BA EVERYWHERE
A Call to Go Forward in 2014
January 27, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
“We need a new world, a radically different world.”
With this straightforward statement that opens his New Year’s message—A Call To REVOLUTION—Bob Avakian succinctly captures the situation humanity faces, and thus poses the challenge to be a part of making this a reality.
As the leading edge of the whole ensemble of revolutionary work, the BA Everywhere Campaign will play a decisive role in making big advances in 2014.
In this issue of Revolution, there is a report: “Insights from the Grassroots” that is a harbinger of the potential of the BA Everywhere Campaign—telling the story of a party greeting the 2014 new year that came alive with a contagious camaraderie coming from a Harlem-Bronx crew who, as one of them put it, have been “downgraded” by this system. During the holidays they worked, talked, and struggled together to raise $1,000 so that BA Everywhere would not be “just a vision, but would become a reality.” This spirit, this content, this commitment should multiply among all strata this year.
This issue of Revolution also has an “on the scene” report from a team that the BA Institute sent to the Sundance Film Festival—taking BA, the new synthesis of communism, and the fundraising campaign to this mecca of independent filmmaking, creating a stir with impact.
There is also an observation based on applying the editorial “BA Everywhere—Imagine the Difference it Could Make! Why and how it is key to changing the world—to making revolution” which discusses how, when talking with people about donating, we should be drawing out and contrasting frameworks for understanding the problem and solution in the world—making the case for why BA becoming a household word is essential if you want to end all the horrors of today.
Most important now, there is a piece in this issue of Revolution by Bob Avakian, incisively titled: "BA Everywhere—No Religiosity, Just a Scientific Approach," which critiques the first version of that Revolution editorial, that is both profound in scientific content, and even more fundamentally sets forth essential principles and methods. Everyone who wants to know and change the world needs to learn from this.
All of this should be reflected upon. The BA Everywhere Campaign needs to be out in the world and raising funds every day. And we should be taking time to think about what’s in this issue, as well as all the work that has been done over the past two years—learning from what has been accomplished and what is still to be done. This is part of beginning a process of envisioning and planning to make a leap in 2014.
As the articles in this issue reveal, there is much to build on. At the same time, we need also to take a hard look at where we’re at. What will it take and what should the campaign look like to realize the potential of BA Everywhere to raise the huge funds necessary to impact all of society?
We should ask ourselves some questions. Don’t we need to be looking at, and projecting, the BA Everywhere Campaign as a national fundraising campaign? Have we been too much proceeding from funding and organizing one project after another to popularize BA—without raising increasing and really massive funds needed, and building through every particular thing we do, momentum for the overall goals and objective of the campaign? Many of the projects that BA Everywhere has undertaken have been very positive, such as the premieres of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live, yet, why in most cases haven’t we raised funds over and above the cost of the projects themselves? Have we been consistently proceeding from the understanding that raising funds is the principal form of political work through which the campaign is carried out? What should the campaign look like in 2014 if we are clearly focused on the understanding that raising truly massive funds is the decisive means through which BA can become a household word and the campaign as a whole can have impact and influence throughout society? How much have we grasped and acted on the understanding that through struggling with people to donate, questions sharpen up, and their commitment and partisanship are forged? How much have we understood and conveyed that BA Everywhere is the leading edge of the whole ensemble of revolutionary work today?
Think about these questions—rooting this in the fundamentals of the campaign which are concentrated in the piece by BA in this issue and the final editorial that this led to. Brainstorm with friends and people you work with about ideas for how to realize the goals of the campaign. What are the ways that some of the really positive things the campaign has done can—in the right framework—really contribute to big advances this year? After talking it over, appoint someone to write it up and send it to us. We have been developing some proposals and ideas, some of which will be in the next issue of Revolution, but we really want to hear from you.
We want to get a deep and lively process going with everyone pitching in so that in 2014, BA Everywhere boldly projects and advances its overall mission as a national fundraising campaign to raise really massive sums of money, involving growing numbers of people, so that BA becomes a household word, so that the vision and framework of the new synthesis of communism is known throughout the country, even reaching around the world. So that when people confront the horrors of this society, they weigh this brutal reality up against what BA, and the movement and Party he leads, say: that humanity doesn’t have to live this way. So that when people feel revolted by the vicious “me first” putrid culture where everyone and every relationship is turned into a vicious game of who wins and who loses, they think of BA—as the leader who represents a future that is the opposite of all the crap of today—where humanity could get beyond the current dog-eat-dog setup to a world where people would consciously and cooperatively work in the common interest—a world fit for humanity.
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