Organizing Conferences First Week of June

Summer 2013: Taking BA Everywhere, Raising Funds and Making a Difference

May 26, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

To all who are fed up—who just can’t look the other way when thousands who make our clothes are crushed or burned to death in Bangladesh; when U.S. drones incinerate people across the planet; when women are degraded, brutalized and their fundamental right to control their own bodies is taken away; and when millions of Black and Latino youth are locked away for decades and tortured in U.S. prisons ... to all who wish and dream that life and the world could be another way, there is a campaign for you to take up this summer that will make a very big difference. Come to a conference near you on the weekend of June 1 and find out how you can be a part of wrangling to forge exciting plans to raise big funds to spread the work and leadership of Bob Avakian—BA—far and wide this summer, from deep into the hoods and barrios, to music and theater festivals, wealthy vacation areas, and many other places.

This is the BA Everywhere Campaign—a campaign to make a big difference in the political landscape by taking out BA and the whole vision and framework he has developed for bringing into being a radically better world through revolution—raising serious funds so that this can really be known throughout society. Be part of reaching out to and involving lots of different kinds of people—giving them an opportunity to contribute to an unprecedented movement. As we do this, “The whole social and political culture will ‘breathe’ more freely, people will wrangle passionately over ‘big questions’ concerning the direction of society (like knowing that much of the future of humanity hangs in the balance) and the times will once again resonate with big dreams for fundamental change and the emancipation of humanity,” as we wrote in the editorial launching BA Everywhere (Revolution #249, November 6, 2011).

This summer launches new efforts that build on the first 18 months of the BA Everywhere Campaign—efforts that need to grow as more and more people, beginning with you, get involved on different levels. A summer of experimenting with creative ways of reaching people, developing new collective forms as we do so—building organization and capacity to have even greater impact as we go forward into the fall and winter.

At the heart of this summer’s BA Everywhere campaign will be the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live. If you haven’t seen this film yet, check out the DVD or go to showings going on in different cities. You’ll see that the power and potential of this film to change people is enormous. People feel the connection with BA. The intolerableness of this system and the hope for really radical change is opened up; their understanding of the world and potential for fundamental change through revolution is deepened. Those who have seen it say: “People really need to see this.” Adding to the personal connection made through BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live, we will be widely promoting BAsics from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, which concentrates the essentials of the work of BA. Together these two works provide a powerful foundation of what people need to understand and change the world—the handbook for revolution of our time, and BA himself, up close, delivering a scientific, substantive summoning to revolution.

This summer the faultlines of the system will be tightly drawn—mass incarceration, the intensified oppression of women, the despoliation of the environment, and continuing U.S. wars in the Middle East—all sharpening and setting the stage for bringing out the vision, work and leadership of BA.

In this context, including for those unfolding struggles to really contribute to a movement for revolution, BA Everywhere is essential. BA has said that the BA Everywhere Campaign “is a key element of influencing millions of people now: getting the concept of this revolution and the scientific grounding underneath it, in a basic sense, out to millions, so millions of people are encountering it, so that people are debating it very broadly in society—so it’s a point of reference.... the new synthesis of communism and what that represents is being engaged and debated broadly in society—some people agree, some people disagree, some people say, I like some of this and some not—but they’re actually engaging what it is, the substance of it, at least in its very basic contours.” (From What Humanity Needs: Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism. An Interview with Bob Avakian by A. Brooks)

All of those who want to see BA and what he represents much more out there in society can be a part of this. Those who already see, or are coming to see, their life mission as making revolution and emancipating all of humanity should be at the core of this, while enabling and bringing forward many more people broadly to participate in a range of ways. This takes place in the context of a whole movement for revolution being much more out in the thick of things, leading increasing numbers of people in fighting the power in different ways. Running through all these efforts will be going out broadly to places and events where many people can be reached, to raise big funds to promote and popularize BA and what he has brought forward.

The BA Everywhere summer mini-conferences on the weekend of June 1 will be a chance to wrestle with how to make a national impact—how to raise the kinds of funds that will make it possible to reach millions. Exciting plans will be announced and dug into. The summer campaign will unfold and go forward in phases, starting with lots of grassroots fundraising work that has already begun and building momentum in the coming months.

The conferences will run for an afternoon and should involve many different people, from youth and others from the neighborhoods, to students, artists and professionals. Organizers should draw on and reach out to all those who have responded to BA Everywhere over the first 18 months: to the celebration of the publication of BAsics on April 11, 2011, including all who contributed to the film of that event which will be coming out in September 2013; to the BAsics Bus Tour; to the premieres of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!—as well as the many people we know and have met through our ongoing work with the Revolution Clubs, the Revolution Books stores and Revolution newspaper. All these people are an initiating foundation to inspire and build on, forging cores from which to reach out and grow.

Stay tuned to revcom.us for more information on BA Everywhere Summer 2013 and check with your local Revolution Books for information on the time and place of for the conference near you.

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