Revolution #275, July 22, 2012
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Make a Big Difference in the World
When you think of New York, what do you think of?
Do you think of the tall gleaming buildings where finance capitalists determine the fates of thousands and even millions with a single click of a mouse?
Or Times Square, where thousands from around the world rub shoulders with people in from the neighborhoods on a Friday night, surrounded by huge flashing screens of commercials, walking past the Broadway shows—right near the porn shops and strip bars?
Do you think of Harlem “after hours,” the birthplace of bebop... or the burnt-out, stomped-down South Bronx, the cradle of hip-hop? The East Village where punk was king... the Beats before them... or tomorrow’s next big thing? The peoples from every corner of the world looking for a change, bringing the pulse of languages, rhythms, foods, and styles in a glorious stew... and sometimes mixing it up and making something new?
Or does the face of Amadou Diallo come to mind—an immigrant in a strange land, reaching for his wallet in his doorway, and then falling in a hail of 41 bullets coming from four hair-trigger cops on a spring night in the Bronx?
Did you hear about the Father’s Day march last month where thousands marched against stop-and-frisk... the sit-ins and arrests last fall against the same racist police tactic... and the seething anger against the endless humiliation and abuse beginning right now to find voice and expression?
Do you remember Occupy, taking root last fall in the steel canyons of Wall Street? The defiance from Stonewall to ACT-UP that shook things loose? The student uprising at Columbia in 1968, the rebellions in Harlem before that? Malcolm X on the corner at 125th? What goes down here reverberates.
Whatever comes to mind, know this: the BAsics Bus Tour is right now smack in the middle of all of this, bringing to people the liberating vision and works and leadership of Bob Avakian, letting people know about the revolution that needs to and can be made, and giving them real ways to get into this and be part of it. It’s gonna be in the neighborhoods on the deep bottom of society... it’s gonna mix it up in the schools and the artistic scenes... and it’s gonna break through the clamor and hustle and attitude. There’s two busloads this time... from the South, from the West, from New York itself... “old hands” and “youngbloods” and in between—all primed to bring a fresh REVOLUTIONARY energy into the hot summer mix of the Big Apple.
If you saw the video of the bus tour in the South—and if you didn’t, then go right now to basicsbustour.tumblr.com!—you’ll get a sense of the difference this can make.
Give your money... and let THIS be the next thing that reverberates out of New York...
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