$50,000 Goal Accomplished! An Important Beginning

September 9, 2019 | revcom.us

 

The collective efforts and financial contributions of hundreds of people around the country turning their minds toward revolution have made possible the achievement of the $50,000 summer fundraising goal for the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour. A total of $51,289 was raised during this period.

This is an important beginning and now the fundraising efforts need to be scaled up to a whole other level as we enter into the next important phase of the Revolution Tour. As we have said: The stakes are enormous, the time is short. As the political landscape sharpens and grows more dangerous daily, this Tour is what is needed to put the need and possibility for an ACTUAL revolution before thousands and thousands of people and to introduce people to Bob Avakian, a leader whose heart is with the masses of humanity that suffer needlessly under this system and who has brought forward a scientific understanding of why and how this oppressive imperialism must be overthrown and how a liberating new world can be built. A much greater level of funding is needed to enable the Tour to have even more powerful society-wide impact.

The August 25 Livestream brought alive the fact that this is a collective effort across the country—here’s the need, here’s the goal, here’s where we’re at right now, and YOU are crucial to accomplishing the goals and building this movement. People tuned in and were brought right inside the Tour with impassioned discussion among Tour members about the struggle for the Tour to rise to what’s needed as society is shaken by each new outrage and the need for revolution cries out ever more urgently. Gatherings of people watched the August 25 Livestream and donated. One person who drove hours to join an Internationalist dinner in Houston where the Livestream was being shown, wrote:

I have had my eyes on revolution for a long time, but on Sunday I came to realize that it was time for me to put my heart into it. When Tala posed the idea of imagining now what could be possible if we got rid of this system and brought a whole new world into being—imagining what architecture would look like, for example—I felt a burning desire for this system and all its ugliness and cruelty to be gone today.

The Livestream boldly put out the challenge: To those who have been financially supporting and following the Tour, YOU need to go out and spread the word and involve much broader sections of people in learning about and contributing to this Tour.

In the days that followed, people who had tuned in were on fire to go out and spread this everywhere and make the financial goal. Well over a hundred more people donated in big and small amounts, many of whom had never before donated. Supporters of the Tour got on the phone, talked to old friends and contacts, talked to family, reached beyond the circles of people who have been actively following the Tour. For those who donated, hearing about the Tour (some for the first time) struck a chord and people donated from different perspectives:

An office worker wrote: “I gave because I must. I felt compelled. There is nothing else I can do right now. There is still a chance to change things. There is still oxygen in our lungs. We can still struggle. We have to fight this fascism. The young people’s words and deeds brought back to me that moment of discovery, that we can change things. Change is possible.”

One person watched the powerful video clip of Bob Avakian “What if the world doesn’t have to be this way?” and immediately pulled money out of his pocket saying: “I think this is a very important cause to give my money to.”

A lawyer and first-time donor heard about the Tour commemorating Red Summer of 1919 in Chicago, and immediately said he would donate. He knew of those events of 1919, and he was also moved to see that some from the Tour had traveled to join the protests of Japanese Americans against the present-day concentration camps for immigrant children.

Other people spoke of the horrors of the Trump regime and made clear they wanted to be part of something that is going straight up against all that. (See accompanying box for more statements from people who have supported the Tour.)

In addition to this kind of outreach, important collective efforts were undertaken to help achieve the $50,000 goal. Yard sales and used book sales raised thousands of dollars. Internationalist dinners and other kinds of fundraising gatherings were held. A group of immigrant women who had already raised $460 for the Tour announced they would be holding another fundraising picnic “inviting everyone who wants to celebrate internationalism and diversity, and wants to learn more about the Revolution tour that is organizing for an ACTUAL revolution.”

All of this is just a start; it reveals tremendous potential that we have just barely begun to tap. The challenge is before us. Many, many more people need to hear about this Tour, become inspired by its message and the hope that it brings on a solid scientific foundation—and step forward to support it financially. We need to redouble our efforts and reach and inspire all kinds of people, including those who have the ability to contribute at a much higher level.

The funds that have been raised so far have been critical to enabling the Tour to have broad impact in Los Angeles and Chicago. For Tour members who have left jobs and families, the funds have helped to feed and house them, to produce materials to spread revolution, to travel from city to city, and to carry out high profile actions like the stunning presence at the Bud Billiken parade in Chicago where the flag was torn to shreds while the horror of what the rule of U.S. imperialism means for humanity was denounced and exposed.

The Tour is now coming to New York to take things to a higher level. Many tens of thousands of dollars are needed to continue to fund these volunteers and enable the Tour to keep on disturbing the air with revolution and challenging people to confront the nightmare humanity is living and the need to overthrow this system in order to get free of this—and to bring forward thousands of people into organized relationship to this revolution. The fundraising efforts that have begun need to be built on and vastly and creatively expanded to a whole other level.

Watch the August 25 Facebook Live from the Revolution Tour in Chicago

“What if the world doesn’t have to be this way?”