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| Red Guards | |
|---|---|
 | |
| De-facto leader | Jared Roark |
| Dates of operation | 2015-2018[a] |
| Merged into | Committee to Reconstitute CPUSA |
| Motives | Initiation of a "protracted people's war" in the United States.[1] (officially) |
| Ideology | Ultra-leftism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Gonzalo Thought Terrorism |
| Major actions | Cultism[2]
|
| Status | Inactive |
| Size | ~200 |
| Opponents | Democratic Socialists of America Party for Socialism and Liberation Other local socialist organizers |
The Red Guards in the United States were a collection of nominally decentralized Marxist-Leninist-Maoist and Gonzaloist organizations which effectively operated as a highly centralized cult focused around its leading cell in the city of Austin, Texas.[3][4]
Adopting ultra-left and sectarian positions common with Maoists, the priorities of the Statesian Red Guards included a strong opposition to what they referred to as reformism, and focus on petite-bourgeois adventurism and, eventually, the start of a terroristic "protracted people's war" against the government.[5] The group took up violent approaches against local members of socialist organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, leading to violent attacks on their gatherings which were done in the name of "anti-revisionism".[6]
The Red Guard formations disbanded and reformed into the clandestine Committee to Reconstitute CPUSA starting in 2018. This organization, led by criminal Jared Roark, continued to practice its cult tactics against its members and adopt similar ultra-centralized leadership styles and cliquishness. This successor group, too, would be disbanded in 2022 and its leadership exposed by former members.[3]
History[edit | edit source]
Formation[edit | edit source]
The Red Guard movement in the United States first originated in the city of Austin, Texas, when in 2015, communists that were previously participating in an effort to form a communist party based around Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology split, and instead organized into a smaller group of Gonzaloist cadres, known as the Austin Red Guards, whose activities were largely limited to charity and small-scale protests in favor of the LGBTQ+ community, which were commonly done under the slogan "serve the people."
Later on, the Austin Red Guards were able to gain popularity among other Maoists for their vocal denouncement of the widely-disliked Trotskyist party, the International Socialist Organization, among other infamous groups. The Austin Red Guards exploited this popularity that was created from their polemical attacks against opportunists to create similar Gonzaloist Red Guard collectives (which largely functioned as merely front organizations) in other parts of the United States. These Red Guard organizations were allegedly created through coercively splitting rival Maoist collectives or, if that tactic failed, eliminating them as an effective organization entirely.[7]
Anti-electoralism during the 2016 election[edit | edit source]
At around the time of the 2016 election in the United States, the Red Guards began to escalate both their rhetoric and tactics, with Red Guards beginning to take militant action against Trump supporters, and calling on voters to boycott the presidential election and instead take revolutionary actions against the bourgeois democracy.[4][5]
Also at this time, the Red Guards would attempt to attract support from protestors from Black Lives Matter as well as feminist and transgender movements, with one notable Red Guard cell renaming itself to the Popular Women’s Movement. However, these efforts were not met with notable success, with the Red Guards later refuting the Black Lives Matter movement as liberal and reformist[8] and even embracing quasi-transphobic tendencies.[7]
Later activities[edit | edit source]
After the conclusion of the presidential election, and in the immediate years following it, the Red Guards would largely maintain their anti-reformist rhetoric and anti-fascist stance, with the Austin Red Guards publishing a statement which called on other collectives to begin "militarization," and declaring that "the war is not coming, it is here and now."[9] At this time, the Red Guards further intensified their attempts at creating and expanding aligned-cells. However, also at this point, the Red Guards would soon begin to direct criticism and even take forceful action against organizations which failed to adhere to a similar Gonzaloist line, which included reformist socialists and even other communists, with their tactics beginning to encapsulate what has been described as "street gang tactics."
Their actions at this time reportedly included disrupting tenant organizing efforts due to their location being within what Red Guards had claimed was their "turf," threatening rival Maoists by harassing them or leaving dead animal remains on their doorsteps,[7] attempting to attack Democratic Socialists of America gatherings,[10] and even physically assaulting a Democratic Socialist congressional candidate.[11]
Statements of dissolution[edit | edit source]
Following increasing controversy over alleged attacks on DSA and other organizations by Red Guards, along with other reasons, on December 17, 2018, a Red Guards Austin (RGA) WordPress account published the statement, "this project has reached its conclusion, we are no more."[12] A Red Guards Los Angeles (RGLA) WordPress published a similar statement on May 17, 2019, stating, "Red Guards Los Angeles, as of today, is no more."[13]
With the largest and most influential Red Guard collectives disbanded, most other Red Guards followed suit and dispersed, with many collectives likely suffering from a lack of discipline, collective leadership and democratic centralism, and internal unity.[14]
Ideology[edit | edit source]
The Red Guards have described their ideology as "Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism," a variant of Maoism that is characterized by its dogmatic adherence and emphasis to the works of Mao Zedong and Abimael Guzmán, also known as "Chairman Gonzalo." Viewing their ideology as being the "highest stage of Marxism," the Red Guards commonly viewed most other schools of thought in Marxism as being "revisionist" or "social-fascist," and therefore in contradiction with their own views.[15] Such a view likely would contribute to the militant sectarianism that the Red Guards were infamous for.
Media[edit | edit source]
see main article: Tribune of the People
The publications Incendiary News and Tribune of the People have periodically reported on actions occurring around locations of some previous Red Guard activities. However, the actions reported on were carried out by different organizations or carried out anonymously. Photos of graffiti featuring hammers and sickles, Maoist and Gonzaloist slogans, and calls for justice alongside names of people who have been killed by police has been a common feature of the graffiti-related reports.[16][17]
Incendiary News ceased publishing in 2020 after its former publisher wrote a self-criticism, citing poor leadership and rightist errors, and endorsed Tribune of the People, with the statement, "I call on all readers, all supporters of Incendiary, to all of its Support Committees, to cast away the stained and tattered paper and support the Tribune of the People."[18]
See also[edit | edit source]
External links[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Certain Red Guard collectives maintained activity until 2020.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Red Guards Austin (2016-9-7). "DON’T VOTE, REVOLT!" Retrieved 2022-9-10.
- ↑ https://redguardsaustin.wordpress.com/2023/01/29/statement-on-the-opportunist-former-leadership-of-the-us-maoist-movement/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kelly Weill (2023-10-21). "Ex-Members of This Maoist Clique Say It Was a ‘Cult’" The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2023-12-2.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Joseph Caterine (2017-2-17). "Red Guards and the Modern Face of Protest" The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-9-10.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Red Guards Austin (2016-9-7). "DON’T VOTE, REVOLT!" Retrieved 2022-9-10.
- ↑ Red Guards Austin (2018-10-21). "DSA are capitalist pigs!" Retrieved 2022-9-10.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Criticism and Self-Criticism: Red Guards or Iron Guards?" (2019-10-17). Cosmonaut. Retrieved 2022-9-10.
- ↑ Red Guards Austin (2016-7-18). "What the fuck is wrong with the Black Lives Matter Movement in Austin?!" Retrieved 2022-9-11.
- ↑ “The war is not coming—it is here and now. We must take our historic task seriously. We must accumulate forces and steel them in small-scale street battles. We must respond accordingly to the apocalyptic reality that capitalism-imperialism has forced on us. There is no third way, no middle road, and all who refuse to grasp this have in fact chosen a side already—they have chosen the side of business as usual for oppression. We too have chosen our side and we have stood and will stand on the front lines of class struggles in the US. We are at war and we always have been—it is time we behave like soldiers. We are guided by the promise of communism. The world is in chaos, and we must choose either the socialist future or the barbarism of extinction, and this is what it means to live in the age of the strategic offensive.”
Red Guards Austin (2017-8-27). "Everywhere a Battlefield" Retrieved 2022-9-11. - ↑ DSA Metro Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky (2019-10-14). "Statement of Solidarity with KC DSA" DSA. Retrieved 2022-9-11.
- ↑ Asher Price (2020-1-13). "Austin Democratic congressional candidate says she was assaulted" Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved 2022-9-11.
- ↑ "Important notice." Red Guards Austin. December 17, 2018. WordPress. Archived 2022-09-11.
- ↑ "Important notice." Red Guards Los Angeles. May 17, 2019. WordPress. Archived 2022-09-11.
- ↑ "Statement on the History of the Tampa Maoist Collective and its Dissolving: If You Don’t Dare to Struggle, You Don’t Deserve to Win." (2018-3-22). Tampa Maoist Collective. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
- ↑ Red Guards Austin (2016-6-5). "Condemned to Win! Position paper from Red Guards Austin, 2016" Retrieved 2022-9-11.
- ↑ “Week in Struggle: February 4-10.” Tribune of the People. February 11, 2022. Archived 2022-09-11.
- ↑ “Week in Struggle: February 18-24.” Tribune of the People. February 25, 2022. Archived 2022-09-11.
- ↑ Ruiz, Ruben. “To My Comrades of the Former Incendiary Editorial Board, the Tribune of the People, Incendiary Support Committees and the Revolutionary Movement.” March 26, 2020. Incendiary. Archived 2022-09-11.