2014: A Momentous Year...
Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution
January 5, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Ferguson, August 17, 2014. AP photo
New York City, December 12, 2014. Posters of the eyes of Eric Garner by French artist JR are carried in a march of thousands. Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution
San Francisco public defenders, December 18, 2014. Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution
2014 was a momentous year. As summer turned to fall, long-suppressed outrage burst into a massive struggle against police murder. The courageous, defiant protest that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, after the system murdered Michael Brown, spread coast-to-coast after a grand jury exonerated the cop who killed him. That, and new outbreaks of outrage and resistance—as the system continued to murder Black people with impunity—involved tens and even hundreds of thousands from all walks of life. The struggle affected the thinking of tens of millions. “The whole world was—and IS—watching!” A new spirit of resistance emerged and caught fire.
And, as this upsurge was gaining momentum and preparing to make a new leap, 1,900 people came out to the Dialogue on “Revolution and Religion: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion,” between Bob Avakian (BA) and Cornel West. BA put forward a full-out, vibrant message of revolution. Cornel West and Bob Avakian engaged one of the most important questions of our time, coming from different philosophical frameworks, struggling for morality that refuses to accept the horrors that this system rains down on people and to act with a moral courage that these times demand. They fought for people to see the need for radical, revolutionary change with a spirit of invitation, openness, and unity.
The upheaval around police murder, along with other important struggles—including against the whole war on women—and with the message of revolution being powerfully brought out both within these struggles and more broadly in society—all this and more could develop into the first steps toward an actual revolution. Not guaranteed, but possible.
There are all kinds of work—including all kinds of organizing—to do to bring that about. The movement that grew up against the outrageous whitewashes of police murder this year itself faces deep and serious challenges, right now—confusion spread by the system, repression, and other challenges which have to be met by seizing the deeper opportunities to go higher and bigger. And there is a larger, deeper transformation that has to go on overall—of the terrain, of the people, and of the vanguard. The spirit of bold and daring struggle has to spread to other sections of society, other social movements. With that, and in relation to that, the solution of revolution—and in particular the revolution as it has been re-envisioned by Bob Avakian—has to become much more powerfully part of the terrain of people’s thinking, and the movement for revolution has to grow in influence and organization, on all different levels.
Revcom.us/Revolution has to more and more be the guide, the pivot, the crucial tool in drawing forward, orienting, training, and organizing thousands, and influencing millions—fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution. And the vanguard leadership for revolution needs to be strengthened. If you don’t know much about the Revolutionary Communist Party or are just learning about it, learn more as you work with the Party... if you are close, get closer... if you are in, step up your level.
All this can be done and it must be done. With that as our message, we give New Year’s greetings to our readers! Take a minute to review the struggles of the past year... and then prepare to go much further in the year ahead, making real leaps toward the time when millions can be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win.
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