There is a big problem.<\/p>\r\n
Millions of people are looking at the U.S. presidential election as\r\na crucial turning point in world events. And at the same time the\r\nworkings of this system have worked coldly to stifle their voices and\r\nchoices.<\/p>\r\n
As Bob Avakian, the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party,\r\nsays in the online talk Elections: Democracy and Dictatorship,\r\nResistance and Revolution:<\/em> \"Many people want this election to\r\nbe a referendum about the Bush program and in particular the whole war\r\nprogram, the whole juggernaut of war and repression, this rolling\r\nmonster that’s unfolding. Well, this election, as [the media and\r\npoliticians] are telling us, will<\/em> be a referendum on war, but\r\nnot in the way we might like and many people who want to vote for Kerry\r\nwould wish. It is, as they are saying explicitly, going to be a\r\nreferendum on who could be the best commander in chief<\/em> , who\r\nhas the best war program to carry out the so-called war on\r\nterror.\" (audio online at www.bobavakian.net)<\/p>\r\n We are living through a time when huge historic issues are being\r\ndecided, where powerful forces are in play, and many possible outcomes\r\ncould emerge.<\/p>\r\n And where huge sections of the people sense they have been crudely\r\ncut out of events—betrayed by the workings of this election, and\r\nby those who control it.<\/p>\r\n Over these agonizing last months, a suffocating NON-choice has been\r\nimposed inside this election process<\/em> —at a time when\r\nmillions have awakened to politics, many for the first time, and\r\ndecided that here and now they need<\/em> to influence world events\r\nand the future. Millions of people are living through this election\r\nseason with open eyes, horror and mounting alienation.<\/p>\r\n This is a time that demands clear thinking and urgent, massive, and\r\ncreative resistance— based on a strategic understanding of the\r\nstakes for the power structure and the people.<\/p>\r\n This is a time when people need to deliver an unmistakable\r\nNO—so that whoever wins the election, it is very clear that there\r\nis NO mandate for the whole agenda of war and repression and that the\r\npeople are serious about defeating this agenda.<\/p>\r\n And it is a time when there is a tremendous opening and potential\r\nimpact for connecting people to a fresh and serious vision of\r\nprofoundly changing the world.<\/p>\r\n *****<\/p>\r\n As we go to press, the electoral season is moving towards a decisive\r\njuncture, which may bring unexpected dramas and dangers.<\/p>\r\n The system is now moving to choose its next commander-in-chief.<\/p>\r\n It is not yet known which of the two main candidates will be picked.\r\nIt is not even known how<\/em> the winner will be picked.\r\nStill-hidden power-plays and fraud may decide the outcome.<\/p>\r\n It is clear what the Bush regime is willing to do to stay in power.\r\nMillions of people are still furious about the coup-like action of the\r\nhigh court that brought George Bush to power in 2000. And now, four\r\nyears later, the fraud has already started again—Black voters\r\nhave faced intimidation and disenfranchisement, including in key\r\n\"swing states\" like Florida. And new electronic vote fraud\r\nmay be in place for \"winning\" in places with razor thin\r\nmargins.<\/p>\r\n This summer it came out that there had been high-level\r\n\"contingency planning\" for canceling<\/em> or\r\npostponing<\/em> the elections in case of some major pre-election\r\nattack. And then, in mid-September, the FBI announced that\r\n\"terrorists\" were in the U.S. planning a pre-election attack.\r\nThis whipped up new hysteria within the elections and unleashed new\r\npolice intimidation of targeted immigrant populations. The\r\nWashington Post<\/em> (Sept. 23) now reports that these FBI warnings\r\nwere based on bogus information—and yet, somewhere in the grim\r\nmachinery of state, some other \"October Surprise\" may be pre-\r\nplanned to re-select the current president.<\/p>\r\n Election 2000 saw the Republican Party unleash bullies to intimidate\r\npeople who were trying to recount the Florida ballots. Not only have\r\nthe right-wing forces been building up within the circles of power in\r\nthe U.S., not only have they been cultivating a whole officer corps\r\nwithin the U.S. military and putting their allies in the Supreme Court,\r\nbut they have also built up a whole religious, fundamentalist Christian\r\nmovement, which is essentially a Christian fascist movement—a\r\nnon-thinking segment of the population, inspired in their non-thinking\r\nfundamentalism by the president himself.<\/p>\r\n Election 2004 has already seen the archbishop of Colorado issue a\r\nproclamation that it is a \"sin\" to vote for Kerry because he\r\nsupports the right to abortion and stem-cell research; we have already\r\nseen the evangelical church mobilizing for Bush because they claim it\r\nis \"God’s will\"—while Bush himself claims that he\r\nacts on instinct and word from God rather than reality and reason. And\r\nit remains to be seen how such Christian fascist forces— inside\r\nand outside the military—would respond to a Kerry victory.<\/p>\r\n We don’t yet know if and how the final<\/em> hours of this\r\nelection will be strong-armed. But we do already know<\/em> how this\r\nwhole process has already been<\/em> rigged and manipulated, all\r\nalong.<\/em><\/p>\r\n Last year, for a few moments, excitement jelled behind Howard Dean,\r\nwho spoke in angry language about the Bush regime and its Iraq war.<\/p>\r\n But then Dean was rudely shut down before the Democratic primaries\r\nreally started, by the Democratic Party establishment and the media. He\r\nwas labeled unelectable, and everyone was told to support the approved\r\ncandidate—Senator John Kerry, a man who carefully supported the\r\nfascist Patriot Act and granted Bush war powers in Iraq.<\/p>\r\n Bush defends his brutal and unjustified invasion of Iraq—and\r\nhis larger war on the world. And John Kerry insists he<\/em> will\r\nlead the conquest of Iraq to final victory, and free up U.S. military\r\npower for further moves—aimed at subduing Afghanistan or Iran, or\r\nNorth Korea.<\/p>\r\n And then, it is part of the modern dynamics of American politics\r\nthat Republican operatives denounce Kerry as virtually treasonous and\r\n\"soft on terrorism\"—while Kerry puts a raw imperialist\r\nspin on the \"Pottery Barn\" rules: We broke Iraq, and even if\r\nthat was a mistake, now we own it.<\/p>\r\n People don’t want to live in a New Roman Empire—that\r\nrules and threatens the world, and sets up a tightening Christian\r\nfascist state in the \"homeland.\" A clear majority of the\r\nDemocratic Party base supports quick withdrawal from Iraq. And yet none\r\nof this was allowed to be heard in the official election chatter.<\/p>\r\n And what are people offered: the chance to \"hold their nose and\r\nvote for Kerry,\" hoping it \"will do some good.\"<\/p>\r\n And when you look at all this with open eyes, it is starkly and\r\nincreasingly clear that the will of the people will not be expressed in\r\nthis election!<\/p>\r\n Raising Our Heads At a Historic Moment<\/p>\r\n Bob Avakian has been working intensely to wrench something different\r\nout of this moment—and to raise the sights of us all to the ways\r\nand possibilities of doing that.<\/p>\r\n In Elections: Democracy and Dictatorship, Resistance and\r\nRevolution<\/em> he really dissects the current situation around the\r\nelection. He breaks down why Bush is doing what he is doing and why\r\nKerry is doing what he is doing—how they are both\r\n\"auditioning\" for who can be the best commander-in-chief to\r\nrepresent the larger interests of the U.S. monopoly imperialist ruling\r\nclass; and why being confined by the terms and logic of this election\r\nis very dangerous for the people.<\/p>\r\n He brings out the deep strategic global interests of the U.S. power\r\nstructure—why the Bush agenda has had so much initiative; why it\r\nis dangerous to hope that the Democrats can be relied on to oppose this\r\nagenda; and why people need to unite very broadly in the kind of\r\nresistance that can not only oppose but defeat what he calls the\r\n\"juggernaut of war and repression.\"<\/p>\r\n And urging the listener to \"fasten your seat belts,\" he\r\ntakes us on a unique ride into a different future.<\/p>\r\n Chairman Avakian argues forcefully that, despite appearances, this\r\nsystem is outmoded and vulnerable—that its intolerable oppression\r\ncan be overthrown, and that we can together forge a new society filled\r\nwith the ferment of change and liberation.<\/p>\r\n At a time when official and unofficial verdicts have written off the\r\nmost radical revolution as \"impossible and undesirable,\" Bob\r\nAvakian has been creatively re- envisioning the whole communist\r\nproject.<\/p>\r\n In the film of an historic talk in 2003— Revolution: Why\r\nIt’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All\r\nAbout<\/em> —Chairman Avakian takes us on a journey from the\r\nmadness of this society to a future worth living in: from the enforced\r\npowerlessness of capitalist democracy, the restless aggression and\r\ninfuriating racism of U.S. society to a new socialist society ruled by\r\nthe oppressed—a society that the majority of the people,\r\nincluding the millions of artists and intellectuals, would want to live\r\nin, a society in transition to a whole new communist world.<\/p>\r\n And it is vital to stop and think deeply over this: Because no other\r\nleader in this country dares talk about this. And because this vision\r\nis not just daring but intensely practical and rooted in a dynamic\r\nanalysis of the real world.<\/p>\r\n What would it mean for this revolutionary vision and analysis to\r\nconnect deeply, now, with the millions of people who are looking hard\r\nfor a way to oppose Bush and everything he represents?<\/p>\r\n What would it mean if the DVD of this historic talk, Revolution:\r\nWhy It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All\r\nAbout,<\/em>and the online talk Elections: Democracy and\r\nDictatorship, Resistance and Revolution<\/em> and other online talks\r\nwere played and debated wherever people gather to discuss the madness\r\nof Bush’s America? What would it mean if artists and scientists,\r\nrevolutionary youth, and proletarians were wrestling with the questions\r\nraised about the intellectual life of society and the path to communism\r\nin Avakian’s Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist\r\nTransition to Communism<\/em> ?<\/p>\r\n What would it mean if the leadership and analysis of Chairman\r\nAvakian were able to connect to millions of people—including many\r\nwho will undoubtedly have lots of questions and disagreements with\r\nthese radical new theses? What would it mean if a whole new dynamic and\r\na whole new conversation got the initiative in society and people were\r\nable to lift their heads and breathe some fresh air—instead of\r\nbeing reduced to \"holding their noses\" and \"picking the\r\nlesser of two evils\"? What would it mean if large new circles of\r\npeople were able to analyze and change the world using the penetrating\r\nscientific method and approach that Bob Avakian teaches and\r\napplies?<\/p>\r\n For decades, everyone has been told \"nothing else is\r\npossible.\" Now what would it mean for people to tear that myth\r\napart and explore Chairman Avakian’s re-envisioning of socialist\r\nsociety that upholds the historic achievements of the past, while\r\nbreaking new ground on how to do away with all oppression and\r\nexploitation and have a world that people would really want to live\r\nin—a radical new synthesis of how proletarian power would be\r\nexercised he calls the \"solid core with a lot of elasticity.\"\r\n(See \"A World We Would\r\nWant to Live In,\" page 6.)<\/p>\r\n What would it mean for our struggle today to be connected to the\r\nfuture—like a visionary bridge from the intolerable injustices of\r\ncapitalism to a classless communist world without oppression?<\/p>\r\n It would have a profound and multiplying effect on what was\r\npossible—both today and from now on—if all this was woven\r\ninto the very fabric of political and intellectual struggle and debate\r\ntoday.<\/p>\r\n Chairman Avakian has worked to \"chart the uncharted\r\ncourse\"—to lay bare a path to revolution, even in a powerful\r\nrogue superpower like the USA. And, as those who have seen and heard\r\nhim speak have discovered, things look very different once you dare to\r\nconsider the possibility of actually overthrowing the monstrous system\r\nthat dominates the planet and how the world could be radically\r\ndifferent.<\/p>\r\n In their hateful and repulsive way, men like Bush and Cheney and\r\nRumsfeld dare to remake the world—to reshape international\r\npolitics and economics in their interests, to enforce a transformation\r\nof the whole Middle East at the point of their guns and missiles.<\/p>\r\n And the masses too—in our millions—have to dare to think\r\nabout remaking the world— whether or not one agrees with the\r\nwhole vision put forward by Chairman Avakian, his challenge to wrest a\r\nnew and liberated world out of the great flux, oppression, change and\r\ncrisis that lie ahead needs to be given a serious hearing.<\/p>\r\n And from this sweeping perspective of what the world could be like\r\nand how we could get to a different world, Bob Avakian has powerfully\r\npointed out the importance of uniting all who can be united in\r\nresistance NOW: \"Once again, the point, clearly, is that whether\r\nor not people vote in this election for all those who see the real\r\ndanger—the very danger that makes them want to vote for Kerry,\r\nand to urge others to vote for Kerry, even knowing what Kerry is, and\r\nis not—that understanding of the great danger and its immediacy\r\nshould make people feel compelled to act, and to call on, encourage and\r\nhelp mobilize many others to act, outside of and beyond the elections\r\nand the electoral framework—to build now, and in an ongoing way,\r\nthe most powerful mass opposition and resistance that refuses to be\r\nbound by the terms of mainstream politics or by the notions that this\r\npolitics represents the `ultimate word’ on the `will of the\r\npeople.’\" (\"Food For Thought\r\nWhile Agonizing Over Bush and Everything He Stands For,\"\r\nRW<\/em> # 1254)<\/p>\r\nAnd what happens if we DON’T do that?\r\n What happens if our discontent is penned into the \"regular\r\nchannels\" and deflated by the assumption that \"nothing else\r\nis possible\"?<\/p>\r\n How much would be wasted if the anger and energy of this moment gets\r\nbeaten into despair after a Bush victory?<\/p>\r\n Back in power, Bush would claim popular legitimacy and support for\r\nall the madness his crew unleashes next. Can we allow that to happen\r\nunopposed and unexposed?<\/p>\r\n And, on the other side, how much would be lost if the resistance of\r\nthe people to Bush and everything he stands for becomes dispersed by\r\nthe collective \"sigh of relief\" that would likely follow a\r\nKerry victory? What happens if illusions about \"buying a little\r\ntime with Kerry\" come crashing down, and the sense of betrayal and\r\npowerlessness leaves people paralyzed?<\/p>\r\n Are the people going to be so locked into the myths of \"keeping\r\nAmerica safe\" that they can be stampeded by suspicious new\r\n\"incidents\"—while power is seized again in illegitimate\r\nways, and while new police powers are imposed in the name of\r\n\"danger\" and \"emergency\"?<\/p>\r\n These outcomes would be a disaster for the future and for the people\r\nof the world.<\/p>\r\n There is a genuine fight going on over the future, both open and\r\nhidden:<\/p>\r\n The rulers of the U.S.—these ambitious emperors who dream of a\r\nglobal version of the Roman empire—they intend to stifle and\r\nsuppress any challenge inside and outside this country. They intend to\r\ntreat resistance as illegitimate, treasonous, and\r\n\"pro-terrorist.\" They are not interested in\r\n\"listening\" to the people. And don’t care what the\r\npeople (here or anywhere else in the world) want or need.<\/p>\r\n Let us be clear on what they plan!<\/p>\r\n Bush and his crew have become the spearhead and symbol for a crusade\r\nto impose tighter U.S. domination over the whole world. This is a\r\nsweeping operation of war, threats and covert operations that is\r\nliterally remaking the international order by force. And meanwhile,\r\nwithin the U.S., long-standing legal rights to trial, privacy, and\r\nprotection from profiling and surveillance are being torn away, and\r\nreplaced by the raw logic of a growing police state. There is a plan to\r\nliterally establish permanent rightwing control over the U.S.\r\nstate—cementing the Supreme Court, the Congress, the Presidency\r\nand the military corps for a generation. And it is known that if Bush\r\nreturns to power, we don’t just face \"more of the\r\nsame\"—but instead we face new and dangerous leaps, from a\r\ncrew that believes no one and nothing must stand in the way of U.S.\r\nglobal domination.<\/p>\r\n And, through all the twists and turns of an electoral circus, Kerry\r\nhas made it clear that his presidency would continue the same essential\r\nproject, even while he differs right now over some of the terms, over\r\nthe pace and the specific forms with which to implement this\r\nprogram— and some of the extremes to which it should be carried\r\nout at this time.<\/p>\r\n And even if the final selection goes Kerry’s way, huge parts\r\nof the power structure sit in the hands of these openly rightwing\r\nforces—who will push agressively for Kerry to carry out their\r\nprogram while at the same time tearing him down.<\/p>\r\n Whatever else happens in this election, the political armies of\r\nChristian-fascists and rightwing operatives will not be dispersed by\r\nvotes, and the power centers that finance and direct them will press\r\nahead in their relentless grab for final and overall power.<\/p>\r\n They are making an historic grab for the world—taking great\r\nrisks, unleashing great resources, sending out many thousands of people\r\nto kill and die.<\/p>\r\n Will something else, something powerful and positive, be wrenched\r\nout of this moment? Will the people express their will outside<\/em>\r\nthe stifling official box of the election—and carry their\r\nresistance forward into the whole next period—even under\r\nconditions of heightened repression?<\/p>\r\n Will the people act openly and in mass or be paralyzed if the\r\nelection is stolen or cancelled by the fascist gang?<\/p>\r\n *****<\/p>\r\n The reckless extremism of all this is putting great forces into\r\nmotion against the current regime. Their lies have come out. Their Abu\r\nGhraib crimes are exposed. The insurgency in Iraq has become more\r\npowerful much faster than anyone—certainly in the\r\nPentagon—expected.<\/p>\r\n In the U.S. and even among the U.S. troops, there is a deep and\r\ngrowing sense that the war in Iraq is not about \"protecting our\r\nloved ones at home\" but about great ambitions, corporate wealth\r\nand global power. There is fear, distrust and even hatred of the\r\nnarrow-minded religious fanatics like Ashcroft and Bush, who actually\r\nclaim their god approves prison camps and bombing runs—and\r\nendorses their bigoted morality.<\/p>\r\n There is a sense that the future, left in their hands, would be a\r\nnightmare.<\/p>\r\n We are living through the collision of two very different\r\nfutures—the potential in the overall current situation for two\r\nvery different extremes—is getting concentrated in this\r\n\"moment\" around the elections and their aftermath. Whatever\r\nhappens with this election, it will be big. A great deal is at stake\r\nfor both sides—both the ruling class establishment of the U.S.\r\nand for the people (both here and around the world).<\/p>\r\n When the dust settles—if it does settle!—from this\r\nwhole election episode, will we be ready for the future?<\/em><\/p>\r\n Revolutionary Worker #1257, October 31,\r\n2004<\/em>, posted at http:\/\/rwor.org<\/a><\/p>\r\n There is a big problem.<\/p>\r\n Millions of people are looking at the U.S. presidential election as\r\na crucial turning point in world events. And at the same time the\r\nworkings of this system have worked coldly to stifle their voices and\r\nchoices.<\/p>","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/bob_avakian_power_of_resistance.mp3","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/11\/118370.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}
\r\nThis article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker\r\nOnline
\r\nhttp:\/\/rwor.org
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\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n","contact":"darbycrash1965@yahoo.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"audio\/mpeg","summary":"The Will of the People Will Not Be Expressed in This Election<\/h1>\r\n