The BAE Campaign is updating and reissuing this note which was first posted on May 1, 2014
The Importance of Ongoing Fundraising
Updated June 9, 2014
June 9, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
The "1000 Years – $1000 for BA Everywhere" theme will be an important focus of BA Everywhere fundraising through June and will continue through Summer 2014 as an ongoing project. The first $1000+ has been successfully raised! Now, BA Everywhere Committees should make plans for reaching beyond those most directly impacted by the crime of mass incarceration, to sit down with many of those who may not be directly impacted, but are horrified by, and do not want to be complicit with, a country that jails and dehumanizes whole generations of its youth on a scale never before seen in history.
Reach out to student organizations and academics at university and public college summer programs. Look up group-watches of the new season of "Orange is the New Black." Look for cultural and other events where prominent figures speaking out about the outrage of mass incarceration and the other crimes of this system may be present. Join in the important and much-needed debate about the history of oppression of Black people in the U.S., forced open by Ta-Nehisi Coates' June 2014 "Case for Reparations" piece in The Atlantic.
Bring groups of people together to raise funds for the "1000 Years – 1000 Dollars for BA Everywhere project" — forging community as truth is told about the reality of America's hellholes, the brutality of the system of capitalism-imperialism that these enforce, and the revolutionary solution and vision brought forward by Bob Avakian.
At the same time, there should be ongoing BA Everywhere fundraising that is not tied to any one project. In particular, BA Everywhere Committees, organizers, and individuals should be promoting the film of BA's seminal talk, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION-NOTHING LESS! Bob Avakian Live, together with the book BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian . These two works provide the foundational understanding BA has developed of why the world is the way it is, and what must be done to radically change the face of everything that is rotten. Showing and using these pieces, together with the film STEPPING INTO THE FUTURE: On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics: A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World about the amazing cultural event that celebrated the release of the book BAsics in 2011, brings alive the difference this campaign can make. Showings of the films can be organized in libraries and schools, in living rooms, and on portable players.
Continuing through the summer, T-shirts that say "BA Speaks: REVOLUTION-NOTHING LESS!" and T-shirts with the BA image — should be getting out among the youth.
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We are highlighting the following materials for use especially as we reach out to those with more means to make significant donations to BA Everywhere:
These are resources to review to prepare for reaching out and meeting with those with means:
AND — keep writing in to baeverywhere[at]gmail.com! Reports of experience with the 1000 Years – 1000 Dollars for BA Everywhere project have been very rich. Let's share experience, lessons, obstacles as we work together to break out among those with more resources.
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