Houston: Some Experience Raising Funds with the Revolution Tour Cards

December 17, 2019 | revcom.us

From a reader:

Over the past 10 days I have raised $200 for the Revolution Tour by going out broadly and centering my efforts around the New Year’s cards. I’ve taken them to people on my job, helped set up a table in front of a friendly Central American restaurant, and gotten sets to a few people whose support for this revolution has strengthened especially through seeing the work of the Tour. These artistic cards themselves provide us with a great opportunity.

I was excited to get the cards out at work in the midst of all the other fundraising going on. And it was striking how the powerful images of the actions the Tour has taken captured people’s sentiments for resistance and brought them to contribute, even while most do not at all consider themselves revolutionary or revolutionary-minded. Like the Black woman who said she was broke, but in looking though the cards immediately wanted the one about immigrants. “Why?” She pointed to the banner saying “it speaks to what I feel in my heart.” One of several women who bought the card of the young women in blood-soaked pants taking action at Les Miz said that the card “took me through a range of emotions, and almost brought me to tears. It took me back to when I was seven or eight and read in one of my mother’s magazines about women using coat hangers. At the time I couldn’t understand why they would want to take their own lives. But now that I am older—I’ve seen a lot, and I understand…” Two other women (one Black; one Chicana) got the card showing the Tour burning the flag in front of the White House. “It’s a very strong statement and I like it—I think people should have the right to do it!,” said one of them.

A Black man was really taken by the artistry of the image’s—“the framing of the pictures and the powerful emotions captured,” and donated $20. A while back he had watched a cut of BA’s talk The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!..., and thinks a revolution would bring total chaos, but is obviously being challenged by what this movement for revolution is doing. An attorney in the building who donated for a set, “I have friends who would like these.” Most people didn’t want to hold onto the leaflets I handed them—the initial message from the Tour and the POAs or the article on fundraising. But $5 is not a lot to give. And the total message of the cards was more than a little attractive for these folks: “In the new year, Let’s fight for a New World.”

Our table in front of a Salvadoran restaurant was also an important opportunity to reach people about the Tour and draw their support and contributions. Among those who donated were a small but significant subsection of young working people and couples drawn to the bold call for revolution in the message of the Tour. While the cards themselves didn’t have an immediate impact as people came and went with their families or stopped for a quick bite to eat on their way to work, when they were able to focus for a minute on some of the pictures there were smiles of appreciation or moments of thoughtfulness on which card they would chose and for whom. One thing that was both important to some and controversial as well was the need for leadership and the goal of the Tour to bring forward and organize thousands of new revolutionary leaders. We made sure to get the card for the Why We Need An Actual Revolution film into these folks' hands and let them know about the Spanish transcript as well.

There is more work to be done in reaching back to people who supported our International Fundraising Dinner, especially those who provided the international dishes for that feast. But at least several people who have supported this revolution for a while are taking the New Years cards to their friends with hopes of inspiring support for the revolution among them.

$33,000 Is Needed by January 1

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