UCLA Showing of REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
Breaking Out with BA Everywhere on Campus
January 13, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
As classes began on January 6, students at UCLA were greeted with flyers, a trailer on the closed circuit TV in the dorms, and a campus electronic billboard ad about the film BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! Bob Avakian Live. There were classroom announcements about the film and the BA Everywhere fundraising campaign. One class was treated to the entire audio clip of BA’s New Year's message “A Call to REVOLUTION” while hundreds others got the printed copy.
On January 9, between 55-60 people attended the second of three screenings of an hour excerpt from the film. A short welcome statement was read by a staff member from one of the campus sponsors.
This film series is a real collaborative effort among members of the staffs of the three sponsors: the UCLA departments of Academic Advancement Program (AAP), the Office of Residential Life (ORL), and Revolution Books, LA. People came to this from different perspectives: some wanting the big ideas about the problem and solution to the outrages in our society and the world that BA represents and speaks about to reach the students; others are more drawn and committed to the content of the film and BA—of the need and basis for communist revolution.
At the showing, there was a good mix of UCLA students and staff, students from two other area campuses, and people from South Central LA who came with Revolution Books and the LA Revolution Club. A couple of the people from South Central had gone out and fliered the campus in their “This system has no future for the youth but the revolution does” and BA Speaks: Revolution—Nothing Less! t-shirts.
A few responses collected from the audience indicate the breadth of views in the room. One UCLA student wrote that “a representative came to my geography class” and s/he came to the showing because of “optimism and curiosity of something I have not thought much about in terms of communism.” Another student wrote that they came off getting a flier and “I, too, am trying to figure out how I can help to make the system (government and economy) better, and I always wanted to learn more.” One wrote they came due to a professor offering extra credit. One of the people from the neighborhood wrote that a relative “is always sharing about the revolution and we share the same interest. I loved the film. I hope to see it all. There is a whole other world out there. I am hungry for answers.”
The audience saw the first hour from the second DVD of the 3-DVD film. The audience learned about the basis for communist revolution in this country and the world at this point in history, and why this was not possible for the oppressed and exploited people in early eras. They heard the chapters where BA speaks on why “a radically different and far better world is possible”; “we need a revolution to overcome all oppressive divisions”; “remind me: ‘which system, capitalism or communism, is the nightmare for humanity?’”; and part of “the election hustle: ‘if they draw you in, they win.’”
Most of the audience stayed for the hour-long Q&A afterwards with a writer for Revolution newspaper and a member of the Revolution Club. The questions were heartfelt and serious. The panel members drew from BAsics: from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian, and made a fund pitch for BA Everywhere.
There was a lot of exchange between the panel and audience about the reality that a small number of the people make it out of the ghetto, but that the vast majority are trapped, and crushed. Animated exchanges took place between the revolutionaries and the audience but also among people in the audience trying to answer each other's questions, with the discussion and debate spilling out into lobby afterwards for another hour.
One UCLA student expressed a certain fear and dismay when looking into the world and the future, and one of the people from South Central responded with the need for everyone to fight for a better world, and calling on him to make a visit to Revolution Books and get into ideas available there.
A question from someone on the UCLA campus touched off a whole round of comments from the panel and others in the room. He asked, how do you reach all the youth in the neighborhoods and in “the life” that he himself is intimately familiar with, and stepped away from? Some students called out that they wanted this question answered.
Someone from South Central, and intimately linked to those youth, spoke about the need to get into and be in the revolution yourself and step to the youth from that vantage point. He described coming from being in "the life" and his own transformation as he began to learn more about the system responsible for the horrible conditions people face. As the discussion continued in the lobby, he continued to expand on how much he learned from BA and the RCP about revolution, and the importance of getting BA Everywhere.
An urgent challenge posed to revolutionaries is how to forge ongoing cores of students that, through encountering this film and the fundraising campaign to get BA Everywhere, become committed to changing the world, and in particular to this movement for revolution—students and others whose thinking is transformed about how the world could be and in turn will take these ideas and transform the world.
This challenge is still in front of us. The attendance at the event was somewhat anticipated given the first week of school, yet inadequate in relation to the goal of getting students and faculty, especially here at UCLA, serious about revolution and communism—and the need to get BA Everywhere. It is something we need to learn more deeply about and lead to transform—about what and HOW the students think about the biggest questions and ANSWERS about the future of humanity—about the need, basis and possibility of revolution.
The first UCLA screening of this film took place in the fall quarter on October 17, and the third one will take place on April 10 in the spring quarter. A more informal follow-up screening will take place on January 23 in room 1224 in Campbell Hall where AAP is housed.
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