Dinner & Conversation to Engage the Dialogue

January 21, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

It was a late Sunday afternoon. Eleven people got together in the private back room of a restaurant for a Dinner & Conversation, taking as the jumping-off point a half-hour excerpt from the video of the Dialogue Between Cornel West and Bob Avakian (BA) on “Revolution and Religion: The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion.”

This was a VERY diverse group. The first person to speak proudly proclaimed he is "a liberal." Another is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). A third loves Noam Chomsky and is more anarchist-leaning. There was a 95-year-old man who was an anti-fascist fighter in Europe in his youth, and his wife has been active in radical causes for decades and traveled to Central America during the period of U.S. support for government death squads against the people. There was a Black woman who grew up in Jamaica, a woman from Mexico City, two Chicanas who grew up in this city. And there were two veteran revolutionaries.

The invitation was signed by one of the revolutionaries and a retired Black city worker who had contributed to the southern leg of the BAsics Bus Tour in 2013 and the Dialogue, and has watched BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, even while continuing to argue that there could never be a revolution because the masses of people will never raise themselves up from their video games and me-first mentality. The invitation said the group would be diverse, there would be lots of room for discussion and debate, and to come with an open heart and a desire for a better world—and that is what brought this group together. The people invited also brought along others—a wife, a sister, two friends.

We went around the table after the excerpt from the Dialogue, asking each person to introduce themselves and comment on the video. The liberal started by saying he didn’t like BA or Cornel West, thought they were demagogues pushing their own religion, and that what was needed was involving people in fighting for slow, steady reform. The DSA member said that Cornel West was an honorary chairperson of the DSA and the Dialogue was really between the DSA and the RCP, but that he had also listened to the whole Dialogue ahead of the dinner and did not disagree with anything that BA said. The woman from Jamaica liked the Cornel West she saw in the Dialogue better than the Cornel West she saw in the mainstream media and really appreciated what she heard from BA, saying all this would keep her grounded in her work with youth and that she was looking forward to watching the whole Dialogue. Others talked about the horrible state of the world and how much they appreciated the excerpt because it posed the question of finding a way for this to change.

And then the conversation sort of exploded in every direction you can imagine.

There was lots of discussion about religion and spirituality. Some who came are atheists or agnostics and don't put their faith in god, while others agreed with BA’s criticism of the Bible but also describe themselves as Christians. Everyone condemned the religious fanaticism in the world, from the Middle East to the pro-U.S. religious fascists right here in this country, but there was also a lot of controversy about what could be done to stop them, and the woman from Mexico noted that huge numbers of Americans don't even believe in basic science, like the theory of evolution. As part of this, we wrestled with whether people are inherently self-centered and narrow-minded, or whether they can be won to stand against all oppression and care about the future of everyone in society.

The question of whether to approach problems from "America out" or from "the whole world comes first" kept coming up in all kinds of ways. The people who came are deeply concerned about the state of the world—the Ebola crisis and how so little is being done to help the people of West Africa, the U.S. wars and drone attacks, and see how this is strengthening the hold of Islamic fundamentalism, the fact that most people in the world live on less that $2 a day. Yet there was a kind of disconnect between that and the solutions people were raising. There was sober discussion and acknowledgement when it was pointed out that trying to figure out how to narrow the gap between rich and poor in this country without looking at how the source of the wealth is ultimately the exploitation of poor people and poor countries all over the world ends up supporting the continuing lopsidedness in the world that they all condemn.

In the midst of all this, one of the revolutionaries who had been to China in the early 1970s when it was still a revolutionary socialist country talked very concretely about what genuine socialism was like, how it radically changed people's lives as part of supporting revolution all over the world. He gave examples of what went on among students and workers and peasants during the Cultural Revolution when millions transformed the living standards of the vast majority while wrestling with how to keep revolutionizing society. He talked about how the revolution did not "fail" in China, but rather how it was overthrown by those like the current rulers of China who wanted to go back to capitalism and all the suffering and inequalities that has meant in the China of today. And he concretely answered many of the lies and distortions about the history of communist revolution, while at the same time discussing some of the key lessons BA has summed up about that experience and how to do even better the next time.

We got the sense from the breadth of this group and the enthusiasm of the discussion that the recent explosion of protest against police brutality and murder has shaken things loose in people’s thinking. At the same time, the crimes elsewhere in the world—from the disappearance of the 43 students in Mexico and the nationwide protest there, to the continuing war on women's fundamental rights all over the world, to the growing environmental crisis and the fact that the powers-that-be seem to do nothing about it—are heightening people's sense that something needs to be done about it, and many are considering whether it will take a revolution to do so.

Even those with worked out points of view, like the liberal who argued passionately that anything that leads people away from voting for the Democrats will just make things much worse, are trying to figure out why the world is filled with so much oppression and suffering and how to end it. He relished the contest of ideas in the room and in certain ways was compelled to be there because the Dialogue challenges people to live up to their own morality, and because BA in particular challenges people to look at the world as it really is, scientifically, and presents a vision of a society that is radically different and better.

We did a pitch to raise funds to make a film of the Dialogue, drawing on people’s own excitement about the conversation we were having and asking people to think about what difference it could make if this was replicated throughout society—if the questions discussed by Cornel West and BA and the answers they were wrangling over got out everywhere, and how broadly promoting the Dialogue was one key way to do exactly that. Everyone took pledge cards. One gave a small donation on the spot and said she'd give more once she got paid. A couple others said they would go online and contribute. One of the Chicanas who knows another person that was invited but decided not to attend said she'd contact him and tell him how much he'd missed.

And we need to get back to everyone who attended to learn more deeply what they thought of the evening and the video excerpts, to encourage them to watch (or re-watch) the entire Dialogue, to think about everyone else they knew who should see it, and to financially contribute themselves and work together with us to figure out who else could be approached around this.

* * * * *

There has been some controversy about whether the Dialogue really can reach all kinds of people with all sorts of political ideas and programs, or if it can't get much beyond those who already agree that only revolution can solve the problems of the world. The experience of the dinner showed just how broadly we can and need to go, how so many different kinds of people are being compelled to step outside their normal ways of looking at the world to engage with revolution and communism.

At the end of the dinner, there were hugs all around, even with people who did not know each other before the evening started. There was a real joy at having found others who care deeply about the world and at having the room to argue—and sometimes sharply—about the big questions up in society. Everyone wants to continue getting together for these kinds of discussions. We have to follow up to turn the enthusiasm into ways to take the Dialogue and this spirit of engagement and debate out to more people and raise the funds to make it a question throughout society.

 

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