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The attack:
Hello Dear Community
We are writing to clarify that our groups have absolutely nothing to do with revcom (revolutionary communists).
This group of people are constantly on USC ground promoting what at first sight might seem as pro-Palestinian/abolitionist ideology, but they in-fact hold a cult-like agenda and follow a leader named Bob Avakian.
Even though our communities are certainly committed to Palestinian freedom, it is important for us that you all know that we will absolutely never attempt to convince anyone to follow any messiah or one big leader in the pursuit of “ultimate” freedom (or any other similar totalitarian beliefs).
We are not associated with this group and don't want their presence on campus! Our organizations ONLY include folks associated with our university (students, alumni, professors), and REVCOM is none of which.
We want to warn our community as they appear to specifically target and harass Muslim students and Pro-Palestinian students while taking advantage of the sensitive state we are currently in to promote their potentially dangerous underlying beliefs.
JVP TFP SCLAE SJP USC-NLG GSP USC-PJFG
From the Revcom Corps for the Emancipation of Humanity, Los Angeles:
There is no truth to the attack that a collection of USC campus groups issued on the Revcoms and Bob Avakian. Bob Avakian is the revolutionary leader who has developed a new communism—a new framework for human emancipation. You can see what he actually thinks—and what he’s done—at revcom.us. The revcoms follow his leadership and are working day and night to make revolution—and not in some distant future. You can find out more about them at revcom.us and youtube.com/therevcoms.
But the authors of this attack did not have the intellectual courage to openly argue against real revolution or to actually confront and speak to the new communism that Bob Avakian has developed. Instead, their attack is filled with 1950’s-style anticommunist hysteria and more up-to-date cancel culture snark. They slander Bob Avakian and Revcoms as a “cult,” as promoting a “messiah” or “big leader.” They claim that any attempt to achieve real liberation is “totalitarian.”
Are you scared yet?
They echo southern white supremacists who attacked civil rights organizers as “outside agitators.” If you didn't read the signatures on this attack, you might almost be forgiven for thinking it was issued by the Heritage Foundation or some other fascist think tank.
Here is the truth: The Revcoms and BA fiercely oppose the U.S.-backed genocide that Israel is carrying out against Palestinians. In this, we recognize—as should others—that this struggle is stronger if we unite all who can be united from many diverse perspectives and backgrounds to stand against what the U.S. and Israel are doing and to debate out our differences in a vigorous but principled manner.
We Revcoms recognize that this U.S.-Israeli genocide is driven by the nature of the economic and political system of capitalism-imperialism that we are now forced to live under. Unless and until this SYSTEM is overthrown through an actual revolution and replaced with a radically different system, horrors like this will continue to go on. This is gone into very deeply in the work BA has done over decades on the question of Israel and Palestine, available now in a newly published compendium: Israel and Palestine, the Middle East and U.S. Imperialism, the Revolution Humanity Needs.
As for the particular slanders against BA:
Of course Bob Avakian is controversial! He is loved by many and hated by others for the very same reason: He is completely different than the endless stream of bourgeois politicians who are put forward as “leaders,” whose goal is to maintain one variation or another of this system of capitalism-imperialism that is founded on and perpetuates itself through cruel and literally life-stealing exploitation, murderous oppression, and massive destruction, in all parts of the world. Bob Avakian is a revolutionary who bases himself on the scientific understanding that these horrors are rooted in that system and that it must finally be overthrown through an organized struggle involving millions of people, and replaced with a system that is oriented to and capable of meeting the most fundamental needs of humanity and enabling humanity to become fit caretakers of the earth.
This is a heavy moment. At a time when people find it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism-imperialism, don't you need to hear the case for revolution and make up your own mind? Go into the analysis and strategy that Bob Avakian has developed (@BobAvakianOfficial 1-11); read the CONSTITUTION For The New Socialist Republic In North America that he authored; or take a look at the 3-part “up close and personal interview” with this hard-core revolutionary leader from 2022.