"without stifling the critical spirit..."

“It is easy to have a society where a privileged intellectual elite has considerable freedom to grapple with ideas—as long as they stay within certain confines and don’t fundamentally challenge the existing order….


The hard thing is turning all of this upside down without stifling the critical spirit, the wrangling over ideas and theories and so on. Because we have also seen from history that it might be quite easy to institute a kind of monolithic system where only a few ideas are allowed to be debated out and where there is not real critical thinking and dissent. And we have seen that, to the degree that this is a tendency in socialist society, it works against socialism, against the revolutionary transformation of society, against the advance to communism.”

“The End of a Stage – The Beginning of a New Stage,” Revolution magazine, Fall 1990

included in BAsics, from the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian

BAsics is available at your local Revolution Books, at Amazon.com and here

And this Monday, April 11, 7pm in Aaron Davis Hall at HarlemStage, join with others
On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics,
A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World.

Why should you be there?

Here's what Andy Zee, spokesperson for Revolution Books wrote:

"Do not underestimate the power of being at Harlem Stage on April 11. You need to be there for a celebration that transforms all of us, with impact far beyond the night and the 4 walls. It will be a joyous evening with outstanding musicians, actors, poets, and visual artists who span the 60's to today, dramatically fused with readings of prisoners and others' reflections on revolution, along with readings of Bob Avakian's own words... a theater filled with the electricity of hundreds of people from Harlem and around the country with eyes on the future."

Tickets here