Robert Bruce Avakian (born March 7,1943) [1] is an American political activist and Maoist philosopher who is the founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA (RCP). Coming out of the New Left [2] of the 1960s,he has authored the organization’s ideological framework,"the New Synthesis" or "New Communism". [3] [4]
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. [1] [5] [6] After spending his first three years in the Washington metropolitan area,he spent the rest of his childhood and adolescence in Berkeley,California. [1] [7]
As a student at UC Berkeley,Avakian became involved with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS),the Free Speech Movement [5] and the Black Panther Party. [2] In 1968,he wrote articles for the Peace and Freedom Party's publications [8] and in July 1969,he spoke at the Black Panther Party conference in Oakland,California. [9] 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. [10] During that period,Avakian was a founding member of the Bay Area Revolutionary Union [11] alongside Leibel Bergman. [12] : 101
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. [2] [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] [2]
Avakian has been the RCP's central committee chairman and national leader since 1979. [15] [16] In 2016,the RCP USA and others helped form the organization Refuse Fascism,which called for Donald Trump's removal from office. [17]
In August 2020,Avakian urged his supporters to vote Trump out,calling opposition to the rising tide of fascism in the United States a top priority. [18]
Avakian is a controversial figure. Supporters see him as a revolutionary leader and claim his body of work has advanced communist theory and represents a "pathway to human emancipation" from the capitalist system. [19] [20] Detractors criticize the RCP as a cult of personality around him, [21] which the party has called "lies and slander". [22]
Books
Films
James LeGros portrays Avakian in the 1995 Mario Van Peebles film Panther .