Our Ideology is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (original) (raw)

The Revolutionary Potential of the Masses and the Responsibility of the Vanguard
by Bob Avakian
Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Revolutionary Worker #1270, March 13, 2005, posted at rwor.org

EDITORS' NOTE: The following is part of a series of excerpts on various subjects-- drawn from conversations and discussions, as well as more formal talks, by Bob Avakian--which we will be running in this newspaper over the next period of time. This excerpt has been edited for publication.

One of the things that I see, something that I haven't lost sight of, is this: I see all the strength of the ruling class, but I also see all the way through all this shit, all the contradictions in society--I actually see a force in this society that, if it were developed into a revolutionary people, actually could have a go at it, could have a real chance of making a revolution, or being the backbone force of a revolution, when the conditions were ripe. I see a force of millions and millions and millions--youth and others--for whom this system is a horror: It isn't going to take some cataclysmic crisis for this system to be fucking over them. The ruling class, ironically, sees them too. It is those who have once had but have lost--or those who never had--a revolutionary perspective...it is they who can't see this.

So what I'm working on is all the things that are in between that revolutionary potential and its actual realization. How does this force of masses at the base of society get joined by people from other strata, how does it get allies broadly, how does it get "friendly neutrality" among many in the middle strata--how does all this get developed into a revolutionary people that can become a powerful fighting force when the conditions emerge to fight all out for the seizure of power? How does all that happen not in a passive sense , but how do we work on bringing this revolutionary people into being, even if most of the changes in society and the world are not owing to our initiative but to larger objective factors? I actually believe there is such a revolutionary force in potential--I actually believe this, I see this potential--I believe that there is a force there that, if somehow (and the bourgeoisie knows this too) if somehow the bourgeoisie got into a real, deep crisis...[ BA laughs ]
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http://www.rwor.org/a/1270/avakian-revolutionary-masses-vanguard.htm