Inspired by the call issued in the editorial “A First Big Step in Putting Revolution on the Map in 2023,” the January 8 Fundraising Livestream was successful in surpassing its $20,000 goal—as part of the $100,000 National Fund Drive to Put Revolution on the Map in 2023. 

This was done by the combined effort of many different people, from different parts of the country, who poured their resources and energies into meeting this goal.  Statements such as these were sent in that expressed the urgency people felt and the sense of possibility that this revolution can reach and impact society on a whole other level:

From Dr. Reynaldo F. Macías, faculty member and founding Chair of the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies:
I am donating because the work that Bob Avakian and the revcoms are doing in scientifically analyzing our current oppressive conditions is important and needs to be put center stage of discussions about what is happening in this country and this world. 

From someone in LA  who donated $25:
I would like to donate not just my money but my time if it means it's a step closer for our voice to be louder so everyone can hear and see the change we need.

The editorial had called on people to tune in and step up to be part of achieving the goal. It spoke to the decisiveness of this year, and the important role of the Interviews with Bob Avakian on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show in shaping the political terrain in the face of the sharpening crises that cry out for one thing—REVOLUTION. This set important orientation for reaching the $20,000 goal—and NOW for going forward to achieve the full $100,000 by February 15. As of this writing we have raised over $61,000. Let’s learn from what we have accomplished and go all out to achieve the full goal. 

How did the funds get raised? What are the important lessons that should be drawn and built on?  What are the breakthroughs that we still have to make? 

** Throughout the Livestream it was clear that the Interviews with Bob Avakian played a decisive role in inspiring people, challenging people, and cohering people into a national movement to bring about a REAL revolution. Excerpts were played and commented on. Statements were made by donors which paid tribute from different standpoints to the powerful impact these interviews are having on bringing to life what this revolution and the new communism of Bob Avakian are all about. As the editorial spoke to: “[T]hese interviews let everyone dig into why we need to, and how we can, make a revolution, while introducing people to Bob Avakian, the human being, the thinker… and the leader.”

**There can be no revolution without the active participation of millions, and the support for the work of the active revolutionaries is an essential form of active participation. The case was made clearly during the livestream for why raising funds is actually a key part of preparing for the future, of building up the muscles for being able to make a revolution. This is a revolution which relies on the people who want to see a different world—giving all they can, and going out to reach and struggle with others to actively support and fund  all the different kinds of work  necessary to make revolution. On this livestream we learned about some of the different ways that people took up the challenge of raising these funds.  

**Throughout the livestream co-hosts Lenny Wolff, Michelle Xai and Annie Day kept bringing people into the process of revolution, helping people to see their role and why it matters if people really step up now. 

>>As part of that,  people got to meet and learn from the experiences and work of some of the people who are working and fighting every day to make revolution—taking the revolution out in different communities and sections of society, producing The Revolution, Nothing Less Show! and the website revcom.us. They talked about how they are taking these Interviews out to the people, how they are going into university classrooms and struggling against some of the deadening ideas these students are locked into. Others talked about going out to struggle with the people hardest hit by this system, and how the revolutionaries are reaching out to all different kinds of people who care deeply about the plight of humanity to become part of this revolution. All of these things brought a living sense of what it means to be working for revolution, in the face of many challenges. And in all this, the game-changing role of the Interviews with BA came through—the key role they play in bringing the vision of a whole different way the world could be and the urgent need for them to become a major reference point throughout society. 

>> Important statements of support came forward during the livestream, including a powerful statement from revolutionary artist Shekib Mosadeq and a special appearance by pianist, composer and head of the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra Arturo O’Farrill being interviewed by Andy Zee of The RNL Show. And throughout this livestream we got to meet—in statements for why people were donating—a sampling of the different kinds of people who have felt compelled to donate, to contribute with their skills and energy. And we saw how all this knits together to create something bigger than what one or just a few people can accomplish in isolation. You can get to know the people you are joining with.

One person, reflecting on the importance of these statements wrote: “It struck me how the host Lenny Wolff repeatedly expressed his appreciation for these statements…the very moving and important sentiments and content of them, and the time and thought they put into writing them. He brought out that this is a way that they are struggling with others, which helps people see and feel their role differently. It was beautiful, important, and I know before this I did not see how these statements were actually forging a revolutionary people and getting revolution on the map.” 

**Connections… building a national movement.

Something else that stands out is how people were learning from and being challenged by the work that others were doing to raise funds. There were powerful reverberations of different fundraising projects being taken up among people from different layers of society with access to very different means and resources. One example was the project initiated in Chicago of people with few resources pledging to donate $10 and then finding nine other people to each donate $10—with the goal of raising $100 to donate to the revolution. This then inspired a physician, who had already donated towards spreading the BA Interviews, to put up a challenge—he would donate $500 if five others would match this with $500 of their own. This challenge was met during the livestream, with more than five people sending in $500 donations. Another example was inspired off of the story of how people in Los Angeles had come together to raise money making and selling tamales; in Cleveland an effort was launched to sell dinner plates in the community, drawing in the efforts of people with the resources and know-how to make this happen—raising over $800. There is a real growing sense among those who have been working to raise funds that they are indeed a part of a national movement, seeing and learning from each other. This cannot be underestimated!! All of these beginning shoots need to be taken up much more boldly, involving many more people continuing to reach out and continuing to raise funds for the revolution—not just a one-off, but in an ongoing way. 

When people work together on a mission—and with a clear sense of what they are doing this for—something important happens: people can begin to see themselves not just as individuals, but as part of a collective fighting to bring a new world into being. And as part of this, as people dig into the Interviews with Bob Avakian, the whole goal of putting this revolution on the map and what this revolution is all about gets more clear. You can talk about how to go out and struggle to bring others on board.  You can learn from what others are thinking about, what they are getting from the Interviews with Bob Avakian, how this is changing their thinking about the possibilities for revolution. There is a sense of community that puts a different spring in your step as you act together to overcome difficulties. This is one important part of bringing forward a revolutionary people, now in the thousands,  but aiming to impact millions with the need for and the way to prepare for revolution.

There is much to learn from what was accomplished in raising, so far, more than $60,000, and the real victory of raising $20,000 during this recent livestream. At the same time, there are still big challenges before us, not only to go all out in the next month to reach the full goal of $100,000 by February 15, but to build up an ongoing sustainer base among many thousands more.  

One point is that in raising these funds, we are still drawing largely from the very generous donations of those who have already responded to the call to support this revolution. This is a very important part of the base of support for the revolution. But all of us need to be motivated to go out very boldly and broadly—to reach many, many others, including those in the whole reservoir of “decent people” who haven’t ever heard of this revolution, haven’t had the opportunity to watch the Interviews with Bob Avakian. There are millions out there who could be inspired to want to be part of getting this on the map. At the same time, this will likely involve struggle with these same people to really focus and dig into why we need revolution and what kind of revolution we are talking about—and why they should watch these Interviews. The overall point is that there is still an urgent need for finding the ways individually and collectively to get out beyond the breakwaters of a small circle of people who already support this revolution. Learn from the examples that point to how to do this that are posted on revcom, but take your own initiative and report so we can share examples of where this is happening.

We want to hear from everyone who is and wants to be part of making this breakthrough to raise these much-needed funds. We will not be able to accomplish this without many thousands giving smaller donations—including  every month—and many hundreds who have more ability giving larger donations. Sometimes people raise that it is hard to know how to reach out to other people to ask for funds, or what to do when people express disinterest, or disagreement. It is important to find the ways for people to come together to talk and work on these kinds of problems, to share and learn from each other. And this will unleash more energy and creativity to really go all out to reach this goal. So we want to continue to hear from you and involve you in all the ways we are working on putting this revolution on the map.  

Again it is important to grasp the point that Lenny Wolff made repeatedly on the livestream: “We do have to go where the contradictions are roiling, that’s essential, but not enough. When you are donating you are preparing the future, developing the muscles the masses of people need for future times. When you give you are going into battle to repolarize society—making BA and this revolution becoming a point of reference for everyone who is sick of the way things are.”

To everyone who participated in this fund drive, to everyone who was inspired and challenged to donate from watching the January 8 livestream, let’s take it from here and build on what we have done, learn from what was accomplished, and solve the ways that we have fallen short by bringing many more people into the work to put revolution on the map in 2023.