Robert Bruce Avakian (born March 7, 1943)[1][2] is an American political activist who is the founder and chairman of the
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP). Coming out of the
New Left[3] of the 1960s and influenced strongly by
Maoism, Avakian developed the RCP's theoretical framework, "the New Synthesis" or "New Communism".[4] He has written several books over four decades, including an autobiography.
In the early 1970s, Avakian served a prison sentence for
desecrating the American flag during a demonstration.[5] 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.[3][13][14] After receiving an
arrest warrant, Avakian went to France and applied for political refugee status.[1] In 1980, he gave a speech to 200 protestors in downtown Oakland[15] and his police assault charges were dropped a few years later.[1][3]
In 2005, Avakian published an autobiography, From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist.[1][16] He has been the Revolutionary Communist Party's
central committee chairman and national leader since 1979.[15][17] In 2016, the RCP USA and others helped form the organization
Refuse Fascism, which called for the removal of
Donald Trump.[18]
In August 2020, Avakian released a statement about the rise of
fascism in America, calling on supporters to use "every appropriate means of non-violent action" to remove Trump, including voting for
Joe Biden for President of the United States, while continuing to organize for revolution.[19]
Legacy
Avakian is a controversial figure. He is viewed by supporters as a revolutionary leader whose body of work has advanced communist theory and represents a "pathway to human emancipation" from the capitalist system.[20][21] He is criticized by detractors for an alleged
cult of personality around him,[22][23] which the party has called "lies and slander."[24]
^
abcdefAvakian, Bob (2005). From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist. Insight Press.
ISBN9780976023623.
^Avakian, "Bob Avakian Speaks on the Mao Tsetung Defendants' Railroad and the Historic Battles Ahead", Introduction and pp. 18—21.
^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.