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Because We Don't Have to Live This Way

Editors’ note: This is the text of the speech by Annie Day, speaking for the revcoms, at the International Women’s Day event in Los Angeles, March 11, slightly edited.

We don't have to live in a world where women and girls are beaten, brutalized, degraded, demeaned, hated and shamed… this world where women and girls are pimped and tricked, sold into sexual exploitation on an industrial scale... where LGBT people are demonized, despised and terrorized... where women and girls are forced to become mothers against their will—with NO choice, NO matter their conditions, hopes or dreams...

We live this way now—not because of human nature or the nature of men—but because of a system of capitalism-imperialism that has the heavy chains of hundreds, and thousands, of years of patriarchal oppression woven into its every fiber.  This system has to be swept away… pulled up by the roots and overthrown through an actual revolution.

This revolution is possible.  A revolution that shatters the rule of this system over society and brings into being a whole new system with an economy based on meeting the needs of the people, not the drive for profit rooted in the vicious exploitation of people, including women in sweatshops around the world… a whole new society moving to uproot the old, oppressive ways of thinking and acting… unleashing a struggle against the suffocating patriarchal gender roles in every sphere of society—including the dehumanizing of boys and misshaping of men... a world where no woman ever again feels terror at footsteps in the dark, where our relations of love and sex don't come with the danger of violence and force, where the rearing of the next generation is a collective responsibility and joy. 

WE DO NOT HAVE TO LIVE THIS WAY and we are in a rare time when this revolution has become MORE possible.

 

We are not in normal times—as bad as those were... and there is no turning back.  The oppressive rulers of this system are split in a way they haven’t been since the Civil War 150 years ago.  The fascists now in the halls of power, in the courts, and throughout society—they don’t believe in and are not playing by the rules of this system anymore—and they are determined to enforce their dark ages biblical future on society—taking away ANY right to abortion, birth control, gay marriage, trans rights and any rights for LGBT people… as part of their overall agenda of white supremacy, and fascist theocracy.  To enforce this, they are stealing elections, shredding the laws, and preparing for a one-sided civil war.

The other section of the rulers, these mainstream imperialist Democrats, have no answer to any of this!  And anyway, they’re facing off with Russia and China in a way that could lead to World War 3. 

These splits at the top are tearing apart the whole society. And this crisis could unravel their whole system... if we seize on this!

This could, as the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian (BA) has said, lead to “something terrible, OR something truly emancipating.”... and this could come to a head sooner than you think... with a real fighting chance to take this system on, to defeat them through an actual revolution, and to free the planet from their death grip.

WE DON'T HAVE TO LIVE THIS WAY.

But to not live this way we have to get serious and we have to get organized—the revcoms have a plan for how to make this revolution, a strategy. We have a blueprint for what could replace this system in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America written by Bob Avakian. And we have visionary and scientific leadership for this revolution—in BA, and the revcoms. 

Now is the time to get with this revolution.

It's time to stop looking up to the Cardi B's, Ice Spice's and Beyoncé's telling you your power lies in your ability to sell yourself, mimicking the misogyny of “bitch” this, “bitch” that, treating others like dogs on the terms of this dog-eat-dog system...

It's time to stop following politicians and CEOs telling you that all we have to do is break the glass ceiling, and get more “girl bosses” atop an empire that depends on sucking the life out of women all over the world…

It’s time to stop being afraid to say the word WOMAN… allowing ourselves to be divided by identities; stop canceling each other and instead canceling this whole system…

It's time to stop swallowing your anger, turning it inwards… cutting yourself, starving yourself, reshaping your body parts to make you a more valuable commodity or hating yourself when you can't... it's time to raise your sights beyond yourself...

It's time to get real and fight for something that really IS worth fighting for—something that could really make possible a whole new way.

As BA has said,

Instead of “staying in your lane,” and “going for self,” while this system is moving to even more decisively crush any hope for a world worth living in, people need to be looking at the bigger picture, focusing on the greater interests of humanity and the possibility for a far better world—and acting to make this a reality.

Look around you—we know we are not yet the numbers we need, but look at each other... see each other... feel each other. Coming together AS A FORCE, welded together AS A FORCE we can start to change things—we can start to change how people see what's possible, what's necessary, we can break through the feelings of despair and hopelessness and powerlessness. We can call forward the others... the angry ones... the impatient ones... and the revolutionary forces can grow from small to large. And believe me when I say that this system and those who rule it are terrified if we come together in this way... They want us to stay silent, obedient, acquiescent and sad... they do not want us to feel our power, our anger, our hope for a different world, or our fury...

Now is the time to join the revolution... for everyone who hungers for a better world... who wants to see an end to the long night in which humanity has been divided into masters and slaves, and who wants to see a dawning of a new day for humanity.

Break the Chains! Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution. (call and response)

 

Palm Card Front - BA Interview - local info (color)

 

We are at a turning point in history. The capitalist-imperialist system is a horror for billions of people here and around the world and threatening the very fabric of life on earth. Now the election of fascist Trump poses even more extreme dangers for humanity—and underscores the total illegitimacy of this system, and the urgent need for a radically different system.

The website Revcom.us follows the revolutionary leadership of Bob Avakian (BA), the author of the new communism. Bob Avakian has scientifically analyzed that we are in a rare time when an actual revolution has become more possible in the U.S. He’s charted a strategy for making that revolution, and laid out a sweeping vision and concrete blueprint for “what comes next” in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America.

Revcom.us projects BA’s voice, leadership, and vision throughout society. It posts his timely leadership for the revcoms (revolutionary communists) and the whole movement for revolution, including his social media posts, and curates his whole body of work. 

Our website applies the scientific approach BA has developed to analyze major events in society and the world—why they are happening, how they relate to each other, how all this relates to the system we live under, where people's interests lie, how revolution is in fact the solution to all this, and what the goals of that revolution are.

Revcom.us acts as a guiding and connecting hub for the revcom movement nationwide: showing what’s being done, digging into what’s right and what’s wrong, and rapidly learning—and recruiting new people into what has to be a rapidly growing force. As part of this, revcom.us feature and promotes the weekly The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show on YouTube.com. 

Put it this way: there will be no revolution unless this website not only “keeps going” but rises to a whole different level!

DONATE NOW to revcom.us and get with BA and the revcoms!

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