Why Non-Communists (You and I) Should See the Film BA Speaks: Revolution—NOTHING LESS!
We want to share with our readers some thoughts and comments from someone who saw the rough cut of the film: BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
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Letter from a reader:
“I told her of my own experience of seeing the rough cut of this talk and how it changed the way I saw the world…”
The following was written by a young revolutionary who was part of a team that went out to a busy intersection in a Black and Latino neighborhood to spread the word about the film premiere of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
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“Bob Avakian Articulates What the Problems Are and a Plan for Changing Them”
Bob Avakian has mastered the art of communicating complex ideas so that anyone can understand them. He articulates what the problems are and a plan for changing them. He does not try to simplify either the ideas or the language to express them. Rather, he relates those ideas to the lived experiences of people, especially the oppressed who are often treated as ignorant and stupid. BA knows that they are not; he actually knows many people who are oppressed, unlike most political leaders.
Though this may sound simple, it is not easy; nor do I find it anywhere else in the U.S. political sphere.
Nancy Van Ness, American Creative Dance
March 6, 2013
“You need to experience this for yourself and get moved like I did”
At the fall presentation that I attended, Bob Avakian was speaking to me.
My testimony is reflective of my experience of finally meeting someone who was able to see me as a visible, viable force of fury who has since become an inextricable part of the movement for revolution. He tapped into all my emotions: in other words I cried when he scientifically articulated how capitalism and imperialism was intrinsically embedded in the consequential genocide of Black people.
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From an Iranian Communist Living in the U.S.
Dear friends and comrades,
As an Iranian communist who was involved in the 1979 revolution in Iran, I felt deep into my flesh and bones when I heard BA speak about “Revolution – Nothing Less!” The understanding he brings out in this talk, the lessons he shares, are lessons paid for in blood by thousands of revolutionaries and communists in Iran and around the world. Based on our experience in Iran,
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High School Student on the Film:
“It answers questions but calls on people to ask more questions!”
Before I saw the film I had learned about the lynchings during Jim Crow and before that, and I used to think, these people were fucked up. They took slaves, they killed Black people, they were fucked up. It was always about the individual. Like, some people didn’t do that, and some people did. It was never about, like, all the things that made that OK.
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“Talkin’ Bout… A Revolution?”
The following commentary by journalist and op-ed columnist Erin Aubry Kaplan, dated March 14, appeared on the Social Focus section of kcet.org, website of the public media outlet KCET in Southern California.
The short curve of Crenshaw between Vernon Avenue and King Boulevard has long been a kind of delta where the many rivers of black reality meet. For starters, Crenshaw borders Leimert Park and View Park, separating the affluence of those places from the poorer hinterlands south and east of there.
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“After seeing and hearing BA’s talk I laid awake and thought long and hard…”
From an activist and organizer:
After seeing and hearing BA’s talk I laid awake and thought long and hard about my life and what it was going to be about from here on out. After all I have been an activist and organizer trying to mobilize people to resist and oppose the crimes of the U.S. and while resistance is critical it will go nowhere unless people think about what’s next…what would really bring to an end to murderous wars for empire, the oppression of woman and minorities, and the destruction of the environment?
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“6 plus hours can impact 6+ billion lives”
From a young man in high school in the SF Bay Area who has watched the rough-cut of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
What stood out to you?
“When BA gets into pornography, the whole thing about porn how it really degrades women. When you get into that industry—if there’s no job and you’re in a desperate situation you end up getting into that because you’re desperate to make ends meet. Also, this country makes clear—BA talks about the culture of patriarchy promoted for so long it’s hard to know how far it goes back.
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The Film Shows BA’s “Love for the Masses”
I have already read the book, “BAsics” by Bob Avakian and enjoyed it. I also enjoy Revolution the publication. But the film, “Revolution, Nothing Less” actually really shows Bob’s love for the masses.
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From a Spanish speaking supporter and sustainer
(Translated from Spanish)
I’ve been a witness of a BA’s talk that only could be described as spectacular and much needed today. In it there are many valuable things for discussion and it poses impressive objectives that deserve the effort to get this project of the BA’s movie off the ground. All this effort yearns for giving voice and inspires the possibility of a radically different world from the exasperating nightmare in which many live today. The threat of mass incarceration and a war worse than the current one that hang over many people. A life sunk in misery and human degradation from which many yearn to free themselves. These powerful reasons suffice to support this nascent revolutionary movement.
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“It changed the way I looked at everything”
From a young Latina:
As a person who has seen the rough cut of this film, I think it’s very important for everyone, especially young people from the hood to see this because BA talks about what they go through and he has a solution to all the oppression. And I know for me, when I saw it, it changed the way I looked at everything… music, shows, commercials, ads. I just started seeing all the fucked up shit they promote and it made me want to challenge all that and not go along with any of it. So I think everyone should just buy their ticket, clear their schedules and be there on March 16.
March 6, 2013
Comments from Rev. Robert B. Coleman on BA
My conversation with Bob Avakian and my reading of his strategic plans for revolution have been challenging to say the least. To begin the conversation with focused attention on the poor and the marginalized fits my religious and biblical sensibilities. To give voice to the voiceless; to empower the powerless… these things speak to my heart as an ordained pastor and theologian.
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Dr. Ulysses Crockett, Dean of Instruction, Carlton R. Innis, III, Community Law School, Oakland
The film was wonderful and every segment was important. The length was necessary because Bob Avakian doesn’t always get the opportunity to speak to the people in the audience. We have to do outreach to those unfamiliar with what Bob Avakian was talking about since there’s the fascist control of the media, which makes many people brainwashed.
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“BA Everywhere is endurance, perseverance and equality. This about justice and equality—it is direction on how to.”
From a Minister in Chicago
“I’m an ordained minister but my life style consisted of me being a drug addict—one of the worst kind. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to feed my addiction. Now that my life has been changed there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep straight. BA is a part of my life and that is one of the things that keeps me strong—keeps me on the right path of righteousness.
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James Vrettos, professor, John Jay College, NYC
Having gone and listened to a live, public Bob Avakian speech, as I have, is to be exposed to one of the most provocative, serious and controversial social thinkers of our time. He’s an American original who should be heard, debated and critiqued for these dramatic and troubling times.
March 10, 2013
Professor of history and scholar of the Chinese revolution
BA is a great revolutionary leader in today’s world who has a clear understanding about what are the underlying problems of our world. He has been fighting for the goal of creating a world where there is no oppression and exploitation all his life. People who are interested in building a better future for humanity will benefit from listening to what he has to say.
March 8, 2013
“You have got to watch this incredibly credible movie”
From a small business owner and peace activist:
You have got to watch this incredibly credible movie. It is an absolute “Tour de force” by Bob Avakian that can and will move you right up to the front with thousands and then millions of others in the drive for revolution.
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Message to the Youth in the Neighborhood
I want to say this to the youth in the neighborhood. This system has no future for you. You have to seriously check out Bob Avakian.
From an early age this system had me programed for prison and I wound up doing many, many years. I know about the solitary confinement, the beat downs—the struggle to keep your humanity. I was a kid when I went in and an old man when I came out.
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From a conscious young Black man in Chicago:
Why People Should Come Out to
BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS
“Bob is like a Black leader but he is bigger than that” he is an emancipator for everybody.
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“I hereby recommend this docu/film as a must see”
We received the following blurb about the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!
The down-pressed peoples of the World needs and are crying out for Revolution—Nothing less! Comrade Bob Avakian painstakingly outlines in a simple, clear and forward way, the tactics and strategy of how revolution can be made and maintained within the borders of the United Snakes of America. He speaks with much courage and determination about the serious need for revolution and the crucial importance for it to be fuelled by revolutionary theory and the revolutionary science of Marxism Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, so as to bring about a more humane understanding of society.
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“Be a new generation that is standing up”
I’m buying a ticket for a young person who might need help getting to BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS. I want this ticket to go to a young person who is not a carbon copy of what this society wants the youth to be.
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On BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS
From a musician
After seeing the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS, I am much more in the know that there will be no change under this system of oppression, no real future for the youth, and all the horrors of this nation and the world will go on until we all stop kidding ourselves by the notion that our government is such the superpower that they can’t be defeated or that we are so powerless to just let all these outrages go on.
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Warrior Woman for the Revolution
This statement came from a woman who was unable to attend the premiere but has been part of collective viewings of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! since.
When I first was introduced to BA’s teachings, I was very shocked that this white boy was very real and knew a lot about Black life. Listening to BA, I felt that he knew just what I was going through and up against day after day. I was very interested in what he had to say and I wanted to find out more about this man who I heard and seen on video.
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From Barney Bush
From Barney Bush, Writer/Teacher/Native community chairman/Father/Grandfather and Activist in the honor of our homelands and the next seven plus generations
I am aware that we are at the crossroads where we are unable to recover any of the thousands of species destroyed by industrialization within just the last five years (about two hundred a day, so I hear). Having said that, we are already outside the realm of quick fixes for recovering the earth, air and water.
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“Black people need to see/hear this”
This statement is from a woman whose son was killed by the police and who heard BA speak:
Black people need to see/hear this tape because we blinded. I was blinded at first—I’m not blinded no more. They get out and hear this about why we are oppressed the way we are. Maybe somebody will stand up and say “we stand for revolution.”
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500 Years from Now…
Five hundred years from now, about the same amount of time that has elapsed since Columbus invaded what his class of exploiters call the “New World” and began a genocide of its native peoples, future humans, if there are still any, will look back on this time—our time—as one of the most critical in human history.
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From a High School Student on Hearing BA Speak:
“It is not enough to just say you agree. Humanity is at stake… Revolution—nothing less!”
This system cuts short the life of millions of children as they slave away in third-world factories, this system consistently allows police to murder anyone they choose, this system regards women as objects, this system literally starves people to death, this system perpetrates human suffering in all its forms. This is what we were born in to.
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“If you are someone who once imagined a better world or if you’re someone who has checked out revolution and communism in the past, but have found yourself believing the mantra ‘It looks great on paper, but it [is] horrible in practice. Communism just doesn’t work,’ you’ve got to see this film.”
From a teacher in Atlanta:
If you’re anything like me, the idea of watching a six hour film seems nearly impossible. I rarely get six hours of sleep a night, six hours with a friend or family member, six hours to do whatever…pretty much the only thing that allows me to spend 6, 8, 12, 16 hours is my work…my job and I guess I’m lucky to have one.