Revolution #230, April 24, 2011

Get In… Get Out… Get Connected

On April 11, A Celebration of Revolution and the Vision of a New World—On the Occasion of the Publication of BAsics—brought to life a different way to think and to feel, and to be. This revolution and the vision of a new world came to life that night, as works of art interacted with the words of BAsics. Now is the time to seize upon this incredible real thing and to realize the potential the words of Bob Avakian have to change how people think and act in the world. Toward the close of the evening, Carl Dix called on the audience to just do three things: Get In, Get Out, and Get Connected. And it is up to us—all of us—to take up this call.

Get into BAsics! This book speaks to—and strikes a chord with—many people, coming from different places and with widely different perspectives. This book is for everybody who is straining to understand why the world we live in is the way it is, how to change it, and who dreams of a new and far better future. Everybody. Read a little at a time—maybe just one quote—and think; or read a lot. Discuss the quotes and essays with your friends and neighbors, colleagues and fellow students.

Get BAsics out into the world! As you read and discuss BAsics—as you “get into” it—get it out to others. A movement of people around this book is urgently needed for it to find its way into the hands of all those who long for another way. And all those who have been touched by this book need to join in. There are the ways and means for everybody to be a part of the effort to get BAsics out. As you read this book, think creatively about who to get it to. And how to reach anywhere where people are moving to change things—or even just discussing the state of society and the world.

Join with others in taking it to bookstores, writing reviews, and publicizing it broadly by printing up and passing out the palm cards, posting signs in store windows, and spreading the word of this book on the Internet. (See box.)

Organize a BAsics group! Get together each week on the same day, pick out a quote or essay and discuss it. At the end of the day, or an activity, select a quote or essay, read and discuss it together on your campus, or with your friends and co-workers.

And...

Get connected with this movement for revolution! BAsics is a book which can awaken many thousands to another way to look at the world and the possibility of a new and far better future, as the Red Book of Quotations of Mao Tsetung did for the ‘60s generation. And BAsics is a book which will bring the basic work of Bob Avakian to many, many people—and make this revolutionary leadership known broadly in society. It is a book which can train a new wave, a new generation of revolutionaries. And that will change things!

A critical part of being connected to the movement for revolution we are building: Read, subscribe to and spread REVOLUTION newspaper—that shows WHY things are happening... HOW it doesn’t have to be this way... and gives people ways to ACT.

As it says in BAsics... Chapter 3, #34:

“If you want to know about, and work toward, a different world—and if you want to stand up and fight back against what’s being done to people—this is where you go. You go to this Party, you take up this Party’s newspaper, you get into this Party’s leader and what he’s bringing forward.”

Making Revolution and Emancipating Humanity –
Part 2: “Everything We’re Doing Is About Revolution,”
Revolution #116, January 20, 2008

From RCP Publications Four Ways Everyone Can Help Spread BAsics Suggestions for how you can help to promote BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian: Buy a book for yourself and one for a prisoner. Please see the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund call to get BAsics into the hands of prisoners throughout the hellholes in this country (available at PRLF.org). Encourage others to do the same. Become a volunteer distributor of BAsics to all the different kinds of places where it can be sold — barber shops, hip hop clothing stores, community centers, bookstores, bodegas... An instruction sheet and related materials are available at revcom.us and from Revolution Books in your area or from RCP Publications. You do not have to be experienced to do this. The most important ingredient is sharing your enthusiasm for the book. Get word of BAsics out very broadly. Get out the palm cards for the book everywhere that people gather. Buy extra books to sell to others. Form your own BAsics book club. Encourage existing book clubs, church groups, and student groups to order at special bulk rates for their whole group. Join teams being organized to sell the book in communities and on campuses, setting up tables and making a big deal of it. Fund-raise, fund-raise, fund-raise. Find creative ways to raise funds for promotion and awareness of BAsics — house parties, bake sales, car washes, use your imagination. $15,000 is needed for further promotion, advertising, as well as participation in book fairs and conferences this summer.

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