Continue to Advance: Build off the BAsics Bus Tour Through the South
This editorial has been reposted from Revolution newspaper, revcom.us:
The second leg of the BAsics Bus Tour, which went through parts of the South in May and rolled into Sanford, Florida, had a big impact. It spoke to and captured the imagination of thousands… in the South and throughout the country—and many hundreds of people across the country were part of making something very important happen. In doing so, those people around the country and those who the Bus Tour met in the South have been part of beginning to cohere a national movement around the mass fundraising campaign to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works into every corner of society: BA Everywhere… Imagine the Difference It Could Make!
Build on the momentum of the BAsics Bus Tour — Attend and Build for Report-Back Celebrations in Your Area!
Over the past few weeks, many hundreds of people across the country have stepped forward to make something very important happen… the second leg of the BAsics bus tour which went through parts of the South and delivered a message from those hundreds to the people of Sanford. In accomplishing this,people around the country, the volunteers on the bus and those that the Bus Tour met in the South have been part of cohering a national movement around the mass fundraising campaign to project Bob Avakian’s vision and works into every corner of society, BA Everywhere…Imagine the Difference It Could Make! More than $30,000 has been raised, to pay for this leg of the Tour and for materials and initial seed money for the next leg of the Tour.
Come to the report back in your area or write us so we can put you in touch events in your area or near by. (See below for celebrations in New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Cleveland.) And find out other ways, where ever you are and whether you only have a couple of hours a week or the whole summer (!) to build on the momentum created by the BAscis Bus Tour in the South. Write baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com to volunteer to work with press, social networking, developing a web site and much more! And to let us know of other events.
As one who marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., both in support of civil rights and in opposition to the war in Vietnam, I want to go on record in support of the BA Bus Tour into the southern USA and in my strong admiration for the courage of those who are making this witness to the deepest values of this great country and all its people.
Dr. S. Scott Bartchy, Professor of Christian Origins and the History of Religion, UCLA; former Director of the Center for the Study of Religion
Be a part of a movement to spread the vision, voice and work of Bob Avakian, everywhere.
- Donate right now to start funding the next leg of the BAsics Bus Tour and spread its message. Go to http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com/donate
- Write your own statement of support. Write your response to the focal point of the Tour, BAsics 1:13, and why you support the Tour. E-mail baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com
“No more generations of our youth, here and all around the world, whose life is over, whose fate has been sealed, who have been condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality, whom the system has destined for oppression and oblivion even before they are born. I say no more of that.”
— Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:13
Bringing a message to Sanford with BAsics and 100s of voices from across the country
This following piece has been reposted from Revolution newspaper. It was first published HERE.
by Sunsara Taylor
Down in Sanford, Black people are still seething over the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26 on his way home from a 7/11 convenience store. It is NOT “old news.” Neither is the fact that the police refused—for 45 days—to arrest his killer, George Zimmerman. More, they are following the case closely and recognize the preparations underway to exonerate Zimmerman.
When we rolled in on the BAsics bus, projecting the leadership of Bob Avakian and calling on people to get into the movement for revolution to put an end to the system that has foreclosed the lives of so many generations of Black youth through the entire history of the USA and of millions more throughout the world, it didn’t take any work to get people to open up with their outrage or their own bitter experience at the hands of the police, in the prison system, or in their dealings with the thick white supremacy which permeates the entire country but is more openly trumpeted in this part of the confederate-flag-waving South.
Black mothers told of having had to bury their teenage sons due to violence the police didn’t even bother to investigate, of having lost their sons to police murder where there was never even a case opened up, of struggling to be strong for other sons as they were sentenced by racist judges for crimes they didn’t commit or which were too petty to merit years of hard prison time, and of fearing for the indignities and brutality that was destined for the grandbabies they were now raising whose fathers had been stolen.
Everywhere we went, outrage poured forth. Bitterness. Anger. Heartbreak. Fear for the future. What took work—in many cases it took repeated and sharp struggle—was for people to really hear and get the meaning behind the word REVOLUTION. Not just protest. Not just “marching till our feet bleed” or “screaming until our voices are hoarse,” which is what many people told us was good but would never change things. But REVOLUTION. An actual victorious struggle for power and the defeat and dismantling of the oppression institutions of the old state power, when the time for that is on the agenda—when the system is deep in crisis, when millions of people are ready to put everything on the line to bring the system down and with the necessary leadership and strategy.
Carl Dix at a speak out in front of the Sanford, FL police station on May 25, 2012.
Sanford is where 17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered in a modern American lynching
Snapshots of building support for the BAsics Bus Tour to East Oakland
During the last two weekends we took out the historic BAsics Bus Tour to two neighborhoods in East Oakland. Sometimes we went with a truck that was decorated with displays of the tour and a couple quotes from Bob Avakian (“No more generation…” and the “3-strikes”). Sometimes 4 of us and sometimes the two or three of us just piled into a car and drove through the ‘hoods, stopping at bus stops, street corners, houses, shops, park and Wal-Mart where we found groupings of masses. (We also went to a church on a Sunday but there were very few people.) We would get out of the car and talked to people about the Bus Tour, about revolution and communism that the Tour is spreading to the South through promoting BAsics and BA and the leadership he gives to this movement for revolution. We also spread the word about a Memorial Day BBQ that will be in a park in one of the ‘hoods and that will report back to people the exciting experience from the Bus Tour.
To the new freedom fighters;
Greetings. I would like to let you all know that I think that what you are aiming to do and the messages that you are conveying is very important and very much needed and you are all on a great journey in the troubled areas in the South, or the lynching belt dubbed as the bible belt. I only wish that I could’ve been there with all of you, but I am here helping to raise monies and awareness to the cause, and hopefully the message will be heard and there will be more freedom caravans in the future in all areas of the South and all other places where the “Stand your ground” law exist, which is a law that is made from bias politicians and is the reason that the murder of Trayvon is allowing his murderer to be free on bond, and is possible he won’t see the inside of a courtroom.
Anyway, as I said, what you all are doing is very important, much needed, and hopefully more people will open up and be in the mindset to think critically to what is happening in our society and not no long turn a blind eye to the way this nation is at the present time, with injustice, oppression, racism, and a government that is set on instilling fear and telling lies to the people. I sincerely hope that you will find more people to join the cause for revolution and instill the hopes that we can all change things in this society and rid us from all the digressions of this government that is motivated by greed and instills fear and control upon the people with their so-called law enforcement that incarcerates and kills millions without provocation for Uncle Thomas Sam for many decades. The time has come to stand up and count ourselves…a revolution is needed and the machine and regime must be broken.
Here’s wishing you all on the tour a safe journey, and I am with you all in spirit. Blessing to you all!
Power to the people,
A jazz musician in Cleveland
Be a part of a movement to spread revolution and the work of Bob Avakian, everywhere.
- Donate right now to support the Tour and its message. Go to http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com/donate
- Write your own statement of support. Tell everyone who needs to know the whole world doesn’t have to be this way, why you support the Tour. E-mail baeverywhere [AT] gmail.com
“BAsics Bus Tour – Adelante!”
Charles Person, one of the 13 original Freedom Riders stopped by for a meet-and-greet with all the Basics Bus Tour volunteers last night! There was a great discussion among Charles and the volunteers, they talked a lot on how to sum up the movements of the 1960s and going forward today.
“Keep track of the freedom bus—the Avakian bus!”
Dr. Cornel West supports the BAsics Bus Tour.
Watch and Share this video online. Donate to support the Tour at http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com/donate
“I wanna put in my strong endorsement of this freedom bus… Courageous brothers and sisters going down to the gut-bucket South. The old Jim Crow senior, still the Jim Crow junior, of course. Whole lot of lynching used be going on in the past, still police brutality taking place, unemployment and underemployment taking place. Dilapidated housing in place, disgraceful school system’s in place… Revolutionary Communist Party bearing witness in a serious kind of way. And I just want to let folk know… I’m behind what they’re doing… keeping track of the injustice here in the state. Keep track of the freedom bus—the Avakian bus!”
~Cornel West
Read other statements of support at http://basicsbustour.tumblr.com/support
