REVOLUTION 66

Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people

BOB AVAKIAN—REVOLUTION

Number Sixty-Six: Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people.

That will be crucial in whether there could be a real possibility for a revolution to actually succeed in this rare, chaotic and tumultuous time we are now living in.

To elaborate on this crucial point:

Everything depends on bringing forward a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force.

As I have also emphasized many times: With thousands organized into the ranks of the revolution, millions can be won to revolution; and with millions won to revolution, there could be a real possibility for this revolution to win.

And, as I got into directly and deeply in message number Sixty-One, it would make a decisive difference—it could make all the difference—with regard to whether there is a real chance for revolution, if people step into this revolution, and help to further build the organized forces for this revolution, now and in an ongoing way. As I said in that message:

This is the challenge...This is the possibility...This is a precious opportunity that must not be missed—a rare chance to make revolution—which must not be squandered (wasted, thrown away) but must be actively seized by everyone who hungers for a radically different and emancipating world.

If all this seems unreal, far-fetched and like a fantasy, think about all the things that have happened just in the last few years, which also seemed to come “out of nowhere” and perhaps seemed impossible...until they happened! Think back just to 2020, with the massive outpouring, of millions, in outrage over the cruel, cold-blooded murder of George Floyd by heartless pigs. Later that same year came the refusal of Trump to accept the results of the election he lost and his nearly successful coup attempt to remain in power—something which had never happened before in the history of this country.

Earlier that same year, this country, and the world as a whole, was hit by the devastating Covid pandemic. The major dislocations caused by this pandemic further sharpened and deepened the already existing antagonistic divisions.

Then, in 2022, there was what many people insisted would never happen—the ripping away of the right to abortion with the decision by the fascist-dominated Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. In that same year, there was the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, leading to a war which has escalated to very dangerous dimensions, posing the very real threat of direct military confrontation between the U.S. (and its allies in NATO) on one side, and Russia on the other, with the real possibility of this getting all out of the bounds in which it is now taking place, and actually leading to nuclear war, which could even bring about the end of human civilization as we know it.

And this year (2024), there has been the horrific genocidal slaughter of Palestinians, being carried out by Israel, with the full backing of the U.S., and the massive protests that have been called forth in opposition to this.

And then comes the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. The implications of this are already massive, even as all that may be involved with this has not yet become clear. But this is clear about this attempted assassination: “whatever the actual motivation of the shooter, and whatever might be involved with this, it has nothing to do with any positive change, and certainly nothing to do with an emancipating transformation of society, which can only be brought about through a revolution, involving millions of people and aiming to sweep away this whole system and replace its relations and institutions of exploitation and oppression, and its putrid culture, with ones that are liberating and uplifting.”

All this dramatically demonstrates that these are not “normal times”—these are the kinds of times when major, and often completely unexpected, changes continually happen, in a continually accelerating way. These are the kinds of times when what was previously considered extremely unlikely, if not impossible, actually happens, and happens more frequently.

As shown by the mass outpourings of righteous protest, in 2020, in 2022, and again this year (2024), these “unforeseen” developments are not only of the negative kind but also of the very positive kind. And the truth that, especially in times like this, the seemingly impossible, becomes possible, and even becomes the reality—this applies, also, to the possibility for the revolution that is urgently needed to put an end to all the atrocity and madness that is continually perpetrated by this system of capitalism-imperialism.

This emphasizes once again this crucial truth that the possibility for an actual revolution depends on bringing forward—in this time now—a revolutionary people, from among the most bitterly oppressed, and all parts of society, first in the thousands and then in the millions, as a powerful revolutionary force, organized from the start and consistently with a country-wide perspective, impacting all of society and changing the terms of how masses of people see things and how every institution has to respond. Everything must be focused now on actually bringing forward and organizing this revolutionary force.