution Club have done some work at. Wise’s work has been important in exposing large audiences to (at least a big part of) the actual history of this country, especially regarding segregation, lynching, and police brutality. At this event, we were seated in a favorable position, not far from the audience mics for the question and answer session, and we in fact had a “front row” seat to the fascist provocateurs who came in to disrupt the event. One proclaimed (very loudly) to be a professor at the school, and the other wore a disgusting red hat with a certain slogan that needs no repeating here (although Wise took this on from the stage, saying from his own perspective and viewpoint that the fascist slogan was bullshit).

These fascists interrupted Wise’s remarks within 90 seconds of the start, with jeers of “lies” and “Go Trump!” They were allowed to go on like this (at least as far as the security was concerned) for several minutes. Wise was skilled enough to verbally disarm these disrupters and use the audience to drown out their idiotic screeching.

Compare this to what happened to members of the Revolution Club at UCLA earlier this year, when they righteously disrupted the fascist Steve Mnuchin when he came to promote wars of aggression and assaults against the poor. What happened then? The pigs brutalized the club members who stood up and dragged them out of the venue without hesitation—all for telling the truth about the Trump/Pence fascist regime right in the nose of the rodent-like treasury secretary. And now, charges are still being brought down upon these courageous disrupters for this action and others who have called upon masses to rise up against this fascist regime, as part of a clearly larger, coordinated attack on both the movement for revolution and Refuse Fascism.

Another interesting thing to note is that Tim Wise did not completely, or even mainly, fall behind the Democratic Party line of leading people to put all of their energies and hopes into the upcoming midterm elections. Voting, in fact, was not even mentioned, although Trump and his regime’s open racism were a major feature of the speech. He did not, however, pinpoint Trump as a fascist, and there was little mention of the regime’s repulsive misogyny (either in Trump’s vulgar form or Pence’s puritanical “Handmaid’s Tale” vision). Wise’s line also veered into the depths of identity politics, which in fact backfired during the question and answer session, with a couple members of the audience asking why he did not yield his time or give the microphone to people of color. He insisted that he was doing important work to amplify the voices of progressive people of color using his organization and interview-form podcast. After the event, one of those “movement” folks who asked the question in a very snarky manner came up to us and complained about “Wise’s schtick” as a “white savior.”

This mentality is fucked up. People of all nationalities and backgrounds should be celebrated for speaking out against and organizing to resist white supremacy. Wise has dedicated a large part of his life to researching and fighting the cancer of racism in Amerikkka, from his own perspective. To discount his important work, or the work of anyone, on the basis of what race or nationality they are is unacceptable. We should judge people and the work they do based on its objective quality and merit, whether it essentially corresponds to reality as it actually is, and how this relates to the revolution humanity needs to emancipate itself from oppression and exploitation in all forms.

We should struggle with intellectuals, academics, and activists like Wise, who recognize that white supremacy and national oppression in this country are unacceptable and must be defeated, and challenge them to take this further. What is it really going to take to not just challenge and expose, but to excise these oppressive relations from social life?

As revcom.us has previously written:

[T]his SYSTEM that grew up on 246 years (246!) of slavery and another century beyond that of super-exploited Black labor in the fields and then the factories, that seized the land of Mexico for slavery and then oppressed and exploited Mexicans and Chicanos, that stole this country in the first place from the Native inhabitants, 90 percent of whom were wiped out in wars and epidemics—this system MUST BE OVERTHROWN!

Getting Our Heads Around Organizing Thousands ... and Thoughts on Building the Revolution Clubs

From a member of the Revolution Club

September 22, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

There are some things that have come up in the process of building the movement for revolution that I think may still be holding us back and are worth drawing some attention to.

One big thing is getting our heads around the kind of process that is involved in thousands getting “organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution.” (From HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution [HWCW]) In a recent letter on revcom.us called “Initial Thoughts on the Revolution Club…,” one of the things it says is, “Spreading and acting on the basis of the Points of Attention for the Revolution, the clubs have to go through the world as people living and embodying the values of the future world we’re fighting to bring into being. This too is a pole of attraction to the revolution for many. The clubs should be open to everyone who agrees to the Points of Attention, working and struggling with and learning from people, and not thinking everyone, or most people, will go ‘from zero to sixty.’ The clubs must embody a way of organizing and working with people that is gone into in the ‘Commitment and the Process of Building a Movement FOR Revolution’ piece from earlier this summer.”

The process discussed there, and in the “Commitment... Process” piece should not be taken as an “add-on” to what kind of work we are already doing. I think this involves breaking down, breaking with, and re-conceiving a lot of “how we do things” which tends to involve a lot of one-on-one work with people, and a lot of trying to develop and prepare people before they are involved in and given responsibility for working on the revolution. We need to be involving people and enabling them to take responsibility for the revolution AS they are learning and developing their understanding and ability to lead and take more responsibility, and we all should involve people in forging new ways that people can learn and develop above all in collective ways and as part of the process. How we do at this will also bear on whether or not we are building a movement and developing leaders for an actual revolution.

And the part that says “The clubs should be open to everyone who agrees to the Points of Attention, working and struggling with and learning from people, and not thinking everyone, or most people, will go ‘from zero to sixty’” indicates that these Points of Attention (POAs) need to be much more broadly used to give coherence and organization to a broad revolutionary movement, as opposed to just being the things you have to agree to once you’ve learned what you need to know to be able to begin taking part in the revolution.

I know I’ve been part of different approaches to building the clubs either with no process or coherence, or else an arduous process akin to a few college courses. Instead of this, for example, recently some of us were talking about how to bring into the club a number of people who got to see BA speak over the summer before we said to ourselves, “What are we gonna do with people that he didn’t just do with them and better? Let’s just talk to them and ask if they are ready to live by and fight for the POAs and if they get the basics of that and agree to it, that’s the point.” And this experience ended up showing how impactful it is for people to make that commitment and dedication in front of others when they were officially acknowledged. And then people will have to continue to struggle over how to follow through on that responsibility (I mean, who doesn’t have to keep doing that?) Doing regular ceremonies with groups of people welcomed into the club together with masses checking out the revolution has an affect all the way through, too, as it can also create a standard among the masses who are not yet ready to make that commitment but who can be part of broader support networks who are also able to hold people to those POAs who are representing for the revolution.

The New Film

This gets to another point about the upcoming film of Bob Avakian’s talk Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. I really think with what is said about it in the piece “Take This Film and Change Everything” that this film can play a key role in giving people the basic grounding in the “whys” and “hows” of revolution that can enable many people to take this up and step into the process. With the role this can play in relation to organizing the thousands, as well as influencing the millions, in mind, I think it is worth the clubs to have more crackling over how we build for the upcoming preview screenings and the online launch the next month, as well as sharing advanced experiences and the hardest obstacles. I know, for example, that where I am there is some promising potential of someone who was able to see the talk from BA live seeking to find ways to organize their own showings among circles of people who we are not normally in touch with. We know someone else who no longer lives close by and asked if there was a club near him he could join, so we are trying to set up working with him to pull some people together and send a club member out there to watch the film with them.

People should be coming to expect not ONLY to hear something great that will affect them, but we need to find ways so that people are getting a basic sense of the role this film can play in changing everything. (I saw that there is now another piece up on who should see this film and what this will do, very directly speaks to this and more!)

The Problem and the Solution

This relates to a last point that in everything we are doing, everyone working on the revolution together from brand new to more experienced, from heavily-involved to beginning involvement, everyone should in basic ways be let in on what are the problems of the revolution and how what we are doing now is part of going to work on them. Everyone who was lucky enough to be at the talks that BA gave this summer (that will be this new film) could learn a lot from how he modeled doing this throughout the speech and the Q&As that followed, bringing people in to working together on making revolution. The film, when it comes out, and HWCW are great tools for this, and they need to be worked with so everyone involved can contribute their thinking as well as practical involvement toward solving these problems.

Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for Revolution

To round out the picture, I also want to point out that none of what we are doing is off to the side of major battles going in throughout society. As that “Initial Thoughts” piece says, “Fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution is a key part of the strategy for revolution. In carrying out such a radical strategy for such a radical goal, the clubs must of necessity be the most radical, convention-breaking, not-playing-by-the-rules thing out there—and must bring forward masses to defend them when they are attacked for being that.” The film of BA’s talk, and HWCW also, give a lot of guidance for how to understand the “5 Stops” and how to enter into struggle around these “Stops” as part of building up the forces for revolution.

What I just wanted to say here is that here, too, we need to involve people not just in coming to protests or actions of various kinds, but also in questions like: How do we build up the authority of the revolution and its leadership? Where can we unite with others and where do we need to struggle? How do people learn to evaluate different organized forces, programs, culture and values—according to how it relates to the revolution we need to end all oppression? How do we carry all this out and defeat the attempts to crush the revolution and its leadership? Here, too, on revcom.us, there is a lot of up-to-date guidance on the various police attacks and charges facing the clubs all over the country. And here, too, we have to learn how people are involved in working on these problems as part of the whole process.

“Revolutions are made by the bold. On the basis of the solid core foundation of the works of BA and other key documents of the new communism, and the guidance that must be up every week and every day at revcom.us, the clubs must dare to storm the heavens—and dare to make mistakes in the process.” (From “Initial thoughts...”)

Revolution Club: On the Trains and Subways—and on a Mission to Spread Word About the New Film and Revolution

September 21, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From members of the Revolution Club, Los Angeles:

A team of three people from the Revolution Club jumped onto the city train and subways system with just a basic flyer promoting the upcoming preview screening of the new speech from Bob Avakian, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, and the pamphlet How We Can Win. We were very determined and on a mission to spread the word and hopped from train car to train car making public service announcements to tell people about the screening and what it’s all about. We were on a train in South Central and all different sorts of people were on the train. Lots of Black and Latino masses. But also students, scholars, lawyers, doctors and nurses, artists, people from every nationality and walk of life.

We would start off by talking about the way the world is, we would hold up the “5 Stops” and talk about maybe just one or two of them. We agitated about the 12,000 children locked away along the border and the consequences of Brett Kavanaugh being appointed to the Supreme Court, or the case of Laquan McDonald and how the police get away with murder after murder. We really drew from the recent articles on revcom.us, how they described what the film was about and who needed to see it. One comrade described the difference in their agitation saying they felt that this enabled them to speak to everyone rather than speaking to those who are more “attuned to revolution.” We were quick and concise with what this was all about.

When people heard what it was all about, some would put out their hands for the flyer. People would applaud, one woman stood up and said, “I want to support you!” and we quickly gave her a stack of flyers and told her of some ways to get involved before we had to jump off. The majority of people on the trains took the flyers and expressed interest. Especially among the Black masses you would see them close their eyes as if we had struck a deep chord, and small groups of people would scramble to grab the flyer.

There was also contention. There were people who said we had to deal with these problems by voting. So we took it on sharply and asked, “When has voting ever stopped the mass murder of Black and brown people by police?” One person said, “I’m for Jesus” and when we said, “But Jesus isn’t going to save us,” the guy threatened to call the police. Some of the masses took this on and told them to leave us alone and challenged him on that bullshit.

At one point the trains were so packed that nobody could move so we had to rely on masses to pass things out. One high school student said, “This is just like high school, take one pass it down.” Others took up the responsibility and handed it to people near them.

We got the sense that people are more paying attention to what’s going on, and clearly some of them were agonizing about it. We were able to create a scene everywhere we went and overall, it was a really positive example of being that bold social force. An example of achieving critical mass, even just the three of us by being bold and not half-stepping with what we are all about. There was something special about all the different sections of the people who are normally so isolated from each other, grabbing these flyers and expressing support. There was something important about people seeing that others really do care about these horrors. Including Black people seeing white people take this up, elderly and the youth, men and women, people from all different walks of life and different conditions. You could really see a glimpse of a future society. Goddamn this WAS FUN!

There is so much potential for this film to really put revolution on the map as something really contending as a possible future. People are listening and thinking about things, and when people find out that there is another path forward people start questioning all sorts of things. Let’s take this film and change the whole world.

Today's Message from the Revolution

October 26, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

October 26, 2019

Trump is unhinged and his whole regime is a danger to humanity. Millions feel this.
The question is posed: will people act—will Refuse Fascism lead?
Now is the time to mobilize to demand:

THIS NIGHTMARE MUST END:
THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!

September 10, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Following is an edited version of an informal 15-minute talk that Andy Zee, a co-initiator of Refuse Fascism and spokesperson for Revolution Books, gave to a conference call of 38 organizers of Refuse Fascism this past weekend. What follows is based on preparatory notes which have been edited for publication and then slightly expanded to add context for a broader audience. Andy Zee is reflecting on the call from the leadership of Refuse Fascism for actions to be organized by RefuseFascism.org this week, and why it is critical, from his perspective as a revolutionary and advocate for the new communism developed by Bob Avakian. Refuse Fascism is a movement of people coming from diverse perspectives, united in our recognition that the Trump/Pence regime poses a catastrophic danger to humanity and the planet and that it is our responsibility to drive them from power.

1. There is a moment when once again, but in a way that is truly unprecedented, the question, the reality, that Trump is a danger to humanity presses and imposes on the whole society and when millions of people are agonized and in turmoil.

There has been coincidence and perhaps coordination in the events of the last week, beginning with the McCain funeral and running through Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s book; the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nominee hearings; and the New York Times Anonymous Op-ed piece, reportedly from a Trump regime insider who claims to be working to prevent Trump from wreaking havoc. And now, Obama hitting the campaign trail speaking out against the danger of Trump and directing people to vote for the Democrats in the midterms. What all of this should tell us is that the split in the ruling class over the danger of Trump in particular, but in actuality reflecting a larger divide over the direction that the regime as a whole is taking, has burst forth in even sharper ways.

The McCain funeral (which he orchestrated before his death) was a rallying call to all the “wise” rulers—to the patrician class—to return to what has been at the center of the cohering norms and promise of America—which yes, is to give voice to mythology that masks the underlying reality of empire, exploitation and oppression, but which at the same time does reflect a different set of cohering beliefs and a different set of governing norms, principles, and policies that are sharply posed against the values and program of the Trump/Pence fascist regime. There is a real and qualitative difference between fascism and bourgeois democracy, and what we saw with McCain’s funeral was a concerted effort to rally the different factions of that bourgeois-democratic section of the ruling class to stand up against Trump and what he concentrates. George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who have sharp differences between them, nonetheless spoke here to prevent what they see as a dangerous direction that will undermine the values and governing principles which they believe are the best way to preserve and protect the American empire.

2. The Anonymous Op-ed—whoever it was and whatever their motive—whether this was a call to the masses who are concerned to not worry, there are “adults” in the room, or is a self-justification should Trump go for whatever reason, or to prepare to keep and defend aspects of the Trump/Pence fascist program, or even a call to lay the groundwork for Trump’s removal ... I don’t know, and that is not the essential question. That is true even as, if the person who wrote the Op-ed piece is outed and Trump does attempt to go after them or the New York Times legally, we may have the necessity to defend them. But, the salient point for us is that there is an important consequence of this Op-ed, most likely unintended, which is that millions of people are aroused or at least have the question re-posed in their minds of what the fuck is this danger to humanity still doing at the seat of power? However people come at this, it is now in their faces. The very real FEAR of nuclear or environmental devastation, of losing basic rights to abortion, immigration, dissent. DISGUST at the lying, corruption, demeaning culture of hatred and bigotry. OUTRAGE that this narcissistic white supremacist, misogynist, Nazi pig is still in power.

What is the channel for all that to be expressed? Will the only channels be relying on the political processes, in one form or another, that currently exist—processes that have left the regime in power up to now? Will the only avenue be voting for and pressuring the Democrats? Even as some of them may raise a hue and cry of protest, and even as they genuinely express their convictions, at the end of the day they can only and will only leave people with the message and program to support, rely on and vote for us, the Democrats, to resolve this. We need to recognize that because of their disproportionate influence and because their social base is looking—even begging—for them to act, when they step out and do so, this will have the contradictory effect of arousing the people; of sharpening the contradictions with the fascist regime; and at the same time attempt to lead the masses of people who would prefer for the Democrats to resolve matters for them. Nonetheless, what we are emphasizing in making this Call to Act this week, is that the questions are posed: Who will lead the masses to act in their own interests to drive out this regime? Who if not us?

How will Refuse Fascism ever realize its single overriding mission, “massive, sustained nonviolent protests in the streets of cities and towns across the country—protests that continue day after day and don’t stop, creating the kind of political situation in which the demand that the Trump/Pence regime be removed from power is met” if we don’t give all we’ve got to mobilize masses of people in this situation?

Could this situation turn out to be another moment that ends up piling more evidence on top of evidence of actions of outrage that soon peter out? Yes, that is possible ... but that is not all that is possible. Do we see the depth of the crisis that this moment reveals in the sharpening contradiction at the top of the ruling class and what that should tell us about the potential to bring forward the masses of people whose interests will not be served by those in power who seek to return to what was, which is to say which limits the people’s struggle and things on terms that maintain the conditions that have spawned this fascism in the system we live under? The Democrats will not fundamentally challenge or unleash the fury of the people because they are committed to maintaining the system of capitalism and the coherence of America that has two and a half centuries of white supremacy woven into its fabric—the genocide and theft of Native people’s land, on slavery and continued oppression of people of color; a country that then expanded the wealth extracted from literal human bondage with vicious exploitation and demonization of immigrants that continues with new groups subjected to this oppression in new horrific forms as we speak on this phone call, with hundreds of children separated from their parents; and the projection and enforcement of an empire of exploitation and oppression around the world. Again, McCain and Bush and Obama, with all their sharp differences with each other, see projecting America to the world in the name of democracy (while sometimes acknowledging some of its “imperfections and faults”) while seeing multilateral global institutions and alliances as the best way to advance U.S. imperialist interests, and at the same time are sounding the alarm and rallying their class against the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist program which they regard as a great danger to their whole setup. They have a deep belief that their program is the only and best way to advance those interests, that those interests must be advanced through the established channels and not getting to the root of the problem. And that would mean that not only all of the oppressive fabric of this society would be left intact with all that means for people’s lives, but the whole political structure that enforces this empire (from the ICE to the injustice system of mass incarceration) will also be intact to enforce those relations. And, note this well, leaving this just to elections and the Democrats will also leave the hard social base of Donald Trump—that now is determined to have their White Supremacist, Patriarchal Christian Fascist world delivered to them—enraged and even more vengeful, while the progressive strata will have no initiative, having left the Democrats to conciliate, collaborate and perhaps very partially ameliorate the damage already done.

This is why Cory Booker will risk being “Spartacus” in breaking Senate protocol and even pay some price for that and set some example... But he did not call out all those—hundreds of thousands and millions—who oppose Kavanaugh to, for example, blockade D.C. or surround the Capital ... and instead will lead people to see the only remedy lies in the midterm elections. BUT, WE SHOULD RECOGNIZE and LEAD PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND AND ACT at a moment like this, when there is a sharpening clash in the ruling class, when TV news not only plays Booker’s statement but shows the scene from the movie Spartacus where slave after slave stands up in the face of the slave masters to say “I am Spartacus,” that an idea is planted (and promoted). Again, we ask, will we call all of those Spartacuses forward to act now... people of diverse political persuasions who are now aroused, many of whom are looking for and all are needing leadership and a way to act?

3. Do we see the real potential in what is unfolding right now and as things may well continue to sharpen? Protests that begin this week could continue—perhaps every week. Depending on what we do and what others see their necessity is and what they do—including masses of people and other social forces and groups—as the week unfolds with perhaps more revelations, attacks and possibly or likely the confirmation of Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Wednesday evening’s protests and speak-outs, or next Saturday, could see a flood of forces pouring into the streets. We could even possibly be faced soon, or in the future, with candidates for elected office wanting to join and even speak at Refuse Fascism protests. Yes, different groups and forces who objectively and/or even consciously will try to take things into the ways they see for resolving the crisis... but we have to understand that this is the complex mix we want and will necessarily be a part of the process of getting to the millions. We do have to put forth and struggle and organize for what must the solid core of our protests and if such forces succeed in cooling things out by taking the actions of masses of people back into the midterms full stop, that will undermine the masses' ability to drive out the regime. But we have to understand that to get to where millions are in the streets, that contention over programs will be a part of the process—with many coming into the streets, from points of view which will correspond to what people have been trained in—which is relying on forms of protest that are bound up with a process of protesting as a way to mobilize for the ballot box and/or pressuring those in power. Yet, when people do stand up, it is in large part because they feel the urgency to act, and that is something we can work with and lead.

Refuse Fascism has a clear program: that only millions of people in the streets and staying in the streets day after day in sustained nonviolent protest can create the situation where the regime is removed from power, which is the only way that the interests of humanity will be served. All the way through until the regime is driven from power, we will be struggling for bringing forward the people, the organization, and the unity to achieve that, to developing increasing understanding and momentum towards that goal which will necessarily take place in the course of struggling over what program will resolve this.

My main point here—a key “take away” in this third point in this presentation—is that rather than see—and worse—be bound by what could be the limitations of the current situation ... the Refuse Fascism plan for this week of mass expressions is based on and is aiming for the potential of this situation to continue to sharpen, and to give expression to and provide a vehicle for the mass struggle to drive out the regime to grow, with Refuse Fascism not only putting its program in front of society and directly into the hands of thousands, but also building the organization as well as the unity with other organized groupings—from religious to more political and cultural forces—to build the momentum towards our objective. And we’ll work for and see whether or not that comes out of this round of struggle—and we most definitely should not rule that out.

Let me just elaborate on one more point so we have more clarity on the actual political situation that is unfolding. The Republican Party having increasingly developed in a fascist direction and now having thrown their lot in with the Trump/Pence regime—including the unleashing of the hard core white supremacist social base being called into battle with campaign rallies and through daily tweets and more explicit calls on fascist media and social media—will not back down. In response, the Democrats will not be calling their base out to act in a way such that they could really be unleashed to struggle against fascism as if the future depended on it—which it does. Just imagine if the Democrats walked out of Congress and stayed out till the regime was gone, or even until the nomination of Kavanaugh was scuttled, and they called on the people to occupy the streets of D.C. and cities around the country. Unimaginable now ... Yes, why? Because they want to and have a need to keep things within the bounds of the system. And, when they do call protests, they do so strictly to rope people into the arena of the elections—including on terms that the Democratic Party leadership wants to compete with Trump—on the economy, and being even more pro-military. The Democrats also allow some space for reformers. Obama put his arm around that last week pulling these people in, saying: “... with each new candidate that surprises you with a victory that you supported, a spark of hope happens.” But the reality will be that the system will change the reformers and not the other way around.

What if, instead, the people act in their own interests? Then, the equation changes and real things that are in contention in their inter–ruling class divisions (that impact lives of millions and which people are deeply concerned about) could come into play in ways that are favorable for the masses in motion to fight even more for our own interests and continue to fight as that struggle sharpens.

An important tool for people broadly to understand the roots of how we got to this point in history, the dynamics of the situation, and what to do about it, is the film of a talk by Bob Avakian, The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America; A Better World IS Possible! This film is featured on the Refuse Fascism website, and members of Refuse Fascism would benefit from repeated viewings of it, as well as sharing it with others.

One last point on the potential of this situation, again without a crystal ball or guarantees: the underlying contradictions of the capitalist system we live under and the way that has taken shape in the history of this country have given rise to the current moment, and the dynamics of this are now taking shape in the political reality of fascism as a particular form of rule of that system—concentrated in the Trump/Pence fascist regime. This is in contention with what has been the mainstream of ruling circles—and in sharp antagonism with the interests of the majority of humanity. What is unfolding right now has real elements of a constitutional crisis, which could give rise to even sharper constitutional crisis on a whole more profound level. And as this unfolds in a sharply contended political situation, it could possibly give rise to legitimacy crises and vice versa in what could be a contended back-and-forth mix. From a revolutionary analysis and perspective, all of this holds the potential for a radically different future—to overthrow the system that has given rise to this fascism and all the horrors of this system. While this is not the unity or program of Refuse Fascism, I think it crucial that this analysis and how an actual revolution could be made be engaged by thousands and millions. In this regard I want to commend to your attention the announcement on revcom.us that very soon there will be a film of a talk by Bob Avakian—Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution.

4. In conclusion, this a moment when the NIGHTMARE is urgently palpable to millions yet again. This is a moment when, if there is a force that gives people a way to act that really does have the potential to create the political situation where the regime IS driven from power—they could be moved. Refuse Fascism is that force ... but we are that only if we act now. That is the thinking behind working hard this week to call forth everyone to a mass meeting—everyone we have known, all those groups and organizations that are working to oppose the regime, and getting the word out far and wide. Calling students and others to protest and speak out on Wednesday after work—in the public squares. This should happen everywhere across the country. We should recognize that this week will likely bring the confirmation (or not) of Kavanaugh and all that this could call forth from the people. This then is creating momentum for masses to come out on the weekend. Refuse Fascism will be providing a vehicle for all who feel a renewed moment to act—an outrage at Trump and all that he has brought forth—which is a regime bringing a fascist America—to stand up, to join the great struggle and cause to end the nightmare and drive the Trump/Pence regime out. We will declare and infuse this with the understanding and stand that In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.

Trump IS Unhinged, His Whole Regime IS a Danger to Humanity

Protests in 12 Cities Demand:

THIS NIGHTMARE MUST END: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!

Updated September 16, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

New York

Saturday, September 15—With divisions at the top of society sharply escalating, RefuseFascism.org called for protests across the country to raise, from below, the demand expressing the interests of humanity: “We must not wait to act. THIS NIGHTMARE MUST END: THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!” 

People in 12 cities across the country held protests raising this demand, marching, rallying and distributing Refuse Fascism’s Call to Action. Demonstrations took place in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Honolulu, and Houston. Protests were also scheduled in Boston Detroit, and Seattle. 

Vote in the streets with your feet!#TrumpPenceMustGo pic.twitter.com/LKXt7WLBtl

— Sunsara Taylor (@SunsaraTaylor) September 15, 2018

Listen to @SunsaraTaylor and get your hands on the https://t.co/cVmiL2ZaE9 Call to Action and be part of reaching millions with the demand #TrumpPenceMustGo and the plan to make it possible. pic.twitter.com/q7QEpGgdlB

— #TrumpPenceMustGo (@RefuseFascism) September 16, 2018

Jasmine From @ShutDownBerks at @refusefascismPH #TrumpPenceMustGo protest today! The attacks on immigrants are a battering ram and linchpin of the whole fascist program. I unfortunately cut off before she laid some truth on the need for the people to be the saviors of humanity. pic.twitter.com/zZ0QilxE4H

— Samantha Goldman (@SamanthaGoldm19) September 15, 2018

Los Angeles

Houston

Atlanta

Some observations about the trial of Jason Van Dyke who murdered Laquan McDonald—Day 2 of the trial

September 19, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader

Today a key witness was Van Dyke’s partner, Walsh, who was not televised at his request, so the public could not listen to his testimony.  However in listening to the opening arguments, hearing several pigs-on-the-scene testify Day 1 and today, and reading about Walsh’s testimony (which is the prosecution presenting its case)—you would have thought you were hearing the defense’s side.

In the opening argument, the defense shifted its narrative from emphasizing that Van Dyke feared for his life to Van Dyke was concerned about Laquan going to either the Burger King or the Dunkin Donuts and endangering the people there.  As one attorney who has defended police said in his commentary on the trial – this is a good approach for the police to take because it is about protecting the public, not the individual cop.  This was combined with putting Laquan on trial: “he controlled the situation” (remember how Rodney King was controlling the situation?) by allegedly taking PCP, allegedly going on a sort of “wilding” around the city for the previous 24 hours taking public transit from the west side to the south side, by asking a woman to borrow her car—basically a thug who was a rabid menace to society who had to be put down. 

Then the cops who were given immunity, especially but not only Walsh, were put on the stand by the prosecution; Walsh was given partial immunity for his testimony (since he is up on charges for lying to cover up Laquan’s murder in the first place) and then he proceeded to run out the same story as the defense.   The prosecution did not draw out and hammer Walsh on the fact that he lied to protect Van Dyke right after the murder and made up what he said in his police report and how is it that he is not lying again to protect Van Dyke?  Oh, they couldn’t, Walsh was their witness!!!  Why wouldn’t the prosecution let Van Dyke’s defense team call Walsh to the stand and then shred his testimony as not to be believed.

The Chicago Tribune pointed out that the city inspector general found Walsh made numerous false statements and material omissions in his interview with police and the Independent Police Review Authority (the agency that investigated police-involved shootings) in the wake of the murder of Laquan.  “Walsh’s actions embody the ‘code of silence’ that has no legitimate place in CPD” the report said.   And now he is being allowed to tell another BIG LIE in order to back up Van Dyke’s legal defense.

The defense in its opening arguments showed the law that says something like police can use deadly force when someone is escaping arrest and a danger to the public.  The pigs are now taking the murder of Laquan and trying to figure out how to justify it since the video blew huge holes in their original cover up of this murder.

At the time Laquan was murdered, the ....

”cops and the police report said: That Van Dyke exited his vehicle, drew his handgun, then stood in the street as McDonald came toward him and that “McDonald was holding the knife in his right hand, in an underhand grip, with the blade pointed forward.... He was swinging the knife in an aggressive, exaggerated manner.” That Van Dyke repeatedly ordered McDonald to drop the knife. Then, “When McDonald got within 10 to 15 feet of Officer Van Dyke, McDonald looked toward Van Dyke, McDonald raised the knife across his chest and over shoulder, [sic] pointing the knife at Van Dyke.” Van Dyke said he continued to fire at McDonald while he was on the ground because McDonald “appeared to be attempt(ing) to get up, all the while continuing to point the knife” at him and still presented a threat.                       

One cop said he believed McDonald was “attempting to kill them” when Van Dyke opened fire. One report read, “In defense of his life, Van Dyke backpedaled and fired his handgun at McDonald, to stop the attack.... McDonald fell to the ground but continued to move and continued to grasp the knife, refusing to let go of it.”.  (See “The Murder of Laquan McDonald: Cops, Lies and Videotape, Part 2”).

The video shows Laquan making no aggressive moves toward the cops.  There is a high construction/mesh fence running down the block, Laquan is in the middle of the street.  His hand with a SMALL knife is at his side.  In fact, video on Monday showed a cop walking behind Laquan about 10 feet for several blocks.  This cop had his gun out but said Laquan wasn’t threatening him—he seemed “out of it” and the cops were waiting for a taser.  This scene went on for more than 10 minutes!  Given this, given that Van Dyke shot Laquan within 6 seconds—how are they going to say this is justifiable homicide?

Now the pigs’ testilying revolves around their feigned “concern” that Laquan was going to somehow get into the Burger King or Dunkin Donuts.  IF THAT WAS TRUE WHY DIDN’T THEY SAY IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?  WHY THE WHOLE OTHER STORY COMPLETELY CONTRADICTED BY A VIDEO THAT THE POLICE NEVER THOUGHT WOULD COME OUT? 

Walsh continued to claim that from his vantage point what Laquan was doing looked completely different than what is seen on the video—continuing to claim that Laquan raised up the knife with his arm when everyone can see he wasn’t threatening the police with the knife... this is setting the stage for the defense airing a video that they CREATED that purports to show what Van Dyke saw that night.  A fake video vs the real video.  And the prosecution greased the skids for it!!!

One other heart-breaking moment in the trial—a Cook County sheriff who was patrolling in the area followed the police cars streaming to the scene of the shooting and the video showed him among pigs who are standing in a row out in the street as Laquan’s crumpled body is in the street.  The sheriff’s deputy said he could hear Laquan gasping for air and gurgling.  He went over to the body to “render first aid”—he didn’t do anything.  He claims he told Laquan that an ambulance was coming... but he didn’t know if it even arrived.  The prosecution did not ask him if anyone else on the scene asked him if the teenager was alive or if anyone attempted to administer first aid... the prosecution did not drive home what is a sickening and revealing condemnation of all the pigs on the scene.  They were much more concerned about saving their asses while they treated Laquan like so much road kill.

Maya faces seven years in prison for a SILENT PROTEST in support of immigrants —
Meanwhile the attacks on immigrants escalated, first DACA now immigrants and children continue to be Caged, Tortured, and Sexually Abused

This is an OUTRAGE—all charges must be dropped now!

September 17, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On March 1, 2018, University of Chicago police who brutally attacked and arrested Maya (Diya Cruz), a Latinx member of the Revolution Club Chicago, for participating in a SILENT protest in support of undocumented immigrants, charged HER with felony battery on a police officer. She has also been banned from the University of Chicago campus!

Maya took part in 11 minutes of silence for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are being terrorized in an escalating ethnic cleansing by the Trump/Pence regime. As part of a countrywide protest called for by Refuse Fascism, Maya, together with three other members of the Revolution Club, walked into the University of Chicago student center and simply held up sheets of paper announcing 11 minutes of silence for 11 million undocumented immigrants and stood silently for 11 minutes. Many in the dining hall joined in. It was a symbolic summoning to students to THINK about what it means that this government is terrorizing immigrants. After 11 minutes, the Revolution Club thanked all who participated and headed towards the exit, where they were stopped by police who at first prevented them from leaving, demanding identification, and then said they could go. Out of nowhere, the police attacked Maya, grabbing her roughly and then arresting her, literally dragging her down the stairs and out of the building. She has been charged with two felony counts of assault which carry seven years in prison for this SILENT protest, for silently sounding the alarm on the unfolding horror of the Trump/Pence regime.

Ironically, the University of Chicago has made a public point of its policy to encourage free expression, stating: “...the University has a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.” Yet they have, in fact, acted against that very principle when their police attacked Maya. At the same time the U of C administration defended an invitation for the fascist Steve Bannon, whose white supremacist views falsely defame immigrants, Muslims, and people of color.

While the prosecution is likely to claim the persecution of Maya is “not political,” the court hearings show otherwise. At the initial hearing that should have been a routine bail hearing, the prosecutor arrived with a lengthy, distorted, and utterly irrelevant political dossier on Maya, portraying her as dangerous and undeserving of bail—on the basis of her alleged political views and associations and the fact that police have previously attempted to suppress her while she was engaged in lawful speech. At subsequent hearings, Maya’s case has not all been “routine.” At one hearing, the judge recalled that Maya had raised her fist to her supporters at the previous hearing and made it a condition of her bond that she couldn’t raise her fist in his courtroom, which he called “a sacred space.” When, as they were leaving, Maya’s supporters raised their fists the judge told them if they raised their fists again he would jail them for “contempt of court.” At another hearing the prosecution almost successfully got Maya’s bail revoked for another mass harassment arrest of the Revolution Club, this one at the People’s Puerto Rican Day parade, in which Maya was also bogusly arrested.

Maya’s arrest at the U of C also foreshadowed an ongoing series of attacks by the authorities on Revolution Clubs in Chicago and around the country. In Chicago alone, throughout the spring and summer people associated with the Revolution Club have been repeatedly arrested, threatened with arrest, ticketed for using legal sound while reaching out to people throughout the city. Including Maya’s case, people associated with the Revolution Club currently face a full dozen cases in court.

Since the arrest at the University of Chicago, the Trump/Pence regime has accelerated persecution of immigrants, ripping children from their parents’ arms at the border and caging them like dogs. Hundreds of these children remain caged and it is unknown when or if they will be reunited, since many parents have been deported back to their home country. There have been videos and reports of children unable to recognize their parent. The future of OUR children is unknown. But what is known is that the torture children experienced will be a lifelong traumatic experience. The court’s decision to end the separation addresses the problem by holding families together in concentration camps. It’s now come out that over 12,800 children and counting, labeled as “unaccompanied minors,” are held in concentration camps in unimaginable, gut-wrenching conditions. More recently, the Trump administration has been accusing hundreds of Latinx along the U.S.-Mexico border of possessing fraudulent birth certificates, and they are being denied U.S passports.

NO! As Bob Avakian says in the Q&A of his crucial talk, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America—A Better World IS Possible in speaking about what it is going to take to protect those who are vulnerable to attack by this system, “Other people have to get involved, other people... who are not directly affected in this or that thing, including deportations, have to take the stand that this is intolerable and we won’t allow it.” And he also goes on to say, “We cannot protect people from what the people in power are intending to do to them, other than by driving out the people in power.”

Maya has been part of the movement to drive out Trump and Pence and sounding the alarm that the attacks on immigrants are intolerable! She is also a revolutionary and what motivates her to defy and repudiate the injustices and atrocities of this putrid system is to fight to put an end to all forms of oppression here and around the world.

What is being done now to immigrants is nothing short of ethnic cleansing and there is a clear message here that those trying to fight this will be silenced. YOU ARE NEEDED! If you abhor the way that immigrants are being demonized, terrorized and incarcerated, deported, and that Latinx’ citizenship is being stripped away, then regardless of your political stance, you need to support and defend Maya, and like she did on March 1, take the stand that what is happening to immigrants is intolerable and we won’t allow it!

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:

• Use your creativity and make this case widely known.This is a crucial part in creating the conditions in the legal arena where Maya (and all who stand up against injustice) can prevail over the outrageous charges Maya faces for her righteous stand.

• Spread the case on social media.
• If you are in Chicago invite Maya and members of the Revolution Club to speak to your class, church, school group etc.
• Help reach out to newspapers, college newsletters, radio or talk shows, etc.

• Pack the courtroom. To follow the case and upcoming court dates, like us on Facebook: Revolution Club Chicago.
• Donate funds. Thousands of dollars are needed to pay for getting the word out and for the legal expenses being incurred.

• Donate here.
• Organize a fundraiser party.

The Revolution Club Organizing Center

1857 E. 71st St, South Shore

Chicago, Illinois 60649

(312) 804-9121 * Email: revclub.chi@gmail.com * revcom.us * FB/Twitter @RevClubChi

From the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico:

In the Face of the Crimes of the State: Never Forgive, Never Forget, but Rather Resistance and Revolution!

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The following flyer from the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico, was translated from Spanish by revcom.us; the original article appeared at aurora-roja.blogspot.com.

Fifty years after the massacre of Tlatelolco [October 2, 1968], four years after Ayotzinapa and Tlatlaya, two years after Nochixtlán, these and many other crimes of the state remain in absolute impunity. And the armed forces and police of this criminal state continue murdering, disappearing and torturing thousands of people. In a “listening” forum in Ciudad Juárez, Andrés Manuel López Obrador [newly elected Mexican president] insisted that in order to achieve “pacification and reconciliation,” the victims would have to grant “forgiveness”. The victims and their families began to shout very justly so, “Never forgive, never forget!” and “Without justice, there is no forgiveness!” “Forgiving” crimes against humanity would only contribute to perpetuate the monstrous war against the people by the state, in collusion at all levels with organized crime, which has resulted in more than 200,000 murders in the last 12 years. The only hope of justice is the determined resistance of the people to expose and denounce these crimes, and the only definitive way out of so many horrors is a revolution that overthrows this criminal state and the current rotten inhuman system, responsible for so much misery and unnecessary suffering.

Ayotzinapa: It Was the State, and They Continue Lying to Cover It Up

The evidence compiled by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) leaves no doubt that the federal government, as well as the state and municipal governments, participated directly in the joint operation that resulted in the murder of six people and the disappearance of the 43 teaching college students of Ayotzinapa, and who later took actions to cover up this terrible crime. Military and police from the three levels of government spied on the students with the C4 [Center of Command, Control, Communications and Computer] system from when they left the school. The police and the armed forces (as well as drug traffickers) participated in the coordinated operation to prevent the students from leaving Iguala in the State of Guerrero, and the army took control of the C4 at critical times and suppressed the videos of these crimes.

Then the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and its Criminal Investigation Agency (AIC) set up a cover-up of this state crime, with the alleged “historical truth” that the 43 students had been incinerated by an organized crime group in the Cocula dump on the very night of September 26, 2014. This lie has been rejected by virtually every independent investigation, including the investigations by the GIEI itself, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), Amnesty International, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The government fabricated its lie by torturing people illegally detained. The recent report of the UN High Commissioner confirms that, in the 34 cases that it investigated, the detainees were tortured.

A video and other evidence also indicate that they planted, under the command of Tomás Zerón of the AIC, a piece of bone, from the missing student Alex Mora Venancio, in a garbage bag along the San Juan River on October 28, 2014, to be “discovered” the next day by divers from the Marines. In addition, they planted 42 bullet shell casings in the Cocula dump. If the federal government planted Alex’s bone, obviously it was directly involved in these crimes. Authorities at the highest level of the government know where the disappeared students are, and they are only trying to cover up the role of their own uniformed assassins.

And they continue to cover up this massacre: Ten federal government entities have filed at least 222 court appeals to prevent the creation of a “Truth Commission,” and former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto appears in government ads to defend the same lie “that the 43 young people had been incinerated by a criminal group.” Nobody from the new incoming federal government has come out to expose him for what he is: A cynical and lying criminal. Alejandro Encinas (future undersecretary of human rights of the Secretariat of the Interior) promises to push for a real investigation as of December 1, but López Obrador has already promised to choose the new heads of the armed forces from among today’s same criminal generals and admirals. So, what will his government do in the face of the opposition from the armed forces, the police and the PGR to being investigated?

It is because of the tenacious resistance of the family members, the students and thousands of other people in Mexico and the world that the state has not yet been able to bury the whole truth and close the case. Whether all the truth comes out and there is possibility of some justice, will depend on the determined resistance of the people, independent of the state, who free of restraints, expose the state’s crimes and its lies.

NEVER FORGET October 2, and the Same Murdering State Still Stands

Although there have been some changes in form, in essence the current state is still the same state as the one that massacred more than one hundred students and others on October 2, 1968, when the army opened fire on a peaceful rally under orders from President Gustavo Díaz Órdaz and his Secretary of the Interior, Luís Echeverría, with the backing and advice of U.S. imperialism. Although the first government with parties “alternating in power” and a supposed “democratic transition” with Vicente Fox as president, promised to investigate and clarify “the crimes of the past” with a special prosecutor’s office, this office was finally dissolved and none of the executioners responsible for the massacres of Tlatelolco, the “Halconazo” of June 10, 1971 [massacre of students by elite Mexican army soldiers], nor the government’s dirty war in the following years was put on trial or punished.

The 1968 student movement erupted at a time of revolts and revolutions that convulsed the world and encouraged the hopes of millions of the possibility of overthrowing the current capitalist system and getting to a much better socialist society. This movement fought the antiriot police heroically, demanded freedom for political prisoners, mocked the “regime of the Mexican Revolution,” and exposed the reactionary nature of the repressive forces of the state, which was and remains an oppressive machine to subdue all mass opposition that threatens or even hinders the “proper functioning” of the reigning system.

Stop the War Against the People!

This reactionary repressive role of the state is largely disguised now with the supposed “war against organized crime” declared 12 years ago by then President Felipe Calderón with the sponsorship of the U.S. government, which is really a war against the people. This accelerated the militarization of Mexico, increased the scourge of organized crime, and led to a huge escalation of widespread violence against the people—murders, femicides, disappearances, torture, and the unjust imprisonment of thousands of innocent people—at the hands of the forces of the state and also criminal groups, who act in collusion while competing and clashing among each other. This is a form of preventive counterinsurgency, which tries to prevent a mass insurgency from arising. In the Enrique Peña Nieto government, all this reactionary violence against the mass movements and also against the population in general has intensified. Just in July 2018, the official figure (which minimizes the actual number) was 2,599 murders—the highest figure for which there are records. In the first seven months of 2018, 16,339 people are murdered. The murders of women classified as femicide also hit a record 78 women in July, an official figure that omits many misogynistic murders that are not recorded as femicides. The Femicide Map, for example, reported more than 230 femicides per month in 2017.

Immigrants, mainly Central Americans, are a key target of this war, with the Mexican state acting as U.S. guard dog. They flee from criminal and patriarchal violence and from misery, the product of the destruction of the countryside and the environment, as well as the super-exploitation by imperialist companies. The Mexican government and the hitmen collude to kidnap, deport, disappear, or murder them. The crime of the 72 executed immigrants buried in San Fernando, Tamaulipas brought to light this massacre, but remains in absolute impunity. The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement says that it has documented between 70 and 80,000 disappeared Central Americans in the six years of Calderón government, 30 percent of them women and girls, many of them sold into human trafficking networks. Since 2014, the Mexican state, with the U.S. calling the shots, has intensified this persecution, deporting more Central Americans than the U.S. and also collecting their biometric data for the U.S. Currently, the Trump/Pence fascist regime is seeking to impose a Mexico as a “safe third country,” corralling the migrants in Mexico who are seeking asylum in the U.S.

The Army and the Marines Disappear or Murder the Detainees

“Extrajudicial executions” are already the daily norm. The crime of Tlatlaya in 2014 still remains unpunished, where the army soldiers murdered 22 people, executing the majority of them after they had surrendered, obeying written orders to “go out into the night to shoot down criminals.” Later, the police arrested and tortured the witnesses.

Since January 2018, the Marines have unleashed a reign of terror in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. As of May, they had disappeared 36 people, nine of them had already appeared murdered with signs of torture. Despite videos, photographs, witnesses, and even several cases in which family members followed the kidnapper Marines to their bases, the commanders keep denying everything, just as they did in March when a Marine helicopter murdered two girls and their mother, a fact that was later verified by the expert reports.

The Problem Is the System, the Solution Is the Revolution

Why, in these and many other cases, do the forces of the state murder, disappear, torture, and repress people? It is not simply due to corrupt officials, the lack of “training in human rights” or that “they are not doing their job.” The truth is that by repressing people, the state is doing its job: Its job is to defend a system based on the exploitation and oppression of the great majority by a handful of big Mexican and foreign capitalists. There is no way to maintain this system of big injustices and inequalities without sowing terror among the people on the bottom of society and repressing the outbreaks of protest and rebellion, and this is precisely the fundamental role of the current state. The election of López Obrador as president has awakened in many hopes that he may at least lessen the growing horrors that we are living, but the reality is that he is going to be at the head of the same criminal state, representing and defending the same heartless system.

The only way out for the people is the most determined independent resistance that exposes the criminal state, and contributes to preparing a revolution guided by the New Communism, to overthrow the current predominantly capitalist system subordinated to imperialism which is the root of so much misery and injustice, and create a new socialist society. If you want to contribute to another future that is possible and much better, share this flyer and contact us.

Aurora Roja, voice of the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico
aurora-roja.blogspot.com
September 1, 2018

On August 27, 1968, armored tanks went up against students in Mexico City who staged a protest in the Zócalo plaza, one of the largest protests against the government in Mexico's history. (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)

Protest of family members and others against disappearance of people by Marines, Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico.

“We Are All Ayotzinapa! The State Is Not Negligent, It Is Criminal! The people stand up for another future!—National Resistance Network ‘¡Stop the War on the People!’”

September 25, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

September 25

Hundreds Attend the Preview Screenings of

WHY WE NEED AN ACTUAL REVOLUTION
AND HOW WE CAN REALLY MAKE REVOLUTION
A speech by
Bob Avakian

A Good Beginning ... Be a part of inviting thousands to see it ...

People were rapt... taking in and wrestling with the stark case that Bob Avakian (BA) makes in Part 1 of this film for why we face only two choices: either we live with the horrors that this system brings down on the people, or, we make revolution. Then, in Part 2, he breaks down a question that has bedeviled people for decades and more: How we could really make revolution in a country like this and what we have to do now to make that real. People were inspired and provoked to think about what they had never imagined possible.

If you were moved by what BA said, if you think people you know and people everywhere who yearn for a better world need to see this ... then, read on and be a part of letting people know there is a leader of, and plan for, revolution—and there is a film that brings that home.

We are building for the October 19 Online Premiere of the film at www.revcom.us. The aim over the next few weeks is to spread the word and build political momentum and movement so that thousands tune in on the weekend that begins October 19.

What’s next? FOUR THINGS TO DO

Show the film wherever we can.

Pull together family or friends or people we work with... take it to groups and classes at school ... wherever ... let people see this and learn about the revolution. Let them experience Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution and the developer of the new communism that is the road to emancipating humanity. Give people ways, from small to large, to get involved in spreading this. Where possible, more experienced people should be paired with less experienced, but everyone can do this. To get a copy of the film to show to your group, contact Revolution Books, or the Revolution Club in your area, or write to revolution.reports@yahoo.com for an advance screening link. Read “How to be part of a mass movement to spread BA's speech.”

Raise money. The next 2 weekends are fundraising weekends for the film!

We need money to get word of this film out to thousands! Many people, once they see the trailer, will want a chance to support the movement to spread this film. When you ask people to donate you are giving them an opportunity to be a part of a national effort to change the world. Everyone who wants this film to be seen should be planning and organizing now for these weekend efforts. And, fundraising should be part of everything we all do—when we are talking to individuals, or groups, or just spreading the word on social media or on the streets. It’s a key part of getting organized for revolution. There’s an online fundraising campaign. Anyone can do it, and there are many ways to fundraise—from shaking the can, to bake sales, to fundraising parties. Send in your ideas and experience (write to revolution.reports@yahoo.com).

Get out promo materials 

Let’s get promotional palm cards and posters out into different neighborhoods, so people are anticipating and looking for the premiere of the film on October 19. People can do this alone, but it’s more fun and effective for a bunch of people to tackle a neighborhood or a campus.

Post on social media.

Let’s brainstorm on how to use the social networks that we’re on, and get onto ones we’re not, to spread the trailer of the film and build for the online premiere on October 19.

IMPORTANT: Your ideas and your accounts of your experience are vital to this movement. We are all needed to get to work on this with both our efforts and our thoughts. So let’s hear them (write to revolution.reports@yahoo.com)!

If after seeing this film you want to get more involved with and be a part of the movement for an actual revolution, revcom.us is the website you should go to everyday. And, get deeper into BA and check out: Organizing for an ACTUAL Revolution—Getting Involved Now.

Today from Carl Dix

Updated September 28, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Carl Dix is in Chicago carrying out revolutionary work around the trial of the cop who murdered Laquan McDonald.

Justice For Laquan McDonald!
WHEN THE JURY GOES OUT ...

September 28, 2018

The trial of the Chicago cop who gunned down 17-year-old Laquan McDonald four years ago is nearing the end. The cop’s lawyers have been allowed to parade witness after witness on the stand to testify about Laquan’s previous run-ins with police and any other conflicts with authority figures. The court is treating it like Laquan is the criminal who faces charges and not the murdering pig who shot Laquan 16 times as he walked away with his hands at his side.

This trial is looking more and more like preparation to justify letting another killer cop walk free. Everybody who is tired of seeing this—cops who have stolen the lives of Black and Brown people walking free—happen again and again needs to prepare to respond to the jury’s verdict.

When the jury goes out, don’t be alone. If you’re in a school, stop school and go out front and listen and wait; if you’re the teacher, change the lesson to something relevant to understanding, and acting to stop, this horror. If you’re in college, go to a common room, or cafeteria or plaza—wherever people are. If you’re at work, stop work and gather around a radio or TV or phone. If you’re in your house, go out on the corner, or into a bar, or into a laundromat, and be with people. If you’re “doing business,” stop the business and start talking with people around you. If you’re out in the burbs, and there are no corners where people gather, call your friends and go witness together somewhere, on a busy corner, a mall, wherever. While you’re waiting, talk about what this means if this killer cop walks. If you have a sign, hold it; if you don’t have one, make one; start making those signs now so you’re ready.

And when the jury comes back—whatever they say, act accordingly.

Hey, Chicago—Who's Afraid Of Ferguson?

September 26, 2018

A young Chicago “activist” was quoted in the paper here as saying that if the cop on trial for murdering Laquan McDonald is not found guilty, “I don’t want to see Chicago turn into a Ferguson or Baltimore.” Really?!  I mean, why the hell not? The people who rose up in Ferguson and Baltimore did what needed to be done. They lifted the lid on this whole stinking mess of a system and more than that they made it unmistakably clear that they were not going to tolerate the intolerable and nobody else should either. And billions of people around the world took notice

Yes, we need much much more than rebellions—we need an actual revolution, which is not just some change in who is “in office,” but an overturning of this whole white supremacist, capitalist-imperialist system—but if we just bow down and take the outrages this system perpetrates, we will never even get to that point; and if we do stand up, we can do that as part of taking a big step to real liberation.

Greasing the Skids for Fascism…
Ominous and Illegitimate Persecution of 11 Members of Refuse Fascism, LA and the Revolution Club, LA

September 26, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In Los Angeles, 11 members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club have been criminally charged for engaging in and/or supporting non-violent civil disobedience and political protests which took place from September 2017 through March 2018. These protests included holding banners across the length of the Los Angeles 101 Freeway, with one stating “Trump/Pence Must Go!” and several protests at UCLA campus, including a disruption of Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. These protests were aimed at sounding the alarm about the Trump/Pence fascist regime, and the need for millions to fill the streets in a mass nonviolent movement aimed at driving this regime from power.

The arrests and subsequent charges for these acts of political protests are unjust and illegitimate. With a fascist regime in power, tearing up what are supposed to be protected civil and legal rights, and ruling through open terror and violence, these protests were not just needed, they were right. They were meaningful forms of nonviolent civil disobedience and, on a changing political and legal ground, forms of protected speech!

It is NOT illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater IF THERE IS A FIRE. To say the least, what we are facing is, by analogy, a fire of such extreme proportions, it demands people defy protest as usual. The Trump/Pence regime is bringing into being a theocracy, with open white supremacy, ethnic cleansing, genocide, the ripping away of women's basic and essential rights, attacking science and the basic understanding of truth... and as an essential part of this, the shutting down of our supposed civil liberties, right to free speech, protest, and the freedom of the press. With the threats of nuclear war and even more rapid environmental destruction, it is not hyperbole to say this is a regime that threatens to destroy civilization.

At the same time, the prosecution of these 11 activists and revolutionaries involves an escalation of the criminalization of political protests and a leap in state repression, moves that are greasing the skids for fascism. Some of the more serious and dangerous elements of these prosecutions include: two leaders of Refuse Fascism being singled out for criminal conspiracy charges related to the freeway protests, which have historically been used to specifically target political leaders (one person facing this charge was not even arrested nor on the freeway at the time of the protests); the LAPD’s “Major Crimes/Anti-Terrorism Division” is involved, a department which has a history of targeting progressive and radical social movements; and the LAPD’s admission that they sent in a “confidential informant” to spy on and illegally record members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club. These are just some of the most egregious ways they are violating the basic legal rights of people in prosecuting these outrageous charges.

In this changing legal situation, what these protesters did—in the tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience—was necessary, right and should not be criminalized. Everyone who cares about justice should join in the demand to DROP THE CHARGES! People throughout society should draw inspiration from and emulate what these heroes did, and join the urgently needed movement to drive the Trump/Pence regime from power.

Righteous Protests, Unjust Arrests, Illegitimate Charges

In September and November, 2017, over five million people viewed on social media two early morning nonviolent actions of civil disobedience on the 101 Hollywood Freeway where traffic was stopped with signs, including a 60-foot banner sounding a clarion call that “The Trump Pence Regime Must Go!” (In the first of these two protests, they carried signs that stated: “Nov 4 It Begins!” calling on people to join the protests organized by Refuse Fascism aiming for millions to fill the streets in protest day after day, night after night, to drive this regime from power.) A total of eight people were arrested for these courageous actions. But nine are being charged in these two actions, including Michelle Xai, who was neither arrested nor on the freeway during these two protests. Both Michelle, who is also part of the Revolution Club, and USC professor and artist Perry Hoberman have been charged with conspiracy to commit a crime. Michelle and Perry are being singled out and targeted for being spokespeople and leaders of Refuse Fascism.

On February 12, 2018, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke at UCLA where his speech was disrupted by protesters, including organizers from “No Cops Academy” and the Revolution Club. They called out Emanuel’s role in the cover up of the police murder of Laquan McDonald (see here for report on the protest). Three people with the Revolution Club were arrested and currently, one is facing four misdemeanors.

On February 26, 2018, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spoke at UCLA where he was continuously booed and hissed by protesters in the audience. As seen by millions on social media, he was also disrupted by three young women from the Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism. They spoke out with substance and determination, challenging Mnuchin, and exposed a regime “that is hell bent on consolidating fascism.” These three were brutalized and dragged out of the auditorium by University of California police and arrested along with two others who were also brutalized and arrested outside the event because they dared speak out about the arrests that had just happened inside the auditorium where Mnuchin was speaking! (See report here.) Currently, two of the five are facing charges but all were told (verbally, not in writing) that they were banned from campus for seven days (including a student and UCLA alum!).

On March 1, 2018, scores of UCLA students linked arms across Bruin Walk in response to a nationwide protest called by Refuse Fascism: 11 Minutes of Silence for 11 Million Undocumented: Immigrants Stay! Trump/Pence Must Go! No one was arrested at this protest, but two people have since been charged, for “disturbing the peace,” trespassing and violating the seven day ban mentioned above. One of the charges against the UCLA student is for resisting arrest. How the hell is this even possible when she was not arrested?!

UCLA students linking arms across Bruin Walk in response to a nationwide protest called by Refuse Fascism.

These prosecutions represent a major escalation of political repression

The decision to file charges against the 11 came 10 months after the first freeway protest. Shortly after each of these arrests, when those arrested first appeared in court, they were informed by the L.A. City Attorney that criminal charges were not being filed BUT that charges could be filed any time within one year of the original arrest. This is a way the state can hold the threat of filing charges over you, in an effort to intimidate you and others from participating in future political protests.

In late July/early August 2018, 11 of the protesters received letters from the LA City Attorney ordering them to appear in court. While not all of them have appeared in court yet (some are scheduled for October), at least 10 are each facing multiple misdemeanor charges including failure to disperse, refusing to comply with a police officer, resisting or “obstructing the free movement of a person,” disturbing the peace, and trespassing on a college campus. Some of these people are facing up to over four years in jail and over $4,000 in fines.

Most serious and ominous, when Perry and Michelle first appeared in court, they first learned that Perry is being charged with three misdemeanors stemming from his arrest on the freeway at the first protest and one count of conspiracy. Michelle is charged with one count of obstruction of traffic and two counts of conspiracy for both freeway protests, even though she was not arrested nor on the freeway. Each conspiracy charge is punishable by one year in jail and $10,000 in fines.

How do they justify these outrageous charges? It turns out, the LAPD sent a spy, a “confidential informant,” into Refuse Fascism meetings last fall “for the purpose of gathering intelligence.” In other words, they admit in their official police report, to surveillance of political discussions—a violation of people’s basic rights to assemble and protest. They also admit that this confidential informant recorded a conversation they had with one of the defendants. Recording people without their permission is illegal in California!

The police report admitting to all this came from the “Major Crimes Division” (also known as the Anti-Terrorist Division, ATD) of the LAPD which is part of the LAPD's “Counter Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau.” This department has a sordid history of spying, harassment and deadly repression against a broad spectrum of political groups and individuals. (See box on Background on the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division/Anti-Terrorist Division.)

Historically, conspiracy charges have been used to specifically target political activists and especially, the leadership of political movements. If they can't figure out an actual crime that you've committed, they target you with “conspiracy to commit a crime.” This is a wide ranging charge targeting protest organizers, the leadership of political movements and aimed at debilitating the movements themselves. In the 1960s, the FBI and local cops went after leaders of the anti-war and Black liberation movements by arresting them on bogus conspiracy charges that led to lengthy, expensive, and time-consuming trials. An infamous example was the Chicago 8 trial in response to massive protest at the Democratic National Convention. When people take responsibility to lead a political movement in the interests of humanity, this is precious and these leaders must be defended!

The fact that Perry and Michelle are charged with conspiracy is outrageous on its face, but there is more to these charges. Such a charge requires a minimum of two people to be involved in such a conspiracy. In the second conspiracy charge being leveled against Michelle, according to the official police report, the second conspirator’s “identity is unknown.” This statement by the LAPD’s Anti-Terrorist Division enables the state to carry out and justify a very dangerous open-ended fishing expedition and campaign of intimidation against all the defendants in the freeway protest, with this charge being held over their heads.

Ironically, even the DA's office admits that the First Amendment is involved in this case. The detective writing the police report admits to having consulted with the District Attorney with a request to file felony conspiracy charges (vs. misdemeanors, which they are facing). The DA said that felony charges would be “contrary to the spirit of the law where First Amendment freedoms are concerned.” So how are misdemeanor charges any less “contrary” to their First Amendment rights?!

Even as these cases are in their initial stages, it is already evident that these prosecutions are politically motivated, being handled outside of the norm of criminal prosecutions. We won’t go further here with more examples but it’s evident from who is prosecuting these cases and how the defendants are being treated in court.

The Moves to Strip Away Civil Liberties, Criminalize Dissent and Ramping Up of Repression and Terror

All this is taking place at a time in which the basic rights to political protest and speech are being rapidly foreclosed by the Trump/Pence regime which has unleashed a wave of new state laws, gutting basic civil liberties and a movement of storm troopers carrying out mob violence, and violent threats, in order to intimidate and silence people. The dangers of this are even being pointed to among ruling class figures.

Even before he became president, Trump incited hatred and violence against protesters at his Nazi-like rallies with statements about longing for the day when “a protester would be carried out on stretchers”; in the wake of the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, he refused to condemn the white supremacists and fascist thugs and described them as “fine people”; and called for revoking the citizenship and imprisoning people who burn the flag, in violation of Supreme Court protection; and urged the firing—and possible exile—of professional athletes who took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial oppression in the form of police violence and murder.

In 2017, state legislators in nearly 20 states have proposed or passed bills that would criminalize and physically endanger protesters, including making it legal to run over protesters as long as the driver claimed it was an accident. New penalties for protesting have been proposed in some states that would include fines up to $1,000,000 and up to 10 years in prison. Mass picketing aimed at blocking access to streets and highways, airports, train tracks, or places of business has been outlawed as has the wearing of a robe, mask or other disguises at a protest. There are cases at both Rutgers and UCLA that would make the criticism of the state of the Israel, and their policies of genocide against Palestinian people, a crime. (The case at UCLA is overlapping with attacks on the Revolution Club and Refuse Fascism for the protest against Steve Mnuchin mentioned above.)

On January 20, 2017, at Trump’s inauguration in Washington, DC, over 200 protesters were arrested for simply being part of a demonstration during which some alleged destruction of property took place. The government was forced to drop the charges against most of the defendants after the first trial of six facing serious felony charges ended in acquittals on all charges. The attempted political railroad of the J20 defendants was not only a vicious act of revenge against the righteous protests on the very first day of the Trump/Pence regime—it was a major escalation of fascist repression as the government demanded detailed information on visitors to a website that was used to organize the protests, and the site’s web hosting provider said complying with the order would have meant handing over information on about 1.3 million visitors.

Recently, Trump said in response to those who courageously disrupted the confirmation hearing of Brett Kavanaugh that we shouldn’t allow protesters in this country because it’s an embarrassment. These are not just rants from a madman. These are the words of the commander in chief of this country's armed forces: calling for the foreclosing of and crushing of dissent, the evisceration of the First Amendment, including people’s right to political speech and protest in relationship to calling out against injustices and crimes being carried out by its government, and this is even more dangerous as it is a key component towards the consolidation of fascism.

The Revolution Club in their sights

These protests have mainly taken place as part of the movement to drive out the Trump/Pence Regime, involving people from different perspectives. At the same time, these prosecutions may also include specific targeting of the Revolution Club. The Club is a force on the frontlines organizing forces for an actual revolution. They live in line with, and fight for, a radically different world: fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution.

In addition to the protests outlined here, members of the Revolution Club were also recently arrested for talking to people in a public park about revolution. These arrests were so outrageous, and so clearly in violation of people's basic rights, the LAPD was forced to drop the charges. Most recently, a member of the Revolution Club was arrested for amplified sound in downtown LA at the monthly event, Artwalk. In LA, amplified sound is not illegal! In both instances, people in the surrounding area stood with the Revolution Club against these attacks.

This goes together with a pattern of assault and political persecution of the Revolution Club in Chicago. One member of the Club, Maya, is facing seven years in prison for taking part in the silent protest for immigrants which took place on March 1. And throughout the spring and summer, people associated with the Revolution Club in Chicago were repeatedly arrested, threatened with arrest, and ticketed for using legally permitted amplified sound. Including Maya’s case, people associated with the Revolution Club in Chicago currently face a full dozen cases in court.

We do not know to what degree, if any, there is national coordination in these attacks, but we do know that both in LA and Chicago, there is a pattern of harassment by the authorities. And we know that the attacks on the Revolution Club are politically motivated: they are being gone after for their determination to prevent the consolidation of fascism and for spreading the message and organizing forces for an actual revolution.

People from all different perspectives need to stand with the revolutionaries against these attacks. These are people fighting for a radically different world, free of exploitation and oppression. They understand the illegitimacy of this whole system, and its violent forces of repression used to enforce this system and they are organizing forces today to bring that better world into being. They reach throughout every section of society, including the students and youth and those catching the most hell who this system has no future for. This is a message this system, and those who sit atop it, don't want you to hear.

Fascism Can Happen Here, It Is Happening Here and We Must Stop It!

A crucial component of implementing a fascist regime is the tearing up of the rule of law, and criminalization of what have been traditional forms of protest, aimed at gutting the basic right to political speech and dissent. As Bob Avakian has written: “Even supposedly fundamentally Constitutional rights throughout the history of the U.S. not only can be—but particularly in times of 'stress' or actual crisis in the system often are—sacrificed to the needs of the ruling class.” (From “The Social Content of Law and Its Interpretation” in the compilation Constitution, Law, and Rights—in capitalist society and in the future socialist society)

This is such a time.

As we stated above, in the face of these moves to criminalize and punish political protests, it is imperative that people unite broadly to step out of the bounds of symbolic protest-as-usual. To do so in this changing legal context is a form of protected political speech—it needs to be defended and it needs to spread.

These 11 resisters are being punished for acting with courage and conviction at a time when history is demanding all people of conscience act commensurate with the grave danger humanity is being confronted with by the Trump/Pence fascist regime.

There are great stakes in these cases. Will a supposed “sanctuary city” be allowed to violate the basic rights of people in these ways, contributing to the overall consolidation of fascism, with the right to dissent and protest foreclosed? Will people be able to act commensurate with the danger facing humanity without being shut down and criminalized?

All those who care about the future need to stand up against these outrageous prosecutions and demand the charges be dropped! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America.

Laquan McDonald and Emmett Till: The REAL Lesson

September 27, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

A columnist in Chicago recently compared Laquan McDonald to Emmett Till (“Like Emmett Till's before him, Laquan McDonald's death is forcing change,” Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune). Her point seemed to be that whatever happens in the trial, “there will be changes made.” This is wrong—very wrong. It turns the lessons of the death of Emmett Till upside down.

Yes, some changes were definitely made after the murder of Emmett Till—for millions and millions of people, especially though not only Black people, this outrage burst the dam. People had had enough and they fought for years, went to prison, and shed rivers of blood to make those changes. Some forms of segregation were eliminated, open lynch-mob terror was toned down, and there were other important concessions as well. Hundreds of millions worldwide were influenced and inspired, and tens of millions changed their thinking in fundamental ways.

But, even though this movement took on a revolutionary thrust in the 1960s, we did not make revolution. The capitalist-imperialist system that killed Emmett Till is still here. The white supremacy that is stitched into it with a thousand threads is still here. Segregation in many ways is worse than ever—even if it is “illegal.” Today the killers wear blue instead of white when they do their murders and cook up their cover-ups. Sixty-four years after Emmett Till was lynched and his murderers acquitted, the murders still go on; the murderers still walk free. And now they are preparing to acquit another.

Unless we want to be fighting the same system 64 years from now, unless we want to be defending yet another Black youth who has been unjustly cut down by a system that never gave him or her a chance, we need to be preparing right now to rise up in righteous mass resistance against this system if they free Laquan’s killer, and we need to do this as part of politically preparing for revolution.Yes, Laquan’s death can be part of jolting people awake to the horrors—but only on the basis of fierce struggle that signals to everyone that this will not and cannot be tolerated.

As a crucial and fundamental part of this, we need to be getting into BA—Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution—and the science and strategy he’s brought forward to defeat and dismantle this system and bring forward a radically new society on the way to real emancipation from all forms of oppression. In this way and only in this way we can have real hope, on a scientific foundation, that these kinds of outrages will NOT happen again and future generations will shake their heads in horror and pity that such things ever did happen.

Bob Avakian: "Emmett Till and Jim Crow: Black people lived under a death sentence"

An excerpt from REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. Watch the whole talk at revolutiontalk.net.

You Want A World WITHOUT Oppression, Or Just Your Turn On Top?
Women Need Revolution—Not Revenge!

by Sunsara Taylor

September 27, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

In a recent New York Times column, Jennifer Weiner plumbed the depths of her fury at the lifetime of patriarchal insult and injury faced by her and all women. But rather than aim her fury at ending sexual assault, violence against women, and the system that gives rise to it, she plunges headlong into a gruesome, small-minded vision of revenge.

Weiner revels in hideous fantasies of tossing rapists out of helicopters and—dare anyone lay a finger on her own daughters—“hunting down the man who hurt them and dismembering him with my fingernails and burning the whole world down.” She glorifies the lust for “revenge ... power ... money ...” and the ability “to be loved and not love in return.”

If Weiner hoped to provoke disgust and fear, she succeeded. I am terrified of the world she yearns for—and disgusted by it. We should all be. Because the only thing worse than allowing patriarchy to continue to diminish and torment all women’s humanity, would be for women to completely abandon their own humanity by becoming like their oppressors.

The problem is not that Weiner is angry. For good reason women harbor deep and righteous fury. It flows from thousands of years of female enslavement. It comes from one in three women being raped or beaten in her lifetime. It comes from women super-exploited in sweatshops from Bangladesh to Brazil and women raped in war zones from Congo and Bosnia to right inside the U.S. military. It comes from stalking, abuse, sexual slavery, and sexual shaming. It comes from the bombing of abortion clinics and the killing of doctors. It comes from pornography that is increasingly violent, degrading, and mainstream. It comes from the reality that after generations of marching, going to jail, hunger-striking, writing, and speaking against all this, a boastful sexual predator sits in the White House and the Supreme Court is on the verge of slamming women, LGBTQ people, and many others violently backwards.

If you are not furious, then wake the hell up. Men, too.

But fury is not enough. Like a fire, fury can be harnessed for good—or can destroy everything.

Should our fury drive us to lust for the chance to make men suffer the way women have? For the “right” of women to behave like depraved death squads, hurling human beings to dreadful deaths? For the squalid “satisfaction” of inflicting such terror on another person that the light never returns to their eyes because that’s what has been done for thousands of years to women?

Or, should our fury drive us to fight against and abolish the system and world that is held in place through that kind of terror—through centuries of white people terrorizing Black people, through murderous wars of imperialist aggression, through global networks of grinding exploitation, and through a culture that socializes men and boys from an extremely young age—through pornography, through scripture, and in countless other ways—to view and treat women as objects of sexual plunder or mere breeders of children?

Should our fury propel us into the ideological straight jacket of “me” and “my people”—a punier, perverse replica of “Bros before Hoes” or Trump’s chauvinist “USA! USA!”—that reduces us to seeking vengeance if something happens to our own daughter (yet another expression of patriarchal property relations)?

Or should our fury compel us to broaden our horizons to the fight to end all forms of oppression? To grasp, as Bob Avakian has emphasized in speaking about the new communism he has developed, that what we need is, “A Whole New World and the Emancipation of All Humanity—Not ‘The Last Shall Be First, and The First Shall Be Last’”? To fight with all we’ve got to beat back these horrors right now while building up the strength to make an actual revolution so that, as one expression of real liberation, one day no girl or woman anywhere ever again knows what it is to fear the sound of footsteps behind her?

Should our fury drive women to harden themselves, to extinguish their ability to feel and to love so that they can better claw their way to the top of this dung heap, where the only way to get ahead is by pummeling others to the bottom, where everything—even women’s bodies and sexualized degradation—is turned into a commodity to be bought and sold or bartered for advantage?

Or should we fight for a world not divided into oppressors and oppressed, exploiters and exploited, masters and slaves? A world where opening oneself up is not an invitation for predation, where all children of all genders are taught to respect the full humanity of others, and to forge friendships and intimate relationships based on mutual respect, shared affection, equality and—where it develops—genuine love and tenderness?

We have to choose.

It may seem like all rage is the same and that—after centuries of rape, brutality, oppression, and enslavement—all rage is justified. It is not. Revenge leads rapidly and inexcusably deeper into the nightmare. In contrast, ending this nightmare requires breaking decisively and fully with revenge, lifting our sights, and fighting for an actual revolution aimed at human emancipation. This means taking up and being guided by a morality consistent with that future every step of the way.

Sunsara Taylor is an advocate for the new communism developed by Bob Avakian, a writer for Revolution newspaper (revcom.us), and a co-initiator of RefuseFascism.org.

Bob Avakian, "A world of rape and sexual assault"

An excerpt from REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. Watch the whole talk at revolutiontalk.net.

Includes these and more...

"Can This System Do Away With, or Do Without, The Oppression of Women?–A Fundamental Question, a Scientific Approach to the Answer"

"Religion, Patriarchy, Male Supremacy and Sexual Repression"

"Putting an End to 'Sin,' Or We Need Morality but not Traditional Morality"

Full Edition (PDF) | Sampler Edition (PDF)

Online Premiere October 19

Read more

A Typical Trial For A Murdering Pig, A System That Has No Future For Our Youth, And The Revolution That Does...

September 28, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

On those rare occasions when pigs do get charged for the killings and beatings they commit, like Bob Avakian says in this video, the prosecutors forget how to prosecute. We’ve seen that in this trial.

One way this goes down is through outrageous attacks on the character of the victim, even though the pig had no way of knowing anything about the person before they up and murdered him or her.  The Illinois Supreme Court decision that allowed this was literally called “People vs. Lynch!”  That’s what they’ve been doing this week in Chicago, in the notorious case of Laquan McDonald, killed by 16 shots from the gun of Jason Van Dyke.  All week long they’ve been lynching Laquan’s character, as everything in this young man’s past that can possibly be dragged out is dragged out, and every racist stereotype that people have when dealing with or looking at a young Black man is being treated as evidence... when the murdering pig Jason Van Dyke had no way of knowing any of that when he cold-bloodedly gunned Laquan down.

The real question that the hard life and atrocious death of Laquan McDonald raises is why this system has no future for the tens of millions of young people of color like Laquan.  Like BA says:

People say: "You mean to tell me that these youth running around selling drugs and killing each other, and caught up in all kinds of other stuff, can be a backbone of this revolutionary state power in the future?" Yes—but not as they are now, and not without struggle. They weren't always selling drugs and killing each other, and the rest of it—and they don't have to be into all that in the future. Ask yourself: how does it happen that you go from beautiful children to supposedly "irredeemable monsters" in a few years? It's because of the system, and what it does to people—not because of "unchanging and unchangeable human nature."

BAsics 3:17

And like the Revolution Club says: THIS SYSTEM HAS NO FUTURE FOR THE YOUTH, BUT THE REVOLUTION DOES!