Halinka: To be fair I don’t think she is saying in her response that Mao was a great leader (although she’s from a Maoist group) — she just quotes statements by him which are obviously true (eg. that everyone has an ideology) apparently to dodge the actual question. Also if the 2 candidates up for election are almost identical (as often happens) then a democracy is also a dictatorship. But yes, by praising Mao her privilege of not growing up in Mao’s China is showing.

I assume you took your Mao dressup club from the classics? http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=4557969&page=1

On what I said, I think you’re missing the point. Have a look at the actual question the viewer asked and see whether the answer (or your repetition of Sunsara’s talking points) actually addresses it. The reason I wish I didn’t understand is that I would prefer to remain ignorant of such Orwellian question-dodging. Incidentally, do you count Stalin amongst the other 3 in terms of leadership?

But the question is much more what is the content of what Sunsara is arguing for, and is what she’s saying actually true? Does it correspond to what humanity needs in order to get ourselves out of this mess that the planet is in right now? Do we need religion to smooth over the horrors that most of us face every day? Or is the reason for these horrors capitalism, and can human beings play a role in getting past class divisions?

Do we need communist leadership, or the leadership of the figureheads that this society puts forward? (And by communist leadership, I mean leadership that looks at the reality of the world in as scientific a way as possible, and is leading the charge to push forward the goals of the revolution and the ultimate goal of communism, in order for human kind to live in a way vastly different than what we have now. Right now, we have a dictatorship of a wealthy class at that have a whole network of exploitation and human suffering that that they enforce with the military and the police. If you don’t believe me on this look up Freedom Zones like they had at the Democratic National Convention, or the murder of Oscar Grant on YouTube.)

And Michael, why do you wish you didn’t understand? Because you’d have to look at the reality of the way the world is, or renounce ‘god’? Or some other reason? I think its a very good thing that people are reading this and gaining an understanding of what the Revolutionary Communist Party’s saying on leadership–and that it isn’t important because they say that it is, its important because of what’s happening in the world right now. If you’re opposed to the war on Iraq and Afghanistan, or globalization, if you’re opposed to Christian fundamentalism, or the oppression of women, or of black people, or Native Americans, or Latinos, you should be introduced to Sunsara Taylor, to Larry Everest, to Raymond Lotta, to Li Onesto, to Ardea Skybreak, to others who write articles for Revolution newspaper. And you should most definitely be introduced to Bob Avakian and to Revolution newspaper. And they’re calling on people to offer up what they think, not just follow them blindly in some religious sense. Marx, Lenin, Mao, they matter mainly because of the content of their leadership. Their revolutionary theory and their leadership had a major impact on the forces that shaped the history of humanity, and in a mainly positive way. (Contrary to the ‘common sense’ that dominates peoples’ thinking today, that communism is a horror…)

I’m happy to see this part of the interview posted, I enjoyed it, and feel disappointed that I missed hearing the interview!!! I definitely gained more of an understanding of leadership/led. Thanks for this!!!

~AStrong