[lbo-talk] the far left's double-spaced answer to Scientology

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Mar 11 18:10:30 PDT 2008


From: "Reenvisioning Revolution and Communism - Press" <reenvisioning.la.press at gmail.com> Date: March 11, 2008 9:03:52 PM EDT To: reenvisioning.la.press at gmail.com Subject: Advisory for March 22nd Event: Re-envisioning Revolution and Communism: What Is Bob Avakian's New Synthesis?

LIBROS REVOLUCIÓN PRESENTS:

Re-envisioning

Revolution

and Communism

WHAT IS

BOB AVAKIAN'S

NEW SYNTHESIS?

Presentation followed by discussion

SATURDAY MARCH 22 1–5 PM

THE NEW LATC

514 S. SPRING ST. LOS ANGELES, CA

One block east of Broadway in Downtown LA between 5th and 6th.

SIMULTANEOUS SPANISH TRANSLATION

ON A PLANET WHERE BILLIONS LIVE A DAY AWAY FROM STARVATION…

where the lives of millions of children are cut short by curable diseases... where brutal wars grind on in Iraq and

Afghanistan and hellholes like Guantanamo stay "open for business"...

where nooses spring up like weeds, immigrants are hunted and the

availability of abortion is rapidly disappearing... where youth are treated as

either criminals or commodities... and where all this is totally

UNNECESSARY—the world badly needs revolution.

Revolutionary state power will set about ending these horrors and meeting

the pressing needs of the people. But a truly emancipatory socialism must

do more than that. It must lay the basis, and take concrete steps, toward a

society where people consciously change the world and themselves, in a

society of freely associating human beings and where the need for any

kind of state has been surpassed.

In that light, Bob Avakian has done path-breaking work to go beyond even

the best of the previous socialist societies and re-envision a socialism that

is both visionary and viable. His "new synthesis" has tackled a whole realm

of questions, including:

HOW DOES THE NEW REVOLUTIONARY POWER MAINTAIN

POWER and maintain it as a power worth keeping? How does it not just

survive in a world dominated by imperialism, but do that as a base area

for further revolutions?

WHAT WOULD BE THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, civil society,

and politics outside the purview of the state? What would be the role of

a constitution and elections? Why would this re-envisioned socialism

not only tolerate, but foster, dissent?

WHAT WOULD BE THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENTISTS, ARTISTS, AND INTELLECTUALS

carrying out urgent work to meet the most pressing needs of society and, at the same time, pursuing

work, experimentation, and exploration not tied to those kinds of

immediate goals? How would the age-old division between those who

work with ideas and those who are locked out of that, be overcome—in

a way that does not sacrifice but actually enhances vibrancy and

intellectual ferment throughout society, in unprecedented ways?

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF A FEARLESS ATTITUDE TOWARD THE TRUTH

and what have been the shortcomings and blinders in regard to this in the communist movement as it has developed?

HOW DOES THIS NEW SYNTHESIS BOTH CONTINUE ON THE PATH FIRST CHARTED BY MARX, LENIN AND MAO—AND YET GO

BEYOND IT, IN NEW AND CRUCIAL WAYS?

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF TAKING BOB AVAKIAN'S NEW SYNTHESIS OUT INTO SOCIETY TODAY?

What does all this have to do with how to prepare for revolution? What difference does it make if

the people who will make the communist revolution get involved in

wrestling with what it is all about and the means to make it?

Come hear the presentation and then wrangle over all this.

SPONSORED BY

LIBROS REVOLUCIÓN

312 W. 8th St. Los Angeles, CA

213.488.1303 · librosrevolucion.blog.com · librosrevo at yahoo.com

BOB AVAKIAN

is the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. And he is more than that: he's an innovative and critical thinker

who has taken Marxism to a new place; he's a provocative

commentator on everything from basketball to religion, doo-wop music

to science; and he's a pit-bull fighter against oppression who's kept

both his solemn sense of purpose and his irrepressible sense of humor.

Bob Avakian will not be in attendance at this event.



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