Debating two futures throughout society

One of the incredible things about the new synthesis of communism that BA has developed is that it’s been concretized in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). This is a sweeping and concrete vision and program, providing an inspiring and living sense of the functioning and governance of a socialist state and society with the goal of communism. When people confront all the innumerable and staggering horrors of the world as it stands, they need to know there is a whole other way the world could be, a positive vision of emancipation, of people coming together in a revolutionary society to solve the problems that exist in the world as part of a base area for world revolution... this is concentrated in this Constitution.

This year, debates were held at Brown University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the New School in NYC. This Constitution was taken out in the midst of those fighting the power, and facing down state repression across the country—getting in deeply with people who were raising their heads and fighting for a better world.

Imagine if 2013 saw many organized and informal debates on campuses across the country of the U.S. Constitution—an exploiters’ vision of freedom—and the RCP’s Constitution for a New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal). If literally millions encountered this Constitution, breaking open debate and cracking the painful sense of permanence to the horrors of the world, which are in fact completely unnecessary.

Write us about organizing a debate on your campus at baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com

COMING April 2013: Raymond Lotta debates Slavoj Zizek

Watch Raymond Lotta's challenge to Slavoj Zizek below. Write us to help organize this debate. baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com

Past events:

Political Disobedience vs. Revolution: Bernard Harcourt and Raymond Lotta Debate the Significance and Implications of the Occupy Movement

Bernard Harcourt is chair of the Political Science department and Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Illusion of Free Markets.
Raymond Lotta is a political economist and contributor to Revolution newspaper who has been speaking in support of a proposed Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America. In December, Harcourt and Lotta had the first round of an ongoing debate at Occupy Chicago. Their exchange continues at The New School.

The event was co-sponsored by Revolution Books and the Center for Public Scholarship at The New School in New York City. Watch on Vimeo here

Bob Avakian
BAsics 6:11

Why am I—why is my body of work, and method and approach—important? Because this is bringing forward an advanced understanding, a heightened understanding, of what revolution and communism are all about and how to move toward the objective of revolution and communism, as well as a method for engaging and struggling through the contradictions that are inevitably going to be encountered in that process....

If we are in fact being guided by the scientific understanding that human society needs to, and can, advance to communism, that the struggle to achieve this objective must be the conscious act of masses of people, on the one hand, while at the same time this must have, and has no prospect of being realized without, leadership—leadership that, in relation to this goal, embodies the most advanced understanding and methodology—and that what is concentrated in this person, yes, but most fundamentally in the body of work and method and approach of Bob Avakian represents that leadership; then what flows naturally from that is the recognition that this is something the masses of people must be made aware of and acquainted with, and must take up as their own, with the understanding of how crucial it is, in terms of their own fundamental interests and ultimately the highest interests of humanity as a whole. As a document of our Party on the question of revolutionary leadership emphasizes:

"the fact that certain individual revolutionaries emerge as a concentration of this process, and themselves become a concentrated expression of the best qualities of revolutionary leadership—including a selfless dedication to the revolutionary cause and deep love of the masses, as well as a strong grasp of the scientific methodology needed to unleash the masses and chart the path of revolution in line with their objective interests—then the existence of such an individual leader or leaders is not something to lament but something to welcome and celebrate! It is part of the people’s strength."