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.
