Who is Bob Avakian?

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Title says all.

I know that he's a member of the CPUSA, and that he's had a creepy kind of personality cult built around him, but that's about it.

[The Douche]

Title says all.

I know that he's a member of the CPUSA, and that he's had a creepy kind of personality cult built around him, but that's about it.

RCPUSA actually, which is the Revolutionary Communist Party. He was a revolutionary back in the 60s who worked with SDS and the Panthers, he eventually helped found the RCP and became it's chairman. (which he is currently)

His party was doing some particularly big stunts in the 70s and 80s, and it is because of them that flag burning is considered constitutionally protected free speech. (Texas v. Johnson) And they staged a protest against Deng Xiopang in DC, which resulted in a bunch of streetfighting with the police, and a number of ranking officials, including Avakian, received conspiracy charges and other charges related to the incident. That's when he fled into self-imposed exile in France, though he has now returned to the states.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

I have watched a few videos, and the problem is that he days nothing. There are coming words out of his mouth, but nothing “new” or “fresh”, as his followers say.
I don't know why he has a big cult, it annoyed me that everyone laughed or clapped after each sentence of his.
I don't know too much about him though.

[Positivist]

Why he is the glorious leader of the oppressed masses of course.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

As The Douche says, Avakian was involved in one of the SDS factions in the 1960s/early 70s. I forget, it may have been either RYM I or RYM II. Anyway he was heavily involved in Bay Area activism in the 70s and formed the "Revolutionary Communist Party" or RCP, a Maoist group and one of the few surviving from that era.

Their paper is Revolution (formerly Revolutionary Worker). It sometimes has interesting stuff in it. Overall the RCP has tried to appeal to an artsy, petty bourgeoisie layer put off by the Christian fundamentalism pushed during the Bush Administration.The RCP's front group, World Can't Wait got some following in the early/mid 2000s but now seems to have been de-emphasized.

The RCP became a full blown personality cult around Avakian in 2003/04. They literally have a campaign to "make Bob Avakian a household name". The RCP tries to promote Avakian as a profound Marxist thinker. They have much talk of Chairman Bob's "New Synthesis" although noone can quite figure out what this is. At the most ot sems to be a restatement of early 20th century classic Marxist thinkers like Bukharin, Hilferding, Luxemburg, etc.The RCP and Chairman Bob aren't taken seriously by anyone in the radical left and are regarded as something of a joke. The best of the RCP left to form the Kasama Project, something of a post-Maoist regroupment project led by Mike Ely.

The RCP today is believed to be down to around 20+ members (although they have a larger periphery).

Videos of Avakian's talks are interesting. He initially comes off as a powerful speaker until one realizes that what he's saying is common knowledge on the radical left and has been said far better by people like Noam Chomsky and Tariq Ali and any decent leftist writer or journalist.

If you're interested, google the Kasama Project. They have a lot of stuff on Avakian and how the RCP degenerated.

[Mr. Natural]

I'll add some emotion to The Douche's and Lenina Rosenweg's detailed information. I was involved in a couple of Revolutionary Union (early name of this group) actions long ago when Avakian and Bruce Franklin headed the group.

For what it's worth, I have long viewed Avakian as a neo-Stalinist/Maoist egomaniacal demagogue. Worse than worthless!

Damn! That felt good!

[Art Vandelay]

What is worse is when your at a protest and one of his followers (its a cult, not a party, imo) comes and tries to sell you a newspaper, then rants for 10 minutes about how there a maoist party, but they've gone "beyond mao." Where is that RAAN guys avatar when you need it, it wouldn't even be a joke to them.

[Leftsolidarity]

As someone who has had multiple run-ins with the RCP and has a comrade who used to be in that party, they are a cult. There's really no other way to describe the RCP at this point other than that they are just a cult that worships Bob. I have some of their lit right next to me and EVERY SENTENCE is about Bob. Literally every sentence. I've heard some really fucking awful stories from people who used to be in the party too.

I know that this wasn't really about who bob is but I felt that previous posters have answered that better than I can and the RCP has been coming up in my conversations a lot lately and they aggravate the fuck outta me.

[The Douche]

As The Douche says, Avakian was involved in one of the SDS factions in the 1960s/early 70s. I forget, it may have been either RYM I or RYM II. Anyway he was heavily involved in Bay Area activism in the 70s and formed the "Revolutionary Communist Party" or RCP, a Maoist group and one of the few surviving from that era.

Their paper is Revolution (formerly Revolutionary Worker). It sometimes has interesting stuff in it. Overall the RCP has tried to appeal to an artsy, petty bourgeoisie layer put off by the Christian fundamentalism pushed during the Bush Administration.The RCP's front group, World Can't Wait got some following in the early/mid 2000s but now seems to have been de-emphasized.

The RCP became a full blown personality cult around Avakian in 2003/04. They literally have a campaign to "make Bob Avakian a household name". The RCP tries to promote Avakian as a profound Marxist thinker. They have much talk of Chairman Bob's "New Synthesis" although noone can quite figure out what this is. At the most ot sems to be a restatement of early 20th century classic Marxist thinkers like Bukharin, Hilferding, Luxemburg, etc.The RCP and Chairman Bob aren't taken seriously by anyone in the radical left and are regarded as something of a joke. The best of the RCP left to form the Kasama Project, something of a post-Maoist regroupment project led by Mike Ely.

The RCP today is believed to be down to around 20+ members (although they have a larger periphery).

Videos of Avakian's talks are interesting. He initially comes off as a powerful speaker until one realizes that what he's saying is common knowledge on the radical left and has been said far better by people like Noam Chomsky and Tariq Ali and any decent leftist writer or journalist.

If you're interested, google the Kasama Project. They have a lot of stuff on Avakian and how the RCP degenerated.

I'd say they have a couple hundred active militants. They do manage to support multiple brick and mortar bookstores, afterall. And I've seen them bring 20+ people out at actions. On both coasts, and different time periods/movements.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I'd say they have a couple hundred active militants. They do manage to support multiple brick and mortar bookstores, afterall. And I've seen them bring 20+ people out at actions. On both coasts, and different time periods/movements.

You could be right. I got the 20+ figure off of Kasama in their polemics with the RCP. I know they have bookstores in NYC, Cambridge, MA, and LA. The NYC store is struggling to stay open and the Cambridge store moved upstairs, the first level is being rented out to a hippy boutique.The 20 + figure could represent their full time organizers (which is good for a communist organisation) or it could represent their bookstore employees.I've passed by their NYC bookstore at night and they do seem to pack them in with whatever events they have going on.

Years ago there used to be an interesting leftist bookstore in Brattleboro, Vermont which seemed to have some connection with the RCP, although they had books from every leftist tendency imaginable. Of course this was before the RCP became a full blown cult.

[Raúl Duke]

Everytime I see these RCP threads...I always want to see some sort of personal testimony about the cult-like atmosphere it (allegedly, but seemingly likely true) has...

I always like these stories of political groups gone weird.

Does revleft have any active member who is a part of the RCP or an ex-member?
Lets hear their side of the story

My opinion though is based on what RCP members liked to do on revleft, post these communiques which always has to mention Bob Avaikan in high terms even the ones that doesn't have much to do with him (Thus why I do think they're cultish). They also harp on about "the right leadership" and that it is "most definitely" the leadership of Avakian.

[Crux]

http://thebobavakianinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BApostersonfence.jpg

[Prometeo liberado]

I had no idea that he has come back to the States. Whatever. If you really want a good laughing read the Afghan Communist Party(Maoist) letter in regards to a new line in the Party's Manifesto and Constitution. A brief part of the letter below.
I admire the commitment of the RCP rank and file and simply wish they would open up to left critical criticism. In the true Marxist fashion.
For a better, and deeper, insight into his cosmology just read his biography. He peppers the book with accusations that those who disagree with the Party/Avakian are "Mensheviks". That in turn would make the Party true "Bolsheviks" and by extension he is Lenin.:rolleyes:


Our position on
the Revolutionary Communist Party’s
new line in its Manifesto and Constitution

Comrades!
One of the issues under discussion in the fourth plenum of the central committee of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan was the discussion concerning the political line of the Revolutionary Communist Party’s (RCP) new manifesto (http://revcom.us/Manifesto/Manifesto.html) and constitution (http://revcom.us/a/1247/afghanistan_communist_unity_cpa.htm), especially in the context of the general discussion about the current state of Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolutionary_Internationalist_Movement)). The plenum following the previous internal discussions about the RCP’s current position in its new constitution (http://kasamaproject.org/2008/08/11/new-constitution-of-the-rcp-stamped-by-avakians-synthesis/) and in its new manifesto re-emphasized that this issue is an important matter that concerns the RIM, and the international communist movement as a whole, and reached the following conclusions:
1) In text of the RCP’s new constitution––and also in its Manifesto that constantly refers to “Bob Avakian’s new synthesis”––there is no mention of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (http://kasamaproject.org/2008/08/12/cult-of-personality-purges-and-silence-on-struggle-details-of-rcps-constitution/). Nor is there is any mention of Lenin and Mao in the constitution itself. Furthermore, Marx and Engels are referred to only once, while Avakian’s name appears continuously. Lenin and Mao are mentioned only in the appendix.

[Leftsolidarity]

Everytime I see these RCP threads...I always want to see some sort of personal testimony about the cult-like atmosphere it (allegedly, but seemingly likely true) has...

I always like these stories of political groups gone weird.

Does revleft have any active member who is a part of the RCP or an ex-member?
Lets hear their side of the story

My opinion though is based on what RCP members liked to do on revleft, post these communiques which always has to mention Bob Avaikan in high terms even the ones that doesn't have much to do with him (Thus why I do think they're cultish). They also harp on about "the right leadership" and that it is "most definitely" the leadership of Avakian.

I can share the very basics of what my comrade has told me. I'm not going to go in detail, though, for his own privacy and it's not really my story to tell. It involved stuff like being sent across the country to live in an RCP commune and they tell you that you aren't allowed to leave, "self-criticizism" circles where they gather around you and shout at you, everyone has a fake name once you join the party. If you've met someone from the RCP and they tell you their "name", that's not their real name.

My comrade told me about a time when they caught one of the women shaving her legs and they surrounded her and shouted at her for her "bourgeois" lifestyle and the leader of the group even shouted "IF YOU'RE GOING TO HELP THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO BOMB AN ABORTION CLINIC?!"



They are in-fucking-sane.

[theblackmask]

I hear he's the leader of RAAN.

[Robespierres Neck]

I can share the very basics of what my comrade has told me. I'm not going to go in detail, though, for his own privacy and it's not really my story to tell. It involved stuff like being sent across the country to live in an RCP commune and they tell you that you aren't allowed to leave, "self-criticizism" circles where they gather around you and shout at you, everyone has a fake name once you join the party. If you've met someone from the RCP and they tell you their "name", that's not their real name.

My comrade told me about a time when they caught one of the women shaving her legs and they surrounded her and shouted at her for her "bourgeois" lifestyle and the leader of the group even shouted "IF YOU'RE GOING TO HELP THE OPPRESSION OF WOMEN SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO BOMB AN ABORTION CLINIC?!"



They are in-fucking-sane.

Wow. I've always questioned the whole 'the RCP is a cult' statement and figured it was an exaggeration... but wow.

[Questionable]

http://thebobavakianinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BApostersonfence.jpg

Why are they trying to push this guy? He doesn't even have a marketable face. He looks kinda like Popeye.

[jookyle]

why he is the glorious leader of the oppressed masses of course.


my glorious leader has a bigger dick than your glorious leader

[Positivist]

Why is it that all the cool party names are taken by the psychos. I mean RCP-USA? That's a pretty sick name. When I first came across their site I continued to read it for a while because "they sure talk about this Bob Avakian guy a lot and I don't really get what's new, but they are called the Revolutionary Communist Party."

[Zealot]

They literally have a campaign to "make Bob Avakian a household name".

Apparently it's working.

[Art Vandelay]

Apparently it's working.

If their goal was to make him seem like the leader of a cult and have no respect among the working class or revolutionary left....then yeah I guess your right.

[kurr]

"Furthermore, Marx and Engels are referred to only once, while Avakian’s name appears continuously. Lenin and Mao are mentioned only in the appendix."

Yeah.... like that actually matters. :rolleyes:

[Leftsolidarity]

Yeah.... like that actually matters. :rolleyes:

It shows how much they value one egotistical white dude over the foundations of what they claim to represent

[kurr]

It shows how much they value one egotistical white dude over the foundations of what they claim to represent

Because the RCP doesn't put the names of a few guys in their party program? Get real. They have their own writings you can read.

I'm not a fan of Bob Avakian aside from his speaking abilities but this is ridiculous.

[Igor]

Because the RCP doesn't put the names of a few guys in their party program? Get real. They have their own writings you can read.

I'm not a fan of Bob Avakian aside from his speaking abilities but this is ridiculous.

I couldn't give less shit about how they don't namedrop Marx and Lenin all the time; it's really kinda refreshing. But just replacing all that with focusing just on Avakian and his socialist genius then fuck that, and I'm assuming that's what jbeard was criticizing here

[Prometeo liberado]

Because the RCP doesn't put the names of a few guys in their party program? Get real. They have their own writings you can read.

I'm not a fan of Bob Avakian aside from his speaking abilities but this is ridiculous.

Your issues seem to be more with the Afghani comrades than anyone else. The fact that the RCP Constitution claims to be Marxist-Leninist-Maoist yet hardly mention Lenin, Marx or Mao while never missing a chance to mention Avakian should not be overlooked. But whatever. Endless speculation about a very insignificant sect is counterproductive.


names of a few guys
Edit: Lenin, Marx and Mao. Just "..a few guys.." huh? I can't believe I missed it the first time around.:rolleyes:

[nihilust]

As The Douche says, Avakian was involved in one of the SDS factions in the 1960s/early 70s. I forget, it may have been either RYM I or RYM II. Anyway he was heavily involved in Bay Area activism in the 70s and formed the "Revolutionary Communist Party" or RCP, a Maoist group and one of the few surviving from that era.

Their paper is Revolution (formerly Revolutionary Worker). It sometimes has interesting stuff in it. Overall the RCP has tried to appeal to an artsy, petty bourgeoisie layer put off by the Christian fundamentalism pushed during the Bush Administration.The RCP's front group, World Can't Wait got some following in the early/mid 2000s but now seems to have been de-emphasized.

The RCP became a full blown personality cult around Avakian in 2003/04. They literally have a campaign to "make Bob Avakian a household name". The RCP tries to promote Avakian as a profound Marxist thinker. They have much talk of Chairman Bob's "New Synthesis" although noone can quite figure out what this is. At the most ot sems to be a restatement of early 20th century classic Marxist thinkers like Bukharin, Hilferding, Luxemburg, etc.The RCP and Chairman Bob aren't taken seriously by anyone in the radical left and are regarded as something of a joke. The best of the RCP left to form the Kasama Project, something of a post-Maoist regroupment project led by Mike Ely.

The RCP today is believed to be down to around 20+ members (although they have a larger periphery).

Videos of Avakian's talks are interesting. He initially comes off as a powerful speaker until one realizes that what he's saying is common knowledge on the radical left and has been said far better by people like Noam Chomsky and Tariq Ali and any decent leftist writer or journalist.

If you're interested, google the Kasama Project. They have a lot of stuff on Avakian and how the RCP degenerated.

i talked and got to know mike pretty well this last year. I didnt know he was so known haha

[kurr]

But just replacing all that with focusing just on Avakian and his socialist genius then fuck that, and I'm assuming that's what jbeard was criticizing here

Ha. Well, yeah, kind of comes with the territory, I guess.


he fact that the RCP Constitution claims to be Marxist-Leninist-Maoist yet hardly mention Lenin, Marx or Mao while never missing a chance to mention Avakian should not be overlooked. But whatever.

It's really not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be.


Endless speculation about a very insignificant sect is counterproductive.

And so is needless dogmatism....



Edit: Lenin, Marx and Mao. Just "..a few guys.." huh? I can't believe I missed it the first time around.:rolleyes:

Yes they were. They were/are not gods or religious figures. They are men just like Aristotle, Feuerbach... and so on... and so on...

[PC LOAD LETTER]

You could be right. I got the 20+ figure off of Kasama in their polemics with the RCP. I know they have bookstores in NYC, Cambridge, MA, and LA. The NYC store is struggling to stay open and the Cambridge store moved upstairs, the first level is being rented out to a hippy boutique.The 20 + figure could represent their full time organizers (which is good for a communist organisation) or it could represent their bookstore employees.I've passed by their NYC bookstore at night and they do seem to pack them in with whatever events they have going on.

Years ago there used to be an interesting leftist bookstore in Brattleboro, Vermont which seemed to have some connection with the RCP, although they had books from every leftist tendency imaginable. Of course this was before the RCP became a full blown cult.
Not that it's very important, but they have a presence here in the south, too. They operate a book store in Atlanta.

[Prometeo liberado]

It's really not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be.

OMG. Lets try this one last time. From my first post.

If you really want a good laughing read the Afghan Communist Party(Maoist) letter in regards to a new line in the Party's Manifesto and Constitution
From my last post.

Your issues seem to be more with the Afghani comrades than anyone else.

They were/are not gods or religious figures
Who said they were? It was a reference to the fact that Avakians name appears more than those whom you base your entire ideology on. The fact that anyone who will listen are calling Avakian out on all his ego shit.

Please, if your gonna try and be cute just don't. My soup is cold.

[Eugene Weixel]

:rolleyes: I'm a newbie and I can't post links but if you google pkease son't vomit in the taxi you'll find stuff about being in "ground zero" of the Avakian cult campaign.

[Crabbensmasher]

http://thebobavakianinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/BApostersonfence.jpg

All I can say is that he really looks like a Bob

[Geiseric]

Rcp calls him "BA" now. He's a cult leader who lived in france for a few years.