REVOLUTION 81
Why I am not running for President
Why I am not running for President.
This is Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION—number Eighty-One.
As the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity has been out among masses of people, popularizing the leadership I am providing in bringing to light the actual, monstrous nature of this system of capitalism-imperialism that we are now forced to live under—and bringing alive the reality that there is a whole other way we could be living, with a fundamentally different system—a number of people have actually asked: So, is Bob Avakian running for president?
Well, I am not running for president, and here are some fundamental reasons why I would not run for President and would never want to be President: I don’t want to be a vicious exploiter, and murderous oppressor of masses of people; I don’t want to be a massive destroyer of the environment; and I don’t want to drag humanity to the brink of destruction through the danger of a nuclear war—all for the purpose of maintaining the USA as the world’s dominant capitalist-imperialist power and the number one plunderer of people as well as the environment.
That is the actual “job description” of President of this country—head of this American empire of exploitation, degradation, oppression, and massive destruction.
As I explained in message number Seventy-Six:
This system forces the people who rise to the top of it, and rule it, to be literally—without any exaggeration—cut-throat exploiters, murderous oppressors on a massive scale, and relentless plunderers of people and the environment, regardless of the suffering this causes for masses of human beings. For individual capitalists, and for the ruling classes of capitalist countries, if they do not beat out and beat down others, by whatever means, no matter how monstrous, they will go under. This cannot be “reformed away,” and it cannot be changed by changing the people who rule in this system—they will all be bound by the very nature, the “logic” and dynamics, and the demands of this system.
By running for President, I would only contribute to reinforcing the illusion that all this could, somehow, be “reformed away” or “changed by changing the people who rule in this system.” But, as also made clear in message Seventy-Six:
This can only be changed with a revolution—to overthrow and abolish this system, and replace it with a fundamentally different and much better system, which does not rest on, does not require, and aims to fully do away with ruthless exploitation and monstrous mass murder and destruction.
So, that is what I am doing: Working everyday, with everything I have, to provide the leadership that is necessary for this truly emancipating revolution, to bring about this fundamentally different and much better system. Once more from message number Seventy-Six:
The basic principles and the practical guidelines for this system are laid out concretely in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, which I have written. It is this fundamentally different system that we must be insisting on, and fighting for—accepting nothing less—if we really want to put an end to all the madness and unnecessary suffering that the masses of humanity are subjected to, in this country and throughout the world, and set out instead on the only possible and realistic road of emancipating all of humanity.
Communists have two main reasons for engaging in capitalist elections. The first is that elections create a heightened state of political awareness in society. Many workers are not normally interested in politics but are more open to talking with us around election time. The second reason is that communists can use participation in the electoral system to expose the system. During a campaign, we can show concretely how elections are rigged against the working class.
A clear statement as to what IS needed. Break with the BEB! Follow Bob Avakian!