The Message They Fear Must Be Heard

GoFundMe Censors Bob Avakian Speech on Real Revolution

October 11, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Last Friday, without warning, GoFundMe.com cancelled the fundraising campaign for the forthcoming speech by Bob Avakian, being released online on October 19: Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. 

All GoFundMe.com has said about this was that the campaign violated their “terms of service,” providing NO other details or information or what part of their extensive “terms of service” they’re talking about.  Their response said that if we followed up more than once, it would just delay our request.  Meanwhile nearly a week has gone by and they’ve provided no other answers.  Like an eerie detail from one of those capitalist dystopian movies where everyone is turned into a consumer robot, this message came from their “Customer Happiness Team.”

But let’s get real.  This is a suppression of revolution and the revolutionary message in this speech.  Taking on—and reaching out further—in the face of this kind of suppression is essential to how the revolution is going to advance.

Defying this suppression, advancing the revolution

The significance of this speech can’t be understated and the title says it all: Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution. 

This speech concentrates what people need to go to work for revolution right now... it’s an essential tool and guideline to carry out the “3 Prepares”: Prepare the Ground, Prepare the People, and Prepare the Vanguard—Get Ready for the Time When Millions Can Be Led to Go for Revolution, All-Out, With a Real Chance to Win. The more this speech is spread, being seen by thousands today, the more it can impact all of society, letting people know that, to quote How We Can Win—How We Can Really Make Revolution, “we have the leadership, the science, the strategy and program, and the basis for organizing people for an actual, emancipating revolution.”

What we’re seeing with this censorship from GoFundMe is an attempt to silence and suppress the most uncompromising and farseeing revolutionary voice in this country and on the planet, Bob Avakian—the leader of the revolution and architect of the new communism.  We need to go up against this and reach many more with this speech.  This is the only way revolution is going to advance: when they attack and try to silence us, we reach even deeper and broader.  We show the illegitimacy and fundamental weakness behind their censorship, and build up the organized forces and influence of the revolution.

Right now, this means doubling down on the fundraising for the promotion of this speech.  It means reaching out even further, in protest of this suppression and to get deeper into what is being suppressed, spreading the word of the release of this speech on October 19, organizing even more people to watch it and share it themselves.

What are they trying to silence?

In order for you, and people throughout society, to remain imprisoned in this horrific setup, to put up with this world of needless death and destruction, you are constantly told that this is the only way the world could be, and you are trained to look for answers within the suffocating confines of this system as it is or to blame yourself for not making it in this dog-eat-dog system.  Then the rulers and their mouthpieces tell you lies that you’re free because you get to choose which oppressor is going to run all this, that the answer is to just claw your way to the top of this dogpile or that you should just give a little to charity and go back to sleep while the machinery of this system grinds up humanity and the planet.

This speech exposes the lie that this is the best of all possible worlds and lays out why this system cannot be reformed, why it must be overthrown and how to go to work now to bring this system down, at the soonest possible time.  This is what those who run this system, those who push forward its program... in the media, on the internet don’t want you to hear. 

If GoFundMe is allowed to ban the fundraising for this speech, it sets a dangerous precedent, silencing the discussion of fundamental solutions.  You can talk about some of the symptoms of the problem, you can make people feel good by participating in redressing some of those symptoms... but you can’t talk about where those symptoms come from and what the real cure is.  This can’t be accepted, accommodated to, or allowed.

You are needed

Write to GoFundMe.com in protest.  Create public opinion around this by posting your sentiments about this on social media (tag @gofundme and @tuneintorevcom).

Many more thousands of dollars are needed to go up against and break through what these gatekeepers will allow.  We need to reach to people directly and that will require a targeted promotional campaign.  Every dollar counts to enable this message of revolution to spread.

We’ve almost met our $5,000 goal for social media fundraising but aim to double this.  Defy this censorship and suppression and give generously.  Reach out to others with this call.

Even more people need to watch this speech the day it’s released online, October 19, and in the days after.  Be 1 of 500 posting about this on your social media on that day.  Gather friends and watch it together... in a dorm room, community center, barbershop, or wherever.

Write to revolution.reports@yahoo.com with your ideas on how this can spread even further.