The Bob Avakian Interviews, 2025

QUESTIONS FROM PART 1:

1. What are we facing with the Trump MAGA fascist regime, and what are the stakes of this? (00:26)

2. Why, right after the election, did you say that "this is not a time for demoralization and despair—it is a time for righteous anger and revolutionary determination"? (3:24)

3. What's the importance of the two slogans: “In the Name of Humanity We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America” and “This Whole System Is Rotten and Illegitimate—We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System.”? (6:34)

4. If we had a time machine and we could just fast forward into the future into a revolutionary society based in the Constitution that you wrote for the New Socialist Republic in North America, how would things be different? What would it look like? What would it feel like? (15:10)

5. Why are the attacks on science so dangerous today, and why is a promotion of science such an important part of the revolution and the change that we need to bring about for emancipation? (23:00)

6. Popularly, when people talk about capitalism as the problem, they often target CEOs and see them as the essence of the problem. How does that differ from a scientific understanding of what capitalism actually is and how it actually functions? (29:00)

7. You argue that capitalism is not just greed or the accumulation of wealth. Why? And why does it matter to have a scientific understanding of capitalism? (37:13)

8. We’re being hammered with this notion that "the American people chose Trump" because he didn't just win the Electoral College, but he won the popular vote. So what do you say to people who argue that "the American people voted for Trump" so we should just accept this? (43:04)

9. What do you say to people who argue that there aren't really splits among the rulers, that they're "just all the same, and all no good"? (51:20)

10. What would it look like to bring forward tens of millions of people in massive opposition and resistance on such a level that we create the kind of profound political crisis where Trump literally cannot govern the country and implement his fascist program? (55:36)

11. You described the protests of the ’60s where people didn't give up because “they’re not listening.” Can you speak to the notion that the point of protest is to “get the rulers to listen?” (1:01:29)

12. Often, at the high tide of an upsurge against oppression, you'll hear people say that they're "just never going to give up," but when they encounter obstacles, the protests subside. Could you speak to why you need more than determination, and why theory is the dynamic factor in ideology -- that people act on the basis of what they have come to understand? (1:08:51)

13. Can you speak to how you find the courage to make the sacrifices you have made and how other people should find that courage -- especially in these heavy times? (1:15:03)

QUESTIONS FROM PART 2:

1. Why should somebody who is not a communist care that there is a new communism? (0:17)

2. How is genuine communism different than people’s misconceptions? What’s new and surprising to people about the new communism? (1:21)

3. Could you speak to the actual differences between China today and China during the revolutionary period, when Mao was leading it? (7:42)

4. In our first interview, you talked about how when you first came to political life, you learned from leaders in the Free Speech Movement and the Black Panther Party, as well as Marx, Lenin and Mao. But you also spoke about coming to see the need to go further. Can you give a sense of what that process was like, in particular in relation to developing what’s new in the new communism? (11:41)

5. What is different and new in the new communism? (18:55)

6. 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 that you authored. While also being oriented to meeting people’s basic needs and overcoming oppression. Can you give an example of how this is built into the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic? (30:10)

7. How do you deal with the millions of fascists that will still be in this country after a revolution? (37:57)

8. In the new socialist republic, how do you apply the point you’ve made that “Internationalism—The Whole World Comes First”? (45:15)

9. How would an artist like Bob Dylan be related to with the new communism that’s maybe different than a lot of the ways that he has been related to by political figures in different ways? (53:07)

10. You have said “If you don’t have a poetic spirit—or at least a poetic side—it is very dangerous for you to lead a Marxist movement or be the leader of a socialist state.” Why is that so? (59:19)

11. Why is it so important to you personally, and to the revolution that you’re fighting for, to consistently tell people the truth -- even when people don’t want to hear it? (1:02:22)

12. What is communist leadership, and why should people follow your leadership? (1:08:94)

13. You did a series on your social media titled, “The Profound Fight for the Soul of Black People: A Defeated People OR a Revolutionary People.” Can you speak about why you did that, and why this is so important in this time in particular? (1:18:42)

14. In the last year as a whole you’ve been putting out social media messages on @BobAvakianOfficial. Can you talk about the broader role of these social media messages—what you are thinking about in crafting them, and what difference it would make if they really were listened to by millions? (1:23:35)

15. How could it really be real that tens of millions could come forward to defeat this fascism? And how does that relate to being in a time when revolution is more possible? (1:27:27)

16. Can you speak to those who think they can’t have an impact on society? (1:33:40)

Watch this important message: 2025: A New Year—Profound New Challenges— And a Profoundly Positive Way Forward in the Face of Very Real Horror