RNC: The Moment, the Repression, and the Need for Resistance

"A handful of people have tried to destroy our city by going up and yelling at visitors here because they don't agree with their views...this is the city for free speech if there ever was one and some people think that we shouldn't allow people to express themselves. That is exactly what the terrorists did, if you think about it, on 9/11. Now this is not the same kind of terrorism, but there's no question that these anarchists are afraid to let people speak out."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in the September 2 New York Times

The narrow-mouthed ghouls that rule this land desperately needed for the streets of New York to be silent as the graves their bombs dig. New York City, which has had a seriously increased presence of police and National Guard since 9/11, was to be so locked down, the security so tight, that any protest against the RNC was supposed to be minimal or isolated. They tried to create a climate of fear, warning about possible terrorist attacks during the convention and even equating protesters with terrorists.
The rulers of this country are seeking to carry out an endless, unchecked war on the world, free to rain down destruction at the push of a button. And in order to do this, they urgently need the silence and the acquiescence of the population here.
But the powers-that-be have a problem: Millions of people here and around the world loathe George Bush and what he represents. In the wake of the massive anti-war protests around the Iraq war, Bush and his team lost a lot of legitimacy, which they desperately need to regain. So they brought out an unprecedented level of repression to ensure that this most hated ruler would be given the ground to be "re-legitimated," "crowned," and "mandated."

The "New Normalcy"

First, the city denied United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ), the umbrella group organizing Sunday's "NO" march, a permit to rally in Central Park. There was a campaign of insinuation saying that the UFPJ should be held responsible for police who had been injured at previous demonstrations. It was also hinted that by calling out crowds of protesters, they were giving potential "cover" for terrorist attacks.
For a week or more, the media promoted the idea that people should fear black-clad anarchists, who would wreak unwelcomed havoc on streets, cause traffic jams, be violent, and simply make people's lives unbearable. This is the same media that hides the truth from people about the violence, havoc, and completely unbearable living situation of the people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world, through U.S. sanctions, invasions, and occupations. The ruling class knows that it's dangerous for them when people start to concern themselves en masse with these realities.
Before the protests, the NY Daily News ran screaming editorials equating anarchists and other protesters with terrorists. And during the RNC week, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that protesters yelling at Republican delegates was "exactly what the terrorists did.on 9/11."
In coordination with such slander and dissent-bashing in the media was the extreme levels of police-state mechanisms and apparatus that was deployed. Even before protesters arrived in town, cops with automatic weapons and flak vests began appearing in the subway stations. Nearly all of the NYPD's 37,000 cops were deployed during the convention week. The cops warned everyone to expect searches at any time, especially those traveling on subways and trains. They brought in new weapons and tools, such as hand-held radiation detectors, mechanical barriers, nets (normally used on construction sites), to arrest hundreds at once. The Associated Press reported that the NYPD would be using a Long Range Acoustic Device (used by the military in Iraq!) that can blast 150 decibels of painful sound. According to the Aviation International News , this is the equivalent of standing next to a jet engine as it takes off. In addition to all this, there was open involvement of federal agents in the infiltration, stalking, and interrogation of activists and the security surrounding the convention itself.
All this is part of what Dick Cheney has called the "new normalcy." Cops in military gear in the subways that are full of signs warning riders to "report suspicious activity or persons." Unmarked cars and undercover cops skulking around the city. Helicopters buzzing overhead. New York Police Commissioner Kelly openly bragging to the New York Times : "There's strategic intelligence and tactical intelligence. You can get that a variety of ways.. We have scouts running around, the blimp in the air, helicopters, cops in static locations."
The authorities fought to create a suffocating atmosphere during the RNC week--forcing immigrant vendors and others to guard their words and talk in whispers. When teams went out to store owners with flyers that read "NO" to be displayed in windows, more than one owner said that they would like to put them up--but they were afraid of repression just for displaying a flyer! One immigrant told us he couldn't wear a "NO" sticker--he was afraid he would get arrested and be deported.

The Reality Behind Police "Restraint"

The police started their crackdown early, even before the big Sunday march, to set the tone that if protesters so much as thought about moving an inch in the wrong direction, they would be arrested. On Friday, Aug. 27, Critical Mass, a monthly mass bike ride, was attacked and 250 bicyclists were arrested for "obstructing traffic."
Nearly every single protest during RNC week was attacked by the police in some way. Sunday's march, which drew out more than half a million people, was portrayed in the media as a remarkable sign of "police restraint." (This is after the authorities had tried to hem in the entire protest within their terms; to divide protesters into "peaceful" and "violent"; and to corral protesters into a long, narrow trap of a space between the West Side Highway and the Hudson River.) The organizers fought successfully for a march route that went right past Madison Square Garden, the site of the convention. But the entire march was hemmed in on every side by barking NYPD and metal barricades, and not one deviation from the route was permitted. Helicopters buzzed overhead, undercover police officers milled through the crowds, and snipers waited on the roofs above. More than 250 were arrested that day, and some groups of protesters were charged with assault after officers got injured charging at them.
If this is what they call "restraint," we should be very afraid of what would happen when they get "serious."
Over 1,800 people were arrested during the entire RNC week. Tuesday's day of direct action alone saw several unpermitted marches all over the city, resulting in more than 900 arrests. This set a NYC record for the largest number of people arrested in one day.
Most of those arrested were taken to a cavernous former bus garage on Pier 57, complete with barbed wire, chain-link fences, arrestee pens, and floor covered with motor oil and grease. Water, food, and medical attention were given out on the whim of the police. When confronted about the conditions at Pier 57 by the New York Times , the president of the prison guard's union issued a thinly veiled threat that if detainees at the pier didn't like conditions there, they could always be taken to Rikers Island Prison, with "rats, roaches, mice, alleged rapes and sodomies. They should count their blessings." (See the report "Gitmo-on-the-Hudson" for more on the arrests.)
A press release from the Independent Media Center said that one protester was maced in the eyes and then left in a hot van for two hours, heat blasting, windows shut, in the 80+ degree summer heat. Cops taunted him, saying that he deserved this treatment for allegedly spitting on a cop; another jeered that they planned to let this guy's contact lenses "melt onto his eyelids." When he was finally allowed to wash out his eyes, he had to be taken to the emergency room for eye damage and a scratched cornea.
And while the police were doing all this, they continued in their murder and terrorizing of the basic masses. In the space of one week, the NYPD shot three people, killing one. On August 30, Brooklyn police shot two youth who were accused of stealing $36 from a car wash--one died. On Sept. 4, Brooklyn police shot and wounded a mentally ill man, Richard Figueroa, for allegedly waving a weapon at the cops.
The police--uniformed and not--were everywhere you turned. Members of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade were arrested for selling the Revolutionary Worker newspaper and "I Say NO" T-shirts. Activists reported to the New York Times that they had been followed around the city by undercover cops who knew their names. Barely disguised police cars cruised around anywhere activists converged.
Union Square became symbolic of much of this. All throughout the week, this place was at once a gathering spot, a debating circle, an organizing center, and a meeting point. People played drums, sold a never-ending supply of creative anti-Bush T-shirts, listened to planned and unplanned speakers. Whenever people got too lively or too many were gathered around one place, the cops' ears would perk up and a uniformed officer would slink over.
If anyone is tempted to think that the police state was not in full force during the RNC week because the tear gas and beatings were not as prevalent as some had feared, they need to understand that what many are now calling the "Kelly Doctrine" (after the NYC police commissioner) is not a lighter level of repression, but a much heavier and much more sophisticated one. They employed everything from blatant police infiltration (the police admitted to the New York Times that they infiltrated protest groups and spied on their communications) to the massive weight of the entire NYPD, buttressed with other kinds of police. (Bloomberg bragged that over 23 different agencies were employed in the week of the RNC.)
The cops' main tactic was simply to immobilize protests before they even got anywhere important. Many marches during the week did not have permits. The cops would often announce that they were planning to tolerate the march, or would give the appearance that they wouldn't crack down. They would then "escort" the march, appearing to give it safe passage by riding along ahead, clearing traffic with their motorcycles and blocking traffic from side streets. Nearly every time, this was revealed to be a trap--the protests would turn a corner or reach the end of the block and find that they had been led straight into a barricade or a net, with cops closing in right behind them. And any time a protest might have gotten near Madison Square Garden, where the vampires roamed freely, the cops slammed their metal barricades and blocked passage.
On Thursday night, Sept. 2, thousands of protesters marched from Union Square to the Garden, where supposedly a rally permit had been granted to UFPJ. When they got there, it became clear that the "permit" meant the "right" for people to weave from blocked street to blocked street, looking for an entry to one of the "free speech zones"-- a single block area, surrounded by highrises, metal barricades, and uniformed cops. A protester on the scene remarked, "This is what it looks like when they're rounding people up before they take them away on trains with undisclosed destinations."
If all of this is what they call "restraint," we cannot allow them to get serious.
In addition to the crackdown on demonstrators, it is also clear that the state kept a close eye on independent and radical news services and websites. Many reporters, especially those with cameras, were attacked or arrested, and their equipment damaged or "lost." Calyx, the ISP that hosts the website of NYC's Independent Media Center (IMC), was hit with a government subpoena because someone anonymously posted the names, phone numbers and hotel locations of the 2,200 delegates and people running the Republican convention. According to the New York Times , "The subpoena seeks subscriber information and contacts and billing records for the Indy Media site." Calyx has refused to speak to federal agents and is fighting the subpoena--a courageous stand that should be supported and promoted.

Fascistic Police-State Measures

These attacks on protesters during the RNC should be seen in the context of a whole new effort to legitimize and extend police-state measures and apparatuses in the wake of 9/11. The same FBI that has been stalking and interrogating RNC protesters has been knocking on immigrants' doors in the middle of the night and disappearing them, gathering up book-lending information from libraries, and investigating clinics who perform late-term abortions. This is the same FBI that conducted the COINTELPRO program during the upsurges of the 1960s and '70s, which surveilled, hounded, even killed activists and revolutionaries.
The Bush administration has created the Nazi-sounding Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that functions as a clearinghouse of security forces and information, combining 22 federal agencies into a single operation designed to wage the "war on terrorism" at the U.S. borders and within those borders. Recently, the New York Times reported that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (which is under the DHS) now has the power to snatch immigrants right off the streets if they can't show proper identification and proof that they have a "right to exist" in this country--and deport them without a hearing.
The climate of fear and criminalization of dissent is ever-growing. It's not just the Michael Moores, the anarchists, or the communists who are feeling it. Meryl Streep, one of the most respected actresses in the United States, has been viciously attacked in the media for a remark at a John Kerry fundraiser: "Through the shock and awe, I wondered which of the megaton bombs Jesus, our president's personal savior, would have personally dropped on the sleeping families in Baghdad."

We Must and Can Resist

The intense repression during the RNC week revealed something about the reality of "free speech" under this system. Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, pointed to an aspect of bourgeois democracy/dictatorship by paraphrasing a Bob Dylan song: "As long as you don't say nothing, you can say anything you want." (From his historic talk "Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About," available on DVD/video from Three Q Productions.) Any time you get to the point where your speech or actions might actually influence the direction of things in a real way, you come up against one or several arms of the state--the police, the political police, the FBI, and so forth--as well as the distortions and outright lies in the media attacking you and your cause.
This is especially sharp now because of the times we're in. As Lenin pointed out in "The Collapse of the Second International," in times of war the bourgeoisie more than ever needs the tame silence and the acquiescence of the populace. But it's also true that the more the forces that rule this country repress the people, the more they reveal their true nature.
The week of the RNC, protesters encountered new levels of police-state repression. But people stood up to this with creativity and determination. In one example, at the end of the week one group of three protesters wrapped themselves in orange netting, ridiculing the tactics of the NYPD, and snuck into the hall of Madison Square Garden itself, shouting messages before being tackled down.
Tame silence is what the rulers need the most--and it is what the people need to deny them. All through the week of the RNC, the rulers got anything but such silence. Despite the best efforts of the rulers, the streets of New York echoed with the fierce, determined and exuberant NO! from hundreds of thousands of people. We can celebrate this and be inspired to take things much higher--to fight for a world we all would want to live in.

By Linda Flores and Osage Bell

"Gitmo-on-the-Hudson"

The following is from a report by a Revolutionary Worker correspondent in New York City:

For those arrested during the RNC week, the overwhelming majority on summary violations, there was a "processing" time that amounted to preventative detention. People arrested were taken to the squalid Pier 57, an old bus terminal. Protesters called the place the "Gitmo-on-the-Hudson"--after the U.S. military detention center at Guantánamo, Cuba. As one man who'd been arrested reported to the TV and radio program Democracy Now ! (which aired people calling in from the facility), "We are like a hundred.people in a very small room. It's surrounded by fence and -- it's almost like rats in a hole. There's nothing, there is just a floor which is very dirty, which is a lot of oil and all dust in it, all our clothes are dirty, our hands are dirty. We had to eat an apple with our extremely dirty hands because we have no tissue paper, nothing to clean our hands with. We are just basically packed. Nobody can sit down. They don't even give us a plastic bag to sit on. They don't even give anything to lie down on. We just have to lie on the hard floor, basically. And there is not enough space for everybody to lie down because we have to sit so close together. It's cramped. And we were freezing before and people were actually coughing, they were getting cold and nobody paid any attention, nobody gave them even a blanket, nobody gave them even a plastic bag to cover themselves with." There were various reports--from sources such as the Independent Media Center, Anarchist People of Color, and the New York Times --that arrestees developed rashes and other skin problems because of the chemicals abounding at the site. Before the RNC, the police bragged about their ability to handle 1,000 arrests a day (and informed the District Attorney to be prepared for this). But when it actually came time to process people they arrested, the police acted as if they were overwhelmed--claiming at one point that it was because the fingerprint checks were being held up. This particular excuse evaporated when the authorities in Albany (who check prints for local police) pointed out that they'd been able do checks within 32 minutes of receiving them. This fact itself reveals a whole other layer of repression. Hundreds of people, including people who were simply bystanders, were being fingerprinted, and having their prints checked against the FBI's database--and quite likely having their prints put into the database as well. The detentions were so blatant that even a judge eventually intervened. By law in New York, no one is to be held for more than 24 hours without seeing a judge. As 24 hours turned to 36and for some people 60, a judge ordered the city to release 560 people on Thursday, September 2,the last day of the convention. He also fined the city $1,000 for every person held overtime. Playing the Terror Card Shortly before the start of the convention, the NYPD played one last "terror card." On Saturday, August 28, they announced--conveniently enough--the arrest of two men they claimed were plotting to blow up Herald Square (near Madison Square Garden). Not surprisingly, beyond the blare of the initial headlines, came what is becoming the norm with these type of stories. As the New York Times later had to explain, "[NYC Police Commissioner] Kelly and other officials stressed yesterday that the men had obtained no explosives and had set no specific time for any attack, and that it was unclear how far their plans had actually progressed. A news release announcing the arrests said they were not connected to earlier intelligence that al-Qaida was seeking to attack financial targets in New York before the election." In other words, this was mainly about reinforcing the climate of fear--to give the police more maneuver room. Other Attacks It wasn't just police in the street that were doing theattacking. On August 30, in the heat of the RNC, an article was posted on the reactionary Frontpage.com website. The article put out fabricated charges that Not in Our Name was planning a confrontational demonstration for the last night of the RNC. The article specifically named the RCP as well as Mary Lou Greenberg (spokesperson for the RCP, NYC branch) and other people working with NION to try and cast them in a conspiratorial light. (The article claims the supposed evidence for the story came from an unnamed informant.) The point of the article was to not only target NION for police attacks during the convention, but also to further lay the basis for attacks on the RCP.

Interview with Sunsara Taylor, by Luciente Zamora

Luciente: Hi Sunsara. How are you?

Sunsara: I’m fine Luciente. How about you?

Luciente: I’m sure you’ll agree with me, but I’m still high off the big NO! on August 29th. We just experienced something truly historic that can change the future of our planet.

I’d like to hear from you-what do you see as the significance of delivering that big No! on Sunday?

Sunsara: It’s kinda funny. We’ve been in New York in the middle of so much intense organizing and class struggle, honestly. Right now the state of our planet is . . . look, there are two futures contending.

One is that of King W for a New Rome and a Global Empire-the so-called War on Terror which is really a war for empire to have them be the sole superpower of the planet.

On the other side, you have the fact that there are millions and millions of people on this planet who have come out and resisted that over the past two years. It’s been incredible.

You’ve had people come out at great personal risk, which proves that they are willing to risk it and fight for something that is bigger than themselves. As you look at all this resistance you can see that there’s a whole different future that can be wrenched out of this moment in history.

There are people who are fighting for a just and liberated planet. You have both of those things contending and they came together in a very concentrated-and they are coming together this week-during the Republican National Convention. The whole world was watching when the people came out on Sunday.

It’s important to say that on Sunday there was a sea of humanity. It was a whole river of humanity that passed Madison Square Gardens. It was something that went on for hours and hours-the marchers were miles long. Of course the NYPD said that the sky was off limits, so there’s no aerial shot and there’s no confirmable record of how many people were really there, but the estimates are definitely upwards of half a million.

It’s important to say to people who are not from New York what the atmosphere has been in this city for the past 3 weeks.

The permit to protest at Central Park was denied. Everyday the front page of the news paper talked about "protestor violence" "protestors are terrorists" "protestors are coming to cause destruction."

There was a whole whipping up of fear and trying to equate protest with terrorism and trying to get people to leave town. In the face of that they said, ‘Anyone who comes to Central Park in groups of 20 will be arrested.’

They really went all out to prevent this and people came out anyhow in huge numbers-and people came out with a spirit of defiance. This was a live, angry, and defiant protest. There were soooo many people-and this exceeded many or the organizers expectations. Even the organizers didn’t see how deep the well of hatred is for the Bush agenda.

You really do see that there is a section of people who are contending for the future and who don’t want to live in a new Rome. I thought it was beautiful.

We still have a collision course ahead. The future is not determined yet. Right now, we have a lot more to wrench out of this moment. There’s a vision for the culmination of the week, this Thursday, to make the NO! unmistakable.

This week the New York times had a picture of the protest on the front really big and you could see the mass of people with all their homemade signs and at the bottom right hand corner it had a picture of Dick Cheney-he was shoved in the corner! I think that’s a really good thing. We have to struggle the rest of this week. Is he going to stay in the corner and are we going to push him to the back page and have the people’s resistance continue to burst forward in a way that the people of the planet can see it? It was a very good start and it indicated how much fight people have in them. We have a lot of work to do.

Luciente: Earlier today we were talking about how all around the city there are people wearing "No Bush" t-shirts and buttons-it’s undeniable. I’ve interviewed a lot of people in these past few days and I found that many people who were solid Democrats were aching for answers. They were looking for someone to lead them out of everything that Bush represents.

There’s a highly politicized atmosphere where everyone from cab drivers, to architects, to lawyers, and students, and there were masses of people engaging in deep discussion about important matters.

There were upward of 500,000 people in the streets-and within all that our newspaper has been out there. I mean, there was no where you could turn where you didn’t see the cover "See Bush…Think Revolution." What’s the potential that exists here?

Sunsara: Part of the situation that we’re living in is that there’s this global grab for power that Bush and his gangster crew are doing. It’s not how people think that this country is supposed to operate.

People are taught that we live in a democracy and that the elections are the way you voice your opinion. Here you have a situation where you have a president installed by the Supreme Court not by an election.

Then there’s talk about canceling the election-there’s no choice between these candidates, between Kerry and Bush. It’s one war candidate versus the other at a time when millions and millions of people want the U.S. out of Iraq and people don’t want to go along with this war. You have basic assumptions that people have held to be true their entire lives torn open. You have Bush calling millions and millions of people in this country and around the world a focus group! That doesn’t compute for people.

On the one hand, you have a people who are really outraged and really shook. You can see the basis-just look at Sunday-to change the whole direction of things. People are beginning to see that the only way you can challenge this is if you go out on the streets.

What are you going to do? Are you going to align yourself to a ruler who is moving further and further to the right? Or are you going to say ‘No way!’ That’s what you say on Sunday that’s really important.

And within that you see the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade. Our Chairman, Bob Avakian, said that to talk about democracy without talking about the class content of that democracy and what class it serves and what dictatorship it’s a part of is meaningless and worse.
Many people are coming to see that we do live in a dictatorship and that their voices are not part of the decision making process-in fact you are criminalized and locked out of decision making.

Look they are criminalizing protestors and stalking protestors and they are terrifying people from coming out. They’re trying to hide the truth from people so they can be puffed up and rule over the planet. People are looking for answers and we have a Party and we have a leader who has an analysis that makes sense of what’s happening to people.

Like you were saying, our paper has gotten out to tens of thousands and it is connecting. People are coming back to us and saying, "See Bush...Think Revolution." People are talking about Niemoller and what direction things could go and that it’s up to us to take things in a different direction. People are getting a sense of what a different world would actually look like and what it takes to get there-but not just to make revolution but how do you run society so that it’s a society that we actually want to live in. A world where a place like Central Park would be open for sports, for picnics, and yes, for political gatherings…

When we run society we need to take responsibility for involving people in political life who are locked out of it today. We need to be talking to people about how different things would be if we were running society and what it would be like. Here’s our Chairman Bob Avakian who’s leading us to deal with these questions today, as part of us making good on our promise to bring about a better world.

Luciente: Can you speak to the crucial role of revolutionary communists, the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade in taking out and promoting and popularizing our Chairman Bob Avakian.

Sunsara: Let me say this on a personal level, there are a lot of things I hate in this world and that have outraged me over the years and been moved to do something about. But it’s a big leap you make when you decide to be a conscious revolutionary communist.

Our Chairman has said that it’s one thing to criticize, it’s another thing when you’re running society and it’s all on you-and all the problems that humanity faces and that we’re criticizing today, we’re also responsible for solving them.

Somebody told me this when they heard his talk, Revolution, Why it’s Necessary, Why it’s Possible, What it’s all About, they said, ‘You think if he’s trying to sell you on revolution, he wouldn’t make it sound so fucking hard!’

My friend told this person when we were all talking, ‘When he tells you all that’s involved and all the problems, it actually makes [revolution] sound a lot more possible than you thought before.’

When you hear him talking about how we would run society and how we would handle the contradictions that people face today, in a way that involves people and expands the ‘we’ who is running society and holding society and creating a vibrant society where there is debate and diversity.

A society where people are discovering themselves and learning how to rule; where people are deciding what direction society should go. When you hear him talk you start to get a taste of that world and you actually feel more passionate to fight today-and this is what I think is something unique about the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and those of us who are followers of Chairman Avakian-it’s not just how horrible the world would be if we don’t resist, but it’s how things can be beyond the bounds of what we can fathom today and what a liberating world could be like . . . and that it’s actually realizable.

That’s a vision that not enough people have. It’s a vision that we need if we’re going to bring that world into being. It’s a vision that people need if they are going to fight today as seriously as they can-in a way that gets us in a position to really involve people in all the complexity of things.

Luciente: Can you tell me more about this vision?

Sunsara: Many people have the impression that, and I know because I learned this in school, that communism is a gray and boring world where you’re sent to re-education camp if you disagree. You hear all this bullshit about what communism really is.

First of all, it’s not a hellish totalitarianist society and it’s not a nice idea that would never work. It’s also not that everyone has to share everything including toothbrushes or that you don’t have any kind of privacy or diversity . . . or whatever. All of that is the furthest thing from the truth.

Today we live in a world now where diversity and creativity and languages are being destroyed all over the planet by globalization and imperialism. Whole cultures and languages are being lost. People can’t really express themselves.

In a socialist society and in a communist society, there won’t be antagonisms between people-but there will be struggle. Our Chairman describes that there will always be struggle for new truths and understanding to be learned about the world. There will be struggle about what we should do with the resources that humanity has produced.

We will have to struggle against other ideas . . . You may have a section of people that will want to build more hospitals and another section of people that want to build more parks.
Some people will want to put out a new form of art production . . . who knows, but things like that will come up. But in the future people will be able to share in the production of society and share in producing the things that people need. The peoples’ needs will be met for the first time in history.

People will have shelter and food and all that we need. But it’s not just that. People will have those needs met and they will not be working in sweatshops. Technology that today further enslaves people will be a way to make work easier to liberate people from laboring. People will have more time to participate in running and administering society and working in the realm of ideas.

Today there are so many lives that are scripted before they are even born-they don’t even have an option. In the society we’re talking about, people will be able to work with ideas and be a part of scientific inquiry and studying things to find out more about the natural environment and the stars and things about nature and reality and creating and producing art. We’ll have the biggest flowering of creative expression-writers and comedians and dancers and painters.

People will share in a common abundance. In the RCYB we talk about no more men oppressing women, no more white supremacy, no more one class forcing another class to slave for them, no more one country trying to run the globe. Instead you’ll have freely associating human beings. It’s just so wildly different from what we’re used to today.

Luciente: In your article "The Future is Waiting . . ." you quote Chairman Avakian when he says that we don’t have to hide from the future because the future belongs to us. Can you speak more on that?

Sunsara: Before I was saying that there is a lot of sense of outrage among people about what’s happening-globalization, police brutality, militarization of the border, and the criminalization of immigrants in this country, and unending war. There is a lot of outrage and anger about that, but there is not enough sense that the future does belong to us.

The truth is that if you try to put yourself in their shoes for a minute-imagine if you were trying to run the planet and everybody hates you-and literally people hate what they are doing. So they have a certain gangster logic and they have to go pummeling ahead and intimidate everyone-but the truth is, as vicious as they are, they are holding on to a world that is moving past them.

You see a new world bursting forward in the resistance of people around the planet and in people fighting back. You see it in people refusing to be a broken people. You see it in Palestine. You see it all throughout Latin America. All over the planet you see people fighting back and looking for the ways to fight back.

Here you see people not acting in their own individual interests. The Chairman wrote that we have to give people a sense that we represent the future and that there is a class of people who can ensure that everyone has enough to survive. Our class, the proletariat, produces everything people on this planet need-everything we eat, everything we wear, everything we use to transport goods. We have the ability to make those things in a way that meets the needs of the people around the world. It’s not inevitable that we’ll get to socialism and communism, but it is inevitable that this system is not going to last for very long.

Let me think, the future belongs to us if we dare to rise up . . . it’s a challenge to us. That’s the importance of promoting and popularizing our Chairman.

When you hear what he’s talking about and when you listen to his speeches or read his writings you really get a sense-through everything that he does-that he proceeds from the understanding that a better world really is possible and that’s the direction history is tending even if it’s going to mean a wrenching struggle. From that perspective he looks at the problems we are facing today and how to solve them.

When you really understand where you’re going and what’s in the interests of the masses of people and you can win people to the truth, then you can win people to fight more fiercely and you can help show people the way out. That’s what our Chairman is doing.

When you hear him speak-this is going to be the closest in our lifetime that we’re going to taste what a communist world will be like. He has such a love for the people and such an interest in humanity and reality and in the truth.

He’s a real searching person. He always interrogates himself and interrogates others. If he doesn’t know something he doesn’t pretend to know. He tries to find out and lead others to find out and teaches them about the methods to solve the problems. Part of that is his willingness to take on the most fucked up empire in history-we need to have strategic contempt for our enemies and know that they are not all powerful even though they like to pretend that they are AND strategic confidence in the masses of people.

Luciente: You’re a proud follower of Chairman Avakian and you’re also a very creative person and a critical thinker. You write beautiful poetry and your articles in the Revolutionary Worker are inspiring. How does the leadership of Chairman Avakian unleash such creativity and critical thinking-and unleash people to be revolutionary leaders of the masses?

Sunsara: Now, I’ve had to go through a lot of struggle around this. I’ve never done that many interviews before, to be honest. In the past few weeks I’ve done a lot of interviews and first you’re really nervous and trying to remember all your points. But then I started thinking about how the Chairman approaches everything-he approaches things from the standpoint of fulfilling a great need. Not how you do really well yourself . . . it’s like he says, you don’t go out to make a great work, but to fulfill a great need.

I started to think about what his whole life’s work has been. Like when you recognize a contradiction or a problem-you must lead people to solve it and it’s something that you should joyously and willingly and voluntarily and consciously take up. I had to do a shift in my thinking and to think, ‘How does he do what he does?’ I mean he’s shouldering so much and it gave me a lot of confidence to say, ‘Do the masses of people deserve to have their interests expressed?’ Well the answer is an undeniable ‘yes!’

Because I have followed and studied Chairman Avakian I do have answers and something to say to people!

To know that there is somebody that we can have so much confidence in . . . let me tell you, things can get really crazy in the middle of such an intense struggle.

We need to shift things-are we going to have Bush all puffed up and ready to rule the planet or are we going to have him with his pants pulled down in front of the world looking humiliated and naked?

It’s easy to stress in the middle of all this, but it’s important to step back for a minute and see that he is leading us to solve all these problems. He’s somebody who is voluntarily and very eagerly is saying that he will give his life to the people . . . and there’s a lot riding on what he does. But he doesn’t stop and complain. He solves the problems and he leads people to solve the problems. I try to emulate that and it makes a big difference.

Another thing that stands out in the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, and those of us who are really trying to embody and take up the way to bring a whole other world into being, is that it’s not just about getting work done.

Let me explain. The other night, after this huge protest and after we’ve busted our asses for weeks and after we’d all lost our voices-we came together at like midnight until the wee hours of the morning to have a party!

Even in the most intense times we have to have intellectual and artistic ferment and struggle and creative process and exchange. It’s not just about getting the work done, but we have to ask ourselves what kind of world we want anyhow. Don’t we want a world that gives people the ability to be creative and imaginative and to explore all the things that human beings are capable of?

He really gives me the appreciation that all along the way we need to enjoy the struggle-that we must lead people in a way that is consistent with the type of world we want to live in.

I’ll be honest, I quit writing poetry for a while because I was very involved. I think a lot of people do-there are so many demands that the world needs and you’re always fighting and fighting and fighting. But he struggles with us and says that the people can’t just put their heads down and struggle, but we really have to wrangle with ideas and engage in different spheres and we have to make music and write poetry.

Before we end, I have a few more thoughts.

I woke up today feeling that the weight of the world is on my shoulders, but then I went through my day and talked to people in the RCYB and different people who have been out at the protests and watched some of the coverage in the media. I was really amazed by people.

I woke up feeling that there’s a lot we need to do. Then I walked through my day and thought how impressed I am by people. I thought how glad I am that we have our Chairman and that we have a lot going for us. I don’t think we’d be where we are right now or have a chance to get out of this mess without him . . . and I felt that the future does belong to us.

With Our Sights on the Future

Thurs., Sept 2, 11:30pm -- I am sitting here, listening to the frat-rat-crooked-mouth-murderous-lying monster who carries the unenviable title of President of the United States. As the hot night gathers in the city, and the lights and sounds of choppers break through, he gives his acceptance speech to continue as a crowned emperor of the mightiest of empires. A crowd is cheering him and it comes through the radio like storm-trooping static -- and "USA!" is being yelled in the background. He had to get to MSG with the largest motorcade Tom Brokaw said he had ever seen.

I have just come from a rally of thousands just blocks from MSG, a "permitted" rally in the "Free Speech Zone" that was penned in, surrounded by thousands of riot police, and surveilled from the sky by two choppers. A "permitted" rally of thousands of people in "the land of the free" who, as I was leaving, were being kept from exiting the pens and vans of police were arriving, empty buses driven by cops with clear purposes, and two fire trucks.

Someone told me, "This is what it looks like when they're rounding people up before they take them away on trains with undisclosed destinations." And why? Because while Bush gives his nomination speech to culminate the RNC, thousands of people had come to NYC --transforming the political, cultural and emotional landscape-- daring to say they don't want to live in a new Rome. Because--on this night, just blocks from the RNC and the most hated U.S. President--thousands had gathered to show that dissent and dreaming is alive and well --in the streets, but not inside Madison Square Garden.

The sounds of a police state still fill my ears as I sit here and listen to George W's speech.

*****

Two futures went head to head in the ring of NYC this week, because it is becoming clear to many that the future being promoted unapologetically inside the RNC is disastrous for humanity and there is no way it can be allowed to go forward. So multitudes of people, in different ways came forward to bring out into the open a tremendous amount of diverse and layered resistance--from marching in the streets to street theatre to "traditional" theatre and art shows--throughout the city and got a significant amount of heartfelt support from New Yorkers. This succeeded in breaking out and breaking through, becoming the big story of the day, including reaching people outside the country.

First, I look back at this week, and I recall the vibrations of hundreds of thousands pounding the streets with their hopes and determination held up in tightly-clenched fists that pumped in the air on August 29.

I think of the 5,000 anti-Bush bicyclists who rode headstrong into the wind and faced more than 260 random arrests. But what heart they gave! When they rode down to Union Square on Aug. 29, where Not In Our Name was holding their rally before the march, the crowd ran over to them like heros arriving home from a liberating battle, and cheered and clapped for them. Because we are living in times where heros are needed. And along the whole march route on the 29th, were New Yorkers on the sidewalks, hanging banners from their windows, sitting on their fire escapes, watching and cheering people on. And average New Yorkers were what filled the streets that day as well. And Not In Our Name's rally -- with its rebel music, Courageous Resisters, and earth flags waving in the clear blue sky -- was so beautiful. A mass outpouring emerged to clearly and loudly send a message that we stand with the people of the world.

The sweep of it all is just dizzying!! Our resistance turned NYC into a place where people smiled at you because you were wearing an anti-W button or an "I Say No!" t-shirt. I think of the young man who said, whenever he sees a store or home with Not In Our Name's "NO!" in the window, he thinks, "Safe Space". Because we are living in times where Safe Spaces are needed. Instead of walking with our heads down, avoiding eye contact, feeling alienated, we have stepped closer together, run through the streets together, done jail solidarity (or sat in jail) together, and we have said NO! NO! NO! together. The city became a place where resistance and resisters were just everywhere, and the fear that once gripped the city got seriously challenged.

I think about Union Square being turned into a gathering space for resisters, where people went to discuss and debate different issues and face off with the cops or recuperate. Poets, dreamers, hip-hop heads, revolutionaries, anarchists, voters and pacifists together -- in the face of all those who have told us we can't. In the face of being told it's not "in our nature" to treat each other as friends rather than commodities. In the face of being told only those in power can actually run society and the rest of us are supposed to just live with it (or "leave!"). And we weren't sitting with some bland, whitewashed and meaningless unity, but struggling and even vehemently disagreeing over our differences. I see "old Germany" in MSG and a new future in the streets. I see people who would actually value and encourage dissent, if they ran society - and I see how that could be, if they got with our Chairman's vision of such a future.

And for the last week -- people had a daily opportunity to get with that vision - spend two hours with a leader that actually isn't scared to expose Bush, bring people together, and challenge us to dedicate ourselves to transforming the whole world. A leader who isn't running to catch up with an ever-more fascistic consensus in the ruling class.

This was because the DVD of Chairman Avakian's speech was shown in theatres and poetry cafes throughout the city for anyone to come and get a glimpse of a totally different future. Anyone who went got the rare opportunity to hear a leader who has never sold out the people, doesn't limit himself to a small-group of lobbyists or special interest groups. His special interest is a Communist future and the untapped potential of humanity.

*****

Not one day went by without some kind of reminder that people were in town to oppose Bush's agenda. There were plays, concerts, and art exhibits to entertain, inspire, strengthen, and move people. Two-hundreds artists marched in Harlem. An art exhibit put on by American Friends Services Committee at Union Square showed the Human Cost of War with piles of shoes representing all the dead soldiers ad Iraqis.

A single-file "unemployment line" of people holding large pink slips, dramatically represented the millions of unemployed. Civil disobedience rocked the city from Ground Zero to Herald Square - where people performed die-ins wearing hoods like the victims of Abu Ghraib, not letting anyone forget what horrors an occupying army can exact.

There was a flurry of banner drops, stores decorated with anti-Bush elephants and signs that said, "NO!", and naked AIDS activists held up traffic. And delegates couldn't go practically anywhere peacefully -- from Broadway shows to Chinatown. People were really creative. In one example, people poured red dye into dozens of fountains throughout the city, because, "In memory of the innocent who have died since the US war on Iraq began, the fountains that adorn New York City’s parks, museums, and landmarks will flow with red dye today. The red represents the blood of the innocent -- the blood that is on the hands of the Bush administration and the GOP...For the United States Government, murder is the price of empire...As delegates tour museums, parks, and historic landmarks, they will see red pouring brightly from the fountains at Washington Square Park, Union Square Park, the Metropolitan Museum, Lincoln Center, and many other locations throughout the City. "

On August 31, amidst all the civil disobedience, a Poor People's March took to the streets one night to deliver a symbolic arrest warrant to George Bush -- delivered by a predominantly Black, proletarian crowd who are treated like criminals by the system on the daily – delivering an arrest warrant to the real criminals. This happened at the same time as the Still We Rise march -- and both marches were defiant in the face of not having a permit and were attacked by the police. A march of 16,000 men and women across the Brooklyn Bridge called Bush out on his anti-abortion, anti-woman politics.

People gathered tonight for a vigil at Union Square during Bush’s speech – some carried “Bush Lies, People Die” posters, while others carried homemade “delegate” signs (like the ones at the DNC/RNC that say, “State of Florida”) that read, “State of Anxiety,” “State of Mourning,” “State of Emergency,” and “State of Loss.” And all this was going up against a backdrop of tremendous fear-mongering and repression, and "threats" (promised by Tom Ridge) of the potential for "terror attacks" and a climate where protesters are blamed for the "danger" of the moment. And there is real danger. There is real danger that this whole Bush agenda could be extended -- no matter who is elected to carry it out. But a giant, impossible-to-be-ignored NO was delivered this week, and the basis for a real, determined resistance to that agenda was laid.

And need I remind you we took Central Park, with thousands celebrating our success from the day, in the face of being denied a permit?

With all their repression, the powers-that-be continue to prove they are not fit to care for this earth or the world's people. Just think about the AIDS activists who had to sneak into the RNC events to be heard and were not only shouted down and arrested, but assaulted by pro-Bush attendees. Silenced and assaulted! Think about what kind of system this is where people fighting for the recognizition and cure for a disease are treated like this.

And where was Kerry? Did you hear him denounce these blatant attacks on civil liberties? Did you hear him call out Bush for silencing this dissent? Did you see him come out and stand with even the pro-Kerry folks who were in town? HELL NO. He can't and won't. And not because he needs to appeal to some conservative majority of voters, but because he is appealing to a ruling class that has decided we can't vote against the war; that has decided if you want to get rid of Bush, you gotta pick Bush Lite. There's a whole system at stake he's got to defend. Whatever differences he has with Bush, they're not significant enough for him to call into question all these injustices.

Can we talk now about democracy being just a form of dictatorship, as our Chairman has said?

Every single march and gathering that has occurred in this city, permitted or not, has been attacked in some way. Becaue we live in an era of pre-emption, people were pre-emptively arrested by cops using plastic orange nets to scoop up whoever they could: bystander, reporter, or protester. It didn't matter to them. More than 1,000 people were arrested in one day, and the total got up to nearly 1,900 for all the days. And they were held at the "Guatanomo-on-the-Hudson" where unhealthy conditions made people sick. Even the large, significant, history-shaping march on the 29th, did not have an ending rally because the city refused to allow them a permit for a rally -- because they claimed the life of the grass was at stake?! While in their own twisted logic, their manicured spaces are more valuable than the lives of the people of the world, we all know they don't care about the environment. And let's just say - these marches and gatherings were attacked because we were having an impact!

*****

My mind tunes back to the radio and I hear W say they're a force for good on this earth, and my insides leap up to jeer him -- this earth knows no good has ever come from their hands! And thousands have come together to the "city that never sleeps", to show exactly that (often not sleeping!).

The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade-- with more than 65 youths nationwide here in NYC-- was an inspiring example of this; running in the streets all day to bring out the millions of people who don't want to live in the new Rome, struggling with people over the need to resist, as well as the potential to destroy all the shackles on humanity, and then staying up til late in the night discussing the theory advanced by our Chairman and how to get to a totally possible and radically different future. This was a unique strength they brought to these struggles.

*****

It's is close to midnight and I hear there are two marches pulsating through the streets, filled with people who've refused to sit home while the biggest murderer in the world gives another lying speech. One of the marches is coming from the rally outside MSG, where it had looked like people were going to be rounded-up. And the second march left from Union Square to join them. The sounds of sirens are in the distance. And I hear that Code Pink protesters succeeded in disrupting Bush as he spoke - not just once but three times! Just as protesters had interrupted Cheney and others!! Even inside their sacred halls of the RNC they are being opposed! And anyone watching on TV or listening to the radio saw it!

*****

Friday, Sept.3, 10:38 a.m. – The last 10 days or so have been victorious for the people here and around the world. Bush & Co., were not able to come here and feel welcomed in their emperor's regalia, replete with lying tassles, conquering cowboy hats and blood-dripping sneers. They were exposed, naked and ugly and brutal for all to see, and it is clear there is a people here who refuse to be fooled. The next few months will no doubt be challenging, as they kick up their battle against resistance and put the focus on their Evil v. Lesser election.

*****

I can't help but reflect on the Revolutionary Writers & Artists RNC collective I got to run with this week. It was a tremendous first we accomplished in having it. Communist writers, film-makers and photgraphers from several different cities coming together to capture the big picture --zooming out---and the hearts, dreams, signs and sounds of different people--zooming in, and bringing it out for people here and elsewhere. It was such a tremendous experience and training to run as a team of revolutionary journalists, running through the streets of NYC from 8am to 3am half the time, running on little more than excited adrenaline and caffeine. Trying to apply the methods of our Chairman, based on his vision of how people can work together in ways that raises each others' consciousness, master new things, learn from everything around us, getting a sense of the questions facing people, and an extreme confidence that we can accomplish so much when we come together with all that. All based on the future we are trying to get to.

My mind has been spinning from taking in this city in a whole new way. I know people from other cities couldn't believe they were here, and were spending every moment trying to soak up all they could, and I couldn't believe this was happening in my city either. So, definitely expect more from us here. More interviews with revolutionary leaders, an exciting film and perhaps more poetry, too.

Luciente Zamora Interviews Roberto Ava an RCYB Organizer

Roberto is an organizer for the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade in Los Angeles. He’s been organizing the masses in the Nickerson Gardens Housing projects ever since he answered a call from the Revolutionary Communist Party to join the masses in the dawn of a new day—the 1992 Rebellion.

In 1996 the masses in Nickerson Gardens stood up to protest the beating of Alicia Soltero, an immigrant woman, at the hands of the police. The people held signs that said: Alicia Soltero and Rodney King—The Same Thing. The police attacked the protest and arrested seven people—who later became known as the Nickerson 7. Six were facing misdemeanor charges and Roberto faced two felony counts—or two “strikes” that equaled thirteen years in jail (in California 3 strikes gives you to years to life imprisonment). After a determined legal battle and the support of the people to defend this revolutionary leader, the state was forced to drop all charges on Roberto.

For over a decade he has proven to be a dedicated revolutionary leader of the masses—he’s the kind of leader who encourages you to build on your advances to make further leaps and will also wage sharp political struggle with you when you make mistakes so you can make further advances—he does both with his arm around your shoulder.

The following is an interview with Roberto that took place after a presentation he gave a group of volunteers at Revolution Books in New York.

* * * *
Luciente: Hi Roberto. It's good to have the opportunity to interview you after having known you for several years now.

In that time I've known you to be a genuine revolutionary communist leader. Can you tell readers a little about yourself? And also, if you can speak to what has kept you on the revolutionary road?

Roberto: My name is Roberto. . . and I like to call myself a follower of Chairman Bob Avakian. That’s who I am.

Two things have kept me on the revolutionary road . . . someone was recalling a story about me when I first volunteered to come to L.A. after the L.A. Rebellion in 1992. They remembered when I called them up and I told them I had fallen in love. The person said, ‘You’ve only been down there for 6 months—how could you have met a girl already and fallen in love?’

I said, ‘No. I’ve fallen in love with the masses of people.’

Now, I think that is genuinely true. I believe that things don’t have to be this way and that people can rise out of this and bring forward a new world. I really do have tremendous confidence in the masses ability to transform the world and themselves in the process. But this confidence is based on something.

The most important and decisive component for me has been the leadership of the RCP, and the science of MLM, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and the path-breaking contributions in this science that has been brought forward by Chairman Avakian—these things have allowed me to continue forward, and to continually learn what’s required, and how it’s possible to do the system in and bring about a whole different kind of society—a communist world. It’s the Chairman’s leadership that has sustained me for a long time.

Luciente: The future of the planet is on the line at this time. Many people are coming into motion. Right now, in New York there are many groups, organizations, and individuals who are here to protest the Republican National Convention.

What does the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade and what do revolutionary communists bring to this battle?

Roberto: As I said in a presentation to RCYB volunteers, Chairman Avakian says that we’re living in heavy times. These are times of tremendous opportunities and the necessity for the people all over the world to resist this juggernaut of war and repression and as a part of that, to really bring about a different kind of a world.

But these are also times of tremendous danger-- the imperialists are trying to carry out their world domination and domestic repression, in the way they have been trying to bring about a new Rome—or as I like to characterize it—like a Nazi Germany and Rome combined.

The imperialists have ambitions of recasting and re-polarizing things on a whole other level, in a way so that they are top dog for years to come. I think the analysis this Chairman Avakian is bringing forward is setting a context for everything that is happening at the RNC and beyond.

Lenin says that years can get concentrated into days or into weeks. I can definitely see how this is the case now in the RNC. A lot of people are coming forward from all over the country. They are aiming for a million strong here to protest and say NO to Bush and all he stands for. And this time concentrates a lot, in terms of the whole direction society can go.

Many different people will voice their outrage to that program of Bush and the ruling class, but what’s unique about the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade is that we’re about real communism. We’re about a society were no more men oppress women, no more one group dominates others and makes them work for them to make them richer and more powerful, no more one nation dominating another nation, no more one class dominating another class. We want a society where oppression and exploitation is done away with in every form.

And, we have a leader that leads this Party -- that is a leader of the revolutionary communist movement. We have a leader in this country that is putting forward what it’s going to take to get to this communist future. He’s really bringing forward, not only a vision of what things can be like, but building on the accomplishments of our class in power that has come before in the Soviet Union and in China. He’s learning from that deep experience, both the positive and negative and figuring out how we can and must do better next time around.

In his leadership, in what’s he’s bringing forward in his theoretical work and his method and approach, he is a link to that future communist society. What we have to bring to people is communism and this communist leader-- Chairman Avakian. That’s something that people need and it’s something that people desire – a world where no more oppression or exploitation exists.

People have questions out here about how we can we have a different kind of world--- How can there be a better world than this? Why is there so much oppression? People are right for asking those questions, those are really good questions. But we feel we have solutions to these major questions, even as we are learning more deeply and discovering in a more ongoing way, and deepening our understanding of what is required to bring forward this communist solution.

And we think that this Party and Chairman Avakian, in particular, are providing crucial answers to these questions. He has a new DVD out, Revolution: Why it’s necessary, Why it’s possible, What it’s all about—which takes people on a historical journey on what revolution is about and why it needs to be made and why you can’t reform this system, you have to do away with it.

It’s very nature and existence will give rise to oppression—whether it be slavery and lynchings or police murder in the streets or the plunder of native people and genocide or the Vietnam war or the Iraq war. This [system] will continue to give rise to misery and suffering and horrors and it cannot be reformed—it has to be overthrown in order for any fundamental change to really be brought about.

He also talks about when you make revolution and after you seize power, your state power needs to be a new kind of state power and radically different. It needs to be something that is aiming to get at the 'no mores' that I spoke of just a second ago.

How are you going to end the oppression of women? Look that’s a heavy contradiction, one out of every 3 women is raped . . . the figures are outstanding and brutal. They have more shelters for animals than they do for women who get beaten by their spouse or abused. How are you going to get rid of that oppression? This is a part of what your aim should be and that’s what Chairman Avakian is leading people to see as part of their aim. Those are real knotty contradictions. He’s bringing forward the methods and the actual means to resolve these types of contradictions, and others.

Luciente: One young woman who just hooked up with the RCYB said that what attracts her the most about the RCYB and the Chairman is that we’re not just busy bodies, but that we’re actually looking to the future. She’s worked with other anti-war organizations and said that she was always unsatisfied because they were always busy making signs, printing flyers, making banners—and that those things were important—but the vision of a radically different kind of world was absent from that.

The Chairman talks about how our future aims must guide everything we do. How do you lead with tomorrow in mind?

Roberto: Well, first I try to learn from him and how he does things. He’s this bridge—a link between today and the future communist society—he’s always thinking about what we’re doing today and how that’s going to get us to where we need to go.

Communists are always accused that the ends justify the means, but we say that the means have to be consistent with the ends. Is what we’re doing today fitting the masses of people to rule by putting those knotty contradictions in people’s minds?

Are we working with people in a way in which they are both unleashed to struggle and resist the system and oppression that’s coming down and build organization against that oppression?

Are they being worked with in a way that they realize and are conscious of what the real problem we’re facing is? And what the solution to deal with all this oppression?

Are we really working to develop the consciousness of people by bringing them Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and connecting them to the work Chairman Avakian is doing? Are we doing all that in a way that is going to contribute all the way through the process—whether you’re talking about today when you’re at the anti war movement or if you’re in the housing projects organizing against the different egregious abuses that come down there like police brutality?

Are you doing that all in a way that is going to help us get into a position to do this system in, when that situation comes about? And are you doing it in a way that enables people to continue forward after power is seized to uproot the millennia of oppression – forward to a communist world.

Look, New York chapter of the RCP has ordered 50,000 RW’s for distribution, and this is a new thing—a very good thing, but a very challenging thing.

Imagine if all those 50,000 papers got into the hands of all the people out here. Imagine the guidance that would provide them in having a communist understanding of what the problem is and what the solution is.

Imagine connecting them to the guidance Chairman Avakian is bringing – for instance on this question of Democracy and Dictatorship. The work Chairman Avakian has been doing on this question is extremely important– he's saying, if in today’s world you talk about democracy without talking about the class content and character of democracy is meaningless, and worse.

The question is, does your society, or democracy seeking to put an end to exploitation and oppression, or fortify it. It isn’t whether a dictatorship exists, it exists wherever democracy does, it’s the rule of one class over another. But the question is does this dictatorship and democracy aim to get rid of classes and the division of society into class, or fortify it? And this is being seen here, in overt forms, at the RNC. So imagine if this analysis got into the hands, and was spread because people are reading the RW.

But also imagine the debate that that would stir. Imagine the questioning that would bring forward. Imagine the illusions that would strip away. Imagine how essential that is to preparing people to be fit to rule—to both seize power when the opportunity does arise, but also when that does occur to be in a position to carry it forward.

We talk about the huge contradiction between mental and manual labor. Look, there are basic proletarians in the housing projects that are locked out of the running of society. How are you going to raise the level of consciousness of those people—because they know the bankruptcy of this system on one level, they experience it every day. But they need to know how a different solution can be brought about, how to become involved in bringing about radical change.

The more people understand what’s possible—in terms of the future communist society—and that’s it’s not just based on some fantasy, but that it’s based on reality, the more they find that things are intolerable. That gets expressed in the most concentrated way through Chairman Avakian and the work he is bringing forward. He’s always standing in the future communist society and doing everything to push things forward in the direction of that future society at any given point. That’s how I look at it.

You have to proceed from that society back and all the way through make sure that everything you do is consistent with that goal—fitting the masses to rule, placing contradictions in their hands for them to solve and bringing them into the decision making process as also resisting oppression. But this requires leadership, and the leadership the Party is providing, under the leadership of Avakian, is essential – without it, the masses desire for another world will never fully be realized.

Luciente: In your presentation you discussed a concept that the Chairman has been wrangling a lot with and been focusing a lot of attention on —the solid core with a lot of elasticity. Since your presentation, there has been a lot of formal and informal discussion about this.

How would you apply this concept of a solid core with a lot of elasticity in this moment?

Roberto: This is a principle that he has been focusing a lot of attention on over the last period in particular, but over a long time in a lot of work. How do you allow for a lot of diversity and a lot of ideas for how things could be done and questions of dissent while getting to the communist world that we want to get to?

Getting back to the RW example—I think we can see this . . . we have 50,000 issues we want to get out. This will provide the direction—the hard core. A core that is leading things to where they need to go and providing overall direction to things— on the crucial questions of the day that need to be taken up that are diving line questions to where we need to go, while lifting people’s sights to major questions concerning the overall revolutionary process, like what I was just trying to speak of with the piece on Democracy, in this RW, by Chairman Avakian.

All the while, also stirring up a lot of creativity and debate and ferment and tumult and all these kinds of things. The paper plays a role in enabling people both to understand—for instance, this war and juggernaut of repression and what it’s all about, not from a narrow standpoint, but like it says on the cover of the RW: See Bush…Think Revolution. This should unleash of lot of thinking from others on how they see the war, and how we need to fight against it, and develop resistance.

Not everyone will agree with what we are saying, that is fine – but the paper should unleash a tremendous amount of debate, and it should lead people to deal with, and take up the challenge of the many different things that will go into bringing forward a different world.

This too, can be related to the Chairman’s piece on democracy, people will want to dig more deeply into exactly the type of dictatorship that we live under, but they should also be grappling with what he is bringing forward – this new type of power I was speaking of – what it must be like, which includes a tremendous amount of tumult, of truth coming forward from many different sources and directions, and the ways they think we can do differently then our class in power has done before, or just how they see moving society forward.

I think it gives people direction and it gives them a class-consciousness. It enables them, as well, to get out there and resist. I think this paper is a collective organizer for people. If other people are taking this paper out and it’s getting into other people’s hands, then people are getting connected to the Party, and people are being brought into the process and expanding the “WE”—those who are actually taking responsibility for changing things for the better. But it also gives rise to a lot of elasticity and allows for a lot of ferment and tumult. Not everyone is going to agree with us or what the paper is bringing forward and that’s ok, but it should give rise to questioning, and unleash people thinking and fighting spirit.

We want people to take responsibility for the forward motion of society, this is what we want—and in the process of that we will sort things out in terms of how they may be seeing some things wrong, and we will learn a lot from people on how we can do things better, and they’ll learn about how they can be part of the “WE” who are taking responsibility.

This is the kind of dialectic that you want to get going—the solid core, focusing a lot on the crucial questions and the forward motion of society and the world, toward a communist world, while providing for a lot of elasticity and a lot of ferment and tumult and running with a lot of different ideas—while constantly expanding the solid core which gives rise to more elasticity.

If we don’t do that, this is what Chairman Avakian has taught us, if we don’t do this we won’t reach communism. If we don’t have a solid core that is firm on leading this and providing leadership, the masses will never lift their heads and be free of exploitation, because that won’t happen spontaneously.

But, if there isn’t the elasticity it could turn into it’s opposite, and more, we’ll never really be able to arrive at the most comprehensive understanding of objective reality, or discover the truth, and move society forward based on understanding reality. How are people going to be brought into these things? Not just in the sense of questioning, but actually taking responsibility if they don’t feel that don’t have the freedom or the necessity of taking these questions up . . . people need to see the freedom to do this and the necessity. That’s what doesn’t happen in this society—that’s what happens in this society the masses of people are kept of that.

If we aren’t getting that going and it isn’t being led to where it needs to go—then we aren’t going to reach this communist society.

Luciente: There are many revolutionary leaders in the RCP and in the RCYB that are very important for the masses.

Recently, we’ve been focusing a lot on Chairman Avakian and promoting and popularizing him. What’s the importance and significance of doing this in a much bigger way?

Roberto: It’s really very simple and great thing.

There’s a leader in today’s world that embodies the future communist society and can take people there. That leader is Chairman Avakian.

Through his method and approach and through everything he has done, and is continuing to do, he’s bringing forward a tremendous understanding of the kind of society we live in and how things can be different.

There’s a leader in the world today that exists that can take people to where they need to and, would like to go. That’s something we should celebrate. That’s something we are very proud of, and proud to promote and let the whole world know – like that song – “shout it out loud.”

It’s something that people should embrace. That is the significance of it. If we fail to recognize what we have in Chairman Avakian, then we won’t really be taking up the path breaking contributions he’s bringing forward. We have to dig into what he’s taking about and who he is in order to understand what a rare and unique individual this person is.

What does he embody, and why is that important to recognize?

As I mentioned earlier, the masses will resist – as Mao said where there is oppression, there is resistance. But Mao also said in one his works that the Chinese peasants have resisted heroically for thousands of years, but it wasn’t till a Vanguard Party – setting it sights on communism – came along, that this rebellion could actually be more, a revolutionary struggle to end all forms of oppression and exploitation. Something to that affect.

In this leader is concentrated the very ability for the masses to move forward to a whole different world. Through a combination of his own personal development as a revolutionary, and his life experience, a very complex process – history has brought forward a rare and unique individual who is not only capable of leading a revolution, but whose contributions, and this is important, his continuous contributions – concentrate the most far-sighted vision of what a communist society would look like, and whose leadership is essential to the fight for that communist world.

It’s not that he’s just has his sight set on communism, although he does, but it’s that every thing he’s doing, what gets concentrated in his leadership, in his theoretical work and understanding, is the link to that communist world. What he concentrates is the way for people to get there. And he does it without being a typical commie. He’s extremely funny, and has a tremendous sense of the people and their mood and sentiments for change, and he relentlessly and restlessly pursues the truth by learning from others.

This doesn’t stand in the way of the masses taking initiative and creatively thinking and figuring things out – in fact, the Chairman’s leadership unleashes these types of things.

He’s always calling on people to investigate, engage in the different spheres of science – physics for example – to learn from others in that sphere, but to apply the most penetrating science of revolution to those things.

Individual leaders provide an anchor – people know that a leader exists who not only takes up the hard questions, but IS providing the crucial answers – and can lead them. This gives people some ease of mind, things are in good hands, you know. But that alone doesn’t do it. He’s saying, yeah, I know this is a tremendous responsibility, and I’m ready for that, but it’s only by people consciously taking this up, wrestling with all the different things that go into revolutionizing society – it is only by this can we actually reach communism. So, the individual leader and leadership objectively provide the means for the masses to take history into their hands, and do something good with it. This is the nature of communist leadership.

Look, did it make a difference that Mao led the masses of people to make revolution in China? You’re damn right it did. Did it make a difference in the world whether a Mao Tse Tung existed? You’re damn right it did because he had a tremendous understanding of both the nature of the system on the one hand, and on the other was able to apply the method of Marxism and Leninism at that time to those problems and to bring forward the answers to the problems. Yes, he did this in conjunction with the people – with the Party and the masses and their revolutionary struggle, but he was leading the whole process and the synthesis that led the masses of people to make revolution. That was a billion people who made revolution in China—that’s no small thing.

The same is true for Chairman Avakian. He is that kind of a leader who’s doing that kind of work—and he exists in our lifetime! That’s a decisive thing that the people have on their side. That’s something that’s a great and tremendous thing. That’s why we take to Chairman Avakian in the way we do. We want people to know about him and follow him to where he’s leading us – a whole different type of society. We want people to take up the leadership that he is providing and get other people to follow him and be leaders. The more people understand what’s possible, through grappling with the science of Marxism Leninism Maoism and Chairman Avakian – the more they recognize what exits in this leader, and take up the method he’s bringing forward, then the more they’ll be taking responsibility for the whole revolutionary process.

In a simple and basic way: a leader exists who can take people to a whole different society. We think that people should follow him to that place, and in that respect be leaders in taking responsibility, as Avakian does for getting there too.

Beautifully Cataclysmic

They say we are all made of star stuff
Every atom in our bodies burst into form in the furnace of a star or the cataclysmic explosion of supernovas
“And, for every atom belongs to me, as good belongs to you”
Every breath I inhale was once exhaled from you
The moon I stared at outside my window once sang you to sleep
“Hands I have taken, faces I have kiss’d, mortal I have ever touch’d, it shall be you”
Each time I wake, stretch in the dawn, squint at the morning sun, always hoping its Saturday -
Someone somewhere is going to sleep, reaching for the covers and diving into their dreams
And somewhere
in Iraq
a prisoner
in a country of prisoners
is tortured
a woman is raped (she screams for her mother who will hopefully never hear her cries)
a man is stripped naked by men wearing uniforms of the country I was born in
Yes, sad to say, born here
Yes, disgusted to say, born in
this country that has never done anything good for humanity
What do you think has become of the young and old men, the women and the children, the grandmothers, uncles and aunts? The people whose lives we’re told to forget? What do you think has become of them?
I lie on the grass, the tip of each blade prick my flesh, like a thousand machetes raised in fight
Defiant and unwavering
Proud and undeterred but
now it seems to me the "beautiful uncut hair of graves "
the soil
a dark and moistened burial shroud
for a whole country under the boot of this one
where the dust and stones from what was once their homes break uncovered feet and fill nostrils til it becomes too hard to breathe
Too hard to breathe, to
Wake up and take in the air that is owned by most of the world’s largest corporations
Who fill the-handful-who-own-everything whose pockets we line
While our hearts slow and our bellies empty in this country where
You have the so-called right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” but not the right to eat
Because food is grown on land that is owned by a few, processed through their factories, sent on their ships or trains and sold in their stores
In a world where dying of hunger isn’t a crime, but stealing food is
Cuz we live in a world where profit is king
Where trees aren’t valued until their flesh is torn and pulverized into paper
their worth represented by nickels, dimes and dollar signs
not by the oxygen they give
or the shelter they provide in their tall, over-arching, awe-inspiring, heaven-busting canopies
a world where water is bottled and sold but repression always comes for free
Nothing extra for shipping and handling, this travels the world in style, with an imperialist army
I close my eyes, dreaming of wildflowers and butterflies that have no respect for borders
The grass waves “like the flag of our disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven”
out of resilient dreams and fire-breathing anthems
out of passionate resistance and the unrelenting imagination
of a people who travel to work before sun-up
who clean and paint your homes
sing your children lullabies
we are the people you refuse to see
who grow your crops
pick the fruit
stuff them into barrels to be counted and shipped and we are the ones who pack the shelves, run the registers and load your carts
full of food we birthed but never can afford
but – that’s not even the half of it – because we want so much more
and someday we
will run the world
I hate to be so straightforward, but even poems must tell the truth
About a future where the majority will benefit and flourish
Where even sunsets will look different because
man-made borders will be destroyed, turned to a source of ridicule and historical shame;
passports recycled, or placed in children’s museums -- “look, honey, there used to be these things called nations!”
and when the child tilts her head, looks confused, and wonders, someone will whisper to her –
“they were terrible things”
today will be so long ago she won’t even remember how we ended it -- and it is up to us to end it -
that day
–her past our future-
when we finally broke up with this 200-year abusive relationship with bourgeois democracy – ended the lovefest with the illusion / when the choice between evil or lesser was just thrown out all together
because people chose to live in the reality of dreams instead of the nightmare of reality
because it became clear to all that the powers-that-be, soon to be the powers-that-were are not fit
to be caretakers of the earth
but we are – we love the smell of the grass and cherish the depth of the soil --
and one day, deep beneath the seeds of the future planted in the defiant and vibrant flowerbeds of today
--where the sweet scent of roses bursting through concrete now gives us strength --
we will bury this system
and the planet will thrive
the people will thrive

-Osage
inspired by Bob Avakian, Walt Whitman, and the Battle for Central Park

you claim to know something of beauty...

You claim to know something of beauty
with your compassion for a great green lawn
stretched out wide and uniform...majestic and manicured, growing with permission
encircled - as you prefer all things of nature - by fences and concrete, regulated and neat
but around you the world is convulsing
the heavens raining death
heathens stealing breath
and the breathing are bedridden
heaving with headspinning
on your axis of evil
millions of people
watch

and what have you to say to the children across the sea?
their beauty twisted
weak and withered, without water,
because they grow without permission
amid broken fences and busted concrete
the angry earth throws itself at their feet
because they are hungry
playing with sticks and stones and trouble
building castles out of rubble
finding beauty in the dust of what once was their homes.
They own with pride the feat in the soldiers' eyes behind the guns, inside the boots, beneath the helmuts and the sneer - they own the fear and laugh over it
suppress the memories of their father's last words
Brag how they never even trembled, jab each others' skinny ribs, making fund and boasting - they fancy themselves men, now that all the real men are gone - they boast and laugh at death, because leaving here is itself an act of defiance.

you claim to know beauty as you swap pictures of torture
the shame pressed into her frame
free at last from your dungeons but even more afraid of release.
She was now a woman violated, no longer any good.
She crept in at night, quiet and afraid of the man who married her, ready for death at his hands but wanting to see her children just one last time.
She hid in her own home, counting the minutes till she had no home,
bracing for the beating with cold stone
when the men found her
the tears slid down her cheeks
never had she known such raw emotion, she felt naked
the men of her own village, the eyes that always looked through her
they paraded her through the streets
all the children came to watch
the women she went to school with
even her father
he looked her in the eye and told her she was beautiful
and then the whole town called out her name
broked and battered the spell of shame
the children let out a cheer
and together they celebrated
welcomed this woman home like she had never been before
they slaughtered three goats
played music and danced for
three days
they cherished this furious victim
the pride of the village
their daughter and their future they cheered her
called her beautiful
do you remember this scene?

You claim to know something of beauty
but don't recognize the song of summer and love
the rhythms of hearts pumping blood, faster not for fear but because it might be their last
pumping fast, last chance before spilling, staining the earth,
tell me, what do you do as the bombs fall
as the humvees roll through blaring "leave town or die" as my son clutches a rifle, for his brother
as the buildings fall around you and the earth shakes with anger
do you hold your child's hand, try to comfort him back to innocence
do you cook an exquisite meal with a few dried herbs and your last hen
do you taste the sweat on your lover's flesh, cradle his head in your lap?
stay up to watch the sun beat back the night
do you close your eyes to dream or do you fight?
do you pray?
Tell me, how do you mark the days - when each beauty could be your last
I want to know, how do you choose?

You claim to know something of beauty as you snap pictures of mushroom clouds
send postcards of lynchings
write anthems of bombs bursting
and manicure your grass
covering the patterns of mass graves and murdered slaves
and all the death that scars our planet
and your band plays on
if this is what you know to be beautiful
if this is what you know to hold beauty
crawl back into the halls of history
with your icicle heart and criminal mind
fall down in the furnace of forever
let your body give off heat
and the flames shed some light

let your ashes spread from the skies over Baghdad
let it bring nutrients to the land
and we promise
i swear
on everything that i know to hold beauty
on the skies and the earth as it spins blue and green
of the heavens and stars and the breath of my child
we'll plant the msot beautiful field of wildflowers and free people
we'll sing from rooftops and pour old souls into tomorrow
and call forth beauty
i tell you
beyond the bounds you can fathom

we'll call forth beauty
i promise, surpass the dreams of our children

we'll call forth beauty, i swear to you
in a promise pressed in place by boots caked in mud
scraps of life, bits of blood
caked in dreams, stepped on but not disgraced
we'll call forth beauty that sends
spasms into space
and runs marathons in one place

we'll call forth beauty
with our beating hearts and breathing chests
our beauty will outlive you and out sing you
it will dance in warm rains
and saturate the air
so why should we care
about your grass?

- Sunsara Taylor

What we saw at the women's march

Pro-choice marchers took Brooklyn Bridge, Saturday, August 28, a day before more than half a million delivered a No to Bush and everything he stands for.
This was the largest march New York City has seen through its streets on pro-choice, a young woman we spoke to said it had taken her an hour to cross the Brooklyn Bridge because of the huge turn-out.
This is the second time this year that people from all sections of society have taken the streets in a significant number to demand a woman's right over her body.
In April, close to a million woman marched in Washington D.C. in the largest pro-choice rally this country has seen in 12 years.
Moving toward the site of the rally for "March For Women's Lives" on an empty road, after getting off the train, we walked passed a group of 20 or so with signs that read, "Abortion kills," among other typical bible thumpimg slogans.
Just around the corner the 20 who had received us at the march turned into ten thousand people that had come out on to the streets for another reason: to display their rage against the attacks on a woman's right to have an abortion.
Women marched side by side: Mothers pushing baby strollers, radical cheerleaders in colored hair and covered with piercings, young militant anarchists, older veteran activits, and Women's healthcare professionals.
"Oh gosh, where do I begin?!?," said a young nursing student dressed as a nurse when asked if there had been anything regarding womens' rights that have made her feel outraged in recent years. "I am outraged with the threat [of making abortion illegal] that has occured in the past few years."
Another woman in her sixties, and a veteran of many demonstrations, said, "I think they're trying to reverse Roe V. Wade and that's what worries me."
"To outlaw abortion would be to subvert it [and take it back] where it was in the 70's where a lot of woman died having back alley abortions," added the "nurse."
There were reasons for this fear. Last year Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 that made it illegal to perfrom specific abortion procedures. Attorney General John Ashcroft also made it clear that he would subpeona private medical records of thousnads of women who have had abortions.
Clearly, the thought of having to go back to the times of backalley abortions was on most people's minds.
In case some people did forget how horrible those times were for women, a woman who came all the way from Alaska carried a sign that would remind them. It was a simple sign. Just a picture of a coat hanger with the word/question, "Remember?" written under it.
It must have sent a chill to the women who saw it. It made me think of the lyrics to a song by the female-fronted L.A. punk band, Naked Aggression. "But these people don't seem to care/ Operation Rescue, what do you want me to do?/ Shove a coat hager up my cunt?/ I had an abortion in a back alley/ I had an abortion in a back alley.../And now I'm bleeding to death on the killing floor."
* * * *
In between the men and women who walked the demonstration's route was a woman who stood out from among the others.
It was the color of her hair that called my attention, it wasn't pink or blue not even red instead it was silver.
Beth a 75 year-old New Yorker stood alone cheering on the marchers as they walked passed her,"Women have to be free to make their own choices," she said.
Beth arrived to the march on her own because she felt it necessary to stand up against the oppression of this system, but she also echoed what many are beginning to realize as the only solution "We would need to have a real revolution," she said about the possibility of Bush being re-elected to continue his reign of christian righteousness.
Just a little past Beth was the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade with the Revolutionary Worker newspaper in hand. On the cover it read, "See Bush...Think revolution: No to the new Rome," something Beth seemed really interested in taking home to read.
* * * *
One day, there will be no need for women to march in protest angry that their right to abortion might be taken away; in a city where they are afraid to walk in at night; surrounded by thousands of cops in riot gear; past billboards of "models" wearing little clothes and high heels; and newstands filled with degrading pornography and magaiznes that feature anorexic celebraties that are meant to be beautiful.
One day, women (and men!) will sit around and talk about how it used to be and wonder how the hell people even put up with one minute of it. They will even laugh at how silly and dumb some of the old ideas sound.
We want this day to come. And we want to do everything posible to make sure it happens soon.


-By Nikolai Garcia and Nadia Rojo