Cornel West interviews Bob Avakian

You can find out why Cornel West calls Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the “legendary long-distance runner in the struggle for freedom” by tuning in:

http://www.smileyandwest.com/this-weeks-show/hot-stuff-bob-avakian/



 

An Open Letter to Those Attracted to the ISO:

Not Internationalist, Not Socialist, and Not Organizing for Revolution…
But There Is a Path to Emancipation

by Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution Newspaper

To Those Attracted to the ISO:

You look at the world and it’s a fucking horror.

Life is a living hell from the slums of Mumbai to the favelas of Rio, from the brothels of Bangkok to the sweatshops of Shenzen, from the mines of South Africa to the prisons of the United States. Global climate change; U.S. wars and aggression; global food crisis; repression; attacks against gays and lesbians, against women, against Black people, against immigrants, and against the poor; toxic social relations and a world of alienation – all driven by the workings of this system of capitalism-imperialism.

Humanity needs revolution, communist revolution. This is a revolution that defeats and dismantles the whole repressive apparatus of the current order. A revolution that establishes a new state power that enables people to carry out the most thoroughgoing economic, social, and ideological transformations towards a communist world: where people work and struggle together for the common good…where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings…where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and the means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.

But the ISO has nothing – absolutely nothing – to do with real revolution.  The ISO has nothing to do with communism or forging a radically different world.   As I will show, the ISO:

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the burkha...the thong - what they have in common

Revolutionary Communism and the Liberation of Women -- WE NEED TOTAL REVOLUTION!    

#3

"While they may appear very different, the burkha enforced by fanatical Islamic fundamentalism, on the one hand, and the "thong," widely advertised and promoted as "sexy underwear" for women, in "modern" capitalist society, on the other hand, are both hideous symbols and embodiments of the degradation of women. The fundamental thing they have in common is that they are both manifestations of a world marked by horrendous forms of oppression, both "traditional" and "modern"—a world dominated overall by capitalist imperialism—a world that needs to be turned upside down and radically transformed."

from A Declaration: For Women's Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity 

by Revolution Newspaper

"the equivalent of those 'Postcards of the Hanging.'..."

Revolutionary Communism and the Liberation of Women -- WE NEED TOTAL REVOLUTION!    

#2

"I began the "Revolution” talk with “They're Selling Postcards of the Hanging,” reviewing the ugly history of the lynching of Black people in America and the way in which celebration of this became a cultural phenomenon in the U.S., with the selling of picture postcards of these lynchings a major expression of this—often including smiling and leering crowds of white people surrounding the murdered and mutilated body of a Black man.  In a recent exchange, a comrade emphasized this profoundly important and compelling point: Today, the way in which pornography depicts women—the displaying of women in a degraded state for the titillation of viewers—including the grotesque brutality and violence against women which is involved in much of this, is the equivalent of those “Postcards of the Hanging.” It is a means through which all women are demeaned and degraded."

 --- Bob Avakian, Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution

"The fabric of women's oppression..."

Revolutionary Communism and the Liberation of Women -- WE NEED TOTAL REVOLUTION!    

#1

"The fabric of women's oppression is carved deeply into the calloused hands of women in the sweatshops of China and Honduras. It is draped over the faces of young women in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. It is stripped off the bodies of girls of Moldova and Bangkok who are put up for sale in brothels worldwide, and it is worn like a prize by pre-teens in the U.S. and Europe who are taught to dress and move like sex objects long before they understand what sex even is. This fabric ropes back into history, it winds its way around the globe, braided into all the dominant religions and “moral codes” and woven into every aspect of human societies. It is a heavy veil that cases the darkness of humanity's first oppressive divisions over the lives, the dreams, and the prospects of every corner of humanity in the 21^st century.

To live like this on this planet in the 21^st century cannot be justified and should not be accepted. None of this can be tolerated or excused away with counsel of patience.
WE DECLARE: NO MORE!"

from A Declaration: For Women's Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity 

by Revolution Newspaper

Sunsara Taylor reads from BAsics