busting out in 2010 - january events

2010: Revolution Books is busting out in the new year with an exciting list of authors, events and programs that contributes to a culture of defiance, resistance and revolution.

In the face of escalating war, 1 billion people hungry, looming environmental ruin, we need a culture of defiance that unleashes critical thinking and nourishes dreams.

Revolution Books January events are a start in stepping up to the plate. Your support will be the difference. You can contribute in many ways - financially, staffing, organizing author events, designing and doing publicity, reviewing books. Make a donation today. Contact us at 773.489.0930 or revbookschi@pobox.com to volunteer

Saturday Jan 2, 7 pm - Film Screening: Rethink Afghanistan Filmed in Afghanistan , Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary focusing on the key issues surrounding this war. A film by Robert Greenwald on Obama's Afghanistan . Free admission.

January 13, Wednesday, 7 pm - Marc Falkoff Marc Falkoff, law professor at Northern Illinois University College of Law, will speak about the 16 Guantánamo detainees he represents and about Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak, which Marc co-edited. "At last Guantánamo has found its voice." -Gore Vidal on Poems from Guantanamo January 2010 is the 8th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay prison camp, hated throughout the world for being a center of US torture and indefinite unlawful detention.

January 16, Saturday, 2 pm - Greg Kot Greg Kot, rock critic at the Chicago Tribune, will speak about, take questions and sign copies of Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music. Greg cohosts Sound Opinions, "the world's only rock 'n' roll talk show," which is nationally syndicated through Chicago Public Radio. Ripped presents the first definitive account of the digital music revolution, which changed the way music fans have sought and acquired music and led to the end of the recording industry as we know it. "Kot knows his stuff. His book is never better than when it is in the music. But Ripped is about what is happening to music, and Kot stands with the T shirts and not the suits." --Huffington Post

January 28, Thursday 7 pm - Kari Lydersen Kari Lydersen is an award-winning Washington Post reporter. She is author ofRevolt On Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover, and What it Says About the Economic Crisis and co-author with Wafaa Bilal of Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life and Resistance Under the Gun. Kari's reporting has taken her to the US-Mexico border and throughout Latin America. She reports on issues of globalization and immigration, human trafficking, the sex industry and the environment. Kari also reports from frontlines in US cities. This includes writing on the workers' occupation at Republic Windows and Doors last winter and the recent police killing of Mark Barmore and protests in Rockford.

Recently Arrived Books Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, Tristram Hunt The Year of the Flood: A Novel, Margaret Atwood Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, James Hansen

12/13 Discussion of new talk by Bob Avakian

December 12th, Saturday, 7-9pm Holiday Party Come to Revolution Books for a Holiday Party, Saturday, Dec. 12. Enjoy an evening of music and refreshments while selecting unique gifts for your friends and family. Gift items: Art and Prints from the Cultural Revolution in China; cards featuring original photo art; new books; Revolution t-shirts; "Revolution Roast Organic Coffee". Come in all weekend long to purchase special one of a kind gifts and contribute to keeping Revolution Books expanding and growing into the New Year. The most significant gift you can give this year- Support of Revolution Books! December 13, Sunday, 4 pm Discussion on a new talk by Bob Avakian "UNRESOLVED CONTRADICTIONS, DRIVING FORCES FOR REVOLUTION" We welcome all to the introductory discussion of this important new talk by Bob Avakian. We will discuss the key themes of Part 1: I. Once More on the Coming Civil War...and Repolarization for Revolution Click here to read the talk. Friday December 18th 7 PM NEW Revolution Books Book Club- Join Now If you've seen the movie Precious or read the book Push by Sapphire, join us for a provocative discussion on one of the cutting edge books and movie of the year. Join the Book Club and make recommendations for our next discussion. Meets once a month- Next Jan 22, 2010, 7 pm. Save 15% Print out this coupon and redeem it for 15% off all purchases at Revolution Books this holiday season. Offer Expires: December 31, 2009 December 15, Tuesday, 7pm "The Elephant in the Room: Can Anything Short of Revolution Solve the Environmental Crisis?" A Talk by Raymond Lotta on the "climate threat, Copenhagen, and why capitalism is utterly incompatible with sustainable development." Revolution Books will be hosting a live webcast at 6 pm, Tues. Dec 15, 2009. Cost at the door is $5. If you can, pay $20 to contribute to Revolution Books. This talk will be simultaneously webcast. For those who would like to log on with friends go to revolutionbooksnyc.org for the procedure. December 20 Sunday 10-noon Join us for an expanded Revolution Books staff meeting. Make suggestions for author programs, movie nights, books and fundraising. Snacks and excellent Revolution Roast Coffee provided. Sun. Discussion 4-6pm Discussion of "The Struggle in the Realm of Ideas" from Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy by Bob Avakian. Featured excerpts and questions to discuss will be emailed in advance. All are welcome. Holiday refreshments. Bring your favorite holiday cookies to share.

12/4 "Murder of Fred Hampton" film showing

Friday, December 4th 7pm Film Showing - The Murder of Fred Hampton XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX December 4 is the 40th anniversary of the murder of Fred Hampton by the Chicago Police. The Murder of Fred Hampton began as a film portrait of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther Party, but half way through the filming, Hampton was murdered by Chicago police. On December 4, 1969, over a dozen police burst into Hampton 's apartment while its occupants were sleeping, killing Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark and brutalizing the other occupants. Filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk arrived a few hours later to shoot film footage of the crime scene that was later used to contradict the false news reports and police testimony. Recently restored and reworked by Gray, this 90-minute documentary is a chilling slice of American history. Sunday, Dec. 6, 4-6 pm Discussion of "The Role of Dissent in a Vibrant Society" from Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy by Bob Avakian. All welcome.

December 10, Thu. 7pm Herbert G. McCann, author of Greewood Greenwood, Oklahoma will forever be remembered as site of the US's worst act of racial violence during the 1921 Tulsa race riots. Dec. 12, Saturday, 7-9 pm Holiday Party You are invited to Revolution Books Holiday Party. Bring your friends. This year purchase prints from the Cultural Revolution in China, our own special Revolution Roast Organic Coffee, all occasion cards, t-shirts, new books and lots more. Refreshments, music and poetry. Join us in supporting and expanding Revolution Books this coming year. Every Monday 5:30-8 pm Pick up a bundle of Revolution newspapers hot off the press and join a discussion of the lead articles and "hot topics" while mailing subscriptions to prisoners. Bring friends.

"Murder of Fred Hampton" film showing tonight

in this e-newsletter :: 12/4 Film Showing - "The Murder of Fred Hampton" :: 12/6 Discussion on "The Role of Dissent in a Vibrant Society" :: 12/10 Herbert G. McCann - author of Greenwood :: 12/12 Holiday Party :: Every Monday - hot topics and mailing prisoner subs

Friday, December 4th 7pm Film Showing - The Murder of Fred Hampton XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX December 4 is the 40th anniversary of the murder of Fred Hampton by the Chicago Police. The Murder of Fred Hampton began as a film portrait of Hampton and the Illinois Black Panther Party, but half way through the filming, Hampton was murdered by Chicago police. On December 4, 1969, over a dozen police burst into Hampton 's apartment while its occupants were sleeping, killing Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark and brutalizing the other occupants. Filmmakers Mike Gray and Howard Alk arrived a few hours later to shoot film footage of the crime scene that was later used to contradict the false news reports and police testimony. Recently restored and reworked by Gray, this 90-minute documentary is a chilling slice of American history. Sunday, Dec. 6, 4-6 pm Discussion of "The Role of Dissent in a Vibrant Society" from Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy by Bob Avakian. All welcome. December 10, Thu. 7pm Herbert G. McCann, author of Greewood Greenwood, Oklahoma will forever be remembered as site of the US's worst act of racial violence during the 1921 Tulsa race riots. Dec. 12, Saturday, 7-9 pm Holiday Party You are invited to Revolution Books Holiday Party. Bring your friends. This year purchase prints from the Cultural Revolution in China, our own special Revolution Roast Organic Coffee, all occasion cards, t-shirts, new books and lots more. Refreshments, music and poetry. Join us in supporting and expanding Revolution Books this coming year. Every Monday 5:30-8 pm Pick up a bundle of Revolution newspapers hot off the press and join a discussion of the lead articles and "hot topics" while mailing subscriptions to prisoners. Bring friends.

REVOLUTION BOOKS 1103 N. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60622 773.489.0930 revbookschi@pobox.com Go to Chicago Revolution Books blog for upcoming events. FALL HOURS Wed-Sat: Noon-7pm Sun: Noon-5pm

Sun. 11/22 and Tue. 11/24 - Special Events

Sunday, Nov. 22, 4pm Discussion of issue on Prisons and Prisoners The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but nearly 25% of its prisoners... (read more) This issue explores the horrors of prison life but also how a section of prisoners are transforming into emancipators of humanity. With a screening of an excerpt on the 1971 Attica prison rebellion from award-winning PBS documentary "Eyes on the Prize." XXXXXXXXXXXXSSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX SPECIAL PRESENTATION Tuesday, November 24, 7 pm "The Reality We Face and the Struggle to Transform It" A special evening. Don't miss it! Sunday, November 29, 4 pm The first of a series of Sunday discussions on excerpts from Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy by Bob Avakian on "Three Alternative Worlds." Featured excerpts and questions for discussion will be emailed in advance. All welcome. December 10, Thursday 7 pm Author Herbert G. McCann Revolution Books presents author Herbert G. McCann, author of Greenwood. Greenwood, Oklahoma will forever be remembered as site of the US's worst act of racial violence during the 1921 Tulsa race riots. PRECIOUS: New film based on the novel Push by Sapphire Come to Revolution Books and buy your copy of Push. Precious is an unflinching and deep look, through one girl's life, at how girls and women all over this globe are degraded, demeaned, and brutalized in a thousand ways-- beaten and raped in huge numbers, treated as objects of sexual gratification and breeders of children instead of full human beings. How human potential gets crushed and beaten down. Help Raise Fund for Revolution Books November 22 - Bake sale Donate a desert to support Revolution Books. This Sunday, bring to 4 pm discussion or drop off during the day. December 12, Saturday, 7-9 pm, Holiday Party - Unique prints from the Cultural Revolution in China as well as cards, mugs and coffee and other unique gifts. Every Monday 5:30-8 pm Pick up a bundle of Revolution newspapers hot off the press and join a discussion of the lead articles and "hot topics" while mailing subscriptions to prisoners. Bring friends.

Sunday 11/22 and Tuesday 11/24 - on't miss these events

Upcoming Events :: 11/22 Discussion of Revolution issue on Prisons and Prisoners :: 11/24 Special Presentation :: 11/29 Discussion on "Three Alternative Worlds" by Bob Avakian :: 12/10 Herbert G. McCann author appearance :: Don't miss this film :: Support Revolution Books financially :: Every Monday - hot topics and mailing prisoner subs

Sunday, Nov. 22, 4pm Discussion of issue on Prisons and Prisoners The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but nearly 25% of its prisoners... (read more) This issue explores the horrors of prison life but also how a section of prisoners are transforming into emancipators of humanity. With a screening of an excerpt on the 1971 Attica prison rebellion from award-winning PBS documentary "Eyes on the Prize." XXXXXXXXXXXXSSXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX SPECIAL PRESENTATION Tuesday, November 24, 7 pm "The Reality We Face and the Struggle to Transform It" A special evening. Don't miss it! Sunday, November 29, 4 pm The first of a series of Sunday discussions on excerpts from Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy by Bob Avakian on "Three Alternative Worlds." Featured excerpts and questions for discussion will be emailed in advance. All welcome. December 10, Thursday 7 pm Author Herbert G. McCann Revolution Books presents author Herbert G. McCann, author of Greenwood. Greenwood, Oklahoma will forever be remembered as site of the US's worst act of racial violence during the 1921 Tulsa race riots. PRECIOUS: New film based on the novel Push by Sapphire Come to Revolution Books and buy your copy of Push. Precious is an unflinching and deep look, through one girl's life, at how girls and women all over this globe are degraded, demeaned, and brutalized in a thousand ways-- beaten and raped in huge numbers, treated as objects of sexual gratification and breeders of children instead of full human beings. How human potential gets crushed and beaten down. Help Raise Fund for Revolution Books November 22 - Bake sale Donate a desert to support Revolution Books. This Sunday, bring to 4 pm discussion or drop off during the day. December 12, Saturday, 7-9 pm, Holiday Party - Unique prints from the Cultural Revolution in China as well as cards, mugs and coffee and other unique gifts. Every Monday 5:30-8 pm Pick up a bundle of Revolution newspapers hot off the press and join a discussion of the lead articles and "hot topics" while mailing subscriptions to prisoners. Bring friends.

Raymond Lotta Speaking at University of Chicago

Everything You've Been Told about Communism Is WRONG! Capitalism is a Failure Revolution is the Solution __________________ November 11 Wednesday-7 PM University of Chicago Kent Hall-Rm 107 1020 East 58th Street in the Quad Sponsored by Revolution Books Cars leaving Revolution Books at 6pm - call to reserve a seat. Raymond Lotta will take on all comers in the questions and answers. On October 26, he spoke to an audience of over 200 hundred people at NYU. All the questions which followed his presentation are included here to give you an idea of the character of the debate. And you are encouraged to bring your own toughest questions to this event. Does communism subsume women's liberation and racism? Or does it only open the way to solving these questions? Isn't greed part of human nature? Greed and war have been part of societies from the beginning of time. Greed has been a mainstay of everyone's culture. And wasn't greed responsible for the overthrow of communism? I'm interested in poverty and the eradication of poverty. Jeffrey Sachs and Fareed Zakaria cite capitalist economic reforms as the solution- these are academics who pursue no imperialist agenda. Haven't 100 million people in China moved out of poverty thanks to the economic reforms? And how would communism actually lift people out of poverty. Didn't the Cultural Revolution under Mao kill a million people in Tibet and destroy 6000 monasteries? And you can give this lecture about communism at a university in the U.S., but what do you think would be the result if you gave a talk about democracy in Beijing? I'm a white, heterosexual male born into an affluent household. I also know that the clothes I wear contribute to exploitation, and the same with the food I eat. And that it is not acceptable to do nothing about all that. Further, when people say that there is no value whatsoever in communism, that strikes me as wrong. But when you dismiss capitalism out of hand, aren't you doing the same thing? How would the revolution you are talking about deal with religion? You say that you want debate - but would people be allowed to not just debate, but to overthrow communism in a revolutionary society? In a world of planetwide horror and environmental catastrophe, you yearn for a different one. You think about justice and human possibility, of how to live a life that matters, that can contribute. You have come to the university to find out about everything - including whether such a world could really be brought into being, and what your role might be in bringing that about. But you have been lied to - systematically and pervasively - about the actual possibility and path to getting such a world. You have been lied to about the real history of revolution, and the actual promise of communism. And we can prove it. Raymond Lotta has the facts on what actually has been accomplished - and he also has an understanding to share of where these revolutions fell short and erred, and how humanity can do better...the next time around. Raymond Lotta will speak at UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ON NOVEMBER 11th, 7:00pm, at KENT HALL, Room 107. His speech will cover four main points: He will show how the conventional wisdom as well as the "state-of-the-art" scholarship about the experience of the socialist revolutions in the 20th century is full of lies... and how this constrains and mutilates the discourse of what is possible... He will define what socialism and communism actually are - and are not... He will examine the most important revolutionary experience thus far - the Cultural Revolution in China - illuminating its purposes and accomplishments, and analyzing its shortcomings. And he will lay out a way in which humanity could go further and do better in the socialist revolution - the new synthesis of Bob Avakian. All this matters a great deal. If what Lotta is saying is right, then everything changes in terms of what actually is possible for humanity. In order to be true to your own aspirations and principles, you need to at minimum acquaint yourself with what this unique speaker has to say, and grapple with the challenges he is raising. Who is Raymond Lotta? Raymond Lotta is a revolutionary intellectual. He takes as his foundation Bob Avakian's new synthesis and has written extensively on China during and after the Cultural Revolution and played a major role in elucidating the actual thinking of Mao and the so-called Gang of Four that supported Mao. He also played a major role in working to expose the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union and China, including through written work and mass public debate. He has, through the Setting the Record Straight project which he leads, fought to spread the truth-and refute the lies-about the experience of the communist revolution in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1956 and China between 1949 and 1976. Most recently, he co-authored "Alain Badiou's 'Politics of Emancipation': A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World" (demarcations-journal.org). Lotta has also done major work on political economy, including America in Decline (Banner Press, 1984) and "Shifts and Faultlines in the World Economy and Great Power Rivalry," a four-part series published in Revolution newspaper in July and August 2008. A recent speech-"Understanding the Global Economic Crisis: System Failure and the Need for Revolution"-can be heard at revolutionbooksnyc.org/Lotta4-23-09.mp3. Watch YouTube video Raymond Lotta-Everything You've Been Told About Communism is Wrong. Search "Raymond Lotta" on YouTube for additional videos.. For more on Set the Record Straight project, go to thisiscommunism.org.

The Raymond Lotta tour has made stops at UC Berkeley, NYU, and UCLA...now it comes to U of C.

Oct. 22: No More Stolen Lives! Stop Police Brutality!

October 18, Sunday, 4 PM Discussion of October 22 National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. Followed by working on preparations, 6-9 PM.

12 Noon, October 22 Federal Plaza Adams and Dearborn in the Chicago Loop RALLY & MARCH NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!! OCTOBER 22ND - WEAR BLACK For more info call: 773-368-2820 oct22.chicago2009@yahoo.ocm Join us at Facebook - click on: October 22 Chicago

October 22nd, 2009: NO MORE! No More Stolen Lives! Statement by Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA Corey Harris, a junior at Dyett High School, a star basketball player and captain of the baseball team, was the first Chicago student to be killed by gun violence this school year - shot to death on September 11. He was killed after school, shot in the back as he ran away from a man with a gun. There was no media outcry over Corey's murder, no statement from the White House about their distress over it. Hundreds of students and adults who loved Corey attended his funeral, but there was no parade of politicians there. The name of his murderer is known by the Chicago Police Department and yet he walks the streets today, uncharged for this murder. Why? The man who executed this unarmed student was an off-duty Chicago cop. Last year the Chicago police killed 21 people. The death of Derrion Albert, an honor student at Fenger High School in Chicago, is also a horror for the people. On September 24, the nation was stunned by vivid images of the Fenger High School melee resulting in his death. People are agonizing over how did we get into a hellish situation where parents watch students being killed over nothing, where kids grow up haunted by images of gunfire. Everyone talks about responsibility. But who and what is responsible for this situation? Oscar Brown Jr's poem, "Children of Children," includes these lines: The children of children trapped by dark skins to stay in and play in a game no one wins The children of children while still young and sweet are all damned and programmed for future defeat The children of children are trapped by adults who fail them then jail them to hide the results... It is a crime of this system that our youth internalize the message they get every day through the worthless schools and degrading conditions and brutalizing cops - the message that this system has no future for them and that they don't even deserve a future - and then they act it out against each other. More police are not the answer, as the police murder of Corey Harris shows. Youth need to be inspired, encouraged, organized and unleashed to stand up against and resist the conditions they face, including degradation, dehumanization and outright murder they face at the hands of the police. In the course of this, and joining with others to throw off oppression throughout the world, people can and will change themselves. "The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world...when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness...those days must be GONE. And they CAN be." (The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have," Revolution #170, July 19, 2009) October 22nd is the National Day of Protest to STOP Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. It is the day to begin to stand up and resist the outrage of police brutality and police murder. FIGHT BACK! WEAR BLACK! For assembly points, go to october22.org/Assembly2007.html. Contact Carl Dix at comradecarl@hotmail.com. Carl Dix on Youtube: Making Revolution, Fighting Police Brutality Click here.

October 25, Sunday, 4 PM Discussion of RUMINATIONS AND WRANGLINGS By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, USA, Part 12 - On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning.

October 31-November 1 USED BOOK SALE Donate your used books and help raise vitally needed funds to keep Revolution Books doors open. Volunteers needed to organize and staff the used book sale.