The Revolution may not be televised, but it's on film
By HERB BOYD Special to the AmNews
Vol. 95 No. 35 August 5-August 11, 2004
The Amsterdam News
Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, is not a presidential candidate. But if he were, he wouldn't have to scurry to shape a platform since much of it is available in a lengthy talk, "Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About."
Avakian, speaking in public in the U.S. last year for the first time since 1979, offers a full plan for revolutionary transformation, and he gets the attention of Black Americans right away on these four DVDs in his passionate discussion of lynching, police brutality, racial profiling and issues pertinent to African Americans.
Recalling the vicious assaults on Claude Neal, Mary Turner and Emmett Till, Avakian provides a brutal and bloody outline of tragedy, and does it with a fervor that is far too uncommon coming from the mouth of a white man. I can think of only Tim Wise who comes close to genuinely evoking white sympathy as he assails racism and white supremacy.
"White supremacy is built into the system of this country," Avakian charges, after citing the famous remarks of Frederick Douglass during a July 4th address in the 1850s. What Douglass said then about corruption, avarice, hypocrisy and violence that would "disgrace a nation of savages" holds true today, Avakian added.
Reparations, the civil rights movement, and the Black Panther Party are some of the topics Avakian covers with clarity. He condemned the current intolerable conditions, proposing that another world is possible. "His explanation of the working of the imperialist system, and how the struggle of the people can get rid of it and replace it with a just and equitable society, was powerful and uplifting," said veteran activist Yuri Kochiyama.
Indeed it is, and you can reach your own conclusion next Tuesday, August 10, 7 pm at Peter Norton Symphony Space, when the film premieres in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater. The theater is located at 2537 Broadway at 95th Street.
