Revolution #267, May 1, 2012
Celebrate May 1st 2012
BA Everywhere—Imagine the Difference It Could Make
May Day is the revolutionary holiday when people come together all over this tortured planet and declare their determination to fight for a world fit for human beings, a world free of all forms of exploitation and oppression, without slavery in any form.
This May 1 takes place at a time when people have begun to raise their heads—the upheavals in the Arab nations, the Occupy movements, and now what has been unearthed by the murder of Trayvon Martin—but the revolutionary communist vision, movement and leadership of Bob Avakian is still not widely known. The BA Everywhere campaign is a very dynamic initiative to change all that, to make the vision and works of BA a powerful material force in the world—and we are aiming to make a major advance forward in this campaign to raise big money to get BA into all corners of society in the four days from April 28 to May 1. People are raising their heads in struggle—and they badly need the communist vision and strategy, and the leadership of BA and the Revolutionary Communist Party.
During these four days, on the holiday on which people all over the world celebrate revolution, we’re going to get the most thoroughly internationalist vision and leadership that exists out to thousands, and actively engage hundreds and hundreds in learning about it and wrangling with it. BA has built on the internationalist foundations laid by Karl Marx and, based on the experience of the first wave of communist revolutions and continued wrangling with new developments in the world, strengthened those foundations and taken that understanding further. The quotes in this issue give a sense of that. Let’s get these quotes way out there—and get into them yourselves. And go deeper into the readings from which they are drawn.
May Day 2012
Let’s get all this out to hundreds and thousands of people who’ve never heard of this on April 28. That day, boldly decorated car caravans will travel through large metropolitan areas and smaller cities. When they stop, teams of people will pour out, holding mini-rallies on street corners... spreading the word about BA, selling BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, and distributing this special edition of Revolution newspaper. And raising money! April 29, lively celebrations filled with culture will draw together lots of people and raise even more money.
A key focus throughout these four days: raising funds for the BAsics Bus Tour. Buses with eye-catching decorations tour the country. On board... a crew alive with revolution and a vision of a new world—and on a mission to spread BA’s voice to those hungry for it in outlying areas. Reaching youth and people of all ages who are fighting the power. Going to places where outrages are going down. Going to the inner cities and out to college campuses. Getting out BAsics, showing the film of Bob Avakian’s talk Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About in community centers and out in the open.
After its recent successful pilot launch in California, the BAsics bus is going to take it higher. In the coming months, BAsics buses will spread out to different parts of the country. Beginning in Atlanta in early May, a bus will head out and roll into the thick of the struggle in a particularly hot area in this country. Let’s maximize the electrifying impact this tour can have. Aim now to raise the full $20,000 needed to put the BAsics bus on the road again.
May Day will be in the air this year when the Occupy movement re-mounts the stage with protests refusing to accept the world as it is. On May 1, rally and march with internationalist contingents in the protests called for by Occupy and join in strengthening the struggle against those who would suppress this movement. Join in spirited contingents drawn from those fighting against mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow; fighting for immigrant rights; struggling against U.S. intervention around the world; working to save the planet; demanding a stop to the global war on women—all marching together with revolutionaries who are working to build a movement for revolution and are bringing Avakian’s vision and revolutionary strategy for a radically new society and world into the struggles and discourse today.
Building for Four Defiant Days
Leading into these days, let’s renew our relationships with everyone we’ve been in touch with during this past year—and let’s get them into this holiday celebration! Everyone we know should buy tickets and come to the fundraising get-togethers on April 29... and be part of building a real revolutionary community. Everyone we know should have a chance to contribute to the April 28 car caravans and street-corner mini-rallies. Everyone we know should know that people will be standing up again around Occupy on May 1 and that there will be an internationalist contingent that they can be part of.
Let’s really involve people in every way they can in making May 1 itself a day of revolutionary internationalism—through building and strengthening the Occupy demonstrations; marching in internationalist contingents, and getting out Revolution and other forms of revolutionary ideas in those demos, even as we are uniting with people there to fight the power... through talking in classes and using the internationalist quotes from BA to do that... through posting those quotes in different places all over... through tweeting them or Facebooking them, etc.
A critical, vital point in all this: Way too often those at the core of this movement give people the materials of our movement, but don’t give them ways for sustained involvement that takes into account the demands of their lives but also enables them to see how they can be part of building the movement for revolution now. This Thursday (April 26), a card will be posted at revcom.us with the ways that you can build the movement for revolution. Everyone who is taking up this campaign should get this card out very broadly, but even more than that—we should, all of us, be thinking of how we are going to give the people we are meeting ways they can contribute to this movement... ways to be part of the thousands who are reaching and influencing millions in a revolutionary direction.
Let’s set goals—for the distribution of this special issue of Revolution newspaper, for the number of Revolution talk DVD’s and BAsics we sell, for the amount of money to be raised—very importantly—the number of people we raise that money from... and let’s make sure these goals amount to a leap past what we have done before, and will put our movement in a much stronger place as we prepare to go much further in this campaign in the next three months.
Connect With This Campaign
Whatever you can do and wherever you are, you can make your time, effort and energies count! Your creativity, participation and support is needed to make a truly big difference in the world right now.
If you are reading this paper for the first time—or if you are a regular reader—make a financial contribution to BA Everywhere. That’s the first step. And on the occasion of May Day 2012, connect up with this campaign to raise big money at your local Revolution bookstore, or at revcom.us, or write to RCP Publications, PO Box 3486 Merchandise Mart, Chicago, Illinois 60654. Let’s work together to spread the word about BA and to raise funds.
If you hunger for a world free of oppression, then you have a stake in getting BA Everywhere. If you are sick about the direction this society is taking and hate the way the powers-that-be are trying to shut down critical thinking, and... if you feel that thousands and millions need to be debating the big questions of what kind of society is possible and how society should be organized, you need to make this campaign your own. Be part of changing the atmosphere, bringing the fresh wind of the possibility of a whole new world, attracting people’s deep hopes for humanity and outrage at the world as it is... stirring up controversy, deep engagement, and critical thinking. Join with others and involve people in different ways in the mass campaign: BA Everywhere! Imagine the Difference It Could Make! This is needed now more than ever, and if this is accomplished, it will make a very big difference.
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