Raising Funds for the BAsics Bus Tour!
Raising Funds for the BAsics Bus Tour!
We will report in a few days on the results of the efforts to raise $25,000 by the weekend of July 6-8 for the upcoming leg of the BAsics Bus Tour set to begin in New York soon. Volunteers across the country are packing their bags, teams in NY have been spending time in the areas the Tour will be going to… people are beginning to get involved. In order to make all this happen, fundraising for the Tour needs to go to a whole other level… reaching and involving many more people, and giving them the opportunity to be part of something that can make a big difference in the world: a Bus Tour aimed at spreading Bob Avakian’s vision and works throughout society, connecting with sections of NY and the surrounding areas that are most cast off, repressed and brutalized by this system as well as reaching out further to other strata who don’t like this situation… through this Tour, all these people finding out about Bob Avakian, and getting organized into the movement for revolution.
A total of $50,000 needs to be raised by August 1. For the coming week, along with ongoing forms of mass fundraising – the yard sales, tamale sales, events, all of which are essential in the BA Everywhere Campaign, we also want to encourage people do a lot of meetings with individuals about contributing. See this post for a call for matching contributions as one aspect of what people can do (though there are also people who can give larger sums who should be reached about this Tour).
Remember to also ask people for a statement saying why they are contributing and encouraging others to donate too.
Here are some key fundraising materials to use (also see the “What You Can Do” page of this blog):
Video about the last leg of the Tour
BAsics Bus Tour Phone Banking Script (Word file)
“I gave to the BAsics Bus Tour” card (to give to donors as a memento of their much appreciated contribution)
Stoop sale raises funds for the revolution.
A very successful stoop sale held near the public housing projects raised $143 to pay for thousands of palm cards featuring the “No More Generations…” quote (BAsics 1:13). Most of the items, clothes for adults and children, used kitchenware, books etc. were donated by people from the projects who support the movement for revolution.
“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
The BAsics Bus Tour: Next Stop -- Atlanta and Beyond
From the article…
The BAsics Bus Tour is getting ready to hit the road in the South. Next week volunteers from Los Angeles to New York will stream into Atlanta. They will be traveling there on the money donated for this tour all across the country. Some will be taking greetings that were created and signed in the communities they’re coming in from. They’ll be representing something much bigger than themselves. As one volunteer put it: “This is a great opportunity to expand and widen the movement for revolution, as well as to let many more people know about BA and the revolution…the fact that this vision was brought to them and that they know that there are people who really WANT TO DEDICATE THEIR LIVES to change the world, that already makes a difference in the political atmosphere of the country.”
This crew will bring word of Bob Avakian and the new synthesis of communism he’s brought forward, the strategy for revolution he’s developed, the leadership that he’s providing to the movement for revolution. The focal point of this tour is BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian—a book of quotations and short essays that concentrates over 30 years of BA’s work on everything that stands between humanity and its emancipation. This work can introduce people to “the basics” of understanding and changing the world and give them the foundation from which to act on the world and learn more. The tour will be getting out hundreds of copies of BAsics itself, and tens of thousands of palm cards and posters drawing from this work, letting people know about it and getting into all kinds of discussions off of it.
