Friday, December 10, 2004

The Battle for the Future Will Be Fought from Here Forward!

Editor's Note: Below is an important new statement from the Revolutionary Communist Party. The aim is to distribute millions of copies of this statement across the country in the next few weeks. Our goal is to have a major impact on society. To change the terms of debate. To help build a massive movement of resistance to the Bush juggernaut of war and fascism that will manifest in the streets across this country on inauguration day and beyond. To bring our dreams of a different future into reality. To let people know we have a leader in RCP Chairman Bob Avakian that can lead a mighty struggle to make revolution and remake all of society -- with his path breaking vision of a society we would really WANT to live in.

Read the statement. Let us know what you think. Bring your ideas, your creativity, your questions and, yes, your disagreements to us and help figure out how we can rise to the occasion. Strategize with us on how to spread it to every corner of the U.S. -- red states, blue states, campuses and universities, rural areas, suburbs and cities. Be part of the force that makes this happen!

For a printable pdf version, go to rwor.org/future.
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YOU THINK YOU KNOW................BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA..............JUST WHAT BUSH HAS IN STORE FOR.....YOU.....US.....THE WORLD.....OUR FUTURE!

Straight up—Bush and his people aren’t just ordinary Republicans. And they’re not ordinary Christians either. They are Christian Fascists—dangerous fanatics who aim to make the U.S. a religious dictatorship and to force this upon the world. If they get their way—and they are very far along the road to getting it—society will be plunged into a high-tech Dark Ages.

Those who compare Bush to Hitler are right! But, don’t be waiting for people wearing little mustaches and marching the Nazi goose-step to come to your town. This brand of fascism is coming differently, and it's coming straight from the White House.

Staring at Christian Fascism
People say, "they couldn’t, no they just wouldn’t" strip away "classic" U.S. democracy and plunge us into fascism. But let’s see what they’ve done... and what they plan to do.

Bush believes that he is on a "mission from God," and so do his cronies. Army General William Boykin recently declared that the Iraqi people were the "face of Satan," that the Christian God was the only true and "real" god, and that "God himself" put Bush in the White House. He said all this publicly and in uniform, no less—and after people protested it, Boykin was promoted! Over the years these Christian Fascists have dug in at every level of the courts, the army and Congress. BUT NOW THEY PLAN TO GO FURTHER, moving more thoroughly into the highest levels of power. Supreme Court Justice Scalia and other highly placed Republicans want to wipe out the separation of church and state, and use government to support and enforce religious belief.

Bush has launched a worldwide "crusade." In the name of "good vs. evil," he’s killed tens of thousands of people in Iraq, and maybe more—and still the war rages. In the name of "fighting terror", he justifies torturing people in prisons like Guantanamo and murdering wounded prisoners in Iraq. This proven liar has rammed through a new "doctrine" that lets him wage war whenever and wherever he says he "sees a threat", and there is no telling where he’ll stop. The U.S. has long committed monstrous crimes around the world ... and NOW THEY PLAN TO GO FURTHER. The imperialists in power—all of them, with Bush at the core—want total global empire. Bush himself believes in Armageddon, that Islam is "evil", and that he is "fighting for God." How many people, halfway ’round the world or right down the block, will lose their lives to this lunacy? Lunacy backed up by, and serving, imperialism.

Bush’s gang suppresses science. They’ve taken control of scientific agencies. They promote "creationism" against evolution and they suppress scientific research on life-and-death issues like global warming, the AIDS epidemic, and stem-cell research. Unless they can use it to make money or make weapons, Bush’s people hate the scientific spirit of trying to figure out how the world really works. Science calls into question their dogmatic interpretation of the Bible that prepares people to sacrifice for "god and country"—and never ask why.

Bush is dismantling democratic rights. Tens of thousands of immigrants have been detained and deported for little, if any, reason and thousands more have been imprisoned with no charges—many for years. The Bush regime spies on political and religious groups. It suppresses ordinary protests with massive force, including even tanks in the streets. And it openly disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of Black voters in the last election. All this, AND NOW THEY PLAN ON GOING FURTHER. Bush aims to pass more fascist laws, his flunkies threaten artists and intellectuals who dare to step outside the lines, they are invading all aspects of daily life—and it is an open question as to whether any rights at all will be left standing.

Bush’s Morality: Hypocrisy and Hatred

Bush talks about "values," but if you’re a single woman and you want to live your own life ... or if you’re gay and proud ... these Christian Fascists have you in their cross-hairs. They’ve severely restricted the right to abortion and tried to put independent-minded women on the defensive. They whipped up anti-gay hatred as a big part of their presidential campaign. BUT NOW THEY ARE GOING MUCH FURTHER. Bush aims to appoint new Supreme Court justices who will totally outlaw abortion, and he wants to pass a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. And these fascists also go after the more humane forms of Christianity that don’t share their hateful bigotry.

"Values?" These people have the morality of a lynch mob! If you are Black or Latino, and especially if you are up against the merciless conditions of the inner city ... then you too are in the cross-hairs. Bush plans to rip out even social security. He wants to do health care, education, welfare, and even prisons through churches that are directly approved, funded by and answering to the government. These churches will not "lift people up"—and these programs will degrade people, insisting that they agree that their hunger, their homelessness, and their problems flow from their "sins"—and not from a system that has oppressed them from Day One. And the full Christian Fascist plan—which includes vastly expanded capital punishment for minor crimes, in accord with Old Testament "morality"—is far worse, with a downright genocidal direction to it.

A Time for Resistance

Are we exaggerating? If anything, people have always under-estimated just how fast and how far Bush would go. And now he claims a "mandate" for his lunacy. No, Bush and the people around him are deadly serious and aim to go much further than almost anyone expects.

As for "mandate?" BULL! The will of the people was NOT expressed in this election. Kerry didn’t call Bush out for his lies and deception, or expose the real horrors of Bush’s deeds—and his plans. There was no real fight, and people should not grant a shred of legitimacy to Bush.

And waiting for yet another Democrat to disappoint and betray people four years from now is not only worthless—it may be way too late. What we need now, very urgently and very immediately, is RESISTANCE. Resistance, in the words of Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, "that refuses to be bound by the terms of mainstream politics or the notion that this politics represents the ’ultimate word’ on the ’will of the people.’ Resistance that will not just protest the juggernaut of war and fascism but go all-out to STOP it. Resistance that will reach out and win over people who have been deceived by this madness but whose deepest interests are opposed to it. Resistance that will be united—but will still include space for dreams and debate."

We can build on the past resistance to the Iraq war and other Bush outrages. But this must come back together and take a huge leap with major actions when Bush is inaugurated on January 20th, 2005. People everywhere must see that there really ARE "two Americas," squaring off over the future.

The Revolutionary Way Out
This Christian Fascism didn’t materialize out of thin air. It arose on the basis of CAPITALISM and the most powerful capitalists support it (even as they fight among themselves).

What do we mean by capitalism? Today, people could produce enough food, housing and clothing to provide a decent life to everyone on the planet. But the means to do this are owned and controlled by a handful of global capitalist-imperialists who are driven to get ever greater profit, or else go under. And so half the people on the planet live on less than $2 a day. Billions go hungry. People are driven from country to city and then around the world, desperately seeking work, while communities in the U.S. are left to rot. And now the Bush lunacy has taken this to an even more terrible level.

But imagine a different future. A future where people consciously learn about and transform the world, and are not imprisoned in the chains of tradition and ignorance. A world without racism and without borders. A vibrant place, where people together debate and decide how to develop society. A world where people no longer wonder where their next meal will come from, or if they will be homeless, or abandoned or sick in their old age—a world of abundance, where people together hold all of society’s resources in common. A world where people not only work to produce the necessities of life, but get into art and culture and science—and have fun doing it! A world without the domination of women by men, where people interact with each other based on mutual respect, concern and love for humanity. A world that looks out for and takes care of the environment.

That world is communism. And we can get to that world.

A Revolutionary Society
But how? Through revolution—where those who are today exploited and oppressed rise up and defeat the powers-that-be. A revolution led by the class that owns nothing but its ability to work, and yet works together to make the world run. A revolution in which this class steps on to the stage of history and leads tens of millions more—including the millions who hate the cruel reign of Bush and the Christian fascists.

Revolutions don’t happen overnight, or by accident. But when a deep crisis suddenly erupts in society, and when a revolutionary party has been actively organizing and preparing people for such an opening, and when millions of people begin to think we need a basic change ... and become a "revolutionary people" ... then dreams can be seized in the clear light of day. No, we’re not there yet—but the extreme changes being wrought by the Bush crew could very well lead to such a crisis. And our Party is doing all it can to bring forward a revolutionary people to seize that time, whenever it may come.

People have made this kind of revolution before—first in Russia, then in China. And they accomplished amazing things. In the end, however, those revolutions were finally turned back and defeated by the guardians of the old order. But building on their tremendous accomplishments—and examining deeply and unsparingly their negative experiences—Bob Avakian has brought forward a radical new "model" and vision of what this socialist society must be all about.

Socialist society will enable people to solve the most burning problems that bedevil us today. The "rule of profit" will be shattered and there will be jobs, health care, decent housing and stimulating education—for everyone. Communities will be centers where people join to solve the problems that hold society back. The racism and white supremacy that is woven so deeply into the fabric of American capitalism, and the chains of women’s oppression that still weigh so heavily, will be struggled against and uprooted—from the gitgo! And the socialist state will not oppress other nations—instead, it will support revolution all around the world.

But even more crucially, the new society will unleash people to change the world. People will count for something—in fact, for everything. Those who were formerly locked out of working with ideas will do exactly that—they will work with their minds and participate in society in an all-round way. The leadership of society will work to unleash diverse thinking and action from the bottom up and everywhere else. It will foster dissent, including opposition to the government itself; it will learn all it can from people, so that society can move forward. The youth will be treasured for their dreams, their daring ... and their impatience. There will be ferment and upheaval—far beyond what we can imagine today.

And yes, there must be, and there will be, firm leadership to hold onto power for the people and to guide all the complex and challenging struggle. Through this whole process, and as other revolutions develop around the world, the state itself will draw more and more millions into the direct rule of every part of society until the division of people into ruler and ruled is finally overcome, in communist society.

This socialism, as envisioned by Bob Avakian, will embrace scientists, intellectuals, and artists. They’ll continue their intellectual and artistic work, deepening the store of human knowledge, even as they break down barriers with other sections of society, especially the formerly exploited and oppressed. The leadership of society won’t fear their tendency to question everything, or to look at things in new ways. On the contrary, it will welcome this in a way that no other society can—for without lively questioning and "air to breathe", socialism would not be a place people would want to live, nor would it open up the road to communism.

In this revolutionary society people will be able to practice religion and go to church—or not—as they please. But the schools, and the government generally, will promote a scientific approach to understanding and changing material reality. On that basis, a new morality will be forged. It will cherish the lives of the people of the world and uphold equality between nations and peoples and between men and women. It will value struggle against the oppressive relations that still remain, and not resignation and surrender to them.

The Clash of Two Futures
Two futures confront each other. Will imperialism force a future of darkness and suffocation onto the people? Will tens of millions more needlessly suffer and die? OR, will the critical spirit be unleashed in a way that does a great GOOD for humanity? Will society move forward in a revolutionary direction and set about removing the great suffering and misery cast down on the people by capitalism?

To put it another way, which vision will prevail: that of George W. Bush? Or of Bob Avakian?

Each of us has a part in answering this question. We know that the job is huge, the time is short, and the odds are long. Yet we are down for this, all the way down, and optimistic as well.

But let us put it to YOU: if you’ve been agonizing about the future, if you nodded your head as you read this statement, then... what are YOU gonna do? Are YOU going to be one of thousands who come together now and help create the force that can lead millions against this madness, when millions are ready to be led? Will you help create and bring onto the stage a revolutionary people? Are you ready to check out this Party and this leader? Will you bring your ideas, your creativity, your questions and yes, your disagreements to us, and help figure out how we can rise to the occasion? Are YOU ready to make a real difference—to not only spread the word of resistance and revolution, but make that a real alternative in society?

Don’t let Bush determine the future. Spread this statement to your friends. Talk about it with them. And check us out. Now.

Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Websites: rwor.org and bobavakian.net
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Who Is Bob Avakian?Anyone seriously thinking about revolution knows that it can’t happen without revolutionary leadership.

It’s a huge question.

Well, just to be up front, there IS a leader, the likes of which this country has never seen before, that can lead a mighty struggle to make revolution and remake society. That leader is Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Chairman Avakian knows revolution. He has studied deeply the revolutions of the past and taken up the responsibility for charting the course of revolution today. He has done a whole "re-envisioning" of communist society and what it will take to get there. He’s a leader with tremendous love for and confidence in the people; and he gives you confidence and hope that we can actually do what the times demand of all of us.

But there’s more to his leadership than this. Chairman Avakian makes not just what he’s learned but how he analyzes things the property of the people. He knows it takes the great involvement of the people to make revolution, and he invites—and challenges—everyone into the process of struggle to know and change the world. It may seem ironic ... but the more that people wrestle with and follow his leadership, the greater will be their creative spirit, initiative, and activity. We in the RCP are fully aware that someone like Bob Avakian comes along only very rarely, and we take seriously our responsibility to defend this precious leader from the powers-that-be—and to rally others to do so as well.

If you care at all about the world we’re in, you should check him out for yourselves. Get into Chairman Avakian’s historic DVD talk, REVOLUTION: Why It’s Necessary; Why It’s Possible; and What It’s All About.