From organizers in NYC:
Building on similar efforts two days earlier in the Dominican community of Washington Heights, we took the message of the BAsics Bus Tour to El Barrio/East Harlem. Our team of three included one person selling Revolution newspaper. One person carried a large sign with BAsics 1:13 (the focal point of the Tour reproduced below) and the Bus Tour logo, in Spanish for people to write their statements. The third person passed out the cards with the quote and a flier about the upcoming fundraising picnic and the Bus Tour organizing committee meeting.
Among recent immigrants from rural Mexico, we encountered people who did not know how to read and write. The quote was read dramatically in Spanish, and their verbal message was then transcribed on the sign. And more broadly, when the quote was read out loud, several things would happen. The quote became a social question, and people voiced unity that the system doesn’t have a future for the youth, and a number of people asked who is Bob Avakian. Among Afro-Americans we saw some who recounted being stopped and frisked and one who had a family member killed by police and a Black college student who told us that they had a hoody day at their school in upstate New York standing with Trayvon Martin.
We went into stores, and barbershops, and talked with people enjoying the afternoon sun on the steps of their buildings. One young Puerto Rican guy said, “It’s great what you are doing,” as he put his donation in the Bus Tour can.
Then we headed over to the park which attracted a mix of people watching soccer and basketball games, and picnicking. In one picnic area, after hearing about what we were doing, the chef invited us to enjoy their food and festivities.
Altogether, between the two days in Washington Heights and El Barrio, over 35 people wrote messages on the poster to send to the Bus Tour, and many of them gave small donations.
BAsics 1:13
“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.”
– BAsics, from the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian