#revcom

[connorthemaoist]

kites-journal.org | 1 April 2024

After consulting a tarot card reader while on a sojourn to his old stomping grounds in the Bay Area, California for insight into the possible political scenarios that could manifest in the US in November 2024, Bob Avakian has set to work on a new book to be published in the run-up to the upcoming presidential election. Democracy: We Can’t Do Better Than That promises to rationalize why preventing Trump from taking office must be the strategic priority of communists in the US, even as under the Biden administration life has arguably gotten worse for the masses of people in the US, the CDC started inventing total nonsense in relation to COVID-19 (such as the five-day rule), and the US funded and supported a genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

But more than just explaining the RevCom’s current strategy of imagining a revolutionary crisis occurring around the 2024 elections and hinging all their political work around that prediction, Democracy: We Can’t Do Better Than That will justify Avakian’s reversal of correct verdicts on the history of the international communist movement. Chapter 2 of the book will rehabilitate the Comintern’s united front against fascism of the late 1930s, arguing that the defense of bourgeois-democracy against fascism supersedes the need for proletarian revolution. Chapter 3 will refashion some of Earl Browder’s ideas for the 21st century and explain the spiral-like development of Avakian’s “new communism” as a re-synthesis of the old communism of the late-1930s CP (but without the mass following) that Avakian previously insisted must be discarded. Chapter 4 will explain why proposed policies in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America that Avakian authored sound more like bourgeois-democratic parliamentary procedures than the practices of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in socialist China. In the conclusion of Democracy: We Can’t Do Better Than That, Avakian will rationalize how tailing the liberal petty-bourgeoisie and flattening all political work into the fight against Trumpian fascism can serve revolutionary objectives.

Followers of Avakian had mixed reactions to the announcement of his forthcoming book. Some were glad that he was actually sitting down to write a book instead of just doing another lengthy talk that is subsequently transcribed and published. Others wondered if they could stomach the possibility that, after decades of dedicating their lives to revolution, Avakian might once again tell them to vote for Biden in order to stop Trumpian fascism. Most, however, were unfortunately too brain dead after years of doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result each time to think critically or question a capitulationist political line. A standout among Avakian’s followers was Andy Zee, who was ecstatic about the upcoming release of Avakian’s Democracy: We Can’t Do Better Than That. On the Revolution Nothing Less YouTube show, Zee explained that “I’ve gotten pretty good over the last couple decades at being a sycophant, arguing for whatever Avakian’s latest ideas are even if it meant a 180-degree flip from what I was saying a week ago. That is, after all, why I was made the host of this show.”

[strannik-fev]

Amber Alert: Russia is Kidnapping Ukrainian Children rally - 02.04.2023 by Strannik45 Via Flickr: More photos here 

The rally was organized by Chicago's Ukrainian community to bring attention to the issue that earned Russian President Vladimir Putin an arrest warrant - what Russia has been doing in Ukrainian kids in the occupied territories. 

As with many things happening in the Ukrainian War, there are several things going on. First, Russian forces have been taking kids that were orphaned (or whose next of kin couldn't be found right away, or whose next of kin aren't in the occupied territories) and sending them to Russia to be adopted. And, if there is any question about the ultimate goal of this, Russian government recently gave grants to "help children embrace to their new homeland." 

There is also the part where several kids in occupied areas (mostly Kherson Oblast) who were taken to summer camps in Russia, and when the territories were liberated, Russians weren't exactly willing to give those kids back. And families have no way of getting in touch with them. And if that sounds like a nightmare - congratulations, you have a conscience. 

 The rally was scheduled to kick off at the Old Water Tower, then proceed down Michigan Avenue toward Millennium Park, culminating at the Cloud Gate/the Bean. Now, what I don't think the organizers realized was that the Revolutionary Communist Party was going to have a rally at the northwest corner of the Millennium Park, also at 2:00 PM. It was on my radar, but I wasn't sure, given the timing, if the twain shall meet. 

 Well, RevComm noticed them as they were arriving, and decided to preach their mission of how everyone should stop the "US/NATO Proxy War." I'm not entirely sure if they got to other parts of their spiel, like that Maidan protests were a NATO scheme, that NATO expansion provoked Putin and, oh, that Russia hasn't been Communist since 1950s and that Stalin was a communist "who made a lot of mistakes." But, suffice to say, the Ukrainians were not amused. Chants of "Commies Go Home" got thrown around. 

Still, given the vast disparity in numbers, the communists did ultimately leave, and the rally was finished as planned.

[chaddavisphotography]

A t-shirt in the grass at the 2024 Republican National Convention. It reads No Genocide Joe No Fascist Trump. The whole damn system's got to go! Shirt from The Revolutionary Communist Party.

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Saw someone singing the praises of the “BITE model” of cultiness, which consists of four broad categories of criteria where the more a group meets them the more cult they are

The “behavioural” list is maybe the best illustration of how it’s seemingly impossible to formulate any principled criteria for cultiness that do not rule in living in any society whatsoever. Aside from the “7-9hrs of sleep” one and the morally loaded to the point of uninformative one about financial exploitation each of these if taken literally would apply to absolutely any living situation other than total seclusion in perfect naturally endowed material luxury. “Oh but that is being deliberately perverse, obviously I mean only yk the fucked up kinds of these things” ah I see, and ofc this will be very helpful to cult members since it is so clear to them already what the fucked up kinds of “modifying behaviour with reward and punishment” are (which is basically “is this a cult (derogatory)?”-complete on its own)

Witnessing harmful groups that could reasonably be described as cults only makes me angrier at this stuff. The pseudo-objectivity that is clearly just masking barely restrained vibes-based intuition one inch below the surface. Surely you can do better at denouncing these manifest social toxins than laundering your inarticulate prejudices in bureacratic listicle-ism?

[feral-catgirl]

part of the reason american labor sucks so much is that most people are incapable of identifying and separating the revolutionary proletariat from the labor aristocracy.

this failure of analysis and investigation results in both the economism of the DSA and various ML orgs failing to actually lead workers and instill communist politics among them (bc they default to platforming yellow union leadership instead of acting as a political vanguard) on one hand, and the patent stupidity of third worldists abdicating the responsibility of trying to organize towards revolution in the imperial core at all (because they believe it impossible on the grounds that there is no revolutionary proletariat) on the other.

its patently obvious in the way people will take statements from union leadership as indicative of the voices and desires of the rank and file, whether its professing support for contracts that actually fuck over huge swathes of workers (as with the recent teamsters contract throwing part timers under the bus) or condemning reactionary positions as indicative of the positions if the rank and file (ie. people criticizing SEIU/workers united for both-sidesing palestinian resistance and israeli genocide but ignoring that statements from rank and file and small locals are overwhelmingly supportive of palestine).

it is fully impossible to build red unions and properly organize people towards a politically motivated general strike without acknowledging and understanding the composition of the unions and the contradictions between racist, anticommunist, antiworker union bureaucrats and the overwhelmingly dispossessed and disaffected rank and file workers who in many places are independently seeking out communist political education themselves that any large org fancying itself a “vanguard” would be providing already were they not incompetent and ineffectual.

[dayandnightz]

May Day 2023..

[varts-world]

If Israel’s Netan-Nazi and Gallant Are War Criminals—and They ARE!—What Does That Make Those Who Fund, Arm, and Defend Those Crimes?!? https://revcom.us/en/if-israels-netan-nazi-and-gallant-are-war-criminals-and-they-are-what-does-make-those-who-fund-arm

[anarchotahdigism]

In terms of groups blocking weapons do you think Palestine Action and Stop Weapons MN are good to give to and support

Honestly, I do not know. I know the former has been involved in some actions but nothing specific and I definitely know nothing immediately about the latter For me, I look for the following: Is everyone masked? Are they keeping out/away press and counter protestors? Do they have arrest plans in place? Do they practice dearrest? Who else organizes with them? Do they protect participants' identities? A lot of people doing direct action have been independent groups of people who may know each other from work, school, worship, or any other communal social spaces & they decide to take action. I'm always wary of any nonprofits involved (which Palestine Action is) and especially if they organize with dangerous groups like PSL or RevCom. There are many ways to shut down war factories and they don't all require large groups of people doing blockades and many of them can be done in small groups or alone. None of them require a 503c. Personally, I will always recommend first and foremost giving to mutual aid groups active in your areas of concern-- they are directly supporting the most marginalized people, which can often include protesters. A lot of mutual aid groups supported the 2020-21 protests and remained active for years & have been providing aid to protests supporting Palestine this past year.

[khizuo]

not to call out jvp but uh. they are very big on the "we condemn both Hamas and Israel" train (why is Hamas always first there) and with them being one of the largest voices in the antizionist movement recently I wonder if that has kept some people from supporting Hamas and the Palestinian resistance movement. though the revcoms and the plp also "condemned Hamas" in their pamphlets and they have a decent presence in the pro-Palestine protests too so they probably helped.

[vartavakian]

We Are Working For a Real Revolution and a Whole New, Emancipating Way to Live

[disgracedmilfman]

You don't deserve to raise the single fist white Revcom baby

[patricide1885]

What is the deal with the revcoms and their glorious leader bob avakian? All I know is that they seem culty and they talk like they're theater kids roleplaying 30s communists or something

[loving-n0t-heyting]

creepy thing the bob avakian personality cult (his words) did at the sf rally today and apparently routinely does:

bring a megaphone

start leading some fairly standard pro-palestine chants ("free free! free palestine!")

segue into some superficially broad tent but actually group-specific catchphrases ("how do we get out of this mess? revolution nothing less!")

devolve into spewing cult propaganda

there are plenty of orgs present at any given broad coalition event that any even minimally opinionated given participant will disagree with pretty strenuously, but there is a difference between the psl having bad politics on china and revcom being an ultra-insular quasi-messianic sect, and the former does not do the same level of manipulating ppl into unwittingly vocally supporting them

[feral-catgirl]

talking about others adhering to "tried-and-failed tactics" while being a maoist is certainly an interesting choice lmao

(ask is in reference to this post: https://www.tumblr.com/feral-catgirl/726521729866924032/i-complain-about-the-behavior-and-beliefs-of-other )

tbqh i dont think anyone willing to argue on this site has actually done enough study on maoism to try to tell me what the “tried-and-failed” tactics of maoism are, whereas the “Bolshevik-style” of aboveground legal organizing until insurrection has been the project of like 6 different major and currently existing orgs in the usa who have failed to so much as engage in effective antiimperialist struggle or keep their ranks clear of abusers, much less create anything close to a revolution. applied outside the usa, the same is largely true when it comes to recent and growing revolutionary movements, with india as good example of direct contrast between the efficacy of self-described “marxist” organizing vs the maoist struggle in the country.

[dayandnightz]

May Day 2023..

[varts-world]

Trump’s Cabinet: Forging a Fascist Machine https://revcom.us/en/trumps-cabinet-forging-fascist-machine