Grasping the "moment" to have a national and international impact with Bob Avakian's message: "No More..."—BAsics 1:13
Raising significant funds in Harlem for "human billboard" in Sanford, Florida
June 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
As the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin began on June 10, these words of Bob Avakian, emblazoned on a "human billboard" in Sanford, Florida were already drawing attention:
No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that. (BAsics 1:13)
In order to do this starting as the trial opened, money had to be raised—and fast. Over $150 was raised in four hours on Saturday on the street in Harlem and another $120 was raised at Harlem churches on Sunday.
Our agitation touched people deeply and we challenged people to donate—and more boldly up front calling on people to make larger donations than we have done in the past, to really making a difference.
There was a deep sense of anger around what happened to Trayvon and a deep connection people felt with this quote when they read it. An older Black woman pulling a cart behind her was overheard saying, "They better not let that racist walk free! They gonna see something if they do!" This sentiment was echoed in Spanish with great indignation: "¡NO! ¡No podemos permitir eso! [We can't let that happen.]" One man spoke of a volcano of anger. On various occasions people related the police murders, like of Ramarley Graham, in response to the points around the genocidal atmosphere against Black people being created. A woman who lives in the projects and who has the book BAsics by BA said that she had recently been out protesting against stop-and-frisk and was very disturbed by the moves to criminalize Trayvon. "There's got to be protest around this!" A neighbor of hers has the DVD of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, and they are making plans to get a group together to show it. People took stacks of flyers and cards of BAsics 1:13 to get out in their buildings, their schools, and their churches. One middle-aged woman said, "My pastor supported the last National Hoodie Day and he should promote this!" One young woman said she would be taking over the microphone at a party that night to make an announcement. Young people promised to post the "National Hoodie Day" on Facebook.
But to actually raise the kind of money we needed to raise that weekend, and more to start to make the kind of breakthrough we need around fundraising among the basic people for BA Everywhere, we had to break with tendencies to "aim low." It took a while, but we increasingly began to start off asking for $5 or $10 donations—and a number of people indeed responded by giving us $5 or $10 donations, while others found their own level.
There is the challenge now to really follow up with all those who made a significant contribution, to build wave upon wave.
Then, on Saturday, June 15—people were back on the streets of Harlem, building on what had been learned and what had been accomplished. But this time, a challenge had been made: a person with more financial resources pledged to donate $3 for every $1 raised in Harlem on Saturday. This was important on many levels. We took this challenge out to the people, aiming to raise $250. Indeed, we exceeded our goals, raising $288 in Harlem on Saturday—which when combined with the 3-to-1 matching funds has meant a total of $1,153 for the campaign to get BA Everywhere in one day. We hope this experience will inspire others to make similar matching pledges and for people in Harlem or other areas of the oppressed to meet those challenges.
BAsics 1:13 was touching people deeply and many people, young and old, including basic masses, folks who have seen us and known us for a long time and many we just met, felt compelled to donate 5 and 10 dollars to get this statement everywhere. People were glad to contribute when they heard that it was on the human billboard in Sanford and that more money was needed for another group of volunteers to go to Sanford to, as we put it in our flyer: "get it seen in a big way, going up in the face of those who hate what this quote says and represents, and into the hearts of many thousands who have hopes and dreams of a radically different world where there is truly 'No More of That.'"
The matching challenge had a positive impact, with some giving who would not have given otherwise, and others giving increasing the amount that they donated.
Where we fell down was not challenging and working with people we knew to go beyond donating to actually raising funds from others themselves, with the BAE raffle an important gateway/means for doing that in a form very familiar to people.
Raising this money in Harlem and already seeing the effect that putting BA's message out to a national and international audience, as we saw with this "human billboard," gave us our first taste this summer of the power and importance of the BA Everywhere campaign so that Bob Avakian's analysis of the source of the problems in the world and even more the solution to them, is out there so that thousands, even millions are debating and examining them. That has been very important. But a taste is not a whole meal. So with that in mind, we also broadly invited people to the BA Everywhere Barbecue and Picnic to kick off the whole summer of "Taking BA Everywhere, Raising Funds and Making a Difference" on Sunday the 16th, which we will report on very soon.
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