A Bus Tour Contribution from a Black Republican
I met M when the BAsics Bus Tour was just getting started in NYC. A Black man in his 50s, M heads up a tenants association in one of the areas in Brooklyn that the tour was set to go into. A couple of other people in the neighborhood had mentioned him as someone to go talk to. We sat down in his office, and I explained a little about what the Bus Tour was and how we were going out broadly to call on people to support this in all kinds of ways—donating food and places to stay for the volunteers, helping with meeting places, passing out the palm cards with the BAsics quotes, and so on. M quickly launched into a rant about all the hassles he’s been going through with the housing authority and other city bureaucrats—how they see him as a troublemaker because he speaks his mind, and as a result how
BAsics Bus Tour Delivers a Message to the World
Times Square, New York, Thursday July 26, 2012
The event: A revolutionary happening to deliver a message to the world: “American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People’s Lives” BAsics 5:7; and
“Internationalism — The Whole World Comes First.” BAsics 5:8. With music, visuals.
The BAsics Bus Tour went to Times Square to let the people of the world know about BA and BAsics by delivering this much needed internationalist and liberating message — at a time when the American chauvinist “U.S.A. #1” bullshit is in high gear for the Summer Olympics; when the U.S. government is waging high tech wars, declaring their right to assassinate anyone anywhere around the world; when U.S. imperialism is destroying the ecology of the planet and causing unspeakable deprivation to peoples around the world; when immigrants coming to this country are being demonized as illegal.
Bob Avakian is a visionary communist thinker and revolutionary leader. He is the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
THURSDAY’S NEWS & HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE to the BAsics Bus Tour on the ground in NYC
Preparing for the BAsics Bus Tour coming to the Bronx: Going to Soundview
Photo: At the door where Amadou Diallo was shot and killed by NYPD. Neighbors hold up Revolution posters (PDF|JPG).
This week, as we have gone to community centers and people we have met in the Bronx to prepare places for the tour volunteers to stay and more, we went to the Soundview area and to the block where Amadou Diallo was shot 41 times by NYC police in the alcove of his apartment building in 1999.
Contribute to the BAsics Bus Tour. Watch and spread this video to make the goal of $25,000 by the end of this weekend towards the next leg of the Tour… kicking off in NYC and surrounding areas. DOWNLOAD this for screenings throughout the weekend: vimeo.com/45323963
Taking out revolution and internationalism at the International African Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NY on anti-July 4th
International African Arts Festival, Brooklyn, NYHundreds of people strolled leisurely around this festival, in the sweltering summer heat, listening to African music, tasting African and Caribbean delicacies, and browsing jewelry, clothing, music cd’s, and African drums, in the multi-aisled outdoor marketplace. Vendors from West Africa, Barbados, Guyana, Senegal, the U.S. and many other countries brought their wares to sell. Some people traveled from their home countries to this five day festival. It was a colorful crowd with Muslim African women in traditional dress, Rastafarians, African Americans, and people of all nationalities.
In the midst of this, revolutionaries talked to people about BAsics, Revolution newspaper and the cards featuring quotes : “American Lives Are Not More Important Than Other People’s Lives.” BAsics 5:7 and “Internationalism—The Whole World Comes First.” BAsics 5:8.
BAsics Bus Tour — Sample Fundraising Letter
The following is a template for letters to send out to people broadly to raise funds for the BAsics Bus Tour. You can draw from and adapt this template, or write your own letters—the important thing is to reach out to everyone you know and call on them to donate to this tour that will make a big difference in the world.
Dear ,
I am writing to ask for your support for an exciting and impactful venture… the next leg of the BAsics Bus Tour kicking off from New York City in mid-July.
This is building off the last leg in May which went from Atlanta, GA to Sanford, FL (where Trayvon Martin was murdered). This tour reached out to, and captured the imagination of, thousands—connecting people with the vision and work of Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader who has developed a new synthesis of communism. And all throughout the tour, the multinational and multigenerational volunteers worked to involve people in the campaign to spread BA’s voice even further as part of building the movement for revolution.
Announcing the BAsics Bus Tour: Kicking off from New York City... Reverberating Across the Country
This is reposted from Revolution newspaper, http://revcom.us:
The BAsics Bus Tour… fresh off its second leg in May, will be heading out in mid-July from New York City. Right now, $50,000 and hundreds of volunteers are needed to make this next leg happen—contributing funds, volunteering for the tour itself, and throwing in, in whatever ways they can, to get this tour on the road.
This leg will be building on—and taking further—the most recent experience with the bus tour which began in Atlanta, Georgia, and made its way to Sanford, Florida. Sanford is the site of the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a vigilante, and it is the place where tens of thousands came to protest this modern American legal lynching. (For more on the second leg of the tour, check out basicsbustour.tumblr.com.)
This tour has reached out to, and captured the imagination of, thousands—connecting people with the voice and work of Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader who has developed a new synthesis of communism. And all throughout the tour, the volunteers have worked to involve people in the campaign to spread BA’s voice and work even further as part of building the movement for revolution. Hundreds of people all across the country came together to make this tour happen—contributing and raising funds, sending support statements, following and spreading the blog posts from the tour, helping to house and feed the volunteers in the places where the tour went. Hundreds were part of sending a message to the people of Sanford through signed banners with quote 1:13 from Avakian’s BAsics featured in the centerspread of this issue.
Be Part of Taking the BAsics Bus Tour Higher
This is reposted from Revolution newspaper, http://revcom.us:
People have begun to volunteer and teams are beginning to be assembled to build for this leg of the tour. But in order to make this tour happen, and for it to reverberate across the country—many hundreds need to be involved nationally and in NY itself. $50,000 is needed to have a real impact—in this region… and across the country. The situation in the world is demanding that people know about Avakian’s work, and have a chance to be part of the movement to bring a radically different world into being. This is a crying need—and if we are able to reach out far and wide, tap into the inspiration and excitement (see the statements of support at basicsbustour.tumblr.com) that the boldness of this bus tour has garnered, and organize cores of people to come together and raise the funds in broad and creative ways—this can be made possible.
