On BAsics, from the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian

The Handbook for the Revolution, a Great and Necessary Tool for Organizing

July 13, 2020 | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

It has been said many times that BAsics is a handbook for the revolution, and that is true, but all too often I think we “step over” that fact. Revcoms use BA quotes quite a bit and often very well, in agitation, in discussions, and this is very important. But that is different from being a handbook for people very broadly, as a way to begin to step into the science of communism, to appreciate the leadership BA provides.

Back in the day, I had been involved in the civil rights movement, was an “activist” in that sense, maybe radical but not a revolutionary. At a certain point I wanted to understand more deeply what the problem was more overall than just the way Black people were treated in this country. I wanted to be a revolutionary but had no idea of how to do that. I wanted to read something, but what to read? Marx? Lenin? That was rather daunting!

I think about what a book like BAsics could mean to someone like I was at that point. Here is a book that speaks to particular outrages, does piercing exposure of a whole range of things, envisions a whole different world, challenges everyone who reads it to step up and play a role in getting rid of everything they hate. There are the quotes, which is a way for everyone regardless of their exposure to abstract ideas to “get” what BA is about, and then there are the essays, which are an introduction to more theoretical and abstract questions of morality, philosophy, epistemology, the role of leadership, revolutionary strategy. And it presents them in a way that is very inviting, even while not in any way watering down what he is talking about. You do have to reach to really engage them. But that is exactly what I wanted those decades ago. I knew enough to know that I didn’t know what I needed to know, but I didn’t know where to go to find out more.

We have BAsics now, let’s really use it to do what needs to be done! We have the Revolution—Nothing Less! shirts, the Points of Attention, the process of bringing people into the Revolution Clubs as full members with the patches (which we need to revive), we have the Revolution, Nothing Less Show and we have BAsics. Obviously, we have a lot more, but with these things we can set out to really organize these Revolution Clubs in the context of impacting broader blocs of people.

We have a very favorable situation where thousands and tens of thousands of people are in the streets, defiant and determined, and looking for answers. Let’s do everything we can to make sure they find what they need to understand the world more deeply, most importantly BA’s leadership and everything that concentrates.