Taking Up the Call to Raise Funds to Put REAL Revolution on the Map
Updated
In different parts of the country people have begun taking up the call to raise $100,000—to put REAL Revolution on the map—by donating, writing statements and reaching out to others. (Share your response or your experience! Write to us at GetOrganizedForRevolutionTour@gmail.com)
As the February 19 Livestream moved close to the end and it looked like we might not reach the $100,000 goal that night, a call went out for pledges. Inspired by the livestream as a whole—especially the personal responses to the BA interviews from several donors, the announcement for the February 24 initiative to bring forward a massive movement opposed to OUR imperialist war makers, and the Revcom action at the Pussy Riot show, supporters at a watch party in Cleveland pledged to raise $400 with a bake sale on the weekend of February 25th.
It was harder to meet this pledge than we expected....
$400: Cleveland watch party [for the February 19 Livestream] is pledging to raise $400 next weekend with another bakesale & we'll involve some of the people who have gotten connected thru the fundraisers this past month.
We’re sending in $461 that we received in cash donations in Houston through dinner sales and a 10x10 project taken up by several store clerks.
...A salon that asked us to come back after the last sale was really glad to see us. As we came in the door of this very busy place, the woman at the desk said, “make sure you talk to everyone.”...
Cleveland Valentine's Day Bake Sale for $100,000 fundraising
As part of the $100,000 fund drive to put this revolution on the map, we've wanted to reach lawyers—to raise funds and to introduce them to Bob Avakian's work. This is a strategic section of people and BA's breakthrough work on law, justice and ending oppression and exploitation needs to be seriously engaged—broadly and among those who work in the legal sphere.
Just sending emails has gotten very little response, so we decided to go directly to where we know lawyers congregate—the criminal courthouse....
About 40 people gathered in the north side church’s dining hall for the Revolution Club’s potluck dinner and Open Mic as a part of the $100,000 fund-raiser heading into its final stretch and the Livestream on February 19. Together we raised $1,100. Another $50 plus was raised at a craft fair earlier in the day.
"...without the financial support of many people from different walks of life and different viewpoints, we are not going to be able to change the world."
Houston—Dinner tickets:
A small group here of people has been raising money for the fund drive through selling dinner tickets for next weekend’s Afghan chicken palau and Punjabi vegetarian dinner sale. Two restaurant owners who had read the call for $100,000 to put revolution on the map contributed dinner plates to be sold as part of the fund drive....
One man who said he didn’t think people’s thinking could be changed listened to the “Dangerous Escalation” clip from RNL said “This is important. They want to line people up behind the U.S. or Russia, but this is showing there’s another way, another option in the interest of humanity."...
Houston - raising funds in stores and change jars @therevcoms
Houston—Intersections:
A team has gone out to a few busy intersections in the city, with large signs in English and Spanish that read “DONATE to the $100,000 fund drive to Put REAL Revolution on the Map in 2023” and have distributed hundreds of fund drive flyers and collected a significantly larger amount in donations than in the recent past. One woman who donated $5 said, “Here’s to start you off strong”. In 2 weeks $195 has been raised this way.
Part of the nationwide Fundraising Campaign to Put Revolution on the Map in 2023. We sold plates of Iranian and Mediterranean food donated by local restaurants in support of the revolution and raised over $500.
Revolution Books organized a Giant Used Book Sale to help raise $100,000 to put revolution on the map. Saturday, February 4, was the first day of a two-day sale and a good start. We raised $562 in books sold and donations towards the fund drive.
Used Book Sale at Revolution Books, Berkeley, February 4, 2023, for $100,000 fund drive. Photo: Revolution Books, Berkeley
As people are trying to come to grips with the murder of Tyre Nichols, on top of all the continuing horrors of this system, we’ve reached out with both revcom flyers and BA Interviews palm cards, and challenged people to join in the growing movement to put revolution on the map, starting with taking up the $100,000 fund drive. Our aim is to both involve new people and raise money as well as to build momentum for the livestream on February 19.
Supporters of REAL revolution in Cleveland decided to do a bake sale this weekend to build off our experience selling dinners at small businesses a few weeks ago, and to reach out much more broadly—despite continuing bitter weather. We wanted to introduce many more people to The RNL Show and the Bob Avakian Interviews. And we wanted to better understand how people much more broadly are reacting to the depraved police murder of Tyre Nichols (and the two additional murders since that we are aware of) in this mainly Black city where the only “protest” that has taken place in the wake of the release of the videos of Tyre’s murder was a quiet vigil to “shine a light on police brutality”—which everyone is damn well aware of.
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.
Participants in the Internationalist Dinner. Photo: Revolution Club, Bay Area
150 to 200 people came out to the January 21 Women’s March rally in Cleveland. The revcoms set up a table to raise funds, sell T-shirts and get out palm cards for the Bob Avakian Interviews. $180 was raised selling “Force Motherhood Is Female Enslavement” T-shirts. Almost everybody in the crowd got flyers and palm cards for the Interviews and there was considerable interest expressed in the Interviews, including from some involved in the movement to defend abortion rights who are agonizing about how to fight the fascist assault on this fundamental right of half of humanity.
Cleveland - Fundraising at Women's March
In Chicago, we will be participating in the February 11 Handmade Market which is held once a month at a local bar. Several of us have come together to create beaded jewelry, crocheted items like headbands with patches saying “Abortion On Demand Without Apology” or “Create a World Without Rape” and other slogans as well as ponchos, and baby blankets and other items. This is one way that we can join forces to raise funds for the $100,000 Fund Drive even in the dead of winter.
From members of Revolution Club, Chicago
As part of succeeding in raising $100,000 to put Real Revolution on the Map in 2023, we put together a Zoom meeting with five people who were working on their 10 x 10 challenges (people with few resources pledging to donate $10 and then finding nine other people to each donate $10—with the goal of raising $100 to donate to the revolution). This collective form gave people a way to dig into the different things they were all running into and put minds together to work on solutions.
700 palm cards for the BA Interviews were distributed along with a flyer of BA’s article “America: Truly a Model of Depraved Racist Genocide.” $66 was raised for the fund drive and plans are being made to do a video showing/fundraiser in the Black community (hopefully coinciding with Black history month).
The Revolution Booth at the MLK Day parade and festival in Houston, 2023
Building off our earlier experience of selling baked goods to support the revolution, we wanted to do more to contribute to the $100,000 fund drive to put revolution on the map. Inspired by the description of the whole collective effort in LA to sell tamales for the revolution, a woman who had stepped forward to play a big role making and selling the baked goods, came up with the idea of selling dinners to raise funds....We wanted to find a way to reach and involve new people in many ways, introduce them to BA and the potential for real revolution, and build community around that—without standing on street corners in freezing rain, where people may buy something but aren't likely to engage for more than a moment.
Cleveland - Preparing dinners for sale for fund drive
I'm giving $325.... I’m giving today because Bob Avakian talks about ending all this oppression with a revolution. Bob Avakian talks about a new world, his vision is emancipating.
I find these Bob Avakian Interviews very interesting! I can say I feel the same way as he, I want to see humanity emancipated.
“I connected with y'all after I heard the program on the radio (The Michael Slate Show) and I knew what y'all was saying was the truth. I've always felt that way in my heart. When I listened to your group I felt like I connected with somebody who felt the same way I did and understood life that way and really wanted to put effort in trying to do something about it. And that's why I'm donating because I know it's the right thing to do.”
Some of us got together last night to talk how we can make some big advances—in raising a lot more funds and through that connecting more people with the revolution…. We had some enthusiastic wrangling over how we can contribute as much as possible and what difference it makes to succeed.
A team from the Revolution Tour has been strategizing on how to go outside of our immediate networks and reach out broadly to the middle class—for real engagement and impact with The Bob Avakian Interviews on The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, and to raise funds to put this revolution on the map. In this, we've also wrestled with the strategic importance of reaching those among the intelligentsia who really care—challenging them to get into this revolution, at this urgent time. Read more
The Revolution Club, Chicago, has set a goal of raising $1,000 through what we are calling the “10x10” as part of meeting the $100,000 goal for the revcoms' fund drive. We are reaching out to people to themselves donate $10 and to commit to reach nine more people to do the same.
We call on people who are able to donate $100 or more to this fund drive to match these donations.
Read more
Watching the new Interviews with Bob Avakian is inspiring and challenging people, including people in and around the Revolution Club—changing how they understand the world and bringing forward deep appreciation for this person and this rare and necessary leadership for real revolution. With the call for a fundraising effort to put revolution on the map and to reach thousands and then millions with these Interviews, the Revolution Club in LA enthusiastically pulled together...
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