The world can't wait

The Bush regime in person

"Revolution" is the publication of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a small but relatively well-known Maoist group in the United States. The RCP supported Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four in China, and has been associated with Peruvian Sendero Luminoso's international network RIM (which also regrouped Maoist guerillas in Nepal and some other Asian nations). Today, it seems that the RCP are mostly alone after deciding that their leader Bob Avakian is better than both Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao - a bit like a small Christian group claiming that their pastor is better than Jesus and the apostles. And yes, the RCP has long been notorious for their personality cult of said Avakian, whose portrait used to adorn every issue of the party's now defunct paper "Revolutionary Worker".

This issue of "Revolution" (also available on-line) is relatively uninteresting. Published in August 2005, it naturally focuses on the war in Iraq, the re-election of Georg W Bush, and the percieved threat of "Christian Fascism". The latter seems to be one of RCP's central canards, one article even expositing on various Old Testament passages. Several pieces deal with the splendidness of Bob Avakian. The magazine calls on activists to join a campaign known as "The World Can't Wait" to "drive out the Bush regime". It's not clear how this is going to be accomplished, although I suppose voting Democrat isn't an option for these people! There is also an article defending the people's war in Nepal, waged by a Maoist organization. On a more disturbing note, the RCP gives a nod to "truther" conspiracy theories by uncritically referencing David Ray Griffin's books on 9/11. Unfortunately for us admirers of Whitehead, that *is* the same Griffin who exposits so admirably on process philosophy in more respectable venues...

"Revolution" is directed mostly at young students on campus, and the rhetoric is typical of such groups. The revolution is always behind the corner, a new ideal world is waiting in the wings, just join our campaign against the latest war or Republican president... The exotic Marxism is another staple, good ol' CPUSA or SWP presumably being too boring for angry young radicals. Personally, I'm probably too old for this kind of stuff.

Or perhaps I'm just waiting for other things than Chairman Bob becoming the next U.S. president...