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Re-envisioning Revolution and Communism: What is Bob Avakian's New Synthesis?
Revolution Books presents:
Re-envisioning Revolution and Communism:
WHAT IS BOB AVAKIAN'S NEW SYNTHESIS?
Presentation followed by discussion
Spanish translation available. Habrá interpretación al español.
ON A PLANET WHERE OVER A BILLION PEOPLE LIVE ON LESS THAN $2 A DAY, FACING THE PROSPECT OF STARVATION... where the lives of millions of children are cut short by curable diseases... where brutal wars grind on in Iraq and Afghanistan and hellholes like Guantánamo stay "open for business"...where nooses spring up like weeds, immigrants are hunted and the availability of abortion is rapidly disappearing...
where youth are treated as either criminals or commodities...and where all this is totally UNNECESSARY—the world badly needs revolution.
Revolutionary state power will set about ending these horrors and meeting the pressing needs of the people. But a truly emancipatory socialism must do more than that. It must lay the basis, and take concrete steps, toward a society where people consciously change the world and themselves, in a society of freely associating human beings and where the need for any kind of state has been surpassed. In that light, Bob Avakian has done path-breaking work to go beyond even the best of the previous socialist societies and re-envisioned a socialism that is both visionary and viable. His "new synthesis" has tackled a whole realm of questions, including:
- HOW DOES THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY POWER MAINTAIN POWER and maintain it as a power worth keeping? How does it not just survive in a world dominated by imperialism, but do that as a base area for further revolutions?
- WHAT WOULD BE THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, civil society, and politics outside the purview of the state? What would be the role of a constitution and elections? Why would this re-envisioned socialism not only tolerate, but foster, dissent?
- WHAT WOULD BE THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENTISTS, ARTISTS, AND INTELLECTUALS carrying out urgent work to meet the most pressing needs of society and, at the same time, pursuing work, experimentation, and exploration not tied to those kinds of immediate goals? How would the age-old division between those who work with ideas and those who are locked out of that, be overcome—in a way that does not sacrifice but actually enhances vibrancy and intellectual ferment throughout society in unprecedented ways?
- WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF A FEARLESS ATTITUDE TOWARD THE TRUTH and what have been the shortcomings and blinders in regard to this in the communist movement as it has developed?
- HOW DOES THIS NEW SYNTHESIS BOTH CONTINUE ON THE PATH FIRST CHARTED BY MARX, LENIN AND MAO—AND YET GO BEYOND IT, IN NEW AND CRUCIAL WAYS?
- WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF TAKING BOB AVAKIAN'S NEW SYNTHESIS OUT INTO SOCIETY TODAY? What does all this have to do with how to prepare for revolution? What difference does it make if the people who will make the communist revolution get involved in wrestling with what it is all about and the means to make it?
Come hear the presentation and wrangle over all this. Bob Avakian is the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And he is more than that: he's an innovative and critical thinker who has taken Marxism to a new place; he's a provocative commentator on everything from basketball to religion, doo-wop music to science; and he's a pit-bull fighter against oppression who's kept both his solemn sense of purpose and his irrepressible sense of humor.
Bob Avakian will not be in attendance at this event.
New York
Sunday, March 9th • 4 pmSt. Paul & St. Andrew Church
Corner of West 86th St & West End Ave
1 train to 86th Street, walk 1 block west to West End Ave
$10 sliding scale admission
We apologize that translation will not be available for this program. Programs in Spanish will be announced later.
Further info: 212-691-3345 – www.revolutionbooksnyc.org
Download PDF flyer for New York event
ChicagoUniversity Center*
Saturday, March 22nd • 1 to 5 pm
525 S. State Street (State & Congress)
Simultaneous Spanish interpretation will be available
Venue is accessible
Parking/Ride sharing - call for information
Red line to Harrison. Walk 1 block north.
Brown, Pink, Orange lines to Library stop. Walk 1 block east, 1 block south
More information: 773-489-0930 - [email protected]
Download PDF flyer for Chicago event
*This program is not sponsored by or affiliated with University Center
Los AngelesThe New LATC
Saturday, March 22nd • 1 to 5 pm
514 S. Spring Street
Spanish translation will be available
$10 sliding scale admission
For reservations and further information:
Libros Revolución 312 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA
213-488-1303
http://librosrevolucion.blog.com • [email protected]
Download PDF flyer for Los Angeles event
SF/Bay AreaBlack Repertory Theater
Saturday, March 22nd • 2 pm
Berkeley
3201 Adeline St, Berkeley (1/2 block south of Ashby Ave., near Ashby BART)
$10 sliding scale admission
Further info: 510-848-1196 / www.revolutionbooks.org
Download PDF flyer for Berkeley event
Last edited by redwinter; 7th April 2008 at 17:41. Reason: corrected for new version of flyer text
You really need to get some perspective on that cult leader... badly.
I don't think he has addressed the crisis of theory pertaining to post-revolutionary (not "socialist") society properly.
Really?
Nowhere
That makes him a reductionist to those who are revolutionary Marxists.
No cult leader would ever risk getting criticized publicly, would he?
Last edited by Die Neue Zeit; 8th March 2008 at 05:38.
"A new centrist project does not have to repeat these mistakes. Nobody in this topic is advocating a carbon copy of the Second International (which again was only partly centrist)." (Tjis, class-struggle anarchist)
"A centrist strategy is based on patience, and building a movement or party or party-movement through deploying various instruments, which I think should include: workplace organising, housing struggles [...] and social services [...] and a range of other activities such as sports and culture. These are recruitment and retention tools that allow for a platform for political education." (Tim Cornelis, left-communist)
This event is coming to Atlanta. Those in the southeast should check it out:
Saturday, April 19 - 2:00 P.M.
Little 5 Points Community Center
1083 Austin Ave NE, Atlanta (at the corner of Euclid Ave)
$5 suggested donation / Further info: 404.577.4656 / http://rbo-atlanta.blogspot.com
Spanish translation available. Habrá interpretación al español.
It's just been announced that this program will also be coming to Cleveland and Philadelphia:
Cleveland - May 3, Saturday, at 1 pm
Presented by Revolution Books and Black Studies Program at
Cleveland State University
Fenn Tower Ballroom, third floor
Cleveland State University, E. 24th St. and Euclid Ave
For info, contact Revolution Books or Black Studies Program at 216-687-3655
Philadelphia: To be announced.
Call for information: 215-519-6112
Also want to add that an article in Revolution newspaper called "Engaging with Bob Avakian's New Synthesis: Imagine a Different Kind of World..." provides a really good taste of the atmosphere and climate surrounding these programs and how they've gone in parts of the country where it's already gone on - as well as the exciting announcement that the text of the presentation will soon be published.
Last edited by redwinter; 15th April 2008 at 02:06. Reason: added more info
For an critique of the New Synthesis from a communist perspective, check here: mikeely.wordpress.com/
We're not only critiquing RCP, but have ongoing debate and discussion on a wide range of issues, including sexuality, agriculture and Communist Party of Nepal [which, for some undisclosed reason, RCP has remained silent about for over a year].
Oo, awesome, let's go to your Maoist Messiah and listen to every word that he speaks. Maybe we can hold out a bucket underneath his mouth and gain some of his powerful saliva, then put it in a vial, surround it with concrete and build a 100,000 foot tall statue of the Great Avakian wearing a Superman outfit his Mom made him.
Seriously, I would rather throw up all afternoon than be in a middle of a crowd containing a few hundred deranged Avakian-worshippers listening to a guy who probably lives in a mansion, or his mother's basement. <_<
To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.
-Mikhail Bakunin
