BA Everywhere Fundraising Remarks

"Without any further delay… the people need to get connected with BA"

June 21, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Following are remarks given at a recent event encouraging people to donate to BA Everywhere.

Hi!

I want to urge everyone here, people from all walks of life, to dig deep into your pockets and donate big funds to the BA Everywhere campaign. If $20 is what you can give, that is good; and if it's $1000 or more that you can afford, that is fine too. At this moment BA Everywhere is critical to advancing the movement for revolution and projecting the vision and leadership of BA on the widest scale possible. This is crucial for people here and throughout the world, as the first step in changing the world.

Also contribute what you can to "1000 years – $1000" for BA everywhere so that revolutionary literature can be sent to prisoners in the hell holes of U.S. prisons.* I appeal especially to prisoners and ex-prisoners families and friends; to anyone and everyone who feels that living in a society that throws millions of its people into cages for decades, is absolutely intolerable, donate or raise at least a dollar for each year someone you know has been incarcerated. As Bob Avakian has said, "those the system counts for nothing, can count for a great deal." There are many examples of prisoners being transformed by reading BA and they have shared their experience through letters which can be seen at the website revcom.us. One of the prisoners interviewed said, "revolution and nothing less will get you out of this horror."

The procedure to make a donation is very simple. You can mail a check or money order to the BA Institute or make a donation on line at revcom.us or send payments to PRLF…

I was born and grew up in a third world country where I witnessed first hand the impact of capitalism- imperialism resulting in utter poverty and starvation. I can never forget a horrific scene where a bunch of kids were literally competing with stray dogs to snatch scraps of meat from a garbage dump outside a big hotel. But growing up in the '60s and '70s, despite this, there was still a sense of optimism because of Maoist China, and we felt that before long there would be a communist revolution and this nightmare would come to an end. And in fact in that period, revolutionary liberation movements were sprouting all over in Asia and Africa. Then in 1976, soon after the death of Mao, a coup in China overthrew the revolutionary leadership and restored capitalism. This tragic event demoralized many people throughout the world and caused disillusionment among a lot of revolutionary-minded and progressive people, which included me.

It was not until I had migrated to the U.S. and found Bob Avakian that I was inspired again and my hope of emancipation of humanity re-kindled.

It goes to the credit of Bob Avakian, who, after the coup in China, not only refused to give in or give up but instead immersed himself deeper to critically examine the whole history and experience of the first phase of communist revolutions. Using the science of dialectical materialism, the more than 30 years of work resulted in bringing forth the new synthesis, a viable vision and strategy for revolution in the new stage.

But here is the irony: Today, children are dying of starvation and preventable diseases around the world, there is a war on women — pornography, rape epidemic, assault on women's right to abortion and birth control, economic oppression, domestic violence; wars for empire, torture, drone attacks. Mass incarceration. Degradation of the environment has reached a level which is threating the very survival of human and other species. Yet it does not have to be this way. In Bob Avakian's new synthesis, there exists today a viable solution to rid the world of all forms of oppression and exploitation. Unfortunately this fact is known to a very very small number of people. This needs to change. Without any further delay, the people, especially the downtrodden and oppressed, need to get connected with BA to become the initiators of the new stage of revolution. But in order to do that requires really huge sums of money. Imagine the difference it could make! Even those who are not in agreement with all aspects of BA's vision but still consider it important to be out there for people to know, discuss and debate, also need to contribute to make that a reality. People who have bought into the lies and propaganda that, "Communism is dead," need to grapple with this and find out the truth for themselves. So in the end I would like to reiterate: Let us all donate what we can to make this campaign a resounding success.

*One-third of the funds raised through the "1000 years – $1000" Dollars for BA Everywhere project are going to the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund, which is working to fill thousands of requests from prisoners for the book BAsics from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian. Two-thirds of the donations will go to The BA Institute, which promotes engagement and popularization of Avakian's work throughout society. Go here to donate online or for more information about these organizations.

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