A Challenge to Katherine Stewart
From Bob Avakian, revolutionary leader, author of the new communism
A Challenge to Katherine Stewart
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE TRUTH ACTUALLY MATTERS, AND THAT INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY IS IMPORTANT—AND DO YOU RECOGNIZE HOW ENDANGERED THIS IS, THESE DAYS?
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE URGENT IMPORTANCE NOW OF UNITING ALL WHO CAN BE UNITED AGAINST TRUMP/MAGA FASCISM?
As someone who found previous writings of yours to be characterized by principled methods and containing valuable insights, particularly in analyzing the dangers posed by right-wing Christian fundamentalists, I was especially dismayed to see that, in your book Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy, you indulge in all-too-familiar and strikingly crude methods in attacking the revolutionary communists whom I lead. Among other irresponsible slanders, you accuse us with being witting or unwitting stooges and tools of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its invasion of Ukraine. Together with the fact that you did not even seek to engage with representatives of our positions, in order to gain an accurate understanding of what those positions actually are, your attack resorts to the typical devices of dishonest hatchet jobs: quoting out of context and in other ways distorting positions that disquiet you by challenging your cherished beliefs. Whatever happened to the fundamental principle that, especially regarding matters of substance and importance, expression of disagreements should be based on serious engagement with, and honest characterization of, the positions of others with whom one disagrees? There is particular importance to this now, in light of the need to unite all who can be united in opposition to Trump/MAGA fascism—something which all decent people (including those holding significantly different views regarding the fundamental nature of the system that rules in this country) should recognize as urgently necessary.
Even a cursory examination of what has been said by myself and the revcoms (revolutionary communists) makes clear that we are firmly opposed to what is represented by Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We have scientifically analyzed that what has taken place in Russia over the past number of decades is the emergence of an openly capitalist-imperialist country, in place of the Soviet Union, which for several decades, since the mid-1950s, had been a “disguised” capitalist-imperialist country—a social-imperialist country: socialist in name but imperialist in fact. (We have also made extensive scientific analysis of how socialism was reversed in China, after the death of Mao in 1976, and that China as well as Russia is today a capitalist-imperialist country that is contending as such with U.S. capitalist imperialism. At the same time, in reference to something you seem to regard as an outrageous assertion, it is undeniably true—and something which we have also extensively documented—that the crimes committed by the U.S., within this country itself and throughout the world, far outweigh those of other capitalist-imperialist countries, including China and Russia.)
What is also very important is that—unlike the “mainstream” section of the ruling class of this country, represented generally by the Democratic Party—our opposition to Russian imperialism is not based on outrage over the fact that Russia is seeking to challenge the imperialist “order” that the U.S. in particular has imposed with terrible destructive violence since the end of World War 2—initiated with the U.S. atomic bombing of two Japanese cities in 1945, causing massive devastation and horrific death and suffering. (That the Trump fascist regime is acting in ways that threaten that whole post-World War 2 international “order,” out of its own perception of how to impose American hegemony—through undisguised and unrestrained imperialist gangsterism—is a different matter, but it does not change the fact that this “order” has been one of imperialist domination and plunder, imposed through massive violence and resulting in terrible suffering for the masses of humanity.)
Our opposition to Russian imperialism is part of our opposition to all imperialism, and all forces and relations of exploitation and oppression of the masses of humanity. And, as part of that, we recognize the special responsibility to particularly oppose “our own” (U.S.) imperialists, who commit their massive and monstrous crimes in the name of the people of this country and seek to rally support for these war crimes and crimes against humanity on the basis of grotesque American chauvinism.
A common, and particularly devious, form of support for the imperialism of “one’s own” country is to focus attention on and put special emphasis on opposing the rivals of “your” country’s imperialism, instead of correctly emphasizing opposition precisely to “your” country’s imperialism. This is all the more egregious with regard to U.S. imperialism—when in reality it has for some time been the “world leader” in monstrous war crimes and crimes against humanity. Now, as yet another extreme expression of these truly monstrous crimes, there is the ongoing genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by Israel, which from the beginning was supported and massively armed by the Biden administration—even as this is now being carried to even more horrific extremes with the full backing of the Trump fascist regime. (What is also striking is how evidence-based scientific analysis and exposure of the reality of the crimes of U.S. capitalism-imperialism is often more disturbing to good liberals than this terrible reality itself!)
Analysis of all this is set forth very clearly, and documented extensively, in works of mine and others at revcom.us—including important works by Raymond Lotta, who is one of the targets of slander in your book. So, rather than elaborate further on this here, I will return to the challenge with which I began, and render this more concrete and specific. Go to revcom.us and seriously engage my article Shameless American Chauvinism: “Anti-Authoritarianism” as a “Cover” for Supporting U.S. Imperialism, with an Added Note, Updated June 5, 2023.
(As you will see, a footnote to that article contains reference to my 2017 talk THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible—which draws from and quotes at some length from your book The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children. It should also interest you to know that I have been analyzing and warning about the danger of rising fascism in this country, including at the highest levels of government, for a number of decades now, with particular emphasis on the role of Christian fundamentalism as a driving force in this fascism. I have also analyzed how this fascism has arisen out of the very soil of this country, from its founding down to the present—in particular the role of slavery and genocide in the history of this country and how ongoing racial oppression, enforced with brutal state violence, has continued to characterize and have a special negative role in American society and the rule of the capitalist class, as an integral and indispensable part of its alleged “great democracy.” Assuming you are willing to engage what our positions actually are, I would also recommend a recent two-part interview with me @BobAvakianOfficial, which covers a number of important questions, including the current situation and its acute stakes and challenges, as well as the historical experience of communism and the new communism I have developed. And, at the end here, I have indicated a number of other works that are relevant to the issues in question.)
If, in fact, unlike the fascists whom we both strongly oppose and abhor, you do believe that the truth actually matters and that intellectual integrity is crucially important—overall and in these times especially—then, since you have indulged in the unprincipled attacks to which I have referred, it is incumbent on you to take up the challenge I have offered here, to seriously and honestly engage what we revcoms actually have to say about crucial developments in the world and fundamental questions confronting humanity, and to then openly acknowledge, and rectify, the gross and harmful distortions in your book’s attack on our positions. As always, around those positions and in general, we are not only open to but eager for principled engagement and honest debate especially about questions of fundamental and urgent importance for humanity and its future.
A final point: With regard to burning the U.S. flag, which you disparage as a negative provocative act that causes trouble for liberals like yourself, if one has an actual understanding of the nature and role of this country, throughout its history and down to today (again, see the works I have referred to here), one should feel a profound revulsion at the notion of “patriotic allegiance to this country”—and the burning of the American flag should be clearly understood as an entirely appropriate act. In fact, this act is a very positiveprovocation: to invoke the language of your attack, it is a very good thing for there to be “proud flag-burners.” It is also worth noting that the right to burn the American flag, as a form of political expression, was codified through a Supreme Court decision decades ago involving the case of Gregory “Joey” Johnson, someone supportive of revolutionary communism. This constituted a victory not just for the right to burn the American flag, but more broadly for the right of political expression overall, including political expression that is controversial and is despised by the ruling authorities. It is, of course, well within the realm of possibility that the current, fascist-dominated Supreme Court may reverse this decision (as it has done with the right to abortion), but anyone who values freedom of expression should recognize the importance of the victory won for that crucial freedom, resulting from the action of Joey Johnson, even if one disagrees with the act itself of burning the flag.
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As further background, analyzing and documenting more extensively what I have touched on here, there is the American Crime series, at revcom.us. The following, available at revcom.us as well, are also relevant in this regard: my article U.S. Constitution: An Exploiters’ Vision Of Freedom—Added Notes (And Brief Introduction); two papers by Raymond Lotta, examining in depth the actual nature and role, and the consequences, of the capitalist-imperialist system and its domination in the world, with particular emphasis on the role of U.S. Imperialism: Imperialist Parasitism and Class-Social Recomposition in the U.S. From the 1970s to Today: An Exploration of Trends and Changes; and The “Industrialization” of Sexual Exploitation, Imperialist Globalization, and the Descent Into Hell. And the interview with Raymond Lotta You Don't Know What You Think You “Know” About... The Communist Revolution and the REAL Path to Emancipation: Its History and Our Future can also be accessed at revcom.us.
My collected works are available at revcom.us. If you are interested in learning about what is new in the new communism I have developed, I would point you to, among other things, Breakthroughs: The Historic Breakthrough by Marx, and the Further Breakthrough with the New Communism, A Basic Summary, and the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which I have written.
Brilliant, insightful and hopefully well received. I have been a follower of Bob Avakian for 50+ years and have never known a current intellectual with nearly the depth, determination and truthfulness of B.A. Change your mind and change the world.
I read it twice.