Celebrate May Day 2013
Humanity Needs Revolution
May 1, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
May Day is the revolutionary internationalist holiday of the exploited and oppressed and all those who hate the world as it is and who are fighting for a different future. Today, imperialism has spread its tentacles across the planet. We live in a horrific world where the imperialist drive for profit forces people into poverty and squalor... where children in the thousands are kidnapped and enslaved... where wars have killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of people... where the lives of women from one end of the planet to the other are lives of brutality, domination, and degradation... where whole nationalities suffer from brutal oppression... where the destruction of the environment threatens the very existence of life on the planet.
In real ways, human beings in every corner of the earth are connected with and dependent on each other, and this emphasizes all the more that our revolution must be a worldwide revolution. We must advance beyond the dog-eat-dog system and morality that is dictated the world over by imperialism and its lackeys and the world outlook it promotes. On revolutionary May Day, we declare our determination to fight to bring a new world into being and emancipate all of humanity.
From Mexico and Latin America to Spain and Greece to the Middle East and North Africa—and yes, in the U.S. as well—people are rising up in struggle and straining against the whole setup they are locked into. The world cries out for revolution and for a new world to be brought into being. A world is possible where one part of humanity does not degrade and oppress the rest. It is possible to put an end to this seemingly endless nightmare and bring into being a society where everyone contributes to the advancing of society and where everyone flourishes culturally, intellectually, and in their relations with others. But to bring this into being is going to take revolution—nothing less!
People rise up—but they need total revolution. A revolution that does not put new forms of the old power in place, or which is not about some people improving their lot and position in the old society, or even having a chance to rule over others. These are "solutions" that only mean the horror will go on and on and on. We need a revolution that dismantles the old power and builds a new state power that can move to eliminate all the oppression and exploitation, and move to a communist world. This is possible. People all over the world are fighting oppression, but the fundamental goal should be to get beyond oppression to a different world. Humanity will suffer terribly and needlessly until we find the ways to break through. Breakthroughs on the revolutionary path are possible today.
Because of BA and the work he has done over several decades, summing up the positive and negative experience of the communist revolution so far, and drawing from a broad range of human experience, there is a new synthesis of communism that has been brought forward—there really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and there is the crucial leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal. What humanity needs is revolution and the new synthesis of communism. This must be made known to people the world over who in fact are searching for a way out of this madness. We see a glimpse of what it can mean to people in the report from the communists and revolutionaries who took Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism to the World Social Forum in Tunisia. People eagerly crowded around their literature table to get their hands on and talk about works by Bob Avakian. (See "Taking the New Synthesis of Communism to the World Social Forum in Tunisia" at revcom.us.)
Becoming a Real Force
Those of us in the U.S. have a crucial role to play in bringing this new world into being. The Chairman of our Party, Bob Avakian, has recently written:
THIS MOVEMENT FOR REVOLUTION MUST NOW BECOME A REAL FORCE, POWERFULLY IMPACTING AND INFLUENCING ALL OF SOCIETY... bringing forward growing numbers of those this system has cast out and cast down, who must be and can be the driving force of the fight to put an end not only to their own oppression, but all oppression, all over the world... drawing in many others, from all walks of life, who are inspired to join this same cause... preparing minds and organizing forces, Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for REVOUTION—NOTHING LESS.
May Day in the U.S. should be a day of bold revolutionary internationalist celebrations in cities across this country. The weekend following May 1st should be a full weekend of taking revolutionary May Day all over, distributing and popularizing the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live, this May Day issue of the paper, and news of the website, revcom.us, among people on the bottom of society, youth, and many others. In some cities, people will march and rally. In others there will be celebration dinners, picnics, and BBQs following forays by the revolutionaries and others going out into the world and broadly among the people. On May 1st itself, where there are demonstrations and protests, let's join in and take BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live and Revolution newspaper into the mix and stir up the controversy.
As we build for May Day celebrations, the next two weeks should kick off concerted efforts to get "A Question Sharply Posed: Nat Turner or Thomas Jefferson?" by Bob Avakian out everywhere, including among the intellectuals, and especially on the campuses before school ends. Spread this work out widely via email, blogs, and social media. "Nat Turner or Thomas Jefferson?" draws a sharp dividing line and poses a basic challenge to thousands of people about whether they are going to stand with the oppressed people of the world shaking off their oppression and aiming to make revolution and build new societies, or whether they are going to stand with the oppressor. The spirit and content of the piece itself must call forth bold and creative ways to put this before and challenge people. ("A Question Sharply Posed: Nat Turner or Thomas Jefferson?" is available at revcom.us.)
And on May Day, let's bust out in a new way with a six-week concentrated effort to raise big money to Get BA Everywhere. Advances have been made since this campaign was begun, but now we need to make these next six weeks a launching to get this campaign to a whole other level. Succeeding in this campaign, collectively raising the massive funds needed to project the whole BA vision and his works into all corners of society, "making this person a point of reference for all of society will make a HUGE difference." As we wrote at the beginning of this campaign, "The whole social and political culture will 'breathe' more freely, people will wrangle passionately over 'big questions' concerning the direction of society (like knowing that much of the future of humanity hangs in the balance) and the times will once again resonate with big dreams for fundamental change and the emancipation of humanity." ("BA EVERYWHERE... IMAGINE THE DIFFERENCE IT COULD MAKE! Announcing: A Mass Campaign to Raise Big Money to Get BA's Vision and Works Into Every Corner of Society," Revolution, November 6, 2011) From the efforts of people on the bottom to organize yard and bake sales, penny collections and fundraising film showings, to fundraising parties among people with more financial resources, to winning others to make large donations—all this is crucial and a critical way that people can join and contribute to the movement for revolution. Through these efforts, the movement for revolution accumulates forces.
Fighting the Power, and Transforming the People, for REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS
The mass campaign to raise big money to get BA Everywhere is the leading edge right now of the movement for revolution. At the same time, the growing mass movements fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution are extremely important. People need to fight against the ways in which they are oppressed, degraded, and brutalized; and as they do, they can come to understand what the source of their oppression is, and join the movement to end this whole system of oppression and degradation.
Now is the time for the struggles to Stop Mass Incarceration and to End Pornography and Patriarchy to become truly mass movements involving thousands and tens of thousands of people and impacting millions.
The movement to Stop Mass Incarceration is actively working to grow from the hundreds who are part of this movement now to thousands and tens of thousands who are fighting with all their might to put an end to mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow—and as they do so, impacting all of society. In the last week, Carl Dix has called for this movement to START NOW to build support for the nationwide hunger strike next July called for by California prisoners in solitary confinement (some of them have been locked down in these torturous conditions for decades) and to demand an end to the torture the state perpetrates on prisoners across the country. "People who have been locked down in the dungeons of this country and have been condemned as the worst of the worst have stood up and said NO MORE! ... If at all possible, we must through this protest force the state of California to meet these demands and make it unnecessary for these prisoners to take such a desperate action." ("A Proposal for Action to the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and All Others Who Want to Fight the New Jim Crow".)
The movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women has big plans as well. Over the last few months, reactionary right-wing forces have enacted a series of laws making abortion effectively unattainable for millions of women in this country. (See "APRIL 25, 2013—ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY, NATIONAL CAMPUS DAY OF ACTION".) An offensive to stand up for the right to abortion is being launched on April 25 with a nationwide day of action on campuses. All those who have been horrified as the attacks on abortion escalate need to rise up for abortion rights. A major summer of struggle to Defend Abortion Rights and Defeat the War on Women is being planned now.
Revolutionary May Day 2013 is the time to join with people in countries around the world in declaring our internationalist determination to make revolution and emancipate all of humanity. To take great steps in making the movement for revolution in this country a force powerfully impacting and influencing all of society.
All Out for Revolutionary May Day 2013!
