Special 25th Anniversary Issue of the Revolutionary Worker
![[cover of RW newspaper]](../../i/mayday04-big.jpg)
Revolutionary Worker #1238, May 1, 2004, posted at http://rwor.org
For the people of the world, this moment in history crackles with both danger and opportunity.
That sinister clique in Washington, acting for a larger ruling class, is determined to dominate the planet. Over and over in his April 13 press conference, President Bush said that a U.S. victory in Iraq would "change the world."
Rarely have these simple words, "change the world," felt so chilling.
Imagine the world these war-makers and empire builders want to create! Imagine the human aspirations they would crush beneath their boots and dollars.
And yet, at the same time, their extremism and brutality have stirred millions--including here in the U.S.
This moment calls for the most energetic, massive, fearless opposition possible. And it calls for the most determined forces to take up the revolutionary road, to help wrench a whole different future out of the crisis and madness of today.
It is with that sense of urgency that the Revolutionary Worker newspaper presents the clear and powerful voice of Bob Avakian, in this May First issue, on the occasion of our 25th anniversary.
The excerpts, published here for the first time, give an opening glimpse of Chairman Avakian's recent talk, "REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About." What could more openly defy the official verdicts of our times?
For over a decade the lies have been hammered at us: that revolution is "impossible," that communism is "a failure," and that vanguard parties only lead to new oppression. We are all supposed to lower our sights--and accept lives of resignation and desperation.
And what Bob Avakian provides, here in this talk, is an answer to all this--a living link between the intense challenges we face at this moment and a vivid, realistic vision of a radically different world.
What could be more uplifting and needed?
*****
Our article on the RIM in this issue proclaims "Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement." It is a sentiment shared around the world. Over two decades--while capitalism declared itself triumphant and the U.S. declared itself all-powerful--the RIM has gathered together Marxist- Leninist-Maoist parties and organizations around the world, and struggled to forge the basis for a new communist international. The great promise of this and the great challenges involved are both highlighted in this issue by the article "The People's War in Nepal--New Heights in the Himalayas."
Millions of poor peasants in Nepal are shaking off millennia of oppressive tradition and moving towards countrywide liberation. It is inspiring the world, and quickening the revolutionary pulse among hundreds of millions of people in India and other neighboring countries of South Asia.
The People's War in Nepal is attracting the vicious attentions of the U.S. imperialists. They are backing the brutal Nepalese monarchy with modern weapons and military advisers. And they are seriously threatening anyone outside Nepal who extends internationalist political support to the revolution.
There are lessons here that need to be spread, and warnings that need to be heard.
*****
For 25 years, this newspaper, the Revolutionary Worker , has nurtured the dreams of revolution here in the nerve center of capitalism. It has trained a new generation of revolutionary activists and leaders. It has championed the oppressed and the visionary. Two articles in this anniversary issue give a sense of the scope of that work. "The Story, the Moment, Voices of the Oppressed" shares pages from our reporters' notebooks, from a dozen frontlines. "The RW Interview: Engaging Conversations" gives a flavor of the voices and exchanges that have appeared over 25 years.
All this work, over a quarter of a century, has brought us to this moment, when this newspaper is poised to play a crucial role in the events that will now unfold.
The ruling circles in Washington are determined to forge a mandate for themselves over the months ahead-- including at the ceremonies of the Republican National Convention and in the rituals of November's national election. They intend to energize and justify the next waves of aggression and repression they have planned. They can't be allowed to succeed!
Here in this special issue, we share the RCP's vision of what this newspaper is, and can become.
There is a large potential audience in society for a press that exposes this system, lays bare its criminal mechanisms, and brings out all the voices and currents that can produce a revolutionary torrent.
Reaching that audience, in new ways, is all the more possible now--when literally millions of people in the U.S. want to find the ways to fight the government's imperialist agenda.
This system is conspiring to channel everyone into an electoral circus where real opposition is forbidden and suppressed. But this newspaper can help carve a different channel and create a different outcome.
Will the people's resistance crash against the rocks of a determined ruling class? Or will we together wrench something radically different out of this cauldron of contradictions?
This issue of the Revolutionary Worker is now in your hands. Take it out.
Help create an energized and partisan movement that promotes this newspaper--that influences the growing resistance within society and lays a powerful basis for revolution, right here in the belly of the beast.