Picnic to Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution

June 6, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The Revolution Club sponsored a picnic on Memorial Day at a park near a neighborhood that has been the focus of taking out the Message from the Central Committee of the RCP, “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution.” We wanted to reach hundreds of people, and this park on a beautiful day was a great place to do that. It is a park with a reputation for being peaceful in an area of town where shootings take place daily. Many Black people come to this park from all over the area and there are also a few groupings of Latinos and a sprinkling of white people. We did up a quick flyer about the picnic and contacted people we met in the area to come meet up with the revolution at the park.

Volunteers went early in the morning to get a primo spot. Right next to the sidewalk they set up a tent with a large black and white banner on the front, “Time To Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution,” which definitely attracted a lot of attention. They put posters of this statement on a lot of trees. In front of the banner was a table with the flyers, Revolution newspaper, BAsics, the DVD BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, the DVD of the Dialogue between BA and Cornel West, Bob Avakian’s memoir, the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, palm cards with quotes from BAsics, recent quotes from BA, and the BA Timeline. Inside the tent were folding chairs and posters of the Message. A van was backed up near the tent with a large-screen TV out the back and chairs set up for showing video clips including “BA Through the Years,” and “Why Are We Still Fighting in 2015” from the Dialogue between Cornel West and Bob Avakian. There was a bbq area with food going for donations.

We succeeded in making an actual revolution known to hundreds of people. Dozens were directly engaged in various ways, including several new people who had helped distribute the Message in their neighborhood in the previous two weeks. Several people in BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! T-shirts were passing out the flyers to people walking by the whole time and took seriously steering people to revolutionaries at the table, in the tent, and showing the videos. They were engaged continually by interested people wanting to know about this actual revolution. The title of the statement, together with a vibrant and revolutionary scene of young and old, Black and white (and for quite a while, a Mexican family joined the scene) was intriguing to a lot of people passing by. And people who stayed and were part of it got a feel for what this revolution is about.

It was an inviting and welcoming revolutionary scene. The picnic setting provided an opportunity to go more deeply with people who came from the neighborhood who have been supportive but who we hadn’t had an opportunity to really sit down with and get into serious discussions and/or watch the video. Several people commented that “it’s all there” in the Message: the problem, the solution, the leadership of BA, and how to move today. The Points of Attention gave people a sense of concretely what it means to be part of this revolution. At the table we read through the proclamation with a number of people, and really promoted the website as a place where people could learn more about and get into BA, the newspaper, the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, and BAsics.

We have had revolutionary events at this same park before, but it felt different this time—people were more serious and engaged than in previous experience. We thought some reasons for this were because of the message we were bringing and how we were bringing it and because of changes in society (like the struggle against police terror and mass incarceration, the intensifying situation of the youth killing each other, women’s oppression, and Trump) were propelling people to look for serious solutions. People got that we were serious about actually preparing for revolution. One guy said in looking at the sign, “Yes, at the soonest possible time. We should have already done it. If we had a revolution before we might not be in the situation we are in today.” People were coming up to us to ask what this was about: What kind of revolution are you talking about? When will this revolution happen? What will it take to have a revolution? People wanted to know who/what is BA, and we read what the Message said and we showed them BAsics and the BA Timeline, and some of them watched BA on video clips. A number of people wanted to know: What is this “radically new and better society, the Socialist Republic of North America” that the Message talks about. We looked at the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America together.

Two women were very interested in the Message and wanted to know how DO we “urgently get organized for revolution,” and does the Revolution Club hold any meetings? These women had initially seen a poster of “Women are Not Bitches and Ho’s...” near the table, which stopped them in their tracks. They came back later with two friends and pointed out in the Message things that particularly caught their eye: “setting them [Black and Brown youth] up to fight and kill each other, when they should be fighting the REAL enemy,” and “when the fury of women must be unleashed for revolution.” A group of girls, nine and 10 years old, were reading the “Women are not bitches...” poster to a little boy with them and lecturing him that this was really important and he should pay attention.

We read through the Message with a number of people, and many people were drawn by the fact that this revolution is about ending oppression and exploitation all over the world. We emphasized what the Message says that this is an actual revolution that must OVERTHROW this system at the earliest possible time; that it will take millions of people and we are seriously preparing the ground, the people, and the vanguard now to do just that. And if you are serious about getting rid of all the horrors the people of the world face, you need to be part of this revolution. Two 17-year-olds who knew an autistic teenager who was killed by police in his own home, were really struck that this revolution is for the whole world. A Mexican family was very excited to learn about this. They said, “We need this. Everybody has to be part of this.” The family of a young man who had been murdered by police were picnicking nearby, and throughout the afternoon adults and kids alike came over to look at the banners to Stop Police Murder with pictures of people murdered by police and find out about the revolution.

There were pigs on bikes in the park who spent time hanging around where the revolutionaries were set up, even photographing the scene. When challenged by a legal observer about what business did they have surveilling the gathering, the pigs claimed they were just citizens taking pictures on their cell phones!!! There are plans to expose this.

We stressed to everybody that we ARE getting organized NOW for an actual revolution. We have the science, the strategy, and the leadership for an actual revolution and a radically different society, and what’s needed is YOU. Twenty-five people signed up, and a number of these people were invited to a meeting the Revolution Club is holding to get deeper into the Message and how they can get involved.

 

 

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