A Weekend of Preview Showings—A Very Positive Beginning

September 24, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

By all accounts, the preview weekend in several cities was a very positive beginning. This provides a real basis for this speech to “be seen by thousands, and then millions, and make a huge difference in how people view what is possible and what they will do.” The following is one early report revcom.us received that gives a sense and feel for the potential of this film to “spark and guide a movement and open up the road to revolution everywhere.”

 

From the Revolution Club Chicago:

Thirty people, including members of the Revolution Club, attended the showing of the film of Bob Avakian’s new talk, Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution, at our organizing center Saturday on Chicago’s South Side. The diverse mix, some visiting our center for the first time, included a couple who drove three hours from out of state, three people from a suburb north of Chicago, a foreign-born professor, a young man whose father had to leave El Salvador in the 1980s because of threats from the U.S.-backed death squads, as well as people from the neighborhood of the center and other parts of the South Side.

The film was punctuated from the audience by outbursts of laughter, applause, thoughtful comments, and shouts of “All Played Out.” After the film, the MC highlighted the point from the end of the film that all of us who hunger for revolution need to go to work on making this revolution. He put to everyone there the invitation and challenge to join the Revolution Club and announced the upcoming orientation for people who want to do that. He also put to everyone there the immediate needs of the revolution: 1) It is up to us how hundreds seeing this film in previews this weekend will become many thousands watching it online when it premieres on October 19; and 2) The importance of acting now in relation to the ongoing trial of Jason Van Dyke, the murdering pig who killed Laquan McDonald with 16 shots, and told people how they can get involved.

The rest of the time we were together—and most people stayed well past the announced ending time—was spent talking about the film and laying plans for its promotion. A number of people took up the call on the spot to make video responses to the film to popularize it and call on others to see it, going through our “video station” setup in the back. Others picked up organizing kits and other materials from tables staffed by Club members. Still others joined breakout groups to brainstorm about and forge plans for hosting and organizing more preview showings, fundraising, social media promotion, and street team promotion.

Preview showings are being planned for a Chicago suburb, a city near the Wisconsin border, a city in another state, and among family and friends of people attending. There was some beginning brainstorming about fundraising which included organizing a benefit in an area of artist galleries and holding a back-alley nighttime party at our center. People were encouraged to donate on the spot, and some did, including at the new fundraising site. People signed up for and talked about the plan to have 500 people post the video on their social media platforms when it premieres, and promoting it on their platforms between now and then. Ideas were discussed of doing an outreach day on the trains (like the one recently done in Los Angeles), and doing a flash mob promotion of the film.

The organizing kits we prepared for the showing were simple, developed with thinking of how people could get involved without expecting them to know everything and do everything all at once. They were clear plastic bags that included 10 copies of HOW WE CAN WIN and a stack of palm cards for the October 19 premiere. We made sure everyone got a copy of the BA biography and the flyer on how to be part of a mass movement to spread BA’s speech.

Comments from people included: “Bob Avakian presents important ideas and concepts I haven’t heard from other political leaders”; “What I took from this film was a very powerful message from Bob Avakian about how we can actually win an actual revolution”; “People could come and see this film to know what we have to do to get millions of people—thousands and then millions of people—to learn, to engage, how to really make an actual revolution and overthrow this system once and for all”; “What I got out of it is a very non-compromising answer how to change society and the world itself and change our ethos”; and “It’s time to get serious, it’s time for a revolution.”

We have a second preview Sunday afternoon in a meeting room at a downtown library near many downtown colleges.