Promoting the New Film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live
and Building the Movement for Revolution
February 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Editor’s note: Two correspondences in this issue of Revolution give a living picture of important advances to learn from, and advance off of in making the premiere of the film of a major talk, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! a giant step forward in building a movement for revolution.
These two reports, one from LA, another from a college campus, give a feel for what it means to take out the message REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!—with no apologies. They shed light on what is going on “beneath the surface” in people’s lives and people’s thinking, and the basis and means for getting people out of a lot of illusions about this system, and into revolution. The reports reveal new ground conquered in finding the ways to make the premiere showings of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! everything they need to be—even as there are many more rivers to cross to make that happen.
One thing that stands out in the experiences written up in these reports is that there are no concessions to the bullshit floating around out there that does not address the real situation, and provide a real solution to the horrors this capitalist-imperialist system continues to bring to the vast majority of humanity. Instead, they give a feel for people grounding themselves more and more deeply in serious revolutionary analysis and challenging others to do that. This is not hype—this is real.
All of us need to take up this same orientation and in the same spirit go out to people all over, jumping off the discussion and debate and drawing more people into the movement we are building. And we call on people to take special note: beginning this week, there are promotional materials available for download and printing at revcom.us. Imagine the image that appears on the front page of this issue popping up everywhere, causing people to immediately stop and take notice. Imagine cards circulating in projects and on high school and college campuses, getting out all over certain neighborhoods as store owners and others distribute them, being passed out at concerts and other cultural events and just about any place where people congregate. People all over society should know about this film.
And these reports give a beginning picture of what it means to draw on, and really challenge people to get into—and then get out to others—with the interview Michael Slate did with BA, learning from how BA speaks to everything from conventional wisdom (i.e., conventional bullshit) about “human nature” to a real understanding of what is human liberation, and how is that different from and opposed to views out there that revolution means everyone “doing their own thing” as the ultimate goal, even as only revolution can unleash unprecedented human individuality and creativity.
As a key part of making these premieres a giant step, a big turning point in society where people know about the real revolution, and where a bigger and stronger core is forged to lead the movement for revolution—we have to do much better in working to accomplish the challenge of what communist revolutionaries call “accumulating forces for revolution.”
Here’s a paragraph from “On the Strategy for Revolution” that breaks down what this means:
“All along the way, both in more ‘normal times’ and especially in times of sharp breaks with the ‘normal routine,’ it is necessary to be working consistently to accumulate forces—to prepare minds and organize people in growing numbers—for revolution, among all those who can be rallied to the revolutionary cause. Among the millions and millions who catch hell in the hardest ways every day under this system. But also among many others who may not, on a daily basis, feel the hardest edge of this system’s oppression but are demeaned and degraded, are alienated and often outraged, by what this system does, the relations among people it promotes and enforces, the brutality this embodies.”
And, in many ways at the heart of that, the statement on strategy says:
“To learn from the Chairman of our Party, Bob Avakian, spread the knowledge and influence of his pathbreaking leadership, and defend and protect this rare and precious leader. Bob Avakian has dedicated his life since the 1960s to the cause of revolution and communism. While providing practical leadership to the Party and the revolutionary movement, he has deeply studied and summed up the world historical experience of the communist revolution and the socialist societies it has brought into being—the great achievements and the serious problems and errors—and has studied many other fields of human experience and knowledge. He has advanced the science of communism and made decisive breakthroughs in the theory, method, and strategy of revolution and the final goal of communism throughout the world. It is crucial for growing numbers of people to know about and study his talks and writings...to defend and protect him...to take up the leadership he is providing, which opens new pathways for revolution.”
The challenge to solve out in the communities, on campuses and beyond is to do both of these things—accumulate forces for revolution, and get into BA—in a way that creates a dynamic force that is growing in strength and substance. Right on the spot: active involvement and simultaneous engagement with BA’s works! And as this happens building all the time for a wide range of people—from the neighborhoods to the campuses and beyond—to be in the house for these premieres.
We have to, for instance, find ways for them to listen to and spread Bob Avakian’s Revolution talk (available on DVD and at revcom.us/avakian). In 2003, BA delivered this historic talk in the U.S., and it is a wide-ranging revolutionary journey full of heart and soul that breaks down the very nature of the society we live in, and how humanity has come to a time when a radically different society is possible. You’ll find that video, and a whole pathway into BA’s work, at revcom.us/avakian.
There needs to be a vibrant, dynamic back and forth, on every level, between “out to the masses” with the revolution and “get into BA” on many levels, in many ways.
IMPORTANT: Revolution wants to hear about what you are doing—the advances, but also the obstacles you encounter, your thinking on how to overcome these, and ideas that are sparked by what you are reading here from others involved in this, and at revcom.us. Send reports to revolution.reports@yahoo.com.
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