Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy

Politics & Social Sciences

Bob Avakian

Politics & Government

RCP Publications

Written with the future in mind, this Constitution sets forth a basic model, and fundamental principles and guidelines, for the nature and functioning of a vastly different society and government than now exists -- a socialist state whose final aim is to achieve, together with the revolutionary struggle throughout the world, a new epoch in human history -- communism -- with the final abolition of all exploitation and oppressive relations among human beings and the destructive antagonistic conflicts to which these relations give rise.  This Constitution presents a real alternative to the present capitalist-imperialist system and the unspeakable suffering and depredations it imposes on the great majority of people in the world, as well as on the environment and the webs of interconnected species which inhabit this earth. The reader will see, sharply outlined, the radical difference between this new socialist society and government envisioned in this book and the capitalist-imperialist system which currently rules in this country and exercises domination over the world as a whole, with such terrible consequences. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA's purpose in publishing this Draft Proposal is to stimulate serious and substantive engagement with it, and vigorous discussion and debate about what it puts forward as the kind of society and world to be not only imagined but actively struggled for.

Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (draft proposal)

Adopted by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party

USA)

"You can't change the world if you don't know the BAsics."BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian is a book of quotations and short essays that speaks powerfully to questions of revolution and human emancipation. 
BAsics concentrates more than 30 years of Avakian's work. BAsics can not only introduce many more people to the thinking of the author who has put communism back on the agenda as a vital and viable forceÂ— it can play a major role in bringing forward and forging a new wave of revolutionaries. To look at the table of contents...is to look at the key questions that present themselves to someone agonizing over the question of whether and how they can actually change the world in a fundamental and meaningful way.
What people are saying about BAsics. From a prisoner: 
"I wanted to congratulate everyone on the upcoming publication of BAsics. In today's world the need for the independent press and works by the people and for the people is needed more than ever at this crucial time especially here in the heart of the imperialist beast.
Although I am unable to be there with you all to celebrate just knowing that the people will be out there enjoying the Revolutionary Culture brings a smile and upraised fist to the cage I am held in. Yes I said cage, but I tell you this not to bring down the people's spirit by telling you I am one of the 2+ million held in the Koncentration camps across America rather I tell you this because it is within these dungeons that are being intended to destroy one's will to resist that the people are waking up and using these dungeons as schools of liberation!! Prisoners in America are drawn to revolutionary ideas, it is only through publications like we will find in BAsics that prisoners will taste that most elusive ideal of "equality" that the prisoner in America grows up exempt from in the barrios and ghettos nationwide."

BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian

Philosophy

An essay marking the 100th Anniversary of Marx's death. One hundred years after the death of Marx, the truth of Marxism not only remains a fact but assumes immense importance - now more than ever. What are the essential aspects of Marxism, what have been the major changes in the world since Marx's time, how have Marxist principles developed in relation to these changes and what is the application of these principles to the decisive questions today - it is these subjects that this essay addresses.

For a Harvest of Dragons: On the "Crisis of Marxism" and the Power of Marxism--Now More than Ever: An Essay Marking the 100th Anniversary of Marx's Death

Bullets is made up of material taken from published and unpublished writings, speeches and interviews by Bob Avakian from 1970-1985.

Bullets: From the Writings, Speeches, and Interviews of Bob Avakian

Reflections, Sketches, and Provocations: Essays and Commentary, 1981-1987

What do you say about a leader of a revolutionary party who can analyze the style of play and attitude of one of the teams in an NCAA basketball championship game in order to draw lessons about revolution? And what do you say about a self-described communist and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist who can address some fundamental questions to Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould concerning the character of intellectual inquiry and debate in socialist society, while at teh same time he can decry the ossification of Marxism into a state religion? Well, you can say his name is Bob Avakian and that he is one of the most original and provocative thinkers of our time. Reflections, Sketches and Profocations is a collection of articles and messages written over a period of seven years, a kind of political compass of the 1980s. Consistently fresh and vibrant in his perceptions, Avakian can look at a movie like Fort Apache, The Bronx and launch into a discussion of liberalism; or take the opening lines of a speech by Ronald Reagan and tear apart its historica, even its geological, assumptions; or contrast two very different kinds of "festivals" occurring simultaneously in Miami: the Orange Bowl hoopla and a rebellion in the Black community. Yet as broad-ranging as these writings are, certain basic themes run through them: the obscene hypocrisy of the imperialists, the limits of reformism, the shifts in the world since the 1960s and the strategic weakness of imperialism, the need to oppose war with revolution, and the nature and necessity of revolutionary preparation. And if Avakian is passionately concerned with the revolutionary seizure of power, he is no less absorbed with the difficulties of exercising that power and of advancing to communist society where there would be no class distinctions and no state - no power exercised by one part of society over another. From a piece that extends no more than a paragraph to an expansive essay, Avakian has that rare ability to not only offer up insights but to force his reader to argue with him. For those unacquainted with the work of Bob Avakian, this collection will serve as a splendid introduction. For those who have encountered him before, here brought under once cover of some of his most engaging writings.

This provocative book includes a scathing refutation of the reality behind conservative Christian fundamentalist morality, a critical look at the limitations of "liberation theology," including a discussion of Jim Wallis' book, The Soul of Politics, and an inspiring look at morality from a revolutionary perspective. This work is even more timely today as it was when it was published in 1999. Bob Avakian says in the Prologue that “From whatever vantage point one looks, it is unmistakable that there is what could be called a ‘moral crisis’ in America. There has been, to a significant degree, ‘a breakdown of traditional morality.’ But the answer to this – at least the answer that is in the interests of the majority of people in the U.S. and the overwhelming majority of humanity – is not a more aggressive assertion of that ‘traditional morality’ but winning people to a radically different morality, in the process of radically transforming society and the world as a whole.” Because of the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the U.S., and the debate over religion in general, this book is even more timely today than when it was originally published in 1999. This book is must-read for anyone interested in and engaging Jim Wallis’ books, God's Politics : Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It and The Soul of Politics: Beyond "Religious Right" and "Secular Left."

Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones: We Need Morality but Not Traditional Morality

Religion & Spirituality

Religious Studies

Banner Press

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Books by Bob Avakian