Dispatch from a National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour member:

Thousands of People Pour Out for the Nipsey Hussle Memorial—Revolution Takes to Staples Center with the Way Out

April 15, 2019 | revcom.us

 

People in LA have been playing the music of Nipsey Hussle. People have been out day after day to mourn over Nipsey, coming from as far as out of state even or selling their game consoles to travel down from Northern California. Cars cruised slowly down the street blasting Nipsey’s songs as the bass from the music rattled from the trunks of cars. Bluetooth speakers at the hips of people play the anguish and the joy people are feeling. Motorcycles doing wheelies and blowing smoke from their tires as they rumble fast past where Nipsey bought out an entire plaza on the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson, a historic intersection that dates back to ’92, the last time this many masses of Black people and many different kinds of people, came together to unite over another act of injustice from an unjust system.

Nipsey was taken at the young age of 33 and was a father of two children. People agonized and mourned over his death because he was taken at his best, someone who rose from the ghettoes of LA to “make it in America” and came up with the banner of TMC: “The Marathon Continues.” That slogan was about striving to establish a different class of Black capitalists within this system, at best. There was an objective need for the revolution, those who are representing the seven billion people on this planet, including the planet itself, to come out and relate in a good way to all of this, and to bring the real problem and solution to it all that could only be brought in from the outside, from the scientific leadership and vanguard that is necessary and essential to lead the masses of people, and yes, Black people, who have a tremendous and crucial role in ending all of oppression and emancipating all of humanity by joining the ranks of the revolution now as millions are being influenced in favor of this revolution.

The National Revolution Tour has been leading teams out to Crenshaw and Slauson and doing work at Crenshaw High School. Going out through the day and coming back late in the evening, this revolution has been figuring out the right agitation and the right touch to this, of solid core and a lot of elasticity BASED ON THIS SOLID CORE.

We began early in the morning on Thursday, the day of Nipsey’s memorial at Staples Center, a major arena, which would lead to a procession of Nipsey’s body through LA, into the heart of South Central. All of us convened for a brief orientation. Who are we? What do we represent? For whom are we doing this? Here we are with the vaccine for what the masses need to emancipate themselves and to take part in emancipating all of humanity, and we should step together with that scientific certitude. We should look to our leadership for guidance and know that our presence there at the memorial and procession will make an impact unto itself. With that, we ran out the door with our materials and our cups of coffee and traveled to Staples Center.

As we were preparing our materials, lining up posters of THIS SYSTEM HAS NO FUTURE FOR OUR YOUTH BUT THE REVOLUTION DOES! with stacks of stickers in a way to say, “Take these and get organized while organizing others” with two banners elevated high in the sky, one big “This System Cannot Be Reformed! It Must Be OVERTHROWN!” and “What Killed Nipsey Hussle? And How Do We Get Out of This Mess?” a stylish Black woman with very short hair in shades doing livestream came up immediately to ask what we were doing and about. She was invited to come back at 12:30 pm to hear a revolutionary speak to the question of what killed Nipsey and how to get out of this mess. She said she’d come back with her livestream. People like this came up to us all day. A young Black teen joined us on the spot and began passing out flyers and marched with us for most of the time.

As the lines began to form with hundreds and then thousands more coming from different directions in Downtown LA, the Revolution Club marched in formation, stopping in front of people to do agitation on “What Killed Nipsey Hussle,” asking “Who put the guns in their hands and the thoughts in their heads?” getting into the actual problem and solution, and then passing out flyers and moving on to the next section of people standing in line. We would huddle after and sum it up. What could we do different? What was the key link in agitation and appearance we had to make adjustments to? How could we bring it back home for people? So, we came back onto the court to bring the ball into the paint for a Sky Hook. In other words, we marched back to the line of people with the big sky-high banner of “This System Must Be OVERTHROWN!” behind the Revolution Club. This attracted a lot of cell phones leaping out of people’s pockets to take video and photos. The agitation got sharper and when we were done going through sections and blocs of people with it, we marched back chanting “We are the MIGHTY, MIGHTY REVCOMS!” If you’ve seen people at a sports game doing “The Wave,” you can picture a “Wave” developing of heads turning and cell phones coming up to record as the revcoms were marching in formation and chanting. A woman shouted how much she loved the diversity of the Revolution Club, and we organized her on the spot by leading her to follow @tuneintorevcom and sending her a prepared text message on the spot to welcome her to the revolution and a link to watch a clip of Bob Avakian. There were about 20 people we did this with throughout the day as a key way to organize people into the revolution and for them to be introduced to the leader of the revolution BOB AVAKIAN.

At 12:30 pm, we had our anticipated main event: Joe Veale, former Black Panther Party member and now revolutionary communist and follower of Bob Avakian, speaking to “What Killed Nipsey Hussle and How We Can Get Out of This Mess?” A Black man in a blue hat in his 30s, who was familiar with and loved Bob Avakian, recorded the whole thing from his phone.

Afterward, Noche Diaz got up and spoke of meeting one of these youths in Chicago, whose name was Quono, who had so much promise, energy, and potential to step into the revolution. So many like Quono are gunned down at such a young age. What killed Nipsey Hussle? What did our energies need to be drawn to and what did we need to do now?

Following the memorial service inside Staples Center, people poured out by the thousands and thousands as thousands were already outside. Now was the time to do sharp agitation at the street corner and banner on a loudspeaker. People both loved it and hated it. Joe Veale spoke again. We summed up the need to bring it home to the actual solution of revolution that overthrows this system, repetitively but flowing as a rhythm for different people walking past to hear and to be provoked, challenged, and inspired to step into the revolution. A member of the Revolution Club spoke to what it means of our youth killing each other because they look like and are just like them. A National Tour member got on and spoke with a lot of heart and science to how this system always gets away with these killings. Every time we have another one of our youths shot down and killed, this system laughs back at us from the top, while we cannot see who the real enemy is. There was a need for us to rise up for revolution. A hardcore from “the life” came up to confront the speaker, claiming this was disrespectful at Nipsey’s memorial. The speaker came back with the actual contradictions that should be posed to people: continue on and live with this all, or MAKE REVOLUTION. That’s it. Two choices. What is your life going to be about, really? As he spoke to the conditions people under this system are forced to live under, someone ran over and crossed the street to express their agreement and to get organized with the revolution.

We had made an actual impact on this terrain, on the people there, and ourselves being grounded on for whom and for what and bringing the “Two Choices” as posed by Bob Avakian in Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution:

And, in fundamental terms, we have two choices: either, live with all this—and condemn future generations to the same, or worse, if they have a future at all—or, make revolution!

As we packed our materials and got together again to sum it all up, including the agitation we did, someone brought to our attention what was happening on Crenshaw and Slauson: a livestream video feed of masses and masses of people, especially Black people walking down the streets in anticipation of the memorial procession about to pass through. I had been falling asleep in my chair but was awakened by this sight! Here was an opportunity to be out there among the masses of people, as they were grieving but celebrating the life of Nipsey Hussle. We did a quick stretching of our bodies and crammed into our cars, and drove down to the mass gathering, changing lanes, and rerouting through the streets in the neighborhoods.

Never have I seen so many masses in the streets! It was truly a celebration. Many, many people came up to our cart of materials, asking for articles of our large sheets of “To All Those Who Grieve for Nipsey Hussle... and Want a Better World” by Joe Veale of the Revolution Club. We ran out of posters of “THIS SYSTEM HAS NO FUTURE FOR THE YOUTH BUT THE REVOLUTION DOES!” An older Black woman on a walker demanded to take some articles and posters to her apartment complex because “These killings have got to stop and people need to know about this [revolution].” Two Latina women in their ’20s found great joy in getting stacks of the articles and passing them out to people they passed by. Two young Black kids on bikes took a poster to wave down at people as they pedaled down the streets. Many, many people talked about how celebratory the atmosphere was of different sets and people uniting over the loss of such a beautiful human being. You could feel the masses of people taking a long breath of fresh air, unafraid of walking down the street together and relishing the moment of being able to come together for something much, much bigger. There was also a broad openness to actually trying to find the actual solution to this mess.

As the memorial procession drove by with long black limousines and vans with their doors open with family members and friends blowing kisses to the masses of people as tears streamed down their faces and flowers strewn onto the top of the cars, the National Revolution Tour and Revolution Club LA did a last push of getting flyers out widely. It was not easy to leave this beautiful and historic scene with so many interesting people. There is much more to sum up about our work during this historic moment with the killing of Nipsey and the outpouring of the masses during the beginnings of a national tour to organize the thousands now while influencing millions to make revolution, and there is more to do and figure out to make the objectives and aims of this Tour real—of hastening while awaiting toward the time where millions of people like the ones we met out on the streets could be led to go for revolution, all-out, with a real chance to win.