Walking The Distance To Change The World…
March 26, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
A few days ago, ten people got together in an oppressed neighborhood in our city, including people who are in a regular Revolution newspaper reading circle, ex-prisoners, a woman for whom this was the first time she had come to such a meeting, a couple of Revolution Club members and others. The gathering got into plans for the movement for revolution in the coming weeks – resisting mass incarceration, the April 11-12 actions against the attacks on abortion rights – and, the BA Everywhere Campaign March 27-30 weekend focus on showing the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live and raising funds to get this film and BA's leadership of this movement for revolution way out into the world in a big way, because all of these outrages that oppress people every day will only be solved with revolution.
People got into all kinds of questions, like whether in resisting mass incarceration, a distinction is made between those unjustly imprisoned and those who have committed violent crimes; and are the prisons big business. One of the ex-prisoners was told by a young teenager who was at the premiere of the film REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! last year, that when he gets the film he "should watch the whole thing at one time." Another former prisoner who came late after walking miles to get there, spoke about how hard it is for an ex-con to get work, a place to stay, just to keep his head above water. We talked about why things are this way for so many people, and that because of what BA has developed in the new synthesis of communism, things do not have to be this way. When the Stop Patriarchy action in April against the attacks on abortion rights came up, a woman who was at her first meeting with the movement for revolution said, "I'm with you 100% on that" and another woman who joined later also expressed similar sentiments. We used quotes from BA's book BAsics to get into these questions.
People at this gathering decided to join the national weekend focus for BA Everywhere fundraising this coming Saturday, with part of the funds going for REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! T-shirts for high school students, so young people wearing the shirts will have a real visible impact in schools and the community. Then, on Saturday afternoon, people will come together and bring others to a viewing of part of the BA Speaks: REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live film in the neighborhood.
This past Sunday, March 23rd, during the social hour at a large church in this area, we passed out a short flyer calling on people to contribute to sponsor REVOLUTION-NOTHING LESS! T-shirts for high school and middle-school youth. We had the RNL T-shirts to display, and the youngest member of our crew wore the T-shirt. The flyer featured a drawing of the T-shirt and a quote from a young Latina after seeing the film about the impact of seeing the REVOLUTION – NOTHING LESS! film.
By the end of the social hour, we raised $43.00. One woman spoke passionately about how since the 60s, the system has left no choice but the underground economy for Black and Latino youth, with the education system a disaster. Another woman immediately pulled out $10 upon hearing the quote from the young Latina woman, and also bought a REVOLUTION-NOTHING LESS! DVD. There were people there active in different social movements -- focused on ending poverty, banning fracking, corruption, and AIDS in Africa; several expressed eagerness to see the film and a number of them gave contact information.
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