"BA and Revolution in the Air"
March 12, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Bob Avakian and his work are getting more into the political discourse as revolutionaries are going out in the world engaging and struggling with a wide array of people about BA and revolution, while building for the premiere of the film: BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
Two significant examples:
Residente C13, the lead vocalist and master rhymer of Calle 13, the radical multi-Grammy award-winning music group from Puerto Rico, has been tweeting about reading Bob Avakian. Calle 13 packs arenas and concert halls worldwide with their unique mashup of musical and incredibly creative lyrical styles. Politically radical and outspoken, Residente C13 is uncompromising in his critique of what U.S. imperialism has done and continues to do in Puerto Rico, Latin America and throughout the world. He has collaborated on recordings with artists worldwide including Shakira, Ruben Blades, as well as with the revolutionary rock band Outernational on the song: "Todos Somos Ilegales."
Residente C13 is an avid tweeter on a wide range of topics with a Twitter following of 4.8 million. Over the last week as debate was going on about the death of Hugo Chavez, he tweeted: "This is something all the statesmen of my country should read—Bob Avakian: "Why do people come here from all over the world". Later he tweeted that he was reading BAsics. In response to one person's question about being a communist he said: "You do not have to be communist to read the book, I'm not, but it is important to read. Hug." And then, when someone challenged him about promoting this he answered: "Read this book so when you are screaming at me that am a communist like it's an insult you will be screaming it with a basis and foundation."
After these tweets views of the clip "Why do people come here from all over the world," from the film Revolution: Why It's Necessary, Why It's Possible, What It's All About, a film of a talk by Bob Avakian, multiplied five-fold. A door to BA has been opened. People are checking it out. This needs to be amplified.
Also this past week, the student page of The Nation website, "Student Nation" posted an interview: "Talking with Jamel Mims." In the course of a wide ranging interview about Jamel's art work, his study of hip hop in China, his teaching, his work with the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and the Revolution Club, the interview also features a beautiful photograph of the Revolution Club in hoodies reminiscent of the classic photo of John Carlos & Tommie Smith at the 1968 Olympics.
Jamel says: "I'm most excited about [the activist organization] The Revolution Club: fighting the power, transforming the people, putting revolution and communism back on the map, and a culture of revolt against this present-day revolting culture! Whether [we're talking about] patriarchy or the oppression of minorities, wars for empire or imperialism's stranglehold on the third world, small reforms won't do—it will take nothing less than a revolution to actually address and uproot these social contradictions once and for all. We're currently working for the premiere of the film, BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!—a 6+ hour call to revolution that can change how you look at the world, and what you do with your life—coming to theaters this March."
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Two examples of what spreading BA and revolution and the campaign can mean. In WHAT HUMANITY NEEDS: Revolution, and the New Synthesis of Communism Bob Avakian says that the BA Everywhere campaign "is a key element of influencing millions of people now: getting the concept of this revolution and the scientific grounding underneath it, in a basic sense, out to millions, so millions of people are encountering it, so that people are debating it very broadly in society—so it's a point of reference."
In the run up to the Premiere of the film let's ramp this up.
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