Getting Beyond Avakian’s New Synthesis
By MIKE ELY
How do we make revolution in a world that seems to conspire against liberation? With apparent singlemindedness, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP) has been insisting that its leader, Bob Avakian, has the answers for humanity.
His new theoretical synthesis (this party says) is a major rupture with, and leap beyond, even the best of previous communism, including Marx, Lenin and Mao. And (this party says) this New Synthesis represents the best and even only hope for the future.
The Nine Letters unfold a detailed Maoist critique of Avakian’s synthesis. It engages and criticizes Avakian’s claims and methods.
The main author is Mike Ely, a former editor of the RCP’s Revolution newspaper. These Nine Letters”excavate the RCP’s inability to establish any mass base or revolutionary movement over more than thirty-five years.
They dissect the RCP’s escalating cult of personality around Avakian – with special focus on the cult’s theoretical assumptions, denial of practice, and implications for revolutionary strategy.
In a beginning way, these Nine Letters point to a different road for communists and call on others to join in a very presumptuous work of re-conception and new revolutionary practice.