Elemental Magazine Review
Elemental Magazine Issue #67
Book Review by Bret Duchen
From Ike to Mao and Beyond
by Bob Avakian
American revolutionary figure and Communist Party leader Bob Avakian's new memoir is refreshing in its urging of social action. While far removed from the hip-hop spectrum, it screams out to the rap generation. You'll definitely learn more than you will from an Immortal Technique or The Coup track.
In recounting his past, Avakian presents a concise history of American movement politics beginning in the 1950s. While in college, Avakian became a major protest figure and quickly aligned himself with the intensifying Black Panther Party. Though not actually a Panther, his work with the organization and its minister of information, Eldridge Cleaver, is extremely relevant to the struggle for Black liberation. The reader gets information about the Black Power struggle and black nationalist organizations that is available nowhere else. Avakian's recollections speak volumes about contemporary race relations and recount the important events of several eras.
His significance reaches well past civil rights. He has tirelessly worked for the liberation of all oppressed people and fought against all modes of tyranny, most notably America's masked fascist tendencies and capitalist blunders.
I do not necessarily support communism and a violent overthrow of our government, but Avakian's claims are compelling. His solutions for worldly ills are seemingly simple, but complex and possibly inappropriate when related to issues of personal liberty and international sovereignty.
Political debate aside, the book is entertaining and honest. Avakian retraces his entire life, and with it, all of America's relevant social issues. In remembering his early years, the reader learns about McArthyism and the Red Scare. In recalling his high school experience, one learns about early Black pop music and how it pulled races together as it does today (while also promoting stereotypes, remember). In learning how Avakian became radicalized over the years, the reader learns about topics as varied as how Congress actually works to why particular socialist revolutions collapsed.
As Avakian gets older and more involved in the movement, the prose gets more passionate. You can feel the energy of revolution, while being detached enough to question Avakian's message.
That ability to formulate your own interpretation should not be dismissed. One can be easily blinded by energetic rhetoric, but examining varied messages leads to a proper understanding of ideological intricacies. This journey offers the ability to compare philosophies in order to choose one's appropriate path. I laude Avakian for finding his.