THEIR SIMILARITIES

What really strikes me is not so much the differences between trump, obama and sanders, but rather their similarities. They all represent the same system and only want to strengthen it at the expense of the people of the world. Fuck 'em all.

They Have No Answer on Immigration...
The REVOLUTION Does!

April 29, 2019 | revcom.us

In their own perverted way, the representatives of this system—from Trump “all the way” to Bernie Sanders—have hit on a truth. They all say that this system of theirs faces a massive crisis over immigration. In that they are right. Where they are wrong and/or lying is that:

1. It is their system that has caused, and made worse, this crisis;
2. Their system has no answers to it;
3. The revolution does.

We’ll get to that answer—the solution to the “crisis”—in a minute. But first, let’s be clear on the problem. Imperialism is a system where a handful of “advanced” capitalist countries in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia dominate and exploit the whole rest of the world. The capitalists and then the imperialists have plundered the resources and people of South and Central America, Asia, and Africa for five centuries. These international gangsters have ripped apart the societies and deformed and dominated the economies of people after people, country after country. Constant wars and occupations—almost all of which can be laid at the doorsteps of the imperialist powers—create yet further misery. To top it all, the destruction of the environment (overwhelmingly the fault of these imperialist powers and the U.S. in particular) gives rise to massive drought and makes many of these countries unable to grow food and other necessities.

Because of all this, tens of millions of human beings in these countries cannot survive and are desperately seeking a haven in the countries that are responsible for their suffering. Tomorrow it will be hundreds of millions; and after that billions. Think about it.

And think about what YOU would do in their situation. Starvation or the threat of death by government or gang violence makes people take risks. Just around the Mexico-U.S. border, hundreds of people die every single year in the desert, seeking to evade the heartless border patrols.

Inflaming, Distorting, and Concealing: All in a Day’s Work for Representatives of this System

And what do the representatives of this system have to say?

The fascist Trump blames the immigrants themselves. He whips his base into a frenzy of hatred against them. He fans the flames of white supremacy still higher and “weaponizes” it for his whole fascist program.

The liberals may differ on the optics and they have some actual differences, but what is most striking is what they share with Trump. Remember, Obama set the record for deportations and told everybody after the elections that he and Trump were “on the same team.” He “worked with” Central American countries to stop immigrants before they even got to the border.

This week, the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said he too wants a wall; but he wants to let in “high IQ” immigrants. He puts the liberal logic out there very plainly: “[I]n an era when more and more countries will fracture under environmental, population, criminal and technological stresses, we simply cannot take everyone who shows up at our border.” Friedman conceals the fact these “stresses” are caused by imperialism. And he doesn’t dare spell out the consequences of his conclusion: that the huge majority of people who are kept out of the U.S. should shut up and literally drop dead, so that the “gated communities” of the imperialist countries continue to gorge themselves with a clear conscience.

Bullshit from Bernie, or BS from BS

And then there’s the so-called radical Bernie Sanders. In his epic pander session on FOX News, Sanders said, “We need border security, of course we do. Who argues with that? That goes without saying. I happen to believe that there are more cost-effective ways to do that than simply building a wall.”

Who argues with that? WE argue with that. Take that first sentence—just who the hell is the “we” BS refers to? “We” the privileged Americans who consume 25 percent of the world’s resources with just 5 percent of its people; or we the more than seven billion on this planet?

“Border security?” Give us a break, BS—tell it to the Native Americans and Mexicans whose land the U.S. ripped off through force; tell it to the Vietnamese, the Iraqis, the Afghans and the masses in the dozens of other countries that the U.S. has invaded.

In Iowa last year, Sanders went further, answering a question on “open borders”: “[I]f your point is you open the borders, my God, you know, there’s a lot of poverty in this world, and you’re gonna have people from all over the world. And I don’t think that’s something we can do at this point. We can’t do it.” The American chauvinism, willful ignorance, and selfishness just drips from his every sentence.

So: from right to so-called left and all stops in between, every single one of these representatives ends up in the same place: let millions die, either from starvation or death in the deserts or on the sea.

There IS an Answer

But the revolution does have an answer. It’s in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, by Bob Avakian. The Constitution goes through the history of immigration in the USA and the way in which today “great numbers of immigrants ... were driven to the U.S., many of whom were not able to secure legal entry and consequently were forced to live in the shadows and remain vulnerable to extreme exploitation as well as to discrimination and to violence and terror carried out by the state and by mobs encouraged by reactionary policies, actions and statements of the government and government officials,” and how this was used to make things even worse. The Constitution goes on to lay out the rules of citizenship—that anyone residing in the territory of the new socialist republic at the time of its founding will be citizens, except for those who led the counter-revolution or committed war crimes and/or other crimes against humanity. And there are procedures outlined for people seeking residency, asylum, and citizenship.

But the main point is this:

“The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic...” [emphasis added]. The rules to facilitate this on the right basis are then laid out, but the basic orientation is clear—and it is not miles apart but a whole world away from what the imperialist representatives, even the most “radical” among them, stand for.

Coming from that understanding, revolutionaries must join with others in fierce and determined resistance to the outrages now happening, and this can have a powerful effect on how millions see what is possible. In doing so, and in going to people who are either passive or confused in the face of this, the movement for revolution must clearly make the point:

Either live with what will be continued and worsening persecution of people who have been driven from their homelands by this criminal system, shutting your eyes and ears against the bones and tears of your fellow human beings; or, MAKE REVOLUTION.

The choice—and the responsibility—is yours.

WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

This just says it all. While the mainstream politicians fight over who's racism and hatred is best suited for their empire, the Revolutionaries tell it like it is . They are not invested in keeping this shit rolling over the people of the world for one more fucking second .

GREAT SUCCESS

Again the Jay Brown Memorial Show and Hospice Benefit ( the 13th one ! ) was a raging success, thanks to the tireless efforts of Hoon, who does this year after year despite the pressures and headaches involved in such an undertaking. He deserves your respect and nothing less.

REK are a bunch of young guys playing no frills punk/hardcore and they were amazing. BLKR  are veterans of the punk scene and it shows. Roy is at his best as the charismatic obnoxious frontman and they had great energy plus ripping music. I'd like to see them play more often.
Awkward AC are Nanaimo scenesters with Jay Flett on lead vocals. I've known Jay for many years and have nothing but respect for him . This band gets better every time I see them, and look forward to their record release on May 17th. They'll be playing at The Cambie in Nanaimo . Go. Get the record. 
The Golers are an unrelenting thrash hardcore metal band who don't know how to take it easy. Tight as fuck and will devastate any place they play. See them when you can, or regret it for the rest of your life . Thanks to everyone who came out and made it such a great time. See you next year !

PLEASE BE THERE

I woke up with a raging fucking headache this morning, but a night of punk and metal for a great cause should help clear things up. Come to this show tonight please. You will hurt my feelings if you don't. See y'all there.

GET IT YET ?

The point has to be hammered home again and again about how amerikkka was never great, including to asshole hillary clinton with her fucked up " america was always great " response to trump's ignorant bullshit. The country was built by stolen people on stolen land , and continues to be a hell for those people to this day. Fuck trump and clinton.

Case #22: The Barbaric Suppression of the 1811 Louisiana Slave Uprising

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

Bob Avakian has written that one of three things that has “to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better: People have to fully confront the actual history of this country and its role in the world up to today, and the terrible consequences of this.” (See “3 Things that have to happen in order for there to be real and lasting change for the better.”)

In that light, and in that spirit, “American Crime” is a regular feature of revcom.us. Each installment focuses on one of the 100 worst crimes committed by the U.S. rulers—out of countless bloody crimes they have carried out against people around the world, from the founding of the U.S. to the present day.

See all the articles in this series.

THE CRIME

They moved downriver, nearly 25 strong, the heavy night rain silencing their approach. Forty miles from New Orleans, they break into the mansion, run to the second floor where they find and wound with an axe the slave owner Manuel Andry and kill his son. They then break into the mansion’s basement, collect muskets and ammunition, take several horses, and continue to march downriver.

So began, on January 8, 1811, the largest slave revolt in U.S. history, an armed revolt against the slavery system’s barbaric, intolerable conditions. And a revolt the slave owners and U.S. authorities violently suppressed using the most savage means imaginable. The rebels’ political goal was to establish an independent Black republic on the shores of the Mississippi, with a captured New Orleans as its capital.

Manuel Andry was among the French planters who established highly profitable sugarcane plantations in the rich agricultural region known as the Mississippi River’s German Coast. Many of these planters had been forced to flee to the Orleans territory from the Caribbean French colony of Saint-Domingue, where the slaves had risen up, arms in hand, and defeated the planters and armies of the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The victorious rebels renamed Saint-Domingue the free republic of Haiti, abolished slavery, declared racism illegal, and permanently banned the French from the island.

The French planters able to escape and settle in the Orleans territory brought with them many of their slaves. Intent on creating a new Saint-Domingue by maximizing the quantity and quality of sugarcane output, they achieved greater profits than slaveholders elsewhere, their wealth concentrated in huge landholdings, grandiose mansions, and a lavish lifestyle. But to achieve this wealth, they resorted to the same vicious practices they used in Saint-Domingue, turning their slaves into sugar-producing machines on plantations resembling death camps.

At harvest time, the slaves worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, cutting down the eight-foot-high sugarcane. Laboring in the swamps’ summer heat, they were attacked by mosquito swarms, with many developing malaria and other tropical diseases. If slaves failed to meet their daily quota, or rebelled against their wretched conditions, punishment awaited. For minor insubordination, chained imprisonment for a period of time was likely. For greater disobedience, there was the whip—three stakes driven into the ground in triangular fashion, six feet apart; each hand of the slave tied to a stake, feet tied to the third; then came the lashing with a rawhide whip, creating with each stroke deep cuts seven or eight inches long.

For worse offenders, for those who attempted to escape, for example, there were torture devices they were forced to wear, such as a neck collar with inward-pointing spikes that made it impossible for the slave to lie down and rest his or her head. Finally, beyond the whip or spiked collar was the ultimate form of punishment: death by hanging or other means.

These were the intolerable conditions that led to the uprising of 1811. After having seized guns, ammo, and horses at the Andry plantation, the slaves continued to march downriver, chanting “Freedom or Death!” and “On to New Orleans!” At the plantation of Jacques and Georges Deslondes, the home plantation of Haitian-born Charles Deslondes, an overseer-turned-revolutionary and the insurrection’s major leader, eight slaves joined the revolt.

Small groups of slaves joined from every plantation the rebels passed. Two key organizers of the revolt, African-born Kook and Quamana, led more than half the slaves at their plantation to join, bringing the total number to well over 100. Most estimates are that 200 to 300 slaves joined, although some eyewitnesses and others have said it was as many as 500.

As the march grew in size and strength, terrified plantation owners and their families fled, some hiding in nearby swamps, others seeking refuge in New Orleans. There, on January 9, Governor William Claiborne and U.S. military commanders mustered two companies of volunteer militia, 30 regular troops, and 40 seamen to attack the rebels. At the same time, the wounded Manuel Andry, who had managed to reach New Orleans, worked with other planters who had fled there to form a militia led by mounted cavalry.

By early morning on January 10, these forces had reached a plantation where they thought the rebels had encamped overnight. But the rebels had already started back upriver, nearing another plantation. There, planter Charles Perret had assembled a well-armed militia of about 80 men, who he ordered to attack the insurgents. Despite their greater numbers and some guns, the slaves were not as well armed as their attackers. Only about half had bullets for their muskets, and others carried only sabers, axes, and cane knives. Within 30 minutes, 40 to 45 slaves had been killed, many others had been wounded, another 50 had been captured, and others escaped into the swamp. The militiamen then barbarically chopped off the heads of those they had killed and began pursuit of the others, led by a pack of bloodhounds. They soon found Charles Deslondes, the dogs getting to him first. The militiamen, intent on making a public display of Deslondes, dragged him back to the cane fields where they chopped off his hands, broke his thighs, shot him, then put him on a bundle of straw and roasted him to death.

Kook and Quamana were among those captured and taken to a plantation to be tried. There were three “legal” trials in all, kangaroo courts in reality, quickly ending in executions of most of those captured either by hanging or firing squad, including Kook and Quamana. But whether it was those killed in the initial battle, by subsequent capture and summary executions, as befell Charles Deslondes, or by executions after the trials, the planters and the New Orleans authorities performed the same savage ritual of chopping off the heads of the corpses and putting them on pikes, their mutilated bodies also publicly displayed. By the end of January, nearly 100 heads on pikes were displayed in central New Orleans and for 40 miles along the River Road, into the heart of the plantation district. Wrote one exultant planter, “They were brung here for the sake of their Heads, which decorate our Levee all the way up the coast. They look like crows sitting on long poles.”

THE CRIMINALS

The sugarcane plantation owners: Known to be among the cruelest, most brutal slaveholders anywhere in the South. When slaves farther north spoke fearfully of being “sold down the river,” they were referring mainly to the sugarcane plantations around New Orleans, where they worked longer hours, endured the harshest punishments, and lived shorter lives than most slaves elsewhere in the South. Manuel Andry and Charles Perret stand out for the role they played in brutally suppressing the rebellion.

William C.C. Claiborne: Appointed governor of the Orleans territory by President Thomas Jefferson, and with the population of New Orleans consisting mainly of urban slaves and free Black people, Claiborne feared the opening of a second front, which he believed would doom the city’s white population. He put New Orleans on lockdown and ordered that no Black person was allowed to be in the streets after 6 pm. Claiborne then spearheaded the creation of the voluntary militia and federal government armed force, led by General Wade Hampton and Commodore John Shaw, that hunted down and eventually suppressed, through the bloodiest possible means, the rebel insurrection.

President Thomas Jefferson had appointed Claiborne governor of the territory shortly after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, when the U.S. bought from Napoleon Bonaparte, for the bargain price of $15 million, what now equals nearly a quarter of today’s United States. The purchase was made by Jefferson primarily in the interests of the slave owners, with the aim of spreading their murderous slave system into new areas of North America.

The legislature of the Orleans territory, which, following the revolt’s suppression, approved “compensation” of $300 to planters for each slave initially killed or ultimately executed.

THE ALIBI

Claiborne and others worked to publicly characterize the revolt as nothing more than the actions of “brigands”—criminals, a band of thieves and marauders. The purpose of the trials themselves was to treat the rebellion as a simple legal matter dealing with a criminal act. This reduction of the rebellion to criminality resonated in the halls of D.C., where no concern was expressed for the real crimes: the slave system itself and the revolt’s brutal suppression.

THE ACTUAL MOTIVE

While the planters and federal authorities worked to reduce the slave rebels in the public eye to nothing more than savage criminals bent on creating mindless havoc, they were fully aware that the revolt was politically motivated, carefully planned, and represented a serious challenge to the system of plantation slavery and its westward expansion. In fact, seeds of the rebellion had been planted long before its outbreak. Kook and Quamana, for example, began planning a rebellion not long after they were brought to New Orleans. They carefully identified like-minded slaves, including during market trips to New Orleans. Similarly, as a trusted overseer, Charles Deslondes traveled openly to plantations, where he cultivated small insurrectionary cells. These cells took as their inspiration the victorious Haitian revolution, were driven by powerful revolutionary ideas, and were prepared to attack in organized fashion and under solemn oath of “freedom or death!” when their leaders gave them the word.

It is precisely because of the highly developed nature of the revolt and its political aim of establishing an independent Black republic that the slave owners and U.S. authorities set out to mercilessly crush the rebellion, to savagely place on pikes the heads of 100 rebels and display their mutilated bodies—providing a glimpse, just a brief but crystal clear glimpse, into the utter barbarity of the slave system.

Sources

Rasmussen, Daniel, American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt, Harper Collins Publishers, 2011

Marissa Fessenden, “How a Nearly Successful Slave Revolt Was Intentionally Lost to History,” Smithstonian.com, January 8, 2016

“‘America Rising’: When Slaves Attacked New Orleans,” All Things Considered, NPR, January 16, 2011

Leon A. Waters, “Jan. 8, 1811: Louisiana’s Heroic Slave Revolt,” Zinn Education Project

Wendell Hassan Marsh, “The Untold Story of One of America’s Largest Slave Revolts,” The Root, February 25, 2011

SELECTIVE HATE

Some organizations don't know which way they are headed. If you condemn hate crimes, then do so without promoting it from the other side of your face.

APRIL 9, 2019 · 20:18

CIJA selective about which hate crimes it condemns

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ response to the horrific attack on two mosques in New Zealand highlights tensions between promoting the most aggressive ongoing European settler colonialism and Jewish Canadian concern over hate crimes.

Forty-eight hours after the killings in Christchurch the Toronto Star published letters by the heads of CIJA and Toronto’s Jewish Federation under the headline “Jewish Canadians stand with Muslims.” CIJA’s quick response to the mosque attack no doubt reflected genuine horror as well as an understanding that as a minority religious group disproportionately victimized by hate crimes Jews have an interest in building solidarity against such violence. But, it also represents a cynical ‘get out ahead of the story’ type of public relations from a group that regularly demonizes Muslims in defence of Israel’s subjugation of Palestinians. CIJA, which is the lobbying arm of Canada’s Jewish Federations, claims Israel is “fighting  against the Palestinian shackles of international Islamism that has been wreaking absolute havoc all over the world.”

CIJA regularly hypes “Islamic terror”. In response to a 2017 truck attack in Nice, France, CIJA declared “Canada is not immune to… Islamist terror” and in 2018 they highlighted  “those strains of Islam that pose a real and imminent threat to Jews around the world.” At the time CIJA also aligned with the xenophobic backlash  against the term “Islamophobia in bill M-103, which called for collecting data on hate crimes and studying the issue of “eliminating systemic  racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia.” In a BuzzFeed article titled “Zionist Groups  in Canada Are Jumping On The ‘Creeping Sharia’ Bandwagon” Steven Zhou detailed CIJA, B’nai Brith and other pro-Israel groups backlash to M-103 and “how Muslim Canadians define Islamophobia.”

In a bid to deter organizations from associating with the Palestinian cause or opposing Israeli belligerence in the Middle East, CIJA constantly targets Arab and Muslim community representatives, papers, organizations, etc. To prove that Muslim Canadians financed “Hamas terror”, CIJA pushed to proscribe Muslim charity IRFAN (International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy) as a terrorist entity because it supported orphans and a hospital in the Gaza Strip through official (Hamas controlled) channels. (The federal government considers Hamas a terrorist organization but Palestinians and most  of the world consider it a political/resistance organization.) The Jewish group’s press release about the first Canadian-based group ever designated a terrorist organization alludes to ‘foreign Muslims taking advantage of Canadians’. It noted, “Canadians will not tolerate the abuse of their generosity by those who seek to bankroll terrorists.” In 2017 CIJA demanded  Ottawa rescind the charitable status of the Islamic Society of British Columbia because the Vancouver-area mosque allegedly offered support for Hamas.

While quick to attack Arabs and Muslims’ support for “terror” or “anti-Semitism,” CIJA clams up when explicit Jewish Islamophobia is brought to their attention. In 2012, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) asked for CIJA’s help with an aggressively anti-Muslim textbook used at Joe Dwek Ohr HaEmet Sephardic School in Toronto. It described Muslims as “rabid fanatics” with “savage beginnings,” but CIJA refused to respond.

Last summer lawyer Dimitri Lascaris repeatedly called on CIJA to disassociate from a number of individuals it aligned with at a protest who made anti-Muslim remarks and death threats against mostly Muslim and brown politicians in a video about the rally. CIJA responded by orchestrating an unprecedented  smear campaign against the prominent pro-Palestinian activist.

CIJA Québec failed to respond to my request for comment about the Jewish Public Library in Montréal, a constituent agency of the city’s Jewish Federation it officially represents, hosting  anti-Muslim activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali next month. Among a slew of extremist statements, Ali said “violence is inherent in Islam—it’s a destructive, nihilistic cult of death. It legitimates murder.”

CIJA has stayed mum about the recent scandal over the head of the Toronto Hebrew School Teachers Federation, Aviva Polonsky, escorting a class from the Community Hebrew Academy to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington. Polonsky posted photographs of her and students meeting with noted Islamophobe Sebastian Gorka and wearing “Make America Great Again” hats.

CIJA ignores Islamophobia by groups it defends or represents. It also stokes anti-Muslim sentiment as part of its bid to defend Israeli colonialism and violence. On the other hand, Canadian Jewry, which CIJA claims to represent, has a strong self-interest in building broad opposition to hate crimes.

Which side is this organization on? Is it always against perpetrators of hate-crimes, so-called “White nationalists” and governments that favour one religion or ethnicity over others? Or does it make exceptions for its supporters and Israel?

PERFECTLY WORDED

This article written by a prisoner in the u.s. is a perfectly worded summation of u.s. fascism and empire in general. Read it.

Letter from a Prisoner

How can any human being be decreed to be “illegal” on stolen land?!

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

PRLF [Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund],

Now I can just hear these reactionary fools saying, ‘Well, Bob, answer me this. If this country is so terrible, why do people come here from all over the world? Why are so many people trying to get in, not get out?’...Why? I’ll tell you why. Because you have fucked up the rest of the world even worse than what you have done in this country. You have made it impossible for many people to live in their own countries as part of gaining your riches and power. (BAsics 1:14)

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and the director of ICE being forced out of the fascist regime is being described by the media as just another one of Trump’s “Shake-Ups” rather then calling it out for what it is... a further hammering into place a vicious American fascism with a program of white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia at the helm. In short, Nielsen and company weren’t Nazi enough, even as we all witnessed in horrified outrage the rounding up of thousands of immigrants, the snatching of children from parents, the tear-gassing of asylum seekers, Walmarts being transformed into concentration camps overnight, and U.S. troops being given the order to shoot any “rock throwers.” On top of all this, Trump now has declared to the world that he plans on going in a “tougher direction” in dealing with immigration and refugees so that they don’t treat their flight from American made hellhole conditions as a “picnic” or a “trip to Disney World.”

Based on the whole historical development of the United States from genocide to slavery and the basic nature and functioning of the capitalist-imperialist system, it should be clear that a “Viva! Beto” rally and the Democrats as a ruling class party as a whole, have no solution to the situation involving masses of immigrants, refugees, and the rise of fascism as embodied in the Trump/Pence regime. In fact, when asked by reporters about the barbaric measures of separating children, Trump responded, without skipping a beat, that we had Obama to thank for that idea—the same Obama that infamously became known as “The Deporter-in-Chief” and who insisted that “We, Democrats and Republicans, are on the same team.” (See Bob Avakian’s THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!)

How can any human being be decreed to be “illegal” on stolen land?! As The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour call powerfully states:

The Republican Party Is Fascist
The Democratic Party Is Also a Machine of Massive War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
This System CANNOT Be Reformed—It MUST Be Overthrown!
We Need an Actual Revolution

Revolution—Nothing Less!

Prisoner from Illinois, April 10, 2019

SPREAD THE WORD

Once you become conscious of the state of the world and what needs to be done to set things right, you need to spread the revolutionary message. No, not like some asshole evangelist or some doctrinaire boring shitheaded politician, but like a human being. Knowledge is key in all of this.

April 17-28, “Points of Attention” Days

Spread the Points of Attention... and Spread REVOLUTION

April 15, 2019 | revcom.us

From the National Revolution Tour

Every day, it seems that the outrages mount higher and grow more excruciating. We wake up and see families, driven from their countries by climate change and imperialist plunder or war, languishing at the border or under highway underpasses in the U.S. We see our youth, young women and men of so much promise, either gunned down by the police or by each other, as they act out the system’s warped values. We hear the intensifying threats of war, of amped-up repression, of demonization of Muslims. Sometimes it seems like a new state every day makes yet another assault on a woman’s right to control her body—a right which does not exist without abortion. There is the demonizing of LGBTQ people. And there are the ever-uglier threats from Trump, Pence, and their minions against any who would get in the way of their juggernaut.

“We have two choices: either, live with all this—and condemn future generations to the same, or worse, if they have a future at all—or, make revolution!” —Bob Avakian

So we know about the first choice. But from April 17 to April 28, we aim to make the future posed by the choice for revolution much more real to thousands and thousands, to involve and work with hundreds in doing so and to expand the influence and organized strength of the movement for revolution. These are the days where we’ll be leading people to take up and take out the Points of Attention for the Revolution.

So, what’s the idea?

First read through—really read through—the Points of Attention and think about how much of the goals, methods, and principles of this revolution are packed into it.

Then get into this, from Bob Avakian, from his speech last summer, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution:

Spreading the word, particularly as this is done together with others in a planned, systematic way, can be an important step in joining the organized ranks of the revolution and taking part in the process of building the revolution. A crucial next step in making this revolution real is that, “Thousands need to get organized into the ranks of the revolution now, while millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution.” Getting organized into the ranks of the revolution means acting together with others in a unified way, as an organized force, guided by the strategic plan and leadership for the revolution, building the revolution among broader masses of people, while also getting deeper into the principles, methods, and goals of this revolution, the basics of which are concentrated in the “Points of Attention for the Revolution.” A key form of revolutionary organization are the Revolution Clubs, which live by, propagate, and fight for the “Points of Attention.” The core of the Revolution Clubs are people deeply committed to revolution who closely follow the leadership of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which has the basis, in the new communism, to provide overall leadership for the revolution; but the Revolution Clubs also need to reach out to and involve growing numbers of people who are new to the revolution. The Revolution Clubs are a means through which “people can take part in and powerfully represent for the revolution in an organized way, as they learn more about the revolution and advance toward joining the Party.”

Imagine...

Then, imagine: Points of Attention up in the neighborhoods of the inner city on light poles and in laundromats, and on the bulletin boards of suburban high schools, being posted (openly or surreptitiously) by people who live or go there, with other people grouping around, reading and maybe debating; crowds of people in busy shopping areas or transit hubs, on subway cars or in long lines waiting to get into something, suddenly confronted with pop-up squads or flash mobs distributing the Points and getting into on-the-spot debate-and-discussion-knots over them; attention-grabbing imaginative stunts or pranks where the Points appear; or serious sit-down heart-to-hearts where the questions of could we live this way and what would it take and who is the leadership get joined. Imagine more: classrooms where the teacher or professor has the revolutionaries in to get into this; get-togethers with artists and scholars; figuring out how to get these into—and get these discussed and taken up—in the prisons.

Throughout: the Revolution Clubs and others getting people introduced to Bob Avakian, so they can learn about the humanity of the leader and the road he’s forged that are reflected in these Points, and in everything else he’s done.

Imagine all this where people are getting out the 5 STOPS at the same time, or with tablets or even trucks where some clips from Bob Avakian are playing, bringing alive the sharpness of the two choices we started with.

“What kind of ‘new world’ are you talking about?” “Here—let’s read this together and talk about it.”

“How you gonna get there?” “Watch this video and spread it, and let’s get into it as you do.”

Think about the whole range of questions about past, present, and most of all future that this opens up. Think about the debates over, say, Point 2 or Point 3, or any of the others, where people just getting into these struggle with each other to uphold one or another point. Think about the vibrancy where newer people are bringing their questions and what they run into to the more experienced, where community and struggle are built as we do.

This is part what we aim to set off. We want to hear YOUR ideas as well. For one reason, getting this going in the kind of geometric way we need to is new for us too. Let’s turn revcom.us into a platform where all kinds of experiences are being described and lessons being drawn and debated. Send your ideas and reports of experiences to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.

Let’s get going!

Points of Attention for the Revolution

The Revolution Club upholds, lives by and fights for the following principles:

1 We base ourselves on and strive to represent the highest interests of humanity: revolution and communism. We do not tolerate using the revolution for personal gain.

2 We fight for a world where ALL the chains are broken. Women, men, and differently gendered people are equals and comrades. We do not tolerate physically or verbally abusing women or treating them as sexual objects, nor do we tolerate insults or “jokes” about people’s gender or sexual orientation.

3 We fight for a world without borders, and for equality among different peoples, cultures and languages. We do not tolerate insults, “jokes” or derogatory names about a person’s race, nationality, or language.

4 We stand with the most oppressed and never lose sight of their potential to emancipate humanity—nor of our responsibility to lead them to do that. We work to win people of all backgrounds to take part in the revolution, and do not tolerate revenge among the people.

5 We search for and fight for the truth no matter how unpopular, even as we listen to and learn from the observations, insights and criticisms of others.

6 We are going for an actual overthrow of this system and a whole better way beyond the destructive, vicious conflicts of today between the people. Because we are serious, at this stage we do not initiate violence and we oppose all violence against the people and among the people.

THEY WILL TELL YOU

As always, the assholes in power will tell you what to think and what't important vs. what isn't, and most will go along with it thinking they've made up their own minds . Wrong.

A Cathedral and a Mosque Engulfed in Fire; One Ravages the Past, the Other Threatens the Future

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

Global Research, April 17, 2019

Region: Europe, Middle East & North Africa

Theme: History, Religion

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The world reacted with shock to the fire that engulfed the Notre Dame Cathedral. A symbol of Paris,  this 13th Century architectural marvel is home to precious historical religious relics and artwork; made even more famous throughout the world  by Victor Hugo’s famous novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

World leaders were quick to react to the tragedy of this fire.  News headlines around the world brought this disastrous incident to every living room around the globe and nations commiserated with the French. The inaudible sigh of relief was palpable when the structure was saved and with it, the history that laid within the walls. The past was not lost.

But another fire may well stop the future. Concurrent with the fire that ravaged Notre Dame, another historical place of worship, the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem fell victim to a fire of an unknown origin. The Mosque which was completed in 705 CE, is the third holiest site in Islam. But its fate is not shared by Moslems alone – it touches us all.

The world can be forgiven for their ignorance of this tragedy – and the importance of al Aqsa. The media simply dismissed it, as it does with all things that must be kept from the general public. This is not the first fire that was left unmentioned by mainstream media (MSM). A previous fire set to the Mosque by a zealous Australian Christian in 1969 failed to capture headlines. Indeed, the threats to al Aqsa Mosque have accelerated over the years to a point of no return. Given that the fate of this Mosque holds the fate of us all, how can the media be forgiven for their deafening silence?

In 2006, the Israeli government began work on an exact replica of the Hurva synagogue on its original site. The rebuilding of the Hurva is designed to usher in the rebuilding of the Third Temple. Rabbis were tailored for the special kind of garments they would be wearing in a “rebuilt temple” – the ‘end of time’. But the Mosque still stands in the way of building the Third Temple – for now.[i]

Israel, The Temple Mount, Land Grabs and Sanctions directed against Iran

It took four years to complete the work on Hurva. When presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised AIPAC an undivided Jerusalem in 2008, the building of the Hurva synagogue was well on the way – which signaled continued future attacks on the al-Aqsa Mosque to make way for construction of the Third Temple.

In 2009, Israeli news headlines reassured Israelis that “Netanyahu would build the Third Temple”. Soon after, in 2010, JTA reported that “Our Land of Israel” party had put posters on 200 city buses in Jerusalem showing an artist’s rendition of the Third Temple on the al-Aqsa Mosque site with the slogan, “May the Temple be built in our lifetime.”

Donald Trump deliverance on Obama’s promise has made these fanatics more hopeful. How could they not be with Senator Broxon telling a cheering crowd

“Now, I don’t know about you, but when I heard about Jerusalem — where the King of Kings where our soon coming King is coming back to Jerusalem, it is because President Trump declared Jerusalem to be capital of Israel”.

And how do we ignore Benjamin Netanyahu taking ownership of Jerusalem stating that the Bible, the holy book for Jews and Christians, had justified it. Should we then be surprised that rabbis sent a letter of gratitude to Trump, praising him for “fulfilling prophecies”.

In March, as Israeli elections were approaching, it was reported that “The Israeli Third Temple” party had gained traction. And while the mainstream media can ignore the latest fire that broke out at the al Aqsa mosque on April 15, can we afford to ignore the blazing headlines of the same day: “END OF THE WORLD: Jerusalem third temple ‘fulfills Biblical prophecy’ of the end times” and other Israeli news ushering in the building of the Third Temple and the ‘end of times’?

Some may take comfort in the fact that this is all sheer madness, but one cannot ignore the insanity of which we were warned of by Warner D. Farr, LTC, U.S. Army who in 1999 reported his findings in the “Counterproliferation papers, Future Warfare Series No. 2, USAF Counterproliferation Center”.  This fascinating report, among other things, sounded the alarm over the probability of Gush Emunim, a right- wing religious organization, or others, hijacking a nuclear device to “liberate” the Temple Mount for the building of the third temple.  This is powerful insanity with insane powers enabling it.

Is the world ready to embrace this madness and accept this fate at this juncture? Are you?

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Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is an independent researcher and writer with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the role of lobby groups in influencing US foreign policy. 

Note

[i] Tom Mountain.  Preparing for the Third TempleJewish Advocate.  Boston:Aug 22, 2008.  Vol. 199,  Iss. 34,  p. 9 (1 pp.)

Featured image is from Gulf News