Recently, the Revolution Club in the Bay Area initiated a very new and beautiful thing. We hosted a fundraising dinner for the nationwide $100,000 Fund Drive to Put REAL Revolution on the Map in 2023. This dinner brought together people of different cultures and backgrounds on the basis of coming together as a community, sharing dinner, getting to know the revolution through the Bob Avakian (BA) Interviews and raising funds. The result was a warm and fun night full of tasty international food where folks got to meet people who feel like they do about the need for a radically different world and where they got to learn about the leadership of BA and the basic strategy to make an actual revolution. Over $1800 was raised.

About 50 people were there, including UC Berkeley students fresh into the new semester, immigrant women from Latin America, some with their kids, two groups which rarely if ever interact in society as a whole and who live in “two different worlds.” Also, several members of a progressive religious community, volunteers with the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners Now, as well as young activists from Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights. They represent struggles on opposite sides of the globe but share a common fight against patriarchy and religious theocracy. Veteran comrades and young revolutionaries, from their early teens to their late 70s, were there along with some young Iranian men who just by chance stumbled upon the dinner.

This time around, the Revolution Club took a different approach to building for the event. For past fundraising dinners, we tended to reach out to people we already know and who have supported the revolution in the past, but this time we had the approach of focusing our efforts on bringing in new people while still inviting old friends. This made a huge difference in the character of the dinner as well as a new conquering spirit being unleashed with Club members.

The emcee opened the night up with a welcome message from the Revolution Club, pointing to Club members in their Revolution Nothing Less shirts if people had questions. Special attention was paid to breaking down some of the barriers that exist between these different social groups. After people sat down with their food they were welcomed again and were given a sense of how this gathering is part of something much bigger: making 2023 a year of hope and possibility by putting revolution on the map. And that their contributions help make that a reality. As an introduction to the revolution, we played the section from the first BA Interview where he responds to the question “what is a revolution?” and where he breaks down these rare times when revolution is more possible. People were encouraged to reflect on this section and to talk among themselves as Club members mingled among the people there.

For the second part of the program we focused on the impact these BA Interviews have already had as well as a challenge for people to get into the revolution. To give a sense of the impact of these Interviews we showed a section of the fundraising livestream featuring Arturo O’Farrill. We summed up that we should have played the segment about the tamale sale, too, because it showed the kind of collectivity we are striving for.

We concluded the event with a call for people to watch the entire BA Interviews if they hadn’t done so already, to spread these Interviews, join the Revolution Club if they agreed with its principles, and to join in the ongoing big fundraising efforts for the $100,000 Fund Drive.

Our next step following this dinner is to organize those who've stepped forward around this Fund Drive and the BA Interviews and break down the divide between the revolution and those getting to know it, as well as between different groups of people. Inspired by the Chicago Revolution Club's 10x10 effort, we are striving for a similar effort. In addition, we want to work together preparing food plates for a food sale event on February 11. We will emphasize that funds are important but it is much more meaningful if people giving the donations engage with the Interviews and become part of the community being built around them.

Revolution Books will also be holding a used book sale on February 4 and 5. We will be highlighting all of these efforts with a major push for the February 19 fundraising livestream.

Finally, focus will be paid to pull together an introductory program to a real revolution (centered around breaking down the BA Interviews) with UC Berkeley students and others.

After the program we spoke with a couple of people who attended the program—D, a student from UC Berkeley; and T, a member of Mujeres Unidas y Activas…

D: Today was my first revolution, Revolution Books meeting, I've been hearing a lot about it through my friend A who is the newest member (of the Rev Club). She would mention it, stuff that the club is doing. And I think I wasn't really motivated to come, which is sad. But now that I'm here, I feel the energy of the people and how passionate everyone is. And it inspires me that stuff can get done. Because sometimes when you're outside in your bubble of the "real world," you get caught up in thinking really negative thoughts of  “Oh, nothing's gonna change. And I just need to conform. And I just need to find..., I just need to follow the path that everyone else is doing to get to some ‘sense of stability,’ or I guess, financially." But that's not the way, that's not the way to go. And I'm really glad that this group exists. I can see that everyone genuinely cares. And I am excited for the next meeting, because I will be here. And I can't wait to talk to more people about their experiences and their new ideas. And what's next.

Q. Do you think that from tonight you had a better sense about what this revolution is about?

D: Yeah, I think it just reaffirmed my belief that the system is broken, and that there's absolutely no way of reforming it any way possible. But I think I would need to learn or do more studying on what exactly Bob Avakian is saying in terms of what the new system would look like. I'm not fully convinced yet. I'm not fully convinced about Bob Avakian’s system, just because I haven't studied it. But I am convinced that the current system in place does not work at all....

Q: What did you think about the event and the Interviews?

T: Basically, the Interviews that I saw that Avakian did are very, very good. And it was a good opportunity to unite different races and cultures. The food was very good. And I think it is a good opportunity for one to put their little grain of sand into the Fund Drive, to fundraise for this campaign. It was very lively. I liked it even though I am very tired because I work nights. I’m happy. I ate great. I never ate this type of food but it was really good. I liked it, and that’s all.