Coming Events at Revolution Books

“50 Years Since the Death of Mao Zedong and the Defeat of Socialism in China: 
Learning From and Going Beyond Mao's Great Breakthroughs to the New Communism of Bob Avakian

Talk and discussion with Raymond Lotta

Fifty years ago, on September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died. 
Mao led the monumental and tremendously liberating Chinese Revolution of 1949-1976. But shortly after Mao's death, new bourgeois forces in China carried out a violent coup—and began the process of restoring capitalism.

Mao Zedong's greatest contribution was the theory and practice of continuing the revolution under socialism and preventing the restoration of capitalism.

Young people debate the direction of Chinese society at the start of the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

This took expression in the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. This was an unprecedented mass struggle to revolutionize thinking and restructure society away from all exploitation and oppression.

Following the defeat of socialism in China, the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian set out to sum up the first socialist revolutions in Russia and China: their tremendous achievements, but also their problems, some quite serious.

Through decades of theoretical work and struggle, Bob Avakian has synthesized the new communism. He has drawn from diverse spheres of human understanding and experience. The new communism builds on the achievements of the first stage of communist revolution but is a qualitative leap beyond and also, in important ways, a break with communist theory as it has been previously developed.

At the heart of the new communism is a thoroughly and consistently scientific approach to reality.

Humanity now has a radically different and far-better framework to make the emancipating revolution necessary to end all exploitation and oppression. To create a world in which human beings can truly flourish. That is why being a communist today means being a follower of Bob Avakian.

Come to the Talk and the Discussion.

Raymond Lotta has written and lectured extensively on the experience of the Russian and Chinese revolutions. He is an advocate of the new communism developed by Bob Avakian.

Events at Revolution Books are co-sponsored by Revolution Books Educational Fund, a 501(c)3 entity.

Author COLIN ASHER presents his new book at Revolution Books:

"THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL: The Secret Prison History of American Music"

Colin Asher tells of the extraordinary music created within the highest and thickest walls of America's brutal, racist prison system. With five compelling portraits of musical artists whose careers span the 20th century—from folk and blues singer Lead Belly to jazz pianist Elmo Hope, to rap artist Tupac Shakur. A celebration of joyful, angry, and rebellious words and sounds...an indictment of an unjust and cruel system of incarceration that cannot suppress beauty.

"A fog-bending down-bound train of a book, better than it had to be..." 
-- Dwight Garner, NY Times Book Review, July 26, 2026

Joining Colin Asher in discussion on September 24:

-Aidan Levy author of Saxophone Colossus, biography of Sonny Rollins

-Andy Zee national spokesperson for Revolution Books

This special evening at Revolution Books is an official "Bookend Event" -- 
in collaboration with the Brooklyn Book Festival.

Events at Revolution Books are co-sponsored by the Revolution Books Education Fund, a 501(c)3 entity.

The future of humanity hangs in the balance:

There is a way out of the madness…

Come ask about, learn about and dig into – the revolution we need, and

The New Communism, developed by Bob Avakian.

Conversation Hours:
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays: 4-7pm, Saturdays & Sundays: 2-5pm 

Full RB Open Hours:
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays: 2-7pm, Saturdays & Sundays: 2-7pm