All Out to Raise the Funds for the
BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live Summer Van Tours
New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bay Area
July 14, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Within the next week, the BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live Summer Van Tours will hit the ground in four cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Intense, inspiring and exciting, the tours will provide a big boost to lofting the presence of Bob Avakian, the movement for revolution he leads, and especially the multi-faceted fundraising campaign to make BA known everywhere.
BA Everywhere picnic, June 2013, New York City. Photo: Special to Revolution
What a moment to be doing this! As the vans roll out, the verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin will either have just been delivered or imminent—with tens of millions awake to what that will mean for the struggle against the oppression of Black people. The hunger strike initiated by prisoners in solitary confinement in California will have been launched. An all-out offensive to deny women's fundamental right to abortion will be roaring through state legislatures and courts around the country, with people rising to meet that challenge. And, around the world people are battling brutal reactionary regimes—fighting and dying for change up against reactionary regimes enforcing this imperialist system in one form or another. And yet, even as people are raising their heads, they do not know that there is a framework for a radically new and better way the world could be that is concentrated in the new synthesis of communism developed by Bob Avakian, and a strategic method and approach for making revolution.
What a moment, what a huge responsibility it is to be providing people the opportunity to find out about, engage, and be a part of contributing financially and in other ways to spreading the liberating revolutionary vision concentrated in the work of Bob Avakian, "BA."
The objective of the BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live Summer Van Tours is to spread BA more deeply and widely among all strata, involving people and developing ongoing relationships in the activity of, and as a means for, raising really significant funds over the summer and into the fall so that BA becomes known everywhere. The tours should be a catalyst for the whole campaign.
For a whole week volunteers, four to six people of different ages, gender, nationality, and background will take off from jobs, school, the routine of life to work together to introduce and involve and join with a whole lot of people in the BA Everywhere Campaign. Small passenger vans will be rented and decorated, giving the teams the flexibility to travel throughout the cities and to outlying areas. The very appearance of the diverse character of these teams: their enthusiasm and commitment to changing the world; their serious purpose as well as their fun spirit; their revolutionary T-shirts and attire; and the collective élan they exude while bringing to people the real deal—the revolutionary theory developed by BA that enables the people to understand the source of the problems humanity faces and the revolutionary solution will be a living manifesto of revolutionary possibility. The radical simplicity and straightforward message of the tour, the basic ways the volunteers will be spreading the word, can involve many new people in raising even more funds so that revolution and BA become widely known and debated—all this will catalyze the movement for revolution in the midst of the sharp struggles that are afoot this summer.
There are lots of ways for people—all kinds of people (including those reading this article!)—to be a part of the tours. First off, people can volunteer by writing to BAEverywhere@gmail.com or at a local Revolution Books. People can host and/or coordinate gatherings in their community for the tours—to watch the film, host or prepare a meal, house the volunteers, or even just donate food from a local restaurant (as people did for Occupy in New York City). It would make a real difference for people to donate or lend audiovisual equipment for showing the film. And, once the tours are underway, everyone should spread the progress of the tours, sending links to the daily blogs from the volunteers through social media.
Taking BA Everywhere to Sanford, Florida, June 2013. Photo: Li Onesto/Revolution
TO MAKE THIS POSSIBLE, right now and continuing until July 15, DONATE to the BA Everywhere Summer 2013 project. Funds are being raised across the country this week and being brought together on Indiegogo, a worldwide crowdfunding site to launch the campaign enabling each city to rent vans, provide food for volunteers, and to purchase portable DVD players, flat-screen TVs, sound amplification, and, if we raise enough money, video projectors. This will make it possible to bring and show the film BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live straight to the people.
Fundraising to launch BA Everywhere Summer 2013, starting with BA Speaks: Revolution-Nothing Less! Van Tours on Indiegogo should be an urgent priority for the next eight days for everyone with a conscience who looks out on the state of the world and feels the need for radical change.
Those who today see the great need for the movement for revolution to become a real force with impact and influence in society, who are on the front lines of struggle, should strive for the success of this Indiegogo campaign, recognizing how spreading BA and revolution straight up is foundational to building a movement for revolution. For this campaign to succeed, for the whole atmosphere in society to be percolating with ferment over really changing the world instead of passively acquiescing to all the devastation of people and the environment, requires that everyone who recognizes what a difference it will make if BA and the liberating vision he has brought forward are widely known, get involved: spreading the Indiegogo campaign and donating this week.
In the context of the different battles in the world heating up, with people actively rising to meet those challenges, this is what it concretely means for revolution and BA Everywhere to be the leading edge of the movement for revolution over the next week:
[1] Let everyone you know about the Indiegogo campaign—through email and social media —ask for a DONATION; send them the fundraising video which gives those who watch an exciting vision of what these van tours can accomplish and statements of support, and ask them to send the video and statements to people and lists they know. Call a day later and follow up with them. Talk to them about what a difference this campaign makes.
Seek out and struggle with friends, people from work, your community and family—who can donate $250, $500, and $1,000. Struggle with people to not do great harm by funding political campaigns for the oppressors of the Democratic ruling class Party; or, on the other hand, throwing their money into "band-aid projects" that, at best, salve a very small part of a horrific world, when it is possible to build a movement for a radically new future.
You can also contact a Revolution Books store to join with others in going out to the hoods to spread the word and raise funds.
[2] Schedule and carve out at least a half day, every other day this week, to reach out to and to follow up with people about donating to and spreading this campaign.
[3] Next weekend, go all out to bring the BA Everywhere Summer 2013 Indiegogo fundraising to a successful conclusion. This involves following up with those who you have reached out to and a concentrated effort to reach out to others who should contribute to meeting the goal for this great need by Monday, July 15.
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BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live Van Tours
The film is the centerpiece of the Van Tour—not just talking about it, not just selling the DVD, as important as doing both are—but actually showing the film: on the streets, in projects, in restaurants, churches, schools, out in the parks and beaches, and at cultural events. Letting people experience and grapple with BA themselves, up close and live, in a gripping filmed presentation. More than a film, BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live is a compelling, deep, substantive, scientific summoning to revolution.
Imagine the vans with volunteers going out for several days to a housing project, a park, a street corner where people gather, and pulling up in the decorated van, setting up displays, spreading quote cards from BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, and then setting up the flat screen TV and sound system and inviting people to gather around and watch a chapter and then having an opportunity to dig into their questions and thoughts. And then coming back again in the next day or two to go deeper, while also giving people a way to connect with and be a part of the movement for revolution in an ongoing way. Then, during another part of the week, going to nearby areas where there are concentrations of progressive people with more resources, meeting people from the middle and upper strata deeply concerned with events in the world who have a bit more leisure to think and talk—meeting them at summer theaters, concerts, flea markets, art fairs, etc.—introducing them to BA and involving them in donating and raising funds.
The Van Tours will be getting a dynamic dialectic going between going deeply into the neighborhoods where the movement for revolution has been active in a more mobile and intensive way, including reaching out to different projects, parks, and places that we don't normally get to go to; and, on the other hand, the tours will be stretching out broadly to all kinds of people in diverse strata in other areas of the cities and suburbs, forging new connections and the ways and means for these new relationships to become ongoing relationships on different levels.
From the 'hoods to progressive middle class areas the tours will tap into new forces who want to see real radical change. The objectives are for many new people to start to engage revolution through getting into Bob Avakian; for people to get involved themselves—developing a base of financial and political support for the movement for revolution in the 'hoods and much more broadly.
At this sharp moment, there are people right now looking for answers. The scientific theory of revolution that BA has developed—which people can readily get in a basic way from BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! and well as from BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian—is transformative. Without a scientific analysis of the actual underlying source of problems we face in this system and of the solution that is possible through revolution, the horrific oppression that humanity faces and the ecological devastation of the planet will continue. The Summer 2013 BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live Van Tours offer a tremendous opportunity to fill a great need for really radical change. As this unfolds simultaneously in four major cities across the country, there will begin to be a wider and deeper sense of possibility—of people thinking, talking and debating real revolutionary change, a new system, new state power in opposition to the deep unsettled feeling that there is "no way out," no good choices, under the current order.
The progress of the four simultaneous tours will be reported on revcom.us and social media and this will project a national movement taking up and spreading BA and revolution. This too will signal to still more people a vision and a sense that things really could be radically changed.
A new and dynamic part of having four tours in different cities is that they should experiment with a lot of different approaches. There is a national vision for the tours and the BA Everywhere Campaign. But the plans and initiative will be decentralized and developed in the different cities. This should foster a richer experience. Everyone across the country should be able to learn from the different initiative, creativity, the successes as well as when things fall short in the tours. Summing this up, sifting through the different experiences, is all part of a scientific approach to making revolution. This will be reported on the BA Everywhere portal on the revcom.us website, which can be found by going to the section of the site titled: Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.
The core principles for the tour are:
[1] To the masses of all strata in a mass way—having a dynamic presence—projecting a revolutionary spirit and élan—putting out a pole of revolution, taking a firm political and ideological stand against the way things are and boldly putting forward that there is another way in BA, and creating a compelling politically provocative scene—in the parks, projects, speaking out at talkbacks at theaters, science fairs, gallery talks, or at the movies!
At the same time there should be plenty of space for new people who may just want to observe and be a part of the scene, or just hand out cards, and talk to people on the side. All of which can be a part of the mix contributing to the people who encounter this for the first time seeing that there is room for lots of different ways to be supportive, to be a part of this, and that they too can find a place.
The teams will focus for a few days in the 'hood and areas of concentration (while making forays to other parts of town including going to concerts and cultural events) and then they will go for a long weekend to progressive and wealthy areas within a few hours of the city. These tours will be an incredible, politically life-changing experience for the volunteers.
There should be specific planned convergences during the tour when the BA Everywhere Committees, the Revolution Clubs, the Revolution Books bookstores, and people from different social movements and struggles join in with the tour to make a big impact. Everywhere, people should popularize and mark the showing of the film at the main LA Central Library on July 20—during the run of most of the tours!
And there should be spirited "Send-Off" gatherings when the tours get ready to hit the roads.
[2] Radical Simplicity: Put BA in front of people. Let the film work. Let people get into the basic quotes of BAsics! Raise Funds and Involve People in Raising Funds. Sharp, Clear, Bold, Simple Decorations. Part of building the movement for revolution should be involving people in hosting the volunteers for dinner or lunch. Feed the revolutionaries—nourish the revolution.
Orientation: Be as radical as the new synthesis of communism. The world is a horror; it doesn't have to be this way—it's not human nature, it's the nature of the system; because of the work BA has done, there is an alternative and a way to go there; things will remain this way if we don't go at it. So let's go!
[3] Follow Up: An important criteria for what the tours do and how they do their work, is building in the orientation and the ways and means for people we meet to get connected and involved even in very basic ways with the movement for revolution. For one thing, when the tours go out to outlying areas, there must be a plan to go back in a few weeks. There is a vision of having a second week of the van tours in early to mid-August. We should fight through for that. But, even if a full second van tour turns out not to be possible in an area, there should be a definite plan for people to go back for a weekend (in a car) with a few people to follow up on the first foray.
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For this to happen, $20,000 is needed by July 15. That is in all of our hands, right now. Let it be the case, that in the summer of 2013 when people began to raise their heads around the world, when people here began to seriously confront that the things that brutally oppress them will not change with the "Hope" of another ruling class leader of the very system that causes so much misery, that there were people who spread the understanding, who raised the funds so all of society would know: there is a way out of the horror and madness, in the vision, method and approach, framework, and leadership of BA.
When the BA Everywhere Campaign began in 2011, Revolution wrote:
If we collectively raise enough money to make it concretely possible to project the whole BA vision and project into all corners of society and to introduce him and what he is bringing forward to millions who are not yet familiar with his works and vision; if the framework he is bringing forward and advocating for becomes increasingly debated and wrangled over by thousands and by millions of people from all walks of life; if, together, we manage to accomplish this, this will actually make a very big difference. The whole social and political culture will "breathe" more freely, people will wrangle passionately over "big questions" concerning the direction of society (like knowing that much of the future of humanity hangs in the balance) and the times will once again resonate with big dreams for fundamental change and the emancipation of humanity.
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