Bob Avakian's memoirs

[flyby]

announcement and details (http://rwor.org/a/1263/avakian-memoir-ad.htm)

Bob Avakian has written a memoir containing three unique but interwoven stories. The first tells of a white middle-class kid growing up in ’50s America who goes to an integrated high school and has his world turned around; the second of a young man who overcomes a near-fatal disease and jumps with both feet into the heady swirl of Berkeley in the ’60s; and the third of a radical activist who matures into a tempered revolutionary communist leader. If you think about the past or if you urgently care about the future...if you want to hear a unique voice of utter realism and deep humanity...and if you dare to have your assumptions challenged and your stereotypes overturned...then you won’t want to miss this book.

from Howard Zinn, Author of A People’s History of the United States

"A truly interesting account of Bob Avakian’s life, a humanizing portrait of someone who is often seen only as a hard-line revolutionary. I can understand why Bob Avakian has drawn so many ardent supporters. He speaks to people’s alienation from a warlike and capitalist society, and holds out the possibility for radical change."

from Cornel West, Professor of Religion, Princeton University

"Bob Avakian is a long distance runner in the freedom struggle against imperialism, racism and capitalism. His voice and witness are indispensable in our efforts to enhance the wretched of the earth. And his powerful story of commitment is timely."

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Hey, if it's short enough to squeeze in between the stuff I have to read for school, and inexpensive enough to not cheat me out of a day's fried rice (Maybe I'll be able to nag the Library into getting a copy?), it sounds interesting.
Reading supporter's reviews is making me cringe, but if he's able to avoid extended rants about his role as theorist and "revolutionary leader", I'd be interested to learn about his life and the forces that shaped him.

[flyby]

actually the reviews are not by supporters.

Cornel West is one of the most prominent left philosophers in the U.S. and commentators on racism. (And he is not a maoist, but a leader of another trend.)

Howard Zinn is a prominent historian (boston University), former figure in SNCC and SDS, and well known for his book on "peoples history."

Why should their comments make you cringe?

And why is there all this talk about "cringing" whenever someone upholds a revolutionary leader?

Is that so wrong? Why?

[PRC-UTE]

Why should their comments make you cringe?


They seem honest but . . . almost servile.


And why is there all this talk about "cringing" whenever someone upholds a revolutionary leader?

Is that so wrong? Why?

It's not wrong, no, but most folks are uncomfortable with upholing a revolutionary leader, especially if they're alive.

[flyby]

Our oppressors are not "uncomfortable" attacking our leaders, suppressing their views, hunting them down, killing them.

Wouldn't it be terrible if the enemy knew the value of our leadership -- more than the masses did?

How can we defend, struggle to follow our leadership if people can't even talk about what they have developed and are proposing?

Bob Avakian is a rare and precious leader, struggling to solve the key problems that face the emancipation of humanity. You wanna wait to talk about that, untill AFTER HE IS DEAD?

Imagine what a crime that would be!!

[American_Trotskyist]

What does he say about his Pops? I knew his pops and he sure as hell didn't like him.

[flyby]

"What does he say about his Pops? I knew his pops and he sure as hell didn't like him."

huh?

[Raisa]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2004, 01:12 AM
What does he say about his Pops? I knew his pops and he sure as hell didn't like him.
How do you know his pops?
Next time you see him, tell him his son is a commie!

[flyby]

Avakian's father died recently.

They had their struggles during the 60s, cuz the father was a liberal and a judge, while Bob Avakian was becoming a communist leader and revolutinary.

but they also had common ground (the father Spurgeon Avakain was known as an anti-racist)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...02/MN232009.DTL (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/02/MN232009.DTL)

Avakian addressed a famous open letter to his parents (called "Communists are REbels") which dealt with what the leap is to communism and how it is different from liberalism.

[Saint-Just]

Originally posted by [email protected] 28 2004, 11:46 PM
And why is there all this talk about "cringing" whenever someone upholds a revolutionary leader?

Is that so wrong? Why?
If the bourgoeisie encouraged people to follow revolutionary leaders we might well live in a revolutionary society.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by flyby
And why is there all this talk about "cringing" whenever someone upholds a revolutionary leader?

Is that so wrong? Why?

Yes, it's wrong.

Why? Because it reeks of servility.

It breeds submissiveness and passivity -- "the leader will take care of everything...including me."

And it breeds arrogance and contempt -- "I am the leader and my followers are nothing."

How much of this sort of thing shows depends on particular historical circumstances.

But it's there...and will "come out" sooner or later, in one fashion or another.

It always does.

:redstar2000:

The Redstar2000 Papers (http://www.redstar2000papers.fightcapitalism.net)
A site about communist ideas

[flyby]

I follow Avakian -- and there is nothing servile about that.

He has taught me defiance, rebellion, but more vision, science and all the way revolution.

We can't make revolution without that.

BTW: I just bought his new book, the memoirs "From Ike to Mao and Beyond."

I'm sitting here quietly having my mind blown -- yet again, by this incredible brother!

Talk to you later, i'm going back to reading this!

[Break the Chains]

I'm with Avakian all the way. I see him as a leader, the light at the end of the tunnel of lies and cover ups, he's a great man.

I picked up the 4 disk set of his. It's called REVOLUTION: Why it's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. I strongly reccomend picking it up, although I don't know where you can pick it up but its really great.

E-Mail me if you have any Quetions abot it

http://rwor.org/i/m/avakian3.gif

[guerillablack]

Leader?You don't need no leader.

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by flyby+--> (flyby) I follow Avakian -- and there is nothing servile about that.

He has taught me defiance, rebellion, but more vision, science and all the way revolution.[/b]


Break the Chains
I'm with Avakian all the way. I see him as a leader, the light at the end of the tunnel of lies and cover ups, he's a great man.

*sighs* :(

:redstar2000:

The Redstar2000 Papers (http://www.redstar2000papers.fightcapitalism.net)
A site about communist ideas

[flyby]

Originally posted by Break the [email protected] 15 2005, 01:45 AM
I picked up the 4 disk set of his. It's called REVOLUTION: Why it's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. I strongly reccomend picking it up, although I don't know where you can pick it up but its really great.

E-Mail me if you have any Quetions abot it

http://threeqvideo.com/images/revolution-logo-e.jpg
The DVD can be gotten in several places:

first: you can pick it up (along with lots of other revolutionary literature) at the Revolution Books in most major cities.

Their addresses and phone numbers are here: http://rwor.org/a/online/contac_e.htm

You can also pick it up online here: http://threeqvideo.com/

And of course you can do what I do: be part of "making it available" -- I get batches of DVD sets and sell them, share them, show them.

At the risk of making redstar sigh, I have to say that this is the most powerful discussion of revolutionary politics I have ever seen. It is an introduction for those who are new, and it is a high-level "graduate course" for those who have been "around" revolutionary politics.

It is not a grab bag of pre-digested truisms and gimmicky quips. He dares to dig deep, dares to ask the hard questions, dares to put forward both controversial verdicts and initial thinking, and even dares to put some difficult questions back on us (to debate, explore and agonize over.) It is a school of method (critical thinking, materialism, going deep into the actual contradictions of things, looking at what we do from the point of view of reality and where we are going etc.) This is nothng like "the glib answer man has a quick easy line on everything."

And above all it is, what its subtitle says: a deep discussion of why revolution is necessary, why it is possible, and what it's all about. Which (if you think about it) are the burning questions of many many people.

[American_Trotskyist]

Sparky Avakian didn't talk much about his son, other than he truly disliked his belifs and seemed ashamed of him, not try in bash bobby but thats how it seemed. His dad was an old time immigrant, his parents were immigrants. He was more patriotic than anything, but very liberal. I knew him because when I was a kid my pops was a lawyer in the Bay Area and he was friends with Sparky. He came over to my house as a kid and i talked to him a little about it and my pops tried to talk to him about his son be he said he was very disappointed with him and nothing more.

[flyby]

Originally posted by [email protected] 16 2005, 07:44 PM
Sparky Avakian didn't talk much about his son, other than he truly disliked his belifs and seemed ashamed of him, not try in bash bobby but thats how it seemed. His dad was an old time immigrant, his parents were immigrants. He was more patriotic than anything, but very liberal. I knew him because when I was a kid my pops was a lawyer in the Bay Area and he was friends with Sparky. He came over to my house as a kid and i talked to him a little about it and my pops tried to talk to him about his son be he said he was very disappointed with him and nothing more.
what's your point? do rumors about people's folks reflect on their politics? or what?

Avakian, by the way, discusses his father in some detail in his memoirs -- the good and the bad. their unity and struggle. It is a little more substantive than anything in this thread so far about that. And it says a lot about his view of people, including those who have some real and fundamental disagreements with him.

[American_Trotskyist]

I orginally asked what he said about his father, then people started to ask me questions so I answered.