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Read and Sign the Engage! Statement |
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Dangerous times demand courageous voices.
Bob Avakian is such a voice.
Bob Avakian combines an unsparing critique of the history and current direction of American society with a sweeping view of world history and the potential for humanity. He has brought forth a fresh, relevant and compelling approach to Marxism, deeply analyzing the history of the Communist movement and the socialist revolutions and upholds their achievements. At the same time, he honestly confronts and criticizes what he views as their shortcomings, opening up new paths of inquiry in the process and initiating dialogue with people who hold a wide range of views. He’s addressing the burning problems before society from a unique vantage point, and we consider his revolutionary analysis and solutions to be an important and necessary part of the ferment and discourse required in this society and the world in this dark time. While those of us signing this statement do not necessarily agree with all of his views, we have come away from encounters with Avakian provoked and enriched in our own thinking, and we invite others to hear and engage that voice.
Bob Avakian is also the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA; as such he not only theorizes about the world, but plays a special role in organizing and leading that change. He’s been called a “long-distance runner in the freedom struggle against imperialism, racism and capitalism” and he draws on deep connections and engagement with people from all walks of life and all corners of the earth. All this informs and animates his work.
Unfortunately, such voices in this country are, and have been, all too frequently the objects of suppression and repression. This repressive edge in American society has been particularly brought to bear against those who advocate revolution and especially those who do so effectively. Surveillance, harassment, suppression, political trials, prison terms, exile and even assassination have been the fates of many revolutionaries throughout U.S. history and many of those measures have, in fact, been visited upon Avakian. The current administration has instituted serious repressive measures like the Patriot Act, instituted the use of preventive detention and isolation of those whom the president deems to be “terrorist”, and has created a climate where, for example, radical or even liberal professors find their reputations and even their livelihoods under assault; all this makes the ability of Bob Avakian to freely function even more of a concern. The statement by the German pastor Martin Niemoller – which begins, “First they came for the communists, and I did nothing because I was not a communist” and which goes on to describe how Niemoller did nothing while Hitler peeled away the victims of the Nazi regime one at a time, until there was no one left to defend Niemoller when his time came – sounds with particular resonance today.
Thus, in addition to calling on people to engage with the thoughts of Bob Avakian, and bring them into what needs to be a rich and diverse dialogue, we are also serving notice to this government that we intend to defend his right to freely advocate and organize for his views, and to engage broadly with people about those views.
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What Is Engage! |
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In the dark times we face today in the U.S. and the world, we are a network that shares the view that it will make an important difference if people from all spheres of society can engage with Bob Avakian and his work. We have come away from encounters with Bob Avakian provoked and enriched in our own thinking and we invite others to hear and engage that voice.
Engage! is a network of all kinds of people who seek to bring forward others from academia, the arts, the legal arena, clergy, groups of workers, housing project residents, students, immigrants and others who from their own perspectives have engaged with Bob Avakian's voice and who will take up the mission of projecting and also protecting his voice and defending his right to freely advocate and organize for his views.
This website will encourage engagement with his work and will keep people informed about new projects and activities.
From Sparrow, poet
Mr. Avakian is like me -- we've both been around the Left since the 1960s, and are sick of the dogmatism and paranoia. He's encouraged all the Revolutionary Communist Party people to read epistemology, the science of knowing. The question is: "What is really happening?" -- not "What did Marx predict would happen?"
Sometimes I read Avakian in the Revolution newspaper. I agree with his assessment of the current American crisis. Cheney and Bush are real fascists, very similar to Mussolini. They have joined with right-wing Christians to create a formidable movement. Even though Bush has a very low "approval rating," he still completely controls the political process in the USA. Don't other people see this? Is the New York Times asleep?
People say to me: "Why sign a petition supporting Avakian? He isn't under any threat." As if they would be perfectly confident being a revolutionary Communist in today's America. Personally, I'm a little frightened just writing this essay.
READ MORE
From Ramona Dvořák, MD, Harvard Medical School*
I signed the "Engage!" statement because I am in agony over the fascist direction this country is headed and because of U.S. policies, which condemn millions of people in this country and around the world to horrific conditions of abuse and slaughter. It is through the talks and writings of Bob Avakian that I have a more enlightened understanding of why I have always been troubled by how this system operates. Bob Avakian "woke me up" to the realities of this system and its true nature as a brutal dictatorship, not a democracy, driven forward by a quest for global domination, at any cost. READ MORE
from Billy X. Jennings, It’s About Time Committee*
"I like Bob Avakian because he knows who the enemy is. He doesn’t tell you what you want to hear, he tells it like it is. The U.S. starts wars and commits genocide on a daily basis. The government had many cases against the Black Panthers and lost everyone - they were scams and kangaroo courts. COINTELPRO was spying on people. There have been many political prisoners. I saw the Revolution DVD and Bob is still on it. He’s on his job."
from Ula Taylor, Associate Professor, U.C. Berkeley*
"I think it's important that Bob Avakian and other critical voices are willing to engage in well-researched analysis and that they are developing a complete understanding of the interconnectedness of oppresssion. People need to see their own strength in order to transform their conditions. Voices like Bob Avakian's should have maximum voltage."
From Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd, KRST Center of African Spirituality*
"Bob Avakian brings forward brilliant and radical ideas around which to struggle and debate. He makes extremely complicated concepts accessible to people at all levels of education and advocates for the people at the bottom rung of societies in the U.S. and around the world. Bob Avakian has been bringing forward new and important ideas that are vital to contemporary discourse. I signed in order to be true to my calling to advance spiritual healing by supporting the voice of Avakian because he alone, of all the national voices, including even all the black leaders, is not afraid to open a dialogue on the racism that drives so much of the policy of American society. If we pretend it is not there we cannot heal it!"
from Gordon J. Alderink, PT, PhD,Grand Valley State University*
"I signed on with Engage because it has become increasingly clear to me that we need a major paradigm shift in how America is led. Infringement on individual freedoms, loss of integrity in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, coercing Americans using fear, etc are examples of how far we have strayed from a truly free, democratic society. We need individuals like Noam Chomsky and Bob Avakian to call into question rigid ideologies, uncontrolled power, capitalistic hegemony, sources of alienation, and lack of reason. I would hope that reasonable people would attend to the kinds of questions Avakian is asking and not write him off simply because he is a 'communist.'"
from Mark LeVine, Professor of History, UC Irvine*
"I have had the opportunity to read some of Avakian's writings, and regardless of whether I agree with them, it is important that they remain accessible to the public in an era where the government and its corporate sponsors spend untold sums of money to 'create realities' that the rest of us are forced to live -- and in many cases, die -- in. Progressives can profoundly disagree about what the appropriate solution to the horrific mess the Republicrats have gotten us into, and what kind of revolution -- if at all -- is necessary to achieve such a large scale social transformation. But one thing's for sure, we need as many voices out there as possible offering different visions of the future to those offered either by the Bush administration or the jihadis. Bob Avakian is one such voice that deserves to be heard and engaged, regardless of whether we agree with his prognoses or not."
from Dr. Donald E Winters,
"I am very pleased to see Bob Avakian stepping forward to make a powerful statement for revolutionary change. I feel strongly that the present administration represents the closest America has ever come to fascism. As a current member of the I.W.W. and past member of the S.W.P., I am greatly moved by political courage in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds. America greatly needs to see the courage of a Joe Hill or Leon Trotsky to confront the present illegal, immoral, and self-serving regime of George W. Bush."
from Tony Jackson, Psychologist, artist, activist
"It is my belief that Avakian offers a seldom heard perspective in this society. Hearing such a strong and clear historical analysis of the social/political quagmire, we Americans find ourselves in, at this juncture, is germane to how we develop a process for moving forward."
from Harry J. Lennix, actor, instructor
"In a time where we see many of our most precious freedoms threatened, and no convincing voice from either major party speaking on our behalf, it is reassuring to know that irrespective of labels we have advocates like Bob Avakian who is speaking on behalf of the people. There is certainly no more American precept than this."
from Fr. Daniel Berrigan on why he’s added his name to the Engage statement, “Dangerous times demand h courageous voices. Bob Avakian is such a voice:”
"In reading Bob Avakian’s memoir, From Ike to Mao and Beyond, I felt very attuned to Bob in what we’re both seeking – a decent international order that takes into account the poor at the edge of life, resists domination and war, and an end to the prospering of the few at the expense of many."
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To the Editor:
We found Mark Oppenheimer’s article, “Free Bob Avakian!” January 27, 2008, to be a
vacuous “Where's Waldo?” diatribe which misrepresents the
statement from the Engage Committee to Project and Protect the Voice of Bob Avakian. Oppenheimer dismisses and mischaracterizes the intelligence and motivations of the over 250 signatories, and he falsely constructs his arguments in an attempt to discredit Bob Avakian. Read More
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The Engage! statement appeared in the November 22, 2007 New York Review of Books. View the ad here.
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Hear an interview on the publishing of the Engage statement in the New York Review of Books with Ramona Dvořák, MD on KPFK 90.7 FM.
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Directions to hear the show.
The button takes you to KPFK Audio Archives.
Scroll down to "Beneath the Surface with Michael Slate"
on Tuesday Nov. 13
Press Down Load
Your media player will ap-pear. Press play on your media player. |
New Signatories! |
mary reilly, Poet and Visual Artist
Mike Whitty, Professor/Activist
Alan Benchich, President, UAW Local 909
Thomas J. Reke, Member Center for Inquiry*
Captain O'Kelly McCluskey, Director Virtual U.S. Peace Academy*, Seattle
Slavoj Žižek
Tom Lemieux, botanist, horticulturist
Dennis Russell, humanist
Denise Rose Wynne, C.P.C.C.
writer, certified career coach
Gordon J. Alderink, PT, PhD,Grand Valley State University
Dick Laird, Attorney and Activist
Liam Madden, Iraq veteran
Emory Douglas, Former Black Panther*
David Addams, J.D.
Hugh (Buck) Davis, Constitutional Litigation Assoc
Conchita de la Luz, artist
Sterling Plumpp, writer
Sam Hamill, poet t
Drucilla Cornell, Prof. of Political Science, Women's Studies and Comparative Literature at Rutgers Univeriity*: currently Prof. of Legal Philosophy at the University of Capetown, South Africa*
Albert Camarillo, Historian
Mark LeVine, Professor of HistoryUC Irvine*
Dr. Val Greene, Epidemiologist
Brad Epps, Professor of Romance Languages and of Studies of Women,Gender and Sexuality;Chair of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Harvard University*
Bridget Barkan, actress, teacher, singer
Sonia Sanchez
Cindy Sheehan, Congressional Candidate and First Amendment advocate
Elaine Brower, member, Military Families Speak Out*
Dr. Masad Arbid, Los Angeles
Lauren Langman, Professor of Sociology Loyola University of Chicago* Larry Everest, author, journalist, contributor to Revolution newspaper
William Ayers, Prof., Univ. of Illinois, Chicago*
Ron Cephas Jones, actor, teacher, poet
Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Prof. Of Anthropology, U.C. Berkeley*
Elaine Brown, Former Chairman of the Black Panther Party*, author and activist
Antonio Camacho, former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner
Ulises Bella, Ozomatli*
Paul Borraccia, Buddhist, human being
Dennis Bernstein
award-winning investigative reporter& host of Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio*
Delbert Tibbs, former Death Row prisoner, human rights activist, poet
Raz Ibn Puri, Artist/Poet-Publisher
Ward Churchill, independent scholar
Rakaa Iriscience, Dilated Peoples*
Walid Raad, Professor, The Cooper Union* (New York) and Artist
Milton Saier, Professor, Dept. of Biology UCSD*
Charles Williams, Professional Boxing Coach L.B.C.
Rev. Keith Farnham, UCC* Clergy
Valerie Richards, Social Worker/ African American Woman
Wm. Arctander O'Brien, Professor of Literature, UC San Diego*
Shara Sand, Psy.D., Psychologist
Matt Meyer, War Resisters League*and founding Chair, Peace and Justice Studies Association*
T.W. Ward, Professor, USC Anthropology Department*
Renee Saucedo, immigrant rights organizer
Camilo Allen,Tutor, Writing Program, Pan African Studies, CSUN*
Jim Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Chair in English and Professor of English, USC*
Susan M. Schultz, Professor
U. of Hawai`i*
Jonathan S. Marion, Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, CSUSM*
Ralph K. Stueber, Emeritus Professor U of Hawaii*
Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez, Young Lord's Chairman*
Hector Valenzuela, Professor, Vegetable Crops, U.of Hawaii at Manoa*
Smita Lahiri, Assoc. Prof. of Anthropology, Harvard U.*
Brigitte Davila, J.D., College of Ethnic Studies, SFSU*
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime!*
Wayne Kramer, musician, composer, MC5*
David Was, musician, singer, songwriter,composer, Was Not Was*
Juan Gomez-Quinones, Professor of History, UCLA*
Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, journalist, anti-imperialist
Culture Clash
Sharon O'Hara Bruce , lawyer and artist
Sam Ackerman, Social Justice Activist
Donald Coleman, Co-Pastor, University Church*, Chicago
Father Austin Ford, Director, Emmaus House*, Atlanta, GA
Beth K. Lamont, Humanist Chaplain
Henry Chalfant, film maker
Dennis Brutus, former prisoner, Robben Island, South Africa, poet, Professor Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh*
Fr. Daniel Berrigan
Full list of Signatories |
Watch the New Video Next Stop.... Revolution |
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“In June 2007, 40 city buses hit the streets of Los Angeles with big banner ads announcing a special screening of Bob Avakian’s REVOLUTION DVD at the Magic Johnson Theatre.“Thousands were greeted everyday with large burning red letters reading REVOLUTION on the side of the buses in both English and Spanish. "
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