Internationalist fundraiser for Revolution Tour:

Great Food—Great Company—Great Cause

May 27, 2019 | revcom.us

 

From readers:

It was an afternoon befitting the invitation for “an internationalist feast to support the National Tour to Get Organized for an Actual Revolution.” Guests were greeted by large posters from revcom.us of the “5 STOPS” and BAsics 3:2 as they walked into the garden patio filled with the sweet scent of jasmine flowers and delicious home cooked world cuisine. There were trays of tahdig (aka Persian soul food), pita pocket chicken sandwiches, Iranian rice, tamales, a big pot of Champurrado, freshly grilled BBQ chicken, and even a potato salad with the word “Internationalism” spelled out on top, and much more.

A real added internationalist treat was a rich mixture of melodic accents from various parts of the world in animated conversations, infusing a couple hours of intense and lively debate and discussion. People wrote out “internationalist messages to the National Tour” on a message board in Farsi, Amharic, Spanish and English, some of which read: “Saludos y abrazos a los valientes camaradas de la gira!”; “Nos urge una REVOLUCION pero YA!”; “Revolution needs communication & love needs sacrifice”; and “Wishing you much success.”

We made our goal of raising $1K from this event (a total of $1,102 with pledges and cash). A new element was the sense of comradery and responsibility among/between the collective of masses that came together to host/organize the event. People not only took responsibility for the logistics of food, setup, and cleanup—but struggled to contribute politically during the event to the best of their ability. Everyone strived to proceed from HOW WE CAN WIN and BA’s speech last summer on the strategic need of building networks of support for the revolution. There was also the palpable warmth of community among the dozen and a half who attended.

In just a week, this small mass committee, who were spread over 120 miles, worked together to organize the whole event from beginning to end—inviting friends by making use of the Call for the Tour as well as the letter posted on revcom.us from a reader from Iran. Those who came from this word-of-mouth invite included immigrants from the Middle East and Africa, movement activists (e.g. someone from PFLAG/Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and from the group Indivisible). Also in the house was longtime feminist leader and author Carol Downer, whose Women’s Choice abortion clinic was burned down in 1985, but as she said at the time “...we didn’t give up.”

A visceral moment of speak bitterness erupted about the ignorant comment (from coworkers and strangers) “go back where you came from,” especially aimed at those who speak with an accent. An immigrant from Africa said she was recently thus insulted from some African-Americans on the streets of South Central. We read the Points of Attention out loud again and someone added to the end of POA #3 “and accents.”

The two revolutionaries from the National Tour cohered the small group into a large collective grappling with the implications of the “5 STOPS,” the 2 Choices of reform or revolution, and repeatedly returning to the 6 Points of Attention of the Revolution Clubs. They also gave accounts of their experiences over the past weeks struggling to put revolution on the map on the streets and campuses of LA. Their method was very inclusive and welcoming of all comments and questions of everyone there.

It is not possible here to fully capture the breadth and depth of the many side discussions among the clusters of twos and threes struggling over the big questions facing humanity—whether god exists, the role of religion, views on homosexuality, and whether a vanguard/leadership exists in the U.S. that can lead a revolution. Some of the guests follow Bernie Sanders and Angela Davis (i.e., the road of radical-sounding reform) and were challenged by the need for an ACTUAL revolution as they heard about the new communism developed by Bob Avakian for the first time.

Carol Downer emphasized the urgent need for resistance, that people “got to get out there and make noise whether other people want to hear it or not.” The woman from PFLAG talked about how the attacks on (Mexican) immigrants “break my heart,” while someone else expanded this to the fact of ALL immigrants are under attack. The Indivisible activist said the POAs “doesn’t include democracy or voting, and any kind of revolution in the U.S. needs to include democracy,” even as she felt the POAs are “wonderful and offers the best of humanity.” This led one person from our organizing collective to reach for a copy of BAsics and read out loud 1:22 in answering this. A couple of the attendees picked up copies of the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America to learn more about what this revolution is about.

There was a spirit of collective achievement and real enthusiasm to continue doing more internationalist fundraisers to build support for the Revolution Tour, and to spread this across the country!

Internationalist Messages to the National Revolution Tour

Internationalist Potato Salad