Some Thoughts About BA Everywhere as “the Leading Edge...”
February 15, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From a reader
I’ve been in some discussions recently about BA Everywhere, the campaign to raise massive funds to make Bob Avakian a household name and the new synthesis of communism a contending pole in society. A key part of these discussions has revolved around the understanding concentrated in the following paragraph:
"The widespread promotion and popularization of the new synthesis of communism that BA has brought forward, and what is embodied in his leadership overall, is a crucial part of preparing minds as well as organizing forces for revolution. In this period BA Everywhere is the concentrated focus of the work to carry out that promotion and popularization. It is the leading edge now of a whole strategic process interacting with objective developments in the world through which the movement for revolution and the party that is leading the revolution gets built; a process through which a revolutionary people takes shape; a process which can hasten the understanding of people broadly that the system is the problem—with its leaders and structures seen to be illegitimate and through which millions can come to see that this revolution is the solution to the horrific and intractable problems that humanity faces. If people broadly do not know there is another way the world could be—with a vision and plan for a far better society that would actually be liberatory; and know and respect that there is a plan and a leadership to make that real; that there is a whole other way to think about, understand, and act on what is the problem and what the solution is in the world today, then the world will stay as it is—destroying lives and crushing spirits. (From "BA Everywhere—Imagine the Difference It Could Make! Why and how it is key to changing the world—to making revolution")"
This is a paragraph that is worth studying, breaking down, and discussing in depth. What I want to focus on here is the part about BA Everywhere being the “leading edge now of a whole strategic process interacting with objective developments in the world through which the movement for revolution and the party that is leading the revolution gets built....”
In one discussion I was in, somebody posed this question to contribute to the collective wrangling we were doing: Why is it the leading edge now? He said in a different kind of situation something else might be the leading edge of revolutionary work. Why is BA Everywhere the leading edge now? We talked about the urgent necessity for people all over the world to know that there is a way to radically change the world in the interests of humanity, for the new synthesis of communism to be something that people know about and are taking up and fighting for, and for the leadership that exists to make a real revolution here in this country to be known. People need to know about BA and be engaging his work. And not on the edges, not just on a couple of street corners or campuses or neighborhoods. This has to be out there BIG, in order for people to be able to get into it widely in society here and all over the world. And that requires BIG money to promote this on that kind of scale. Watch the movie The Square, and read Sam Albert’s piece about Egypt in Demarcations: A Journal of Communist Theory and Polemic. These provide one of the most in-your-face-obvious examples I can think of as to the urgent need for BA and the new synthesis of communism to be getting known to millions of people. Without people coming to take up and fight for this new synthesis, they will be stuck in the quicksand of trying to find solutions within the very system that is overall destroying the people and the planet we live on. Nothing else we do can go very far if this doesn’t become known. And currently, one of the major things holding back the ability to do this is funds.
So, that’s one thing.
In that same discussion, we also talked about what it means to be straining against the limits to make revolution, hastening while awaiting a revolutionary situation, preparing minds and organizing forces for revolution. People in their millions need to change how they think, and especially how they look at the need and possibility for real revolution and a new way the world could be. The process of hastening while awaiting has as its key link transforming the thinking of masses of people, because as this system continues to jolt and shake society with breakdowns small or big, people need to be able to start to see that it is this capitalist-imperialist system that is illegitimate, and the rules of the game are illegitimate, and the only thing that IS legitimate is making a revolution to defeat and dismantle this system and replace it with a new socialist society that is changing EVERYTHING. There is a strategy for how to do this and different inter-related aspects that go into this. But the single most important thing people need in order to start to see things in a new way is the work of Bob Avakian. Because it is this work that has resulted in a new framework for advancing into the future with revolution. It is this work that answers the biggest questions people have (or don’t even have because they haven’t even considered it) about the viability of communist revolution. It is this work that shows how we could lead and transform a new society and work through the extremely complex and difficult contradictions involved in doing that.
So people need to know about Bob Avakian and they need to begin engaging his work.
But there is another aspect of the BA Everywhere campaign to raise massive funds, in how and why it is the “leading edge now of a whole strategic process interacting with objective developments in the world through which the movement for revolution and the party that is leading the revolution gets built....” And in another discussion I was part of, it was this aspect that some people had a more difficult time understanding. And that is this: since it is true that there is an urgent need for people to know BA on a societal scale, and since it is true that this requires massive funds, and since it is true that this is key in hastening while awaiting a revolutionary situation, when we put this need and the campaign to meet this need in front of people who want to be able to do something meaningful to change the world, it actually is a direct line into the revolution. It shows people right in front of their faces that the movement for revolution is the real thing. We are not just talking some good ideas, or exchanging narratives, or philosophizing about how things could be different divorced from actually fighting to change the world, in the ways we can do that right this minute. That is why I like so much the title (and accompanying text!) of the flyer “Contribute to BA Everywhere! The World Needs to Be Radically Changed. Here’s Step One.”
This really is Step One to radically changing the world. And when we put that to people that way, it challenges how they look at the world, and they have to decide: am I going to be part of this or not. (Which is different than just “am I going to listen to what these people are talking about.”) And as they weigh that, it can and usually does open up bigger and deeper questions, and a wrestling in their thinking, and especially when people do come to the decision to contribute, a beginning (or deepening) partisanship. It does this because people are not just “hearing out some interesting ideas.” They are engaging a real movement for revolution, leadership that has the understanding and is taking the responsibility to lead a revolution, and ideas and theory that provide a framework for making that revolution and leading a new society. That is not to say that people will radically transform their thinking all at once (or in some cases, maybe ever), but there will be something new contending in their thinking. And their contributions—donations, ideas, fundraising efforts, criticisms—will be involving them in building and strengthening the movement for revolution and will be an entryway for many to more deeply get into BA and begin to step forward as new leaders themselves.
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