Spread the Cornel West Interview with BA Far and Wide
December 9, 2012 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In early October, the revolution went out in a big way over the airwaves when the Smiley & West radio show on PRI (Public Radio International) aired an interview that Cornel West did with Bob Avakian.
The impact of this concentrated 30-minute introduction to BA on broad swaths of society needs to be multiplied thousands of times. And let’s especially go deeply into the neighborhoods, gathering spots, and workplaces of those who catch hell every day in this society and spread and discuss this interview. This interview is sharp and wide-ranging, challenging and inspiring. Cornel West engages with Bob Avakian in an interview which gives a living sense of this leader and the work he is and has been doing over decades. There really is a viable vision and strategy for a radically new, and much better, society and world, and there is the leadership that is needed to carry forward the struggle toward that goal. The warm, heartfelt introduction by West and his thoughtful questions open the door to listeners to really check BA out if they haven’t before, or to get deeper into him if they have.
Getting this exchange broadly out into society, and fundraising as we do so, is critical to letting people all over this country and the world know about and connect with Bob Avakian.
As part of the holiday plans already in process, and at the center of those: now is the time to get this interview out all over the place—and raise money to project BA Everywhere throughout society at every turn! Envision this campaign growing in waves as people listen to this interview and then spread it further. Think about how linking up with BA’s voice can not only begin to open people’s eyes to the actual source of the horrors we face but to a whole other way the world can be. Through all this and more, imagine how a radically different pole can be planted, opening up minds and sparking conversations about the “big questions” over the direction of society... and contributing toward making BA a household name.
- Organize listening sessions among your family and friends, co-workers and others. After you have engaged with this leader, help to spread the campaign further. And raise money and distribute palm cards with the quote of the month (see centerspread) as you do. You can be part of this effort wherever you are—and whether you are familiar with BA’s vision and work or are just beginning to learn about this. Spreading the BA quotes through getting out stacks of palm cards (as well as putting up Revolution posters and via the Internet and social media) can make a real difference.
- Play and discuss the interview wherever you go: on campuses, in coffee houses, laundromats, barber and beauty shops, school cafeterias and dorms—and more.
- Get independent and college radio stations to rebroadcast the West interview with BA, with attribution to the PRI Smiley &West Show. It is available for download at revcom.us and smileyandwest.com. Permission has been given by the original radio show for it to be picked up and broadcast all over.
- Send it out to your e-lists.
- Post links to the interview on blogs, Twitter, and other social media to extend the reach and impact of the interview.
Revolution newspaper and the BA Everywhere campaign want your ideas for many more ways for this interview to reach throughout society and for maximizing its impact. And we want to learn about the buzz being generated by this interview: the discussion and controversy it is touching off and what people are asking about. Write to us at revolution.reports@yahoo.com and baeverywhere@gmail.com.
Here’s a sample of what people are saying:
“I want to tell you that I listened to the Bob Avakian tape with Cornel West. What struck me most was Avakian’s direct and clear analysis, which seems, at once, to be both obvious and rare! It’s like a good poem: Avakian makes you see the world that you know—because you live in it every day—in a way you never clarified for yourself. You are lost in the fog of the capitalist bullshit, the fog of spin and lies. I found myself saying, Of course! Ah, that’s what I knew all along, but I never had the courage and the clean thinking to recognize or articulate the simple facts. I also like very much hearing Avakian’s actual voice, which is warm, human, and colloquial. Finally, I esteem him because, as West pointed out, Avakian never gave up on his youth, on the sixties, on his vision, thinking, ideals, and commitment—a commitment not just to dreaming, but to enacting those dreams with real people, suffering hard lives at the hands of a cynical and greed-ridden culture. He claims the honorable place of all oppressed people.”
—From an attorney on the West Coast
“It’s superb and informative and done in a manner that everybody could understand what is being said by both of the participants. It gets 5 stars from me.”
—Richard Brown,
former Black Panther Party member and co-founder of The Committee for the Defense
of Human Rights, founded by the SF8
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