I was banned from Brandeis for distributing Revolution, the weekly paper of the Revolutionary Communist Party (R.C.P.), and this fits into a pattern nationally. Critical thinking is under assault, particularly at college campuses. Witness the threats against Ward Churchill, Native American scholar, or David Horowitzs campaign targeting liberal professors with a new witch hunt. As the ruling class acts to normalize torture, unjust war, secret detentions and profiling of Muslims and Arabs, critical thinking and the emergence of a new student movement is seen as a threat.
Campus security sent me a letter threatening me with arrest if I set foot on school grounds, but I have been to the school a number of times, and each time was welcomed by students and staff. Revolution found an audience for its exposure of the Bush regimes role in New Orleans where over a thousand people died needlessly and many more were brutalized and slandered because of the color of their skin. Students were outraged and trying to understand how such a thing could happen right in the U.S.A. How could this regime be killing tens of thousands of Iraquis and committing the degrading acts we all saw in Abu Graib, and calling this liberation? How could fundamentalists we call christian fascists have so much say in this whitehouse to attack science, abortion and homosexuality, and to actually call the shots for who sits on the Supreme Court? Students were eager to discuss and debate these issues with a Communist, but the police have said they cant.
Does it take a Communist on campus to have these issues debated? Of course not, but the R.C.P. paper brings a unique perspective, not only alerting people to the threat of fascist theocracy, but also pointing to the basis for a new movement of resistance to involve millions, which students can play a major role in launching. The World cant wait protests on November 2nd are the beginning of this.
The R.C.P. also says there is an alternative to capitalism and its related horrors. Youve been lied to about the socialist revolutions in Russia and China, and were out to set the record straight. Raymond Lotta, Maoist political economist is speaking this fall in Boston, on how Socialism is much better than capitalism, and Communism will be a far better world I saw this firsthand when I visited China in 1973, before Teng took over and brought back capitalism. Bob Avakian, the Chairman of the R.C.P., has been writing extensively about the accomplishments of these socialist revolutions so far, and reinvisioning this whole process of the socialist transition to a world without class divisions, Communism. This is one more reason to read Revolution. Ive talked to numerous Brandeis students about all this, and while many find it controversial, none think it should be forbidden.
We stand at a crucial juncture, and what happens at campuses like Brandeis makes a difference. The Bush regime is under siege but lashing back. Choosing Alito is a major step towards a new dark ages. We cant wait for the Democrats, and a President that believes he is on a mission from god is not going to listen to reason. Every student needs to take a stand and speak out, and we truly need to get millions to act to drive out this regime. As we act on this, we also need to debate what comes next. What is the nature of the problem and what is the way out for humanity. If people see the need for that, how could anyone allow the campus police to continue acting as censors?
