Demarcations  Issue 4, Winter 2015

Editors' Note, January 1, 2015
As we look forward: rising to the challenges of advancing the cause of communist revolution in the New Year.
We are pleased to publish as our lead article a polemic submitted to Demarcations by Ishak Baran and K.J.A.: “Ajith – A Portrait of the Residue of the Past.” Baran and K.J.A. are  adherents of Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism, and their article is a very important contribution to the response to “Against Avakianism” by Ajith. (When his text was first published, Ajith was secretary general of the Communist Party of India [Marxist-Leninist] Naxalbari, which later merged with the Communist Party of India [Maoist].) (PDF)

Ajith – A Portrait of the Residue of the Past
Ishak Baran and K.J.A.
This article is a very important contribution to the response to Against Avakianism by Ajith. The focus of the author's polemic is philosophy, specifically epistemology (the branch of philosophy concerned with issues of knowledge and truth) and methodology. This is a topic that at first sight might appear abstract and distant from the urgent problems of today’s world. But these philosophical issues have everything to do with putting an end to the madness and horror of our times – with the ability of oppressed humanity and all who yearn for a world worthy of our humanity to understand the world precisely in order to change it (through revolution). (PDF)

Introduction to Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That? – A Landmark Work of Heightened Relevance
Raymond Lotta
We are excited to announce that Phoneme Publishers of Delhi, India has republished Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That? by Bob Avakian. This is a welcome event. It brings Avakian’s 1986 text – the most comprehensive Marxist treatment of democracy – to a much wider audience in India and elsewhere. For this new edition, Raymond Lotta has written a special introduction, which we are making available here. (PDF)

Ruminations and Wranglings: On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning, An Excerpt
Bob Avakian
An excerpt from a 2009 talk by Bob Avakian. There is rich analysis here that takes in issues of how different classes and social forces approach and understand the problems of the world and how to solve them. Avakian discusses the sweep of communist revolution as a "total revolution;" that there is a social base for this revolution in today's world; and the challenges of leading a complex revolutionary process that involves the interplay and struggle between different outlooks, lines and programs representing different classes and class interests. (PDF)

Editors' Note, September 2, 2014
In July 2013, Ajith, the Secretary of what was then called the CPI (M-L) Naxalbari, a Maoist party in India, published a polemic against Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism. Titled “Against Avakianism," it appeared in Naxalbari, the theoretical journal of the party. Our Note gives a brief overview of the responses to Ajith that have already appeared and that are forthcoming in Demarcations. We highlight the essential issues and questions at stake, placing all of this in the context of the current historical moment. This is a debate of great importance—not only for the international communist movement but for all those seeking a better world. (PDF)

Communism or Nationalism?
The Revolutionary Communist Organization, (OCR, Mexico)
Communists in Mexico contribute to the two-line struggle in the international communist movement with a fierce polemic in response to Ajith. The polemic draws out the nationalism running through Ajith’s attacks on a critical component of the new synthesis of communism: internationalism. Bob Avakian has not only upheld but also deepened the understanding of proletarian internationalism. More specifically, he has profoundly conceptualized the relationship between the world arena and revolution in any single country, and the tasks of communists in both the imperialist countries and the oppressed nations. This aspect of the new synthesis of communism marks a real advance since the time of Lenin on these questions. It is marshaled, applied, and brought alive in this polemic by the OCR, Mexico. (PDF)

“The New Synthesis and the Woman Question: The Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution—Further Leaps and Radical Ruptures”
Part III of Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution (2009). (Appearing in Demarcations for the first time, as of September 2014)
Bob Avakian

Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism includes a deepened understanding of why and how the emancipation of women is fundamental and pivotal to the communist revolution. This seminal work critically reviews the historical experience of socialist societies and the communist movement as it relates to women’s emancipation, and sets forth the need and the basis for a further leap and radical rupture, in conception and practice. (PDF)

The (new) Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist and the Crossroads Facing the International Communist Movement,
Robert Borba
(Updated 4/20/2014)
The newly-founded CPN-M, adopting the name of the original Maoist party that led the 10 year People's War from 1996 to 2006, has declared that it has broken with the revisionism of the larger party from which it split, the UCPN(M), denouncing its leaders, and re-taking the revolutionary road in Nepal. This article examines the line of the new CPN-M, its summation of the struggle that led to the split from the UCPN(M), responses from various quarters of the international communist movement (ICM)—in the context of this historical moment, and the crossroads facing the ICM.
(PDF | HTML)

Demarcations  Issue 3, Winter 2014

Egypt, Tunisia and the Arab Spring:
How the Revolts Came to an Impasse and How to Get Out of It
Samuel Albert
In the space of a few short years, what seemed like all-powerful regimes have collapsed, uprisings and revolutionary hope have surged again and again, often only to tumble into deeper, paralyzing despair. A bloody civil war has emerged in Syria and threatens to spread, pitting religious and ethnic groups against each other. The article provides a framework of analysis for the impasse faced today in these countries, indicating the deeper material roots, what is fundamentally needed in terms of a real revolutionary alternative, and what this would look like.

Egypt 2011: Millions Have Heroically Stood Up...The Future Remains To Be Written
A Statement By Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
A public statement from Bob Avakian, released weeks after the fall of Mubarak in Egypt. Avakian hails the upsurge of the people of Egypt and its shattering of the notion that things can never change, and calls for communist leadership to be forged in the midst of and through this uprising to lead the process for the real revolutionary transformation of society and genuine liberation. Recent events have brought the need and relevance of this into even sharper relief.

Letter to Participating Parties and Organizations of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA 
This letter was first distributed privately on May 1, 2012 to parties and organizations that participated in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), an international grouping formed in 1984  as the "embryonic center of the world's Maoist movement." In summing up this experience, the letter discusses the history, and political and ideological basis, of major line struggles within this movement, culminating in what is now the defining two-line struggle in the RIM, between Avakian's new synthesis of communism as a qualitative advance in the science of communism, and its "mirror opposites" – worship of  dry dogma masquerading as "Maoism" and/or outright supporters of bourgeois democracy, the political theories and system that fundamentally are consistent with and enforce the rule of the capitalist class.

The New Synthesis of Communism and the Residues of the Past
The Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico (OCR, Mexico)
Communists in Mexico contribute to the two-line struggle in the international communist movement with a fierce polemic in response to some of the detractors of the new synthesis. In the course of dissecting the opposing arguments, the OCR engages with and elaborates on several of the important themes of the new synthesis.

Reviewing the Differences Between Our Party and the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan
The Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist)
The CPI(MLM) has long been the standard-bearer of revolutionary communism in Iran. In this polemic, they respond forcefully to attacks on the new synthesis coming from a party in Afghanistan, illustrating the need and importance for this theory in the world today. They draw deeply from the experience of the failed revolution in Iran and the errors of the communist movement in that country and internationally.

On the "Driving Force of Anarchy" and the Dynamics of Change
Raymond Lotta
Raymond Lotta's polemic deals with an important and controversial question of Marxist political economy today. How do the laws of capitalist accumulation interact with and set the primary framework for the class struggle? This has everything to do with the understanding the motion and development of human society in this epoch, the kinds of changes that have taken place in the world, especially over the last 50 years, and the ground on which revolution is made. The essay poses the question sharply: what kind of international communist movement will there be, one rooted in science and proceeding from the world as it is, or one that proceeds from "narratives" that force-fit reality into a reassuring belief system.

Editorial   Issue 3

Yet, underlying both, with their seeming complexities, is a simple question:

What is the solution to all this madness and horror in the world today? Is there one? 

Yes. Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism provides a scientific and very concrete answer and approach to this very question.

Avakian’s new synthesis of communism represents and brings forward another way, breaking out of the deadly dynamic where the only choices for billions around the world are Islamic fundamentalism or "American-style democracy," all within the framework of this capitalist-imperialist system globally. As he put it in his statement "Egypt 2011: Millions have heroically stood up... the Future Remains to Be Written," what is needed and possible is: "Freedom from both the outmoded forces which would enslave women, and the people as a whole, in medieval darkness and oppression – and from the outmoded forces who would enslave people in the name of 'democracy'...'freedom'...and capitalist-imperialist exploitation marketed as 'progress.'"

The new synthesis of communism, a real and genuine liberating alternative to capitalism-imperialism and bourgeois democracy, stands out in stark relief at this historical moment. The need for it has been especially true since the restoration of capitalism in China in 1976, following the death of Mao. Since then, and heightened since the unraveling of the revisionist Soviet Union in the nineties (capitalism having been restored in the mid-1950s), the imperialists and bourgeoisie around the world have worked overtime and consistently to slander these initial socialist societies and experiences as "disasters," spreading disinformation and plain lies. Unfortunately this has become conventional wisdom far too much among sections of intellectuals, progressives and others who should know better.

In this context, we want to bring to people's attention and highly recommend the recent interview with Raymond Lotta in Revolution newspaper (revcom.us/revolution/current323-en.html), where he shows how these socialist societies, in the Soviet Union and China, contrary to conventional wisdom, were incredibly emancipatory and liberating, but also marked by errors and shortcomings in methodology and conception.

With the defeat of socialism in China, the whole first stage of communist revolutions has come to an end, and the question objectively posed is this: is communist revolution necessary, desirable and viable in today's world, and, if so, what is the framework for a new stage of communist revolution?

For the last three decades Bob Avakian has been working on this problem. Because of Avakian and the work he has done over several decades, summing up the positive and negative experience of the communist revolution so far and drawing on a broad range of human experience, a new synthesis of communism has been brought forward. There really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new and much better society and world, and there is the crucial leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal.

It is hardly surprising that Avakian's new synthesis has proved a contended question, including among those who consider themselves communists. An increasing number of political parties, organizations and activists (both from the previous communist and Maoist movement and those coming forward in current battles) have been delving into the new synthesis, and some have already concluded that Avakian's body of work, method and approach does indeed chart an emancipatory future on a more scientific basis, providing a real basis for overcoming the crisis in the communist movement, attracting new revolutionary fighters and unleashing a new stage of communist revolution.

Others, however, are furiously flaying the new synthesis either because they have rejected communism wholesale, or because they have adopted a religious view of communism instead of a critical scientific approach to it. These constitute "mirror-opposites" in opposition to the new synthesis: on the one hand, those who return to the bourgeois democratic ideals of the 18th century for inspiration, forsaking communist revolution altogether on a thoroughly superficial, uncritical and unscientific basis – and on the other hand, those who reject both the basis and need for further development of communist theory, treating it essentially as a set of religious precepts, adopting a selective interpretation of the past revolutionary experiences and communist theory, often refracted through a prism of nationalism and bourgeois-democracy. Both mirror-opposites include those who claim to be "communists" and "Maoists," adopting the moniker but revising and undermining the content.

As a basic foundation for anyone genuinely seeking to understand and change the world – and for an overarching framing, texture and content on these themes, we recommend Communism, The Beginning of A New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), USA, and articles in this and previous issues of this journal. In this issue, Demarcations continues its mission of polemical engagement of the new synthesis with both of these "mirror-opposites."

Underlying this polemical engagement is a set of questions extremely relevant and urgent to those who seek to change the world: What are the dynamics that explain how the world operates? What is the method and approach for understanding reality and transforming it? What is the problem, the cause of this oppression, exploitation and needless suffering in the world today  – what is the solution to all this? What is communism and what is a real revolution that leads to emancipation? How do we understand previous experiences of revolution and radically transforming society, especially in the Soviet Union and China? What is the way forward to emancipating humanity, and the framework for a new stage of communist revolution today?

A Word on the Documents from the Debates in the International Communist Movement

A long-brewing debate in the ranks of communists sharing a common history as part of the world Maoist movement has fully exploded into the open.

The debate is principally over whether communist revolution is viable and desirable in today's world, and what constitutes the framework for a new stage of communist revolution, with Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism as the central reference and focal point in this debate.

Several of the articles in this issue originally appeared as documents of this major two-line struggle, a term coined by Mao Tsetung to describe the periodic, fierce conflict between two diametrically opposed political and ideological positions and methodological approaches, ultimately demarcating between the roads of revolution, radically changing the world, and revisionism, leaving the world as is. These polemics are part of a discussion that began among parties and organizations making up the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM). We are publishing these contributed articles as a package because of their coherence and common themes. With this we seek to further Demarcations' above-mentioned mission of polemical engagement with the "mirror opposites" and helping bring forward and forge communists in the world today, the greatest need of the hour. Some of these articles have already appeared publicly in various languages.

The Open Letter issued by the RCP, USA was first written and addressed to the parties and organizations of the RIM. RIM was founded in 1984 after the defeat of the revolution in China following the death of Mao Tsetung and the coup d'etat directed against Mao's closest supporters. RIM defended and propagated "Marxism-Leninism-Maoism," as the science of revolutionary communism was called, and it sought to act as the "embryonic center of the world's Maoist forces." Because of this important historical experience it is natural and correct that important discussions focus on the emergence and development of the differences in RIM and understanding their political, ideological and material roots.

As noted above, a number of organizations and parties are substantively engaging with and standing up in defense of Avakian's new synthesis. This is a very important development which needs to be welcomed, carried forward and furthered. The articles by the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) and the Revolutionary Communist Organization, Mexico are important initial salvos in the two-line struggle. These efforts are far more than simply taking the right side in a vital dispute – these polemics are an important way in which the overall understanding of how to advance in making revolution, communist revolution, advances.

Raymond Lotta's article "On the 'Driving Force of Anarchy' and the Dynamics of Change" is a response to a particular debate in the communist movement over how to understand the motion of capitalism.  The lessons of this debate, however, are crucial to anyone who wants to really understand how capitalism functions, whether it can be reformed, and whether it is necessary and possible to organize a different socio-economic system – all with high stakes for humanity. As he concludes the article, "What is at stake is a materialist understanding of the world, of what must be changed in people's thinking and society, and how. Anything other than a truly scientific approach is going to leave the world as it is. What is at stake is the communist revolution that humanity needs: to resolve the fundamental contradiction of the epoch and to emancipate humanity and safeguard the planet."

In future issues we hope to publish more contributions we receive from others in the international communist movement. These polemics will help many of those who have been part of the international communist movement make sense of current debates and shed new light on a common experience. But these polemics are no less important for the many other people who have not taken part in the communist movement previously. They also have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to learn from the experience and debates, compare and contrast opposing political and ideological lines, and strive to reach scientific and correct conclusions.

The Arab Spring: the Impasse and the Way Forward

The world keeps spinning and new possible pathways of revolutionary change emerge even while others seem to slam shut. The Arab Spring of 2011 with its continuing repercussions, like the social explosions in countries such as Greece, Turkey and Brazil, all present many new features and pose sharp challenges and questions about whither society and what constitutes freedom.

The momentous events in the Middle East and North Africa over the last few years have been a great laboratory in which some different political and ideological orientations have been amplified and tested. There have been ardent advocates and proponents of Western-style bourgeois democracy, reformists who have tried to confine the horizons to what is possible within and through the tutelage of the world imperialist system and the advocates of "political Islam."All of these programs and outlooks have failed to provide any way out for the masses of people, or anything remotely resembling genuine liberation.

Why are we in the situation we are in today, what do these different forces fundamentally represent, what is the role of the state and the army and their relation to the Western imperialist powers, what is real revolution, and most fundamentally, what will it take to get on the road to truly liberating the people. In short, what is the problem, what is the solution? Debated in Tahrir Square, across North Africa and the Middle East and around the world in different ways, all are questions of this historical moment.

The article "Egypt, Tunisia and the Arab Spring: How the Revolts Came to an Impasse and How to Get Out of It," largely crafted before the events of the later part of 2013, addresses some of these themes and questions, and points the way forward, highlighting the need for revolutionary communism and leadership on this basis, bringing into sharper relief the need and basis to forge communist organization and influence in the midst of a continuing turbulent situation. There is a real need for science, for communist theory to know and change the world. 

This is an analogy that I have found helpful: Reality is like a fire, like a burning object, and if you want to pick up that burning object and move it, you have to have an instrument with which to do it. If you try to do it bare-handed, the result is not going to be good. That's another way of getting at the role of theory in relation to the larger world that needs to be transformed, in relation to practice, and in particular revolutionary practice, to change the world.
        —BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian 4:21
        (Bringing Forward Another Way, Revolution #93, June 24, 2007)

Do not underestimate the difference that could be made by the emergence of even small groupings, collectives and organizations with a revolutionary communist orientation and a correspondingly scientific approach could make in the midst of and out of this turbulent situation.

All this makes the mass distribution of this article – to be translated into and available in Arabic on this website – a pressing and urgent task, on the Internet and in the public square, in homes and in tea-shops. The Manifesto referenced above, Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, now available in Arabic (revcom.us/Manifesto/index.html), is critical for training and bringing forward a new generation of initiators of a new stage of communist revolution in the world today.

Those from other parts of the world, and people who in many cases may be coming from different political experiences and ideological landscapes, also need to pay serious attention to the lessons to be learned when revolutionary communist leadership, organization and influence is missing from a mighty upheaval of the masses.

Avakian's statement “Egypt 2011: Millions Have Heroically Stood Up...the Future Remains to Be Written” is reprinted in these pages, not only because of prescience in analyzing the political situation in Egypt, but fundamentally because this remains what needs to be done. It is also available in Arabic (revcom.us/avakian/Egypt/Egypt2011BAstatement-arabic.pdf)*. This is an example of the kind of bold, forthright, scientific revolutionary communist leadership needed in the world today, including the politics and orientation that needs to be taken into the most turbulent of mass movements.

* The Egypt statement is also available in Spanish, German, and French (in addition to English and Arabic) at revcom.us.

Issue No 2, Summer-Fall 2012

K.J.A.: "Scientifically Comprehending, Firmly Upholding And Going Beyond Maoism for a New Stage of Communism—Polemical Reflections on 'What Is Maoism?' An Essay by Bernard D'Mello"
A wide-ranging response to the article "What Is Maoism?" that appeared in the Economic and Political Weekly from India. D'Mello's article articulates and concentrates a major line in the world today, principally in the form of reconfiguring communism as bourgeois democracy.

Bob Avakian: "The Cultural Revolution in China...Art and Culture...Dissent and Ferment...and Carrying Forward the Revolution Toward Communism"
A provocative historical and conceptual overview of what "the Cultural Revolution was seeking to address, and was addressing," while also identifying certain problems in conception and approach. The interview is a kind of laboratory of the new synthesis: providing scientific understanding and appreciation of the Cultural Revolution, the high point of the first stage of communist revolution, and indicating ways in which the next stage of communist revolution can go further and do better. This originally appeared in Revolution newspaper.

Raymond Lotta: "Vilifying Communism and Accommodating Imperialism, The Sham and Shame of Slavoj Žižek's 'Honest Pessimism'"
Raymond Lotta's sharp polemic against Slavoj Žižek's "fusillade of distortion of the historical experience of revolution and socialism in the 20th century, accompanied by an egregiously uninformed and unprincipled attack on Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism." Slavoj Žižek is an influential public intellectual who is perceived and presented as one of the most radical theorists on communism itself. Lotta begins and ends his piece with a challenge to Žižek to publicly debate these issues. This polemic originally appeared in January 2012 in Revolution newspaper.

"The Current Debate on the Socialist State System"—A Reply by the RCP, USA
An answer to an article by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [Naxalbari]. This response, from 2006 and appearing publicly for the first time, addresses some critical issues of epistemology and political theory that demarcate the new synthesis of communism from other lines within the broader international communist movement.

Letter to the Editors and Reply
Exchange over the article "Alain Badiou's 'Politics of Emancipation': A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World" in Demarcations no 1.

Editorial Issue 2

Since the inaugural issue of Demarcations, the world has witnessed renewed upsurge, with mass social movements in Egypt and elsewhere capturing the imagination of and stirring defiance among broad sections of people who find the present order intolerable. This fresh wind of resistance and revolt has also been felt in the rebellions in London, in the Occupy and other youth and protest movements, while revolutionary struggles and resistance continue in various parts of the Third World.

Puncturing people's belief in, as Marx put it, "the permanent necessity of existing conditions", this renewal of upsurge has also brought fundamental questions to the fore: Of revolution – what is it? Of leadership – is it needed, and of what type? Of the state (and its armies and police) – should it be confronted, and can it be confronted? And what it means for the masses to make history. Most of all, the decisive question getting posed is what social change and what future are desirable and possible – and what constitutes freedom and emancipation.

Some of these crucial questions, posed by the Egypt upsurge and the Occupy movements, were addressed in the polemic against the political philosophy of Alain Badiou that appeared in the first issue of Demarcations: "Alain Badiou's 'Politics of Emancipation': A Communism Locked Within the Confines of the Bourgeois World." That polemic takes on new relevance in light of recent developments in the world, and we encourage readers to (re)engage with and respond to it. We also call readers' attention to Bob Avakian's statements on the Egypt uprising [revcom.us/avakian/Egypt/Egypt2011-en.html] and the Occupy movements [revcom.us/a/250/avakian_on_the_occupy_movement-en.html].

What is achingly missing in these new crucibles of struggle is a vision of a radically different society, and how to get there – which focuses up the question of communist leadership. The fact is, a viable and liberatory alternative to this world of horrors – and the kind of leadership needed to bring a new world into being – is concentrated in Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism. This new synthesis needs to be much more widely known, engaged, and taken up.

Why Demarcations? Why Now?

Demarcations: A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic seeks to set forth, defend, and further advance the theoretical framework for the beginning of a new stage of communist revolution in the contemporary world. This journal will promote the perspectives of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

Without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement. Without drawing sharp dividing lines between communism as a living, critical, and developing science serving the emancipation of humanity, on the one hand, and other perspectives, paths, and programs that cannot lead to emancipation, on the other – whether openly reformist or claiming the mantle or moniker of "communism"—without making such demarcations, it will not be possible to achieve the requisite understanding and clarity to radically change the world. Demarcations will contribute to achieving that clarity.

In the wrangling spirit of Marxism, Demarcations will also delve into questions and challenges posed by major changes in the world today. The last quarter-century has seen intensified globalization, growing urbanization and shantytown-ization in the Third World, the rise of religious fundamentalism, shifting alignments in the world imperialist system, and the acceleration of environmental degradation. Demarcations will examine such changes, the discourses that have grown up in connection with them, and the ideological, political, and strategic implications of such developments for communist revolution. Demarcations will also undertake theoretical explorations of issues of art, science, and culture.

Demarcations makes its appearance at a particular historical juncture in the communist project, one best characterized as the "end of a stage, the beginning of a new stage."

The first wave of socialist revolutions and societies began with the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, the first attempt to overthrow and replace bourgeois rule. It took a leap with the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, and went further and took yet another leap with the Chinese revolution of 1949, in particular the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. This first wave came to an end in 1976 with the overthrow of proletarian power and restoration of capitalist rule in China.

This first wave of socialist societies in the Soviet Union (1917-1956) and China (1949-1976) constituted an unprecedented and inspiring breakthrough in liberation for humanity. At the same time, and not surprisingly, this first wave was secondarily marked by shortcomings and mistakes; and while not the cause of capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union and China, these shortcomings did nonetheless play a role in the defeats of these revolutions.

With the end of this first stage, communists have been confronted with the objective responsibility of scientifically summing up the lessons and legacy of these revolutions and the rich experience of exercising state power towards the transition to communism, in order to forge the theoretical framework for going forward.

Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, has risen to that challenge and in the process qualitatively advanced communist theory. He has developed a theoretical framework for the new stage of communist revolutions, a new synthesis. This new synthesis is not a pasting-together of the "best of the previous experience" and the criticisms of these experiences. Rather, as Communism: The Beginning of A New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, puts it, the new synthesis "builds on all that has gone before, theoretically and practically, drawing the positive and negative lessons from this, and raising this to a new, higher level of synthesis."

In terms of philosophy and method, the new synthesis establishes communism even more fully and firmly on a scientific foundation. It deepens understanding of the material basis for internationalism and why, in an ultimate and overall sense, the world arena is most decisive, even in terms of revolution in a particular country. On the character of the dictatorship of the proletariat, Avakian has brought forward a model of socialism as a vibrant and dynamic society – characterized by great ferment, dissent, experimentation, and initiative – that is also a revolutionary transition to communism. The new synthesis also comprehends a breakthrough in the strategic approach to revolution in today's world, in particular an orientation for making revolution in the imperialist countries such as the U.S. For more, go to bobavakian.net.

As the Manifesto, Communism: The Beginning of A New Stage, points out, Bob Avakian's new synthesis objectively stands in opposition to two seemingly alternate but in fact mirror-opposite conceptions of communism that, among those who consider themselves, or at one time considered themselves, to be communists, have emerged in response to the defeat of the first wave.

In a nutshell, the first conception buys into the bourgeois verdict that the socialist societies in the Soviet Union and China in the 20th century were fundamentally flawed and oppressive – marked by the "totalitarian," "bureaucratic," and undemocratic "dictatorship of the party." Central to this conception is the rejection of what some of its adherents term the "party-state" framework, that is, the need to seize state power and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat as the transition to communism, and the need for the leadership of the vanguard party through this process.

Intertwined with this negative appraisal of the historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat is the supposition that revolution and the actual seizure of state power are no longer possible. This is accompanied by a rejection, sometimes expressly so and sometimes thinly lacquered with Marxist rhetoric, of the philosophy of dialectical materialism and of historical materialism (the scientific understanding of the development and transformation of human society based on the application of materialist dialectics). In their stead is the wholesale adoption of pragmatism and empiricism, the worship of bourgeois democracy, either explicitly or in the form of "new" thinking, that blunts the antagonistic contradiction of the masses with the capitalist-imperialist or dependent neocolonial state and affords the state "agency," unmoored and severed from the underlying production relations of society. This ends up, ultimately, in the advocacy of all manner of economism and reformism.

The second conception clings uncritically, in a quasi-religious way, to previous socialist experience – thus ranging itself against a scientific approach to historical summation of the communist project and to the further advance of the communist project in making revolution and emancipating humanity.

Starting in the 1970s, there has also been an ebbing worldwide of revolutionary and national liberation struggles that has given strength to these trends – as has a relentless imperialist-bourgeois ideological assault on the communist experience and the communist project in the wake of the defeat of socialism in China in 1976, and in some ways heightened with the fall of the revisionist (state-capitalist) Soviet Union in 1990-91.

As the Manifesto from the RCP, USA, further points out, both of these conceptions share significant features. These include pragmatism in place of science; a profound lack of engagement with and appreciation for "Mao Tsetung's path-breaking analysis concerning the danger of and basis for capitalist restoration in socialist society... [and] with what principles and objectives Mao initiated and led this Cultural Revolution." Further, both of these conceptions hold in common a retreat to the past, either to the previous stage of socialist revolution, or even further back to the era of bourgeois revolution and its principles, "to what are in essence 18th century theories of (bourgeois) democracy, in the guise, or in the name, of '21st-century communism...'"

The Manifesto concludes this discussion with the following call:

It is only by rupturing with these erroneous tendencies, and deeply engaging with and becoming more firmly grounded in the viewpoint, methods, and principles of communism, as they have been developed up to this point (and must be continually developed further), that communists can rise to the great responsibility and challenge of indeed being a vanguard of the future, and not consign themselves to remaining, or degenerating into, a residue of the past, and in so doing betray the masses of people throughout the world for whom the communist revolution represents the only road out of the madness and horror of the present world and toward a world truly worth living in.

Demarcations is taking up this call and challenge to be part of the vanguard of the future.

To put it concisely, Demarcations is the polemical engagement of the new synthesis with other conceptions and approaches to the "problem" of the oppression and exploitation of world humanity...and its solution, to "what is to be done" to make revolution and emancipate humanity. Through articles and polemics, as well as through moderated debates and exchanges, Demarcations aims to assist those seeking a better world to compare and contrast various theoretical perspectives and programs and to draw a broader audience into a deeper understanding of and engagement with communism, as a living and developing science, and its most advanced expression in the new synthesis.

Demarcations takes to heart Bob Avakian's injunction that "transformation goes through a lot of different 'channels,' and is not tied in a positivist or reductionist or linear way to however the main social contradictions are posing themselves at a given time." He is underscoring the relative autonomy and initiative of the superstructure; and the journal plans over time, as mentioned earlier, to feature articles on art, debates on communist ethics and values, and science. In this spirit, Demarcations will interrogate various political and theoretical trends exerting influence in the current conjuncture.

We invite correspondence in response to articles in Demarcations and in connection with questions and controversies falling within the broad scope of this mission statement. We also encourage suggestions and proposals for future issues. We aim to reach tens of thousands across the globe, in movements, in colleges and universities, and at sites of struggle and resistance – while also forging the ways and means for growing cores to support the mission of this journal. We welcome your input, feedback, and participation.