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ABOUT RAYMOND LOTTA | RESOURCES | SOCIALIST EXPERIENCE | COMMUNISM'S FUTURE SPEAKING TOUR In the fall of 2005 Set the Record Straight launched a speaking tour under the title “Socialism Is Much Better than Capitalism, and Communism Is a Far Better World.” This immediately became a lightening rod for debate and engagement on outdoor campus plazas and in the pages of campus newspapers, with commentary about the pros and cons of communism. The open controversy and critical thinking about the past and future socialist revolutions were new phenomena. A whole generation of students had heard only a one-sided perspective of history. Hundreds of students were curious to learn more, and came out to hear a comprehensive presentation of what these revolutions were about, take part in scholarly exchange about these societies, and learn about Bob Avakian’s reenvisioned communism for the 21st century. Here is a sampling of Set the Record Straight activities in the last two years: October 2007 Roosevelt University, Chicago — As part of a lecture series for students in economics, Raymond Lotta spoke on the “Theory and Practice of Revolutionary Economics in Maoist China 1949-1976, and What This Has to Do with the World Today.” September 2007 Howard University, Washington D.C. — Set the Record Straight brought Raymond Lotta to Howard for a speaking event: “Capitalism Is a Horror, But the World Can Be Different...And Nothing Is More Liberating than Communism.” Howard was electric with resistance around the demand to “Free the Jena 6.” In this context there was a lot of openness to the discussion of socialism and communism as thousands of postcards publicizing the talk were distributed. In his speech, Lotta described how the system of capitalism works and contrasted how a socialist society would handle everything from natural disasters on the scale of Katrina to ending racism and the oppression of women. He also highlighted the communist view of religion and how socialism would include a long-term process of enabling people to cast off religious belief. This was very controversial to many Howard students and lively debate ensued during the question and answer period and spilled out into the hallway after Lotta’s talk. June 2007 U.S. Social Forum, Atlanta — “Mao: Then and Now — Revolutionary Ideas and Changing the World” was the topic of a panel sponsored by Set the Record Straight. As publicity went out broadly it was clear that many people at the Social Forum either knew very little about Mao or were influenced by anti-communist summations of the socialist experience. People who attended the panel discussion were treated with three interwoven perspectives on the lessons from revolutionary China:
Printers Row Book Fair, Chicago — Set the Record Straight displayed and sold revolutionary posters from the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and distributed hundreds of fact sheets and articles on the history of the Chinese revolution. December 2006 University of London, Goldsmiths College, London — Set the Record Straight brought Raymond Lotta to London to participate in the “Why Mao, Why Now” conference sponsored by the Department of Politics. He also gave an evening lecture critiquing the anti-Mao biography, Mao: The Unknown Story, and presented a talk on Zhang Chunqiao and bourgeois right to students in a class on Chinese politics. October 2006 University of Chicago — The Sociology Department and the Center for East Asian Studies sponsorted Raymond Lotta in a workshop titled “A Critical Response to Mao: The Unknown Story—Mao: Fairy Tale Monster, or Greatest Liberator of the Mid-20th Century?” Some 50 people attended, largely graduate students and professors from associated social science programs at the university. There was lively discussion about some of the historical controversies, Tibet, and methodological questions concerning the reliability and uses of data. May 2006 Mexico City, Puebla, and Oaxaca — Sponsored by the Facultat de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM, at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades of the Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and Universidad Autónoma de Oaxaca, Lotta presented the Set the Record Straight speech “El socialismo es mucho mejor que el capitalismo, y el comunismo será un mundo mucho major.” An account of this can be found at www.aworldtowin.org/wordpress/. Stanford University, CA — Raymond Lotta gave a talk to 70 mostly undergraduate students at Stanford University titled “Rethinking Human Possibility: The World Needs Communism and Communism Will be a Far Better World.” The talk posed up the challenges of moving toward a communist world and the whole new approach that Bob Avakian is forging in meeting those challenges. This workshop tapped into some deeply felt sentiments and intellectual interest about revolution and the possibility of a different world. April 2006 Columbia University, NY — Set the Record Straight went to Columbia University for about 10 days of mass publicity on the campus plaza. Some 300 people took the pop quiz, “You Think Communism Is a Good Idea But Doesn’t Work?” The large Set the Record Straight display became a “hot spot” with lively debate and students hanging around for deeper discussion and some coming back several days in a row to continue the dialogue. This work culminated in Raymond Lotta presenting the Set the Record Straight speech to a packed house on the Columbia campus. February 2006 Harvard University, Boston — Lotta gave the Set the Record Straight speech to students from diverse fields, including economics, anthropology, and romance languages. There were students from Eastern Europe and a few visiting scholars from other parts of the world. A member of the Harvard Medical School faculty emceed the program. Read more... October 2005 UC Berkeley and UCLA, CA — UC Berkeley was the first place Raymond Lotta presented the Set the Record Straight speech “Socialism Is Much Better than Capitalism, and Communism Is a Far Better World.” This was followed by a stop at UCLA, where Lotta spoke under the sponsorship of the Chicana/o Studies Department, the Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the Cultural Affairs Commission. Read more... Campus reactionaries took notice and sounded an alarm: on the day of the speech, campus republicans published an anticommunist rant in The Daily Bruin of UCLA attacking the speech and two of the departments sponsoring it. Set the Record Straight replied in The Daily Bruin. To get Raymond Lotta to speak at your campus, GET INVOLVED. Click here to read the text of the speech serialized in Revolution. Set the Record Straight is a program of the International Humanities Center, a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. |
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