Revolution #270, May 27, 2012
Learning From and Building on What Has Begun with the BAsics Bus Tour
Over the last 14 days, many hundreds of people across the country have stepped forward to make something very important happen... this leg of the BAsics Bus Tour, which went through parts of the South and delivered a message from those hundreds to the people of Sanford, Florida. And in doing so, those people around the country and those that the bus tour met in the South have been part of beginning to cohere a national movement around the mass fundraising campaign to project Bob Avakian's vision and works into every corner of society, BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make!
More than $30,000 has been raised over the last month to make this BAsics Bus Tour possible... coming from a whole range of smaller contributions—through raffles, fundraising events, people making tamales and other efforts—as well as some larger individual contributions... to get volunteers to Atlanta, to pay for materials like palm cards with quotes from BA, to sustain the BAsics Bus Tour on the road.
And these funds enabled the bus tour to deliver a very important message in Sanford. The volunteers distributed copies of a collage of banners that were signed by people across the country with a declaration from Bob Avakian:
No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.—BAsics 1:13
These were signed in housing projects, at high schools, in immigrant neighborhoods... all over. People wrote things like, "I'm hurt, seeing no future for our youth," "I'm disgusted of the system," "No more violence among the people," "All races should come together, young and old too, and make revolution!" They wrote, "We are with you" and "Let's make a better world."
Across the country, people were following this tour—sharing videos, articles, and audio that were being posted at basicsbustour.tumblr.com and beginning to spread this via Twitter. People also began to get deeper into the BAsics 1:13 quote themselves. Through all this, many more found out about who Bob Avakian is, the significance of his work... and what it means that there is someone who has developed a strategy for revolution, and a new synthesis of communism that has opened up the possibility for the Party and the movement he is leading to make good on that pledge of "no more."
We have much more to learn about the response to all this: how the bus tour was taken out to people, how they responded to what the revolutionaries were doing with this tour, the substance of people's responses to this quote... and through this, what ways people began to get organized into the movement for revolution as a whole. We look forward to receiving more first-hand reports from across the country (send to revolution.reports@yahoo.com and baeverywhere@gmail.com), and will be reporting more fully on the tour itself.
At the same time, we need to be getting back to everyone who's been part of this in the last couple of weeks and let them know the significance of their contributions. People need to see the collage of the banners and understand what they were part of, and hear about the responses to this message from the people of Sanford. They need to continue to follow the BAsics Bus Tour blog for ongoing reports and videos from the tour.
And we should be talking with people about building on the momentum of this leg of the Tour to get the BAsics 1:13 quote from BA out all over across the country. Bring people copies of the editorial in Revolution newspaper: "Building on the Momentum of the BAsics Bus Tour." Make plans together—to go all-out to raise money to get BA Everywhere, and as a key part of that in June, to get BAsics 1:13 into the hands of and debated by tens of thousands of people all over this country. Raise funds to get stacks of BAsics 1:13 palm cards into people's hands now, and find out their ideas about where they would want to distribute them.
As we've been learning, this quote taps into and draws forward something very deep from people—their outrage at things as they are, and the hopes and aspirations for a world where generations of youth aren't crushed down in the way BA describes. It captures a defiance and a refusal to lie down and accept these outrages, and it provides a form for people to come together and have a very big impact, changing the terms in society and spreading the voice and works of Bob Avakian, the leadership we have for the revolution we need.
An important upcoming date is June 5, which will mark 100 days since George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. Across the country, the cry for Justice for Trayvon and an end to mass incarceration needs to reverberate as thousands take up the call for a mass hoodie day, a day of mass resistance. BAsics 1:13, which speaks to and can open the door to a whole new future for youth, should be a crucial element of that day... part of fighting the power.
All this, while getting ready for the next leg of the BAsics Bus Tour... further plans to be announced soon.
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