BAsics Bus Tour Through the South: Alive With Bob Avakian’s New Synthesis
Reposted from Revolution #273
In May, the BAsics Bus Tour went through parts of the South, starting in Atlanta and going to Athens, GA; Gainesville, FL; and Sanford, FL (where Trayvon Martin was killed in February). Go to basicsbustour.tumblr.com for reports, photos, and videos from that leg of the tour. The following is a correspondence from one of the bus tour volunteers.
“Think of the situation this tour is heading into… a region where the memory of public lynchings is still quite vivid in many people’s minds and where modern-day lynchings are backed up by local authorities… a region where some of the harshest anti-immigration measures have been put into place, legalizing racial profiling and instilling terror in the lives of immigrants who have come here for survival for themselves and their families… a region where there have been hundreds of incidents of attacks on abortion clinics including arson, fire bombings and even the murder of providers …”
—From Revolution #268
This is exactly what the BAsics Bus Tour through the South in May stepped into!
Atlanta, GA—the Neighborhoods
From the photographs of these neighborhoods, one gets a sense of the living conditions of hundreds and thousands of people in this country (but also throughout the world). People finding the ways to have time pass by, as one woman recounted. She mentioned that people hang outside to step outside of their home (for a minute). In the hot days, the BAsics Bus Tour hit the scene with a beautiful chant letting people concisely know how things will be different day one after the revolution.
I walked in there with trepidation—unsure of how (people hanging outside) would respond. There was a moment of silence/pause, and then the revolutionaries stepped in. Immediately the scene changed as pockets of people began to deeply interact with the revolutionaries. It was as though a dusty brown painting was splashed with colors of liberation (red, black, yellow, etc.). Life was brought into this oppressive hot day. I quickly realized how much people really wanted to engage this movement for revolution—specifically, its leader Bob Avakian. Stories began to pour out of people’s daily existence (police brutality, mass incarceration, no jobs, mis-education).
Clyde Young, revolutionary communist and former prisoner, speaks to the kickoff event for the BAsics Bus Tour as they get ready to head South… watch this with friends, on streetcorners, barbershops and in housing project hallways… be part of spreading the BAsics Bus Tour and BA Everywhere… What a Difference It Could Make!
The First 48 Hours on the BAsics Bus Tour
by Alice Woodward
Bus riders, its only been two days and it feels like the Basics Bus Tour has swept through Atlanta with the leadership of Bob Avakian and the revolution we need, and a lot has happened that’s new for everyone that’s become a part of it. This bus has stopped at a high school twice, housing projects, an immigrant community, a radio show, a forum on the murder of Black men, and an excellent Carribean restaurant that donated a meal to the volunteers.
The first night volunteers were in Atlanta a supporter of the bus tour brought us to a neighborhood where the bus would touch down for the first time the next day. This is a Black neighborhood with run down housing complexes lined with stark black iron fences. All the public housing in Atlanta has been torn down recently and some people who were pushed out live here. Across the street is a prison that can be seen from the bus stop where people wait every day. Jordan, a volunteer was almost in tears describing these conditions to the group.
Inside the Basics bus a group of other volunteers made up of people from all over the country, Black, white, Latino, women and men, young and older, rehearsed before touching down, the chant they would be singing was,
When the revolution comes, won’t be no mass incarceration!
When the revolution comes, won’t be no police brutality!
When the revolution comes, no oppression of immigrants!
When the revolution comes, won’t be no wars for empire!
When the revolution comes, won’t be no dissin’ the sisters!
The tension was palpable, “I’ve got butterflies.” Jordan says, because its the first time they’re going into the neighborhoods, and we don’t know how people will respond.
