Reflections on BA Everywhere...
Imagine the Difference It Could Make!

by Annie Day | September 1, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

I’ve been thinking about BA Everywhere and why it’s the leading edge right now of a whole ensemble of revolutionary work. For those who are just learning of this, BA Everywhere is a mass campaign to raise big funds to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works into every corner of society.

Bob Avakian (BA) is the Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party who has developed a new synthesis of communism and a strategic approach to making revolution in the U.S. He’s spent decades studying the experience of the first wave of communist revolution—first in the Soviet Union and then in China, where millions were a part of changing all of society. They went a long way in this and brought forward a whole different economy, new ways of relating, a new culture and revolutionary thinking among millions—which inspired people all around the world. These revolutions were defeated and capitalism has been restored in both these countries, in the Soviet Union since the 1950s and in China since 1976. These societies also fell short in important ways and made serious errors in the revolutionary process—in what they carried out, and even in their conception. BA has wrangled deeply with all this as well as studying developments in human society more broadly—learning from all quarters. Through this, he has forged a framework, a vision and strategy for a radically different way the world could be. BA tells people the truth, he breaks down the complexity of the world but also the very real need and possibility of revolution—and how people need to be working on that today.

There’s a lot more to say about BA, what his leadership concentrates and all the work he’s brought forward, and I strongly encourage everyone reading—even those who are familiar with BA’s work—to take some time reading through revcom.us/avakian, to get deeply into this theory as well as to get a sense of the scale and significance of BA’s work.

The full slogan for this campaign is BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make! And that’s what I think people should do, really: imagine the difference it could make.

In our society, huge sections of youth spend their days in a haze—numbing themselves to the pain and boredom of growing up in a society where you have no future or no future that you find meaningful, where you are told in a million different ways you mean nothing and are worth nothing. For Black and brown youth, they grow up with the world set against them, feeling all they have to hold on to is their block—which they do not own and do not control. People live disrespected and demeaned—tracked into juvenile detention and prisons, women pimped out by their loved ones or beaten regularly if they do not comply. Too often, people respond to these conditions of brutality by turning around and delivering the same to their neighbors, to people who should be their friends. If you have dreams and aspirations that haven’t been stamped out of you, it is often for personal success, for you to get up and out—regardless of the cost to others. Far too much in this society, people hate on each other, they lie to each other, they bully each other, they find suspect people who feel different and who act different. The mainstream culture celebrates cruelty, domination, and meaninglessness.

For people who want to be about something different—rebel youth who want to be about justice—they are trained to think about it in terms of how they’re going to live different, make different personal choices, how they are going to try to do good in a terrible world and almost never consider—and are told not to consider—what it would mean to bring about a fundamentally different, and better, world.

When they do step out and fight against the outrages of this system, when people lift their heads to fight—as they have this summer in the hunger strike in California prisons, in the streets around Trayvon Martin, the heroic youth putting their lives on the line for immigrant rights or abortion rights—they are attacked, criminalized, and repressed at the same time as in these struggles, big questions are posed about what we’re really up against, and where the fight needs to go.

All this shit—the criminal outrages people face, the mass degradation and the suffering, the low sights and dreams—this comes from a system that is rooted in the relentless chase for profit above all else, a vicious system of capitalism which draws its lifeblood from ever more ruthlessly exploiting people and the planet, enforcing this and other forms of oppression with their courts, police, prisons, and armies. (To find out more how all this flows from this system, read through Revolution newspaper every week or almost daily at revcom.us.)

Now... imagine something completely different emerging throughout society. A leadership, and a movement behind that, that is exposing where all this comes from, how this kind of oppressive society developed—and how everything could be different.

Changing this whole world is going to take a REVOLUTION, a real revolution that is about the emancipation of all humanity. This is what BA’s work concentrates—the leadership we have for the revolution we need.

BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make!

Imagine people throughout society—in barbershops, living rooms, campuses, libraries, and street corners—watching the new film, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live. Imagine people seeing palm cards all over with quotes from BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian—quotes that tap into the reality people live and make them see it in a whole different way... and imagine people getting into the book itself, a handbook for revolution. Imagine—as people are lifting their heads, fighting the power in different ways, that they come to understand the deeper problem behind what they’re fighting, the links behind that and other crimes of this system, and that there really is a way out and there is leadership for that in BA and the Party he leads. Imagine people finding out and engaging with the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) and the statement, “On the Strategy for Revolution”—both from the Revolutionary Communist Party... and think about what breaks open when people even find out these things exist. Imagine people coming together—building community full of great joy and defiance—to raise funds to break all this out even further.

Imagine the kind of real talk, the rich debate and discussion that could be fostered if people from different perspectives and different backgrounds were engaging this revolutionary voice together instead of the kind of bullshit and emptiness that we are told from magazine newsstands to much of music and TV is what should fill our days.

BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! is a film of a talk BA gave in the fall of 2012. As Revolution newspaper wrote earlier this year, this film is “dealing with the most important thing there could be—because it’s about the real possibility of bringing into being a radically different world, where all this madness, all the oppression and injustice, all the abuse and degradation that is so much a part of life now, would be done away with.”

Watching this film... spreading this film... getting into BAsics... passing it hand to hand... and raising funds to break BA’s voice, and his whole body of work, out into society in major ways... can change how whole sections of people are thinking, and on that basis, how they are acting. It will disturb and provoke, some people will vehemently disagree, some will want to jump in with both feet and some won’t be all sure what they think—but this kind of engagement and awareness of BA can change how whole sections of people see what is desirable, what is tolerable, what is possible—and what they should be about.

This is what we’ve been drawing forward and changing in significant, if still beginning, ways with BA Everywhere—with the BAsics Bus Tours that went out last year in California, through the South, and in New York City and surrounding areas. And what we’ve been tapping into with coordinated national van tours that have gone out into the inner cities and wealthy areas simultaneously in cities across the country this summer. This is why people have been inspired to contribute in all kinds of generous ways, and to be part of this movement—distributing palm cards, playing music, making jewelry, emailing a friend and more. This is part of why hundreds of people nationally attended premieres of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! and why many, many dozens were actively part of building for these. Why people have been digging into and spreading BAsics. A great deal has been accomplished in this, and much has been changed. We need to learn more deeply from all this, and on that basis—take it to a whole other level.

This is from a young Latina in response to the film: “I think it’s very important for everyone, especially young people from the hood to see this because BA talks about what they go through and he has a solution to all the oppression. And I know for me, when I saw it, it changed the way I looked at everything... music, shows, commercials, ads. I just started seeing all the fucked up shit they promote and it made me want to challenge all that and not go along with any of it.”

That can happen a thousandfold the more we are able to raise the funds required and build a national movement around BA Everywhere. Raising funds means we can have this kind of big impact on society—by coming together all across the country. It joins us together in an effort that is bigger than any of us, but in which we can all make a big difference—whether you can give $10 or $10,000, whether you bake cookies for a bake sale or host a fancy dinner party. It enables people who don’t have a lot of time—whether they’re working a busy professional job or scrambling to survive—to be part of breaking real revolution into the atmosphere and making this revolutionary force known.

All this—overlapping and interpenetrating with all the ways in which people are getting into the whole movement for revolution, fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution—can really change the face of everything.

If you want to be about something positive—the most positive thing there can be... get into BA and be part of BA Everywhere. If you want to be about more than just yourself but want to contribute to changing things for people all around the world... get into BA and be part of BA Everywhere. If you want to go up against all the lies and dishonesty in the world with sharp truth-telling, passion, and honesty... get into BA and be part of BA Everywhere. If you have a heart and a conscience, big questions and big dreams... get into BA and be part of BA Everywhere.

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