Setting up literature tables in a Latino district market plaza
March 10, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On a sunny Saturday, we set up literature tables in a Latino district market plaza. With plenty of displays about the film and photo displays with BAsics quotes, we got on the bullhorn in Spanish and English, using the editorial (Revolution #294) as a guideline.
Some more serious type people were attracted than others to the film announcement and to the voice of BA being interviewed by Cornel West coming out of a boom box. One woman, M (a young Latina college student), stuck with our crew passing out flyers of the editorial. And later she joined us for an on-the-spot Revolution Club meeting at a nearby taqueria to listen to one section of Michael Slate’s interview with BA—it was about the strategy for revolution. This young woman paid a lot of attention listening, and responded that revolution is not a crazy idea.
On Sunday, it was real slow in the hood ... even the churches didn’t generate much foot traffic. With growing forces in mind, we decided to try and set up another Revolution Club meeting at a fish place, calling up our most recent contacts. M responded right away and joined us promptly as we ate some catfish nuggets. It became very clear that she had been thinking a lot about what BA was saying and about what this film meant.
Right away, she wanted to know what the RCP’s concept of revolution was. It was both a question of strategy, but also of wanting to know why the world was the way it was with the 2 outmodeds and whatnot. (She was also concerned about the NDAA, and what that was all about.) Just a few pages into a copy of BAsics’ statement on strategy, and she bought the book as well as the Cornel West/BA CD. We showed her the BA Everywhere dvd with the BAsics bus tour; and after watching BA speak in three different time periods, she remarked " He’s REALLY good." Several topics came up off of reading the editorial (women’s abuse, children dying in the third world, etc); but the destruction of the environment caught her attention, especially since her boyfriend is involved in environmental studies. She was grappling with the fact that destruction of the environment was "irrational," that you "can’t eat money" (a Native American saying) when the environment is destroyed; and yet capitalism is showing more and more that it has NO REAL solution because of its anarchy of production and profit in command.
After discussing all these, we made sure to return to the premiere. (We didn’t want to miss this point, which we sometimes did in our outings—discussing with people about the concept embodied in the three words "REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!" while forgetting to get into the film itself.) She said she definitely would clear her schedule for the premiere and she also decided on the spot that she would invite her boyfriend to the film as well as other relatives. We told her to use the editorial in explaining this film to others. And we invited her to join our next outing.
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