Initial Reports on May First 2010
(more to come)
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
After reading the call from revolutionary May 1st this year that called for the massive distribution of the party’s Message and Call, The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have, and given the response of the masses and their allies to the attack on immigrants in Arizona, we set a goal of distributing 10,000 newspapers over the two weeks of issue #200, with the bulk of the papers going out over the weekend of May 1st . We knew our plan was ambitious but we thought there was a real need to get out to more people with the party’s campaign to build a movement for revolution and its goals. And we thought there was a real basis to get these papers out and pay for them by calling on all those who have taken part in the campaign one way or another over the past months to be part of this day and by unleashing others as we went. Several Iranians, immigrants from Central America, and some UC Berkeley students who have been affected by, or participated in, different aspects of the campaign all joined with us for the day. Two young men from Sacramento (1 hour away) enthusiastically joined with our crew after hearing about our plans online. People who stepped forward to be a part of this May Day distribution, including some who joined us on the spot, made it possible for teams to go to and have a bigger impact at various events throughout the area.
We distributed approximately four thousand newspapers on May 1st and raised over $1200. The immigrants rights demonstrations were not as large as anticipated, though significant nevertheless, so we fell short of our distribution goals that day, but still had a real impact on those demonstrations. And while we did put the challenge to everyone who got a paper, and shook the bucket for donations, we need to do better next time in raising funds. Contributing to the newspaper is an important way that people can be part of the movement for revolution we are building and this needs to be made clear to people whenever we are out with the newspaper.
We started the day in Berkeley with a decorated flatbed truck accompanying a spirited group of revolutionaries and supporters. The paper was distributed as we chanted, drummed, and marched onto the Cal campus and then back through People’s Park (that got its name from the struggles of the 60's). Then we headed out to the site of the pro-immigrant rally in Oakland. Close to 1,000 immigrants had gathered at Fruitvale Village to protest the new law in Arizona. We went from area to area of the crowd, distributing the paper, shaking the can, with a banner made by a youth from the neighborhood who has been part of the campaign. The banner, in graffiti style, said The Revolution is Real. At our Fruitvale rally point one of the UCB students brought some really good and spirited drum-work, with others joining in the great chants that were developed for the day, like "The future is calling, a better world is possible... the future is calling, the revolution is real."
During the Oakland march there was a really cool scene at an apartment building where there were two Black women sitting on the stoop. When one of the women said "wait here, let me go in and get some money for this," others there started looking for money to contribute, with a couple of Latino guys reaching out of the first story apartment building with a dollar for the paper. The scene was repeated with workers in auto repair garages who had stopped work and gathered to watch the march and were reaching out through the gates of their workplace to grab copies of the paper.
Then we took our decorated sound truck to the rally site in East Oakland where we have been taking out the campaign since July. A lot of people driving in the neighborhood were honking their horns and raising their fists in support of our march and some lowering their windows and yelling out "Revolution!"—stopping their cars to buy the newspaper. Several Latinos were not intimidated by the heavy police presence at the rally and joined in. One had seen the May 1st leaflets that had been posted up the week before and came with his own home-made sign opposing the law in Arizona.
May Day immigrants rights marches in SF and San Jose
That day there were other powerful immigrant rights marches in San Francisco, Watsonville, San Rafael and San Jose. After a brief stop at the San Francisco rally where hundreds of newspapers and hundreds of “We Are ALL Illegals” stickers were distributed, people left for San Jose. This was the largest march in the Bay Area. 10,000 people, mostly Spanish speaking immigrants marched for four miles to city hall. Whole families came with their children. Some were wearing homemade t-shirts, "Do I look like I’m illegal?" One family had a sign which read "We don’t stand for racist laws. We march against them!" Church groups, unions and students came with banners and signs. People chanted, "Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha!" A long banner against the Arizona law, stretching for half a block, was signed by thousands of people and carried by dozens of people, horizontally, over the heads of the marchers. A defiant spirit among the marchers was evident when police tried to use their motorcycles to get people off the street and confine the march to the sidewalk—the thousands in the street would not move to the sidewalk and the cops backed off.
While there were many U.S. flags being distributed at the march, many people responded favorably and took up the paper when they heard that we are building a movement for revolution. And many people were moved by what they read on the back page of the paper, that the world doesn't have to be this way, a better world is possible.
A woman who works with an organization that relates to prisoners said she believed that the message of the paper, of overturning the system and creating a new world, could be a kind of message that could change people's lives. An African-American who spent time in the SHU at Pelican Bay said he had not seen the paper there when he did time, but he liked the idea that the paper was there and he was upset that the Revolution is being kept out. He is in favor of anything that helps break down the divisions among the races.
A multi-national team of revolutionaries carried some red flags and a banner which read “Somos seres humanos, exigimos un mundo mejor, no aceptaremos ninguna forma de esclavitud”. This internationalist and revolutionary spirit was welcomed by many – and when this slogan was chanted many joined in. About 2700 copies of Revolution, mostly in Spanish, were distributed. Everyone was asked to make a donation and many did: one man bought a bundle of ten papers and donated 100 dollars. Some high school and college students got bundles. Another 450 papers were distributed in nearby Watsonville, a center for farmworkers drawn from all over Central America.
And many got stickers which said "we are ALL illegals." Many times, all afternoon, as the river of marchers flowed past, young revolutionaries called out with bullhorns to the people. They were talking not just about the horrors of the system but about the possibility of revolution and that there IS a revolutionary leadership in Bob Avakian – hands would reach out: young women pushing strollers; guys in baggy pants; elderly people; middle school kids; professional couples; people all reaching for Revolución newspapers.
CLEVELAND
Revolutionary May Day in Cleveland was marked by a vibrant team of high school youth and others determined to get the Call, "The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have" out to thousands. We had a truck decorated with red flags and banners, "The Future is Calling, the Revolution is Real!" and "The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have!" for all to see and the Call booming out there for all to hear. We started at a rally opposing the attack on immigrants in Arizona, getting out armbands, "We are All Illegals", then to a plaza by a huge housing project, then to a corner we've been agitating and selling Revolution newspaper for 2 years. In this area, as the truck was going through, people happy to see us there yelled, "May Day" and "Revolution!" Two relatives of a 29 year old Black man, Joaquin Hicks, who was recently sentenced to 61 years in prison for a crime there is no evidence he committed, got out the Call along with the flyer for Joaquin and one told the team, "The struggle to free Joaquin and building the revolution are one and the same. I'm down for revolution and tell everyone that. I've been watching Bob Avakian's Revolution Talk and I dig it."
After taking SAT tests in the morning, several high school and a junior high youth jumped into the scene, going up to cars telling people "This [movement] is to stop inequality and the oppression by the government" and "We are out here for May Day to end all social inequalities and oppose using resources for profit not human needs." Getting into the scene and seeing the energy going on, along with debate, the youth called others to come out and one joined in. At another big intersection in the Black community, two youth got on the bullhorn and read from the Call and then ran some comments of their own, "Do you think we need change, do you see the oppression all around and then just sit back and wait? Because that's never going to change a thing. You need to get active, get involved and be part of this movement!"
At one point, a Black man said he was for the Arizona clampdown on immigrants and a Revolution seller took him on and then he went over to the youth and told them not to listen to us because we are communists and then went on about the immigrants. The revolutionary youth got into it with him and one told him how can he talk about the Mexicans coming here when the U.S. occupies Iraq for years. At other times during the day, masses tried to tell the youth they need to get with God, stop listening to those communists, or to the white people, that revolution is not the way to go, only to find the youth had lots to say and had minds of their own. Lots of debates flew all day as thousands of the Call got out in different areas of the city, debates over religion, communism, the campaign, and the way out of all the horrors. One person on the team said he didn't like the part in the Call about "The truth is, there are no gods...and we don't need them!", and we talked about that at our break and then we all continued to get out the Call.
As people were leaving the last corner, everyone on team was talking about the upcoming conferences on the campaign in NYC. Everyone felt with all the interaction with the masses, taking the message all over that there is another way, that "We do not have to live this way," and that Bob Avakian's leadership is key to this revolution. One youth wrote later that day, "I thought May Day went well. I'd say we accomplished the goal of pushing towards social awareness for these issues and how we need to work to better it all."
A Revolution seller summed it up this way: "With all the debate and tangling over different issues, the youth really busted out along with others to make it clear to all that 'We ARE building a movement for revolution. And that movement needs you.' Today felt like the campaign pushed out, began to take off and move to another level, in beginning to forge a core of passionate and conscious fighters for this revolution in Cleveland."
CHICAGO
In Chicago's Union Park thousands of people gathered on May 1st for a rally in support of the rights of Immigrants.
A tent capped by an eight foot banner of the Masthead from Revolution newspaper, bearing banners in English and Spanish with the slogan, “WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS!! WE WILL NOT ACCEPT SLAVERY IN ANY FORM!! IMMIGRANTS MUST HAVE FULL AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS!!!” stood at a key corner of the park. A loudspeaker at the tent played the Spanish language reading of the Statement and Call. At different times you could see people leaning against nearby trees or hunkering in the grass nearby listening intently.
From this tent, snake marches of revolutionaries wove through the throng with red flags and globe flags. Chanting “No hay un problema de inmigracion! Si hay un problema del capitalismo” and passing out the statement and call “The Revolution We Need... The Leadership We Have.” Then spreading out through the crowd getting out the statement and Revolution newspaper.
Along with the statements and newspapers, armbands and stickers were going out with the slogan “We are all illegals! Todos Somos ilegales!” These were taken up energetically by many in the crowd, including being worn by some of the speakers on stage. As the march left the park the stickers and armbands/headbands were visible in the crowd which organizers estimated at 20,000.
The Statement and Call was recognizably different from other literature being passed out. Some people who got the statement raised the question of whether communism would be able to be widely accepted by people in this country. Some with experience in social movements argued that first you needed to get people involved in resistance and then, only later, could you talk to them about revolution.
Later—in a neighborhood in the Ghetto: A truck decorated with enlargements of pages from the May 1st issue of Revolution rolled through the neighborhood streets. Reaching out to people on their porches, a crew of revolutionaries flowed around the truck.
Playing from a loudspeaker was the Ghetto remix, featuring an audio clip from Bob Avakian in his talk, Revolution: Why It’s Necessary, Why It’s Possible, What It’s All About. Sometimes on the porches and sidewalk you could see youth dancing to the beat as the truck came up the street.
Some youth knew what was up and commented, “here comes the revolution people”. Some greeted the crew with raised fists and comments of “Revolution”. For others this was their first time meeting the revolution. One young man, on hearing the sounds shouted out, “You’ve come to the right neighborhood.”
There was a certain welcoming atmosphere, one woman commenting on how she had just read the Call that had been posted on the lamppost last year. (A number of statements and posters are still up on some blocks). And among some there was a desire to dig into things. A couple of people raised the question of the spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and talked about what is happening to the world environment. Some raised issues of whether people would take up communism, giving their own perceptions of what had happened in revolutions in the past.
At a May 1st concert and dance later in the evening stickers and armbands were visible on people who had come out from the protest earlier in the day. For some there was an opportunity to dig a little deeper with people around the statement. A teacher at the event really identified with the comments on education under this system. He told of how a program on critical thinking at the university he had gone to was planned for very limited enrollment while the main program – sticking to the curriculum and teaching with an eye toward results on standardized tests – was the course work for most prospective teachers.
L.A.: Taking The Movement for Revolution Out all over L.A. on May First!
From early morning to well into the evening, revolutionary May Day was celebrated by taking the movement for THIS Revolution, a new stage of communist revolution, into the streets and among different sections of the people – first to the massive immigrant rights protest downtown; then through the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles known for its African American cultural scene to the nearby, largely Black city of Inglewood where police have been murdering Blacks and Latinos in record numbers; and finally in the early evening to Westwood Village, where the campus of UCLA borders the largest concentration of Iranian immigrants and Iranian Americans in L.A., and where this year’s march on International Women’s Day was held drawing attention especially to the women of Iran risking their lives in the forefront of the protests there against the despised, woman-hating Islamic regime.
The large Revolution truck was decorated with huge red flags and banners: “The Revolution We Need...The Leadership We Have;” the Revolution newspaper masthead; and another with the cover of the DVD Revolution Talk. People had on their “Revolution” T-shirts, and for those who did not have that shirt there were “Revolution” stickers to put on that made it look just like the other T-shirts. The RCP’s Message and Call in Spanish and English played all day from the truck, together with calls from the revolutionaries on board for why people should get with the Revolution. Another, smaller truck was positioned near the store and next to the march playing the Spanish version of The Statement.
On May First the Revolution was getting its “swagger” back – and its rhythm! A woman in a movie line in Westwood, as the Revolution truck went by with chants blaring, said “It makes me want to dance!”
A drum corps with half a dozen drummers had pulled together and practiced for this day; during the immigrant rights march they came behind the truck and kept the rhythm going almost continuously, giving the beat to spirited chants:
“Everywhere we go
People want to know
Who we are
So we tell them
We are the communists
Revolutionary Communists!”
(to the tune of “Remember the Titans!)
Later we added:
“Everywhere we go
People want to know
Who’s your leader
So we tell them
He is Bob Avakian
Chairman Bob Avakian”
and by Westwood they’d added:
No borders or banks
No wars or tanks
No nations, no nations
Another world is possible
Tens of thousands of copies of the statement “The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have” and hundreds of issues of Revolution went into the hands of the people all day, along with ‘pluggers’ for the Revolution talk. Most were hearing about the Revolution for the first time, though there were some who’d seen Revolution newspaper before, or heard speakers in their high school or on their college campus, or learned about it on the Michael Slate show on KPFK. And Bob Avakian became known in at least a beginning way to many, many new people who were hearing excerpts of the DVD played over the loudspeaker.
A young man from Puebla in Mexico came looking for the contingent because he received a leaflet at the garment shop where he works. He said that he agrees with what the leaflet says and wanted to help get leaflets out among the people. He said that he has read the paper before and knows the bookstore.
Over a hundred thousand marched against the attacks on immigrants just in L.A., overwhelmingly Spanish speaking immigrants but with a large number of young people as well, who came with parents or friends. The contingent stood strongly with the resistance to the new attacks on immigrants represented by developments in Arizona, and made and distributed armbands and buttons saying “We’re all illegals.” The revolutionaries at the same time planted a very strong pole for revolution, communism, and the campaign, and challenged people to break out of the dead-end framework of electoral politics. The Mayor had called on people to carry American flags and wear white, and on stage he led people to chant “USA, USA” just like the reactionaries do. Amidst the thousands of American Flags, the contingent challenged people to put down that flag, hated symbol to people around the world and dripping with blood, and instead get with the movement for Revolution. It sparked controversy, and caused many to think more deeply. One woman at the march said she was surprised; she’d never looked at it that way, and it's true.
The truck with the revolutionaries on board then went through the Inglewood neighborhood where many police shootings have occurred. They blasted out with the recording of the short statement in English and called people to come out in the street. One young teenager who had seen the revolutionaries out there before stepped forward and signed up to get involved after telling a story of how she and her friends had been jacked there by the cops. Two other teenagers wanted to know what people can do today to work for revolution, and then signed up to find out more. Later in Westwood one of the TV news stations came out, and did a live report on the evening news. The truck led a small march which attracted the attention of people sitting outside and inside the sidewalk cafes, and standing in the movie lines along the way.
On Sunday there was a potluck dinner at Lucy Florence, a local restaurant in Leimert Park, followed by a short program and the playing of a segment of the DVD. Michael Slate and Clyde Young spoke before the playing of the DVD. They talked about how we are going to get this campaign out everywhere and they read from issue #198 from the letter, “Lessons On the Revolution.” Michael read from the editorial and gave an introduction to the DVD. He read from that part in the letter that talks about imagine and change and he brought out what the Chair has raised about there being no permanent necessity to the way things are. Clyde talked about the campaign and its three objectives and how the DVD plays a central role in this campaign. He talked about the many different on-ramps to the campaign for those who are just coming forward—things like fund raising and watching the Revolution Talk. Michael discussed our plans for the month of May in having the Revolution Talk showings at colleges, high schools, and in houses, and in building for getting it to go viral online.
