the science, the strategy, the leadership for an actual revolution

210 Pages·2015·2.16 MB·English

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Insight Press
Chicago
Copyright © 2016 by Bob Avakian. All rights reserved.
Bob Avakian image: Artwork courtesy of RCP Publications
FIRST EDITION
First printing: 2016
Published as eBook and in PDF in 2017 by Insight Press.
ISBN: 978-0-9977798-3-7 (PDF)
Insight Press
4044 N. Lincoln Ave. #264
Chicago, IL 60618
www.insight-press.com
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950143
Contents i
Contents

Publisher’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v
Introduction and Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Foolish Victims of Deceit, and Self-Deceit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Part I M ethod and Approach,
Communism as a Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Materialism vs . Idealism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Dialectical Materialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Through Which Mode of Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
The Basic Contradictions and Dynamics of Capitalism . . . . 57
The New Synthesis of Communism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
The Basis for Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Epistemology and Morality, Objective Truth
and Relativist Nonsense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Self and a “Consumerist” Approach to Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
What Is Your Life Going to Be About?—
Raising People’s Sights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
ii Contents
Part II S ocialism and the Advance to Communism:
A Radically Different Way the World Could Be,
A Road to Real Emancipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
The “4 Alls” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Beyond the Narrow Horizon of Bourgeois Right . . . . . . . . . 118
Socialism as an Economic System
and a Political System—And a
Transition to Communism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Internationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Abundance, Revolution, and
the Advance to Communism—
A Dialectical Materialist Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
The Importance of the “Parachute Point”—
Even Now, and Even More With An Actual Revolution . . . 157
The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic
in North America—Solid Core with a Lot of
Elasticity on the Basis of the Solid Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Emancipators of Humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Part III T he Strategic Approach to
An Actual Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
One Overall Strategic Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Hastening While Awaiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Forces For Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Separation of the Communist Movement from the
Labor Movement, Driving Forces for Revolution . . . . . . . . . 211
National Liberation and Proletarian Revolution . . . . . . . . . 219
Contents iii
The Strategic Importance of the Struggle for the
Emancipation of Women . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 .22
The United Front under
the Leadership of the Proletariat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Youth, Students and the Intelligentsia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Struggling Against Petit Bourgeois Modes of Thinking,
While Maintaining the Correct Strategic Orientation . . . . 244
The “Two Maximizings” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
The “5 Stops” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
The Two Mainstays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Returning to “On the Possibility of Revolution” . . . . . . . . . 260
Internationalism—Revolutionary Defeatism . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Internationalism and an International Dimension . . . . . . . 272
Internationalism—Bringing Forward Another Way . . . . . . 272
Popularizing the Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Fundamental Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Part IV The Leadership We Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
The Decisive Role of Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
A Leading Core of Intellectuals—and the
Contradictions Bound Up with This . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Another Kind of “Pyramid” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
The Cultural Revolution Within the RCP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
The Need for Communists to Be Communists . . . . . . . . . . 328
A Fundamentally Antagonistic Relation—
and the Crucial Implications of That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .330
iv Contents
Strengthening the Party—
Qualitatively as well as Quantitatively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .334
Forms of Revolutionary Organization, and the “Ohio” . . . .340
Statesmen, and Strategic Commanders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .344
Methods of Leadership, the Science
and the “Art” of Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .348
Working Back from “On the Possibility”—
Another Application of “Solid Core with a Lot of
Elasticity on the Basis of the Solid Core” . . . . . . . . . . . . . .379
Appendix 1:
The New Synthesis of Communism:
Fundamental Orientation, Method and Approach,
and Core Elements—An Outline
by Bob Avakian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .383
Appendix 2:
Framework and Guidelines for Study and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . .391
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401
Selected List of Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .423
Publisher’s Note
This book consists of the major opening day presentation
given by Bob Avakian to a conference held in the summer of
2015 which was attended by members and supporters of the
Revolutionary Communist Party. This talk provided the basis
for several days of lively and substantial discussion, informed
by “Framework and Guidelines for Study and Discussion,”
which is included as an appendix to this work.
This book is a masterwork and a master class—it is a living
laboratory of the new synthesis of communism developed
by Bob Avakian. It is also striking in its ability to combine
high level revolutionary communist theory and modeling
of revolutionary leadership with a visceral, colloquial and
passionate style that will resonate with and be accessible
to a wide variety of readers.
This thought-provoking book is sure to challenge stereotypes
and conventional thinking.