I didn’t start learning about revolutionary communism from a principled standpoint, but rather from a personal place. After being caught up in identity politics, criticizing the revcoms for following one leader, disregarding revolutionary ideas for over 5 years as unrealistic, after looking at communists as nothing more than idealistic dreamers, I happened to stumble upon an old recording of a speech by a very young revcom. That speech touched something deeper in me: the anger at this system, the willingness to do good for humanity, and the need to understand HOW to make a real change in society. But it also gave me a powerful drive to find out how this teenager developed a deeper understanding of reality than the majority of people, including myself, what influenced him and brought him to these ideas, and whether I’m missing out on something really important by dismissing them for so long.
Getting to know more revolutionary communists, watching the RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show over and over again, being fascinated with Sunsara Taylor’s work around the fight for abortion rights—all of this introduced me to a group of the most dedicated and selfless people, real critical thinkers who had the needs and struggles of humanity in mind, and who had a very unusual for me (someone influenced by identity politics, intersectionality, personal perspectives and narratives, etc.) scientific approach to reality. But most importantly, I grew to realize that they are the way they are exactly BECAUSE of their leadership, BECAUSE of Bob Avakian’s leadership.
When the slanderous attacks on the revcoms, BA, and RiseUp4AbortionRights started, it was shocking and demoralizing, but it also revealed something very important and encouraging: if all of those forces, from fascists to liberals and straight-up opportunists, are trying so hard to discredit these organizations and leaders, if people in the so-called “movement” are willing to unite with fascists and parrot their baseless accusations, they clearly see us as powerful forces that are threatening “the way things have always been” within this oppressive system, and in the fight for abortion rights in particular. The unprincipled attempts to minimize the significance of our work is a proof that they actually DO understand the impact we’re already making, and are trying to stop us from bringing in and further transforming the masses of people to emancipate themselves.
So everyone who stands on the side of the people and considers themselves a principled person MUST oppose these attacks against RiseUp4AbortionRights, the revcoms and their revolutionary leader Bob Avakian! Everyone who can’t look away from the atrocities of this system, everyone who refuses to be complicit, and everyone who simply believes in “innocent until proven guilty”: read what the revcoms are really saying directly from the source, find out what BA’s New Communism is really about, look at what RiseUp4AbortionRights is doing and how we’re waging this fight, and if you disagree on something, have the decency to disagree with us based on our actions and political lines, not by spreading lies and unfounded rumors.