Archive for March, 2020
-
THE DEADLY ILLUSION OF “NORMALCY” AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAY FORWARD
by Bob Avakian March 27, 2020 Even before the coronavirus became a worldwide pandemic, a New York Times columnist wrote about the lure of boredom—arguing that, after the years of Trump madness, having a sleep-inducing president (like Joe Biden) might be just what is needed. The impact of the coronavirus has reinforced and strengthened this tendency toward a “yearning for normalcy,” especially on the part of the section of the ruling class represented by the NYT and that section of society, particularly among the more formally educated middle strata, that for some time has, to a significant degree, identified with […]
-
BOB AVAKIAN RESPONDS TO MARK RUDD
ON THE LESSONS OF THE 1960s AND THE NEED FOR AN ACTUAL REVOLUTIONInfantile Expressions of Outrage, or Accommodation to This Monstrous System, Are Not the Only Alternatives March 19, 2020 In the New York Times recently (Friday, March 6, 2020) a commentary appears (“Political Passion Turned Violent”) authored by Mark Rudd, a former 1960s radical. The motivation of the Times editors, in publishing this piece by Rudd, is not difficult to discern. Rudd emphasizes that significant acts of violence today, and the danger this poses to society, is being perpetrated by what he terms the “far right”; and, more generally, he insists that nonviolence is the only legitimate and effective way to bring […]
-
BOB AVAKIAN
TO THOSE BLACK PEOPLE WHO ARE VOTING FOR JOE BIDENMarch 12, 2020 Congratulations. You are supporting someone (Joe Biden) who started his campaign for president by bragging about his history of finding common ground with white supremacist southern segregationists and saying this was proof he could “bring the country together!” White supremacy and white supremacist violence has become more blatant with Trump, but this has always been part of this system—and in fact it is built into this system. That is why, as I have pointed out, despite the false hopes people had with Barack Obama as “the first Black president” (and Joe Biden as vice president): In reality, while perhaps more Black faces were […]
-
LYNCHING, MURDER BY POLICE—
DAMN THIS WHOLE SYSTEM!
WE DON’T HAVE TO LIVE THIS WAY!by Bob Avakian March 12, 2020 I see that the House of Representatives has passed a bill making lynching a federal hate crime (although it remains to be seen whether the Senate will go along with this and Trump will sign it into law). When thousands of Black people were lynched during the long years of Jim Crow segregation after the Civil War, the government of this “great democracy” repeatedly refused to pass a bill like this (and heroes of the “liberals” and “progressives” like former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused to push for such a bill when lynching was at its height […]
-