Join The Bob Avakian Institute for zoom discussions held every Thursday. Discussions are focused on excerpts from The Bob Avakian Interviews, 2025 on fascism, capitalism and the new communism.
The Rule of Law and the Role of Dissent in the New Socialist Society
As the rule of law is being eviscerated under the Trump fascist regime with the right to dissent and protest under serious threat, we invite to you to discuss Bob Avakian’s work envisioning the need for dissent, protest and intellectual and cultural ferment and debate in a radically different socialist society. The new communism deals with these questions in a very different way – different fundamentally from the fascist assault on the rule of law, and different than how these questions were approached in the first stage of communist revolution.
In a recent Interview, Avakian was asked:
You have said that never before in any proposed or actually existing founding document of a government has there been anything close to the level, not only of provision for dissent, protest, disagreement and ferment as is written into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America*. While also being oriented to meeting people’s basic needs and overcoming oppression. Can you give an example of what this would look like?
We’ll watch Avakian’s answer to this question and discuss.
* The statement referenced in the question is the following, regarding the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by Bob Avakian:
It is a fact that, nowhere else, in any actual or proposed founding or guiding document of any government, is there anything like not only the protection but the provision for dissent and intellectual and cultural ferment that is embodied in this Constitution [for the New Socialist Republic in North America], while this has, as its solid core, a grounding in the socialist transformation of the economy, with the goal of abolishing all exploitation, and the corresponding transformation of the social relations and political institutions, to uproot all oppression, and the promotion, through the educational system and in society as a whole, of an approach that will “enable people to pursue the truth wherever it leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity, and in this way to continually learn about the world and be better able to contribute to changing it in accordance with the fundamental interests of humanity.” All this will unchain and unleash a tremendous productive and social force of human beings enabled and inspired to work and struggle together to meet the fundamental needs of the people—transforming society in a fundamental way and supporting and aiding revolutionary struggle throughout the world—aiming for the final goal of a communist world, free from all exploitation and oppression, while at the same time addressing the truly existential environmental and ecological crisis, in a meaningful and comprehensive way, which is impossible under the system of capitalism-imperialism.
Also, see the short essay: Bob Avakian on the Law, Justice, and Ending Oppression And Exploitation (at TheBobAvakianInstitute.org)
Avakian argues that we need to unite “all who can be united, from many different viewpoints and perspectives” to defeat this fascism. And while doing so, open up a debate and discussion about what kind of better world is possible. For Avakian’s work on Trump MAGA Fascism: What We’re Really Facing, Why and What Must Be Done to Defeat It Before It’s Too Late, read on BobAvakianOfficial.substack.com.