ONLINE LAUNCH Appearing 9.1.09:
Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About
We are thrilled to announce the online launch of Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About, a film of a talk by Bob Avakian, starting on Tuesday, September 1, 2009. This four-part film will be going up online. There will also be selected clips posted that day on YouTube.
The film thoroughly goes into the kind of revolution we need—and it gives people an up-close-and-personal experience with Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution. He lays it all out in a nine-hour speech—and then goes into three hours of question-and-answer dialogue with the audiences. It’s all there—full of heart and soul, humor and seriousness.
Posting this film online opens up a new opportunity for people to dramatically expand the major and multifaceted campaign recently announced by the Revolutionary Communist Party calling on people to join with “the revolution we need… the leadership we have.”
NEW!
Demarcations: A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic seeks to set forth, defend, and further advance the theoretical framework for the beginning of a new stage of communist revolution in the contemporary world. This journal will promote the perspectives of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA..... Click on image below
A Riveting Exchange Between Cornel West and Carl Dix Click here to hear the July 14 dialogue. Spread the word. Everyone should hear this.
#170 slide show
REVOLUTION NEWSPAPER
Periodico Revolución
Bush Regime Torture Memos Released: Obama Pledges No Prosecution
An Open Letter to the Revolutionary Communists and Everyone Seriously Thinking About Revolution: On the Role and Importance of Bob Avakian written by someone who has been actively involved in the communist movement since the late 1960’s and has closely followed and studied the experience of this movement, internationally and historically. Read Letter here
Flash: On Thursday, November 20, an overflow crowd of 200 heard Sunsara Taylor, Massimo Pigliucci and Paul Eckstein in an exchange on “Morality Without Gods,” at New York University in New York City. Sponsored by Atheists, Agnostics & Humanists at NYU and Equal Time for Freethought radio WBAI- NY, the presentations, the exchange between the panelists, and the engagement with the audience was an intense and invigorating experience—something there needs to be much more of!
Watch it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-jDpdbVff4.
Read Sunsara's tour notes Pamphlet available at Revolution Books Outlet, Detroit poster poster THE PRESENTATION AT THIS PROGRAM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON THE WEB! Click on graphic below.
Revolution Books in Berkeley featured on MTV's
"Change It or Loose It"
To watch the video entitled (scroll down to it): Revolution: The Real Change
Announcing major new work by BOB AVAKIAN, Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy
Read on-line (click on graphic below) or purchase at RBO.
Announcing NEW RCP Constitution! Read on-line NOW!(Click on graphic below.)
These next few months will be highly charged. From the Olympics to the elections. . . from the two wars for empire now grinding and boiling on in Iraq and Afghanistan to a possible third one—in Iran—being threatened. . . from food riots in the third world to brutal police murder, savage immigration raids, and the growing specter of increased impoverishment in America itself. . . from the permeation of religion into every sphere of society to the—very related—reassertion of oppressive patriarchal values in U.S. society. . .the turmoil continues. read on...
SPECIAL! You are invited to sign, donate, and support Engage! A Committee to Project and Protect the Voice of Bob Avakian. JOIN THESE PEOPLE AND OTHERS: Mumia Abu Jamal, Alan Benchich (President, UAW Local 909), Herb Boyd, Elaine Brown, Chuck D, Hugh ("Buck") Davis, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, reg e. gaines, Bill Goodman, Julia Butterfly Hill, Danny Hoch, Dr. Gloria House, Yuri Kochiyama, Rickie Lee Jones, Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, Dennis Loo, Raymond Lotta, Wardell Montgomery, Jr., jessica Care moore Poole, DJ Riddm, Sonia Sanchez, Ron Scott, Cindy Sheehan, Henry Silverman, Lynne Stewart, Rev. George W. Webber, Cornel West, Mike Whitty, Saul Williams, Malik Yakini, Rev. Yearwood, David Zieger, and more....
The Engage! statement appeared in the November 22, 2007 New York Review of Books.
Herb Boyd, Amsterdam News:
[Avakian]...offers a full plan for revolutionary transformation, and he gets the attention of Black Americans right away on these four DVDs in his passionate discussion of lynching, police brutality, racial profiling and issues pertinent to African Americans.
Recalling the vicious assaults on Claude Neal, Mary Turner and Emmett Till, Avakian provides a brutal and bloody outline of tragedy, and does it with a fervor that is far too uncommon coming from the mouth of a white man...[read complete comment]
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader film critic:
...his communist analysis is graceful, and he lucidly explains concepts ranging from dialectical materialism to irony without condescending to his audience. [read complete review]
Watch the New Video Next Stop.... Revolution
“In June 2007, 40 city buses hit the streets of Los Angeles with big banner ads announcing a special screening of Bob Avakian’s REVOLUTION DVD at the Magic Johnson Theatre.“Thousands were greeted everyday with large burning red letters reading REVOLUTION on the side of the buses in both English and Spanish. "
from Revolution newspaper: "This series of excerpts from writings and talks by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, deals with the bitter reality—and the fundamental source—of the oppression of Black people throughout the history of the U.S., from the days of slavery down to the present time, and points to the revolutionary road to ending this oppression, and all forms of oppression and exploitation. These excerpts have been selected for publication for Black History Month this year, but of course this has great relevance and importance not just during this month but in an ongoing way for the struggle of oppressed people, and the future of humanity as a whole, here and throughout the world...."
click on image below... From Revolution, NOW AVAILABLE for purchase or as a complete download, check out an edited version of a talk by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, to a group of Party supporters in the fall of 2006.
click on image below for PDF... from Section, "Living in the House of Tony Soprano:"
"Here I want to bring up a formulation that I love, because it captures so much that is essential. Soon after September 11 someone said, or wrote somewhere, that living in the U.S. is a little bit like living in the house of Tony Soprano. You know, or you have a sense, that all the goodies that you've gotten have something to do with what the master of the house is doing out there in the world. Yet you don't want to look too deeply or too far at what that might be, because it might upset everything—not only what you have, all your possessions, but all the assumptions on which you base your life."
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NEW POSTINGS:
October 31, Saturday, noon
We are setting up our new store at 4160 Woodward Ave, Detroit 48201 (on the corner of Willis)! Come down and help plan a DJ rent party in November and promotion of the coming special issue of Revolution newspaper focused on prisons and prisoners.
to Revolution Books Outlet, Detroit, mailing list:
Read Revolution newspaper online: revcom.us
IT IS TIME TO PROTEST POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION.
See announcement for Oct 23rd below from the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality. All should come out for this rally and march.
Robert "Tazzy" Mitchell (a Detroit teenager) was killed with a taser by the Warren Police. ... for nothing. He was a passenger in a car during a minor traffic stop on Eight Mile Road by the Warren Police. He was not armed, he was not dealing drugs, he was not doing anything wrong. He was just riding while Black. As the car stopped, he jumped out and ran away. That could have been the end of it, but the Warren Police chased Tazzy on foot into Detroit and Tazzy's neighborhood, cornered him in an abandoned house and tased him full in the chest. Tazzy immediately died.
Revolution newspaper has covered many outrages such as this. Taken together, they add up to an undeniable point: people in this society—and especially Black and Latino people—are kept in line by brutal, murderous force. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! We encourage people to Bear Witness—to send your testimony about police abuse, brutality, and murder to Revolution newspaper.
We call on all courageous protesters to grapple with the point made in the RCP's Message and Call, "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have":
"Look at what this system is doing to youth right here in the USA. For millions in the inner cities, if they are not killed at an early age, their likely future is prison (nearly 1 in 8 young Black men is incarcerated, the prisons are overflowing with Blacks and Latinos, and this country has the highest rate of incarceration of women in the world). This system has robbed so many youth of the chance for a decent life and has got far too many living, dying and killing for nothing—nothing good—nothing more than messing up people and murdering each other on the streets of the cities here...or joining the military, being trained to be murderers on a mass scale, massacring people in countries across the globe. A system which offers millions and millions of youth no greater purpose, no better fate, than crime and punishment, or to become a mindless killing machine for the system itself—that alone is reason enough to sweep this system from the face of the earth!"
============ ======
In Honor of Robert "Tazzy" Mitchell
The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality calls on Warren & Detroit Citizens
to heal the Eight Mile divide, march for justice, and build...
PEACE ZONES FOR LIFE
Friday, October 23, 2009
4:30-6:30pm
Convene 4:30pm at Schoenherr & Bringard Park
March commences at 5:30pm
FAMILIES - SPEAKERS - PLAQUE PRESENTATION
RSVP & Information contact the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality
at (313) 962-1336 or DetCoalition@ aol.com
Posted 8/27/09
FLASH/NEW: Wed Sept 2nd, 7:00 p.m. DVD showing and discussion of "The Ascendancy of Obama... and the Continued Need for Resistance and Liberation: A Dialogue between Cornel West and Carl Dix" at Dr. Bob's Innate Healing Arts Center, 18700 Woodward, Detroit, 48203. $5 suggested donation for the producers of the film at Revolution Books, NYC, to raise money to produce the final professional version.
Watch online (scroll down): New York Revolution Books Thur. Aug 27, 6:30 pm Revolution film event at Revolution Books.
In anticipation of the 9.1.09 online launch of "Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About," a film of a talk by Bob Avakian, we are showing a few clips from the film, along with the LA youth-made video, "Next Stop...Revolution. " This talk is a wide-ranging revolutionary journey. It breaks down the very nature of the society we live in and how humanity has come to a time where a radically different society is possible. Full of heart and soul, humor and seriousness, it will challenge you and set your heart and mind to flight.
Following the film excerpts, we will open the floor to discussion about the film and brainstorming about how to prepare the ground for the 9/1 online launch. Read about the online launch now at revcom.us
We will also touch on the upcoming special issues of Revolution in September on Youth and Students (read more : http://revcom. us/a/173/ youth_letter- en.html) and on Prisons and Prisoners (article by Joe Veale : http://revcom. us/a/173/joe_veale- en.html; and article from Ray Hill a co-founder of the Pacifica station KPFT in Houston and host of the weekly radio program "The Prison Show": http://revcom. us/a/173/ ray_hill- en.html).
Posted 8/27/09
FUND RAISING TO SAVE REVOLUTION BOOKS
We need donations toward $1,200 for the landlord, like, right now to keep from closing.
Revolution Books is a place to engage and radically change the whole world. Revolution Books is in danger of closing. We need your immediate and urgent help. The battle for this bookstore is part of propagating far and wide the message and call in Revolution newspaper, "The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have," that is about initiating a whole new stage of revolution, here and around the world. Check it out here [http://revcom.us/a/173/schedule-en.html].
As the Revolutionary Communist Party's Constitution says, "The emancipation of humanity: this, and nothing less than this, is our goal. There is no greater cause, no greater purpose to which to dedicate our lives."
Fund raising for Revolution Books. As you may have heard, Revolution Books Outlet is in danger of closing. The economic crisis has hit us and we must meet a payment plan to our landlord. We must raise $600 by Aug. 30, then $600 by Sept 5th, and the same pattern for the rest of the year to pay back debt and cover current rent. That's $6000 we must raise from now through the end of this year. We need your immediate contributions, sustainer pledges, help with fund raising events, house parties, yard sales, and other outreach. (Who can help sell donated items on E-Bay?) The next couple of weeks are decisive to keeping open the store.
Revolution Books is a rare independent all-volunteer bookstore that has been raising the consciousness of people to change the world since 1980. This summer at a "green" festival in Palmer Park, a woman told us that, back in the early 1980s, while she was going to WSU, the literature and discussion with staff at Revolution Books permanently changed her world outlook and approach to reality. She said that she did not become a revolutionary communist, but she learned that all she had been taught needed to be exposed to the light of science and other points of view. She became a critically minded person, looking beneath the surface to fundamental causes. WSU students have come to our store at the insistence of their parents, who said a real education cannot be had without Revolution Books.
We are in the midst of economic meltdown, police and prison clampdown and even murder of our youth, housing foreclosures, job losses, expanding wars, sadistic mass torture and more. Even mainstream press is running articles saying Karl Marx was right about capitalism! Revolution Books--and an expansion of its reach--is urgently needed.
More than a bookstore, Revolution Books is a crucible in which the most liberating science, revolutionary communism, interacts and mixes it up with all the streams of progressive, radical and revolutionary intellectual life. At the heart of the store is Bob Avakian's radical re-envisioning of revolution and communism.
"In traveling around the country for readings at bookstores, it has become evident that Revolution Books presents a whole different level of engagement. I have learned much from the audiences here… "
--DR. SUE WICKLUND, This Common Secret: My Journey As an Abortion Doctor
Check out an Aug 3rd interview with Dr. Wicklund and Sunsara Taylor from Revolution newspaper by Laura Flanders on Grit TV ("Abortion Providers Under Siege") here (scroll down) : [http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/category/ episodes/ page/2/]
Posted 8/27/09
CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS to organize “Poets, Artists & Activists Against Torture”
“Stop Thinking Like Americans, Start Thinking About Humanity!”
“Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old Word, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”
—Frederick Douglass, a former slave and a leader in the fight against slavery, 1852
Benefit for Revolution newspaper and Revolution Books
Check out REVCOM.US Pick up copies of Revolution newspaper at Revolution Books. (We are closed during week of 7/13 because we are at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Be back next week.)406 W Willis, Detroit 48201 Hours: Tu, Th, Fr, 2 pm—6 pm, Sat. 11 am—6 pm
Come to Revolution Books to pick up bundles of this special issue, to talk about it and join in making plans to distribute it everywhere. Send your suggestions, and send correspondence about where you have taken it and the response from people to the special issue. Volunteer to take out this special issue on teams, at book tables and events, help make displays, do promotionals, donate and put on fundraisers to help spread this message far and wide!
COME OUT WITH REVOLUTION NEWSPAPER TO ELECTRONIC FESTIVAL!
Sun, 2/22, 5pm, "Urban Folk Poet" Wardell Montgomery's dramatic presentation on the writings of Paul Laurence Dunbar at Revolution Books Outlet, 406 W. Willis, Detroit, 48201
Donations to all-volunteer, non-profit Revolution Books will be requested. $10 suggested.
Through his "dialect" and other poetry and prose, Dunbar played a major role in documenting the Black experience under slavery and in the immediate period after the Civil War. His style of powerful writing earned him a place as the first African American writer of national and international prominence. His parents were excaped slaves, and his father returned from Canada to fight in the Civil War. Dunbar's use of Southern Black "dialect" was a source of controversy that has continued to today.
Wardell Montgomery is a fitting purveyor of Dunbar's work, his style having earned him the title of "Urban Folk Poet." Wardell has noted that Dunbar's colorful life and work would make a very exciting and insightful movie in our day.
from "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Why should the world be overwise,
And counting all our tears and sighs?
Ney, let them only see us, while
we wear the mask.
Please forward this Announcement to your mailing lists and friends:
January 25, Sunday, 5pm Discussion Event on EVOLUTION and the Harm of Creationism featuring presentation by a science teacher and focus on the book, "The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism-- Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters," by Ardea Skybreak.
Why is the issue of evolution so important to teaching students, and how does Creationism endanger teaching biology in public schools?
What is the scientific theory of biological evolution and why are scientists certain that it is true?
Why is Creationism false; why is it harmful to believe; why is it promoted by powerful forces in society?
..
"Everyone needs to understand the basic facts of evolution as well as the essentials of the scientific method... When people are deprived of a scientific approach to reality as a whole, they are robbed of both a full appreciation of the beauty and richness of the natural world and the means to understand the dynamics of change not only in nature but in human society as well." Ardea Skybreak
"The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism....Knowing What's Real and Why It Matters, by Ardea Skybreak is an excellent book. It clearly explains the overwhelming evidence for evolution and why it is scientific fact, while exploding the nonsense that the creation fantasy tries to present as it masquerades as science. In discussing evolution's history, mechanisms, and evidence, from the origin of life to mechanisms of speciation to evolution of pesticide resistance in insects, Ardea Skybreak does an excellent job of educating and inspiring an interest in nature, science and evolution." David SeaborgEvolutionary Biologist, founder and president of the Foundation for Biological Conservation and Research, founder and President of the World Rainforest Fund
"This book will be of tremendous benefit to many, especially those in the teaching profession where there are frequent opportunities to defend science against the ridiculous assertions by religious zealots and fundamentalists." Richard LeakeyPaleoanthropologist, former Director of Kenya's National Museums, former Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service
Read excerpts from "Science of Evolution...": Chapter 1: Overview and Excerpt from Chapter 8: "But How Can We Ever Be Sure Anything Is True?": Such Philosophical Relativism Offers Creationism Easy Pickings http://www.insight-press.com/site/epage/53959_664.htm Suggested Donation $10
Event held at: REVOLUTION BOOKS OUTLET 406 W. Willis Detroit, MI, 48201 313-204-2906 rbodetroit@yahoo.com myspace.com/rbodetroit
US Backed Invasion by Israel: STOP THE ISRAELI INVASION IN GAZA!
Events THURS (see below)
from Revolution Books Outlet, Detroit, to our mailing list (please post/forward to others):
I read this AP article early Sunday afternoon about the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza with tears of grief, anger and frustration. I hugged myself, rocking back and forth, because I'm sitting alone in my crib with no one else to hug at this moment. But--and i know you understand--we need to do more; WE NEED TO ACT TO STOP THE ISRAELI ATTACKS. We have been to several inspiring demonstrations in the last few days and it is clear that it's possible to mount massive demonstrations in the U.S. that can play a major role in stopping Israel's monstrous acts and inspire the world's people with our resistance. But we must act now and with great determination.
There's widespread understanding among those who are demonstrating that a major wall in the way is the lying and concealing propaganda of the U. S. government (and Israeli government) and mainstream media about these events and about the whole history of Israel and U.S. support of Israel--or i should say--how the U.S. has created and propped up Israel as an "unsinkable battleship" in the Middle East working in the interests of U.S. imperialism. Israel is killing with U.S. jets, bombs and tanks. Silence=Complicity.
I urge you to immediately go to revcom.us, read the articles and background resources available there, then distribute these articles and resources very, very widely. Struggle with your friends, relatives, even strangers on the street to turn them on to and win them to the terrible truth of the situation. THEN, people will be compelled to act, determined to stop this atrocity.
COME TO AN EMERGENCY MEETING AT REVOLUTION BOOKS ON THURSDAY,1/8, 6:30 PM TO PICK UP THE LATEST REVOLUTION NEWSPAPER--purchase bundles at half price--AND SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES REACHING OUT TO BRING FORWARD OTHERS. (Read new articles being posted frequently on revcom.us) Plan to go out with us to demonstrations and the Arab community on Saturday, 1/10--meet at Revolution Books at 1:30 p.m.
Plan to go to the demonstration on Thursday, 1/8, 4:30 pm at the McNamara Federal Bldg (Michigan Avenue and Cass Ave, downtown Detroit) called by MECAWI. Apparently, there will be a "Mass March Through Downtown Detroit to the Central United Methodist Church" according to an email.
Let us know about other events and protests, so we can help spread the world.
These crimes will almost certainly have major effects and ramifications, not only in the Middle East, and among the masses there, but also around the world, as well as within the U.S., among different strata, and not only in a longer-term sense, but in the next immediate period as well.
What you, the readers of Revolution, do will matter a great deal in determining the nature of those effects and ramifications. Whether the world sees political protest and resistance, and mass outpourings of opposition and outrage in different forms in this country...or whether it sees continued support for and passive complicity with these attacks coming from the people here...all this will matter greatly in regard to how people all over the planet understand things, and see their options. And you have a role to play in that.
Come by the store to talk or to pick up bundles of Revolution newspapers and flyers. If you live in outlying areas, call or email us to arrange how you can to get materials. Let us know of events or gatherings where the flyer and newspaper should be distributed. And keep us abreast of any developments - celebrations or attacks - and responses. Join with us in stepping up meaningful revolutionary work.
Support Revolution Books Outlet and Revolution newspaper! Funds are needed to produce flyers and other materials that will enable us to speak to many thousands of people during this post-election period.
Come to Revolution Books Outlet, 406 W. Willis, Detroit, MI 48201
Contact RBO:
313-204-2906
rbodetroit@yahoo.com
myspace.com/rbodetroit
Hours: Tues, Thurs, 2pm-6pm; Fri, Sat, 11am-6pm; Sun, specials
"Stay tuned: there are big changes coming both in the world and in the revolutionary movement. Next week’s issue will get deeply into a whole further conceptualization of the role of this [Revolution] newspaper as the hub and pivot of an expanding revolutionary movement...."
To go into this further, check out the article, "Program on "Making Revolution" A Major Sucess: Go Forward Off the Programs--All Out This Week!"
NEW on Revolution newspaper website: Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy A Major New Work by Bob Avakian Read here.
Pamphlet available the week of September 29th.
"... Morgan points out: “Racism thus absorbed in Virginia the fear and contempt that men in England, whether Whig or Tory, monarchist or republican, felt for the inarticulate lower classes” of their own “race.” What Morgan is getting at is that in Europe, on the part of the “liberals” as well as the “conservatives” (the Whigs and the Tories), there was an open contempt, especially among the upper, ruling classes and their political representatives, for the “ignorant rabble” of the lower classes, while in the United States this did not find exactly the same expression because a lot of this contempt was, to so speak, deflected and directed toward the masses of Black people—who were overwhelmingly enslaved, especially in the South—and toward mulattoes and Indians.
Morgan continues—and this is very significant in terms of the whole development of bourgeois democracy in the U.S.: “Racism made it possible for white Virginians to develop a devotion to equality”—equality for whites, we should underline—“that English republicans had declared to be the soul of liberty.” And Morgan points out that one of the things that made this possible was the fact that, in Virginia, “There were too few free poor on hand to matter.” In other words, because of racism and viewing Africans, mulattoes, and Indians as lesser beings not really deserving of freedom, white Virginians could, without feeling an acute contradiction, articulate, as Jefferson did in the Declaration of Independence, lofty principles about the equality and inalienable rights of all people. They were speaking about white people—and more specifically white men—while explicitly excluding these other groups of people—most especially the people of African origin whom they enslaved. The one went together with the other: the inclusion of some and the exclusion of others, the notion of equality among white people (though this too was not a reality) and the subjugation and enslavement of Black people, mulattoes, and Indians. Here is the paradox and the irony, here is a profound contradiction, built into the United States of America from its very beginning: These Virginians, whose ideas have exerted a very great influence on the conception of freedom in this country—and the embodiment of this in founding documents of this country—represented the interests of the slaveowning class among whites, yet they could declare that they were speaking in universal terms about freedom for all people. They could proclaim a republic, in opposition to a monarchy, they could extol the principles of a government consisting of representatives chosen by the people, and the freedoms associated with republicanism—and they could believe in this—even while practicing and defending slavery, as well as other forms of exploitation and oppression..."
Now Available! An Assessment of the Momentum Towards War Between the United States and Iran: Causes and Potential Ramifications
Preliminary Findings by a Working Group
June 2008
"Revolution is making available online a draft paper given to us which contains the initial results of research by a working group that delved deeply into the dynamics bound up in the relationship between U.S. imperialism and the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This analysis looks at the real compulsions towards, as well as contradictions holding back, confrontation and war. The questions examined in the paper include: the contending views in the U.S. ruling class on approach to Iran; how the imperialists in general view that regime and how Iran represents an obstacle to the U.S.’s regional as well as global needs and ambitions; how Israel enters into the dynamic; the character of the IRI; the neo-con view towards regime change and the actual prospects and potential for the regime unraveling under pressure, including possible attack; and what concretely has been the military planning in relation to Iran by the U.S. The paper also contains a very preliminary examination of what an attack on Iran might unleash in response, regionally and beyond. And more. We are sharing with our readers these substantive if initial findings to draw attention to this issue and to stimulate serious and urgent dialogue, wrangling and further examination of this very critical faultline in today’s world and its potential global impact."
NEW PAMPHLET AVAILABLE FROM REVOLUTION BOOKS OUTLET:
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
** Should People Feel Good About This Country?
** Obama's Speech on Israel: Auditioning for Commander-in-Chief
** Response to Obama's Speech "On Race:"
*Slavery, Capitalism, and the "Perfect Union"
* "Seperate But Equal" ... and the Myth of "We the People"
*The Sixties, the System, and the Real Solution
**Readers Respond on Obama
*Editors Respond: The Real Question: Is Buying into the Logic of the Obama Candidacy Harmful?
Reprint of articles from Revolution newspaper available on-line at revcom.us
Set the Record Straight seeks to challenge the paralyzing conventional wisdom about communism that has seeped so deeply into popular understanding and to raise people’s sights to a far better future for humanity. Read our mission statement...
Important Speech by Raymond Lotta:
Set the Record Straight is sponsoring Raymond Lotta, a Maoist political economist, on a speaking tour under the title “Socialism Is Much Better than Capitalism, and Communism Will Be a Far Better World.” Since 2005 the tour has traveled to Stanford, Columbia, UCLA, and other universities, and to London and Mexico, sparking interest and debate among hundreds of students and professors.
Lotta’s speech challenges the reigning consensus about communism. He puts before people the actual historical record of the “first wave” of socialist revolutions, in the Soviet Union (1917-56) and China (1949-76). He rescues from distortion, and plain suppression of facts, what these revolutions were setting out to do and what they accomplished. These experiences of the past are very much connected to the possibilities of the future.
Lotta also talks about the communist vision of classless society: why this vision of overcoming all relations of exploitation, oppression, and domination speaks to the highest aspirations of the great majority of humanity; and how this vision of classless society corresponds to the material and social possibilities that exist in today’s world to overcome scarcity and to organize society on the basis of social cooperation. He also addresses the shortcomings and mistakes of this “first wave” of socialist revolution, and engages real concerns and questions people have: what about Stalin, what about the treatment of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, does socialism stifle the individual?
In all of this, Raymond Lotta brings forward a new synthesis by Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Avakian has been creatively reenvisioning the communist project — developing a deepgoing summation of the experience of socialist revolution and a vision of a vibrant socialism, that is, a society people would want to live in and a society that is in transition to communism.
We want to take this tour to many more places, with several events already slated for this spring. Funds are needed for publicity and travel expenses, and to produce DVD recordings of this and other speeches and Q&A sessions. Contributions to Set the Record Straight, a project of the International Humanities Center, are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Checks should be made payable to IHCenter/SRS.
May 17th Readings Event: New Readers Welcome! Pick your favorite passage. Poetry, music and other Artists' renditions inspired by passages from the book welcome! Contact Revolution Books. 313.204.2906 | rbodetroit@yahoo.com
NEW REVIEW! From Midwest Book Review
"Is religion far more harmful than it's worth? "Away with All Gods!: Unchaining The Mind And Radically Changing The World" certainly believes so. Calling out Religion as a roadblock to scientific, moral, and political progress that oppresses people on terms of race, beliefs, and gender, author Bob Avakian makes a call to action against all belief systems that stand in the way of social progress and world peace, stating that religion is not a necessary element to solid moral values and peace of mind. "Away with All Gods!: Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World" is a must for any who seek a dissenting opinion for religious studies shelves and for anyone who is disillusioned with their God or gods." Bringing a unique revolutionary communist voice to the current discourse about god, atheism and morality, Avakian demystifies religious belief and examines how, even in its most progressive interpretations, religion stands in the way of the emancipation of humanity. A thread deeply woven throughout Away With All Gods! is the need to fully rupture with all forms of superstition, and to take up instead a truly scientific approach to understanding and transforming reality.
Whether you believe in god, or are an agnostic or an atheist, Bob Avakian will challenge you with his powerful critique of long-established traditions and his liberating vision of a radically different world.
MAY FIRST 2008:
Announcing the Publication of: REVOLUTION AND COMMUNISM: A FOUNDATION AND STRATEGIC ORIENTATION
Revolution newspaper is excited to announce the publication of a pamphlet entitled Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic Orientation on May 1, 2008. This pamphlet contains Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity, by Bob Avakian, along with On the Possibility of Revolution. “Some Crucial Points of Revolutionary Orientation—in Opposition to Infantile Posturing and Distortions of Revolution” is also included in this pamphlet.
This pamphlet emphatically challenges and refutes the message that revolution is impossible and communism unworkable and not desirable. In fact, revolution and communism are exactly what humanity needs! This pamphlet speaks to why communist revolution is not only necessary, but possible—and how it could be made. It concentrates the strategic foundation and scaffolding for advancing on the road of revolution and communism, and winning growing numbers of the masses to that cause, through hard struggle (both against the enemy, but also including sharp ideological struggle with the masses) and with all the twists and turns that will inevitably be encountered.
In Part 1 of Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity, “Beyond the Narrow Horizon of Bourgeois Right,” Bob Avakian sets out the basic foundation, the overarching goal of our struggle, and the pathways for uprooting and overcoming all the traditional property relations and ideas that stand as barriers to liberation. He steps off addressing the question: can humanity break with and get beyond the narrow horizons of the society we live in and envision a radically different and far better world?
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In Part 2 of Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity, “Everything We’re Doing Is About Revolution,” Bob Avakian sets out a basic scaffolding for building a revolutionary movement in this country. This work applies—and exemplifies—a method to be learned from and utilized: it gives a living sense of the multi-layered and multi-leveled, dynamically changing character of reality and a way to comprehend reality in its motion and development and to transform it.
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We urge all those who are wrangling with the questions of why revolution is necessary in this country, why is it possible, and what are the goals of that revolution to get their hands on and read Revolution and Communism: A Foundation and Strategic Orientation.
What better way to mark the revolutionary new beginning symbolized by May 1st? read entire Announcement
BOOK RELEASE PARTY-AWAY WITH ALL GODS!
AWAY WITH ALL GODS! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World" by BOB AVAKIAN
AVAILABLE NOW AT REVOLUTION BOOKS OUTLET, 406 W. WILLIS, DETROIT, 313-204-2906
BOOK RELEASE PARTY, TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 6:30 PM Buy your book, celebrate its release, and help discuss and make plans to get this book out boldly and broadly .
"Given the powerful and destructive influence that fundamentalist religion has had on our society in the past generation, the recent books engaging in anti-religious polemic are entirely understandable. What most distinguishes Avakian's Away With All Gods from other much publicized books of this kind, such as those by Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, is the direct connection Avakian makes between combating religious fundamentalism and promoting a radical political agenda. Avakian is also to be commended not only for combining his religious freethinking with an endorsement of the modern Enlightenment tradition, but also for providing a sober warning against 'the smug arrogance of the enlightened.' Anyone who has read any of the other books mentioned above should also take the time to read this one."
—Allen Wood, author of Karl Marx and Kantian Ethics
"Bob Avakian's Away With All Gods is more than an apologia for humanism. Well and engagingly written, Mr. Avakian succeeds once again in confronting his reader with authoritative, fact-based challenges to our most basic beliefs. With this kind of thinking and writing, Avakian may just spearhead a return to the Age of Reason."
—Harry Lennix, actor, instructor
"'God' has been used to justify every kind of atrocity for thousands of years. Bob Avakian says, ‘god does not exist and here's why.' This proposition is so radically different from what people around here are told. It makes me want to get a deeper understanding of communism and how everything could be different for humanity."
—22 year old Black man from Harlem
"Bob Avakian has written the first book in years that makes me actually want to re-read the Bible, but this time as freaky horror show, weirded out fiction and gothic nightmare..." Continue comments by Professor John Hutnyk and others .
There is nothing online like THIS talk of Bob Avakian’s: nothing that answers the questions of why we are in the situation we are in... what is the source of the problem... and what is the nature of the solution. Watch the DVD and read more at revolutiontalk.net
Who I'd like to meet: revolutionary, radical, progressive, critical and creative thinking people
revolution books outlet, detroit's Friend Space (Top 10)
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The Artist village is Proud to host : the Art of Hip hop Every Friday at the Artist Village Detroit 9:00pm Until 2:00 am ladies get in free before 11:30pm $5 donation at the front door Great food( Chicken Fries And Spinach Salad, Live DJ (ALL I Spinning) Open Mic Freestyle Battle and Performance Show case Open Court Yard and Garden. This is a Brown Bag Event
Friday, February 6 at 3:00 pm (March at 4:00 pm) Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th and Broadway, Oakland 2:00 PM: Protest at the arraignment of people who were arrested standing up for Justice for Oscar Grant: Wiley Manuel Courthouse, 661 Washington St.
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2009-a year in which we're promised "change we can believe in." But as the year is ushered in, everything is much too much the same.
2009 was barely 2 hours old when 22 year old Oscar Grant was executed with a shot to his back. While fully complying with BART Transit police, with one officer kneeling on Oscar's neck, another stood over him, unholstered and aimed his gun and fired point blank. This cold-blooded murder was witnessed by dozens of onlookers, and captured on video and seen all over the country.
An hour later and halfway across the country, Adolph Grimes, also 22, died in a hail of 48 bullets, 12 in his back, by New Orleans police. He was sitting in his car in front of his grandmother's house.
On New Year's Eve, Robbie Tolan, a promising professional baseball player, was shot in the chest, after protesting his mother being thrown against the wall of her home by police in Bellaire, a suburb of H
great site. let us create a network of social change for social justice across the corporate-owned myspace universe and connect in real time and real life in the struggle on the streets.
A Luta Continua
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