Bob Avakian

Robert Bruce Avakian (born March 7, 1943)<ref name="Mao and Beyond">Template:Cite book</ref> is an American political activist and Maoist philosopher who is the founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP), which has been described as a cult of personality centered around Avakian.

Early life

Avakian was born on March 7, 1943, in Washington, D.C., to Ruth and Spurgeon "Sparky" Avakian. His father was an Armenian American lawyer, civil rights activist, and later as an Alameda County Superior Court judge.<ref name="Mao and Beyond" /><ref name="Peking Tom" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> After spending his first three years in the Washington metropolitan area, he spent the rest of his childhood and adolescence in Berkeley, California.<ref name="Mao and Beyond" /><ref>RNL Show, November 2022. "The Bob Avakian Interviews": Part 1, Part 3</ref>

Political activities

As a student at UC Berkeley, Avakian became involved with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Free Speech Movement<ref name="Peking Tom">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Black Panther Party.<ref name="Boston Globe">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1968, he wrote articles for the Peace and Freedom Party's publications<ref name="Star News">Template:Cite news</ref> and in July 1969, he spoke at the Black Panther Party conference in Oakland, California.<ref name="Eve Indie">Template:Cite news</ref> Avakian was a member of the SDS Revolutionary Youth Movement II faction, and ran as the RYM II candidate for National Secretary at the 1969 SDS National Convention. Avakian was defeated by Mark Rudd of the faction later known as the Weather Underground.<ref name="Sale">Template:Cite book</ref> During that period, Avakian was a founding member of the Bay Area Revolutionary Union<ref name="Express">Template:Cite news</ref> alongside Leibel Bergman.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

In the early 1970s, Avakian served a prison sentence for desecrating the American flag during a demonstration.<ref name="Peking Tom" /> He was charged with assaulting a police officer in January 1979 at a demonstration in Washington, D.C. to protest Deng Xiaoping's meeting with Jimmy Carter.<ref name="Boston Globe" /><ref>Avakian, "Bob Avakian Speaks on the Mao Tsetung Defendants' Railroad and the Historic Battles Ahead", Introduction and pp. 18—21.</ref><ref>Athan G. Theoharis, "FBI Surveillance: Past and Present", Cornell Law Review, Vol. 69 (April 1984); and Peter Erlinder with Doug Cassel, “Bazooka Justice: The Case of the Mao Tse Tung Defendants – Overreaction Or Foreshadowing?”, Public Eye, Vol. II, No. 3&4 (1980), pp. 40—43.</ref> After receiving an arrest warrant, Avakian went to France and applied for political refugee status.<ref name="Mao and Beyond" /> In 1980, he gave a speech to 200 protestors in downtown Oakland<ref name="Logansport">Template:Cite news</ref> and his police assault charges were dropped a few years later.<ref name="Mao and Beyond" /><ref name="Boston Globe" />

Avakian has been the RCP's central committee chairman and national leader since 1979.<ref name=Logansport/><ref name="Tar Heel">Template:Cite news</ref> As chairman, he has produced a large body of work that articulates what the RCP identifies as "the new synthesis of communism" or "new communism".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, the RCP USA and others helped form the organization Refuse Fascism, which called for Donald Trump's removal from office.<ref name="montgomery">Template:Cite web</ref>

Cult of personality

Avakian has been criticized as the center of a cult of personality within the RCP.<ref name="Indypendent2014">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Harpers">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Vice">Template:Cite news</ref> Aaron J. Leonard, a former RCP member, identified Avakian's 1979 trial as a catalyst in the development of this cult of personality.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 2016, former USLAW national coordinator Michael Eisenscher called the RCP "a cult around Avakian" in an interview with Harper's Magazine.<ref name="Harpers" /> In June 2022, a coalition of 23 abortion rights, feminist, and mutual-aid groups released a statement denouncing RCP and the affiliated abortion rights organization Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, and calling the RCP a cult.<ref name="Vice" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Avakian has noted that the RCP emphasizes "the great importance of the work I have done, and continue to do", but claims that criticism of his position within the RCP is "unscientific".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The party has called any claims of cultism within its ranks "lies and slander".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:Instagram
• Template:Official Website for The Bob Avakian Institute