We received this letter reflecting on some work taking out the BA Everywhere Campaign

Learning and Changing Our Approach

 March 25, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us 

From a reader:

We’ve had some important experience in reaching out to people who came to the premiere of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! or who have seen the film, or parts of the film, in the last year since it premiered. We’ve also worked at changing our approach in significant ways and this has had an impact – and we’re learning a lot more about the people we’re reaching out to in the process.

One thing we did is break out of a more passive approach to this outreach. For example, there’s a progressive religious center in a more oppressed neighborhood where the movement for revolution knows a lot of people and a number of people have seen the film. Instead of calling them one by one, we’ve gone there consistently over the last few weeks and talked with people in person about the BA Everywhere campaign, while also reaching out to people who have seen the movement for revolution or heard of BA (Bob Avakian), but themselves have never gotten more into what it’s about. While the people we spoke to got particularly excited about the 1,000 Years /$1,000 Days focus in May [This is a fund raising project working with ex-prisoners, the families of prisoners, and people in the neighborhoods to raise a dollar for the BA Everywhere campaign for each year they or their loved ones were or are still incarcerated. These funds will be utilized to get BAsics into the prisons and as "seed money" to spread the work of BA into the prisons on an ongoing basis. Read about it in an article on BA Everywhere Spring plans here.], we also talked with them about this film and the importance of BA Everywhere as a national campaign to raise major funds and the role this weekend [March 27-30 national fundraising weekend for the campaign] can play – bringing people together over the same few days to have a big impact and raise serious funds for BA Everywhere. The discussion about this went on in the midst of getting into who BA is and the significance of his work. A couple people were particularly inspired by the significance of the fight to emancipate all humanity instead of one group above others.

When the only way we have to reach someone is by phone, we’ve really changed how we’re stepping to people and this has led to having a very different kind of discussion. We’re not just routinely calling to invite someone “to the next thing” but really conveying the content and importance of what this is about. We shouldn’t panic or jack people up, but there’s no time in the world for being routine – millions of people are suffering because of the workings of this system and this can be changed through revolution. BA has brought forward the theoretical framework for what’s needed to understand and fundamentally and radically change all this – the new synthesis of communism and a strategic approach to making revolution. People need to know about him and his work... and people knowing about it on a major, societal scale and raising the funds to do so, can really change things in big, big ways. And they have a role to play through contributing with their funds, their participation and their creativity all while they’re deepening their engagement with BA’s whole body of work.

This sounds kind of silly, but we had to think about it like we’re not just calling “a list” but real people – people who, at one point, were compelled to get into this film about “REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS!,” people who were moved in some way by this but who haven’t jumped in in the ways needed to be part of making this known... we need to learn from the contradictions in their thinking, what they’re thinking, how they’re thinking and the assumptions that underlie all that and struggle with them – in a good way – to see the contradictions between their thinking and what is true and on that basis, what is needed and what they should do in relation to this.

Here’s a couple examples:

- We called a young Latino guy in his late 20s who came to the premiere. He said he really liked the film because BA exposed all the lies told in our society. He’s come to Revolution Books a couple times since then and said he’s intended to get more involved but hasn’t. Instead of stepping over this, we asked why not. He said there’s both a lack of motivation on his part, but also personal difficulties he’s run into. But it also became clear through the discussion – and through asking him questions – that he doesn’t scientifically understand that the problem is the whole system of capitalism/imperialism and what the actual strategy for revolution is. He said he thinks the problem is the media because it makes people think along the lines of this society. He’s right about that, and it is a big problem, but it took some discussion to get into what that flows from. In terms of the solution, he said he thought revolution – or just a really big change (and he used the words interchangeably) would happen over a period of time through a whole range of efforts. He gave the analogy of a big giant monster that we needed to topple – it would take all of us going at different parts of the monster until one day, he would just fall over. We said we didn’t that was the right way to understand what a revolution is and we compared this analogy to what a real revolution is and drew from the New Year’s statement from BA about the reality of revolution and the need to be working on this now, to be “hastening while awaiting,” and not just “waiting for one fine day.” But also linked this to the role he had to play – getting into revcom.us, spreading what’s on there, being part of fighting the power, and – the reason for the call – being part of this BA Everywhere campaign this coming weekend.

We explained that this BA Everywhere campaign is the leading edge of a whole revolutionary ensemble right now, what that means and why that is. When we got down to talk about how he could contribute, he said he wasn’t really sure. Some of his friends were more aware, but not as into political stuff as he was. He said he didn’t think it made sense to do a house party but he would want to come to something. We also told him about the different kinds of ways people participating, including the idea of a “revolutionary change” jar where you ask people to contribute their change jars to something much bigger – revolutionary change – and this, happening with people like them all across the country – would add up to a much bigger impact. His voice kind of lit up at this and he said, “Oh, I could do that.” We also asked him for a personal contribution and he said he was really broke right now and having to work all the time to make ends meet. We talked again though about what has to be accomplished through this BA Everywhere campaign, and why. And then talked about how people are contributing from all different levels – people who can give tens of thousands of dollars, and people who can give tens of dollars. That whatever people do matters because it’s all bigger than any one person or even any one city. He would be joining with people all across the country and building community as we do. After this, he said he thought he could do something like $10 and we emphasized again that this would really matter. Finally, we invited him to the screening and discussion of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! and the fundraising dinner on Sunday, both of which he said he would be at. We’ll see where this goes but the discussion itself made a difference, and changed how he was seeing this as a “generally important political movement” instead of the real substance of the urgency and how we need to be having an impact now – working within a real strategy for revolution.

- We spoke with a middle-aged Chicano man who had come to a screening at a city library where we showed four hours of the film. He was moved by it because he felt he really connected to what BA was saying. He didn't articulate more than that, but through the discussion, we asked him if he’s talked to friends or others about the film or shown it to others as this was part of what was needed to accomplish the goals of the BA Everywhere campaign. He said he hadn’t because there’s not a lot of people who want to talk about these things and feels that when he tries, they are just not interested. We asked him if he knew why they were not interested, do they give any reasons for this? He paused and said he didn’t really know and had never actually asked them. We asked if he thinks this because they are okay with or don’t really care about the outrages in the world or is it because they think things are fucked up, but don’t think you can do anything about it, so why even bother talking? We said if it's really the former, he shouldn't waste his time. But if it's the latter, that's the basis for a conversation. He again paused and said he'd never thought about it that way, that that was a really good point. We then got more into the mission of the BA Everywhere Campaign and he said he would talk about the film and the BA Everywhere campaign with friends of his and he's considering making a contribution himself. We won't go on more here about this specific example, but wanted to bring it in here because it showed the importance of really exploring the contradictions with people.

Relatedly, though it didn't come up on this call, we've also joined a lot of struggle with people about not proceeding on the basis of what people think but based on what is true. A lot of people say they're interested but don't think there's a basis for BA Everywhere or even for revolution because everyone else disagrees. This isn't true, and it's the wrong way to understand reality. With a few people, we have gotten into BAsics 4:11: "What people think is part of objective reality, but objective reality is not determined by what people think." We've talked about what's wrong with a “populist epistemology” in opposition to proceeding scientifically.

There are a lot of other examples but we won’t go on.

We’ve also come to appreciate the work we have to do with people who are themselves involved more in the BA Everywhere campaign to enable them to take this out to others. The letters and articles at revcom.us have been important, but you also need to take the time to talk with people more deeply. For example, there’s an active committee member who’s been wanting to have a house party for a while, but hesitated to raise it to people she knows because she wasn’t sure how they’d respond. It took some more discussion with her about why this mattered and how to go about it. It turned out, people were quite enthusiastic with people themselves throwing in different ideas about how to go about it, how they can play a role in building for it – even as they’re figuring out what all they think of this – and how it can really contribute to raising the funds needed for BA Everywhere. Another active supporter who wanted to host an event, needed some collectivity to work through logistical difficulties and they came up with a creative idea of having a small picnic joined with going to an art show. At the picnic, they would show parts of the film and listen to BA's New Year’s statement on a computer and the host will talk about why he’s contributed to the BA Everywhere campaign and encourage others to do so as well.

And all this really is still just scratching the surface...

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