Letter from Carl Dix: Support Carl Dix and Clyde Young's Trip to Gulf Coast Area


September 14, 2005

Dear friend,

I have embarked on a very important trip, along with Clyde Young – another of the comrades in the "Revolutionary Communist 4 Speaking Tour" currently underway. Clyde and I are going to the Gulf Coast areas of Louisiana and Texas that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The situation there continues to be very critical. New Orleans and other areas are under military occupation – nothing can be done without the okay of the military or the police. People are being stopped from providing desperately needed food, water and other forms of relief if they don't have approval from the authorities. And the authorities and their mouthpieces in media continue to
demonize people as "looters" and "thugs" when they take things into their own hands to get what they and others need to survive.

Clyde and I will take the message of the statement: "New Orleans: A Call To Resist!" to the people who were and are in the eye of the storm--that it was the Bush regime's criminal actions (and inaction) that is responsible for the death and suffering people have endured in the wake of Katrina. As the statement says, “New Orleans is an extreme example of what the Bush regime has meant for Black people in this country. This can't be tolerated any longer.”

"New Orleans: A Call to Resist!" calls out the government for its more-repression-less-relief actions. It demands that the government not only meet the needs of all those displaced, but also calls upon the government to cease its criminalization, arrests and roundups of survivors seeking relief and sustenance in New Orleans and other devastated areas. The statement also calls for political action to "drive out the illegitimate Bush regime."

While we're down there, we will link up with the people who bore the brunt of the storm and are still bearing the brunt of the authorities' attacks. We will find out what's really going down on the ground. We aim to help break through the media whitewash of the situation and spread the stories of the heroic efforts people have made to meet their own and others' needs. And we will join with people in building resistance to the many ways the authorities are continuing to put people in harm's way. This kind of resistance will dramatically change the situation.

For this trip to be a success, I need your involvement and assistance. First off, it would be great if any of the signers or supporters of the statement could join us down on the Gulf. (Please contact us by email at atimetoresist@hotmail.com.) If you can't make the trip down there, you can still help. We need people to contribute money to offset the cost of this trip. (Airfare alone will cost $2,000. On top of that, it will cost hundreds more for living expenses, traveling around the area, producing materials, etc.) We also need you to continue and escalate spreading the statement to others and encouraging them to get involved in this effort. The hearts of millions go out to the people who were trapped in New Orleans and other devastated areas. People hate the way many thousands were put in harm's way and then demonized by the Bush regime. Our statement provides an avenue for people to express their concern and join the fight for what the survivors need to survive. Our demands speak to the actual situation people have been forced into, and what’s needed to help ensure their survival. Our call for resistance is right on time. It is turning out that it takes a fight even to get food, water and other necessities to people who desperately need them.

I want to be in touch with as many of you as possible while we're down on the coast. Feel free to give me a call to talk about how things are going, what we're finding out and what kind of mass resistance we're involving in unleashing. Keep me up on what you have been able to do with the statement, what kinds of people you're getting it to, what they think about it, and what media you've been able to get to cover this effort. What are your ideas on how to take this effort to a much higher level?

This battle has just begun, and we need all that everyone can do to make our efforts a success. You can get copies of the statement and the cover letter by writing us via e mail at: atimetoresist@hotmail.com. You can also write to us at P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York, NY 10002.

If you want to support the trip Carl Dix and Clyde Young are making to the Gulf Coast you need to contact us by email at atimetoresist@hotmail.com.

NEW ORLEANS: A CALL TO RESIST!

Note: "New Orleans: A Call to Resist!" was initiated by Carl Dix. For a complete list of signatories, please write to < atimetoresist@hotmail.com >.
---

New Orleans: A Time to Resist! P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York NY 10002
Telephone: 866-482-2539 * Email: atimetoresist@hotmail.com

September 9, 2005

Dear Friend,

We are writing to ask you to add your name to the signatories of the statement below and circulate it to others and encourage them to sign and circulate it.

The actions and inactions of the Bush regime have been criminal. They are responsible for the many lives that have been lost and the suffering that 100,000's of people have been subjected to in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. To add insult to injury, the very officials whose actions put peoples' lives at risk
demonized people as "looters" and "thugs" when they took it upon themselves to get the food, water and medicine they needed to survive. People are rightly angry at all this.

Think of the difference it will make if thousands of people who have histories of fighting against the oppression of Black people and other injustices people have been forced to endure here in the US and around the world join together to condemn the criminal actions of Bush & Co. And if they're joined by many other people who burn with hatred at the actions of the Bush regime.

So sign this statement. And get it to others and encourage them to sign it, circulate it more broadly and promote it in any and every way they can. Many, many people in the devastated areas are still at risk. One of the things they need is broad condemnation and massive resistance to the crimes of Bush & Co.

Signed:

Carl Dix, National Spokesperson, Revolutionary Communist Party
New York, New York

Nicholas Heyward Sr., Nicholas Naquan Heyward Jr. Foundation
Father of Nicholas Heyward, Jr. -- killed by NYPD, September 1994
Brooklyn, New York

Yuri Kochiyama, Long Time Political and Social Activist
Oakland, California

Rev. Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes RC Church*
New York, New York

Efia Nwangaza, Nat'l Co-Chairperson of the Jericho Movement to Free U.S. Political Prisoners
Greenville, South Carolina

Juanita Young, October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality (New York Committee)*
Mother of Malcolm Ferguson -- killed by NYPD, March 2000
Bronx, New York

* for identification purposes only.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW ORLEANS: A CALL TO RESIST!

The actions of the Bush regime in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast amount to mass murder, whether by incompetence or design. This is an urgent situation, calling out for urgent action.

We remind all people that this regime illegitimately came to power in the first place through the disfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Black voters. We remind all people that this regime contains highly placed officials and
influential supporters with histories and viewpoints that are not only racist, but in some cases downright genocidal.

What happened in New Orleans indeed calls into question the whole history and nature of America and the national debate on this needs to rage. At the same time, New Orleans is also an extreme example of what the Bush regime in particular has meant for the masses of Black people in this country. None of this can be tolerated any longer. There can not be three more years of what happened in New Orleans.
There cannot be one more day. WE CANNOT WAIT!

The initiative of ordinary people in rescuing and supporting people at risk has been heroic. The outpouring of support from all walks of life shows where people?s hearts are. But we also need, very badly, RESISTANCE.

Therefore, we call on people to mount a massive movement to politically drive out the illegitimate Bush regime. We call on people everywhere to bring this demand out wherever you go, to build and support all actions aiming to do this, and in this way to not only defend the people from even worse horrors but to begin to build a movement that can change the course of history.

At the same time, we call on all people to support and mount actions around the following demands on the government in the current crisis:
1) Intensify the rescue operations. Stop the repression of those volunteers who are attempting to rescue people.
2) Immediate and safe evacuation for all who want it. Provide support for all those wishing to remain in New Orleans. Stop the forced dispersal of people from the New Orleans area and provide assistance to people who wish to return.
3) Stop the killing and shooting of people attempting to meet their basic needs. Stop the demonization of Black people as "looters." Stop the aggressive actions of the National Guard and Police. NOW. And an immediate apology from Bush for
his "zero tolerance for 'looters'" remark which lent force to all this repression.
4) Stop the censorship of the people of the affected areas. Bring out the full truth of what is happening, what did happen and how this came to be. And hold those responsible for this criminally accountable.
5) Immediately end the racist slander coming out from politicians and the media.

-end-

____ Add my name to "New Orleans: A Time to Resist!"

____ Contact me immediately, I can help get this initiative out there.

Name ______________________________ Address ____________________________
City ________________________________ State _______________
Zip ____________
Email _______________________________ Phone/Fax __________________________

New Orleans: A Time to Resist! P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, New York NY 10002
Telephone: 866-482-2539 * Email: atimetoresist@hotmail.com

* * *
The initial signers of this statement are:
Carl Dix, Nat'l Spokesperson,Revolutionary Communist Party; Robin D.G. Kelley, Columbia University; Yuri Kochiyama, long-time political activist; Rev. Dr. Earl Kooperkamp, Pastor, St. Mary's Episcopal Church; Father Lawrence Lucas, Our Lady of Lourdes Church*; Efia Nwangaza, Nat'l Co-Chairperson of the Jericho Movement to Free U.S. Political Prisoners; Rev. George W. Webber, Professor Emeritus, New York
Theological Seminary*, Cornel West, Princeton University; Juanita Young, mother of Malcolm Ferguson, killed by NYPD; Nicholas Heyward Sr, father of Nicholas Heyward Jr, killed by NYPD; Rev. Luis Barrios, St. Mary's Episcopal Church.

From Slave Ships to the Superdome in New Orleans

Revolution #13, September 4, 2005, posted at revcom.us

New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. People trapped amidst squalor and chaos in the official shelters. People facing death from starvation and disease on the streets.

Most of the people trapped in the misery and chaos of post-Katrina New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast were Black. When people took what they needed to survive, they were condemned as animals and dangerous criminal gangs by the authorities. What were they supposed to do -- just die quietly?

This is what the authorities must have thought. In a hundred thousand ways Katrina laid bare the unequal and oppressive relations Black people are forced to endure under this system.

Why are the two major oil pipelines running out of the New Orleans Gulf area called the Plantation line and the Colonial line? This underscores the reality confronting Black people in this country. Black people remain concentrated on the bottom rungs of this society. This is the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow segregation and continuing oppression of Black people as a people. The sight of thousands of Black people packed into sports arenas brought back haunting visions of the holds of the slave ships which forcibly dragged millions of Africans to the shores of the New World in chains.

But the masses weren't going out like that. They defiantly went into the streets to see to their survival. Some organized efforts to meet not just their own needs but the needs of groups of people trapped in the mass shelters like the New Orleans Convention Center.

The New York Times reported that: "On Friday morning, some young men broke into the kitchen of the Marriott Hotel, across the street from the center, fixed a gigantic batch of scrambled eggs, grits and bacon and served it to storm victims." A retired teacher at the Convention Center praised these youth as "Robin Hoods" -- bringing food to the people.

It is especially outrageous to watch federal and state officials threaten people who were put in this desperate situation by government inaction with imprisonment and even death. The Governor of Louisiana said, "I have one message for these hoodlums. These troops (being sent into New Orleans) know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so if necessary." The Mississippi State Police Chief promised to deal ruthlessly with any looters. This is Mississippi, where the police used to arrest people and hold them for the KKK to lynch—where sheriffs and judges and preachers would often join lynch mobs in carrying out murderous deeds. And this is New Orleans, where a person's racial ancestry was calculated down to great-great-great grandparents. Being found to be even 1/32nd Black would subject someone to a life as a second class citizen.

George Bush said there should be zero tolerance for any lawbreaking. What about zero tolerance for a system that has not and cannot end the oppression of Black people? Or a system that now threatens people facing starvation and disease with official violence for trying to feed themselves and others? These rulers have shown what they and their system are capable of in how they dealt with this hurricane. As long as power is left in the hands of these capitalist exploiters, we’ll continue to see the kind of suffering seen in New Orleans and the Mississippi Delta area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

It's Way Past Time To Throw Off the Chains of Oppression and Get With the Emancipators of Humanity!

On the RC4 Tour: An Interview with Carl Dix by Michael Slate, KPFK-FM

* * *

Beneath the Surface, KPFK, July 19, with Michael Slate

Michael: You know that there's a lot of people, especially when you're going out among a lot of Black people, and a lot of Black people one way or another, they're going to be saying things like, 'You know what? "We’ve got to take care of Black people first."' There's Black nationalism. There’s a basis for it, and people arguing that. How do you answer this? It's a leap to go from fighting against the oppression of Black people to fighting for the emancipation of all humanity. It's much easier to get people when police brutality comes down and people will stand up and fight against that. Then when you start talking to them about, 'Look, we're talking about going up against the whole thing,' then that’s a whole other leap that's required.

Carl: We say two things to that. The first thing we say and the basis for getting into that, is, 'Look, what's the fundamental problem in this society? Where does everything else flow from?' That fundamental problem is the fact that millions of people all around the world gotta work together, labor in common to produce everything that society needs. In fact, they can produce enough so that everybody in the whole could have enough food, clothing, shelter, medicine, everything they need for a decent way of life. But what stands in the way of that is that there's a handful of capitalists who own and control the means to produce wealth when the overwhelming majority of people around the world work together to produce this stuff, it belongs to these capitalists.

They use that power to determine the way the whole world runs. And that's where everything flows from. Even the oppression of Black people fits into that in terms of, it's a way in which the imperialists, the capitalists get extra profits from the super-exploitation of Black people and they brutally suppress them to maintain those profits coming in. So we're going to situate that oppression of Black people in the context of the fundamental problem of capitalism and say that what needs to happen is, we need a movement that can aim to get rid of that fundamental problem, that can take care of the source of this problem, and that that's what we need to do. On that basis, we're challenging people to become emancipators of humanity.

Then what we say to people who want to come at it like, 'Well, look, I can see the need to fight to get my people out of this,' we say, well, look, what's the way to do that? How can that happen? We think that we need to unite everybody and bring forward and emancipation movement that is aiming to emancipate all of humanity. If all you're looking at doing is liberating your people, you've still got to say how's that going to come about? Is it going to come about by in some way trying to patch up this system, and get your piece of it, or trying to set up another system which would fundamentally work like this? Or does that exploitation and oppression that's characteristic of capitalism need to be done away with?

So that's how we would come at that, and we would engage in a lot of debate and discussion around it and we've been doing that through the course of this tour because. While it's going to take a big leap when we actually have the event this Saturday, we've already begun that conversation and that discussion. We've been meeting with people. We met with a couple of dozen people just a day or two ago and we had a lot of this debate. We've been meeting with people in different cities across the country, and there are even people who are coming at it from the thing of, 'I want to liberate my people,' but are seeing that the kind of struggle and debate, the kind of questions that are going to be gone into and struggled around, and the challenge that’s going to go out to the masses to get up out of stuff like being all about bling-bling and 'gettin' rich or die trying,' or representing 'your hood,' in struggle against another hood that's made up of oppressed people just like you who've got everything in common, whether that's a rival gang set or whether that's conflict between Blacks and Latinos, getting out of the stranglehold that religion has on too many oppressed people. That kind of struggle and challenge to break out of that would be a positive thing that they want to see even though they don't embrace the entire revolutionary communist message we bring down.

Note: For more information about the RC4 Tour, please write to rc_speaks@yahoo.com.

Report from the LA Stop of the RC4 Tour

The following report on the first stop of the RC4 Tour is from the Los Angeles Writers Collective via the Revolution newspaper:

A brief look into the first stop of the RC4 tour:

Los Angeles Saturday, July 23rd -- The RC4 tour hit the ground running this week in Los Angeles.

Stirring controversy wherever they spoke -- on the airwaves, in house meetings, and at a full panel discussion at Cal State Dominguez Hills -- the RC4 kicked off their visit here, bringing straight to the people the compelling vision of the communist revolution developed by Bob Avakian.

The RC4 made a deep case as to why people have no interests in protecting or putting up with this rotten system. And they challenged people to take up the fight for the emancipation of all of humanity through communist revolution.

They spoke to the need --and the real possibility -- for the masses of people in the ghettos and barrios, the factories and neighborhoods -- the masses of oppressed and proletarian people -- to rise to the challenge of leading millions and millions of people in this country to break the chains that are literally choking this planet and keeping people all over the world trapped in a horrible life.

In a word they challenged all who heard them to become the emancipators of humanity. And they struggled hard -- and with a lot of love -- for people to cast aside the mental chains that hold them back from fulfilling this great need.

LIBERATION WITHOUT GOD

At the Cal State panel, Akil Bomani spoke passionately and powerfully about how he gave up religion to take up communism after reading Bob Avakian's Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones that contrasted Biblical morality and communist morality: "I was introduced to the revolutionary vision of communism, and this all sparked my criticism of the world and the way out of all of this madness.

"It was when I myself took to doing something that the Bible and Christianity explicitly forbids -- that is questioning reality and asking why and how -- it was then that I was able to take a critical look at the world, at this system and at the immense and unspeakable anguish it has caused billions to this day.

"I was able to take a critical look at the prospects of actually overthrowing this system and end all the forms of exploitation and oppression attached to this system, forms of exploitation and oppression that the Bible does not denounce but upholds in many ways. I was able to take a critical look at how that could actually be done and at the writings of Bob Avakian."

REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP

The RC4 confronted the nationalism and identity politics that are so prevalent among the masses -- and struggled with people to look at things from the point of view of how we're going to free all of humanity -- a communist viewpoint -- and not from the viewpoint of freeing "my nation, my people" -- and ultimately the "me first" mentality.

Revolutionary leadership and what qualifies someone to be a leader was a hot question. Some people made the argument that they don't want to follow a "white man." Carl Dix said that the caliber of a leader should be judged by the content of what they are bringing forward, not by their nationality. If people were locked in a horrible prison for life and someone came along who knew the way out, would the prisoners say, well I don't want to know how to get out of here because you are the wrong nationality!

"Look, here's the deal. There is a leader who has come forward, who is pointing to the way out of this, who is pointing to a future that we can get to, and is showing us the way to get there.

"The challenge for people is to look at the content of what the leader is bringing forward. That's what we gotta grab hold of. Because if you want to get out of all this mess the criteria for leadership is not, what nationality is the leader, what race, or what gender. But instead, what is the content of the vision that leader is putting forward, and, what is the program they're putting forward to realize that?

"You see, that is the challenge. We are not saying, 'follow Bob Avakian blindly' or 'follow the RCP blindly.' We're saying, grapple with the content of the vision of the future society being brought forward. And grapple with the program that's being brought forward to realize this."

Clyde Young came at this same question from a another angle. He said when a leader of the caliber of Bob Avakian comes forward, that is something to celebrate. He said that Bob Avakian is the flower and fruit of the struggle of the masses during the 1960s, but he's much more than that. Bob Avakian is someone who has gone on to develop the revolutionary science of communism -- critically building on the achievements of the past, re-envisioning socialist society under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and taking up problems of how to build a revolutionary movement of millions and millions of people that can actually transform dreams into reality.
"Leaders like Bob Avakian are very rare and special leaders. When an outstanding leader comes forward like this I think it is very important for people to recognize that leader and to learn as much as they can from that leader, to promote that leader, and to defend that leader?

"Some people have said to us: 'This is just going to mean we just have to go along with everything he says and it leaves no room for us to contribute and for us to be part of the revolutionary struggle and to bring our ideas, and creativity to the table.'

"But I think that it is important to recognize that when revolutionary leaders like this come forward -- it opens up the possibility for the masses of people's creativity and the masses of people themselves to come forward and contribute on a whole other level, in a whole other way than they can under this system.

"That is, unity between people coming forward and learning from leaders, but at the same time contributing as much as they possibly can to the revolutionary struggle --contributing their understanding and contributing all they can to the revolutionary struggle as well -- there is that dialectic, back and forth?"

In short, Clyde made the point that when a leader like this emerges they are inextricably linked to the masses realizing their revolutionary potential -- and ultimately the people of the world realizing the potential of moving to a communist society.

Many questions popped from the audience: A Black youth wanted to know "What is the proletariat?" He also asked, "So how you gonna reach the majority of proletarians when most of them are all religious and it's clear to me that none of you guys are religious, so how are you gonna sway them to be communists?"

Another person focused on the question of the proletariat in power and wanted to know how the RCP would not allow "power to corrupt," but instead stay on the road to communism.

Later, someone else asked about the role of immigrants in the revolution given that many of them are undocumented.

Joe Veale told Revolution what this tour is aimed at trying to bring forward: "Look, the problem in the world is that there is all this wealth, all this technology that's controlled and dominated by a class of capitalists.

"All this technology and all this human wisdom could be used to benefit the masses here and all over the world.

"Everybody on this planet could have a decent life: no one has to go cold during the wintertime, no one has to go hungry, no one has to die for lack of water, everybody could read and write and be enriched in sports and culture.

"And the only thing standing in the way of that are these capitalists who rip off all this wealth, and use it to enrich this system.

"We need a revolutionary communist movement that is in the struggle and knows that this is the problem -- we need millions and millions of people who realize that if the masses could take power and come together to share in all of this wealth and knowledge in a collective way -- this represents the solution and the way out. So this is a part of what this tour is about: to begin to build the kind of revolutionary communist consciousness out here now that can prepare to lead the masses to change the world."

The RC4 TOUR WILL BE IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA THROUGH THE END OF JULY. NEXT STOPS: NEW YORK AND CHICAGO.

E-mail: rc_speaks@yahoo.com

SUPPORT THE RC4 TOUR: send checks and money orders to: "RC4 Speaking Tour," and tax-deductible contributions should be made out to: "A Gathering of the Tribes d/b/a RC4 Speaking Tour", and mail to P.O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station, NY, NY 10002-0900, Phone/FAX: 866-841-9139 ext 2670.

Also contact Carl Dix at comradecarl@hotmail.com

LAPD Murderers Strike Again! They Had To Kill The Baby To Save The Baby!

Photo: Raul Pena and his daughter, Suzie Lopez

A baby? Yes, a baby! On Sunday, July 10th, an LAPD SWAT team ended what they called a hostage situation by storming an office in a car dealership and firing dozens of shots into a small room. When the smoke from the more than 60 shots had cleared, Raul Pena and Susie Lopez, his 17 month old daughter, lay dead, both shot
multiple times by police bullets.
The authorities were quick to blame Pena for everything that happened on that day. First they claimed that maybe Pena had shot Susie. Then after the coroner's examination proved that police bullets had killed Susie, pig chief Bratton insisted police had no choice but to storm the building to 'try to save Susie's life' and that his cops had every right to defend themselves when Pena fired on them. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called on the public to await the outcome of the police investigation. He also said: "...we do know this: There was a man with a firearm shooting at the public, shooting at officers." In other words, the people should cool out while the authorities try to cover up their horrendous crime, but
he's not going to wait for the outcome of any investigation before he blames the man the police killed for his own and his daughter's deaths.
We don't need to wait for their investigation/whitewash. What happened is clear. The cops showed a callous disregard for the lives of both Susie and Raul. In the middle of the afternoon the police received a report that a man was firing random shots. When they came into the area they encountered Raul with Susie in his
arms. Shots were exchanged and Raul went back into the office of his auto dealership. Several of Raul's family members begged police to let them go in and talk to Raul because they felt they could talk him into surrendering, but the police refused. 80-100 cops came into the area and laid siege to the place. Raul was on
the phone with family members and people in the neighborhood during the three hour siege. He was also negotiating with the cops by phone.
Two hours into the standoff, a police sniper spotted Raul at a window of the office and fired at him. Raul didn't shoot back, and the cops thought he was wounded and maybe disabled. This is when they decide to storm the building.
The cops say Raul fired at them as they rushed his office and wounded one of them. They stormed in with their guns blazing, firing more than 60 shots into the tiny office. Susie and Raul were both killed by police bullets.
Police chief Bratton and mayor Villaraigosa are doing a two-step dance in the wake of what we can only call cold blooded murder. Step one: blame Pena for everything that happened. Step 2: shed crocodile tears of sympathy for the family. Bratton has even said that some of the SWAT members wish they could trade places with
Susie!
Bullshit! When they stormed the office on Sunday, the cops showed whose lives they cared about and whose they didn't. They said they were being fired at by Pena and had no choice but to defend themselves--by finishing him off. They fired 60 rounds into a tiny office they knew little Susie was in. Are these the actions
of people who were concerned about her well being? No, they are the actions of people who didn't give a damn about her!
In commenting on the police murder of Tyisha Miller, (Tyisha was a young Black woman who was shot 12 times in the back by 4 white cops as she lay passed out in a locked car in December of 1998. None of the cops were ever charged in her killing.) Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, said the
following:

"If you can't handle this situation differently than this, then get the fuck out of the way. Not only out of the way of this situation but get off the earth-get out of the way of the masses of people. Because, you know, we could have handled that situation any number of ways that would have resulted in a much better outcome,
and frankly if we had state power and we were faced with a similar situation, we would sooner have one of our own people's police killed than go wantonly murder one of the masses. That's what you're supposed to do if you're actually trying to be a
servant of the people. You go there and you put your own life on the line, rather than just wantonly murder one of the people.

"Fuck all this "serve and protect" bullshit. If they were there to serve and protect, they would have found any way but the way they did it to handle this scene, they could have and would have found a solution that was much better than this. This is the way the proletariat, when it's been in power, has handled and would again handle this kind of thing-valuing the lives of the masses of people-as opposed to the bourgeoisie in power, where the role of their police is to terrorize the masses, including wantonly murdering them, without necessity, because exactly the more
arbitrary the terror is, the more broadly it affects the masses. And that's one of the reasons why they like to engage in-and have as one of their main functions to engage in-wanton and arbitrary terror against the masses of people."

This speaks volumes about the role of the cops in this capitalist system--front line enforcers for those who exploit and oppress the people. As do other events like the pig killing of Devon Wilson in LA and cops firing of more than 100 shots at Winston Hayes in Compton. This kind of brutality and even murder is built into
the very nature of this system. And cops are almost never punished when they abuse the people. The 100's of people who've taken to the streets in the wake of this foul murder and protested in other ways are doing the right thing. We have to fight for justice everytime the pigs brutalize and murder. To stop this and everything else foul this system perpetrates on people here and around the world, we have to go beyond resistance. Doing that is going to take masses of people rising up in revolution and going on to build a whole new society on the ashes of this messed up one.

IT'S WAY PAST TIME TO THROW OFF THE CHAINS OF OPPRESSION AND GET
WITH THE EMANCIPATORS OF HUMANITY!

On the Wrong Side for Humanity--Again! Jesse Jackson and the Schiavo Case

From Revolutionary Worker #1274, April 10, 2005, posted at rwor.org

"Antiabortion conservative Randall Terry emerged from a session with Jackson in tears, saying the former Democratic presidential candidate discussed Jesus Christ's resurrection with Terri Schiavo's parents before hitting the phones.

"'I just had one of the more profound moments in my life in that room,' said Terry, who has become a spokesman for the Schindler family and has long been known for confrontational tactics at abortion clinic protests. 'May God bless Jesse Jackson.' "

from the Boston Globe, March 30, 2005

Jesse Jackson swooped into Florida near the end of March to stand beside the parents of Terri Schiavo. He came because he said that keeping Terri alive was "one of the profound moral issues of our time." He also said this was a transcendent moment and an opportunity in which conservatives and liberals could find common ground.

And a voice said: HERE HE GOES AGAIN—JESSE JACKSON ON THE WRONG SIDE FOR HUMANITY—SERVING THE MASTER ONCE MORE!

And Jesse, I have to say that after this latest performance in Florida, the hours you would have to spend doing self-criticism for the crimes you have perpetrated on the masses just went into triple overtime!

And here is a newsflash: The people you are trying to find common ground with are none other than extreme right-wing fundamentalist forces who aim to do nothing less than impose a Dark Ages morality and world view on U.S.society. They didn't care about the medical facts of this case—that Terri Schiavo's brain was virtually liquid, or that she was incapable of thought or emotion and without hope of recovery. It didn't matter to them what Terri or her husband, Michael, wanted, or what most people in the country thought about this case. To them Terri Schiavo was just an opportunity to step up their drive to impose their brand of fundamentalist religion as the law of the land. One that they seized on big time.

There is no finding common ground with this.

Face it, Jesse, the only reason you were given the limelight in this case was to help disarm people to the reactionary thrust of the politics being advanced. Just like in the 1980s when you declared yourself a "general" in the system's war on drugs, which was really a war on the people.

Now your mission in this holy crusade seems to be to fly into the bible belt—which just also happens to be the lynching belt—and lull people to sleep about what the Christian fascists have in store for the people. And what morality is that? People deprived of scientific knowledge about how the world really is, people enslaved by ignorance and superstition, women abused by husbands and fathers who think they have a god-given right to dominate, women thinking that their value to society is to be making babies, more punishment, prisons and executions, more deaths from AIDS because of a cruel "abstinence-only" approach to sex, people blaming themselves for how the system forces them to live.

Jesse, to put it plainly, you and those Black preachers who are linking up with the CF's to spread a lot of poisonous nonsense against gay marriage and abortion are just scouting out the road to the death camps.

And I want to shout out to all the thinking people who are still expecting people like Jesse Jackson to represent them—everyone has to WAKE UP!

Where do our interests lie?

Not with the people who want to take science away from the masses.

And not with Jesse Jackson.

Ossie Davis -- A Life Lived for the People

Updated: February 13, 2005

I imagine a deep rich voice commenting on the life of Ossie Davis, speaking to the majesty of his presence and the depth of his commitment to the struggle for justice. This voice asks me, "Did you ever meet Ossie? Did you ever see him on stage or screen, I mean really see him? Did you ever talk with him? Did he ever smile at you?"

I've heard this voice before. It was the voice of Da Mayor in Do The Right Thing. Of Elder Johnson in Let's Do It Again. Of Reverend Purify in Jungle Fever. I heard recordings of this voice delivering the eulogy for Malcolm X. I heard it deliver a challenge to the young generation in the mid 1990's to find its mission, to take up the fight to stop the execution of Mumia Abu Jamal and free him from prison. The voice was Ossie Davis himself, and I was only hearing it in my head. Because Ossie Davis passed away earlier this month.

Speaking of Paul Robeson, Ossie once said: "What was the assignment of the black actors who came along when he did? We had to present a face of our people in an effort to reinstate our dignity and to establish an identity that said to the world, we are human beings." Ossie took up this assignment with an unmatchable determination. This accounted for the dignity you recognized in characters he portrayed that you didn't even like. He created great beauty as an actor, a playwright and a director. And his eloquence in addressing the injustices of today and challenging people to join in resisting it was inspiring.

In displaying this eloquence, he had to withstand tremendous pressure and vicious attacks. During the 1950's he and Ruby Dee (his wife for more than half a century) stood firm in defense of people like Paul Robeson when the McCarthyite which hunts for communists and their sympathizers among artists and thruout society. In describing this period, Ruby Dee said they didn't work for long periods, but you couldn't tell if it was because they were blacklisted or because they were Black, since there was so little work for Black actors and actresses at that time.

Ossie continued that kind of stand down to today, in the face of the great and rising pressure on artists to avoid enlisting in the fight against injustice. He no doubt played the role of walking point for many in the arts, creating space for others to themselves stand up for what's right.

The great revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung once said a life lived for the people is weightier than Mount Tai. Ossie Davis' life was quite heavy indeed. He will be missed by all who stand against injustice and strive to bring a better world into being.

Carl Dix on the Conviction of Attorney Lynne Stewart

February 12, 2005

Lynne Stewart's actual crime was aggressively defending a client who was on the wrong side of the US' "war on terrorism." Her conviction underlines the ugly reality the rulers are determined to
create--one where any opposition to their aims has been criminalized. This represents a dangerous legal precedent that must be opposed.

A Report from DC: The Battle for the Future is ON!

The Battle for the Future is ON!
Jump into the fray!
Come join us in DC!

As protesters converge from all over the country to disclaim and denounce the re-coronation of the Christian Fascist George Bush, the revolutionary communists have hit the ground running!

Efforts to distribute 50,000 copies of the statement "The Battle for the Future Will Be Fought From Here Forward", 3,000 copies of the Revolutionary Worker, DVD's and NO posters are off to a great start! Teams are distributing the new Memoirs from Avakian! Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor are speaking out in the media across the country! The urgency of history is upon us!

Because of the very promising initial responses, and in order to really
maximize the impact of our unique revolutionary leader - Bob Avakian - in the midst of this very dangerous moment in history - WE ARE CALLING ON MORE VOLUNTEERS TO COME TO DC FOR AS MANY DAYS AS POSSIBLE THROUGH SUNDAY, JANUARY 23.

Contact Revolution Books: 212.691.3345 to volunteer or email
getoutrwor@yahoo.com

IN THIS UPDATE:
1. Kick-off orientation meeting with Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor
2. Volunteer Highlights; DC PROLETARIAN'S MEMORIES OF BOB AVAKIAN!, Setting up DVD Showings and Getting out "Revolutionary Organizing Kits"
3. Making a splash in the media
4. The Insight Press Volunteers Touch Down with Avakian's New Memoirs!
5. URGENT CALL TO JOIN US FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY!!!

1. Kick-off orientation meeting with Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor

Saturday, January 15, RCP National Spokesperson, Carl Dix and Sunsara Taylor led an orientation kick-off meeting for DC volunteers. They laid out where we are at in the goal to distribute millions of the RCP's statement, what difference this will make, and some of the line questions which needed to be struggled out to make a further break-through and really max out during the blood-soaked, gloat-fest of Dubya's re-coronation.

Volunteers dug into the historic crossroads our country and our planet are in the midst of, and why the Party's statement says there are two visions of the future that could win out: that of George W. Bush and that of Chairman Bob Avakian.

We got clear on the BIG QUESTIONS that are up for millions, and all the complexities of a increasingly intertwined and globalized world, and how this is propelling millions towards a reactionary Christian fundamentalism that goes against the interests of most caught up in it - and propelling others into action against it. Through struggle, we all got a better sense of how people are looking for answers on the level of a worldview, how should we relate to the planet and to each other, how to make sense of our lives in these wild and dangerous time in history - and how people need to know that there is a leader, Bob Avakian, who concentrates and is developing a whole different way the world could relate, that mounts a realistic and comprehensive challenge to George Bush that no one else has. We got clear on why it is not a pre-requisite to unite with people about how extreme the Christian Fascists are before talking to them about Avakian, but how this should be the first place we step off.

One example we kicked around was a group of lower income white religious people folks had taken the statement to who scorned evolution and even put forward that AIDS originated from interracial sex. These are folks who are caught up in beliefs that go against their own interests and the interests of the planet - but in order to really break them free of this, it is essential to struggle with them over Avakian's vision of a totally different society - where we don't have to fear the truth about how human's evolved, where we can understand the real cause of disease and apply that understanding to solving such problems, and how that kind of racist thinking is both based on falsehoods about the world and complicit with great horrors and thoroughly unnecessary. We discussed how this approach, challenging their whole framework and offering another one based on the real world and the real interests of the people of the world, is the only way we are going to "peel away" some of these people from the reactionary thinking they are caught up in.

We also focused in on the need to have a societal impact with the Party's statement, the Chairman's DVD, the Revolutionary Worker, and Avakian's new memoirs. Many are agonizing about the dark turn being taken by our country under Bush's leadership and wonder whether anyone will step forward to lead in a different direction. The NYTimes even ran a major editorial on MLK day stating that this is a dark moment in US history and we need an effective leader "who can come from anywhere at anytime" to express the needed moral outrage, to challenge this direction, and to call forward the best in people. The moment is NOW, in the "shadows" of the blood-soaked inaugural ball, to make great leaps in making Chairman Bob Avakian a reference point in society, for millions, to have his vision and his leadership circulating in people's minds as the situation intensifies.

The tone of the meeting was sharp at times, in order to really fight for unity on a correct basis, but non-judgmental and everyone felt invited and eager to put questions or doubts on the table, and to join in struggle to answer them. In the end, everyone agreed, and some talked about it on into the evening, that this had been a communist - unleashing a lot of initiative among the volunteers through struggling for a correct understanding of the world and of the great needs which communists and others are being called out to filled.

2. Volunteer Highlights; DC PROLETARIAN'S MEMORIES OF BOB AVAKIAN!

Already, on the first day out, teams ran into two Black proletarians who asked how Bob Avakian, the revolutionary, is doing. It was clear that the experience of one of these proletarians with Chairman Avakian had gotten deep inside him. Nearly 25 years later, he recalled sections of Avakian's speech calling for the celebration of May Day 1980, when the RCP put this revolutionary holiday back on the map in the U.S. The proletarian talked about the plan to not go to work or school or business as usual and remembered how the state came after the revolutionary leader. He recalled how the whole city and beyond had come to know that Bob Avakian was under attack and eagerly asked what had become of him.

Several of the volunteers this week were part of the DC volunteers those many years ago and this brought back stories and experiences, some of which hadn't been shared in decades. The young volunteer who talked to these proletarians took the time to fill them in on how for the last couple decades that revolutionary leader they remembered so fondly had deeply studied and interrogated the experience of socialist societies, and of human societies more generally, and had advanced the science of revolution in world-historic ways. The volunteer gave them a sampler of Avakian's talk called, "Revolution, Why Its Necessary, Why Its Possible, What Its All About," stacks of the statement, the Revolutionary Worker newspaper, an ways to get further involved.

Also, among the new communities of DC, like the growing numbers of
immigrants from Africa and Central and Latin America, a Spanish speaking team met a restaurant owner who wants to host a screening of the DVD, Revolution, for their customers and another store that donated to get the first "Revolutionary Organizer's Kit" which features hundreds of statements, a short-term subscription to the RWOR, a DVD sampler, and several copies of the current RW-OR. Both places were eager to be part of introducing to many others the prospect of a revolutionary leader with a vision of a better world.

3. Making a Splash in the Media

Carl Dix, National Spokesperson of the Revolutionary Communist Party, is on the ground in DC speaking on behalf of the RCP and seizing the microphone to let people know about the leader we have in Chairman Avakian, what he has done that is so new and essential to achieving a better world and giving people a taste of how Avakian and his Party approach the Battle For The Future and their vision of a new society.

Sunsara Taylor, a young revolutionary communist writer, is also on the ground in DC seizing the mic to hound George Bush for his declaration that the "accountability moment" for any mistakes or misjudgments in entering the war on Iraq was "called the 2004 election" and pointing out how we could achieve a world where those who run society don't have such contempt for the people and their views, but foster dissent and involving people in administering society, with the leadership of Chairman Avakian.

During one joint interview, a listener called in to thank the radio host for having them on, saying they were absolutely right in what they were saying, calling them "beautiful people." Another caller tried to jam them with the claim that Stalin and Mao had murdered many millions, but became flustered and aggressive when they responded with a very forthright answer boldly defending the actual experience of socialism in China and the Soviet Union while at the same time boldly criticizing the actual shortcomings in those societies. The caller tried to throw them off by making crude sexist comments to Sunsara, and they proceeded to both continue to talk about how Avakian has re-envisioned socialism to go beyond Mao Tse-Tung and to come back to speak about how this revolution will be in large part fueled by the struggle against the oppression of women and will finally make good on completely liberating women and all people from the chains that bind us today.

After another interview, a listener told them that they appreciated and were motivated by the seriousness of the situation which they conveyed - but also the optimism, that we could do something about this. She said if she hadn't been sure she should be on the streets before listening, she would be after hearing them.

Carl and Sunsara are both popularizing Avakian's approach to the world and to a new society and the plans underway to take this leader to the people by the tens of thousands on the streets of DC throughout the week as well as the need for everyone to take part in issuing a BIG NO to Bush during his inaugural frenzy, when the whole world will be watching. So far, they have appeared on half a dozen radio programs across the country and a press team is working energetically and creatively to line up further interviews and stories in the national and international press.

4. The Insight Press Volunteers taking out Avakian's Memoirs Touch Down

A team of young volunteers delayed their arrival to DC to take a last-minute detour up to a conference of librarians in Boston. Many of the librarians leafed through the new memoir from Bob Avakian, From Ike To Mao, and Beyond, and spoke openly about their deep concern at the direction this country is going in and were excited to talk to these young volunteers who were determined that we could bring into being a better world. Several were refreshed to have a radical and unapologetic voice from the 60's and one commented about how important books like this are right now when the "government is trying to tell people how to think."

Beginning Tuesday morning the team will be taking the new book out to bookstores, college campuses and clubs, to protests and all around the city.

Surely some of the proletarians who ask about how Avakian's been will be thrilled to get this chance to get to know this revolutionary leader in a very intimate and inspiring way.

5. URGENT CALL TO JOIN THE REST OF THE WEEK OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY!!!

Anyone who wants to turn on a light, to offer people a glimpse of future and a way out of this madness and the leader who knows how to get there - anyone who wants to steel the smug triumphalism from the Bush program onslaught - should find a way down to DC as soon as possible. History is being made!

We all have something to say about how it will turn out.

The basis exists and the experience is making this even more evidence, for Bob Avakian to emerge as the leader who will be embraced, referenced, and looked to by millions who can't bear to think of the future with George Bush at the helm, but who don't yet know that there is a way out. Our approach and our plans enable each volunteer to make a qualitative impact, increasing the reach of this revolutionary answer to thousands more.

Come to DC today! Call Revolution Books: 212.691.3345 or email
getoutrwor@yahoo.com

Come down, donate money or offer help in other ways!

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.
* * *

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.

Ron Artest Ain't the Problem! A Revolutionary Take on "Fight Night in the NBA"

Editor's Note: The below opinion piece has been published in The Black Sports Network, ChickenBones: A Journal , Davy D's Hip Hop Corner, Free Voices: eZine of the People, The Weekly Challenger (Tampa Bay) and the New York Beacon.

November 26, 2004

The replays have been run so many times the scene has become etched in my brain. The Indiana Pacers' Ron Artest laying a hard foul on Ben Wallace of the Detroit Pistons near the end of the game. Wallace coming back at him with two hands to the throat, and Artest walking away from this potentially explosive situation and laying down on the scorers' table. (I'm told this is an anger management tactic.) Then a cup full of some liquid comes flying out of the stands onto Artest and the brawl is on. Players going into the stands, fans running onto the court. Beer, chairs and punches being thrown. Endless video replays accompanied by seemingly endless articles and panels of talking heads supporting the suspensions NBA Commissioner David Stern hit Artest and several other Pacers with and talking about Artest as a troubled young man who needs to do to deal with his problems.

And I'm thinking what problems are they referring to--fans who douse you with beer? NBA big wigs who, with their eyes focused on their bottom line, make an example out of you? The talk about Artest's problems or his previous run-ins with basketball's authorities is a lot of crap. Bush took the US to war in Iraq based on lies about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's ties to Al Queda. Before that as Texas governor he presided over a record number of executions, including some where the person put to death was innocent. But news reporters don't link this to his past problems with alcohol or to his current addiction to Pat Robertson-style Christian Fascism.

In announcing Artest's suspension for the rest of the season (and Pacer players Jermaine O'Neal for 25 games and Stephen Jackson for 30 games) NBA commissioner David Stern said that Artest had broken the social contract between players and fans. What is this social contract he's talking about here? It's doesn't include a clause saying fans shouldn't abuse players. Some NBA teams institutionalize such practices. The Washington Wizards (formerly the Bullets) had a designated heckler who was seated behind the visiting team's bench. This guy would do research to determine the best way to get inside the heads of visiting players and coaches. He'd recite rewritten versions of Shaq's rap lyrics, read sections of Phil Jackson's autobiography and run down any run-ins players had with the law among other things. In places like Boston, instead of having a designated heckler, the whole crowd is encouraged to get into the act.

This social contract rests on the way the NBA has approached dealing with a problem central to its marketing strategy. The NBA is serving up a sport dominated by Black athletes and featuring the edge and attitude that Black youth bring to the game, and to life. But they are marketing that sport to a fan base that is largely white.
The league knows the game minus the power, speed, aggression and agility these players bring to it would be a pale imitation of what draws the fans out to the arenas and into the stores to buy jerseys and other paraphernalia with players' names and numbers on it. To deal with this contradiction, players are allowed, even encouraged, to show that spirit in competition, and even somewhat in combat, among each other. (Think of how much less a story this would've been if Artest had responded to Wallace's blow by throwing punches at HIM. Both of them would've gotten suspended for one or a couple of games at most.) But never, ever, should a player even think about responding to anything done to him or his team by a fan. Think of the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum, cheered or jeered for what they did against each other, but never allowed to respond to directly to the crowd for anything it said or did.

The racism embedded in this approach rests on a lot of history. I'm not mainly talking here about how this country's dragged Africans to these shores in chains and stole the land from the native inhabitants. Although I could talk about that because it's still very relevant today. I'm more speaking about basketball history. Blacks were barred from the NBA till the 50's. The best Black ball players in the country were limited to playing for the Harlem Globetrotters if they wanted to play ball for a living. Most NBA teams refused to even play the Globetrotters. (The Minneapolis Lakers, who dominated the NBA in the late 40's and early 50's, did agree to play the Globetrotters. They ended up splitting several games with them.)

Coming closer to today, the NBA publicly agonized in the 1980's over the growing numbers of Black players in the league and wondered whether and how it could sell a Black-dominated game to white fans. Out of this agonizing came two things: (1) A search for and promotion of "white hopes"--white players talented enough to stand out in a game dominated by Black players. [Sometimes this worked, e.g., Larry Bird, and sometimes it flopped, like with Danny Ferry.] And (2) Attempts to moderate the edge and attitude of the Black players.

I'm not exaggerating when I speak of them trying to moderate players' attitude. During the 1984 NBA Finals, the LA Lakers began one game by giving each other low fives instead of high fives. League officials were horrified and quickly told them not to do that again. Laker Michael Cooper said the word to not do another low five came from someone "higher than the team and lower than God." All this forms the backdrop for the widespread condemnation of Ron Artest for his role in his incident.
Let me be real clear. This incident didn't happen because of Artest's problems. Nor did it become a major story for that reason. Brawls at hockey games involving one or several of it's mostly white players fighting with some of its mostly white fans occur so often they're treated as normal occurrences. Something for some sportscaster's plays-of-the-week list. There have even been incidents where fans who ran onto baseball or football fields, interrupting games, were beaten by players, and it didn't get treated as major stories like this did. But this was basketball, with it's mostly Black players fighting with it's largely white fans.

Artest walked away from a punch to his face and ignored a towel thrown at him. But this largely gets left out of the talk about this incident. Instead the discussion begins with Artest's "hard" foul on Wallace even tho' the game was all but over and skips to him going into the stands after the fan who hit him with the cup. As for the foul, the game was all but over, but Indiana's coach still had his starting line up on the floor. So he seemed to want his players to keep playing intensely. And in going into the stands after whoever threw beer on him and punching a fan who ran onto the court and got in his face, Artest was responding to what people did to him. This is what gets talked about and analyzed, or mis-analyzed, in commentary on this incident. He was defending himself, and for that he becomes the NBA's public enemy Number #1.

When David Stern and others say that no matter what was done to him, Artest never, ever should have gone into the stands, they are applying to him a standard that doesn't get applied much in US society--turn the other cheek. Artest grew up in the Queensbridge projects in New York City. You don't turn the other cheek there unless you want to get hit again. Artest's shot to get out of the projects was through basketball, and he succeeded at it by turning himself into one of the best players in pro-ball at his position. The heart of his game is giving his all every minute he's on the floor, on offense and defense. His competitive style has led to clashes with the NBA's hierarchy and to a number of suspensions. This itself got turned into more reason to punish him harshly. David Stern noted that his previous suspensions by the NBA were taken into account in determining what punishment to give him in this case. This comes down to a retroactive repeat offender policy that has only been applied to Ron Artest.

In commenting on all this, Charles Barkley said, "These guys (referring to NBA players) have to understand the racial undercurrent in the NBA. The fans look at this stuff as Black millionaires acting stupid." This was a theme that came up often in discussion of the brawl--fan resentment of wealthy Black athletes who lack the proper gratitude or humility for their situation. A number of newspaper articles even noted the growing number of NBA stars wear their hair in cornrows as something that contributes to this resentment! (The authors of the articles bringing up cornrows could add that they are adding to and whipping up such resentment.) There is a large gap in income between the fans and NBA players. But there's an even larger gap between the economic status of the fans and that of the almost all white NBA owners. Yet the media, sports or otherwise, doesn't work to whip up the kind of resentment against them that's its pumping up in relation to Black players.

This theme of resentment and hostility to Black people who don't know their place fits right in what's being brought forward in society overall. Black youth are treated like criminals in US society, guilty until proven innocent. This has gone so far that recent studies report that 1 in 10 Black men in the US are in jail! Widespread resentment among whites towards uppity Black people helps justify outrages like this.

And we've just been through a presidential election where the party in power tried to keep as many Black people from voting as they could. I know the Republicans are denying this, but the stuff is pretty much out in the open. Florida's Attorney General drew up a list of "felons" who would be denied the right to vote. This list consisted overwhelmingly of Black people, and it was full of people who had never even been charged with a crime. Again in Florida, Black people were visited by armed police investigating their involvement in registering people to vote. Flyers were circulated in Black communities in Maryland and Michigan telling people they should vote the day after election day. And I could go on and on.

The NBA suspended Ron Artest for the rest of the season with an eye toward shoring up the league's bottom line through reinforcing a "social contract" that rests on keeping the Black athletes that give their sport its heart and soul in their places. The intense debate this incident has generated throughout society is having the effect of giving added weight to the justifications used for all the ways this society acts to keep Black people in their place overall. Some reality needs to be injected into the discussion around this, and the terms of the debate around it need to be changed.

Another Stolen Election? Time for Serious Resistance!

Editor's Note: The following article was issued by Carl just before the 2004 elections; it has been published on ChickenBones: A Journal, the Mobile (AL) Beacon, the New York Beacon among others.
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Black people have had to fight fiercely for every gain. From slave revolts down through people being killed just for trying to register to vote, every step of the way has been marked by struggle to force the authorities to grant basic rights. Now today the right to vote is being snatched back from many Black and Latino people.

Am I exaggerating? Not one bit. Earlier this year, Florida's Secretary of State issued a list of 47,000 "felons" who would be ineligible to vote. Most of them were Black. Florida was forced to make the list public, and it was found to contain thousands of errors, including having hundreds of people who were listed as being convicted in the future. This is on top of the 94,000 people, again mostly Black, who were stricken from the voting rolls by a similarly error filled list in 2000, most of whom have not still not been put back on the voting lists!

Ohio is using an old state law about the kind of paper voter registrations must be on to invalidate newly registered Black voters. The Republican Party has lined up thousands of "poll watchers," who are really political thugs, to challenge Latinos and Blacks to present proof that they are citizens or that they live in the precinct they're voting in on election day. This is another rerun of 2000 when some "poll watchers" wore shirts that falsely implied they were federal police to intimidate people from even trying to vote. Additionally, corporations tied to the Republicans have made electronic voting machines that leave no way to check the accuracy of their count that will be used in states across the country.

All this is on top of the way the criminal injustice system works to criminalize Black and Latino people. Youth of color are routinely jacked up by the cops, beaten down and arrested for nothing more than being the wrong color or having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is part of the reason why half of the 2 million people in jail in the US are Black.

Bush and company are out to disenfranchise millions of Black and other minority voters. THIS POINTS TO THE PROSPECT OF A STOLEN ELECTION IN 2004.

This is what the Republicans did in 2000, and the Democrats let them get away with it. They didn't build a fight to stop it and stood in the way of others who wanted to fight it. Things must be different this time. There must be massive resistance to any and all attempts by Bush and company to steal the presidency again!

Much is at stake. Bush and company have set the country on a dangerous course--a "War On Terror" (WOT), which is really a power move aimed at keeping the US the dominant imperialist power in the world. It includes the illegitimate, immoral and illegal occupation of Iraq, an intensifying repressive clamp down in the US and the promise of more wars and more repression for generations to come. The attempts to steal the election through thuggery and manipulating the vote count are an extension of the fascist direction they have the country on. Many, many people are agonizing over what can and must be done to stop all this.

As a revolutionary communist, I have to say that voting Bush out isn't going to reverse this direction. Kerry and the Democrats provide no answer to this. The terms on which this election is being fought out don't include should the US occupy Iraq or not, or should the repressive laws and policies be reversed. Instead the terms for this election come down to who would be the better commander in chief for the WOT! People who want to vote against the occupation, can't do that. People who want to vote against the USA PATRIOT Act in this election can't do that either. That's why I say the will of the people cannot and will not be exercised in this election.

We can't rely on the Democrats to lead the fight to stop Bush and his crew from stealing this election. We have to take the initiative into our hands and rely on ourselves to win this fight. The Republican Party will have its thousands of poll watching thugs at voting sites nationwide. They must be met by thousands of determined people in the streets declaring that they will not sit by while Bush steals another election. There must be massive resistance to this and to the whole agenda Bush and company have set in motion.

And we need to go beyond resistance. It's going to take revolution, millions of people rising up to overthrow this imperialist ruling class and going on to build a whole new societies in place of this one to solve all the problems this system forces countless millions in the US and millions more worldwide to endure once and for all. There is leadership that exists to lead the masses in doing just that. Bob Avakian, the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, has analyzed the accomplishments and shortcomings of previous revolutionary societies and developed a vision of how to make revolution and how to involve the masses of people in building a new society after seizing power.

A society that is no longer dominated by a rich capitalist class, where whites no longer lord it over people of color and men no longer dominate women. Avakian is addressing all the questions that would confront us in preparing for and making revolution here in the belly of the beast, as we used to put it in the 1960'S. (Interested readers can find writings by Avakian at www.bobavakian.net.)

The ballot box has never been where the direction of the country has been decided. Nor has it been where issues of major concern for the people have been decided. But it is intolerable that Bush and company are trying to steal this election. It is a reflection of how serious things are in the US that they can't even allow the election to go down without the group in power trying to rig the result. This can't be allowed to happen. It must be met with determined resistance.

On the Importance of the 2004 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality

Editor's Note: The following was a message from Carl Dix to a October 22 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality (NDP)Kickoff Meeting held in New York City on September 4, 2004. The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, and the Stolen Lives Project, can be reached at office@october22.org.

Friends,

I would like to contribute a few thoughts about how important it is that we mobilize a powerful national outpouring for Oct 22, 2004. This is important because:

*As our research for the Stolen Lives Project makes clear, the authorities continue to give a green light to brutal, murdering cops.

*They've continued racial profiling targeting Blacks and Latinos even as they expanded this heinous practice to target Arabs, Muslims and South Asians.

*They've continued and expanded the police state clamp down they've been putting in place since Sept 11th. The severe limits on the right to protest that was put in place around the RNC were only the most recent examples of this.

The mayor has said the right to protest was a privilege that people should be glad they are allowed to exercise. Be clear that something considered a privilege is something that can be taken from you. He also said that the police did nothing wrong in making mass arrests that swept up protesters who were violating no laws and people who just happened to be walking by or riding their bikes in the vicinity. What kind of society do statements like these put us on course to be dragged into? One where cops are in people's faces everywhere all the damn time. And when challenged on all this, they come back with their bottom line justification--that what happened on Sept 11th means that people should accept, even welcome, the repressive moves by the government as what's needed to keep us safe.

It is crucial that people reject all this, and our efforts leading up to Oct 22nd and on Oct 22nd itself can play an important role in helping this to happen. NDP's approach of providing a platform for those under the gun of this official brutality and murder to expose the injustice being inflicted on them and their loved ones can bring out the truth of what's going on in a powerful way. And it's tradition of bringing into this fight allies from many different backgrounds, people of different races and from all walks of life, helps to make this fight against injustice stronger.

As a revolutionary communist, I see added importance to mounting powerful resistance on Oct 22nd. The brutality and repression the US rulers are intensifying on the home front is a necessary complement to their "war on terror" which is really a war for empire. Never is an imperialist ruling class so in need of acquiescence from the people as when it goes to war. So rejecting their lies that this police state clamp down being for our safety and taking to the streets in protest is especially important in this situation.

Also presidential elections are fast approaching, and this will be another election in which the will of the people will not be expressed at the ballot box. In my opinion, the differences between Bush and Kerry on Iraq, the "war on terror," the domestic repression and many other important issues range from narrow to nonexistent. As Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party put it, the worst thing that could happen coming out of this election is that the people's resistance becomes paralyzed and demobilized. Our efforts on Oct 22nd will help keep issues like police brutality and repression front and center for people and encourage others to also continue to build resistance to the injustice being rained down on the people.

Also in this time when Bush and Kerry are saying that people need to fight and die to keep this system and its global position in effect, exposing the way in which their cops continue to brutalize and even murder people, as well as the repression they're bringing down, can sharply pose to people whether this set up is worth fighting and dying to keep in effect. My answer to this question is clear. It isn't--in fact people need to be aiming to get rid of it thru rev and going on to bring a new society into being. A society where youth aren't treated like criminals because of the color of their skin. Where immigrants aren't rounded up and detained because of what part of the world they're from. A society where more and more of the people are being involved in grappling with how to do away with all the misery and degradation characteristic of this system.

In commenting on the police murder of Tyisha Miller, Bob Avakian spoke to what this says about the nature of this society. He pointed out that here you had all these "trained law enforcement professionals" trying to deal with an unconscious Black woman. Their way of dealing with that was to blow her away and then joke about it afterward. And the authorities then proceeded to exonerate the killer cops. We need to live in a society where law enforcement professionals are willing to risk their lives to ensure peoples' safety not murder innocent people and then claim their lives were at risk. Here Avakian was talking about Tyisha Miller, but he just as easily could've been talking about Nicholas Heyward Jr or Timothy Stansbury or Alberta Spruill or Malcolm Ferguson.

Getting rid of all the brutality and misery that this system brings down on people is going to take a revolution, and going on after the revolution to totally transform society till there's no more rich people riding the backs of everybody else to get richer, no more whites lording it over people of color, no more men dominating women. A necessary part of this kind of revolution is the people taking the reins of power in society into their own hands and dealing with all the questions that running society and totally transforming it will throw up.

From my perspective as a revolutionary communist, I see building the fight to stop police brutality and doing it in the way that this coalition has historically approached it--thru putting the responsibility to develop that fight into the hands of the people victimized by the police and those who step forward to join them in this fight--as part of getting ready and in position to do what I think is really needed--make revolution and wipe this rotten system off the face of the earth. That's why I helped form the Oct 22nd Coalition back in 1996 and why I'll be with you in mobilizing for NDP 2004.

U.S. Puts World in Crosshairs

Editor's Note: This article was web-posted on The Final Call on 10-08-2002 as a guest column.
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Sisters and brothers, the U.S. government is feeding us a pack of lies about what it’s doing to the people of the world. We’re told these people are our enemies and we should fear them. We’re told that we should back any moves the U.S. makes to gun them down and seize their countries.

As a Black GI, I heard the same lies during the Vietnam War. I refused to murder Vietnamese for them, and they sent me to Leavenworth military prison for 2 years. We can’t be intimidated or pressured to line up behind their war moves and wave their flag. It’s time to say "hell no, we won’t support your war without end!" Recently, President Bush told the cadets of West Point that he believed his government has the right to attack anywhere in the world without warning or provocation. Bush says that 60 countries were being investigated for possible attack. His Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, added that the Pentagon would be deploying its troops and commandos anywhere the U.S. wants. It will capture or assassinate anyone it considers an enemy. This would be done without announcing anything in public or telling the governments involved. These colonial actions make a joke of ideas like "national sovereignty" and "rule by the people."

For the U.S., the risk is tempting because the prize is big. They’re aiming for nothing less than unchallenged control of the world.

In the year since Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. government has bombed Afghanistan, occupied its cities and imposed a pro-U.S. government. They back Israel’s dismantling of the Palestinian Authority and occupation of the West Bank. The U.S., which wanted more influence over oil in Central Asia and cheap labor in Southeast Asia, now has new military bases from the Black Sea to Uzbekistan to the Philippines. Recently, the U.S. State Department began targeting the Maoists parties of the Philippines and Nepal.

The shock and grief of Sept. 11 is being exploited to justify the next phase of war with Iraq. The official talk of "weapons of mass destruction" is a smokescreen——a mix of lies, exaggerations and half-truths. It’s designed to hide the tightening U.S. grip on Persian Gulf oil. The Iraqi people are now placed in the crosshairs of a U.S. invasion. The people, who have endured so much, are at ground zero of a heartless assault. Many will die. Their rebuilt cities will be targeted again, and their country will be seized at gunpoint.

On the home front, we see sweeping police powers put in place——wiretapping, suspension of constitutional rights, mass jailing of Arab and Muslim immigrants without charges. Federal snitch networks seek to recruit a million participants, while discussion of torture is debated on prime time TV. The language of Big Brother has become the everyday language of government——homeland security, military tribunals and permanent war without borders.

All this is being done in our name. In the name of security and defense. This is the devil’s bargain the U.S. government wants us to make. They want us to shut up and keep quite while they run riot over the people of the world.

We can’t let this go down! They must be stopped! And it needs to begin now! On Sunday, October 6th, the day before the anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan, mass actions will be held in major cities, NY, SF, LA and Chicago, bringing together thousands of people who will take the "Not in Our Name" Pledge of Resistance. They will declare their opposition to the government’s course and pledge to resist and stop this war on the world and escalating police state restrictions in this country.
These events will send a message to the people of the world that this government does not speak or act for all the American people. The people of the world are our sisters and brothers.

As we build our resistance, we need to be crystal clear on the nature of those who are racing towards a new war. As long as U.S. imperialism stays in power the horrors that come from their system will continue. Another world is possible.