A film to change history at a moment when the future hangs in the balance:

Creating a Movement Around the Film of a Talk by Bob Avakian

THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO!
In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America
A Better World IS Possible!

April 23, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Humanity faces an unprecedented danger. In a world that was already intolerably torn apart by savage inequalities and terrible repression and wars to enforce those inequalities, by the prospect of environmental disaster and the present reality of tens of millions of refugees fleeing for their lives, a fascist regime—the Trump/Pence regime—now has hold of most of the main levers of power in America. Its current moves to consolidate that power and even more aggressively project it, around the world and within the U.S., heighten that danger.

People around the world, including tens of millions within this country, are in anguish over this. They search for ways out, they toggle between falling into despair, closing their eyes to the unfolding horrors, and putting their hopes into elections and/or investigations that without a serious mass struggle below—from people in our hundreds of thousands and millions, will not dislodge the forces intent on bringing a fascist America.

But there is a way to understand this, a way forward... and a way out. This is concentrated in Bob Avakian’s one-hour speech, THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In The Name of Humanity, We REFUSE To Accept a Fascist America. A Better World IS Possible. BA gives the full scope and depth of what we face. He scientifically cuts right to the heart of the deep, historically developed, and systemic roots, as well as the more immediate causes of this regime. He speaks very directly and clearly to the questions about “it can’t happen here” and “what about me and my safety,” and a host of others that stand in the way of people fully confronting it. He raises big questions about the system we live under and points to the revolution that is needed. In doing all this, he compels people to look again at the whole way they view the world. In short, it’s a wake-up film. He does all this with a wide embrace for his whole audience... and as their responses show, people feel it.

If you haven’t watched the film in the past 10 days, stop here and watch it again, now. Then ask yourself: Is there any other talk or article that puts together the making of an American fascism—from its roots in the Confederacy to the rise of Christian fascism? That so sharply reveals why the Democratic Party is no answer, and yet puts forward a way for millions of people to come together to stop this? Because Avakian cuts so deep, and at the same time is accessible to all kinds of people, this film has the potential for hundreds of thousands of people to feel that this is a must-see, and to spread it through social media and their social networks.

If this were to happen, it would make a huge difference... and it could make all the difference. But for the film to really take off requires the active work of all who have seen and been moved by the film. That’s our responsibility—whether we’ve followed BA for years or just now met him through the film. We must, all of us, create a social movement to get this film out to people and connect it with them. What happens with this regime, for good or ill, will have existential ramifications for humanity—and this film can be a key factor in determining what those ramifications will be.

Agitating and Organizing—Go Bold and Go Systematically

But how do we get it out to all of society?

We need to agitate. There’s a way for everyone to do this: those who can get out boldly in a crowd and those who can speak to friends, family, neighbors, and people in their circles. With everyone, we need to take this to people with boldness and imagination.

This is a time when many more people need to go bold: Going to wherever people are gathering to talk about or hear about the issues of the day... to all kinds of cultural events... or even just where people cluster in their daily lives, whether a stop sign at a freeway off-ramp or the platform of a busy train station. It can mean standing up in your classroom before class, or calling people together after work, or—if you’re religious—speaking out in your place of worship.

That means taking the film everywhere, to those who are or have been active, in whatever form, and to those who haven’t. Finding the ways to get the word out very broadly, through the posters, social media memes, palm cards, and a hundred other forms. It means, if you are new to this and even if you’re not, calling together people to come over to your house and watch it. (See here for experiences in taking the film everywhere.)

And we need to organize. Sitting down with those who do connect with this film and talking with them about their social networks (online, “in real life,” and both) and how to spread it and deepen it and working with them to do that... even as we learn from them more about those networks. If people have questions—and they will—let’s first off go to the film clips of the Questions and Answers with BA.

One key way to organize and build this movement: getting people’s responses in the form of statements and seeing if they would allow their statements to be used to promote the film. Then encouraging them to spread those statements themselves.

Another key way: encourage people, after every showing, to check out and join Refuse Fascism! Clearly, building Refuse Fascism is one of the big aims of the film (and Refuse Fascism itself has taken up the film as a critical part of what it’s doing right now).

People should begin soon to pull together actual committees to spread the film. People who are getting the film around, in whatever way, need a place to collectively sum up their activity, to talk about what they’re running into and what they’re learning, to pool their ideas and lay new plans in a setting where people can spark off each other. These should be lively places, as purposefully intent but also as matter of fact and engaging as the film and the Questions and Answers session themselves. They need to have an atmosphere where even as people are organized and serious about getting down to work, there is room for wide-ranging discussion about all kinds of things, most definitely including the vision and better world that IS possible, as BA puts it in the title, based on the new communism.

Last week’s article on “the plan to change everything” proposed major film showings in late May or early June, with a plan to project them very broadly into people’s consciousness. This will be part of the overall thing we’re talking about here—jump-starting this movement, getting a critical mass of viewers and “spreaders” going that sets off a social chain reaction where this film gets way beyond the people who today have seen it. These committees will play an absolutely necessary role in making those showings as high-impact as possible. These committees should also be a way to draw people in who come forward in the next two weeks of “taking BA—including this film!—to campus.”

Building the Movement FOR Revolution

This film makes the case like no other on fascism, how it relates to the history of this country and the nature of this society—and what to do about it. And it also opens the door to the most radical revolutionary on the planet—BA, who has put communism on a much more fully scientific foundation and who is leading the movement for revolution in the U.S. Revolutionary communists need to hold that door as wide open as possible.

The Revolution Clubs should actively work in and build these committees that are dedicated to promoting the film, and at the same time should also actively put forward the stance and activities of the clubs, making it possible for people to work with and join them, as well. If the clubs are not growing through all this, we’re gonna need to stop and sum up why—and then change it.

The Party itself should be opening up many opportunities for people to study and discuss BA’s work—whether it be THE NEW COMMUNISM, the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!, or any other foundational work. The Party, too, needs to grow, qualitatively and quantitatively.

All of this—popularizing and bringing forth active followers of BA, forging and growing the Revolution Clubs, further building Refuse Fascism around its singular mission to drive out this regime—can really take a leap with this film becoming a big deal in society, and is, correctly approached, all part of making revolution at this juncture in history.

Again, It’s Up to US

Which leads us back to this incredible film, and the need to get it ultimately to millions and to unite right now with scores, then hundreds, then thousands around the need to do just that. Some good things have begun to be done. Some of them you can read about in this issue of our site. But this is all still just a tiny glimmer of the potential.

So there is the potential. But even more important is the necessity we face, and that is this: If humanity is going to have any chance of getting out of the disaster looming in on us, this film and its message has to get to hundreds of thousands, and then millions. That, and nothing less, has to be the measuring stick for everything.

And, once more—that’s up to us.

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