Avakian was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Berkeley, California. His father, Spurgeon "Sparky" Avakian (1913—2002), the son of Armenian immigrants who settled in Fresno, California, to farm, was an Alameda County judge in Oakland, California, and member of the Berkeley School Board. His mother, Ruth, was from Berkeley.

Avakian describes in his memoir that as a young person, he had passion for music, sports, poetry and literature, and these intersected with his life growing up in the 1950s and '60s in Berkeley, a city with a mixed black and white population which was marked by discrimination and racism, but a city which was also becoming a center of a developing intellectual, cultural and political ferment (which would have a major impact on the whole country). Growing up and going to school with both black and white friends, singing in doo-wop groups and playing sports, Avakian experienced up close and personal the prevailing segregation and racism in society and the ways it affected his black friends. As a young person, Avakian came to hate racism and would brook no tolerance for white people who were racist or did not uncompromisingly oppose it. He was the quarterback of his high school football team at Berkeley High. In his memoir he recounts the experience of a late night bus ride after a game,

On the way back after the game I was sitting with some Black friends of mine on the football team, and we got into this whole deep conversation about why is there so much racism in this country, why is there so much prejudice and where does it come from, and can it ever change, and how could it change? This was mainly them talking and me listening. And I remember that very, very deeply — I learned a lot more in that one hour than I learned in hours of classroom time, even from some of the better teachers.

His early passion for sports in general, but especially basketball, could have led his life in an entirely different direction. As he explains in his memoir,

I always thought that if I hadn't ended up being a communist, maybe I would have been a high school basketball coach — but I was feeling that my life should be about something more than sports, as much as I still had real passion about that. I felt that there were so many big things going on in the world, I wanted to do something with my life that would mean something or, to use the phrase of the time, be relevant and not just be a personal passion for me.

Going into college he had yearned to learn multiple languages, to study literature and philosophy, and to play football. He started school at the University of California at Berkeley in the fall of 1961, and was trying out for Cal’s freshmen football team, but was forced to leave school when he faced a life-threatening health problem, which kept him in and out of the hospital for months, and out of school for one year, and which did not resolve completely for at least three years.

It was at Berkeley through his involvement with the Free Speech Movement that Avakian took his first steps into political activism. Avakian, in different ways, and over a period of time, became deeply engaged in the movements of the times: the anti-war movement, the student movement, the black liberation movement, the developing women’s movement and the incipient new communist movement in the U.S. Avakian's ideological and political development can be traced through these rebellious times, as he developed political relationships and friendships with many of the key figures of that era, engaging in many debates with the various trends in the movement, including working closely with the Black Panther Party, particularly Huey P. Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. Through his writing for the newspaper The Black Panther and Ramparts magazine, his work in Students for a Democratic Society and with the Peace and Freedom Party, and his participation in the many struggles of the time, Avakian began to develop as a revolutionary and seriously consider what kind of revolution and revolutionary leadership was needed.

In 1967 Avakian moved to Richmond, California, and started a collective "to integrate with the proletariat and take radical politics to the proletariat." It was in this period that Avakian and others began to more seriously study some of the "classics" of Marxism, as well as the writings of Mao Zedong, more seriously engaging and exploring a theoretical framework for their developing revolutionary inclinations.

In 1968 Avakian played a central role in uniting a number of revolutionary collectives into the Bay Area Revolutionary Union, with the view that this would be one organization among many (such as the Black Panther Party as well as other organizations and collectives) which at some point would build ideological and political unity as the basis for a new multi-national communist party.

Into the 1970s these organizations continued to develop their positions on important questions related to revolution and communism, questions such as: If you are going to be for revolution, what kind of revolution? How can you make that revolution? What kind of leadership do you need? What kind of program do you need? What kind of forces do you need to mobilize and unite?

While fierce in his condemnation of all inequality and oppression and an ardent supporter of those who genuinely fight for their liberation, he sought to understand the dynamic underpinnings of society which give rise to inequality and oppression. This investigation along with the debates and ferment of the times led him to view Marxism as the theoretical framework that most scientifically synthesized an understanding of the world.

Through his writings in the Red Papers, the theoretical journals of the Revolutionary Union, Avakian began to develop a method and approach with which to examine many of the key historical questions of the communist movement and theory, as well as the sharp and controversial issues of the day. These issues included whether the Soviet Union was still a socialist country or whether Mao Zedong’s theses of "capitalist restoration" in the Soviet Union was true; whether China, under Mao, was a revolutionary socialist country; what was the character of the oppression of black people in the U.S. and the relation of this to revolutionary strategy, and other contested issues.

Through a very protracted process, which included theoretical debate around the critical issues of what kind of revolution is needed, issues of revolutionary strategy, and very closely linked to these issues, the question of what comprises revolutionary leadership, Avakian played a key role in the development of a new communist party in the U.S. In 1970 the Bay Area Revolutionary Union became a national organization (renamed the Revolutionary Union); this organization itself went through splits over positions in relation to the above questions. This process involved debates and sharp ideological struggles among revolutionary and communist organizations (and individuals) throughout the country, and culminated, in 1975, in the formation of the RCP. At its founding congress, Avakian was elected chairman of its central committee.

In 1976, shortly after the death of Mao Zedong, the followers of Mao (known as the "Gang of Four") were arrested and new leadership took over the Communist Party of China. Among communists both within the U.S. and internationally there were major differences on how to understand what had happened in China. Within the RCP, after a process of internal study and debate, the issue came to a head in a meeting of the RCP's central committee, where a majority of the leadership, led by Avakian, came to the conclusion that what had occurred in China was a coup that overthrew socialism and was in the process of unleashing capitalism in China. This led to a major split in the RCP with a significant minority who supported the new leaders in China leaving the Party.

In January 1979 a demonstration was held in Washington DC on the occasion of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's meeting with Jimmy Carter to expose what the RCP and Avakian viewed as Deng's "reversal" of the revolution in China. There was a confrontation and the RCP claimed the police viciously attacked the demonstration, resulting in many in the demonstration injured and many arrested, including Avakian. The federal government brought serious multiple felony charges against seventeen people, including Avakian. The charges against Avakian were dropped in 1982.

While fighting these charges, Avakian went on a national speaking tour in 1979 and while in Los Angeles, gave an interview to an L.A. Times reporter. In her article, the reporter attributed statements to Avakian that were distortions, which the Secret Service then used as a pretext for an investigation. After being threatened with a lawsuit, the L.A. Times printed a partial retraction. The Secret Service investigation was challenged in court, and nothing ever came of this investigation.

In 1980 the RCP faced many arrests and other suppression. At the same time Damián García, who was closely associated with the RCP and who had raised a red flag on top of the Alamo a few weeks earlier as part of building for RCP-sponsored demonstrations on May Day 1980, was murdered in Los Angeles. In this same period there were growing reports of death threats against Avakian from various quarters.

Citing the history in the U.S. of political assassinations of revolutionaries (including Malcolm X and Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton), and the increasing attacks and threats against Avakian, in 1981 Avakian left the country and went into exile in France. He has continued to be the Chairman of the RCP. Many of his writings and edited transcripts of a number of talks have been published in the RCP’s newspaper, Revolution, and its predecessor, Revolutionary Worker. There are also a number of audio recordings of these talks that have been released. In 2003 Avakian appeared at two speaking engagements (on the East and West Coasts of the United States), delivering a talk “Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About” which is in DVD distribution.

Avakian contests the conventional wisdom that the experience of the communist revolutions of the 20th century has proven the failure of communism. Instead, he draws an analogy to Europe between the 15th and 19th century during which there were revolutions and counter-revolutions, followed by the triumph of capitalism and bourgeois democracy and the supersession of the feudal order. He maintains that while the defeats of the revolutions in the Soviet Union and then the People’s Republic of China were painful setbacks, the goals of revolution and communism remain necessary and viable. He further maintains that for communists and communism to move forward from these defeats it is necessary to scientifically and critically evaluate this "first stage of communist revolution", and on this basis further develop the theoretical framework upon which to continue the struggle for revolution and communism. While providing overall leadership to the RCP, he has, over the last 30 years, applied himself to this theoretical task. Among the works that have been major stepping stones of his evaluation are: Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must and Will (1981), "The End of a Stage, the Beginning of a New Stage”' (1989), and more recently "Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity" (2007). The result of this work has been the emergence of what he has termed a "new synthesis", a further development of the theoretical framework for carrying forward a new stage in this revolution.

Avakian's study has involved the exploration and intellectual interrogation of communist theory and practice in socialist states as well as in the communist movement more broadly; and at the same time Avakian has studied the criticisms, of various kinds and from various standpoints (including from non-communists and those hostile to communism), of that experience. While maintaining that he has proceeded from the basic framework of communist scientific theory building off of the theoretical foundation chiefly developed by Marx, Lenin and Mao in its first stage, Avakian argues that this represents a major theoretical rupture within that framework.

Summing up the experience of the first stage of communist revolution, Avakian argues that "the principal aspect, looking at this with historical perspective, is firmly uphold [the historical experience of socialism]. These were positive, very positive, unprecedented breakthroughs that were achieved in the historical experience of socialism; and, at the same time, there were real and in some cases very serious shortcomings that we don't want to repeat, and should not have to repeat, even with all the necessity we're going to be up against. We ought to be able, at least in crucial spheres, to make leaps and ruptures beyond this."

This new synthesis, in Avakian’s words, "involves a recasting and recombining of the positive aspects of the experience so far of the communist movement and of socialist society, while learning from the negative aspects of this experience, in the philosophical and ideological as well as the political dimensions "

This is a very controversial position in the international communist movement, as there are those who argue that the previous socialist experiences have principally been flawed and there is a need for a whole new theory; and conversely, there are those who argue it is "heresy" to critically evaluate and recast and re-envision the road to socialism and communism.

Philosophy and Method

As referred to above, Avakian argues that what is necessary is a scientific approach to evaluating the experiences of the communist movement and socialist society, both in its practice and in the underlying conceptions, in their philosophical and ideological as well as political dimensions. This premise also challenges traditional thinking within the communist movement, which has tended to see the process of revolution as some kind of linear and almost "fated" development, which imbues the advance of revolution and communism with some kind of "historical inevitability". Avakian traces some secondary shortcomings in this direction all the way back to Marxism at its foundation. Avakian's basic thesis contends that while Marx has scientifically explained how the basic contradictions of capitalist society will give rise, again and again, to the most horrid conditions, and that while these contradictions and horrors can only be resolved through revolution and communism, this resolution is not inevitable. Avakian agrees that the possibility exists of eliminating exploitive production relations and class relations in society and their expression in social relations and ideas. However, he argues that this can only be understood and transformed in the interests of all humanity if consciously approached and understood on a scientific basis — and this is something that can be done, and needs to be done, by all who come to see the need for revolution and communism.

Epistemologically, Avakian has critically examined tendencies in the communist movement to view truth as "class truth". This is the view that truth is dependent on which class outlook one brings to the pursuit of the truth, and includes the notion that there is such a thing as "proletarian truth”. In contrast to this, Avakian has argued that truth is a scientifically-based objective expression or explanation of reality. He has polemicized against the philosophical view of "class truth" (as well as pragmatism, instrumentalism and positivism and has called on communists "to rupture more fully with instrumentalism — with notions of making reality an 'instrument' of our objectives, of distorting reality to try to make it serve our ends, of 'political truth'." He has emphasized that an important part of the process to communism and an important element of communist morality is the recognition that truth matters. And as he argues, under socialism, this process of getting to truth will involve unleashing all of socialist society, in its various realms, including fostering ferment and dissent in all of this.

In connection to all this Avakian has attached great importance to imagination, maintaining that "there is a unity between a systematic and comprehensive scientific method and outlook for comprehending and transforming reality, and giving flight to the imagination and giving expression to the 'need to be amazed'."

While continuing to adhere to philosophical materialism — a foundation point of Marxism — Avakian has simultaneously argued against a tendency toward mechanical materialism. He has devoted sections of many of his works to further explorations of dialectical materialism which is also integral to Marxism.

Proletarian Internationalism

Avakian has addressed extensively the question of proletarian internationalism, advancing an understanding that the proletarian world revolution must be viewed as a single integrated world process in which the international arena is overall principle; that socialism in a particular country must in the first place be built as a base area for the world revolution; and that in their approach to revolution, communists must proceed from an understanding of what will advance revolution on a world scale. Avakian contends that as long as capitalist-imperialist relations of exploitation and production and an oppressive capitalist state still have a foothold in the world, there is the basis for these relations to recreate themselves and spread elsewhere. And that in fact, it is quite likely that socialism in particular countries is bound to be reversed unless further advances are made in the world proletarian revolution. Further, Avakian argues that in an ultimate and overall sense, the development of a revolutionary situation in a particular country is more determined by developments in the world as a whole than by developments in that country — and emphasizes that this understanding must be incorporated into the approach to revolution, in particular countries as well as on a world scale.

Avakian writes:

[T]he achievement of [the necessary conditions for communism] must take place on a world scale, through a long and tortuous process of revolutionary transformation in which there will be uneven development, the seizure of power in different countries at different times, and a complex dialectical interplay between the revolutionary struggles and the revolutionization of society in these different countries [a dialectical relation] in which the world arena is fundamentally and ultimately decisive while the mutually interacting and mutually supporting struggles of the proletarians in different countries constitute the key link in fundamentally changing the world as a whole.

On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Socialism as a Transition to Communism

Avakian has argued that while it is true that the proletariat as a class will be the backbone social base which is most strongly compelled to make communist revolution, at the same time, it must be recognized that the process of revolution is a very complicated and difficult process: that increasingly ever larger sections and various strata of society must be drawn into and enthusiastically take up this struggle, or very soon the revolution will fail, that is its communist objectives will be undermined and some form of capitalism will be restored. Related to this, he has argued that while a very crucial task of socialism will be to figure out how to transform the economy in order to employ, feed and house people and in general take care of society’s and people’s material requirements, and while doing all this continue to overcome the scars of the capitalist past, that a new dimension needs to be brought forward (even as compared to the Soviet Union and China during the period when he considered them genuine revolutionary societies) of what socialism will look like:

opening up qualitatively more space to give expression to the intellectual and cultural needs of the people, broadly understood, and enabling a more diverse and rich process of exploration and experimentation in the realms of science, art and culture, and intellectual life overall, with increasing scope for the contention of different ideas and schools of thought and for individual initiative and creativity and protection of individual rights, including space for individuals to interact in "civil society" independently of the state — all within an overall cooperative and collective framework and at the same time as state power is maintained and further developed as a revolutionary state power serving the interests of the proletarian revolution, in the particular country and worldwide, with this state being the leading and central element in the economy and in the overall direction of society, while the state itself is being continually transformed into something radically different from all previous states, as a crucial part of the advance toward the eventual abolition of the state with the achievement of communism on a world scale.

This approach has been encapsulated in the formulation, "solid core with a lot of elasticity".A concise explanation of this formulation "solid core with a lot of elasticity" is given in the RCP's Constitution:

"Applied to socialist society, this approach of solid core with a lot of elasticity includes the need for a leading, and expanding, core that is clear on the need for the dictatorship of the proletariat and the aim of continuing socialist revolution as part of the world struggle for communism, and is determined to continue carrying forward this struggle, through all the twists and turns. At the same time, there will necessarily be many different people and trends in socialist society pulling in many different directions — and all of this can ultimately contribute to the process of getting at the truth and getting to communism. This will be intense at times, and the difficulty of embracing all this — while still leading the whole process broadly in the direction of communism — will be something like going, as Avakian has put it, to the brink of being drawn and quartered — and repeatedly. All this is difficult, but necessary and a process to welcome." Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, "Appendix: Communism as a Science" (pp. 39-40 in published version)

Another hallmark of Avakian is his stress on the role of the masses as "emancipators of humanity", where the masses are the conscious driving force of revolution; a revolution that is not about revenge nor about changes of position within the horizons of the existing class framework, but a revolution which is about the emancipation of all humanity.

Strategic Approach to Revolution

Avakian has written extensively on revolutionary strategy as it applies to the U.S., drawing greatly on Lenin, though further developing this in certain respects. He views the emergence of a "revolutionary situation" — briefly, following Lenin, a situation of major crisis in society and government in which millions of formerly inactive people have taken up political causes and, in specific, have become convinced of the need for revolution — as essential to an actual struggle for power in an advanced country. Avakian has further posited the need for an orientation of "hastening, while awaiting" the emergence of such a situation — actively attempting to influence public opinion and organize followers to both hasten the emergence of such a situation, shape its character, and prepare to take advantage of it. In the words of the RCP's Constitution, this involves the party leading a "whole ensemble of revolutionary preparations, with party's press and the spreading of communist theory, especially as concentrated in the body of work, method and approach of Bob Avakian, as the mainstays of that activity." On that foundation, the mobilization of mass resistance, the raising of consciousness, and the recruitment of new members also goes on.

Avakian has also put forward a strategy of "United Front under the Leadership of the Proletariat." This involves a particular focus on the proletariat, while attempting to influence and mobilize people of many other strata. A critical part of this is the struggle of what the RCP calls "oppressed nationalities" — specifically, African-Americans, Chicanos (or Mexican Americans), Native Americans, Puerto Ricans and others more conventionally grouped under the rubric of "people of color." Speaking specifically of African-Americans, Avakian has written that:

There will never be a revolutionary movement in this country that doesn’t fully unleash and give expression to the sometimes openly expressed, sometimes expressed in partial ways, sometimes expressed in wrong ways, but deeply, deeply felt desire to be rid of these long centuries of oppression [of Black people]. There’s never gonna be a revolution in this country, and there never should be, that doesn’t make that one key foundation of what it's all about.

Especially controversial, in many quarters, has been Avakian’s critique of democracy, arguing that democracy cannot be viewed as a universal notion of equality, understood as above or separate from class societies. The notion of such a “classless view” of democracy has had widespread currency even among many communists, who have attempted to also argue against the necessity of the dictatorship of the proletariat as an essential aspect of the transition to communism (see, for example, K. Venu and Alain Badiou.). Avakian has polemicized against these arguments in various works, while also exploring what he calls a "richer and more nuanced" view of the dynamics involved with the dictatorship of the proletariat. In his book, Democracy: Can’t We Do Better Than That?, Avakian has developed polemics against Hannah Arendt and the "theory of totalitarianism" as well as other prominent theoreticians of democracy, including Locke and Rousseau. Specifically speaking to the history of the United States, Avakian has recently published Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy, which attempts to deconstruct the philosophical basis, and consequences, of Jeffersonian democracy.

Avakian contends that religion, even in its most progressive interpretations, causes great harm and stands in the way of the emancipation of humanity.

Avakian writes for the newspaper of the RCP, Revolution (formerly titled Revolutionary Worker).

Books

• Away With All Gods! Unchaining the Mind and Radically Changing the World (2008), ISBN 0976023687

• Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy (2008), ISBN 9780898510041

• From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist (2005), ISBN 0976023628

• Observations on Art and Culture, Science and Philosophy (2005), ISBN 0976023636

• Marxism and the Call of the Future: Conversations on Ethics, History, and Politics, co-authored with Bill Martin (2005), ISBN 9780812695793

• Preaching From a Pulpit of Bones: We Need Morality But Not Traditional Morality (1999), ISBN 0916650111

• Phony Communism is Dead Long Live Real Communism! — A Response to the Claims of the "Death of Communism" (1992, 2004), ISBN 0898511224

• Democracy: Can't We Do Better Than That? (1986), ISBN 0916650294

• For a Harvest of Dragons: On the "Crisis of Marxism" and the Power of Marxism Now More Than Ever — An Essay Marking the 100th Anniversary of Marx's Death (1983), ISBN 0898510651

• Conquer the World? The International Proletariat Must and Will (1981)

• The Immortal Contributions of Mao Tsetung (1979), ISBN 0898510465

• The Loss in China and the Revolutionary Legacy of Mao Tsetung (1978)

Printed Talks

• "Ruminations and Wranglings: On the Importance of Marxist Materialism, Communism as a Science, Meaningful Revolutionary Work, and a Life with Meaning" (2009)

• "Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity" (2007), "Part 1: Beyond the Narrow Horizon of Bourgeois Right" and "Part 2: Everything We're Doing is About Revolution"
• "Bringing Forward Another Way" (2006)

• "The Oppression of Black People and the Revolutionary Struggle to End All Oppression" (2007), Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
• "Views on Socialism and Communism: A Radically New Kind of State, A Radically Different and Far Greater Vision of Freedom" (2005)
• "The Basis, the Goals, and the Methods of the Communist Revolution" (2005)
• "The Coming Civil War and Repolarizing for Revolution in the Present Era" (2005)
• "On Truth On Knowing, and Changing, the World: A Discussion with Comrades on Epistemology" (2004)
• "Dictatorship and Democracy, and the Socialist Transition to Communism" (2002)

Audio (available on BobAvakian.net)

• "Why We’re In the Situation We’re In Today And What to Do About It: A Thoroughly Rotten System and the Need for Revolution"

• "Communism: A Whole New World and the Emancipation of All of Humanity — Not 'The Last Shall Be First, And the First Shall Be Last

• "Conservatism, Christian Fundamentalism, Liberalism and Paternalism Bill Cosby and Bill Clinton Not All "Right" but All Wrong!"

• "The NBA: Marketing the Minstrel Show and Serving the Big Gangsters"

• "Bob Avakian Speaks Out: On War and Revolution, On Being a Revolutionary and Changing the World", interviewed by Carl Dix, Vol. 1 and 2, on CD

Video

• "Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About", at RevolutionTalk.net