More Thoughts on Representing for Revolution, August 22-23

August 12, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

On Monday, August 10, we posted the article "Take a Big Step in Getting BA Everywhere! August 22: Represent for Revolution and the Emancipation of Humanity." The following points build on what is in that piece and are supplementary to it.

Who should be part of T-shirt day?

Everyone who wants to wear the shirt on that day. The solid core of the day is what is concentrated in the flyer “When you put on this T-shirt, you step into the revolution,” and everyone who wears the shirt should get and read the flyer. At the same time, people who are not totally down with BA’s new synthesis of communism and revolution will still want to be part of wearing the shirt and promoting it, and this will be for a lot of different reasons—because they really dig BA and want others to hear about and get into him and want it out in society broadly; because they sympathize with and support the movement for revolution, even if they are not yet ready to fully commit to it or even know that much of about it; because they see the shirt as a symbol of defiance of the way things are and of aspiring to a better world; because the “spirit moves them;” and many other reasons besides. So again, on the basis of the solid core of understanding represented by the statement about what the shirt represents, there should be and can be a very broad participation on August 22.

How should revolutionaries see T-shirt day in relation to other important objectives, such as the massive outpourings against police murder set for October 22-24?

First, the more that BA is out there in society, the better for every initiative that is about going up against the horrors of this society. Getting out what BA represents—finally getting free from this rotten system, making sure that we will not face these same horrors in slightly different form 30 or 50 or 100 years from now—has everything to do with people raising their heads, asking why, and being inspired to change the world. If you put BA and what he stands for before people, it opens up “a way in” for them—they will “sort themselves out” in relation to revolution and the possibility of a whole different world, and the paths to actually fighting back in a meaningful way will open up. Getting BA way out there societally changes the whole political terrain and world of ideas, in terms of what people think is even possible. On the other hand, without BA strongly in the mix, after a while people can feel as if these struggles have no perspective and that they are not part of something larger. And they would be right. Without BA as the context and framework for fighting the power, without revolutionaries striving and struggling to build these battles as part of preparing for revolution, the horrors will never be eliminated and people will see no path to emancipation and eventually get discouraged. Vigorously promoting BA these next two weeks, with strong manifestations on August 22 and serious engagement with the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! on August 23 will push forward the entire process of revolution.

Now many people who are building for T-shirt day should, as part of these next two weeks (and beyond), also very energetically build the initiatives against mass incarceration and police murder, and against the enslavement and degradation of women (as well as other battles). In particular, many of those taking out and building for T-shirt day will also want to and in fact should at the same time mobilize people to turn out to the immediately upcoming August 27 program featuring Carl Dix and Cornel West. They should also let people know about—and get them hooked up with the fund-drive to save Revolution Books in NYC and open up the new store in Harlem. Many will want to distribute whistles and materials building the struggle against police terror and murder, or materials from Stop Patriarchy. In fact we should let people know that part of the way that BA leads the revolution is in leading the Party’s work in different strategic initiatives—initiatives in which people in the Party and those who look to BA, including the Revolution Club, join with many others to fight the power and in which we make that count toward something bigger at the same time: human emancipation. Making sure that people get our newspaper, Revolution, will also help them to see the connections between the different ways of fighting the power today and making revolution for a whole new world tomorrow. The point: it’s all about getting free.

Further, we should build on the spirit of defiance in society right now—and T-shirt day itself will build this if we carry it out as discussed here—and we should certainly join in if struggle with the authorities, or ideological struggle with people whose thinking is caught up in the system, develops on the spot.

But to return to the basic answer to this question: getting people connected to BA and his leadership—and in this case, uniting with scores and hundreds of people in different neighborhoods and cities representing with the T-shirt to do that—is the most important thing we can be doing in everything we do.

 

 

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