A new book, “BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian”, has just been released. Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, is a wide-ranging critical thinker; this book speaks powerfully to questions of revolution and human emancipation. Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF) and Revolution newspaper (www.revcom.us) are sending 2000 copies of BAsics to prisoners across the US. This is a very bold foray to expand the influence of Avakian’s unique revolutionary perspective widely throughout US prisons. At $10/copy, this costs $20,000. Your help is needed to get this vital educational material to thousands of prisoners.

“…Like Cornel West, I say this not because I fully agree with everything that Bob Avakian teaches, but because Bob Avakian's revolutionary teachings and theory challenges me to think on the highest level of logic and reasoning, keeps my analytical mind strong, and my discriminating eye sharp… (read more)

Giving prisoners an opportunity to think critically is a key part of PRLF’s mission. In today’s world, only a very few people are ever taught or allowed to think critically. Despite the best efforts of many teachers and intellectuals, what often prevails is declared “true” not because it is true, but because it serves the same powerful interests that control the economy and the rest of society.

By contrast, Avakian actively brings people who have been locked out of working with ideas into intellectual life, and he seeks the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it might be. You can see this in BAsics – his ideas are easily understood, clear, and are at the same time very deep.

“For many years, I was bound & chained to the walls of ignorance. However, thanks to the revolutionary leadership of Bob Avakian, the RCP, as well as the collective of individuals who make such a leadership even possible & effective, I have since been provided with the tools to shatter these chains from deep within the bowels of the beast. I now enthusiastically accept the responsibility of helping others do the same. (read more)

Look again at what the prisoners write. Click on, and read, each of the excerpts above. Read other prisoners’ letters here.

Prisoners engage with Avakian’s unique revolutionary perspective from many perspectives of their own. As they write about and discuss world events and key political, cultural and philosophical questions of the day, they often shatter stereotypes – of who these prisoners are, what they think about, how they are transforming their understanding of the world and their roles in it. They often rise far above the brutal suppression and degradation of the hellholes where they live.

YOU can make a huge difference to prisoners’ lives and their education. Donate as much as you can to send BAsics to prisoners. Every $10 that you donate will let us send a copy of BAsics to a prisoner. Often, one book is circulated among many prisoners.

Read BAsics yourself, find out yourself what is so important to these prisoners, and tell your friends to do the same. Ask them to also donate to spreading BAsics throughout the hellholes of American prisons.

As one prisoner said, “I personally thank you for seeing us as human beings that can change with proper education. Many of us came to these dungeons when we were kids. Our way of thinking has changed, but society deemed us to be unchangeable.”