BA Everywhere Picnic in South Central—Building Community and Raising Funds
June 30, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
In a South Central park this past Saturday, amidst the trees and grass, the playing children and the intense soccer players, some new buds of the movement for revolution started peeking out. Through a fundraising picnic for BA Everywhere, individuals who have been checking out and/or getting involved in the movement for revolution in different ways and on different levels began to forge community in doing this—sharing food and laughs and big questions of changing the world, with a fascinating mix of people interacting. This scene was attractive, drawing in youth and others who wanted to find out what this was all about, including several people who had encountered this movement before in various forms and places throughout the neighborhood and now took the opportunity to learn more about it. About 40 people came through at one time or another, almost half were from the immediate neighborhood, and after covering some of the costs of doing the picnic, we raised $140 for the BA Everywhere campaign.
The picnic was organized by a small committee of some people from the neighborhood and other parts of South Central who were taking new responsibility, together with experienced revolutionaries. A member of the Revolution Club South Central, who had never written a flyer before, put a lot of thought into writing something that, as he put it, would be powerful and show people there is something they can do to change things. People in the committee worked together to reserve the park, going to stores to ask for donations of food and money, as well as inviting friends and getting flyers out, cooking food, and borrowing a grill from a neighbor.
One of the women in the committee talked about why she decided to do this: "It's the first philosophy that I've run across that's being extremely honest, straightforward and has to see a vision of a formula of how we can come up out from under this oppressive system. As we can observe around us every day, the system that we have is not working. I would say there's probably a very high percentage at the top and then millions upon billions of people are left in poverty. The earth is being practically desecrated, children are being killed and no one seems to want to do anything about it. We want to change the world to a better system, a better government, and what way to do it than from the ground up through revolution. So this is why I'm with Bob Avakian's... party."
From the beginning of the picnic, everyone pitched in to get it together. People from the picnic committee met people from the citywide Revolution Club and worked to get the canopies up and the food organized. A couple of younger youth who hang out in the park and not too long ago were part of making a banner to defend Noche Diaz, were looking forward to the picnic and jumped in right away to help make signs and set up tables. Some asked if they could help set up instead of paying for food because they didn't have any money. One 11-year-old said he had brought his money for the picnic and when the donation bucket came around later, proudly added his donation. The food was great: homemade potato salad made with potatoes picked up from a food bank... delicious chili that took hours to make... pupusas filled with meat and beans... and burgers grilled as people stood around the grill talking.
At the beginning, people were a little shy, but as they worked and ate and talked and played together, some of the barriers broke down. A high school student who had been to a neighborhood showing of the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! and liked it but also has been conflicted because of controversy at school and unsure feelings of being involved with atheists and white people, arrived at the picnic early on, but said he didn't want to meet anyone because he didn't think he would be able to relate to people there. By the time he left, after talking with some people and playing basketball with a talented ball player from the Revolution Club, he made a point of going up to one of the organizers to say, "Everyone here is really nice." A woman who had been part of organizing the picnic was happy to meet and talk with Joe Veale (a comrade who has been in the Revolutionary Communist Party since the 1970s and was a member of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s), and she was very pleased that the picnic was attracting youth in the park who came by to seriously engage what this was about, including watching and discussing a portion of the film.
Some of the youth who came by had seen the march to demand justice for Trayvon Martin on Crenshaw Blvd. Monday and were enthusiastic about it. Some had been part of wearing and distributing stickers saying, "We are all Trayvon! The whole damn system is guilty!" Students from two different high schools in the area said they had run into revolutionaries before in front of their schools—and what they know is this is about changing the world. Several Black skaters from the nearby skate park joined in the picnic. Some of them were upset because of a recent incident in the park where some of their white skater friends were beaten up by members of a nearby Black gang—in an area where there is often tension and animosity between Black and Latino people. The diversity of the picnic, the different nationalities, ages, and backgrounds hanging out together without conflict or degrading bullshit was a big part of its attractiveness.
There was a short program halfway through that opened with one of the young boys with a beautiful voice singing Miley Cyrus' "The Climb," as he shyly held onto his friends for moral support, and receiving resounding applause. The revolutionary emceeing welcomed everyone and said a few words about Bob Avakian and the BA Everywhere campaign, putting the campaign and this fundraising picnic in the context of the editorial in Revolution newspaper about a summer of big challenges and intense struggle. She brought up a couple members of the Revolution Club who read quotes from BAsics they had picked out, then went on to say a little more about Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution. In particular she spoke to the recent march for justice for Trayvon and how significant it was, and then went on to talk about the revolution we need and how BA concentrates this revolution—which is also why he is so controversial, speaking specifically to the incident at the Trayvon rally where narrow nationalists disrupted speakers on stage and attempted (unsuccessfully) to derail the whole protest. She encouraged everyone there to find out what Bob Avakian is about by watching portions of his talk, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! in the canopy set up for that purpose. The program ended with a call from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network to get organized into the network and be part of planning out and taking part in the National Days of Solidarity to support the prisoners' hunger strike to stop torture in U.S. prisons.
When the program ended, many people did come over to watch a clip of the film, the first 18 minutes. There were at least two different showings of that clip to different groups of people during the picnic, and each resulted in very engaged discussions afterwards. In one discussion some of the skater youth were wrestling with questions of what kind of world is possible and what is true, including questions of religion and science. A young college student spoke very passionately in telling them that what he likes about Bob Avakian is that he's not just complaining, he has solutions and a movement behind him.
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