As part of the $30,000 fundraising campaign for the National Revolution Tour, someone supportive of the revolution wanted to host a food sale. He’s hosted a food sale in the past and this time he was looking to broaden his audience and thinking about his neighbors and the people in his community from different backgrounds and thought that since the holidays were coming up, he wanted to sell tamales. He doesn’t know how to make tamales, or any Mexican food, so he put out the idea and said he would donate the ingredients if we found a volunteer to make them and cook them. Another supporter of the revolution who knows how to make delicious tamales volunteered to make them. During the fundraising livestream we read both their statements on why they were contributing to the $30,000 goal:

From the host of the Tamales Sale:

“I’m contributing to this revolution because I believe in the cause of revolution, the fact is that everyone needs to stand for something, or they’ll fall for anything, and these people are standing for something, which is making revolution. This is what we are organizing for, this is what we do, we listen to Bob Avakian: He is talking about real revolution. Everyone who wants to fight for this revolution needs to contribute, this is why I’m contributing!”

From the volunteer cook (who is predominantly Spanish-speaking):

“I’m contributing to this fundraising campaign to raise funds for the revolution, because the world we live in is a nightmare for the eight billion people of the world and this is all because of this system. The work the National Revolution Tour is doing in this time is very important and there needs to be a lot more support from people who hate oppression and want to see a better world for humanity. This is why I am contributing in the ways I can, and I want to call on others to contribute, whether financially or in other forms. Thank You.” (Translated from original statement in Spanish.)

The volunteer made 100 tamales and came out with us to sell them. We set up a stand in the neighborhood and put up a sign. Days before, we got out a flyer with the details for the day of the sale and went around inviting people. The host of the sale got on the phone and called his neighbors and then got out on the street corner with us and called on passing cars to stop and get some tamales and support the revolution. Several people who had seen us in the neighborhood and knew the host, came and bought tamales and took the fundraising pamphlet. We had printouts of the new talk by Bob Avakian, SOMETHING TERRIBLE, OR SOMETHING TRULY EMANCIPATING: Profound Crisis, Deepening Divisions, The Looming Possibility Of Civil War—And The Revolution That Is Urgently Needed: A Necessary Foundation, A Basic Roadmap For This Revolution. We had brief discussions with people about where their money was going. Someone we had worked with in the past saw our flyer from a few days back and stopped by and bought 10 tamales, she took the new talk and said, “I came because I support this revolution, I want to hear this new talk and get into it.”

In addition to raising the necessary funds, there was something important about this fundraising project: Two people from completely different backgrounds and even with a language barrier were brought together to raise funds for the revolution. They were very impacted by each other and want to figure out more projects in the future to continue raising much needed funds for the National Revolution Tour.