Cupcake Fundraiser for BA Everywhere:

Involving People, Having Fun
and Meeting Our $1000 Goal

 March 27, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us 

From members of a Revolution Club:

In the month of December the Revolution Club set a goal to raise $1,000 for the BA Everywhere campaign by doing a series of fundraising projects (like selling chocolates and tamales and doing a picnic). We fundraised more than half of our goal in that same month, but we wanted to accomplish our $1,000 goal. To fight through on meeting our goal we decided to make cupcakes with the theme of International Women’s Day and BAsics 3:22. With this project, we did it, raising $1,059!

In making and selling the cupcakes we learned a great deal from the fundraising done by the Harlem-Bronx BA Everywhere team.

We made a plan to go out to several places, including an arts academy and a Black spiritual group. And very importantly we discussed this among ourselves—for example the Revolution Club got together before making the cupcakes to discuss BAsics quotes 1:10 (PDF link) and 3:22 (PDF link) and to talk about the BA Everywhere campaign. In talking about these quotes, people brought in examples of how women are degraded, raped and killed, here and all over the world -- and people brought in very personal experiences of this. We ended up spending some time talking about what is meant by the sentence in BAsics 3:22, “The oppression of women is completely bound up with the division of society into masters and slaves, exploiters and exploited, and the ending of all such conditions is impossible without the complete liberation of women.”

A team of three young revolutionaries went to the arts academy and talked to a woman who works there about International Women’s Day, the BA Everywhere Campaign and who BA is. She told us she had been a member of the Black Panther Party back in the day. Initially she seemed to be sympathetic but dismissive—like saying, “been there, done that.” We struggled with her about the fact that the one thing that wasn’t done back then was making “all-the-way revolution” and that remains to be done—that today we have the leadership for this revolution with BA and the Party he leads. She suggested we don’t use the word communism because people have another idea of what communism is (and because people think communism didn’t work). One of the young revolutionaries used the same example BA uses in his talk, BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less!, where he says that if you go around calling it something else people are still going to find out this is what you are talking about except you changed the name—and more importantly you will end up lying to people and also end up yourself being about something else. Then she talked about the previous revolutions and “what about all the people that died under Stalin’s leadership?” The same younger revolutionary responded by saying that those previous experiences in the Soviet Union and China were very liberating, but yes they did have flaws and BA has studied those previous experiences and developed a new synthesis of communism. The woman was very happy to hear there is someone that has taken the time to study those experiences and developed something new.

At the end, we left her with an issue of Revolution newspaper and a CD which contains Cornel West's interview with BA, BA’s New Year’s Message, and BA’s piece “All Played Out.” She was very excited to read Revolution newspaper after she read the title “Break the Chains! Unleash the Fury of Women as a Mighty Force for Revolution!” She also said she was happy to see young people involved and doing something meaningful and she told us to come back after we make the cupcakes to sell them there — which we did! She liked knowing that inviting us to fundraise there with the cupcakes was a form of involvement in the movement for revolution and said we should consider the conversation we’ve begun “to be continued.”

Making the cupcakes was also a very great experience. We enlisted a friend of one of the Revolution Club members, a young woman who likes to bake cupcakes. She taught everyone else how to do it and we baked and decorated the cupcakes all together, while listening to music, talking about different things and overall having a very good time. Part of what made it so fun was being able to further break down differences between people – of nationality, age, gender, and experience. In talking about quote 3:22, a former prisoner said this quote is especially relevant for prisoners, many of whom feel the system is against them and want to get free from the situation it has put them in, but have a lot of hatred towards women. The young woman who taught us to make the cupcakes was brand new to the movement for revolution, but attracted to what we were saying about the oppression of women and the need to change that. She learned a lot about who BA is and what the movement for revolution was about. She read quote 1:10 and 3:22, and listened to BA’s New Year’s Message. She talked about how she hates the gender roles in her family, how one brother enjoys cooking but her family members judge him because it’s not “manly” for a man to cook, while her other brother doesn’t do any cooking or cleaning for himself and expects the women to do everything. Later, a few of us talked more before going to sell cupcakes and had a more personal discussion about how to have new kinds of intimate relationships that reflect new relations between men and women.

A team of two revolutionaries took the cupcakes out to a Black spiritual group. We were allowed to make an announcement at the end of the service. We went up and talked about the BA Everywhere campaign and IWD, read BAsics quote 3:22, and announced the cupcake sale and invited people to come talk to us after. We noticed a lot of people nodding in agreement and excited to hear what we had to say. Afterwards, we set up with the cupcakes and several people came up to talk to us, buy cupcakes and donate. One man had been to the premiere of BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! last year and said he agreed with what BA says and thinks many more people should be watching this film and growing the movement for revolution. He asked the revolutionaries questions he gets from people about the revolution, like if we stand up won’t they just crush us, and wanted to know where he could find BA’s thinking on those questions – so we pointed him to the sections in the film on the “strategy for revolution” and “could we really win…really?” And we talked with him about the BA Everywhere campaign and how this is part of building a movement for revolution now, and we made plans with him to show the film to others. Another woman donated money and said, in response to the quote we read in our announcement, “I agree with you guys, I watch the international news and I see this shit happen to women, not just here but all over the world. This needs to stop!” She also said, “not only does this happen all over the world, it happens right here” and she swept her arm around to indicate she was talking about right here at this place and among this grouping of people. She told us defiantly, “I get in these relationships and some of these men say: I want my woman to do this or that, and I tell them: we already went through slavery. I’m not getting on that auction block again!” When we told her about the plans to show BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! she said she definitely wanted to learn more and gave a way to get back to her.

As a part of developing a sense of community we are going to be notifying everyone that was involved in this effort to let them know that we reached our goal and that they were a big part of making that happen! And we are making plans to build on all of this further so that the BA Everywhere campaign takes a leap and BA becomes known in every corner of the globe because it matters to the emancipation of all humanity.

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