Iranian Dinner—A Benefit for the Revolution

December 10, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On a cold December evening Revolution Books in Berkeley held a very successful fundraising dinner for the filmed speech by Bob Avakian, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. The aroma of delicious Iranian food and Iranian music filled the store. The evening was warm, vibrant, defiant, and full of revolution. An unusual mix of people of different nationalities, ages, and points of view helped to make this an important step in raising funds to get this film out into society.

The event was hosted by some Iranian immigrants who were inspired by this film to do a lot of work to cook and provide a dinner with many delicious Iranian dishes. These immigrants had been figuring out ways to reach out to others and promote this film and one of the plans they came up with was to host this dinner.

At the dinner, one spoke in Farsi about why they were doing this. This is part of what they said:

When we watched this film, this film showed us clearly and with substance through historic development of the 5 Stops why and how these contradictions are real and how they cannot be eliminated under this system of capitalism-imperialism and why this system is not reformable and must be overthrown....

[T]his film was full of hope and very clearly shows you how this leader and this party has a real and clear strategy for revolution and emancipation of humanity.... This is like a sun obscured by the dark clouds of this heartless world of oppression and exploitation; let’s together push these clouds away and let this shine through the world, towards the emancipation of humanity....

They reached out to Revolution Books to put out a flyer and poster (and other forms of media) to invite people to this fundraiser dinner. The promotional materials quoted the film: “[W]e have two choices: either, live with all this—and condemn future generations to the same, or worse, if they have a future at all—or, make revolution.” And the materials had, in addition to the English headline “Delicious Homemade Iranian dinner! A Benefit for the Revolution!” writing in Farsi which said “A BRIDGE TOWARD THE EMANCIPATION OF HUMANITY.” Flyers and posters were distributed and posted up around the city of Berkeley, the University of California campus, and among many different strata of people, and there was some focus on reaching out to the Iranian community.

Nearly 50 people crowded into Revolution Books. There was a relatively short but excellent program during the dinner. A Revolution Club representative set the tone by reading part of a statement “A Call to Those Whose Hearts Are Aching” from some Iranian immigrants that is available online. Here is an excerpt from that call, which gives a further sense of the spirit of the evening:

We, a small group of Iranian immigrants living here in U.S., after watching the film of a talk given by comrade Bob Avakian last summer, are writing this letter to tell you about our experience with this film and to invite, encourage and really challenge others whose hearts are aching when hearing and seeing the world of horrors that humanity is going through throughout the world to really put aside some time and really, as soon as you can, sit down with a few friends, relatives and loved ones to watch this film. This film educates you, tells you why the world is the way it is and how it does not have to be this way anymore, and how another world is possible. But more than that, the film invites you in to see that you and others can become part of the bridge to revolution, to another and much better future. This film will change you as it changed all of us in one way or the other.

And then after the excerpts from the statement, everyone watched the powerful clip of the Q&A of the film, “Bob Avakian’s Answer to People Who Complain about Immigrants Crossing Borders.”

BA’s clip helped to further raise sights and lift the spirit of the entire event. No one else is bringing out like BA why immigrants and refugees are driven to move all over the world—and why we stand with the people and not with the U.S. and other imperialist powers who have ravaged the people of the world. And this has urgent meaning right now, with the crisis of immigrants at the U.S./Mexico border, with fascist attacks on immigrants all over the world, with cruel and savage attacks on humanity coming from this system in the war on Yemen, in the war in Syria, in the looming threat of major war against Iran. The Iranian hosts of the dinner spoke of how people in Iran are already suffering from the sanctions against Iran which are paving the way for war. All this points to the great need to overthrow and finally get rid of this system, and the urgent need right now to spread the word, and get this film everywhere.

This fundraising dinner lifted sights, offered revolutionary community, and pointed to how people can raise funds and further spread this film. There was a sense of being part of building a movement for revolution that stretches far beyond this city and this area and reaches across the country, and a warm invitation for people to join in, and take part in the struggle to put an end to the nightmare of this system.

Nearly $500 was raised (after expenses) by the dinner. At the end, people hardly wanted to leave and sat for a long time after eating, and got into conversations of all kinds. And many people left with cards and promotional materials for the film. Some were thinking about their holiday gatherings and showing this film to their relatives and loved ones. Some for whom this night was the first contact with the revolution and Bob Avakian’s voice said that they had a very meaningful evening. One of the suggestions the Iranian hosts were making as people left was to encourage people to hold these kinds of fundraising events amongst many different nationalities and among people from different parts of the world—in the spirit of making revolution and emancipating humanity.

 

“We . . . invite, encourage and really challenge others whose hearts are aching when hearing and seeing the world of horrors that humanity is going through throughout the world to really put aside some time and really, as soon as you can, sit down with a few friends, relatives and loved ones to watch this film.”