Letter on Reaching Out Widely for Donations for BA Everywhere — Now Through the August 9 Break ALL the Chains Events

July 28, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

The BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make! Campaign received this letter from a group of BA Everwhere fundraisers in one city:

Some of us who are working on the BA Everywhere... Imagine the Difference It Could Make! campaign wanted to share our approach to raising major funds for BA (Bob Avakian) Everywhere through the August 9th Break ALL the Chains! benefits and beyond:

The release of Break All the Chains! Bob Avakian on the Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution (a collection of groundbreaking works by Avakian on how central and defining the liberation of women is to any real revolution) is a very big deal. One out of every three women on this earth will be brutalized or raped in her lifetime. We all hear stories every day in the news and in our own lives. We live in a world where women are treated as less than human on a scale and in ways almost unimaginable. It's intolerable, criminal – and completely unnecessary.

Overturning and uprooting the oppression of women is a defining part of what any real revolution must be about and a defining part of making that revolution go all-the-way to liberating ALL of humanity. In our team, we are inspired and moved by just how unique and pathbreaking BA's work on this is – and we think many more people can be – and need to be! – inspired and provoked by this. It is one big reason for many people to donate money to get his work out in big big ways.

So we are inviting many people who will be moved by the theme of Break ALL the Chains (read BA's full quote in the book BAsics from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian), to be part of the August 9 events, to contribute in this way to envisioning and fighting for this whole radically different future – through poetry, song, stories, readings, the food that we share and the friends that we bring to it (including ourselves), and by donating financially. We are working to involve many, many people who can be inspired by the difference it will make to raise major funds to get the work of Bob Avakian out to every corner of society.

As part of raising the funds needed for real, we are going out to people with some means. It's important to start by identifying the people you know who could easily give on the level of $50 to $500 – professors, filmmakers, lawyers, clergy, doctors, theater directors and more. We are getting the sampler edition of Break ALL the Chains! and the BAsics 3:22 cards out to them with a "save the date" and invitation to participate in the August 9th event.

We are also inviting professional (and non-professional) artists to be part of the cultural performances at this event. Key to this is digging into the BAsics 3:22 quote, "You Can't Break All the Chains, Except One" and learning from people what this provokes in their thinking, and what it inspires in ways they can create, perform, donate works or be present – around this theme – on August 9th.

Then there is doing broader outreach to places where people with more means gather – a farmer's market where many people who work in the movie industry shop, cultural events held at art museums and summer music concerts and festivals, for example. All kinds of people can be part of groups that go out together to reach many many others with the challenge of responding to the BAsics 3:22 quote and invitations to participate on August 9 and donate. As this is being written, there are about 10 days to the August 9 events – so let's pull together all kinds of groups of people, and get out to the major events like this, between now and then.

A few of us who do fundraising among the very wealthy talked about who we needed to reach immediately. We are getting out the sampler edition of Break ALL the Chains! with invitations to August 9th – and asking for fundraising meetings in which our "ask" for funds will be very substantial. We are following up with those we already know. And we are also going out to meet new people. For instance, we are going out to a local comedy club where many of the performers speak to the oppression of women in really good ways – with some who have garnered national attention because they are unapologetic about the right and need for abortion or have been very vocal about violence against women. There are also film screenings with Q&A's with filmmakers and actors that we have gone to. In some cases we are specifically taking this new publication, the sampler edition of Break All the Chains! to them because of their own publicly expressed concerns – making sure we go to events where we can possibly talk to them. We have spoken up in the public conversations and have gotten very serious responses. Another way to find the people to reach out to is looking up donor lists on annual reports of important organizations that are trying to solve big societal problems. You come to learn about the world of philanthropy and many are associated with foundations that we should also be approaching.

As we do this we are letting people know about the whole BA Everywhere campaign – with the release of this sampler edition Break ALL the Chains! to be distributed out in prisons, schools and communities with funds raised through the Bob Avakian Institute, as one example of the importance of this campaign.

Reaching out to young women (and men) from the middle class is important. There is a story about people going out to the Vans Warped Tour in Texas. This punk rock festival draws mainly kids from the suburbs. The BA Everywhere table had a sign that read "Women Are Not Bitches or Ho's or Punching Bags – They are Full Human Beings – revcom.us" and it was a magnet to young women. They also said that the one city with the most conservative politics and the wealthier audience – where most people thought they would get the worst response – is where they got the most intense response, some of the deepest exchanges and the most donations. There is a lot going on in the suburbs – where a culture of bullying and gang rape is very present. There are also cultural events that draw these young women (and men) – with important new artists who attract the more rebellious (Lorde is performing in our city for instance). There was a screening of the film Punk Singer (about Kathleen Hannah from Bikini Kill, a very progressive band) as a fundraiser for a women's shelter and we are trying to contact those folks about the August 9th event.

And in the neighborhoods of the oppressed in this society – with Revolution in the Cities this summer, taking out the challenge to break ALL the chains and getting the printed sampler edition of the work into the hands of many young people – and involving them in the August 9th event – has everything to do with people finding out and getting into what a REAL revolution is all about, how this revolution can emancipate ALL of humanity, and people stepping into this movement for revolution NOW. There are stories about how people took the "Women Are Not Bitches or Ho's or Punching Bags" sign to a huge Black street fair and music festival and how this opened up on the spot discussions about BA and the REAL revolution. In our city, a number of people have taken out "Revolutionary Change Jars" which are a way many people can be involved in collecting donations of small change and more – to make a big change – from many people in the neighborhoods. We want "You cannot break all the chains, except one" to be an important part of this effort, with people's responses and stories captured on white boards, post-its, video testimonials and in other ways, to send to Revolution/revcom.us.

So this is all by way of saying – there is a very big and important opportunity here for taking BA Everywhere to a whole new level!

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