A Month of Horrendous Crimes by the System—A Month For the People to Act!

In just this last month millions have seen these images:

Grainy footage of Israeli commandos rappelling down ropes from helicopters—who storm a ship carrying aid to Gaza and gun down and kill nine people.
Live 24-7 video of millions of gallons of oil gushing into the ocean, dying birds covered with oil, thick sludge hitting the shore.
The photo of a smiling 7-year-old with lots of attitude, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, murdered in cold blood by the Detroit police while she slept next to her grandmother.
Rabid Tea Party rallies in support of Arizona’s racist, fascist, Nazi anti-immigrant laws.

This is the hellish reality of this capitalist-imperialist system.

But these crimes are hardly an aberration. This United States of America has a whole history, and a present on–going reality of war, brutality, carnage, and misery for the people all over the planet.

Before this latest Israeli massacre, there was already a decades-long history of U.S. backing for Israel’s vicious occupation of Palestine—including the massive military assault on Gaza in 2008 and 2009 that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and destroyed hospitals and schools (See “Israel’s Killing of Humanitarian Activists: An Outrageous Massacre to Enforce Horrific Crimes.”).
Before the BP explosion, capitalism, in its relentless drive for profit, was already killing the planet with toxic waste, global warming, the ravaging of the rain forests.
Before the murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the armed forces of the state—whose job is to serve and protect the oppressive economic and social relations in society, including the subjugation of Black people—were already beating and killing people in oppressed communities around the U.S., acting like an occupying army in hostile territory. (See “Murder Trial Begins for the Killer of Oscar Grant: Time to Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.”)
Before the new fascist law in Arizona, there was already a vicious campaign by reactionaries, including forces in the government, to demonize and viciously repress immigrants; and hundreds of immigrants were already dying each year—over 400 just in 2009—crossing the dangerous border area deserts, driven to the U.S. to look for work because U.S. imperialism has messed up their home country. (See “Undocumented, UNAFRAID,” on protests against Arizona’s anti-immigrant laws.)

Stop and think about this unending horror brought to you by what they like to call “the greatest country in the world.” Stop and think about what U.S. imperialism brings to people around the world, every single day—invasions, wars, torture, rape, poverty, domination, sweatshops, environmental destruction.

Some people are looking at these things—and their faith in the right, ability, and legitimacy of those who run this setup is being shaken.

Is this the best of all possible worlds, as they tell us? Isn’t a radically different, and far better world possible?

The revolutionaries are stepping out to say: NO! This is NOT the best of all possible worlds. Things DON’T have to be this way. Those who rule this planet—who prove time and time again that they are the real criminals, who perpetrate outrage and atrocity again and again—have no right to rule. And YES—a far better world IS possible. As the RCP’s Message and Call, “The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have” says:

“The ultimate goal of this revolution is communism: A world where people work and struggle together for the common good…Where everyone contributes whatever they can to society and gets back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings…Where there are no more divisions among people in which some rule over and oppress others, robbing them not only of the means to a decent life but also of knowledge and a means for really understanding, and acting to change, the world.”

Society could be a whole different and better way and we have a way to get there: Revolution to get rid of this system and set-up. And we have the leadership of Bob Avakian, who has developed the scientific theory and strategic orientation for how to actually make the kind of revolution we need.

A year ago the RCP brought forward a campaign, “The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have” focused on three main objectives—popularizing to millions the need for, and character of, revolution; making the leadership of this revolution, Bob Avakian, a household word; and bringing forward a core of new fighters around this revolution and this leadership. Achieving these objectives is decisive now in waging the struggle to bring a new world into being. At recent conferences in two cities (see page 4) hundreds came together from all over the country to take up this campaign and as part of that, to step up to the challenge of waging resistance against all the crimes of the system. This is all part of the movement for revolution we ARE BUILDING.

This has truly been a month of horrible crimes against the people. And this shows that the criminals now running things have no right to rule.

Now, let’s make this next month a time for the people to deliver a powerful answer to these crimes. These outrages present the necessity AND the opportunity for the people to act.

As the RCP’s Message and Call says:

“It is up to us: to wake up…to shake off the ways they put on us, the ways they have us thinking so they can keep us down and trapped in the same old rat-race…to rise up, as conscious Emancipators of Humanity. The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world…when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness…those days must be GONE. And they CAN be.”

In this issue:

Read the call for people to go to New Orleans to help set up a political encampment and organize an Emergency Summit, and mobilize clean-up, protection, and resistance. Become part of a bold vision and big plans to stop the oil catastrophe, mobilize clean-up and resistance, and build the movement for revolution. (See page 9.)
Read the call for people to go to Detroit from June 15-30 (See page 8). Join with revolutionaries and others to bring the outrage of the masses in Detroit at the murder of Aiyana Stanley-Jones to radical activists at the U.S. Social Forum. And bring the desire of these activists for a better world out among the masses in Detroit.

Read this issue of Revolution and hook up with those who are taking up the RCP’s slogan: “Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.”

Read this issue of Revolution and help to manifest in many different corners of society, among many different sections of the people that: THE REVOLUTION IS REAL.

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