Announcing: BA Everywhere Through the Holidays and into the New Year...
November 4, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Coming soon... a special Revolution newspaper section on BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make! This will be a crucial tool during the last six weeks of the year through the Thanksgiving-Xmas-New Year's period—in going all out to raise big funds and forge a community of people working together to project Bob Avakian's works and vision into all corners of society.
The past year has seen important beginnings in this campaign: BAsics Bus Tours traveled through California and the South, and into the neighborhoods of the oppressed in New York City. People around the country came together in various ways to raise funds—"penny drives," cultural events, bake sales, and so on. Money has been raised to send hundreds of copies of BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian to prisoners, many who are sharing the book or holding group study sessions behind the prison walls. Powerful connections are being forged when people, especially those at the bottom of society but also among different sections, learn of this leader and what he's about. A national movement is beginning to emerge through the collective activity and web presence around BA Everywhere, breaking open new levels of debate and discourse around the possibilities for a whole other way the world can be.
These initial steps show the potential for achieving big breakthroughs in 2013 to make major societal impact with BA Everywhere—and the next month and a half is a time to get a running start. Everything that's happened in the U.S. and around the globe in the past year—including the ongoing man-made disaster for the people in the wake of Hurricane Sandy—reveals more sharply the living hell that people are trapped in, and the reality that the world cries out for revolution. BA has developed a liberating vision of a radically new, and much better, society and world, and a viable strategy for getting there—this is something to deeply appreciate…and to spread far and wide!
Here are some ideas and proposals for people to think about, discuss, talk to others about, and act on in the next weeks:
This is the period of the year when people often have more opportunities to spend time with family and friends. Take some time during those gatherings (and encourage others to do so, too) to show the BAsics Bus Tour, From Atlanta to Sanford, FL…and Beyond video or other clips on the BA Everywhere DVD. It's important to get people's responses (and send reports about them to baeverywhere@gmail.com), and to solicit financial contributions while getting people's ideas about reaching out to many others.
Some people might want to host potlucks or open houses where the topic of conversation is how people are treated under this system—and how the new synthesis of communism brought forward by BA can raise people's sights on how a better world is possible. There are different ways to spark off the discussion—for example, playing the audio clip "Why There Is No 'Right to Eat' Under Capitalism" from BA's Revolution talk or the Cornel West interview with BA.
Thanksgiving is an "all-American" holiday that celebrates the genocide of Native people. Imagine in the week leading up to and through Thanksgiving, anti-Thanksgiving dinners being held all across the country as part of BA Everywhere. People can get into the real history of this country—a good place to start might be BAsics 1:1, "There would be no United States as we now know it today without slavery. That is a simple and basic truth."—and celebrate the movement for revolution that is aiming to bring into being a whole different society based on radically different principles. These anti-Thanksgiving get-togethers would be a good way to introduce people to the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal) —a sweeping but also very concrete framework for a revolutionary socialist society, flowing from the new synthesis of communism. There are different ways that people can be part of making these dinners happen: maybe someone wants to open up their home, or host it at Revolution Books, a church or community center. Restaurants might contribute food, and individuals might want to cook their special dish. And there are different ways to raise funds through this—raffles, craft sales, direct contributions, etc.
The anti-Thanksgiving celebrations should also provide ways people can pick up stacks of palm cards with the BAsics quote for November, 3:2... to spread around where they work and live and to bring home for family Thanksgiving dinners. In the aftermath of the elections, and the shameful ways this system handled the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, this quote takes on even deeper relevance. Getting the BAsics quote palm cards out all over, and reporting back to the BA Everywhere website, is an important form of participation in the campaign.
A special BA Everywhere webstore will be unveiled shortly, so get the message out to everyone: Give gifts that matter this year…shirts, mugs, and more with challenging and inspiring quotes from BAsics; greeting cards with graphics from Revolution; BA Everywhere-themed tote bags, notebooks, calendars, etc. And at revcom.us, people can purchase a copy of BAsics for a friend and simultaneously buy one for a prisoner.
Looking towards December, we encourage people to go all out towards major New Year's Eve parties and holiday open houses the week before that to bring people together and raise money. Or the other way around – have a big holiday party the week before Christmas and an open house on New Year's Day. Again, these can involve people in many different ways—for example, bands, musicians, and DJs donating their talents, or artists donating works that can be auctioned off.
Through all this, in different creative ways, much-needed funds can and should be raised to make a big impact with BA Everywhere…and community—and a national movement—further forged as we work together in different ways and with people from different places, and invite many others to take part, to change the world.
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