From Ike to Mao and Beyond

Oh, yeah!!!

Giant banners to sell your cult leader's book.

That is SO revolutionary.

You could probably get a nicer, slicker banner with a few corporate sponsorships. Anything for the Party... 'cuz the ends justify the means, you know?

All hail the Infinite Omniscient Supreme Glorious Leader Bob Avoidian.

Does this banner mean to suggest that the RCP has gone "beyond" Maoism?

I noticed that they've gotten a bit crunchy in their old age--with that photo of the world as their calling card--but it didn't occur to me that these wack-job exemplars of maoism had given up the gospel.

The RCP and Maoists in the US really dont bear any resemblance to Maoists in China before the Communist takeover or the Chinese government under Mao. They dont really have any connection to the types of groups that sparked the Russian Revolution, the groups that took over the USSR or even the groups that wrote Communist theory in the 1800s. The same can be said of most Communists and Anarchist groups in the US today. Every movement is a reflection of ssocial fcorces in society at the times ther grousp exist and European and US radicals dont resemble in any ways the groups that existed in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Talk about whether a group is really revolutionary is like asking if a Christian sect is really going to aid in the second comming (it suggests one is living in an imaginary world based off end-time myths be it a future revolution, the "end of history", or an Anarchist or Communist Revolution). Why do people become Maoists, Anarchists, Neocons, or join the military? If you really think about it it has very little to do with analysis of Mao's writings vs Anarchist theory and has everything to do with social group dynamics, making friends and feeling like one is part of something larger than oneself. That doesnt mean that when you really look into what groups do that effects society thay are not doing anything effective. The RCP, Anarchist Communists, the ISO and ANSWER really do things that help change society but teh effects are subtle in most cases and have little to do with the ideologies of the groups which are not even that clear to most members. ANSWER and NION (the RCP) did a lot to make Americans feel like it was "safe" to openly denounce Bush's war plans in the fearful days after 9/11. Black Bloc kids played into pop culture images that had all sorts of effects which are subtle but can be seen in things from movies to counter culture clothes styles sold at malls. All protests from ANSWER to DASWA to AWA actions that got reported in in the cororate media or on sites like this also helped make people around the world realize that the US public was not united behind Bush's policies (which probably decreased antiAmericanism but also helped solidify the views of the educated classes in Middle Eastern countries).

One can critique the ideologies of an ANSWER, a NION, the ISO or Anarchist groups and point to why they havent recognized the one truth, but seeing such groups as representing the mystical views espoused in their sacred books is a pretty shallow way to see the groups. Effectively all such groups are "reformist" and the talk of Revolution is just a mythology that helps keep a core membership united and willing to work even through hard times. To call something reformist in radical circles in like saying telling Christiians they wont be part of the rapture, but effectively radical groups are just multi-issue groups raising the profile of certain issues and making the general public feel like disaagreeing with the static quo is more acceptable. The RCP advertising of Bob is gauhce (and counterproductive to the efective movement building the RCP has become so good at lately, but its not that different from any other group promoting some celebrity (be it Chomsky, Ward, or Zizek). The fact that the RCP will fall back on Bob at strange times is a reason to have alternatuve to them so they dont destroy movements they helped to start but the normal Anarchist critique that is scared of the RCP because of the actions of Mao would be like denouncing Lutherans for the actions of Martin Luther; the RCP has a mythology tied to Mao but they are really a product of a segment of the 60s counterculture which clung to Mao in sympathy with anticolonial causes that were based much more on Nationalism than Communism.

I wrote this to challenge an article written by Bob Avakian, the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) called "MLM vs.Anarchism, Part 1: Doing Away with Classes and What a Proletarian State Is Good For."

We will find many totalitarian tendencies implicit in Bob Avakian's words (which are in italics).

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050322135114822

How come this intellectually-challenged authoritarian never actually shows his face anywhere?

Maybe he's overwhelmed by masturbatory fantasies of wielding absolute control and sending all the anarchists to his gulag work camps.

Or, maybe one one of his superpowers allow him to be invisible?

No, actually the answer is quite simple: just like they did in the L. Ron Hubbard cult, BOB AVAKIAN IS DEAD, but the Party Leaders strive to keep this a secret.

You see, when you're trying to build up a PERSONALITY CULT, based upon the worship of a particular individual, it's really really important to have that individual remain alive. If the central God-character in your myth dies too early, before you can fully establish the cult and anoint an Officially Designated Successor, then it all falls to shit.

Tough luck for the RCP Cultists.

Better luck next time. (not)

>If the central God-character in your myth dies too early, before you can fully establish the cult and anoint an Officially Designated Successor, then it all falls to shit.


That's not always true. Look how much more milage Fidel has gotten out of a dead Che than he could out of a live one.

berkeley people love that bridge.
I didn't know until recently that chairman bob came from Berkeley. There is someone who keeps passing out flyers for that long movie. I don't know why they can't summarize his main points though and you just have to go for he whole indoctrination. I'd rather go to the Zizek documentary.
Given that it is a memoir, he should try to sign up for talking with Terry Gross on NPR. Every time I turn on NPR in the afternoons, Terry Gross is talking with various people about their memoirs. You'd think they'd run out of memoirs, but they never do. They will even interview people writing memoirs about memoirs.

Bob on Terry Gross. Will they do the show from the secret Bob-cave where Bob hangs out sothat the govenrment won't assassinate the next Lenin.