Ariel Dorfman Joins Global Outcry for Medical Release of Nahid Taghavi
Serving American Imperialism and Promoting American Chauvinism
by Bob Avakian
Bizarre and capricious rules enforced by cancel culture threats. Puffed-up unscientific claims to “represent the marginalized.” Insisting that people “stay in their lanes” in fighting oppression. “Woke” lunacy manifests much that is harmful with the capitalist-imperialist system and its dominant culture, furthering the nightmare of humanity!
The following article by Bob Avakian was originally published in 1987. We are republishing it now, because it remains highly relevant in terms of understanding the basic nature of this system we live under—the system of capitalism-imperialism—and the role of the U.S. Constitution as the legal and political basis for this system of ruthless exploitation, murderous oppression and massive destruction. In this republished version, Bob Avakian has provided some Added Notes at the end of the article, to further clarify important points.
I was inspired and challenged by the agitation done by the revcoms on International May 1st on the Constitution of the United States that aired on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less !—Show—how they exposed it as a blood-soaked document of exploiting and oppressing classes and how they compared and contrasted it with the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America written by Bob Avakian, BA. I was especially struck by Michelle Xai’s powerfully uplifting statement on how the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America specifically and explicitly upholds a woman’s right to abortion and birth control (Article III, Section 3)—something you have never seen and will never see in the U.S. Constitution or any of its amendments.
In English and French
We, the revcoms, call on you to stand up. Join us—representing and calling on others on Monday, May 1st to send this message to the world: In these dark times, we are building a force to bring forward thousands and then millions into a movement for an actual revolution.
The masses of people around the world are suffering terribly, this system is splitting at its seams, and the planet stands at a precipice.
Over the past week the largest leak of U.S. military documents in a decade began appearing online. The documents, with “Secret” or “Top Secret” classifications, had apparently been on Discord for several weeks before they were picked up on other social media platforms. They then came to the attention of governments and news outlets throughout the world. (Discord is a social media platform popular among many gamers.)
In the surveillance camera clip, a mother and daughter enter a small store in a city close to Mashhad, considered a “holy city” in Iran. The younger woman is not wearing a head scarf (hijab) and the older woman’s scarf is not fully covering her hair. A male customer begins yelling at them, then grabs a large bucket of yogurt and dumps it all over their heads.
Last week, a digital billboard calling to free 33-year-old rapper Toomaj Salehi appeared along a road about 20 miles outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Toomaj is an Iranian artist and activist, widely known by his first name and deeply loved for his brilliant lyrics and his death-defying spirit of resistance to oppression.
For over a year, the U.S. has been waging a full-court press—diplomatic, economic, political and military—to regain lost influence on the African continent. In the latest installment, Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited three major African nations—Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania. A New York Times podcast described it as a U.S. “charm offensive.”
The war that erupted when Russia illegally and unjustly invaded Ukraine in February 2022 almost immediately became a proxy war between rival imperialist powers, when the U.S. and the Western military alliance NATO stepped up the vast amounts of military support, weaponry, and training they had already been providing Ukraine.
On Tuesday, April 4, Donald Trump appeared in a New York courtroom to hear 34 felony criminal charges against him brought by the Manhattan District Attorney. Trump entered pleas of not guilty to the charges.
This is the first-ever indictment of a U.S. president, whether in or out of office. As such, this is an extremely sharp example of the fact that those who rule this country are at each other’s throats. They can no longer rule and hold things together in the way they have since the Civil War. The old ways—the old “norms”—are coming apart. We will be covering this trial as it unfolds—but there are a few important things to point to now, and there is an overall question of how to approach such a serious juncture.
Enrique Coy Pop … Eyner Anibal García Dieguez … Higinio Alberto Ramírez Torres … Jesús Adony Alvarado Madrid … Marvin Armides García Pacheco … Milton Alexis Melara Melgar … Julián David Villamil Arévalo …
These are the names of some of the 39 people, migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Honduras, who died—who were killed—in a fire on the night of March 27. At least 29 others are hospitalized, and remain in “delicate-serious” conditions.
Last Monday around 10 am, a private Nashville Christian school was the scene of the heartbreaking killing of three young children and three adults.
Rising tension in East Asia between the U.S. and China, and continuing war in Ukraine between the U.S./NATO (using Ukrainian people and troops as cannon fodder) and Russia, puts into sharp focus the fact that all life on this planet is in peril. Major imperialist powers—the globally dominant U.S., the increasingly assertive China, and heavily nuked Russia—are facing off around the world like big gangsters.
A major crisis has engulfed the country of Israel. It erupted in response to moves by the government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu and dominated by Jewish fundamentalist and other Jewish fascists, to disempower the Israeli Supreme Court. The Zionist state of Israel has always been illegitimate, built on the blood, bones, land and homes of the Palestinian people, and an enforcer of western, especially U.S., imperialism. And now, fascists in power in Israel and their base in Israeli society are hell-bent on removing what they see as an intolerable obstacle to radically tearing up the norms that have cohered Israeli society since its inception.
On Friday, March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, charging him with war crimes for the abduction and deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children during the war that started with Russia’s invasion in February 2022. There does seem to be evidence that Russia has carried out such abductions—as well other war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Ukraine war, including targeting and killing tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians. Russia is denouncing and dismissing the indictments, which the ICC has no power to enforce.
Twenty years ago, on March 19, 2003, the U.S., under the administration of George W. Bush, invaded Iraq. Over 300,000 were killed directly in the fighting; studies estimate the indirect deaths from the war (due to destruction of health care, food production, water and power system, etc.) to be over 600,000; and at least 4.5 million people were driven from their homes (see the American Crime series article on this at revcom.us for more on the invasion). The U.S. military occupied Iraq for years. They raided people’s houses, beat them, humiliated them, raped them, and—yes—killed people on “routine patrols.” They threw thousands into prisons where U.S. soldiers and the CIA carried out sadistic sexual tortures, and more. To this day, the Iraqi people suffer the “aftereffects” of this totally unprovoked war and brutal occupation.
On March 8, as the world celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD), First Lady Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted a ceremony at the White House to mark International Women’s Day and bestow a special honor on the women and girls of Iran for their “exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, often at great personal risk and sacrifice.”
The award? The inaugural Madeleine K. Albright Honorary Group International Women of Courage Award for 2023. Say what??!!
