Further Excerpts from The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show Interview

“I Talk with Everybody” ...

June 21, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Editors’ Note: Following are edited excerpts of an interview conducted by Sunsara Taylor of The Revolution, Nothing Less! Show with a member of the Revolution Club. This came off a text that was published on revcom about her efforts in spreading the revolution and its leadership, Bob Avakian (BA)

How she spreads this day to day, in tough working conditions ...

... Well, most of the time with people at the bus stops, you don’t see them anymore. But I do give them the website and I give them the pamphlets, in hopes that they will follow through. But at work, you see these people every day, so I’m always talking about it. We’ll actually talk about it a lot. And people listen. Some people don’t really grasp the conversation or the concept of the conversation and what’s going on. But some people are actually interested in the idea of getting rid of this system of capitalism. Some of them don’t realize that it’s a system of capitalism. They think it’s something else. They don’t realize that it’s capitalism that we’re under that is really causing us so much misery. And it’s kind of stunning to know that so many people don’t really know what’s controlling them or, you know, giving them such grief.

I talk with everybody. It doesn’t even matter the nationality.... I try to get people to think outside of that box and to understand what’s really going on... [to] start thinking in new ways, and thinking of different ways about how we could deal with ... and get this gone. ’Cause like I say, I really want to see a new world. I really do. I can’t express that enough.

An example of an exchange...

OK, there was this one specific guy I was talking to at the bus stop. When I was describing how things are systematic, that things that are going on are not brought on by one particular group of people or one person, it’s a system, and the system is capitalism-imperialism. And then he’s listening to me, and I’m talking and telling him how there are so many things that go on—you know, wars for empire, you got the crimes that are against women—all this is generated by this system. It creates a lot of hell for people not just here in the United States but in every country that there is that exists.

And he’s listening to me, and we’re also talking about his son—how his son has never worked a day in his life, and he said he got his son a job, you know, right off the bat, just because he got the job from his father. And people were asking him, how did you get the job? And he said, “My dad.” Well he said he worked for about a week or two and he left—he just left the job.... And he said, “You know why my son left that job?” I said, “Why?” “He said, ‘Man, I ain’t nobody’s slave.’” So a lot of the youth don’t want to work now because they feel that these jobs are like enslaving them. So they don’t want these jobs. And a lot of these jobs that are available, are like factory jobs—jobs working on conveyor belts, doing the same thing over and over again like a machine. Those jobs actually injure people. These are painful jobs. Nobody wants to work like that. And it is like slavery. So when I got through talking to him about how all this stuff works, he was like, “When you talk, I can see what you’re saying.”

And I actually left him with a pamphlet of the Bob Avakian New Year’s Statement. And I had highlighted his name, Bob Avakian’s name, and the website. I told him to “make sure you check out the website, and make sure you listen to Bob Avakian.” He said, “I will, I will.” I got on the bus with him at the same stop and we rode to his destination till he got off, and I talked to him the whole ride. And he listened, eagerly. So I was like, this is positive. You know, this... this has got to get out. So one way or another, I’m just gonna keep talking about it.

On Bob Avakian and his leadership...

This man is talking about something that nobody... I started listening to him, I was wowed. There is no one, no group of people, no organization, no organization that’s talking about freeing us up from work histories, and bad pay days or whatever the case may be. There’s no one talking about getting rid of this system. And I wondered why there’re so many people so geared on keeping and holding onto something that’s causing them so much misery. And this man wants to get rid of it. And I want that. I can’t wait for that to happen, I really can’t.

On a coworker’s experience with BA...

Oh, yeah, he was in prison. And, ah, he says that in prison he got nothing else to do but read, so they had a lot of Bob Avakian books, and he just read them. And there was one... I was reading a book... you know this was how the conversation started. And a lot of times I do that on purpose sometimes. I could be out somewhere, and I’d be reading something from Bob Avakian. People’d get interested in it, and they like, “what are you reading?” And then that causes a conversation, too. But I was just reading Democracy, Can’t We Do Better Than That? and he says, “That’s a damn good read.” I mean like just out of the blue, I’m like, “what?” He said, “That book you’re reading.” I said, “Oh, you’ve read this?” He says, “Yeah.” I said, “How much have you read from this author, Bob Avakian?” He said, “I’ve read a lot of his stuff. But that one is a damn good read” [laughs] and that was his response.

On getting organized...

Get into a Revolution Club somewhere. Learn all you can so that you can continue to talk about it. You have to know what the problem is in order to conversate about it with other people. And getting that conversation started, or getting that conversation going, a lot of times people can see what you’re talking about if you know what you’re talking about. So I just say get into a Club. If you don’t have a Club, maybe establish one somewhere. And just learn everything you can, and talk to people, see what triggers something in you that you can change in your dialogue when you’re talking to people so that they understand... they see what you’re talking about.

On putting on the “Revolution—Nothing Less” T-shirt...

Oh! I represent a whole new way of looking at things. A revolution, nothing less than a real revolution to get rid of all this mayhem and hell that we’re living in. And I too like the idea of getting rid of this system. So I wear this shirt, and sometimes I don’t just wear it to, um, when I’m going to a revolution meeting, but I wear it to get talk... to get people to talk to me. So that even helps too sometimes. I have a T-shirt with a Bob Avakian’s face on it. And someone asked me, “Hey, who’s your hero?” And I was like, “What? Huh? I don’t have any heroes. What are you talking about?” “Who’s the man on your shirt?” I said, “That’s Bob Avakian!” And that starts up a conversation too. So there’s many ways you can get stuff started up as far as talking to people and planting those seeds. Sometimes you gotta be creative....

On June 12^th...

This is the first time I was asked to do a reading and I was excited about it. We were out, doing the march, chanting, and it was moving. It was a small group, but we were out there with a big force of voices, and people ... loved ones that had been shot by police ... these people have suffered. And there’s a lot of people suffering in silence with this same problem. So we don’t actually know how many people are being hurt by police.... Any time I go out to kind of “fight the powers that be” is a great feeling for me.

On The RNL! Show...

I think it’s a great show. Shoot, I wish I could see it on prime time ’cause it’s important that everybody gets a chance to see it, really. I like the subjects that they talk about. They get around to everything it seems like. They’re touching everything on it. Each show is different. And it talks about something different. And it puts something different on your mind about what’s going on and ... but it gets you the same solution. You know you got all these different problems, all these different issues that are caused by the system, but there’s one solution... overthrowing it. There is no reform. Reforms don’t work. ...

Watch Episode 57 of The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show

Report from June 12 Marches Announcing: An Emerging Force Is Organizing NOW for a Real Revolution