BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Van Tour in the Neighborhoods
September 23, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In August, BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! van tours hit the streets in New York, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles. Volunteers of different ages and nationalities went out in vans with striking revolutionary decorations, bringing to people that there is a way out of the madness and vicious brutality that this system and country rains down on the people here and around the world. The following is a report from one of the August van tours.
After a couple days in wealthier areas, the van tour spent several days in the neighborhoods of the oppressed where many Black and Latino people live. Since high schools just came back into session, a focus of the tour was going to the schools to reach students in these areas, but we also reached into places where we connected Bob Avakian (BA), with homeless youth, immigrant day laborers, viciously oppressed women, and many others who are "cast out and cast aside." For many people, these encounters were new, and the first time they were coming into contact with BA. And for others they re-connected with the revolution, including in places where the revolution has a history but not a recent consistent history.
During the van tour there was the core of volunteers and then a couple of people who came out for a few hours on some different days. One of these was someone who reconnected with the revolution at a festival over the summer and has been enthusiastically taking up fundraising. He ran with the van tour for a day, building for the finale celebration and selling stickers and calling on people to donate. We are still tallying the money raised and newspapers sold, but we can say with certainty not very much money was raised during the tour and overall fundraising was not enough put to the people we were encountering nor did we enough put fundraising in their hands.
Over the course of the August tour in this city (including the celebration at the end), close to 100 people watched parts of the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, from a few minutes to a full hour. More than 2,000 of the beautiful poster with BA's Three Strikes quote were distributed. And the engagement with this talk, and with revolutionaries out to challenge and transform people's thinking as well as learn deeply about that thinking, brought some of people's hardest questions to the surface.
A lot of this had to do with people wrangling with the possibility of revolution, of being able to radically transform the world and the relations between people. Among the youth in particular, some of this was expressed by people who had been part of the protests around the verdict in the murder of Trayvon Martin trying to understand what it meant to have done that, and what to do now that will make a difference towards really changing things. Some expressed feeling cast off by the rest of society (in particular, by white people) and the pain and anger about that as well as the question of whether that could ever change. Some raised the big question of the dog-eat-dog relations all around, in particular the way that in these neighborhoods the youth are in gangs and killing each other and in general there is a lot of people hating on each other. In terms of the possibility of actually winning a revolution to bring into being a whole new society, people had different conceptions of revolution that needed to be recast, but there was the question of how to be able to defeat such a powerful system. One thing we heard more than once in this regard was that maybe the way to defeat them is a coup, looking at what is happening in Egypt. A feature of many discussions we had with people was going into the strategy for revolution and distinguishing real revolution from wrong conceptions of revolution, as well as using the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic of North America (Draft Proposal) and the "Imagine" quotes in BAsics (Chapter 2) to lift things up to the level of thinking about and seeing the possibility of a whole other way things could be.
Engaging BA: Hard Questions... and Scientific Answers
On a block in an impoverished and downpressed area, between a center that provides basic nutritional necessities for low-income women and their children and a busy train stop, a group of Latino youth stopped to talk to the van tour volunteers and agreed that watching 15 minutes of this film was more important than catching the train they had been headed for. As they started to think about radically changing the world, they wanted to know how we overcome the divisions and beef between gangs. These youth posed this as an obstacle to building the movement for revolution. One of them said that he liked the idea of people coming together and doing what we're talking about but we would need to find a way to overcome this major barrier—of people being divided into different neighborhoods for so long. This youth gave an example of how this gets posed even among people who are not in gangs themselves: "His cousin in that neighborhood killed my cousin who is in that other neighborhood, so fuck those people over there." He tended to look down on gang members, saying they were "stupid" and ignorant and they wouldn't care about this. We challenged him to view the section from the film entitled, "The Revolutionary Potential of Those Most Oppressed Requires Scientific Leadership," where BA speaks to this question directly. This really challenged this youth. Meanwhile his friend had been watching the film and also had been having an exchange with another van tour volunteer about the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) and BAsics 2:6 and said that we are supposed to be all one humanity, but when some are separated, keeping others down, it doesn't work—we need to get to be one. When the friend kept expressing doubts about "hard core youth" caring about "revolution" and transforming their thinking he challenged him saying, "Yeah, but they can change, that's what the revolutionaries are saying."
In the back and forth their framework of what they understood to be revolution was challenged. They thought revolution is to keep protesting and pressuring the current leaders to change things so he kept asking, "What if these people don't change things?" This led to a discussion on reform versus revolution, really wielding "On the Strategy for Revolution" in BAsics.
At a day labor corner in another part of the city, one of the immigrants waiting for work watched the "Imagine" chapter in Spanish from BA's 2003 Revolution talk (Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About). He said, "I see how the people at the top try to keep the people at the bottom where they're at, but even among each other at the bottom people try to keep each other down." He talked about people at the day labor corner trying to out-hustle each other. He said he doesn't look at things that way—he sees the next guy trying to get work and understands that "he has the same necessities I do," and when someone picks him up for work he always tries to bring another guy with him. He said there is too much shit going on with people fucking each other for a job, and then many times are also fucked over by people that hire them. They get paid half what they were promised, or sometimes not at all. He told a story about a truck that pulled up, some guys loaded the truck, then the driver asked them to go inside the store and check on a price for something. By the time they came out, the truck had driven off without paying them. We talked about why people get caught up in this, what gives rise to that, drawing much from how BA goes at this in the piece "More on Choices..." Some of this was sparked by the film where BA talks about "work, housing, health care" under socialism in stark contrast to the destroyed lives and crushed spirits that capitalism leaves behind. Earlier on we had tried selling the day laborer a copy of Revolution newspaper but he said he couldn't read. But then said, "But I can listen and I can think."
Learning, Challenging and Transforming What and How People Think...
Outside a high school, we spoke with a Black student who is part of a multinational crew. He said he'd been part of the actions around justice for Trayvon Martin but at one point he ran into a scene where several Black youth were robbing another Black youth. He said he got disappointed to see this and it made him want to say "fuck all this Black power shit" since he felt "Black people can't even get together around justice for Trayvon Martin." We read from the "More on Choices..." piece by Bob Avakian. It turned out that this youth had months ago seen sections of BA's 2003 filmed speech (the Revolution talk). He recalled something from the film but completely distorted what BA was actually saying so he was challenged about this; he was told he didn't know what he was talking about... and he agreed. He said that he liked some of what BA says and likes the fact that there is a movement around him, but that if it actually got bigger it would get destroyed by the people who run this system. He cited the book 48 Laws of Power as an example of what the system would do to a revolutionary movement that is growing and having more influence. Despite his joking around at first, it turns out that his real question and disagreement is that he thinks that revolution is not possible. We asked him what scientific study had he done to come to this conclusion. He said he was basically going by what's "out there." We read him a section from "On the Strategy for Revolution" from the RCP on this, which challenged his wrong conclusion that "it's not possible," and told him if he is serious he should engage it further.
In a predominantly Spanish-speaking area, when we were showing BA's 2003 Revolution talk, we came across a Black brother who stopped after seeing our van and the newspaper. He told a volunteer that he takes the time to listen to anything having to do with revolution. When we explained what our mission was, he agreed with the form we were taking it out with, going directly to those who needed it most. In the background were masses gathering listening to BA's 2003 talk play in Spanish... We took the time and read the Three Strikes poster on the back of the van. With his finger he underlined criminalization and mentioned a few other things the Black youth are kept out of like education. Getting at what's needed now, a movement for revolution, we talked about the heroic hunger strike by California prisoners, the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, and other ways this movement is mobilizing and highlighting fighting the power as part of a strategy for revolution. Going through the "On the Strategy for Revolution" in BAsics, particularly where it speaks on what a revolution is and is not, not about acting all crazy or waiting for one fine day, he asked what the revolution thought about "inevitability." When we explained that revolution isn't inevitable, he clarified that what he meant was the contradictions of the system and how that affects the masses. He mentioned that he had been locked up in the past and said that the contradiction of the system would on its own (inevitably) bring the people to stand together and added "to fight the real enemy." This led us to the need for communist leadership. How are people going to come together and be sustained ideologically and knowing who is the real enemy? People are capable of coming together but this takes leadership, even realizing that these antagonisms do not disappear overnight. He honestly acknowledged that he himself was still dealing with the antagonism between Blacks and Latinos, appreciating that clarification. The conversation went on for some time covering more on the strategy for revolution. What stood out to him during our discussion, as he himself summed up, was the fact that this revolution had a strategy for revolution and that revolution had a deep sense of where all this came from captured earlier on in our conversation with the analysis of the "counter insurgency before the insurgency." Toward the end of our conversation he raised that he was concentrating time on GMO crops [genetically modified organisms], which he further tripped out on when he was driven to take it out of his immediate borders and deal with how this system fucks up the rest of the world and not just food but human life referring to the example of 500,000 plus farmers in India having killed themselves...
At an intersection where the revolution has had a regular presence, a high school student passed by who has been checking out the revolution around the edges and getting involved in small ways on and off. She stopped to watch a few minutes of the film. While watching, she was also looking around a bit and a display near the table caught her eye. She saw "abortion providers are heroes" and objected. She said she thinks women should have the right to abortion, but that abortion is wrong and to say abortion providers are heroes is really wrong. She said the same thing a lot of people say to us—the woman should have thought about it before laying down, should use birth control instead of abortion as birth control because abortion kills a human life. She also said that women were created to reproduce and this is a special joy and responsibility of being a woman. We told her first of all women were not created to do anything. She said, "Oh yeah, I forgot you guys don't believe in God." We talked to her about a woman's life being more important than a fetus, which is a potential human life but not yet. She still thought it was wrong for women to use abortion as birth control and blamed women for not being responsible when they have sex.
We walked through with her what we'd heard from a guy at the high school the day before who is a volunteer with an AIDS prevention project—about how all these youth don't want to take the free condoms they offer, even girls won't take them because the young guys say they can't feel anything with it, so they rely on pulling out during sex. Why? One is a lack of science education and knowledge. She understood this and said she knows that pulling out doesn't stop pregnancy or prevent disease and could see how lack of understanding could lead to a lot of young women getting pregnant who are not ready. We also talked about the other reason why—the way women are indoctrinated with the idea that they only count for something if they can please a man and yes that reproducing is the most important thing they can do. She nodded. Then we talked about how horrific it is to force a woman to be a mother when she doesn't want to be. We walked through how she would feel if she got pregnant and then for whatever reason decided she wasn't ready but was forced to have the baby anyway. What if you're pregnant and the guy turns out to be an asshole? Or you lose your job and have no way of supporting a child anymore? She agreed at this point, saying she would hate being forced to have a baby against her will and could see why this was important. But she still objected to saying abortion providers are heroes. She didn't know anything about the attacks on doctors and clinics. We told her how Dr. Tiller was killed and the bravery of doctors who know women need this to be free, how some states have only one clinic left. She said had she known about all of that at the beginning of the conversation, she would've been convinced right away.
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We called up a high school student we'd met during the July van tour, who had watched the first 15 minutes of REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! at that time. He plays basketball, said he wants to get into the NBA. This goal is promoted in a big way at his high school and we told him we'd recently looked up some information about his school and it showed that there was about one professional athlete a year that comes out of that school—out of a student population of more than 2,000. The van tour volunteer who talked with him told him we need to look at the hard reality that this system is grinding people up, has no future for people, and it's why we need to put ourselves to the fight to get rid of it. He said he had been thinking about this. The volunteer asked, thinking about what? He said, "the system." What about the system? He said that if you are not them, you don't count. We asked him what made him think about that and he said looking at the neighborhoods, the way some neighborhoods are neglected. We read him part of BAsics 2:6 and told him this is what this revolution is about. This is what we are fighting to bring about and what you can make a difference in being part of. He didn't respond to what was being posed by that quote, but said he would come to the BA Everywhere summer celebration.
A Black youth stopped and watched about five minutes of the film, during the part where BA talks about "it's not human nature." He said he really liked the film because BA is smart and he knows what he is talking about. We noticed he was looking at the posters around the van, and asked him his thoughts and which poster caught his attention. He said the "No more generations..." poster where there's a line of prisoners in the picture at the top of the quote. He said, "It sucks because they are on their way to jail, where they are gonna get messed with." The van tour volunteer responded, "They don't only get messed with, but they get tortured," and began to tell him about the hunger strike. He was surprised because he hadn't heard about the hunger strike. The volunteer asked him his thoughts on the quote, "No more generations...." He said it's a good quote and it's true because all these youth are getting killed and that needs to stop. He wanted to be part of the bookstore's mailing list so he left us his email and took an issue of the paper.
A woman in her fifties stopped to talk with one of the young van tour volunteers and opened up to him about what she's been through. A year ago she was stopped by a pig and he raped her. They still took her to jail. They let her go the same night, but it took her days to get over it. Her family didn't see her for three days. She was depressed. She filed a complaint. It turns out that pig had raped seven other women. A lawyer told her they wanted her testimony, but when she went they told her they didn't want it anymore, the case settled. So he's not a cop anymore, but he's still out there. She said, "I want to be a part of this, what can I do?" The volunteer told her she should watch the talk, REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!. She didn't stay to watch the film, but took Three Strikes posters to get up and around. A volunteer asked her if she had any ideas where to put them and she said she had been a postal worker for 28 years and had lots of ideas.
The High Schools...
We went to five high schools during the August tour. We would set up the van near the school and play REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! from the beginning. It was challenging to stop students to watch the film and we are still trying to learn more about why. We experimented a bit, changing things up as we went to try to deal with some of the things we could see as obstacles. For example, at some schools students literally don't stick around outside of school afterwards, so we tried to understand why and change where we were setting up. Some of the reasons students don't hang out are because they have responsibilities either at home or go to work and, in several places, students who expressed interest said they had to go meet with their probation officers or get home to meet the terms of being on house arrest and showed us the "ankle bracelets" that track their whereabouts. We guessed that other reasons include the "beef" that people get into among each other as well as the repression by the police. This played out in front of us at one school where it looked like a fight was going to break out after school and a group of students ran down the street messing with some of the street vendors. The police swooped in, in cars and helicopters and youth scattered everywhere, disappearing into the neighborhood. And members of the People's Neighborhood Patrol who were on the tour went to make sure the police weren't violating anyone's rights.
Still, a handful of students actually stopped at these different schools and watched short portions of the film and others engaged in discussions. In going back to areas we've been, we ran into people who knew of the revolution and stepped forward to engage more deeply and seriously, and we ran into people who have already drawn conclusions about why they don't want to engage—though this is something we need to continue working to open up and transform. For example, at one school where the revolution has had a presence, a couple students passed by and didn't want to take the poster or engage and said why: "You're dangerous because you don't believe in God," and "I don't fuck with communism."
One young guy, just out of high school, had encountered the revolution in the neighborhood before on a couple of other occasions and started to check it out. He ran into us when we were set up near the high school and took this opportunity to watch BA and ended up staying to watch the whole first hour. He didn't have a lot to say about what he thought of what he'd just watched, though he clearly liked it. He said he already knew about what BA was saying about what the police do to people. We asked him why he thinks the police do this and he said because they're cops so they can get away with it. We read him quote 1:24 from BAsics and he was really enthusiastic about it. He said he'd come to the BA Everywhere Summer Celebration, wants to buy BAsics when he has $10, and he asked for a stack of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! palm cards to get around.
Several students passing by would make dismissive or joking comments—but we realized that in doing this they were also engaging. We challenged one group of guys passing by and one of them said, "You can't do anything about this." We told him he was wrong, that's why we're out here, we're building a movement for revolution. He said he didn't see anything "building," and only a small group of people. We told him a big part of this is changing how people think in a mass way, and gave an example of how what people do can change how people think—the protests around Trayvon Martin. He said being out there around Trayvon didn't change anything, we didn't even "get anything" from it (in the context he said this, he meant there actually wasn't any looting of stores). The van tour volunteer talked with him about how it affected people's thinking throughout this society and in the world, including white people looking differently at this. The student responded, "White people don't care about us." We told him a story from the van tour about being in a middle-class neighborhood recently talking to a white person about Trayvon and the Three Strikes poster and what this country does to Black people and that there's a lot of white people that can and need to be together with Black people and others in the fight to get rid of this system, and that we have a strategy we're working on to do that. We said he needs to get into BA and to start with the Three Strikes poster which he hadn't taken initially but now did.
Nourishing the Revolution... Looking into the Future...
On one occasion, we were on our way to the house of a supporter of the van tour, who had made dinner to feed all the volunteers that night. This kind of support came from several people of different backgrounds and nationalities who are inspired by the goal and mission of the BA Everywhere campaign, and it included cooking food and housing the volunteers.
As we traveled on our way to dinner, one of us was looking up news stories online and reading different headlines and articles out loud. She came across a news story about a man who had been killed by police after he shot his wife. One of us posed the question, how would we handle something like this when we have revolutionary state power? One person referenced the Tyisha Miller quote from BAsics (2:16) about not wantonly killing the masses. We talked about how even in this kind of situation (if we take the news story as true), where someone is doing something that is truly horrific, that quote still applies. Why? Because we understand it's not human nature, and that people can change. This was a beginning discussion, which we would like to continue, about how in a socialist society there would be different terms being set in regards to ending the oppression of women, and there would be a climate of fighting to overcome these thousands of years of oppressive relations.
We used the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) (with the masses and among ourselves) to concretely get into a vision of a new society that's actually possible. Among the volunteers we talked about what socialism would look like and some of us read parts of this Constitution for the first time. One volunteer talked about how teachers had insulted and put her down in school so she read the section in the Constitution on education and thought about what education would look like in a new society and how radically different it would be. This included briefly batting around with others the positive achievements in this regard during the first wave of socialist revolutions, but also an examination of the shortcomings on this as well.
A Further Thought... And the Importance of BA Everywhere
Regarding the phenomenon of some people looking to the coup in Egypt as possibly a model for what "revolution" means here: A van tour volunteer said this reminded them of things they've read about of the 1960s and how back then people awakening to political life—and looking for an alternative to the way the world is—had socialist China as a beacon of hope and a model and inspiration. But given the setbacks and defeats, summed up in Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, the situation is much different today for all who are searching for a way out. This brought home even more the importance of the campaign BA Everywhere and the difference it can make to get BA's vision and works out in all corners of society—inspiring and raising sights. And it needs to be clear for all who want to get free—including those searching right now—that a "coup" is NOT a revolution and people must act on that understanding.
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