Upcoming Events

Performance of THE FEVER to Benefit Revolution Books

June 23, Tuesday, 7:30 pm
Revolution Books presents a special one-night-only performance of Wallace Shawn's THE FEVER performed by David Shapiro at St. Paul's Community Church, 2215 W. North Ave, Chicago. This is a benefit for Revolution Books Chicago. Followed by a reception. Tickets $15. To purchase tickets in advance, click on PayPal at right, call or drop by Revolution Books, or purchase on the night of the show at St. Paul's. Volunteer now to help organize, publicize and sell tickets for this important and timely fundraising and cultural event. If you want to understand and radically change the world, support and keep Revolution Books open.

Saturday, June 13

Join us! Out to the people of Englewood...
with revolution and communism

"There will never be a revolutionary movement in this country that doesn't fully unleash and give expression to the sometimes openly expressed, sometimes expressed in partial ways, sometimes expressed in wrong ways, but deeply, deeply felt desire to be rid of these long centuries of oppression [of Black people]. There's never gonna be a revolution in this country, and there never should be, that doesn't make that one key foundation of what it's all about."
-Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, reprinted in The Oppression of Black People, the Crimes of This System, and the Revolution We Need.

Through the month of June, supporters of the RCP, USA are calling on you to be a part of filling a great need: stepping up the systematic efforts to spread revolution and communism in Englewood, one of Chicago's poorest (and overwhelmingly Black) neighborhoods, and challenging masses of Black people to get with the revolutionary movement today.

Saturday, June 13: Meet up at 10am at Revolution Books.
Join the teams taking Revolution newspaper and Bob Avakian's DVD, "Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About" out to the people, including through selling subscriptions, and establishing a revolutionary presence. We will have a truck, featuring a colorful professional banner reading simply "Revolution," red flags waving off the sides, music playing, wearing our shirts featuring the Revolution masthead and letting people know "The revolutionaries are here." Others will go door to door or to shopping centers. These initial efforts are inspired by a political "blitz" in another area, reported in the pages of Revolution here.

And this will be just the beginning. We will be going out every weekend through June; future details to come.

TO VOLUNTEER: If you're available all day or part of the day Saturday or would like to volunteer in other ways, please contact Revolution Books. Funds are urgently needed for this effort: donate at the Chicago Revolution Books blog (enter "Englewood" into the description), or hold a fundraising party featuring one of our organizers reporting on our efforts.


Sunday, June 14, 4 pm
Join us this Sunday, June 14, for the next in a series of salons on the new talk by Bob Avakian, "Ruminations and Wranglings: On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning."
This Sunday's discussion will focus on Part 4, "Each Class Seeks to Remake the World in its Image--But Only One Class Cannot Do This by Relying on Spontaneity, " in Revolution #166, online at revcom.us.

Some points concerning the role of intellectuals and the revolutionary process

Different interests of different class forces in the struggle against the oppression of Black people in the US

"It is a very important phenomenon in all of social life, and particularly in social struggle, that each class will try to remake the world in its image. Especially in every revolution, but in every major social transformation or social movement, different class forces seek to seize the reins and impose their solutions, in accordance with how they see the problems. More specifically, it is important to understand how bourgeois and other reactionary class forces seek to do this, especially in the context of any major social upheaval and social struggle, and most especially in the context of an approaching revolution." How has this been borne out (or not) in examples from places like Iran, South Africa or China in recent history?

"One of the distinguishing features of intellectuals is that-because of their particular circumstances and the nature of their role in working with ideas-as individuals (and even in a certain sense as a broader social phenomenon) they have relatively more freedom and capacity to 'attach themselves' to one class or another, and even to 'detach themselves' from one class and 'attach themselves' to another. In other words, they can take up the world outlook and come to represent the interests of one class or another." Let's discuss the meaning and significance of this phenomenon.

What are the different interests of the different class forces in the struggle against the oppression of Black people in the US? The Black bourgeois forces "have seen that these reforms [elimination of certain formal and legal barriers of discrimination and segregation] could offer them the possibility-given the ways in which they are now situated in this society and, relative to the masses of Black people, their more privileged position-to have a more favorable opportunity to improve their situation within the existing framework, to 'move on up' within this framework, even in some cases to achieve high positions within this system. Now, in reality and whether or not they recognize it (some may and some may not, but the reality is) this is condemning-and so long as this is what holds sway, it will condemn-the masses of Black people, and indeed Black people as a people, as an oppressed nation within the U.S., to continue to suffer horrendous oppression."

A REVOLUTION IN IDEAS FOR A RADICALLY NEW WORLD - A WEEKLY SALON

Dear friends of Revolution Books,

We invite you to join our weekly discussion on Sunday afternoons from 4 - 6pm at Revolution Books. Every week you will be stimulated and challenged.

Even as the memo has gone out that the parameters of "hope" and "change" are defined by a new face atop the empire, people all over the world seethe with discontent, anger and a feeling that there must be a better way that human society could be organized - that another world is, and must be, possible.

Anyone wanting to bring into being that new world immediately confronts two things. One is the repressive force of the authorities brought to bear against those who seriously challenge the powers-that-be. Second is the confrontation in the realm of ideas: morality, science, religion and world-outlook. Complicity versus resistance; whether the oppression of Black people has been transcended or morphed into new dangerous forms; over how to evaluate the first stage of the Communist revolution in the Soviet Union and China.

Today, the most important struggle in the realm of ideas focuses on the KIND of change we need, the THEORY that can guide that change, and the leadership that we have to carry forward that radical transformation.

We state clearly: we need a revolution and none will be possible if it is not grounded in the work being done by and the leadership provided by Bob Avakian, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

If you haven't read Bob Avakian, NOW is the time. Let yourself be challenged by it. If you are someone who finds the current world intolerable and sees the need for a radically different one, then you cannot be true to your own principles without seriously checking out and engaging with Bob Avakian.

These are sessions for all - beginners & veterans; truth seekers of different persuasions; anyone desirous of a better world.

We urge you to join us in this urgently needed collective exploration and conversation around cutting-edge communist theory. The next round of discussions, beginning at the end of May are drawn from a provocative new work by Bob Avakian, "Ruminations and Wranglings; On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning". The full text is available online at revcom.us