The world is becoming increasingly terrifying: The environmental emergency threatens all ecosystems on the planet; wars for empire and proxy wars between imperialists have caused massive deaths, destructions and displacements, as in Ukraine; malnutrition and hunger have condemned more than a billion people to a slow death; women, half of humanity, have been reduced to objects, trafficked and humiliated. And although the development of technology and the accumulation of knowledge by humanity have brought society to a point where it can easily end the deprivation and hunger of billions of people and provide a decent material life and a rich cultural life to human beings, the global capitalist system (imperialism), governed by profits at all costs, stifles and suppresses this capacity.

We do not have to tolerate a world in which the massacre of more than 34,000 Palestinians, the intentional starvation of hundreds of thousands more, and the forced displacement and genocide of an entire people are “acceptable,” normalized.

We do not have to accept a world in which, due to the environmental degradation and destruction caused by the capitalist-imperialist system, millions of people are displaced, climate catastrophes are intensified and life on the planet is put at risk as we we know it.

We do not have to tolerate a world in which imperialist powers such as the United States, Russia, China, and others equipped with nuclear weapons put the lives of billions of people at risk because the very dynamics of their system leads them to confront each other and threaten humanity with a third world war.

We do not have to live in a world in which countless forms of subjugation and degradation of women are normalized and justified, whether with the sexual exploitation of girls and women driven by “sexual tourism” fueled by this system in countries like Colombia, Thailand or the Philippines, or with the mandatory veil (a body shroud actually) and other oppressive forms of Islamic fundamentalist regimes in countries like Iran or Afghanistan, or with harassment, rape or femicide.

The suffering, oppression and destruction that humanity faces today are a product of the normal functioning of the world system of capitalism-imperialism that dominates today. This system is based on exploitative economic relations and oppressive social and political relations. To sustain itself, it uses weapons like those used against Gaza and the Gazans, forces of repression like those that attack pro-Palestine protesters in U.S. universities or in the streets of countries like Colombia, Argentina or Germany, but it also sustains itself through the intentional proliferation of ways of thinking and ideas that preach that it is impossible to end this system, that there is an unmodifiable destructive and selfish “human nature,” that every emancipatory project has been a failure or a nightmare, or that the only option is to settle for, at the most, reforms within this system.

And it is only possible to put an end to these horrors and build a new and whole better way of living and a new and liberatory society with a real revolution. And no, revolution is not a “utopia”, but it is not “the inexorable destiny of humanity” either. Yes, there is the potential for that truly emancipatory future, but there is also the potential for a terrible future, in which the terrifying conditions for the majority of humanity from the current economic and social order are maintained and worsened.

It is possible to make a real positive transformation, especially in rare circumstances in many countries like the circumstances today, through transforming the dominant political and ideological terrain and organizing forces for revolution. A revolution requires millions of people to get organized and fight resolutely to overthrow this system, it requires a revolutionary communist leadership organized in the truly communist and revolutionary party, and it requires a movement throughout society that delegitimizes this capitalist system and legitimizes revolution. Yes, making a revolution is not “easy” or “spontaneous”, it is an uphill, but realistic, path, on a scientific basis. What is not realistic at all is “trying to fix or reform this system so that it works according to the interests of the vast majority of humanity.”

In Colombia, despite the illusions of many reformists of the traditional (legal or illegal) left with the “progressive” government of [current Colombian president] Petro, the state continues to represent the interests of the capitalist and landowner classes and of imperialism, it is the same state that forty years ago massacred the students in the dorms of the National University, that seventy years ago (in the government of the right-wing general who inspired the M-19 [former urban guerrilla movement in Colombia]) massacred the students in downtown Bogotá and that a little more than a decade ago murdered thousands of young people from among the people so as to pass them off as guerrillas killed in combat. No matter how many speeches Petro makes in which he criticizes capitalism (in its neoliberal version), as long as the capitalist state is not overthrown, the domination of the oppressive exploiting classes over the majority of the people and their dependence on the world imperialist system shall be maintained. The main function of every government under this capitalist system: To organize the country and its workforce and resources in the service of the capitalist-imperialist world system and thus ensure its survival.

A large part of the traditional left forces are petrified defending the current government and its reform program, even less bold than those of the liberal governments of José Hilario López, López Pumarejo or Lleras Restrepo [former Colombian presidents], who at most sought a country that would “improve,” intensify and make more efficient the exploitation, getting rid of some characteristics of the (semi)feudal society of that time, but which today are mainly escape valves to appease mass discontent, which three years ago broke out in the streets on April 28 [in 2021, a series of mass protests; 28A], whose deepest causes lie in the functioning of this system. But contrary to the yearnings for “calm waters”, the intense contradictions between the factions of “the powers that be” and the serious difficulties of maintaining unity to govern are evident. And that, as the mass outbreak of 28A exposed, there are deep yearnings for change among “those at the bottom” who objectively will not find a solution in accordance with their interests under one government or another within this system.

Marx’s pioneering scientific analysis showing how the very nature of this system provides the material basis for why revolutionary transformation is possible clearly remains valid. This system cannot cease being based on the exploitation and oppression of the vast majority of humanity, it cannot stop the competition to the death between capitalists for profits, even if this implies environmental destruction and global warming. And this generates outbreak after outbreak of resistance, although usually still with narrow interests and goals. Capitalism made possible the emergence of a class, the proletariat, whose class interests demand sweeping away all forms of oppression and exploitation from human society, and the emancipation of its class is only possible by emancipating all of humanity. But their interests as a class should not be confused with the interests of individual proletarians or labor unions or reduced to the working class as an “identity group” whose interests and struggles have priority over other identity groups simply because they are workers.

The struggle for socialism (and its transition to communism) cannot be equated with the “union” or workers’ struggle. And the workers do not automatically or more easily represent, due to their simple social origin, the interests of this world-historic class. To do so, by acquiring class consciousness, along with many others from various social strata, they must break intellectually and ideologically with the ideas and ways of thinking that are produced within the framework of the capitalist system and sustain it (such as siding with reactionary fundamentalist religious forces because “they are concretely facing” a common enemy of the people, the Zionists and/or the imperialists “from the West”—as in the case of Hamas, or the Islamic Republic of Iran), and really become revolutionary communist elements, being part of fighting against the system, resisting all types of exploitation and oppression, while transforming the people (their way of thinking, their world view), in pursuit of a true revolution.

We must fight to put an end to the degradation, dehumanization and patriarchal subjugation of women, and all oppression based on sexual or gender orientation, including forms of denigration and contempt that are in fact so embedded in the dominant women-hating culture. We must fight to put an end to the degradation and destruction of the environment, this is a system that cannot help but put profits in command, even if this means putting at risk the existence of our species and the conditions of the planet as we know it, and that is why this only leaves as options either to openly increasing environmental destruction, or to make insignificant adjustments that give it a “green” tint, such as talking about stopping dependence on fossil fuels, but promoting economic proposals with high environmental impact.

We must fight to put an end to impoverishment, and the unemployment and growing hunger which this causes and which have provoked righteous social outbreaks, and the painful moral and intellectual degradation to which this system condemns many people, especially the young people from the masses. We must fight to end the war against the people, the massacres, the forced displacement, and the criminalization of young people, including the bloody repression of those who have risen up yearning for change.

We must fight to end the discrimination and oppression against indigenous peoples and blacks and the racism and xenophobia that are used to justify other problems such as unemployment and poverty. We must fight to put an end to the suffocation and persecution of dissent and critical and scientific thinking, and the promotion of all types of superstition. We must fight to put an end to wars for empire and the deepening of imperialist domination and food dependence of countries under the yoke of imperialism, such as Colombia.

Putting a STOP to these ignominies, structuring these struggles into a true movement for revolution under the leadership of the vanguard party, is the type of change that is most urgently needed, and important achievements must be achieved right away in each of these concentrations of contradictions, but all this is not completely achievable without overthrowing this system, and building in its place a totally different system, based on a totally different mode of production, in which the driving force is not the compulsion to generate profits, but to put human and productive capabilities in command at the service of the interests of humanity and the planet.

Initiatives in each of these spheres need to be framed in the context of the broader approach and objectives embodied in the goals of putting revolution and communism on the agenda; making known the new communism, whose architect is Bob Avakian, and bring forward the participation of waves of new initiators of the communist revolution. These specific struggles are part of an overall strategic approach or whole, they are not ruses to achieve goals limited to only the particular set of contradictions.

These struggles are part of a strategic approach for a real revolution, although they are less than a revolution, but they also have a relative identity in themselves. They are struggles against specific outrages and concentrations of key social contradictions. “And Marx’s point applies to both—if these are not resisted, the masses will be degraded into broken wretches, incapable of rising up for anything greater. [...] It is not just a matter of the degradation of masses who are directly oppressed by this, but the dragging down of the masses as a whole. [...] People of all strata have to be won to take this up. ‘Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution’ has to be going forward rather than people being dragged down by these things.

“And, without any hyperbole, we should recognize and present to people what really is involved in these concentrations of social contradictions,” as Avakian aptly summarizes. [The Mass Initiatives and Their Relation to Our Strategic Objectives.]

To defeat an enemy force, it is necessary to scientifically assess the obstacles and possibilities, and on that basis chart with scientific criteria the plan to overthrow the regime. The power of the current state cannot be overthrown without millions of people in this country, the vast majority of the population, especially the laborers and other workers in the city and the countryside, the lower and middle classes of society, and a large number of conscious intellectuals committed to the goal of this revolution and determined to follow the path of emancipation of humanity. And it is not possible to overthrow the current power without truly revolutionary science, leadership and strategy. There is the science of revolution, the new communism developed based on the synthesis of theory and experience (with its great achievements and yes, also errors) of the first wave of revolutions, until the loss of socialism in China in 1976, and theory and human experience more generally. There is leadership of the party under construction of revolutionary communists in Colombia who, while actively participating in the righteous resistance struggles, have also been developing the strategy based on the scientific conception of the new communism.

At a moment like now, the world order that prevailed after World War Two and during the “Cold War” has broken down, including the international institutions which played a real and formal role in maintaining this order. At a moment resulting from the big and accelerated changes of recent decades that have increased polarization in the world and in each country and region, it is necessary and urgent to fight against the system, on a scientific basis, towards a radically different system. And you are needed to be part of this fight.

The struggle for a communist world must be the priority in the life of everyone who cares about the future of humanity. But it is necessary to transform the erroneous visions of struggle as opposition to life, passion and joy, as simply “sacrifice and self-denial.” Or as something that is done along with “life”, understanding the struggle as an appendix to daily life. A scientific and materialist approach is required of the struggle for a new world, where the struggle is not in opposition to life nor is it an adornment of it, the struggle is life itself.

It’s time to get organized for a real revolution, and nothing less than that!

Revolutionary Communist Group, Colombia | comrev.co | @ComRevCo