{"id":36641,"date":"2016-03-09T16:44:04","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T22:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=36641"},"modified":"2016-03-10T09:06:47","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T15:06:47","slug":"local-communists-have-no-faith-in-coming-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/local-communists-have-no-faith-in-coming-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Local communists have no faith in coming elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Enrica Nicoli Aldini<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">It is International Women\u2019s Day, and Revolutionary Communist Party supporters are gathered at Revolution Books, a small volunteer-run bookstore in Noble Square, to discuss the \u201crampant degradation of women\u201d and share the belief that no social change is ever achieved by traditional politics.<\/p>\n<p>As volunteers pass around a basket asking for $2 donations in exchange for pins that read \u201cStop thinking like Americans! Start thinking about humanity!!!,\u201d dialogues and readings over the emancipation of women swiftly turn into stern condemnation of the traditional structure of politics in America.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The November elections are just a few months away, but most revolutionary communists are not going to vote. Participating in the elections, they said, would only mean upholding a capitalist system that perpetrates inequality and the oppression of underserved communities across the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElections are not a way to change anything worth changing,\u201d said Jay Becker, a Revolution Books volunteer. \u201cIf anything, elections teach people how to put a stamp of approval on an illegitimate system in America. We\u2019ve got a lot to work on that\u2019s not getting out to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Headquartered in Chicago, the Revolutionary Communist Party finds its spiritual leader in Bob Avakian, a political activist who founded the party in 1975 to bring about a revolution and the upheaval of the traditional system in America.<\/p>\n<p>As the signature campaign pitch of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, the word revolution has partially motivated the current election cycle. However, Avakian\u2019s followers stressed that the revolution they are advocating has nothing to do with the political change the Vermont senator is promising his Democratic voters. As revolutionary communists, they simply do not identify with any of the current presidential candidates, and they are not seeking representation in the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust as young people are starting to think this whole political thing in America is fishy, Bernie Sanders is trying to entice them,\u201d said Martha Conrad, who attended the International Women\u2019s Day event at Revolution Books. \u201cBut that is not what the revolution is about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Lou Downey, realizing a real revolution means dismantling the current system to build a new political and economic structure altogether. He said Sanders\u2019 socialism is simply not serving the same purpose. \u201cWhen he talks about reducing income inequality, what does he mean? Sharing wealth? Where does that wealth come from?\u201d Downey inquired, suggesting that Sanders is only promising to redistribute corporate income, without challenging the real foundations of capitalism.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether not voting in the general elections means renouncing an essential civic responsibility as an American citizen, Downey said the real responsibility \u201cfor the future of humanity\u201d is challenging the basic tenets of an electoral system whose only role is to channel people\u2019s discontent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe elections do not reflect the will of people,\u201d Downey said. \u201cDecisions are made in a very different place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Richards said elections only fool people into believing they can accomplish what they hope for in terms of issues and the future of the country. She said she was concerned that no politician is truly advocating for improving the condition of women, as not even a female candidate like Hillary Clinton is actually interested in liberating them and safeguarding their reproductive rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s been saying yes, we need the right to abortion, but her actual role has been that of conciliating with the Republicans,\u201d Richards said. \u201cI don\u2019t care who gets to the White House. They are only going to represent the system and the interests of the capitalist supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Norman Larreta, who has \u201calways been for a revolution, and never voted in any election before,\u201d echoed Richards\u2019 concerns that traditional politicians will never achieve what they promised the electorate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at Obama, he promised things on immigration that he never lived up to,\u201d Larreta said. \u201cThe really important issues in society don\u2019t get resolved by politicians. They are long-term goals that need actual changes in the system in order to be accomplished.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Refusal to vote in the general elections, however, does not mean that the revolutionary communists of Chicago will not mobilize to speak up against some of the current presidential candidates.<\/p>\n<p>As Becker wrapped up the celebrations for International Women\u2019s Day at Revolution Books on Tuesday, she invited all the attendees to come together and protest what she called \u201cthe fascist rally\u201d that Donald Trump is set to hold at the University of Illinois at Chicago on March 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to put the the revolution in there,\u201d Becker said, \u201cthen come with us.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Chicago revolutionary communists gathered at Revolution Books on International Women\u2019s Day and expressed lack of trust in the U.S. political system, saying they do not plan on voting in the November elections. (Enrica Nicoli Aldini\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Enrica Nicoli Aldini It is International Women\u2019s Day, and Revolutionary Communist Party supporters are gathered at Revolution Books, a small volunteer-run bookstore in Noble Square, to discuss the \u201crampant degradation of women\u201d and share the belief that no social change is ever achieved by traditional politics. As volunteers pass around a basket asking for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":36646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,30,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election-2016","category-public-affairs","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Local communists have no faith in coming elections - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/local-communists-have-no-faith-in-coming-elections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local communists have no faith in coming elections - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Enrica Nicoli Aldini It is International Women\u2019s Day, and Revolutionary Communist Party supporters are gathered at Revolution Books, a small volunteer-run bookstore in Noble Square, to discuss the \u201crampant degradation of women\u201d and share the belief that no social change is ever achieved by traditional politics. As volunteers pass around a basket asking for [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/local-communists-have-no-faith-in-coming-elections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-09T22:44:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-10T15:06:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/03\/IMG_8256.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Enrica Nicoli Aldini\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Enrica Nicoli Aldini\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/local-communists-have-no-faith-in-coming-elections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/local-communists-have-no-faith-in-coming-elections\/\",\"name\":\"Local communists have no faith in coming elections - 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