From the Revolution Tour

Challenging Junior College Students with #BEB: “People peppered us with questions”

April 8, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From a member of the national Revolution Tour:

I jumped into a car at 9:30 am with a thermos full of coffee in my hand and zoomed off to pick up a local member of the Revolution Club. We were heading to a local junior college to spread the word about the revolution. The car is one that is being loaned to us by someone as a contribution to the national tour—and it was stuffed full of freshly printed materials, banners, books by BA.

As we got closer to the college you could feel the air noticeably get cooler on what was a warm, sunny day. You could almost smell the ocean nearby. Having just came from South Central where Nipsey Hussle was murdered, it was a pretty stark difference driving through a middle class neighborhood full of beautiful trees and houses and an overall calm vibe.

We met up with some other members of the national tour on the campus, and we set up shop. We had a table to put all our materials on, and the giant banner from the What Is #BEB launch. We laid the banner out on the ground, and almost immediately people started coming up demanding to know what the hell is #BEB.

I replied, “Well what do you think it means?” A student pleaded impatiently, “Can’t you just tell me?” It took some prodding to get people to put their thinking caps on. The more people thought about it, the more invested they would get in the answer. “Damn... I can’t get it,” a flabbergasted student said. I replied, “Well come back at 3 pm to hear a revolutionary communist speak to why all these politicians are BEB and why you should not be!” We put this provocation and challenge to lots of people.

Students came up the whole time we were there, and there would be surges where small crowds would start forming. Libertarian types would come out to defend capitalism, people would come up and say, “I’ve been thinking about these things lately,” pointing to the 5 STOPS. People peppered us with questions about the history of communism. What will replace this system? Why are some things a part of the 5 STOPS but not others like homelessness? One young Iranian woman talked about coming here at age 14. She laid out how she had been going through a “spiritual awakening” and beginning to see “a system” behind why things are the way they are. And at the same time wasn’t sure anything was real and thought everything might be a simulation. All throughout these conversations we would drive people to the 5 STOPS and the Points of Attention for the Revolution.

At 3 pm—about five people came to hear a revolutionary reveal of what the hell is #BEB and lay out why they gotta bust out of the BEB. People would stop and listen for a second before walking on to class. We revealed that BEB is Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit—and this was really challenging for people. After the speech people started talking together. One student asked another what they thought of the speech. “Well, I think that those people on the banner are just trying to change policies, and the revolution is trying to change how people think.” He went on to say how he thought people should vote for progressives like Bernie and AOC in the meantime while we try to make fundamental change. The young Iranian woman thought that all these politicians are a part of the “same system” and so didn’t think they could provide any fundamental change.

After the speech people were eager to find out when we would be back on campus, how can they get involved—and we resolved to have a meeting on campus the next day.

As we were packing up and walking off campus, we ran into someone who we had seen earlier in the day. He was for Bernie, and a revolutionary struggled with him that Bernie just wants to give people a bigger slice of the spoils of empire. As we were walking out, we ran into him while he was with a big group of his friends. He thanked us for coming and wanted to know when we would be back. He bought BAsics and let us know what he really wanted was one of those REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! shirts. We told him about the meeting the next day and let him know we would bring him a shirt.

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We met up with some other members of the national tour on the campus, and we set up shop. We had a table to put all our materials on, and the giant banner from the What Is #BEB launch.
Photo: Special to revcom.us

We laid the banner out on the ground, and almost immediately people started coming up demanding to know what the hell is #BEB.
Photo: Special to revcom.us