The Points of Attention & Organizing for Revolution

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

 

1. The Points of Attention embody the principles, methods, and goals of the revolution. The Points of Attention show what the revolution stands for and give a living sense of the new society that the revolution aims to bring into being, and they guide how we live and struggle today. When you get into these points, you begin to get into what the revolution is all about.
2. In order to make a revolution, the masses must be organized. The Revolution Club is the organization that lives by and fights for the Points of Attention. Thousands of people right now can be part of spreading this in a way that builds up the broad sense in society that there IS an organization fighting for a radically different way and future. Those who agree with the Points of Attention and aspire to live by them should join and build the Revolution Club, today. When you spread these points, you are spreading the revolution and you are helping to build up the revolutionary organization of the people.
3. The Revolution Club is where people can powerfully represent for the revolution, as they learn more about it. Learning about the revolution includes learning about the leadership and work of Bob Avakian, BA. Bob Avakian has developed the new communism, a further breakthrough on the path to emancipation, and he’s developed the strategy for revolution in the U.S. People everywhere need to know about this.

Points of Attention for the Revolution

April 20, 2019 | revcom.us

 

These 6 Points of Attention (the POA's) are the principles around which the Revolution Clubs are organized.
Get in touch with the national Revolution Clubs here.

 

Social Media Posts, Videos and Graphics to

Spread the Points of Attention... and Spread REVOLUTION

Updated April 29, 2019 | revcom.us

 

On this page are some of the graphics being used to take up the call:
April 17-28,
"Points of Attention" Days
Spread the Points of Attention...
and Spread REVOLUTION

Follow @tuneintorevcom for more

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Read and share the Points of Attention online

In the Wake of the Nipsey Hussle Murder: The Struggle to ORGANIZE

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Three weeks after the murder of Nipsey Hussle, people continue to commemorate his death and discuss—and debate—the meaning of his life. People stream in from across the country to visit the Marathon Clothing store that Nipsey owned. From Los Angeles itself, groups of people from different “sets”—gangs that at one time, and in some cases still, are at odds with each other—come to pay respects. There is talk of another truce. Most of the people coming are Black people, some are Latino, a few are white or Asian.

This murder, in other words, was something like what HOW WE CAN WIN—How We Can Really Make Revolution calls a “jolt” to a whole section of people—in the sense that it caused “many people to question ... what they normally accept.” The National Revolution Tour, along with the Revolution Club in Los Angeles, has continued to be in the thick of this. As you walk through the streets you may see the Points of Attention for the Revolution posted in many places. When the Tour is out there you may sometimes see people intently watching a tablet with a film of Bob Avakian on it; the other day there was a truck that played Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, and the Tour has vowed to take this out much more often. Many people from the neighborhood are beginning to get a sense of this movement for revolution; there is interest, there is debate, and there is some opposition. Comrades with the Tour and Club are working to go further—to reach deeper in their agitation, to do better at putting the needs of the revolution before people and with them figuring out ways to participate, to do more to get BA out to people.

Most of all, they are striving to break down the divide between the revolution and the people who must be organized into this revolution, to bring people forward into the Revolution Club and to develop broader networks of support throughout the neighborhood, the area, and around the country. There is critical importance to breaking down the situation in which a lot of masses listen to the revcoms and may even be intrigued and inspired to some degree, but never quite get over the feeling that “those people” are doing things, have a radical perspective, may have a lot of insights and be challenging us to think in new ways, but... “they” are over there, and “we” aren’t part of that (even if they sincerely “wish us well” at times). Some of this is built into the whole way in which society is divided; but much of this can be and must be overcome.

The tour continues to work on this problem. New approaches are being developed and tested out. We are moving to put the problem before the masses themselves, involving them in solving it, in a whole different way. And there is a determination and plan to test these out, sum up the results, concentrate what is correct... and move forward.

We will continue to cover this on the revcom.us website. The reports that follow are more in the character of reporting on and interrogating recent experience, sifting for patterns and lessons with the aim of making breakthroughs. For, again, just getting a good response or even a phone number is not, and cannot be, the aim of those on this Tour. The aim—the urgent aim—of this Tour is to organize thousands into the revolution, on all different levels. To that end, we definitely invite your comments, criticisms, and wrangling. We will run some accounts today and some as the week goes on.

Two major vehicles for doing this in the immediate week are the effort to make the Points of Attention for the Revolution (POA) a major pole in the area (as part of the whole special effort on this) and a mass picnic, set for next Sunday, aiming to draw in people from all over the city and well beyond. Stay tuned, including this week, for more...

#1

We went out to Crenshaw and Slauson going up to businesses and talking to people who we ran into on the street. Most of the businesses took flyers but wanted to ask the owner if we could put up a poster. There was one man that we met who A talked to, Spanish-speaking mainly, who took stacks of the POAs with him. One person stopped me after I gave him the POAs and said he wanted a shirt. That he wanted to represent for the revolution. I said that was very good. And that these POAs are what it means to represent for the revolution. I talked with him briefly about what a revolution was and why we need one. Two choices, either live with all this or make revolution.

And then I posed a problem to him: We have the strategy but we don’t have the people yet. Did he have some idea of how we could bring people together and where? He said, “Yeah, this is exactly what I am working on too, I am a community activist and these principles are what I am about.” He really seemed eager to work and wanted to lead others to do that but felt that he needed to learn more. So I told him about the film and could he bring other people together to learn about this. Because, like I said, we have what we need to make a revolution but people don’t know about it. He told me he was part of the biker gang that was at Nipsey’s funeral and that he has a house where the film can be shown and he’d really like it if the revolution could come and talk to people about it and I would bring a whole bunch of T-shirts for people to wear, including him. He gave me his number.

Another person stopping by, who hangs out on the street, was testing us. “Do you guys really know what a revolution is?” I said, “Yes, do you want me to tell you?” He said, “No, I’ll read this” and took the Points of Attention. And then as we were walking back he stopped us and said that somebody was talking with him about the revolution, but when he asked what did they mean by revolution, they didn’t answer the question... And said he wanted to know if WE knew what a revolution was. So we told him, using the description in the pamphlet [HOW WE CAN WIN]. He goes, “Yup, now that’s a revolution.” I told him briefly how in a revolutionary situation you need to have networks of people that are being led and could be quickly transformed into backbone forces for revolution. And in a country like this, you need millions of people. And what we are doing now with this national tour is to organize people like this and bring forward the necessary scientific leadership required to make this revolution. He posed the question of white people and aren’t they the problem? Christopher Columbus. Voting for Trump. I talked about how there was nothing in the human nature of white people that made them hate people of color. It’s conditioned by this system. No baby is born hating other people. He said that’s true. But if it’s not in the nature of white people, what DOES drive them to condition others to do this? I said, that is the right question and I showed him the film. And then I talked about the different places where we are going and the importance of this neighborhood. Where could we show this film here? How could we get it to other people? And then he started to get excited: “We could run an electric cord, here and get a TV and I could let other people know about it here in this neighborhood  and show it outside. “I know a lot of people.” He said, pointing to the strategy, “I’m with this. I’m with this.” He gave me his number.

#2

Felt, at least for myself, a good straining yesterday to carry out that approach [to challenge people to get into this], be part of this, now. We have distributed POAs out there, telling people what they are part of in organizing for revolution, but yesterday felt more pushing for the engagement with what is in them ALONG WITH opening up space to put the have/don’t have to people.

In the parking lot I handed POAs to guys sitting in a car. Let them look at it, they asked what is this, briefy I said we are organizing for revolution to overthrow the system, look at these and tell me what you think. They were attracted to revolution, and overthrowing the system, and liked the “all people, all races coming together” vibe they got from it. One said, “Look at my skin tone. I know we need a revolution. I think this is good, this can bring people together. And maybe what’s happening here is a step. I don’t know if you know this, but we’re Bloods. Don’t know if you know what it means for us to be out here. For so long we’ve been at each other. Do you know I went to prison when I was 25 and my whole life before that I had been at war with Crips? I had to go to a federal penitentiary for 14 years to realize my whole Iife had been fighting people JUST LIKE ME. We were all in there together, and I had realized we’re the same and we’re in the same situation and yet we’re trying to kill each other.”

I kept re-posing that we need a real revolution, that the system has people here and all over the world in a mess, and yeah we got to bring people together, but it’s got to be for revolution, or no matter how many come together now, generations will come up with no future and the nightmare goes on. And that we have a way out, a leader with a strategy and plan for a new society, but we don’t have the thousands organized and we don’t know all the ways that can happen. We’re on tour to go to work on this throughout the country, but people like you are needed to find ways to build networks around these principles, and how do you see doing that? I also posed the example of someone pulling people together at their house to watch the BA film. What they gravitated toward now was helping spread the POAs, and invite to the picnic, and the posters/stickers of The System Has No Future.

Another guy was from New Jersey. Basically similar approach though I had less time with him.  Two things with him to note: 1) He talked about how much he feels what we’re saying and has thought about how messed up the world is. He tells people what they have learned is all wrong, and then doesn’t know what to do with that, how to lead people. He said he had to do a lot of work to unlearn what you get taught, and made analogies to unplugging from the matrix and that most people are still struck in the illusion. I posed what we have/don’t have in relation to this, that it does take work, we have a leader who is not a savior but who came out of a whole time and did the work to figure out how we could make revolution and a new society, that work has been done and is how people can become leaders themselves. And posed that we are on tour and need to get the thousands organized, and he should be figuring out how to pull people together around these POAs where he is and then reach out so the tour could link up in NJ. He had to go somewhere so he kind of scattered quickly but gave his info and said maybe we could link up before Tuesday when he goes back. 2) He mentioned not knowing much about Nipsey before he was killed, and then feeling like a voice was calling out from the grave to come. Struck him that Nip was 33 and he was 34, and it got him reflecting on what’s it all for.

#3

There’s a contradiction between those hoping for something better to come out of this and, among others, a resignation that this is what happens to our best (and a contradiction among those that this is due to the system, however they understand that, or we do it to ourselves).

Among a number of people we’ve talked to, including many from out of town, there’s a deep sense that something serious, major, and fundamental has to change. That there’s no way out and it’s getting worse. You do run into people who are seriously thinking about revolution, in the sense of a fundamental change. A number of people have started the discussions we’ve had when we raise the idea of revolution  with what would be a wrong strategy and appreciate when we point to POA #6 and the fact that we are serious about winning vs. individual acts that would lead you to be crushed. I’ll usually put this back to people and they can see, “Yeah, that would lead you to be crushed.” And then it changes the discussion, raises their sights when we talk about what it would take to win.

I have had a couple people stop and read the POAs, or I’ve read some POAs to them and the response has been, “That’s beautiful,” or “That’s really positive.” But there’s a way people don’t get the whole of it, or the qualitative character. It’s different to have people go through the whole of it. What the comrade did yesterday—challenging/letting people read the POAs through themselves—is something we all need to learn from.

I have very consciously been putting the problem we face to people, especially in relation to tying together the “two choices” and breaking down the divide of us/them (that is, where the revolutionaries are over here organizing things, and the masses are over there, perhaps wishing them well and perhaps not, but not challenged or stimulated in the right way to get actively involved).

I’ve been stepping with “We’re on a national tour, etc.” A LOT of people say, “It’s so good you’re out here, doing something positive, fighting for what you believe.” I’ll usually say this is appreciated and try to learn why they think it’s positive, “We need change” or “We have to come together.” And I try to sharply and consciously pose the challenge, “That’s appreciated but insufficient.” Showing people the POAs, getting concretely into what we have and what we don’t have (showing and often giving people HOW WE CAN WIN)... and then posing it back to them, trying to say very clearly, these are the two choices, which will you choose? And letting people answer this. Some say, that’s a deep question and they have to think about it. Others say, they choose the revolution but need to find out more what we’re talking about, and still others say, yes, I’ll help spread this (usually on social media, etc). The particular form I’ve honed in on with a lot of people is spread these POAs on your social media (talking about the national effort), watch and post the BA clip and with people from out of town, to think seriously about organizing the Tour to come to your area.

We also have put to people what this speech from BA is and what about showing this to people. Some people have been interested in this, for example a woman from Lancaster. This has been in the context too of stating concretely what a revolution is, that it will take millions and the need to organize the thousands today who can lead those millions. And that one of the biggest problems we have is that people don’t know about all this, and what it can change in terms of people knowing about a real force for revolution.

I don’t think there’s a single script or formula, and I do think challenging that, “I appreciate you” sentiment is important (including putting it back to people sharply that no one is going to do this for us). But still, I think part of the problem perhaps is that this stays abstract for people. Instead of on the spot, getting inside these POAs and evaluating whether this would be important to be reaching others... and/or watching BA on the spot.

We had one experience yesterday of someone having a couple of concrete ideas about where we could show the film (including a community center across the street from the memorial site). Beyond that, I’ve asked a number of people for ideas they have, trying to work with them to answer this and they mainly say they don’t know... and this gets tied in to them looking into this more themselves. We have been putting to people that the best way to get into this more is to be part of getting into it with others, there too tied in with the two choices.

Disrupting a Christian Fascist Anti-Abortion Rally in Philly

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

We found out about a “pro-life” demonstration being planned outside of a Planned Parenthood (PP) location in Center City (downtown) Philly. It was part of a coordinated blitz launched by Catholic Christian fascists organized under “Regnum Christi” and Mission Youth to target multiple PP locations across southeastern Pennsylvania on Good Friday. There was a sorry excuse of a counterprotest being organized that was attempting to wield the Bible to oppose the Bible, coupled with the ridiculous “Gritty” reification phenomenon.

The other Philly revcom supporters and those in our orbit here had obligations that prevented them from going, so I had to pull up solo. The night before, I drew up a simple (but large) poster with the following slogans:

THERE IS NO GOD
WOMEN ARE NOT INCUBATORS
ABORTION ON DEMAND W/O APOLOGY
#REVOLUTION—NOTHINGLESS
REVCOM.US

I brought some POAs [Points of Attention for the Revolution] and Calls for the Tour (both with local contact info) in my backpack just in case. When I arrived, there were only four counterprotesters. They had hung up a banner outside the PP location that read “Thank God for Abortion” and then they went to the other side of the intersection to spectate. A line of a dozen or so PP escorts stood at the front of the entrance and chose to remain silent and stationary. I chose to get right up front, putting on my REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! shirt, and do everything I could to disrupt it, taking inspiration from BAsics 6:3.

The Catholic fascists set up a podium in front of PP; I stood next to it, and the police blocked off the street at both intersections. There were around 40-50 of them, at least 2/3rds being teenagers/very young adults, with a core of middle-aged adults corralling them. Every time they would try to proceed with their sermon or prayers, I would just keep alternating between shutting down their arguments, disrupting their prayers, countering lies & distortions about abortions, etc. and calling upon the youths (particularly the young women) to break from the chains of religion and patriarchy. “Get up off your knees, stop praying to a god that doesn’t exist, quit wasting your one and only life and become an emancipator of humanity!” “You don’t have to be a slave to a man and be forced to give birth against your will!” “We need a revolution based on reality and science, not submission to Dark Ages mythology!” “You are a Christian Taliban, foot soldiers for the fascist Trump/Pence regime, and this represents a nightmare handmaid’s tale future for humanity!” Things of that nature, and a few chants similar to the slogans on my poster.

Many of the youths couldn’t help but divert their attention away towards me, a few even began crying. Although I was loud and disruptive for the entire hour—totally ruining any chance of a “successful” action on their part (at least in terms of being able to broadcast their message and, of secondary importance, their optics), I was also making sure to not be shrieking at people or to be vulgar for its own sake. Instead I was trying to stand on principled scientific and revolutionary determination, refusing to allow them to set the terms unopposed, and being loud/disruptive on that basis.

A few of the fascist adult handlers would try to engage me under the guise of “civil discourse,” but I knew they just wanted to stop me from disrupting it, so I ignored them. There was one person that came by and stood with me to protest, agitating in her own way, but she was proceeding from an anarcho-liberal “trolling” approach. She did not really wish to engage with me after the protest, and she was rather flippant and cynical about the whole thing in general.

After about an hour, they packed up to go on a procession, carrying crosses through the city and performing a bloody, sentimental reenactment of the Bible’s account of Jesus’ execution a la Passion of the Christ. Unfortunately, I could not continue to hound them, as I had to leave to go to work.

As they were gathering up to move on to their procession, the youths briefly dispersed a bit and I did manage to get some POAs to a few of the young women in the demonstration that had been led there. My thinking was that there was perhaps a slight possibility that things had been shaken up inside them by my presence and agitation, and there was perhaps an opening in their minds to begin questioning their thinking and beliefs. I don’t know on what basis they took the POAs, however, since none of them would speak to me. At this point their evangelist leaders were trying to sort of simultaneously “love bomb” me, fire off rapid-fire counterarguments, and offering to pray for me. In effect they were trying to quarantine me away from the youths, and as there was a rapidly dwindling audience at this point, I chose not to engage with their little mob surrounding me.

One PP escort came around the corner as I was leaving, saying that he was an atheist and that he agreed with me, but he expressed concern that it was a “bad look” to put forward such views so openly and said I should rethink the approach. I told him that I had put very careful consideration into choosing to confront these people with the truth, however harsh it may be. Before we could keep talking, one of the Catholic fascists noticed this interaction and started questioning him and asking if he was with me, and he started backpedaling and distancing himself very quickly. At one point during my disruption, I had paraphrased BAsics 4:20 and it got a good laugh from a few of the PP escorts behind me; perhaps he was one of them.

I can’t be sure that too much came out of this in an immediate sense, or what lasting impact my actions will have. There were a few short “thumbs up” and words of support from people passing by, and an acquaintance I knew from elsewhere stopped me for a second to say how bad-ass he thought I was, but when I encouraged him to participate he said he was on his way to an appointment and could not join me. I was trying to stay focused on making an impact, so I perhaps missed an opportunity to pass off a POA to him and the others who “wished me well,” but I only have two hands and things were kinda hectic (unfortunately, I don’t have his contact info either). However, I did make sure to report the experience to the people that are in the orbit around the core of the movement for revolution here (which they were quite glad & encouraged to hear about), hoping to inspire them to not only take bolder actions as individuals but to strengthen the collectivity as well. There are no photographs or footage of this that we could find online as of the time of this writing.

Side note: A number of the fascists trying to stop me, when I agitated with basic facts mainly derived from the “What Is an Abortion and Why Women Must Have the Right to Choose—Life Cannot and Should Not Always Be Preserved” article, would ask me if I had seen this new documentary on Netflix called Unplanned. I haven’t watched it yet but I’ve seen it in headlines, and I’ll be checking it out when I have time.

Let me know if you have further questions, feedback, criticisms, etc. regarding this report. I’ve attached an image that was circulated on the counterprotest Facebook page that exposed the plans for the Catholic fascist assault, as well as their official propaganda graphic from social media.

 

UCPD is surveilling and politically suppressing revolutionaries!

Which Side Are You On?

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Last week, the Revolution Club and the Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour went around the UCLA campus doing a skit with a UC Police Department “pig” to draw attention to the case of the UCLA 5—five members of the Revolution Club, including students and alumni, facing criminal charges for participating in lawful (and absolutely righteous) political protests on campus—and to put a challenge to the students: Which side are you on? It has come out as part of this case that UCPD has been spying on the Revolution Club. This dangerous criminalization of protest and dissent is happening at a time of rising fascism, white supremacy, misogyny, and xenophobia, and EVERYONE with a conscience should demand that these illegitimate charges be dropped on the UCLA 5! At the same time, we are being targeted specifically because we are revolutionaries, and we wanted to let everyone know what this revolution is all about, and the radically different and better world we are fighting for, and draw forward the people who want to be part of that.

The pig skit definitely got people’s attention and turned their heads! We got out hundreds of flyers about the case. Along the way a number of people asked us about how they could learn more about this and some wanted to connect with the Revolution Club. This was just the beginning of what we want to do on campus around this case. More coming this week.

 

 

Download, print and get out everywhere

What People Are Saying about the Tour

Updated May 13, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Thousands Raised...Many Thousands to Go...
Donors speak out about why they gave to The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour

Includes new statements posted as of May 27, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

The Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour has started in Los Angeles, as the start of a national Tour going across this country. There have been events in different cities to kick off the Tour that raised funds, and send-off parties for volunteers heading to Los Angeles, where funds were raised. The call to donate financial support for the Tour has already brought some significant donations that indicate the real, if beginning, potential for very broad support for this Tour. This includes people who have given matching donations—one for $2,000 if others would match it—and a number who agreed to sustain the Tour on a monthly basis. There are others who have agreed to donate food for the volunteers going on the Tour, and some who have made things to be sold to generate funds for the Tour.

The many thousands of dollars raised so far is just a very small portion of what is going to be needed to support this Tour, and sustain and grow the movement for revolution, organizing thousands now and impacting the whole society that this Tour is setting out to do.

Here is the basic truth. Bob Avakian (BA) emphasizes in Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, “Networks of people, working together to spread the word about and organize people into the revolution, need to be built, and expanded, in all parts of the country—and linked together.” Very importantly, this includes building up financial support now for the Tour as part of that process. There can be no revolution without financial support. There will be no revolution without organization of people of all strata, networks of people who are an essential part of the strategy for an actual revolution.

Many thousands donating now—including many people who are just hearing about the need and possibility for an actual revolution for the first time—will make it possible for this Tour to shake things up at this crucial moment in history, when so much hangs in the balance for humanity.

The statements on this page from donors give a living sense of the different ways people are seeing the importance of contributing by donating to the Tour, and calling on others to join them in this historic effort.

"I felt inspired to give today because humanity is suffering and needs this tour. I heard the statement from a donor and I matched it."https://t.co/XtAzVOkhZE pic.twitter.com/35WmvIm0JM

— NYC Revolution Club (@NYCRevClub) March 8, 2019

You Think You Are Woke...
But You Are Sleepwalking Through A Nightmare

Get Organized for An ACTUAL Revolution to Emancipate All Humanity

Updated November 10, 2019 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

 

 

 

Noche Diaz Presenting the Lifetime Fire Extinguisher Award to Al Sharpton at the Sacramento, CA State Capitol.

 

Trump/Pence Regime: Revving Up the Juggernaut

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

 

The accompanying interview with Andy Zee goes into the implications of the Mueller report on accusations concerning the Trump/Pence regime. Zee states in his interview that “there’s a need for those who do see the roots of this regime in the whole history of America, founded on white supremacy and genocide and patriarchy, and in the system that exploits and oppresses people here and around the world—all of this which has given rise to a Trump/Pence regime and this huge fascist base. Right now there’s a need to step up agitation for the need to overthrow this system, and for an actual revolution. For people to get organized into that revolution, which is why you and I are out here in Los Angeles. And at the same time, people can get deeper into that by getting into the work of Bob Avakian, particularly his film on the Trump/Pence regime and his film on Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, which are both available at revcom.us. [There’s also a need] for people to get into the program of Refuse Fascism... that is calling for people to get out into the streets in an organized... as soon as possible in sustained protests that continue week after week, day after day, night after night—whatever it takes until this regime is removed from office.

“The urgency of that call is driven home not only by some of what is revealed in the Mueller report, but even more in the way in which the regime has in the past few months radically stepped up its assault and intensified the serious danger it poses to humanity. This assault has coherence—it is grouped around what Bob Avakian has called the fascist triad of all-out America-first chauvinism, blatant white supremacy, and misogynist attacks to hammer women back ‘into their place.’”

What follows is a basic and far from complete list of what has gone on.

1. Continued Military Aggression, Dangerous Threats of War

• Trump vetoed a Congressional resolution to halt U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s murderous war in Yemen. This war has already killed 85,000 children and caused 10 million people to face famine. Trump called the resolution an “unnecessary, dangerous attempt to weaken my constitutional authorities.” The slaughter and starvation in Yemen will continue.
• The Trump/Pence regime continued to threaten war against Iran. The regime designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, part of Iran’s military, a “terrorist organization.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted to Congress that according to a law passed in 2001 after 9/11 giving the president unlimited authority to attack Al Qaeda, Trump could also wage unprovoked war on Iran, without Congressional approval.
• The regime gave full backing to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who pledged to annex much of the Palestinian West Bank. The Israeli prime minister campaigned on a promise of further violent dispossession of the Palestinian people from their lands. Trump did everything he could to back him and Netanyahu is almost certain to escalate Israeli aggression in the region and suppression of the Palestinian people.
• The regime escalated its war of starvation against Venezuela. National Security Advisor John Bolton announced new, harsher sanctions to make it even more impossible for the desperate Venezuelan people to get food and medicine, and the regime continues to threaten military intervention.

2. The Violent Reassertion of Blatant White Supremacy

• Under Trump’s reign hate crimes against Black people have escalated, and police have continued to inflict their terror with encouragement from the Trump himself. (Go here for more on this.)
• At the same time, the fascist regime’s attacks on immigrants have taken a leap in the past month and could go very quickly to a whole other level. The regime is resorting to extreme measures to stop refugees from seeking asylum in the U.S. Refugees arriving at ports of entry like El Paso, Texas, are being forced to wait in Mexico for months before they can even apply for asylum. And asylum seekers arrested crossing between entry points now face prolonged imprisonment. Attorney General Barr has just declared that these asylum seekers can no longer be released on bond while waiting for their court hearings. This will keep tens of thousands more refugees in prison for years. The fascists intend to “keep families together” by imprisoning their children with them! The head of Homeland Security made international headlines by separating thousands of children from their parents. She, along with other agency officials, was fired in a purge marked by Trump saying that he wanted to go in a “ tougher” direction. All this is further unleashing fascist thugs. In recent days, terrifying nighttime videos have gone up on social media showing heavily armed fascist vigilantes capturing hundreds of refugees with children at gunpoint in New Mexico. They force the refugees to their knees in the dirt and hold them for the Border Patrol to arrest. Ex-military vigilantes pointing rifles at immigrant children is now the new “normal.” A spokesperson for the nearby town said, “I think they are just out there exercising their constitutional right.”

3. Across-the-Board Attacks on a Woman’s Right to Abortion and Other Forms of Birth Control

• The Trump/Pence regime has taken the decades-long Christian fascist assault on women’s right to abortion to new levels. So far this year, more than 300 anti-abortion laws have been proposed in different states. Some laws make an abortion illegal before most women know they’re pregnant. One state law would ban abortion at any point unless the woman’s health is at risk. A doctor breaking this law could face prison for decades. Such laws take away women’s basic right to control their own body. The anti-abortionists hope that one of these laws will lead to the majority fascist/anti-abortion Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
• Trump is stoking the fires of anti-abortion fanatics. In El Paso on February 11, Trump whipped the crowd into a frenzy with anti-abortion lies. He claimed a New York law allows “children to be ripped from their mother’s womb right up until the moment of birth.” He said Virginia’s governor supports allowing doctors to “execute babies.” Trump hosted a White House screening of the anti-abortion “documentary” Gosnell. This film about an abortion doctor found guilty of murder is designed to confuse and frighten people about abortion. And Trump has endorsed another anti-abortion film, Unplanned, about a former Planned Parenthood clinic director who became an anti-abortion activist.

These are only some of what has been a coherent and relentless attack—one which is gaining steam.

The war in Yemen has already killed 85,000 children and caused 10 million to face famine. The slaughter, starvation, and destruction in Yemen are continuing. Here, rubble from U.S.-backed Saudi Arabian airstrike, April 2019. (Photo: AP)

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu campaigned for reelection on a promise of further violent dispossession of the Palestinian people from their lands. Above: November 2018 airstrike escalates destruction of Gaza. (Photo: AP)

Bob Avakian On the Rise of Fascism and How to Fight It

April 22, 2019 | revcom.us

 

 

“Field Reports” From Taking Out the Revolution, April 25

April 25, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Over the past several days, the National Tour has continued to go out in Los Angeles, working to draw people into the revolution. They have ranged from a South Central neighborhood, to UCLA, to a community college on the East Side: finding the ways for masses of people to come into and work on the problems of the revolution. The Tour is building right now for a picnic this Sunday. We’re including reports from their work and encounters to help give everyone a sense of what they’re working on and how they’re viewing it, and to foster the widest possible ferment over how to break through.

 

In the neighborhood

#1 “Deep Exchanges”

Three of us went out yesterday for a little under two hours. We were planning to go to the community center someone told us about in the area but never made it there. We set a couple appointments on our way down to meet up with two people who had taken some stacks of the POAs on Saturday.

In addition to those discussions, where we gave them more materials and talked more concretely about Sunday’s picnic, there were other, really deep exchanges. One important thing to note is that there are several repeat discussions we had with people who had gotten our materials in the days before. One dude had talked to one of our people on Saturday and really appreciated that we were out here. He understood we were bringing a wider view to people, but still in a framework of “doing good for the community.” We talked more about this, struggled over the question of choices... He wants to come Sunday but raised contradictions of being in that neighborhood (where there are disputes between sets). We got into this some but there is more to work through. He did say he would help poster with us today.

As we were walking away, a couple guys in a car pulled us over. One said he'd seen me doing agitation at some point and wanted the materials and the other dude got the flyer and said, “Oh, good... y'all are doing another picnic, I missed the last one.” The guy who’d seen us doing agitation said something like, “I know we’re being messed over by the system, I’m an ex-con. I can tell you all about it.” This was brief because we had to head out, but I sent them a video link from BA by text.

Finally, we talked to the person who had suggested we go by the community center. He’d read the POAs but hadn’t gotten more into BA’s recent stuff and was still raising that he didn’t really want to participate.... that he’s more like on both sides of things, needs to learn more, etc. He would be interested in coming on Sunday, but he has to work. He did take some flyers to leave out at work. In struggling over the need for him to step into this now, on different levels and in a way he feels comfortable, he said that if he gave people stuff, they’d ask him questions and he wouldn’t know how to answer. First, I said it’s ok to say he doesn’t know something and point people to get deeper... also, that there’s a Revolution Club and he could contact the people here locally... then I thought better and added that there’s a whole national movement and a website that he could write to with stuff that comes up. We also talked about BAsics and BA’s ability to break things down... BA as a resource. I showed him BAsics but we didn’t have any copies (!) and he was interested in getting it. He said he’d pull the money together and get it today.

In the meantime, last night, he texted me: “I’ve been watching a few videos of Bob Avakian, and really enjoyed/learned quite a bit. At this moment, I’ve staked my claim here [he texted a link to a progressive nationalist group]. Maybe some quid pro quo can be found in this struggle of ours. This talk from BA was very enlightening... I listened to a talk from BA from years ago pertaining to this matter, and respected his in depth comprehensive take on this. See you tomorrow purchase that book from you. Power to the People.”

There were some heavy discussions with people about the life, revenge... and one dude who very movingly talked about finding solace in “my best friend” and showed me his beer can. One point this latter guy made was about the need for us to paint a vision of what kind of world we’re fighting for. This, I felt, was an important criticism from him. This is in the POAs but also made me think about the need to make more use of the “What If’s...” clip as part of this...

Also, I left this out but there was concrete discussion/wrangling about getting people to the picnic and why spread the POAs.

 

#2: Taking This Up in Beginning Ways

From another comrade, same neighborhood:

One experience I had with a guy who was in “the life,” who was appreciative of the flyers and what we were putting to him about revolution and getting organized to overthrow this system. His response to this was that he couldn't get with this, when asked why he said his future is already written because of what he represents, he pointed to Nipsey and said that’s what’s going to happen to me.

I posed to him the challenge of our life is going to be about something or nothing.

Later, I thought this challenge should of been done different, by indicting this system that keeps us in these conditions where we are trained to look at each other as the enemy and go and kill each other, then this same system keep us locked in to thinking like there is no way out! That this is just the way our future will be and there is nothing we can do about it, and the fact that we don’t have to accept this future and we can go to work on changing that right now, stepping into this revolution and what we do have (strategy, leadership, science) and what’s needed is you.

There was also a guy who we met last time who wanted to go check out the POAs on his own before doing anything else; he got in touch a day later and said he liked this message and wanted to be a part of it. Yesterday he went to a rap concert in LA and handed out about 15 or 20 of the flyers and a few stickers. He said he had a good response, that people liked them. He said he read the flyer out loud to some people and told them to call the number on the flyer. We talked about the importance of that and the fact that he was a part of this revolution by spreading this; he appreciated that.

I think it’s important, examples like this that bridge that divide of “us” and “them” where people, like this person above, sees this as theirs and taking it where they go and see the importance in others knowing about it, but also this thing about putting the problems of the revolution to them, what we do have but also what we don’t.

At a college: “I decided to have a solo outing with the POAs before and after one of my classes...”

From a member of the Revolution Club:

I was inspired by the recent videos being uploaded from the Revolution Tour of students giving their impressions of the Points of Attention for the Revolution. I decided to have a solo outing with the POAs before and after one of my classes, and I ended up posting up about 50 flyers with the POAs and the contact information for the Revolution Club in and around the campus, on poles and other visible public spaces (in bus stops, outside shops). This being a solo outing, I took a step back to think about how I could impact blocks of students, but I found this hard to do just by solo flyering. I talked to about five students about the POAs, taking cue from what was modeled in those videos and the recent practice of the Tour. I asked people what they thought of these POAs and what would the world be like if society was set up with these in mind.

One young woman really dug Point #2 and Point #3 when I read them to her. She agreed that the world would be a far better place if these were taken up by large numbers of people, but she was hesitant to spread them. Still there was a divide that I don’t know how to break down. I explained to her that spreading these Points of Attention is something that one can do even if they don’t know very much about revolution and communism, but the hesitation was real despite her high level of unity with what was put forward. A white student in his mid-20s held a long conversation with me which ranged broadly, and I had to constantly struggle to bring it back to the 2 choices (leave the world as it is, OR make revolution), 5 stops, and 6 POA points on which the conversation had been grounded, particularly the 2 choices, which he disagreed on.

This is a larger phenomenon we have been running up against: a lot of people don’t agree that there are only two choices. I could tell that this guy took a totally academic approach to this exchange, and I tried to bring it back to the visceral reality that all the suffering and exploitation that the masses face is not just horrific but unnecessary, the leadership we have to make the revolution humanity needs, and the strategy to make revolution are things we have not had before in this country. The biggest obstacle in his thinking was American chauvinism; even though he had some heart for the conditions of people around the world and he acknowledged that the whole global economy is based on exploitation, he saw the major solution to this being tariffs. Another huge obstacle in his thinking was something BA has focused a lot on: the lack of belief that we can have a better way of organizing society than capitalism, that even with its flaws, what more can we do than tinker around with capitalist democracy? I tried to respond simply with, “this is the system we have, but we could have a whole better system, but it takes a revolution to get there.” Although this student didn’t agree with the need for revolution, I challenged him to dig into those POAs, and ask himself “is this real? Would the world really be different if we all, and the society, lived by them and fought for them?” and to check out the website, which he said he would do.

 

Taking Up the Points of Attention at a Community College

First, some numbers:

• Three of us were out for 4 hours – from 12:30 to 4:30.
• We texted/signed up 26 people to view a clip of BA and info about the picnic.
• 25 people took stacks of POAs – some as few as 3 or 5, most between 10 and 20, and a couple took more. A very conservative average would be 10 each, adding up to 250 POAs put in the hands of new people to spread. This was based on reading and discussing with them the 5-2-6,* including concretely who/where they would spread the ones they took. [*The 5 Stops; the 2 choices (either live with this and condemn future generations to live with it, if there is a future at all... or MAKE REVOLUTION; and the 6 Points of Attention.]
• Three meaningful direct engagements with BA: A young woman with family from Central America – including some who had been part of/sympathetic to the struggle of the people and some who had died – watched the clip about how the youth tried so hard after the LA rebellion to forge unity. She gave vocal responses, anticipating and cheering for how BA took her through it all. A Black woman who works on campus and lives in South Central watched the “What Ifs...” from the Dialogue as well as the Corcoran SHU clip. She loved both, but especially was cheering and laughing during the places that always get the deepest response. Both these women took a kit (as well as the #BEB paper and the system has no future for the youth poster), gave donations (one gave $2, one gave $5). The Black woman got her 16-year-old on the phone to talk with us and get her involved as well. One young man read quotes from BAsics and talked for quite a while and put down $5 toward purchasing BAsics (we gave him the book and made plans for him to give the rest).
• Four people spoke on video, reading one of the POAs and talking about what it means to them, what the POAs as a whole mean to them, and where/how they intend to spread them. Need to get these out on social media. One guy spoke with deep feeling and insight on #2, including making a critique about how the pervasive and widely accepted, truly disgusting and degrading treatment of women is accepted. Two who read and spoke deeply about #3. One who read #5 – and several others – said that point spoke to them very deeply. We'd read them all, though, and people also reacted to them as a whole. One in the video spoke about how these are six simple ways you can understand and get started, not just keep walking by.

ALSO IMPORTANT:
We spoke to several members of student groups and student government who were very friendly and supportive. They are actively working to get us a room to show BA and give a presentation about the Tour and the Revolution. They’ve already texted back and forth about availability, etc. Need to pin this down.

***********

The campus was overwhelmingly friendly to the 5-2-6 message. A solid 40% of the students we actually approached stopped to listen and responded very favorably to the basic message of the revolution, or to the 5 Stops poster. The campus is majority Latino. A lot of texture to sum up and work to do to build on this, and take to a whole higher level.

#2

On Monday, April 23. Our team went to a small junior college with a number of DACA students, Latinos as well as Asian students.

We set up a table in the quad with books and other materials. We had the 5 Stops displays and the #BEB display. We had a tablet to show people clips as well.

The campus was relatively empty, and the stream of people walking by was pretty small. Yet the overall dominant response from people was very positive and receptive. People were very open to talking and would take more time out of their day for us. As compared to some of the more elite schools where it can be difficult to get anyone to stop and talk.

People stopped to read the 5 Stops; they would say things like “I agree with these things.” People would read the POAs and say “Whoa, what is this about?” “Is this a club on campus?” “Are you a non-profit or something?”

Among the people who had a positive response there were different subsections. There were people who were more actively engaging us and those people tended to hear our message as ‘big change’ and in response people would give us a ‘big thumbs up!’ But as things got clearer what a revolution really is and what the two choices are, things would divide out again. It was right here where people would build bridges out. They would pose why they thought we were wrong about there being only two choices (less common), or why you couldn’t do anything at all (more common), which most people raised because people are set in their ways and we can’t tell them what to think.

There were people who were more “passive,” and kind of acted like they were caught off guard by the conversation and didn’t have much to say about the world yet, but at the same time would express that they thought what we were doing was positive.

Overall we organized about 26 people who took about 250 flyers in all (about 10 each). And we ourselves distributed about 180 and sold a BAsics. We showed clips from BA about 5 times (The System Has No Future for the Youth). We met some student body officers who are helping us get a room and set up a meeting, and another student agreed to take responsibility to form a Facebook group for students (at this campus) in the revolution.

What happened as we engaged people individually:

There was a table set up next to ours. The campus is in the middle of student elections, so there were a half-dozen students giving out pizza and petitioning their students for votes. They first walked up to us off of the #BEB poster. They really wanted to know what it was. “Try and guess,” we said. They thought it must be bad because Trump was on it, but at the same time Bernie, Buttigieg, and AOC were on there so... now they are confused.

We pulled out the broadsheet and revealed what it was, Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit, and opened up to the middle of the broadsheet and immediately they said, “Can I please have this?” They poured over all the war crimes, and one student said he had just learned about one of these in class. One of the students really wanted to become a politician; he said he wanted to be president, yet at the same time was really drawn to what we were saying. Two of the group were more drawn to us and spent some time with us talking. One student was a part of six groups on campus, the other was a student body senator. They agreed to and offered to get us a room on campus where we could have a meeting and show a film. They even offered to help so we could put up flyers and advertise around campus (since it requires a special stamp to be posted). They offered to invite people they knew in clubs and groups.

A couple of young Latino males stopped to read the 5 Stops. I engaged them and talked to them about the 5 Stops and the POAs. They both thought the 5 Stops were horrible things that should be stopped. We had gone back and forth for some time about that these things can’t be reformed and the system has to be overthrown and that we have two choices. I kept posing back two problems: that, one, people don’t know about this, and two,  there have been all sorts of people who are interested on campus and who are going to spread the word about this, but that this has to be cohered into some form of organization or else all these people who want a revolution will be off on their own.

It was after this that one of the youths raised how he knew as soon as he took this out he would get shit for it, and didn’t really think it was right to force your views on other people who don’t want to hear it. I went another round with him that people have their heads up their asses, but also care about these 5 Stops and that we are not going for everybody right now. I gave the example of what would it change if there was even 20 people on this campus who were organized and serious about this. He agreed that it would make a huge difference. So I posed those two problems again in relation to the two choices, and the student thought that he should start a Facebook group for students [at this campus] in the revolution so that we could keep everybody in the know. He thought we should organize people to get together at a restaurant or something, and that we should all go together to spread the word...

We met someone else, a young Latino male who was a former police cadet. He really thought the 5 Stops were wrong. He asked me what we meant by revolution and I contrasted it to what Bernie means by revolution. “We aren’t talking about dividing more of the spoils of empire, we are talking about overthrowing the system and getting rid of the empire.” I mentioned briefly about where all wealth comes from and briefly mentioned the Congo where children as young as four are mining coltan. This deeply disturbed him. He said he had no idea stuff like that was happening and brought up these children mining in the Congo several times throughout our conversation. He thought the police could be reformed (there’s good cops and bad cops). I showed him BAsics 1:24 and he said he halfway thought it was true. He purchased a BAsics and wants to come to the meeting next week.

"We base ourselves on and strive to represent the highest interests of humanity: revolution and communism." #POA4REV
Read them all, get organized and spread them! https://t.co/HEgkHmLnuI pic.twitter.com/LnVB0Ulf5r

— Revolution Club Los Angeles (@revclub_la) April 24, 2019

Below are a selection of pictures from the Tour in Los Angeles.

 

From NYC: When People Step Out...

From a member of the National Revolution Tour currently in New York

April 25, 2019 | revcom.us

 

I wanted to share a few thoughts... in terms of this historic objective problem, it seems that putting the problems of the revolution to masses of people from the beginning is something that we need, I feel, to transform further, in our orientation, agitation, overall approach. We have gotten sharper in our agitation (although it’s a continuous work in progress), and we’ve had experiences of challenging and inspiring people and beginning ways in which people have stepped forward. In part it was because our agitation sharpened up (the 2 choices, the Points of Attention for the Revolution(POAs) and “the bridge to a different world is revolution” point), for example at the high school, instead of agitating while students just passed us by, we started challenging the students, asking them questions in the form of a provocation and challenge (especially once we wielded more the POAs): do you want to live in a world where women are treated like human beings? (And other variations on this) And demanding students stop and answer these questions. This, along with “5 STOPS” visuals, creates a situation where yes still too many students just keep walking but some actually stop and answer the questions posed, and still others (a minority) stop to talk, engage, struggle, etc.

One particular youth (I’ll call him Benny) stopped and got on the bullhorn (after hearing some of the things we’d been saying, the challenges posed to students, etc.) to challenge his peers, “stop thinking about video games, sex, this is about your future...” Benny on the phone said he had originally stopped because he has personal experience with the things we were saying, he said (I’m paraphrasing) women are not treated right, I have friends who are women who are mistreated and disrespected, also immigrants... He also said he agreed with the BEB newspaper about the “crimes against humanity” from those in power. I’m leaving out much of our conversation (again, mainly the basics of the 2 choices, POAs and his role in solving the problems of the revolution) but the point is that I did pose to him the problems of the revolution, that people don’t know about this and spreading the POAs is (at least one way) how we’re going at this problem, and how all this is part of making revolution. He took extras to pass out on the bus he takes after school.

Last week we planned (and did) a speak out twice at the park where many of the students go thru after school, so I posed to him the importance of letting others know, which he did. Wednesday and Thursday he came by for several minutes and brought a friend here and a friend there. And Thursday in particular he got on the bullhorn and called over friends walking by to come over (friends that were either mocking him or maybe more questioning what the hell was he doing standing with “us”). But Benny was not seeing a separation between “us vs them” when he got on the bullhorn and read POA 2 and 5, he took the first steps in breaking down some of the barriers... but how to go further is the challenge.

To back track, two of the people asking him “Benny what the hell are you doing?” were these young women who passed by, but he called them over and then one of them ended up getting on the bullhorn and started chanting “viva la revolución” and then something in Spanish along the lines of men think they have the right to disrespect women but NO! women have rights...and she ended with “everyone in the world have rights.”

And there’s been experiences of other high school students initially stepping into this thru taking materials (extra POAs to put up, or putting on “The System Has No Future...” sticker, donating some money for these materials). And we are following up this week with a plan to go out with Benny and maybe others in the areas they live or areas they want to go (this is something we put to Benny) to get POAs up (this week is spring break for high schools). After summing this up we also started to read quotes from BAsics together with the POAs as part of people connecting up, straight up with Bob Avakian (BA) and his leadership. A key part of the plan is to engage the students with BA, this spring break and when they get back to school. I’ve gotten the link to BA videos to Benny and other students.

The main point is that we need to be putting the problems of the revolution to people; we should be provoking, challenging and inspiring and parallel to that has to be putting the problems before people where they see they have a role to play and that this very positive transformation of society cannot be done without them and lots more people like them getting involved, in an organized way, and helping to spread this and helping to organize lots of like-minded people into this! Relatedly, we (myself included) don’t enough emphasize the last part of that sentence, the organizing “lots of like-minded people into this!” I’ve been more focused on asking people to spread this and why this is meaningful revolutionary work (which it is!). But the challenge needs to be put to people, and people inspired to do so, to go out and get lots more people into this revolution. This is something I’d like to think through more.

***

Here I’m just ruminating more broadly although sparked by a few things on my mind (which I’ll speak to briefly below). Our problem is still too much not leading and working together with many others to lead many more others, etc.; but as this transforms, and I feel as part of getting to that transformation, our approach to people needs to be one where ideas and suggestions are not readily dismissed and build plenty of room for people to make mistakes and learn and understand (and lead in a way that comprehends) that people (those whose aspirations has been awakened and see the need to take this up) will come with all kinds of ideas (good ones and even seemingly quirky ones or that actually are quirky or worse).

We should comprehend that people will also make mistakes and that this “process” will be messy, in fact very messy most of the time and not neat. And we should not dismiss ideas just because they seem like we’ve done them before but be open to people taking this up based on what has been inspired and awakened in them (meaning on the basis of going back to the 2 choices, POAs, the point that “the bridge to that better world is revolution” and the role they play to make this happen) and then lead this process, not just one on one but with masses of people, summing up and continually going back with them.

How to apply solid core with lots of elasticity based on the solid core? This is something worth grappling with and ruminating with further, among ourselves in the Revolution Club and those coming forward, and more broadly. As more and more people step into the revolution, and aspirations awakened, many ideas will be flowing and so how not to tail and how not to shut down things? I’ve noticed among the Revolution Club sometimes we do that, we shut things down too quickly among ourselves and with others. But the contradiction is that while some of us have been around longer and know some things, the reality is that this is uncharted road and we must remain open to things (including to ideas people have) and approach things with science and imagination. We need more experimentation, etc. The point is that we are solving problems in the real world, and reality is very complex, but that’s what we are doing and must lead many more people, in fact thousands and thousands to do exactly that.

I was recounting the story of struggling with some high school students where I challenged them to take up the POAs, distribute them but also wield them, if they see a woman being harassed or someone being made fun of because of their language other than English, use the POAs and say no that doesn’t go here, we’re part of a movement for a real revolution that’s fighting for a world where all the chains are broken, all that degrading stuff doesn’t go here (something like that). Relatedly several Revolution Club members made a video posted on FB about “what if” we’d had the POAs back in high school, when youth have to deal with so much of the degrading culture and so suffocated with the idea that there is nothing you can do or that there is no alternative to this system of capitalism/imperialism. This was good, and we need more of this; and especially we need all kinds of initiative taken that’s aiming to and grappling with (among other things) breaking down this “us versus them” contradiction.

As an aside, the question of “revenge” versus emancipation has been coming up recently in discussions with the Revolution Club and more broadly. A member of the Revolution Club told a story and recounted the advice his older brother gave him back in the day, if someone does something to you then “do what they do to you but twice as hard.” Another person pointed out in a discussion about how common revenge is as a unifying approach in many countries and really around the world. And nobody else on the planet speaks more sharply to this then Bob Avakian in many of his works and it’s something we should wield more often, among many of the people we encounter (from the different strata since this is a question up and down all strata even if it takes different expressions). I’d be surprised if this hasn’t been a big question in L.A. with the murder of the rapper and the different gangs and others who’ve come out. The striving to unite right now is very positive... but how do we not let things “re-assert” themselves given this system really has no future for the youth and that the Nipsey model (the entrepreneurial model) won’t lead to liberation. Again, I was really glad to see the clips from REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! and from Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About where BA goes deep at this!

And we do have to keep coming back to what is the material basis for doing what we’re setting out to do with this National Revolution Tour as key to building this movement for revolution, making revolution and getting to a radically different world. Going back to the excerpt “The Five STOPS” from Bob Avakian’s speech Why We Need An Actual Revolution, And How We Can Really Make Revolution and keep grounding ourselves and others in the entire film and Q&As is key in all this.

Briefly (but relatedly), I teamed up with someone recently and went around to talk to people who work in this important part of town. He put on the BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! T-shirt as we talked with and handed out the POAs and the BEB [“Bourgeois Electoral Bullshit”] newspaper. Most discussions were brief but positive. One important lesson here is that the person I teamed up with was really grappling with this “us versus them” contradiction, he couldn’t understand why not many more people were getting with this. His ideas on approach had lots of insight, mixed in with other things I didn’t necessarily fully agree with.

But the main thing I’m trying to highlight is that aspirations were awakened through his engagement with videos and other materials from the National Revolution Tour (for example the video of Noche Diaz calling out Al Sharpton’s role in always trying to put out and extinguish the righteous anger of the masses of people every time there is a cold blooded murder by the police of Black and Brown people) and other things as well. He was deep and grappling on a problem that we need to solve, how to bring many people forward into the movement for revolution. And while in the main people we talked to responded positively, there was one occasion that was not so positive. We got into how do you deal with people who don’t want to hear it, even getting nasty about not wanting to hear it. I told him we shouldn’t and don’t take nonsense from people and it’s important to come back sharply ideologically, “ok you wanna keep them mental shackles and keep the world as it is, ok then, go on then, we got nothing to say to you.” Bob Avakian goes into this in a sharp way in the speech REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!

Other deep questions came up as we summed up, having to do with the strategic approach to revolution, what about certain sections of the middle class, can they be won to revolution and how? How about “friendly neutrality”? He said, “this is my first time going out with this, so I’m bound to learn new things!” But another main lesson I wanted to draw was that as people take this up, they’re bound to run into opposition and a lot of bullshit. And as people run into difficulties it’s important that we fight to not let assert the strong almost gravitational pull towards the “us versus them” divide—that because there is bound to be negative experiences in taking this out that perhaps I can’t do this and maybe I’ll stay over here supporting from afar and you (revcoms) be over there. We have to challenge the notion that those stepping into this, taking those initial steps, (the many people that need to step into this from all kinds of backgrounds) couldn’t do this. Again, what is the material basis to do what we’re setting out to do? Continually coming back to this and grounding and re-grounding more and more people in this (in BA's scientific method and approach) will be fundamental in making some breakthroughs.

Sharp Struggle, Wide Embrace

Updated April 27, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From a member of the National Revolution Tour:

There is so much richness and texture to report on and I don’t have much time.

A few patterns to point to from the neighborhood and then I’ll get into some more specifics. First, among people in the life, going to Hoover Park seemed out of the question to people because of the beef between sets. This came up a number of times in different ways. Second, there are others we’ve now had a number of discussions with (in particular, the guys drinking in front of a local store) for whom coming is more of an ideological question of whether they’ll step into the revolution and let themselves hope. Third, we met a number of younger people in the neighborhood who are not in the life who fell out in different ways. These are important people to reach because they are influenced by the same circumstances but with different levels of openness. Finally, there are a couple people we are more actively “working with” who are taking responsibility for the revolution in different ways, reporting back, etc.

In all this, there are some very deep things being joined and opened up... for some, in the first discussions we are having... others from some of the repeated discussions. A lot of this is still very centered on whether the problem is the people, or the system. We have been getting up the new “no more generations” poster and used it in a couple important exchanges joining this question.

Also, we met with the person who runs an Afrocentric community center nearby. It’s used as a meeting place with local programming and arts projects. This was a place someone in the neighborhood suggested we go check out. I got a call back and a few of us went over to meet with the person who runs it. The director is familiar with BA from hearing him on Michael Slate’s show. He’s revolutionary minded even as he thinks you have to use “every tool at your disposal to make real change.” He said BA resonates with him and he can’t think of anything he’s ever said he disagrees with. We talked with him about the Tour, our mission, played the trailer of the new speech and gave him the text for it which he was interested in reading. He wanted to know how we all got involved in the revolution and we talked about this... it was a pretty rich discussion overall. He also wanted to know the response we’ve been getting from the neighborhood, our work, etc. And all three of us talked about this more.

We did put the different problems to him in terms of the overall mission of the Tour, but also asked his thinking on the terrain. He was somewhat reticent about this but did talk about how people are tired and, he thinks, ready to hear a serious argument for real change. He said that stepping out with our message in the way we are should separate the wheat from the chaff in a good way. We talked about wanting to show the BA speech at his center. He’s interested and we’re going to go through the process to apply for this.

He was glad we reached out and thanked us several times for what we’re doing. This is someone we should be working with going forward as well and we did invite him to the picnic.

We also went into a nearby school where it looked like a lot of students were getting out early and we passed out a bunch of flyers. Unlike other high schools, most of the students took them. At the Burger King later, when we sat down to have lunch, we talked to four of these kids who read the POAs out loud to each other (while doing an Instagram Live) and were excited about this. They kept saying, “hell yes.” We got their info to send them a BA video to watch and post.

I had a very heavy/important discussion with one student on the corner which I think is worth walking through in detail. He was standing with about 4 or 5 guys and seemed to be the leader of the group. He and they were kind of fucking around but took the flyers. We said what we were about—on a National Tour to organize for an actual revolution to overthrow this system—and he looked over the flyer while we pointed to the POAs and told him what they were. He saw the info about the picnic, and said, “Hell naw, I ain’t going over there, that’s enemy territory.” Even though I knew what he meant, I asked what he meant. He kind of laughed and said more to his friends more than me, “My parents told me all about that.” And he named the other set with an insulting nickname. I said, “Really, enemies huh? Let me ask you, what do those enemies look like?” His friends were still more messing around, laughing, rolling up the flyers. He got serious and said, “They look like me.” I asked, “So you think they control that territory over there?” He said, “No, I don’t think so.” I asked him who he thought controlled it and he said, “The government does.” I said he was right about that, and then asked who controlled the ground he was standing on, and he said, “Yeah, the government does.”

I did some agitation about how this system has people pitted against each other, but really who are the real criminals, their armies marauding all over the world, their bombs tearing children apart limb from limb, their pig police running roughshod through these neighborhoods, tearing babies from their parents at the border... the motherfuckers who run this system are the criminals and they are perfectly happy to have oppressed people fighting and killing each other, it helps them because they want to kill you off anyway. His friends had stopped listening and kind of walked away telling him they had to catch the bus. But he was intent and told them to chill, they’d catch the next bus anyway. He said he knew something about the government. His aunt told him about how they made all their money off of slavery. I said he was right about that and that same shit continues in different form today.

He responded, “Yeah, I know all that shit, but fuck it, I got to take care of me and my family, I got to get my money. I got to get up out of here and take care of myself, my people.”

First, I said, be real, most likely this system won’t let you make shit. Just a tiny handful make it up and out. But even more fundamentally, let me ask, you’re saying you want to get rich. Where do you think wealth comes from anyway? He answered, “From the government too?” I said not really, it comes from fucking over people just like you all over the world. I pulled out my phone and asked if he knew what prevented the phone from overheating in his hand. He said he didn’t know and I explained about the mineral coltan. That it comes from different parts of the world, including the Congo. That there have been resource wars raging in the Congo for years which have, in part, resulted in millions of women being raped. That there are kids his age and younger working in those mines. That’s where wealth comes from. Then those minerals and other raw materials get shipped to China where millions of people slave away in sweatshops working 18-hour days going blind from working so long with such small things, breathing all these toxins and shit. That’s where wealth comes from.

I put it back to him, is that what you want to be part of? Saying fuck it, and becoming like the criminals that run this system. He said quietly, “I don’t know.”

I then pulled out the new poster we made with BAsics 1:13, told him briefly who BA is and had him read the quote. He read it out loud and then I asked him to look at the pictures, which he did. I asked what he thought. He stood there quiet for a minute and said, “Damn, this picture hurts my heart.” Looking at the picture of the Syrian child washed up on the beach, drowned to death. I told him that America was responsible for that, they were part of the war, destroying the country that his family was fleeing from to survive. He stayed looking at it, and I told him he was as responsible for that child and his family as he was for his own family. He just answered, “Yeah, that’s true.”

I pointed to the pictures again and said, “Look man, all this shit is not necessary and it all comes from the system that we are organizing to take down. This is something you need to step into and be part of. The world could be a whole different way but we have to fight for that.” He seemed unsure and I said more about why he needed to be at the picnic on Sunday and asked if getting a ride from the neighborhood would help. He said he wasn’t sure and seemed like he was moving to head out at that point. I said I wanted to leave him with a question and challenge from BA, the same person who said that quote he read. I said that Bob Avakian says: we have two basic choices... either live with this nightmare of a system, condemn future generations to more of this or worse... if they have a future at all... or make revolution. I asked then, which will you choose? He was quiet, and said, “That’s serious. I have to think about it.” I told him he did and that I wanted to send him a link that gets more into what kind of world is possible. He gave me his number and I told him to keep the poster, I also gave him an extra flyer for his aunt.

I sent him the “What Ifs” clip and I’m going to call him later this afternoon to see if he watched it, also want to send him the one on the Corcoran SHU and talk with him about a ride.

I also spoke with a crew of guys that were getting on the bus (seemed like they were a little older than high school, or were cutting). A couple of them had skateboards and were getting high. The main kid I talked to, who was more interested and said, “I feel what you’re saying,” was wearing a Scarface T-shirt. He also said the main thing he wanted to do was get up out of here, live in the hills with a family and a white picket fence. He talked about hating all the gang divides, he’s not in the life but still gets checked everywhere he goes. “I hate people asking, ‘where you from?’ It ain’t your fucking business and anyway, I’m not into all that.” Their bus was about to come so they didn’t want to watch a BA clip but I did some brief agitation (referencing BA) about the Scarface mentality. The guy who was talking to me was torn because he could see what he was saying was selfish but also had questions about whether it was possible to defeat them. His friends stayed fucking around even when the bus came, but he got a bit more serious and gave me his number to send him the clip.

Other people in our team also talked to a 24-year-old kid from the neighborhood who was not in the life. He got a flyer and turned back around to get more, he said, “Give me some more of those, I’ve got some people who I want to share this with.” He lives in the area and said he thinks a lot about revolution. He mentioned knowing about a Black nationalist group that was active a few years ago, that he’s been thinking about the old Black Panther Party and revolution. He said, “I try to tell people they need to be aware and informed about what’s going on, but people don’t want to listen. They’re not interested, think it doesn’t concern them, but they need to hear this.” Someone on the Tour used the posters with him to show quotes from BA, illustrating what we’re up against that people are resigning themselves to this but here’s BA saying, “No, no more!” Talked more about who BA is, what he came out of and the work he’s done... but also what we don’t have in terms of the thousands of people taking this, what we’re doing with the National Tour and the need for him to step into this. (The person who had this discussion should fill this out more... there were important things, including he said you have to have food but really people need to get down with the content of what you’re doing.) We got his info and he took some materials. This was important.

We talked briefly to a Black woman, in her 30s/40s who read the POAs aloud and stopped at #4 on the point on we “do not tolerate revenge among the people.” She said, “Wow, making a revolution without revenge. That’s going to be hard. A lot of people are going to want revenge.” Unfortunately, she had to move her car at that moment and couldn’t talk much more but I did say this was a question the leader of the revolution, Bob Avakian, has done a lot of wrangling with. In opening the conversation, I told her about the Tour and she said she was surprised when I talked about what is missing are the people. She said she would think that a lot of people would be getting with this now because so many people are tired. She gave me her info to send a BA clip and she took a few flyers to get to people she knows and said she is interested in coming Sunday.

A few other people like this, people who were in a hurry, but interested.

We also talked for a while (perhaps too long) with some of the drinking guys, both some of the older folks and some of the younger folks more in the life. As I said above, some stubbornness among the younger dudes (in their 30s or so) about leaving their neighborhood, about the possibility of revolution, etc. We struggled over the POAs, including #3: “We fight for a world without borders...” Mainly this is about the imperialist borders, but also includes these bullshit borders among oppressed people here. Among the older dudes up the block, a lot of struggle about why they need to step into this. Talked to one guy who came up and said, “I want that book you all had yesterday.” I showed him BAsics and he wanted to get it. He spent 27 years in prison, and said he reads. He argued for religion and personal responsibility but also knows we need real change. He got BAsics and said he would give $10 on the 1st.

Importantly, talked with the guy who I wrote about yesterday. He came over to where we were to get BAsics and brought his $10. He also had been thinking about other people we should reach and told me about this meeting that he knows about with progressive Black nationalist forces. He said he would look into it more and see if he could get me a contact number. He also said that he’d taken a picture of the picnic flyer and sent it to a couple friends, one of whom wrote back, “Wonderful.” He can’t come because of work but he said that he would follow up with them. He also wrote that he’s begun reading BAsics. And then this morning wrote that he distributed the flyers about the picnic with the POAs on the other side.

This is someone who was more reticent to consider himself a part of the revolution but is actively working with the revolution and thinking about the problems we are facing and how to solve them. This is an important example of the process of people working on the problems of the revolution, an essential form of organizing people into the revolution.

Also, we’re trying to meet this morning with the guy who took the flyers out to the rap concert to interview him and he’s working on a statement for the picnic. He’s also figuring out how to bring speakers he has to the picnic.

There is more to report but this is already quite late...

 

Download and spread this poster (B&W, Color)

Bob Avakian
This System Has No Future For the Youth... But the Revolution Does

From BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live. Watch the whole film at revolutiontalk.net

“Field Reports” From Taking Out the Revolution, April 26

April 26, 2019 | revcom.us

 

Over the past several days, the National Tour has continued to go out in Los Angeles, working to draw people into the revolution. From a South Central neighborhood, to campuses, to phone banking: finding the ways for masses of people to come into and work on the problems of the revolution. The Tour is building right now for a picnic this Sunday. We’re including reports from their work and encounters to help give everyone a sense of what they’re working on and how they’re viewing it, and to foster the widest possible ferment over how to break through.

 

Growing Pains

From a member of the National Revolution Tour:

I feel that there is a real straining to bring people into being PART of this picnic that is a departure from how we have normally done things. It is one of our weakest muscles & when you start to work that muscle it hurts a little bit, but once we start to do it regularly, we will get stronger at it.

You have to follow up with certain people, struggle with people to get into things and fight for their participation; sometimes more than once. You set up meetings, people don’t show, they call you and say they want to meet but their auntie got sick or their car broke down... could we meet a different day?

And then you meet people who have been taking this out & they are sincere in that; and then they tell you, when can I take you out on a date.

They reschedule BUT they DO want to be part of this, & we are constantly re-setting the terms to fight for their participation; fighting for the Points of Attention. But these people are there and we can’t lose sight of their potential nor of our responsibility to lead that.

And then we put some necessity on ourselves because we don’t always handle all our contradictions appropriately, having long, drawn out conversations or doing too much “chasing of people” rather than unleashing of people to solve the problems of the revolution.

Instead, what we are doing that is new, is trying to bring people through a process, taking it out, learning the questions that come up; being part of a process that writes those questions, poses them; all as part of “figuring out” how we are going to do this whole thing, revolution all the way through, raising objections/criticisms to what we are about & why; even while there is agreement on the 5 Stops and how we lead all of this with firmness, confidence, and big arms and a LOT of science. So I myself am having more of an appreciation for BA’s science & what he has developed in terms of solid core with a lot of elasticity and the OHIO.

Some key things we are working on with this picnic:

1. We are trying to figure out how you actually bring people into the whole of a production—provide a sweeping enough view & particularities where people can take initiative & responsibility and people see how THIS is part of building a movement for revolution.

2. How do you keep returning to people; the problems of the revolution; as part of waging ideological struggle? IE the woman question, using the revolution for personal gain... And how does returning to & strengthening people’s understanding of the “material basis” for these Points of Attention of the Revolution motivate people now to “go against the grain” in fighting for these Points of Attention.

3. Breaking out of let’s us do it all because it’s “easier,” rather than taking the time and finding the forms to bring others into this; and waging the short, sharp struggle necessary to bring them into it.

 

Phone Banking and Getting Into Things

From a member of the National Revolution Tour:

I did some phone banking to a few people who I had mainly gotten their numbers from the day people were out in Crenshaw/Slauson during Nipsey Hussle’s funeral procession. The first woman I called had actually found out about us through a flyer put up around a prominent art college with tabs to tear off from with the Revolution Club’s contact info. She had texted us through that, telling us she was interested. It was brief text messaging, then she stopped responding. I finally decided to call her after a few days and when I did she was really glad to hear from us. She said she had gone to our website and checked things out and liked it, but didn’t know how to contact us or get involved further. I asked her what attracted to her to the flyer and she said, “I’ve been thinking about these kinds of things and I feel like I have no one to talk to about it.” I explained to her how there’s a lot of people like her who are looking at the world and thinking that “shit is fucked up” and don’t know what to do about it, but she emphasized how she’s seeing the world, how fucked up it is and wants to do something about it. She also said, “I’m really interested in this.” I told her about the picnic and what it’s all about and she said she would come, and I also posed to her that we want to prepare the picnic together with others as part of new people stepping into the movement for revolution and building a revolutionary community and culture, and that means bringing a dish, helping set up, or anything they are capable of doing to make the picnic possible. She said she’d bring food, and also asked, “Do you know how many people are going so I know how much food to bring? And what kind of food should I bring?” I told her however much she wanted to bring. She’s looking forward to talking more, though she did send a text later on saying she’d be busy all Sunday actually and can’t come anymore, but would like to know about future events.

I also talked to another woman who I met at Crenshaw/Slauson during the Nipsey Hussle funeral procession. When I met her, I walked up to her to give her a flyer and she says, “Oh you’re with Bob Avakian, yeah I know Bob Avakian, I used to run with ya’ll all the time!” When I asked “What happened, how come you stopped?” She said, “I’ll have to tell you that another time!” and she took the flyers and was happy to give me her contact. When I called her she explained how she was involved seven years ago and dropped a name of someone who has been in the Revolution Club for a while. I invited her to the picnic and then asked if she read the material. She said she read a little, and then I asked her again why she stopped being involved. She kind of skirted around it saying she was dealing with personal issues, but then as we were talking more and I posed to her the two choices, she was like, “OK. You wanna know why I stopped coming around? I got so discouraged and dismayed. Like, I was in it, running with ya’ll all of the time and we would go to the high schools but no one gave a fuck! And I thought to myself, ‘If they don’t give a fuck, then why am I here every day putting all this energy into this!?” So I broke it down for her and said something along the lines of “Look that’s real. You look at the world and what’s happening and you see people aren’t doing shit about it and you wanna smash something. And there is a lot of people who do care but are caught up in a lot of bullshit, whether it be the Democrats, or American chauvinism, or doing for self, identity politics or relying on god. Etc.” Basically walking through all the mental shackles that people have as a result of living under this system, and part of what this national tour is out to do is break people out of those mental shackles and bring forth the reality that there is a way out of all this madness and really put revolution on the map. She “mhhm’d” and said “Yes!” to all of the mental shackles I was laying out, especially the one on individualism. I also said how it can be discouraging too when you have a highly developed leadership, science and strategy but you don’t have the masses of people, and how that’s been a setback for quite sometime now mainly because we really haven’t been putting the problems to people and is what we’re set out to change, to save the communist project, and that it’s also not going to change without people like her stepping in. She also asked about plans of action in which I told her about HWCW and the film. I then told her about being a part of bringing this picnic together as part of forging a revolutionary movement to emancipate humanity and she also said she would bring a dish and asked how much and what kind of food. She was really glad I called and said, “You know what, it’s about time I get back into it.”

One of the last guys I talked to was also from Crenshaw/Slauson on that day. He said he had gotten one of our emails or something and watched the clip from BA on the gangs. He really liked the clip and talked about how important leaders like him are and compared him to Zapatista and Pancho Villa, but also explained how when leaders like that die, the movement also dies and how do you keep it going. He also explained how important it is for us to come together because of this and form something new, something like the Democratic Party. He was getting a phone call from his mom, but then I called him back and I explained to him how important it was for him to recognize the necessity of leadership and the leadership he sees in BA and why that’s important because of what BA has done, and then I also got into the role of the Democrats and how all elections under this system and the Democratic Party are “BEB.” When I told him what BEB was, he started laughing and saying, “Oh my gosh teenagers these days with all their lingo and stuff!” I then gave an example how a lot of good-hearted people are into Bernie Sanders even though he says he’s not for open borders and quoted Bernie on what he said recently on why he wasn’t for open borders, and then compared it to Point of Attention number 3 and then asked him what he thought about that. He responded, “Wow that makes me really happy. That makes me really happy that there are people doing something like this. That really brings music to my ears.” He then continued, “Things like this are not just a phase but are a part of your life, we all bleed the same at the end of the day no matter what color we are, we’re all human. My parents are from Mexico and when I was 16 I witnessed my father being taken away by I.C.E. and another time I’ve been held at gunpoint.” I asked if we could record his response to this POA when he’s at the picnic and then he also said he would bring food and be a part of anything the picnic needs to be brought together. He then mentioned, “I work with film and I also do photography, so I’m down if you guys ever want to do a collaboration. I made a documentary on what happens after deportation and I did it on my dad. I made it so I hope that people don’t have to go through what I go through.” I explained how heavy his story was and how millions of people go through that and why, and basically walked through the 5 Stops and how that can’t be reformed under this system and how much of an outrage it is the way that Trump is demonizing and brutalizing immigrants. He told me he’d send the link to the doc (which he did and it was very good) and when the conversation was ending he was like, “Don’t worry I won’t hang up! I want to keep talking to you! We can keep talking!”

 

Challenging People with the 2 Choices

We went to some restaurants yesterday—we summed up the importance of agitation around the “No More Generations” and posing two alternatives... live with all this or make revolution and this potluck being part of that... And then on this basis, people dividing themselves out.

We felt we had to sharpen up these points after people said, “ I donate to a lot of things already.” They were donating to church programs, youth programs, etc. So we did have to delineate why this isn’t just another “stop the violence program” or doing some good things, “we wish you the best...”

The struggle doesn’t have to be on everything but it does have to be around the two choices. Live with all this or make revolution.

Some people who read the flyer about the picnic, were asking, wait what is this?

In other words, I think it makes sense to us. But for other people who read it for the first time; it’s not very clear. Partly because people are in their own frameworks and partly because we don’t enough jolt them out of their frameworks & hit people where they live...

In other words—are the people getting this flyer about the picnic feeling like—damn I have to be there. I am wondering if this agitation about “NO MORE” should be worked into flyer in the headline—“No More Generations” quote, with the two alternatives.

 

 

April 28, 2019 | revcom.us

 

This is the text of the flyer being passed out at the Revolutionary picnic in Los Angeles on Sunday, April 28—and beyond.

The Plan to Advance the Revolution in MAY

Welcome to the National Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour.

If you want to radically change the world... if you want to make revolution... then you are in the right place. Here are some questions and answers.

What problem is the National Revolution Tour trying to solve?

We need a revolution. Any other solution will just keep the same horrors going on. And we have a lot of what we need to make revolution. We have the science, the strategy and really great leadership in Bob Avakian (BA). But we don’t have nearly enough people to really make this revolution known and growing.

We need to organize thousands of people in this next year, from different places and backgrounds. And, millions of people need to know that there is a movement for an actual revolution. To get this going we need to spread the word of this revolution—in big ways and small. When people see the signs of the revolution and the people with the T-shirts representing, that starts to make the possibility of an actual revolution real for millions of people.

This past month, we’ve been learning better how to do this. The Points of Attention are one big way that people learn what this revolution is really all about, start to change what they are about, and get organized. We need to keep doing that. And we need to do more.

How will we go to the next level?

This next month the National Get Organized for an Actual Revolution Tour has a plan.

First, we’ll keep spreading the Points of Attention, the “5 STOPS,” and the new “No More Generations” poster everywhere. We can do this wherever we go.

But we also have plans to do five other big things, which are at the end of this flyer.

At the end of the month, we want to come out with three accomplishments:

1) real impact by the revolution not just in LA but all over the country.

2) many new people organized into the revolution, doing things big and small, including forming and joining Revolution Clubs.

3) real organization in LA with people who are committed on different levels as they move forward in their understanding, continuing to spread the word about the Tour and revolution in many different ways.

The revolution needs everyone who wants a different world—your ideas, your work, your struggle. Together, we can change everything.

 

 

 

 

"Collectively" Making Banana Pudding (!)

April 27, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From someone who is part of the National Revolution Tour

We met a woman who wants to be a part of the revolution. She’s on disability and is going to make banana pudding for the picnic, but does not have the resources or ingredients to make it. So we put the problems to others that we’ve been meeting. We put it to one guy who ran into the grocery store where we were talking to him and brought the aluminum foil. We went to another grocery store and got out the POAs, putting the challenge of the two choices to people. We also brought out a sign with the list of ingredients she needed to make the pudding, and small flyers of the ingredients. We were only out for about an hour, but somebody donated twenty dollars, and another person set down his grocery bags next to us after we talked to him and went back into the store and brought out some sugar and eggs.

There was also a guy next to us who was set up, who worked with a nonprofit for animals. As soon as we came up, he asked what we were about. I showed him the sign of the POAs and told him that were organizing for an actual revolution to put an end to the 5 Stops and that we have two choices, and that we have the leadership and the science, but what’s missing is people like you. When I showed him the Constitution he laughed and said, “Oh my gosh, you guys are for real!” He told us that he was a DACA person from South Korea, and went on talking about the gangs and the oppression of women and how much he admires strong women for what they have to go through. He told us he makes music and poetry so I posed to him, “Do you want to write a poem based on the Points of Attention and come read it at the picnic?” He said, “I knew you were going to ask me that!” And enthusiastically agreed to. After he packed up his stand he came up and stood with us and held the sign of the POAs. He also took part in making a video on suggestions on how to make a pitch to people for donations which we put up on Instagram.