One person who donated for the first time is a liberal with a lot of anti-communist views whom I had previously shared the clip from BA's interview on the RNL Show about his denunciation of the "ends justifying the means" and why that approach has absolutely no place in the revolution or revolutionary socialist society.  She was shocked, at both his outlook and his nuanced approach. When I spoke to her recently we were talking about her friends who canceled their subscription to the Washington Post because Jeff Bezos, the Post’s billionaire owner, refused to publish an endorsement of Harris. She was debating how to protest that decision. I said: donate to a movement that’s not just independent, it’s dedicated to ending the rule of billionaires and their capitalist system over our whole damn world. And she said: good idea! This wouldn’t have happened without our earlier discussions, but I wouldn’t have asked her to donate with my old approach either. After our conversation, I sent her a link to the new @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere website for a better understanding of the campaign.

The other person who donated $100 is someone I worked with many years ago and have stayed in touch with loosely over the years, a bit more in this election season. I asked for $200 and he donated $100 for now. He isn’t on social media much but he does subscribe to BA on Substack and was familiar with many of his dispatches, but he hadn’t seen the new website and didn’t understand the urgency of the @BobAvakianOfficial Everywhere campaign. When I told him about the campaign updates, he was really excited about the measurable impact of his donations and, even though his monthly commitment is smaller than I requested, he’s now an active part of this movement and sees himself as such. 

One person who gave some time ago replied to my email that they didn’t have time to talk and won’t give money now anyway because they “hold out little to no hope” that masses of people will rise up in a sustained way if the Trump fascists try to seize power, which they think is a strong possibility. This person conceded that they’d only “skimmed” what BA’s been writing, and are almost completely unaware of what we’re doing. I replied that they need to subscribe to BA’s Substack (they’re not on social media), listen to REVOLUTION #88, and check out the new website to get a flavor for the bold, creative campaign that’s already touching many thousands of people. And however pressed for time a person may be, it only takes a minute to donate $100 (including the links). They did thank me for keeping in touch so I said I’ll be back soon. 

This is truly just skimming the surface in one corner, and in each case it was introducing a challenging message or clip or quote from BA himself that busted people out of their assumptions and at least opened up a conversation. But we need so much more money to begin to meet the needs of the hour! I hope this encourages you to do much more, and better.

A Reader 

The audience was mainly a punk and street art scene—anti-fascist and anti-Trump but largely tuned out and/or cynical about the possibility for fundamental change, but very open to hearing an argument about real revolution. 

This crowd is attracted to the creative and satirical way Indecline's art creatively challenges the status quo.  (And the art itself was interesting and in-your-face but worth a reflection in its own right.)

Using a car battery, a loud speaker, and projecting a few illustrated video excerpts from Bob Avakian's message from the roof of a pick up truck got people's attention in a way just flyering would not have done.  This was a great thing to do!  There really is nothing like getting Bob Avakian's voice in front of people—straight and direct with so much sharpness and undeniable hard hitting revolutionary substance. 

About 85% of the crowd (approximately 850 people) got the flyer for REVOLUTION #81, many read it in line and stopped to talk, ask questions or responded to the call to be recruited into this revolution. 

We were arguing for people to follow, and donate to have an impact with @BobAvakianOfficial and this social media message.  And a few people did donate.  But we summed up that we needed to make the call for funds even sharper.  There were a couple times in the night when a long line amassed out front and we should've concentrated our forces right then and there—with an ideological challenge on where people spend their money, and why giving to the campaign to spread @BobAvakianOfficial is the most important thing to spend money on.  This wasn't a monied crowd, but we think could've opened up the debate even more.