It’s June and graduations are everywhere – caps and gowns, balloons, ecstatic families, crying grads.  And looming over it all like a dark shadow is The Future – what is the world students are entering into, what promise does it have, and what meaning are their lives going to have?  At one inner-city high school in Los Angeles, where less than half the students who started there as ninth graders make it to graduation, and this year’s graduation included memorials for two classmates who died during the school year, graduating seniors got the opportunity to do something meaningful at their graduation and they eagerly took it.  As students sat in their seats on the stadium floor and then walked up to have their name announced and picture taken with the principal, nearly 50 of them, about a fifth of the graduating class, wore a small orange-colored button on their blue gowns.  From a distance all you could see was a button.  But up close and in person, students wore the button so it could be read:

“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, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, BAsics 1:13

Changing the World with BAsics 1:13… and Getting Ready for the Next Leg of the BAsics Bus Tour

This is reposted from Revolution newspaper, http://revcom.us:

Over the next several weeks, be one of hundreds taking part in the fundraising for the BAsics Bus Tour and distribution of many, many, many tens of thousands of copies of this quote from Bob Avakian:

“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

There is a great power in this quote… a deep truth-speaking from Avakian on the brutal history and present-day reality that has been faced, and is being faced, by generations of our youth, as he says, here and around the world. It lays the blame for this where it belongs—not because of human nature, and not because of “personal choices” but because of a system of capitalism-imperialism that plunders the globe for profit above all else, exploits and oppresses whole peoples all around the world and casts them off when it finds other sections of people to more profitably exploit. This quote taps into and draws forward something very deep from people—their outrage at things as they are, and their hopes and aspirations for a world where youth do have a future, where they can lift their heads and straighten their backs. It connects up a life experience people know—in this country, the particular oppression of Black and Latino people—with their common oppression with generations around the world… whether it be young girls from Moldova or China sold into sex slavery; children working in sweatshops in Bangladesh or Vietnam; or youth in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan facing U.S. bombs raining from the skies.

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What happens when you are part of raising funds for and distributing BAsics 1:13: You raise people’s sights on a critical question—both enabling and compelling people to confront how bad things really are (there is denial, even among those who are being crushed by this system from all sides) and planting the pole of refusing to accept that things will continue to be this way. This is part of fighting the power and transforming what people are thinking about and debating with each other. You introduce people to Bob Avakian—the leader who has developed a way out of all this madness. Through his own words, people begin to learn about this leader who has developed the scientific theory and strategic orientation for how to actually make the kind of revolution we need, and who is leading the Revolutionary Communist Party as an advanced force of this revolution. BA is a great champion and resource of the oppressed worldwide, and his leadership means that millions and millions of people can rise to their full potential and play the world-historic role of being emancipators of humanity. You give encouragement to others who are taking up or checking out BA and this revolution. Too often people who are daring to lift their heads and dream and fight for a better world run into cynicism and the millions of reasons why “fundamental change is not possible.” When they see this quote around, they start to know they are not alone. Plus, others who may dismiss this the first or second or even third or fourth or fifth time will keep on seeing this in a way that gives them more than one chance to lift their heads and join in. The more that people see not only the words and leadership of BA, but also signs that others are taking this up, the more seriously they take all this and the more they are willing to let themselves consider that maybe there is a way out of all this—the more they feel compelled to engage and to take responsibility for being “part of the solution.” You join with others to have an impact that is much greater than anyone can do on their own—acting as individuals, there is no way we can change the conditions of our enslavement. But, with leadership, and acting together with thousands of others, even small things we do can be part of having a huge impact on the whole political and ideological terrain throughout the country and part of how those thousands learn and build up their capacity and grow their numbers to do even more.
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What happens when you are part of raising funds for and distributing BAsics 1:13:

  • You raise people’s sights on a critical question—both enabling and compelling people to confront how bad things really are (there is denial, even among those who are being crushed by this system from all sides) and planting the pole of refusing to accept that things will continue to be this way. This is part of fighting the power and transforming what people are thinking about and debating with each other.
  • You introduce people to Bob Avakian—the leader who has developed a way out of all this madness. Through his own words, people begin to learn about this leader who has developed the scientific theory and strategic orientation for how to actually make the kind of revolution we need, and who is leading the Revolutionary Communist Party as an advanced force of this revolution. BA is a great champion and resource of the oppressed worldwide, and his leadership means that millions and millions of people can rise to their full potential and play the world-historic role of being emancipators of humanity.
  • You give encouragement to others who are taking up or checking out BA and this revolution. Too often people who are daring to lift their heads and dream and fight for a better world run into cynicism and the millions of reasons why “fundamental change is not possible.” When they see this quote around, they start to know they are not alone. Plus, others who may dismiss this the first or second or even third or fourth or fifth time will keep on seeing this in a way that gives them more than one chance to lift their heads and join in. The more that people see not only the words and leadership of BA, but also signs that others are taking this up, the more seriously they take all this and the more they are willing to let themselves consider that maybe there is a way out of all this—the more they feel compelled to engage and to take responsibility for being “part of the solution.”
  • You join with others to have an impact that is much greater than anyone can do on their own—acting as individuals, there is no way we can change the conditions of our enslavement. But, with leadership, and acting together with thousands of others, even small things we do can be part of having a huge impact on the whole political and ideological terrain throughout the country and part of how those thousands learn and build up their capacity and grow their numbers to do even more.

Getting Down to BAsics With the People of Sanford, part 1

This is reprinted from Revolution newspaper, http://revcom.us:

Part 1: “I Couldn’t Put It Down”

by Michael Slate

In late May I joined the BAsics Bus Tour as it rolled into Sanford, Florida, the town where Trayvon Martin was killed. The tour brought the work and vision of Bob Avakian and his book BAsics into Sanford and I spent my time in the Black neighborhood of Goldsboro talking with the people about their lives and digging into the deep questions of how to change things. This series is dedicated to the people of Sanford and to the crew of volunteers on the tour, whose enthusiasm for spreading the work and leadership of Bob Avakian and for fighting to build the movement for revolution inspired everyone they encountered.

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