Chicago: Revolution Contingent Joins Bud Billiken Parade
August 18, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
“When the revolution comes, no more police brutality. When the revolution comes, no more wars for empire. When the revolution comes, no dissing the sisters. When the revolution comes, no more war on immigrants. When the revolution comes, no dissing gays and lesbians. Get down with Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution. Get down with the revolution—WHAT’S MISSING IS YOU!”
Revolution Books contingent 85th annual Bud Billiken Parade on Chicago's South Side, August 9. 2014
Photo: Special to Revolution
This rang out from the loudspeaker and the participants in the Revolution Books contingent as it passed by large crowds of people lining the street for the 85th annual Bud Billiken Parade on Chicago’s South Side, August 9. This is the largest and oldest African-American parade and the second-largest parade of any kind in the country.
In the contingent were members of the Chicago Revolution Club, veteran revolutionaries, and people new to the movement for revolution. Large banners captured the spirit of the contingent: “We Refuse to Accept Slavery in Any Form” and “Fight the Power, and Transform the People, for Revolution.”
BA Everywhere was manifested by people wearing BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! T-shirts and by a youth carrying a beautiful sign with the “No more generations of our youth...” quote from Bob Avakian (BAsics 1:13). People from the Stop Mass Incarceration Network carried a banner saying “Stop Mass Incarceration and Police Terror! Month of Resistance, October 2014.” A Revolution Club member and a relative of a police murder victim carried a Stolen Lives banner showing names and pics of some of the many people killed by police across the U.S. Stop Patriarchy represented with bold signs saying “Abortion on Demand and Without Apology” and “Women Are Not Female Dogs [we took out the B-word given the child-friendly nature of the parade], Punching Bags or Incubators. Women Are Full Human Beings.” One person in the contingent had a sign calling for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Besides the song/chant above, the most popular chants were “Blow the Whistle on Police Brutality” (followed by the entire contingent blowing whistles three times in unison) and “Indict, Convict, Send the Killer Cops to Jail, the Whole Damn System Is Guilty as Hell!” At times a member of the Revolution Club who had his guitar plugged into the sound system played licks with the chants. One person said the contingent was “electric and electrifying!”
People who jumped up in response to the contingent were handed stacks of the Chicago Revolution Club proclamation to circulate in the crowd. At the park, where we set up our tents, a new member of the Revolution Club who recruited two other new people said, “They were wild about the stuff I was telling them. I gave them insight into what the problem was, letting them know that one system has caused all the increments of disaster. They could visualize and understand where I was from and what I explained to them. They took up the palm card, the proclamation, and signed up saying that they were very interested in being active in this movement.” She said about the whole experience: “It was wonderful—being out there, letting people know we exist, that there is a place that they can go to if they want to take action.”
The very next week, some from the Revolution Club were in Ferguson, Missouri, on the front lines of the struggle against the police murder of Michael Brown.
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