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Robert Bruce Avakian (born March 7, 1943) is an American political activist and Maoist philosopher who is the founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP), which has been described as a cult of personality centered around Avakian.
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.Avakian, "Bob Avakian Speaks on the Mao Tsetung Defendants' Railroad and the Historic Battles Ahead", Introduction and pp. 18—21.Athan G. Theoharis, "FBI Surveillance: Past and Present", Cornell Law Review, Vol. 69 (April 1984); and Peter Erlinder with Doug Cassel, “Bazooka Justice: The Case of the Mao Tse Tung Defendants – Overreaction Or Foreshadowing?”, Public Eye, Vol. II, No. 3&4 (1980), pp. 40—43. Facing numerous felony charges, Avakian fled to France, where he applied for refugee status. His claim was eventually denied, but in 1982, U.S. prosecutors agreed to drop the charges against him and other protesters as part of a plea bargain. He returned to the U.S., but his political career was "irreversibly damaged".
Avakian has been the RCP's central committee chairman and national leader since 1979. As chairman, he has produced a large body of work that articulates what the RCP identifies as "the new synthesis of communism" or "new communism". In 2016, the RCP USA and others helped form the organization Refuse Fascism, which called for Donald Trump's removal from office.
Avakian has noted that the RCP emphasizes "the great importance of the work I have done, and continue to do", but claims that criticism of his position within the RCP is "unscientific". The party has called any claims of cultism within its ranks "lies and slander".
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