Bob Avakian

Robert Bruce Avakian (born March 7, 1943) is an American political activist who is the founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP). Coming out of the New Left of the 1960s and influenced strongly by Maoism, Avakian developed the RCP's theoretical framework, "the New Synthesis" or "New Communism". He has written several books over four decades, including an autobiography.

Early life
Avakian was born on March 7, 1943, in Washington, D.C., to Ruth and Spurgeon Avakian. His father was a prominent Armenian American lawyer, civil rights activist, and later judge on the Alameda County, California superior court. After spending his first three years in the Washington metropolitan area, he spent the rest of his childhood and adolescence in Berkeley, California.

Political activities
As a young man, Avakian became involved with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Berkeley, the Free Speech Movement and the Black Panther Party. In 1968, he wrote articles for the Peace and Freedom Party's publications and in July 1969, he spoke at the Black Panther conference in Oakland, California. By the time that the SDS split into three factions in the summer of 1969, Avakian was a leading member of the Revolutionary Youth Movement II faction, and was their candidate for National Secretary. Although defeated for the top position by Mark Rudd of the faction soon known as the Weather Underground, Avakian was elected to the National Interim Committee. During that period, Avakian was a leading member of the Bay Area Revolutionary Union alongside Leibel Bergman.

In the early 1970s, Avakian served a prison sentence for desecrating the American flag during a demonstration. 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. After receiving an arrest warrant, Avakian went to France and applied for political refugee status. In 1980, he gave a speech to 200 protestors in downtown Oakland and his police assault charges were dropped a few years later.

In 2005, Avakian published an autobiography, From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist. He has been the Revolutionary Communist Party's central committee chairman and national leader since 1979. In 2016, the RCP USA and others helped form the organization Refuse Fascism, which called for the removal of Donald Trump.

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.

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. He is criticized by detractors for an alleged cult of personality around him, which the party has called "lies and slander."

In popular culture
James LeGros portrays Avakian in the 1995 Mario Van Peebles film Panther.