I am making the immediate demand that you take down this video, remove this false statement and post a retraction.
First, you quote an unrelated blogger, James Jackson, from a six year old post that you admit has no support.
“…According to their atrocious website they are currently raising funds for their ongoing ‘Revolution Tour’ claiming they will be using the money to send their ‘Revolution Club’ around the country to participate in direct actions. None of the actual actions they will participate in are listed on the website and at no point is there any detail on how the money raised will actually be used. They do not even mention what they hope to accomplish by sending their members on the so-called ‘Tour.”
Then, you editorialize, confirming that you have no evidence but nonetheless claim to have “circumstantial evidence” for your false accusation of donation fraud and embezzlement by this so called “clique of cronies:”
At least to me it’s very clear that this is Avakian’s full-time job. Meanwhile how much do those working at the bookstore make? How’s this money funneled to those working full-time or putting in all these man hours? From what I’ve read, most of this work is volunteer. It’s likely the money is going to Avakian and maybe his clique of cronies. It doesn’t seem like Chairman Bob or his friends are living as ascetics after all. Alas I have no proof, and I could very well be wrong. But the circumstantial evidence suggests this is such.
This is defamation as you are accusing Bob Avakian, and the revcoms (and by association, The BA Institute), of committing the crime of financial fraud. This is an utter fabrication and your claim that there is “circumstantial evidence” for this is false.
Any fund drive on revcom.us makes perfectly clear what funds are being raised for, and the actions they take made possible by those funds can be seen on their website, social media and their youtube show, The RNL – Revolution Nothing Less – Show. In terms of “what they hope to accomplish,” this is made clear repeatedly in their documents of strategy and mission (which again, can be found all over their website, social media and weekly youtube show). You’re misleading your audience when you withhold from them these simple answers to the “questions” you purport to raise when the internet is replete with actual evidence of actual people who support Avakian’s work creating awareness, organizing, protesting and collectively mobilizing for the common good.
As someone who claims to be a “journalist,” we expect you to apply the basic journalistic standards of telling evidence-based truth, with honesty and integrity. Instead, it’s clear that you have no respect for the truth and basic facts.
In addition, you don’t just tar Avakian’s character, you delete and override it with an impostor that is the furthest thing from his honest, evidence based, methodical, probing and inquisitive approach to understanding and changing the world in the interests of humanity. This character assassination attempts to rob Bob Avakian’s speech of the integrity that he argues for throughout his work. As an Institute who cares about the public good, and the broad awareness of and discussion about the substance of Avakian’s work, you have done our organization harm.
Again, we demand you remove the clearly defamatory section of this video and print a retraction.
In addition, the whole youtube series that this defamatory statement is part of is also full of disinformation. You purport to be doing some kind of “expose” about “Avakian as a cult leader” and present a hackneyed version of history to “prove this” utilizing unverifiable gossip and “scar stories.” But nowhere do you engage the actual content of Avakian’s work or argue for honest dialogue and debate.
In contrast to the unthinking slander that Avakian is a “cult leader” who encourages blind fealty, Avakian consistently argues for critical thinking, scientific rigor and an evidence-based approach. His life and work is based on fighting for, and applying, a consistently scientific approach to understanding and changing the world.
That consistently scientific approach at the heart of the new communism is a break from secondary elements in the first stage of communist revolution which ran counter to this, including with the poisonous notion that the “ends justify the means.”
Among other questions, Avakian has been analyzing and sounding the alarm about the roots and rise of American fascism for over 30 years. Unfortunately, this work has been too quickly dismissed because of the kind of kneejerk and unthinking anti-communism which your videos display. The personal attacks, threats and lies coming directly from the US government against anyone who stands up and speaks out about the dangerous direction society is headed, makes it even more important that those who claim to want a better world hold ourselves to basic standards of truth.
Everyone can learn from differences of substance when argued out in a principled way. Our Institute seeks to foster a genuine debate over the urgent questions Avakian deals with in his work about the future, and existential threat, to humanity and the planet. By engaging in defamation, slander and lies, you seek to shut down debate and critical thinking. You thereby do our organization harm, and do your audience a great disservice.
We again demand that you remove the clear defamation of Bob Avakian in your fifth video in your series, print a retraction. And if you had respect for the truth, you would remove the whole series.
Annie Day
Director, The Bob Avakian Institute