Revolution and Religion—The Fight for Emancipation and the Role of Religion; A Dialogue Between Cornel West & Bob Avakian
THIS IS FOR YOU!
November 11, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
This is a flyer that the Harlem Dialogue team got out in the projects in West Harlem that could be adapted to use to get out to people in other locations. It was aimed at strengthening the growing numbers of people who have already made a commitment to come. It also challenges those who are still deciding whether they should come. And it speaks to those not yet convinced that they need to be there. It is being broadly distributed—with the goal of putting it under every door in two major projects. Today volunteers went through the buildings, knocking on doors to draw people out, putting the fliers under doors, and chanting, "November 15, Revolution and Religion, Cornel West and Bob Avakian."
Everyone knows that people up here live like modern day slaves, not very different than the Palestinians in Gaza or the people facing massacres in Mexico. But what is that all going to count for? To keep on living like this and then die like this? Or to lift our heads and be part of something that could change all this?
This Saturday, November 15th, Bob Avakian (BA)—the main revolutionary communist leader in the world today who has a plan for emancipation—how WE can do something to free ourselves and people just like us all around the world—will be speaking at Riverside Church with Dr. Cornel West, a radical Black Christian and champion of the oppressed.
There's some people here in Manhattanville and Grant Houses who want to get free bad enough they will be there to see and hear them.
A woman whose son is in Rikers:
I need to go. Everybody needs to go. We got to speak for these kids. ALL the kids. I never heard of something like this. A Christian and an atheist meeting together, it's really rare. To me it's a big thing. I want to see where they meet—where point A meets point B. They should meet at fighting for the people. This system is terrible!
A young teenager:
We got to be there for BA. He's the one keeps us going fighting this.
A man who was caught up as a youth and did several years in prison:
I'm going. These kids looked up to me, and that was my responsibility, so I feel responsibility now to keep them from falling in these traps. They got to come to this. They're out there doing the same thing I did, looking up to me, and I'm responsible for them being able to make the right choices. I have respect for Cornel West, listened to him on the radio while I was locked up, part of why I came out was he talked some sense into me. This man, he's going to bring it.
Another woman whose son is in Rikers:
I got to be there. BA's gonna be there live. I want to meet him. He's the one these young people need to hear.
A woman from another part of Harlem:
If you come and just listen to what they say, you're going to feel empowered and you're going to feel like, OK, what can I do to make this world a better place? Because if we don't make this change and we don't come out and see what they talking about, everything is going to stay the same. I say to people, what are you doing, why are you here? Do you know why you are here? Do you feel that there is no way out? But you have to be there to know it, you have to be in it, that's it.
SATURDAY—NOVEMBER 15—There is no more important place to be this day or this year than at Riverside Church.
Where will YOU be? Will you be too busy being a slave that you don't have time to get free?
Parents: do you want ANOTHER generation having to grow up the same way you did, suffering the same humiliation and degradation, with no future but more of the same? Or will you be the ones to change all this?
Youth: YOLO, make it COUNT for something.
Get on the bus
For information on how to get on the bus to the Dialogue in Harlem call Revolution Books at 212-691-3345.
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