REVOLUTION 51

Revolutionary Strategy and Tactics, and elections under this system...

[Audio transcript]

BOB AVAKIAN— REVOLUTION

Number Fifty-One. Revolutionary Strategy and Tactics, and elections under this system: Why I was correct in saying it was necessary to vote for Biden in 2020, why it is correct and crucially important not to vote for Biden (or Trump) now, and what this has to do with actually making revolution.

This position of mine has been a focus of some sincere confusion but also simple-minded pseudo-revolutionary attacks. Typical of this line of attack is the following statement someone made in connection with my message number Thirty-Seven: “A true Communist wouldn’t support Biden, which you did in 2020. Trump is a horrid choice, but the fact [that] you endorsed Biden is sad and makes you a disgrace to the movement.”

I will leave aside the accusation of being a “disgrace” to “the movement,” because this is not a “personal” matter, but involves questions of profound importance in relation to whether, and how, a revolution can be carried out to overthrow this monstrous system of capitalism-imperialism and bring something much better into being—and because I have no interest in being part of any “movement” that does not concern itself with, and in fact opposes, what is involved, and necessary, in actually carrying out that revolution.

What is involved is the fundamental difference between dealing with the necessity—especially the complex situations and difficult contradictions—that one is bound to confront in the course of carrying forward the struggle for an actual emancipating revolution, and on the other hand infantile “left” posturing, petty sectarianism and brittle dogmatism, which fails to recognize, or to scientifically analyze and deal seriously with, those contradictions.

The fact that, for the first time in the history of this country, a former president, Donald Trump, has become a convicted felon, is (among other things) a reflection of the very acute, and continually sharpening, contradictions within this country—and, in turn, the trial and conviction of Trump has further sharpened the contradictions within the country overall, and within the ruling class of the country. This is closely related to why it was correct to vote for Biden in 2020, and why it would not be correct to again vote for Biden, which I will get into further in my next messages.

But first, as important background, it is very relevant to review some experience from the history of communist revolution, first in Russia and then in China, where the leaders of those revolutions insisted upon policies and actions which defended, or even involved entering into formal agreements with, bourgeois and reactionary forces—and how this did not “betray” those revolutions but in fact was crucial in achieving their ultimate victory. So, in the messages that follow, I will begin with that important history, and then go directly to the question of why it was correct to vote for Biden in 2020, and why it would be very wrong to vote for Biden again.