Revolution #261, February 26, 2012
We’re on a Mission
We are on a mission to get BA Everywhere. We’re on a mission to reach out to those who are deeply discontented with what is going on in this society and the world, and find the ways to challenge the conventional wisdom that this capitalist system is the best humanity can do. We are on a mission to raise big money to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works throughout society—and we not only welcome but are aiming to stir up controversy and contestation over big questions of the revolution.
A call to our readers:
- Every month different groupings and collectivities of people should plan a weekend of fundraising. Fundraisers could range from citywide efforts to raise considerable funds in a concert or a citywide gathering or small groups of people from neighborhoods, high schools and colleges and different scenes coming together to put on a yard or book sale, a fundraising house party or barbeque. People can sell baked goods or canvass a neighborhood to raise funds. This can and should be combined with discussions of BAsics and Lo BAsico. And lots of creative promotion of BA Everywhere and—foundational to that—the book BAsics.
And let’s be creative! Above are only a few of many ways that people can raise money. Bringing people together in diverse ways is essential to this campaign—and these kinds of collective efforts will give rise to all kinds of ways people can come together to make a difference. And funds from across the country, being collected in small and large amounts, will not only add up to being able to project BA in really big ways, it is through these efforts that, in large part, people will come together to learn about BA and his work—and a community and movement to make BA a household word will be forged.
- On another weekend each month, organize forays to areas where BA is not widely known or actually not known at all, and introduce people to this leader and his work. Go to communities of the oppressed people. Go to campuses the revolution has not reached before. Go to big cities and small towns. Take BAsics and lots of promotional materials about BA Everywhere (downloadable from revcom.us), Revolution newspaper, and dramatic displays into these areas. Stir up the controversy and debate! And raise money! The pilot foray of the BAsics Bus Tour will be hosted at Revolution Books, Los Angeles, in its finale. (See "Report from Riders on the BAsics Bus Tour".) Let’s build off that experience and expand our ability and capacities to reach out even further.
As this campaign unfolds, it will be punctuated by intense efforts to raise money to make leaps along the way. At key moments, broad numbers of people across the country should and will join in to reach important financial goals for projects like promoting the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) or taking the BAsics Bus Tour national, as they did last year when hundreds nationwide worked in concert to raise the money for Occasioned by BAsics, A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World, or at year’s end when people partied all over the place to raise money for the BAsics Bus Tour pilot project.
But meeting these important goals and the societal impact of such concentrated national fundraising can only be maximized when it is linked to a whole movement on a mission to get BA Everywhere, a movement that is finding the ways to broaden its reach, draw new forces into the effort, and raise money continuously and in all kinds of ways. To effect a radical and fundamental change in the social and political atmosphere of this whole country by projecting the whole BA vision and framework into all corners of society demands there be this dynamic or interaction going on between the BA Everywhere movement and these nationwide punctuation points. Take one example: one of our six big ideas is to bring Raymond Lotta, Sunsara Taylor, or Carl Dix to crisscross the campuses, taking on all comers in debates and dialogues. But to maximize these opportunities, it is critical for the BA Everywhere campaign—and for BAsics—to hit these campuses in a big way. Take out Facebook ads, and write letters to college newspapers. Speak in classes. Unleash debate in dorms and cafeterias. Hold fundraising events—and involve students who are gravitating to BA and the revolution. And then, with the students already buzzing about BA, the impact will be all the greater when Lotta, or Taylor, or Dix comes to the campus to speak. And the funds to bring them will be raised through these efforts together with the monthly fundraising events which are being organized.
As we wrote in an editorial earlier this year, “Achieving our goals depends not only on raising big money, but on how we go about raising those funds. Broad publicity and promotion alone will not make Bob Avakian a household word. Achieving our goals depends on who is drawn into this battle, and in what ways and forms. It is critical for people to be engaging with BA and specifically with BAsics. This campaign must reach a wide range of people, from those with little means to those with substantial resources, and everybody in between.”
So, let’s do it! Let’s welcome the debate and controversy. Let’s find the ways to get BA Everywhere, forging a movement which is seizing on every pathway to take this campaign all over the place. Let’s make BA a household word!
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