What People Are Saying About

BA Speaks: Revolution—
NOTHING LESS!  BA Live

Why Non-Communists (You and I) Should See the Film BA Speaks: Revolution—NOTHING LESS!

Here’s what I have to say. Feel free to use it.

I have just seen the first two hours, of six, of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS! It was like plunging into a very blue, very icy pool. I got out shivering, sad, angry, and very worried. About my life and all of our lives.

Two wildly strange things came into my mind during the hours afterward. The first is from John 8:32: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The second is Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which Socrates describes a group of people who have been chained to the wall of a cave all their lives, facing the stone. These people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them. The shadows are as close as the prisoners ever get to reality. Socrates tells us that the philosopher is like a prisoner freed from the cave, who can step outside, at last, into the freshness of truth, the real world.  Read more…

from 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

from Rev. Robert B. Coleman, Pastor, Glendale United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN:

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. We may diverge on the various strategies employed to achieve a more just society. We may be identified by our disconnect when it comes to religion in general and Christianity in particular. But, there is great benefit in engaging in the dialogue, listening to Avakian’s critique and proposal for change, and discerning your place in the ordering of society as we move into the twenty-first century. Go, listen and learn. Engage in the dialogue and critical synthesis yet unfolding. The uncritical support of any public figure or philosophy is folly. And the test of effective strategy shall not come without intense interaction and dialogue.

March 12, 2013

from a former Peace Corps volunteer and environmental activist: 

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. Our planet is now literally teetering on the brink of environmental catastrophe, yet our so-called “leaders,” of this capitalist-imperialist system we all live under, do nothing. In fact, they are even accelerating the crisis. It was just reported that last year saw the second largest annual increase ever recorded of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas driving global warming. Greenhouse gasses are not being cut back, their output is increasing!  Read more…

from a conscious young Black man:  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.

When I say “Bob’s like a Black Leader” it’s because most of our leaders stood up against what’s wrong and tried to make a change in our community—and that’s what he do—but not just for our community, for the whole world.

When African-Americans, Blacks, what not, when they say “we need a leader” they mean we need a voice to speak about the conditions they in that they face every day from like police brutality to Black on Black crime. So Black people say they need a voice. That’s why I be like, “Bob is like a Black leader but he is bigger than that” he is an emancipator for everybody.  Read more…

from a young Latina:  “It changed the way I looked at everything”

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

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. Read more…

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… Read more…

from an African-American Grandmother and Freedom Fighter: “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. That open discussion of the reality of how chattel slavery historically and contemporarily affects those of us who continue to catch hell by this fucked up system just set me on fire and forced me to diligently look outside of my own plight under capitalism and get on board with BA and the collective revolutionary communist movement of the RCP to create an unfettered movement for revolutionary transformation. It compelled me to see the world no longer as a hopeless victim but as someone on a mission to organize others and to do so methodically.

It would be selfish and counterproductive if those of you reading this did not come to the film premiere of BA Speaks: REVOLUTION–NOTHING LESS! You need to experience this for yourself and get moved like I did.

Spoiler alert: He puts forth several challenges to us at the end, and if you come make sure you experience the whole thing.

March 9, 2013

from an Iranian Communist Living in the U.S.:

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, and what has happened to communist/Maoist forces in Peru as well as Nepal, people (communists and non-communists) who are seriously thinking about radical changes in the US should come to see the film of this talk. What BA says is based on objective reality and a summation of experience, including shortcomings, of communists all over the world. As comrade BA said, “Revolution is nothing to play with!” People who are serious should approach the revolution as scientists who want to change society based on a scientific approach. Sometimes revolutionaries and communists have not been prepared for a revolutionary situation. If you want to be prepared for a time when it might be possible to make a revolution, you should come listen to BA…

March 13, 2013

from a teacher in Atlanta: “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.”

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.

If you’re anything like me, you probably ask yourself, “Is this really as good as it gets? Is this really the best of all possible worlds?” If you’re anything like me, you’ve caught yourself compromising your hopes and dreams of a better world and a different future. Maybe you’ve caught yourself compromising your imagination to conform to what we’re told is “possible” and if you’re anything like me…maybe you’ve even started to believe that nothing will ever change. This is the best we can do, so I should quit whining, get back to work and be thankful.

If you’re anything like me, you MUST see this film; BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!  Read more…

from a high school student: “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. That’s what society was comfortable with. So I was always angry, I thought, how could you think that was ok? How could you see that and not say anything? Read more…