Post by RosaRL on Apr 29, 2004 8:53:36 GMT -5
Revolutionary Worker #1238, May 1, 2004, posted at rwor.org
The following is an excerpt from an historic talk by Chairman Bob Avakian, soon to be available on video and DVD from Three Q Productions-REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. This talk, delivered in 2003, followed by questions and answers, is a wide- ranging revolutionary journey, covering many topics. As Three Q has described it, "It breaks down the very nature of the society we live in and how humanity has come to a time where a radically different society is possible. It takes us deep into the heart of the horrors we see around us-from the oppression of whole peoples and parts of the world to what underlies brutal wars of domination-and why we live in a world where profound poverty, starvation and exploitation co-exist with unprecedented wealth. From the American nightmare to a sweeping vision of a whole new world, he breaks it all down, and shows how and why a radically different world can be brought forward."
The following excerpt is taken from a transcript of the talk, edited for publication by the RW. It gives a sweeping vision of a thoroughgoing revolutionary society and what it means for the masses to truly become masters of all society. It talks about the role of the vanguard party of the proletariat under the dictatorship of the proletariat, as the instrument of the masses to overcome the wounds and scars of the old society until finally, throughout the world, there is no longer a need for parties or states, and a new world has been birthed.[/i]
One of the main features of socialist society and one of the main aims of the advance through this socialist stage to communism, is for the masses of people to take up all kinds of questions and to have their creativity set loose in all kinds of ways. The aim is not just for people to have a job and work at one job but to master many things, to contribute to planning the economy to meet the needs of the people and to support the revolutionary struggle worldwide. To developing medicine and healthcare, to providing sports programs for the youth and the population as a whole. To creating and producing music, movies, television and programs on the internet. And writing poetry. To political decision-making and the organization and administration of society. To debating questions like whether anything in the universe can actually travel faster than the speed of light, and what lessons should be drawn from scientific discoveries of many different kinds. And the aim is to develop and unleash individuality and creativity on the foundation of and within this broad and overall framework of cooperative and collective efforts and goals.
These are not things that just a few geniuses can understand and play a role in. The masses of people as a whole are fully capable of entering into and taking up all these spheres, and that is precisely what is and what must be made possible through the communist revolution.
To make this possible, that the masses of people, and not just a relative handful, can and will do these things, will take a conscious consistent and determined struggle to overcome inequalities that have been handed down to us by capitalist society and thousands of years of unequal and oppressive relations in society and in the world as whole. Overcoming all that cannot happen without a system of political rule that gives the masses of people the right and the power to do this, and to prevent the overthrown exploiters or others from sabotaging and wrecking this process. Once again, this system of political rule is the dictatorship of the proletariat. And all this cannot happen without a vanguard of the proletariat to lead it in carrying out this complicated and often very intense struggle to bring about these changes in society and in the world.
Rest of article - rwor.org/a/1238/introbaspeech.htm
