Getting Out REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! T-Shirts:

Great Potential Among People from the ’Hood

August 17, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From readers:

We’d like to share some experience we’ve had wearing and selling the REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! T-shirts recently:

We’ve found that there’s a great potential for people from the ’hood of all ages and folks from other strata as well to buy and wear the shirt, and really feel like they are part of this revolution. Not only that, but it makes people feel they are not “alone”; in fact, it connects people with others of like mind (i.e., who are for revolution) who might never have connected. We’ve sold the shirts in the ’hood, and downtown in a city. One man who bought the T-shirt earlier at a demonstration returned later and asked us, “How’s the T-shirt going?”

Several recent protests to demand justice for Richard Linyard (a 23-year-old Black man who was found dead suspiciously, after being chased by the Oakland police) took over International Blvd., a major street in the East Oakland ’hood, with a dozen people wearing the shirt, leading the chants saying “Justice for Richard, the whole damn system is guilty!” This certainly had a cumulative effect on the marchers, which drew others to ask where they could buy the shirt. In short, the shirt was quite an “attractive force” to revolution!

Several people wore the T-shirts at a rally for Eric Garner in July, including a professional photographer who said, “I’ve tried to be neutral when I come to demonstrations, but given all these the police murders, I HAVE to take a stand, I have to come over to the side of revolution, which I think is needed... and this is how I’m doing it (wearing the shirt) to show that.”

We’ve also learned that when we painted a picture of how people wearing the T-shirts in a public setting can on-the-spot add to an attractive force out there, it can inspire and galvanize other people to get involved in this movement for revolution, and in this way help to carry out the Party’s strategy for revolution, to prepare minds and organize forces for revolution. Painting a picture like this often helps to stretch people’s imaginations and adds a sense of meaning to people wanting to buy and wear the T-shirt, and in some cases compels people to look into the strategy for revolution.

We also tell people to save August 22 as a day when those who bought the shirt will all wear it to come to a public outing, telling the world that they are for revolution and getting more people to buy and wear the T-shirt and join in, further growing this movement for revolution.

Sometimes, promoting the T-shirt was done together with promoting BA’s quotes (the new quote and BAsics 1:13). At a BBQ organized by the family of Richard Linyard, we talked with a young Black woman about the role of cops and what is the source of all these horrors. Then we read out the “No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over...” quote from BA (BAsics 1:13) and we said to her that to do this “no mores” we need an actual revolution. Looking at her little kid, who was running around in the yard, this young woman asked, “Can I get that T-shirt (that she saw someone nearby was wearing), how much does it cost?” We sold her the shirt and said to her that this was the first step in getting with revolution. She said she knows—and then proudly put it on.

 

 

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