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Maoism Basic concepts Marxism-Leninism Anti-Revisionism 3 Worlds Theory Social-imperialism Mass line People's war New Democracy Prominent Maoists Mao Zedong Prachanda Bob Avakian Zhang Chunqiao José María Sison Abimael Guzmán Charu Majumdar Jiang Qing İbrahim Kaypakkaya Pierre Mulele International tendencies Conference of M-L Parties and Organizations Revolutionary Internationalist Movement Parties Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany Communist Party of India (Maoist) Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Communist Party of Peru Communist Party of the Philippines Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat Related subjects Communist Party of China Cultural Revolution Little Red Book Naxalism

Robert Bruce "Bob" Avakian (b. March 7, 1943) is best known as the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the largest Maoist group in the United States. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 519 pixelsFull resolution‎ (929 × 603 pixels, file size: 53 KB, MIME type: image/gif) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... In the communist or Marxist-Leninist movement, an anti-revisionist is one who favors a strict Stalinist or Maoist interpretation of Marxist-Leninist ideology. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Three Worlds theory is a theory developed by Mao Zedong that suggests that the world is politically and economically divided into three world. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Social-imperialism is imperialism with a socialist/communist face. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Mass Line is the political/organizational/leadership method developed by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) during the Chinese revolution. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Peoples war (also called protracted peoples war) is a military-political strategy invented by Mao Zedong. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... For different uses of the term, including political parties with the name New Democracy, see New Democracy (disambiguation). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Mao redirects here. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Prachanda (NepālÄ«: प्रचण्ड pracaṇḍa, born Pushpa Kamal Dahal on December 11, 1954) is the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Zhang Chunqiao (Simplified Chinese: 张春桥; Traditional Chinese: 張春橋; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chang Chun-chiao) (1917–April 21, 2005) was a member of the Gang of Four. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... José María Sison (born February 8, 1939 in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, Philippines) is a writer and activist who reorganized the Communist Party of the Philippines by combining elements of Maoism. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Guzmán as a prisoner Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, also known by his nom de guerre Presidente Gonzalo (English: President Gonzalo), a former professor of philosophy, was the leader of the Maoist insurgency often referred coloquially to as Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso in Spanish). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Charu Majumdar Charu Majumdar(Bangla: চারু মজুমদার) (1918-1972) was an Indian Maoist revolutionary born in 1918 in Siliguri, West Bengal. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Madame Mao This is a Chinese name; the family name is Jiang Jiang Qing (Chinese: ), real name Lǐ ShÅ«méng, known under various other names, including the stage name Lan Ping (Chinese: 蓝苹), and commonly referred to as Madame Mao, (March 1914 – May 14, 1991), was the fourth wife of... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Ibrahim Kaypakkaya was a leader of the Turkish communist movement. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Pierre Mulele (August 11, 1929 - October 3 [or October 9, depending on the source], 1968) was a Congolese revolutionary who was briefly minister of education in Patrice Lumumbas cabinet. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, a grouping of parties and organizations adhering to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement is an international Communist organization which upholds Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands, MLPD) is a political party in Germany without parliamentary representation. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is an underground Maoist political party in India. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Communist Party of Peru (Spanish: Partido Comunista del Perú), more commonly known as the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), is a Maoist guerrilla organization in Peru that launched the internal conflict in Peru in 1980. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The New Peoples Army, or NPA, is a communist-based revolutionary group in the Philippines, formed in December 1969. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... PCTP/MRPP symbol The Communist Party of the Portuguese Workers / Reorganizative Movement of the Party of the Proletariat (Portuguese: Partido Comunista dos Trabalhadores Portugueses / Movimento Reorganizativo do Partido do Proletariado or PCTP/MRPP [1]) is a Maoist political party in Portugal founded in 1970. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), also known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China and also the worlds largest political party. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article is about the Peoples Republic of China. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung is also the title of a play by Edward Albee. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Naxalite or Naxalism is an informal name given to radical, often violent, revolutionary communist groups that were born out of the Sino-Soviet split in the Indian communist movement. ... is the 66th day of the year (67th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Life

Avakian was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Berkeley, California. The grandchild of Armenian immigrants who settled in Fresno, California to farm, he was a football player for his high school. His father was Spurgeon "Sparky" Avakian (1913-2002), an Alameda County judge in Oakland, California, and member of the Berkeley School Board. Bob attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he became involved in radical politics. He participated in the Free Speech Movement at the University of California—Berkeley that was led by Mario Savio. His political activities continued and he became spokesman for the Peace and Freedom Party, and an active supporter of the Black Panthers. ... Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. ... Fresno redirects here. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ... Official website: http://www. ... Oakland redirects here. ... Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ... The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which began in 1964 - 1965 on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of student Mario Savio and others. ... Mario Savio on Sproul Hall steps, 1966 Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American political activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. ... United States Peace and Freedom Party logo The Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) is a United States political party founded in 1967 as a leftist organization opposed to the Vietnam War. ... The Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a revolutionary Black nationalist organization in the United States that formed in the late 1960s and grew to national prominence before falling apart due to factional rivalries stirred up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ...

Bob Avakian was active in Students for a Democratic Society and was a leading figure in the Revolutionary Youth Movement II. In the Bay Area he worked to form the Bay Area Revolutionary Union. BARU expanded nationally by absorbing other Marxist-Leninist collectives coming out of the SDS. It became the Revolutionary Union. Revolutionary Youth Movement was the section of Students for a Democratic Society which opposed the Progressive Labor Party. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ...

Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Union, along with others such as C. Clark Kissinger and Carl Dix, led the formation of the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1975. When Deng Xiaoping went to the United States to visit Jimmy Carter, the RCP led protests at sites throughout Washington, D.C. Avakian and other participants in the march became engaged in a conflict with the police. Avakian and others arrested for the incident were charged with several counts of assault on a police officer. After a court granted Avakian and the other arrestees' request to be charged and tried together, the total punishment exposure (the most severe possible sentence) for the seventeen defendants was over 241 years (U. S. v. Schiller, 424 A.2d 51 [D.C., 1980]). As a result, Avakian went to France in 1981. All charges against him were dropped in 1982,[1] though Avakian was purported to remain in Europe. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP, USA), known originally as the Revolutionary Union, is a revolutionary Maoist organization that was formed in 1975. ... C. Clark Kissinger was the National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society. ... Carl Dix is the national spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. He is a close friend of Bob Avakian. ... There are a number of political parties called the Revolutionary Communist Party active in various countries across the world. ... Year 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Deng Xiaoping   (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Teng Hsiao-ping; August 22, 1904 – February 19, 1997) was a prominent Chinese politician and reformer, and the late leader of the Communist Party of China (CCP). ... For other persons named Jimmy Carter, see Jimmy Carter (disambiguation). ... ...

Bob Avakian's current whereabouts are kept secret. His last appearances caught on video were two speaking engagements (on the East and West Coasts of the United States). These were recorded for the DVD REVOLUTION: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About. The recordings were the first publicly available images of Avakian since 1981. DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is a popular optical disc storage media format. ...

Views

Bob Avakian is an outspoken atheist and proclaims that humanity needs "liberation without gods". He is a proponent of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Atheist redirects here. ...

As chairman of the RCP, and as a writer, Avakian supports the Leninist concept of the vanguard party as a necessary leading component of a revolutionary movement. The role of the vanguard party, as explained by Avakian, continues once regime change has been effected, as class struggle continues under socialism (as it did in the Soviet Union and China, where Avakian argues that "capitalist roaders" within the communist parties themselves "restored" capitalism under state auspices). In Maoist literature, these are widely agreed upon ideas developed from Mao's fight against the "Modern Revisionism" of the former Soviet Union, and within the Communist Party of China, as expressed in Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. A vanguard party is a political party or grassroot organization at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. ... A poster during the Cultural Revolution The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: 无产阶级文化大革命; Traditional Chinese: 無產階級文化大革命; pinyin: wú chǎn jiē jí wén huà dà gé mìng, literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wén huà dà gé mìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or simply 文革 wén gé...

He has argued against the idea that "spontaneous" rebellion will achieve political revolution without leadership bodies based on a dialectical materialist methodology and practical unity of action. This and other positions he has held have tended toward Avakian something of a polarizing figure among activists of a more "movementist" politics. For this ardent advocacy of the Leninist vanguard party, Avakian has been derided by the ideas traditional opponents. According to many followers of the theories of Karl Marx (or Marxists), dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism. ...

Avakian has been criticized by followers of competing ideologies and tendencies as an apologist for repressive characteristics of the pre-Khrushchev Soviet Union and People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong. Conversely, he has been criticized by still others for taking a critical approach to previous socialist experiences of the 20th Century, particularly for criticizing the ways that Stalin subordinated the international communist movement to the national-state needs of the Soviet Union, and in the ways that class struggle was at times conducted by decree, not through widespread popular mobilization. Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (Russian: Ники́та Серге́евич Хрущёв) (nih-KEE-tah khroo-SHCHYOFF) (April 17, 1894 – September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union after the death of Joseph Stalin. ...

Avakian holds that while the United States contains "oppressed nations," a disputed idea in the communist movement, that the working classes struggle is of a "multi-national proletariat" for political power, not a series of separated, concurrent "issues." He sees the main strategic orientation as uniting the fight of that multi-national proletariat with the revolutionary struggle of oppressed nationalities, African-Americans and Chicanos in particular. Avakian and the RCP oppose identity politics as an incorrect "post-modern" and anti-Marxist idea, that there are separate and discrete "truths" particular to who holds them. Identity politics is the political activity of various social movements for self-determination. ...

Subsequent to the period of the Deng demonstration trial and exile, critics have argued that Avakian has a personality cult, citing the RCP's widespread "promotion and popularization of the body of work of Chairman [Avakian] and the development of a culture of appreciation for his work and his role," [2] often manifest in the Party publications, internal functions, and public events. Adolf Hitler built a strong cult of personality, based on the Führerprinzip. ...

Avakian argues that the Democratic Party is not the party of the people, but serves one sector of the capitalist ruling class. He believes in the necessity of a communist party to lead a total regime change based on the uprising of millions, within the United States and around the world.

Avakian holds that "there is nothing sacred" about the current national borders, particularly since they were formed by a process of conquest and dispossession. The economic and state development of different societies must entail different forms of struggle accordingly. Avakian upholds the Protracted People's War model in what are commonly called "third-world" (oppressed) countries, while seeing insurrection as the road to revolution in societies like the USA and Europe.

Works

He writes for the newspaper of his party, Revolution (formerly titled The Revolutionary Worker), and has written several books including:

• Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones - Two essays on morality.
• Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That? - An analysis of what democracy is and means.
• A Horrible End, or an End to the Horror?
• Could We Really Win? - A talk about how revolution could be possible in a country like the U.S.
• Phony Communism is Dead; Long Live Real Communism - A response to claims of the "Death of Communism".
• The Immortal Contributions of Mao Tse-Tung - Articles summing up the importance of Mao Zedong.
• Bullets From the Writings Speeches and Interviews of Bob Avakian (Little Silver Book) - A collection of quotes.
• For a Harvest of Dragons - A collection of essays.
• From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist ISBN 0-9760236-2-8, An autobiography.
• Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy - Essays on the listed topics.
• Marxism and the Call of the Future: Conversations on Ethics, History, and Politics co-authored with Bill Martin

He released an audio recording in 2001 entitled "Bob Avakian Speaks Out", which is available in two segments.-Source Mao redirects here. ... Bill Martin is a professor of Philosophy at DePaul University is best known for his work on Derrida, Sartre, Marxist theory, Aesthetics, and his critiques of Richard Rorty. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

He also released a film, "Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, and What It's All About", which records a speech he gave in 2003.

External links

• Writings of Bob Avakian,
• Bob Avakian Speaks,
• A book review of From Ike to Mao,
• Berkeley: Memoir follows author's road to Communism from SFGate.
• Maoist Debate on the role and status of Avakian from Red Flags
• How Can We Apologize for Taking History into Our Hands by Bob Avakian at archive.org
• RCP Response to Mark Oppenheimer Attack on Avakian

Critical opinions

• Gordon, Eric (September 2005). The Maoist cultism of the RCP is anti-Marxist (HTML). Communist Voice Organization.
• MLM vs. Anarchism, criticism by an Anarchist
• “Free Bob Avakian!” by Mark Oppenheimer, The Boston Globe, 27 January 2008
• 9 Letters to Our Comrades: Getting Beyond Avakian's New Synthesis (web) (December, 2007).