A really big thank you to everyone who has generously donated to support the National Revolution Tour and The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less—Show! During the April 24 livestream, we were able to raise over $20,000—but much more is needed to reach the goal of $50,000 by June 1.
We’ve got some work to do together, to roll up our sleeves, to raise the funds. There is a tremendous need to reach out to many, many more people to donate and to get involved in raising funds. Here are some of the ideas for raising funds promoted during the livestream, and reasons for giving in the voices of some of those of you who donated:
Let’s start a movement all over the country of people working together to do things like bake sales and tamale sales, yard sales and selling waters in the park on a hot day. These can be important ways for people who are just learning about the revolution to get involved, to make a very needed contribution and to learn about the revolution as they go.
Revolutionary change jars need to take off all over the country. The idea is that you put the jar in your home, bring it to work, put it on your store counter, you bring it to your high school after-school club meeting and you talk about what you’re raising funds for. If you have pennies, you give pennies. If you have $5, you give $5. It’s a way that people start amassing their strength and they do it together. Then you bring that revolutionary change jar—let’s say you’re part of a weekly RNL Show watching circle—pour it out and add the funds up and it’s an example of how to build networks of organized support for the revolution. It’s a way to build partisanship. When you’re taking that revolutionary change jar around or it’s in your house with a big sign, people are going to say what is that and what are you raising funds for? It’s an opportunity to talk with people about the revolution, why they should be part of it and why they should be supporting it.
Statement from a high school student, a part of an RNL Circle, who contributed $20:
The lives of millions are affected to this day. They are affected by the economy, the climate, the government, the wars, the police, and above all the system. People need to realize that change is possible. Achieving a world where the grass is greener, the waters are cleaner, and the people are happier is possible. I donated because the rev club knows that it is not the people, but the system. And because the rev club can make the change possible.
We need to reach many people who’ve got even greater resources—people who can match a high school student who gave $20—and those who can multiply that 10 times or 100 times. Anyone who’s ever thought about whether the world could be radically different, why we live in the nightmare we live under—we need to reach out to them now. Introduce them to the work of Bob Avakian (BA) and sit down with them to watch an episode of The RNL Show. Tell them about the National Revolution Tour and what impact it is making. Ask them to donate.
Statement with $400 donation
This morning I heard on the news that South Africa has been hit by mammoth flooding, containers piled up on top of one another due to a powerful massive surge of water, 300 claimed dead, but the death count cannot yet be determined because the search for bodies is still in progress. Fires rage in Arizona and New Mexico - and it's just April! Our earth is in peril!
A radically different and far better world is possible! And if revolution is to be more than a dream, the Rev Club is going on tour to bring to life that we are living in a time when revolution could be possible, introducing BA and particularly, "Something Terrible or Something Emancipating." This could be the time after a long, dark night that we may have a chance... and this has to be taken out to all kinds of people. People for whom the Amerikkkan dream is a nightmare who can contribute their ideas and creativity to bringing forward a revolutionary people. Right here in the belly of the beast. And this means you!
Every week the RNL Show and revcom.us provides analysis, exposure of what is going on and why; providing the revolutionary leadership of BA, and capturing our minds and hearts with what is at stake for humanity. And putting the science of knowing and transforming reality out there to everyone. Imagine if 1000's of people were tuning in each week, how that could challenge the stagnant culture here! It is really time to wake up, not just to the horrible things going on, but how people can be a force for a liberating and beautiful future, with our arms around humanity.
This is the time to go boldly out into society with revolutionary vision/organization and this takes support! I am sending $400 and urge all who want a real future, a revolutionary future, to do the same!
To a beautiful future.
We have to put ourselves very urgently to breaking through in a very difficult situation where many people are caught up in a lot of bullshit, where this system is bringing us to the brink of potential nuclear war and where there’s tremendous silence and acquiescence—and yet underneath that lies the potential to break through, the potential for a positive resolution to this outrage. Recognizing that through the hard struggle in front of us we can fight to break through, we can build up the forces for revolution, we can bring into being a whole new society—one in which humanity can flourish. That’s going to take all of us. And raising funds to support this movement for revolution is one important part of doing that.
Statement about an immigrant from Russia who gave $20
He had been drafted into the army of the then socialist-in-words but imperialist-in-deeds Soviet Union at a time when it was carrying out its own unjust war in Afghanistan—and after the break-up of the Soviet Union to now Russia, he came to the U.S., and has learned a lot about the true history and role of the U.S. in the world. Since then, he has stood against U.S. crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan (following in the footsteps of the Soviets), and other places ever since. And he called on people in the U.S. to heed Bob Avakian’s call to "Free Yourself from the GTF!" (The Great Tautological Fallacy that America can do no wrong because America is a force for good in the world and is used to justify a whole history of slavery, genocide and war.) He calls for people here to oppose the U.S./NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, and supports people in Russia opposing the crimes of their own imperialist government and for all who can to be out on May 1 for Revolutionary Internationalist May First and to donate generously.
We want to hear your ideas. How are we going to build up the organized forces for revolution? And how are we going to fund the revolution?
Excerpt from video statement from Chicago aired on the April 24 livestream:
The RNL Show is more informative than any show that’s on YouTube and it’s hitting you with what’s really going on and what you need right now, what you need to know that they’re not going to give you. You’ve got a show that hits on so many levels of waking people up and the only solution that one could possibly get when it come to this type of system. And that is revolution.… One thing for certain—when you donate to something that’s real, it’s really felt. I mean it is really received and the people work hard, the people behind the scene that’s putting the show together, they’re doing what many others cannot do.
From the livestream: “It requires funding to produce the show. It requires funding to spread the show. It requires your ideas and your participation in fundraising projects… all kinds of creativity can be put to raising funds. Even if you don’t have resources yourself, if you have skills, if you have ideas—let’s put all that together and build a national movement to raise funds for this revolution.
“Raising funds itself is how the revolution can grow—through opening up debate and discussion on why this revolution is not just necessary but actually possible, about why people should make the sacrifice to support this and about why people should give to this, not to the various dead-end reform schemes or the electoral bullshit or just continuing to spend your money on ‘me, me, me.’ Raising funds is critical to getting organized for revolution.
“We gotta go to work. This is the time and the moment where people need to and can reach for the heights… Everyone who is tuning in has a responsibility in that, in donating and raising the funds to make that possible, but also going out and spreading the word to new people to be part of this, to get into BA’s work, to watch the Show. This is a time, like in the title, where we can go to something terrible or something emancipating and everything depends on you being a part of that. Let’s reach that $50,000 goal for June 1st and let’s go for more than that!”
Make Plans, Set Goals and Send in Ideas!
Here are some examples of things already in motion:
In Houston, two dozen people gathered for an international/internationalist pot-luck picnic on May Day—people from Pakistan, Iran, Honduras, Turkey, and other countries came and most brought food. Funds were raised for the Tour, the RNL show was promoted, and plans were made for more fundraising. A local DJ heard about Revolutionary Internationalist May Day and made these bandanas to raise funds for the revolution. He turned them out in 15 hours, working his press late into the night at minimum cost to get it done—now they are being sold for minimum of $5 each.
A local DJ heard about Revolutionary Internationalist May Day and made these bandanas to raise funds for the revolution.
In the Bay Area there are plans underway for a picnic in the Mission District with the aim of involving new donors from among the immigrants as well as people with more resources. And on May 28 Revolution Books will be working with new friends of the store to host a fundraising dinner with the aim of attracting new donors and supporters for the revolution.
LET’S GO!