I Wor Kuen () was a radical

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

that originally formed in 1969 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

’s

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

. Borrowing from the ideologies of the

Young Lords The Young Lords, also known as the Young Lords Organization (YLO) or Young Lords Party (YLP), was a Chicago-based street gang that became a civil and human rights organization. The group aims to fight for neighborhood empowerment and self-det ...

and the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. New ...

, IWK organized several community programs and produced a newsletter series promoting self-determination for

Asian Americans Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

. Initially consisting of students from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, the group worked in conjunction with residents of New York City's Chinatown to address the community's needs for

healthcare reform Health care reform is for the most part governmental policy that affects health care delivery in a given place. Health care reform typically attempts to: * Broaden the population that receives health care coverage through either public sector insur ...

, draft counseling, and

childcare Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

. The group expanded nationally with the

Red Guard Party The Red Guard Party was a Chinese-American youth organization formed in February 1969. It was named after the Red Guards of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Origins The Red Guard formation resulted from several societal and economic pressures com ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1972 to create a national organisation.

History

The organization established itself in New York's Chinatown in late 1969 and is named after the peasant group that fought against foreign intrusion and influence in China in 1898 during the beginning of the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

, which officially began in 1900. Translated to "Righteous and Harmonious Fists," it was established by a group of young people and students who participated in the Triple A and Columbia's AAPA, and eventually other radical Chinese nationals (Wei 212-3). Inspired by their namesake from the Chinese Boxer Rebellion and with

Mao Tse-tung Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (P ...

, the members were heavy proponents for self-determination and community service on varying levels. Within New York City, it worked predominantly around issues affecting the immediate Manhattan Chinatown. They protested the tourist buses that came into the community; participated in a "housing crimes trial" forum at Columbia University with

Metropolitan Council on Housing The Metropolitan Council on Housing (also referred to as Met Council) is a tenant rights organization in New York City founded in 1959. As the oldest and largest tenants' organization in the city," it has focused on issues including Rent regulatio ...

, City Wide Coordinating Committee of Welfare Rights Groups, Social Service Employees Union; hosted free movie screenings about the People's Republic of China; organized the first Chinatown Health Fair in 1971 with other organizations in the neighborhood as a reaction against the

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) ( in the Western United States, Midwest, and Western Canada; 中華公所 (中华公所) ''zhōnghuá gōngsuǒ'' (Jyutping: zung1wa4 gung1so2) in the East) is a historical Chinese association ...

’s neglect to the community and worked on demonstrations to raise awareness on how to avoid the draft. In addition to their public organizing, it was also known for the nationally distributed and bilingual newspaper, ''Getting Together'' (Chinese: 团結報). It focused on "national liberation struggles around the world but paid particular attention to the People's Republic of China ... ndthe oppressive conditions in Chinatown." By pushing out a publication such as ''Getting Together'', IWK believed that they would be able to share their particular observations and stories of oppression to the rest of the nation. Eventually, it spread out nationally towards the Bay Area, joining forces with the Red Guards (a similar organization based in San Francisco). The group was also generally persecuted by more conservative groups within the Chinese and Asian American community, like the CCBA, who denounced IWK's revolutionary activities as being disruptive to Chinatown (Wei 215). They were also under FBI surveillance when they began to use the Chinese Progressive Association as a means of public recruitment. In 1978 I Wor Kuen and the Chicano Marxist–Leninist organization

August 29th Movement The August 29th Movement (or August Twenty-Ninth Movement, ATM), was a Chicano communist organization that lasted from 1974 to 1978. It formed out of the Labor Committee of La Raza Unida Party in Los Angeles, and other collectives, officially formi ...

were both dissolved and a new organization, the

League of Revolutionary Struggle League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Leagues (band), ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full ...

was founded.

References

External links

*http://www.asamst.ucsb.edu/news/newsletter2006.pdf *https://web.archive.org/web/20081122154742/http://www.aamovement.net/history/red_guard/redguardparty.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20080325170215/http://www.aamovement.net/history/ypm3.html *http://www.aamovement.net/history/gt/gt.html *http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/american_quarterly/v057/57.4maeda.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20121212065642/http://www.blackpanther.org/legacytwo.htm * Wor Kuen at the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online {{American New Left 1969 establishments in New York City 1978 disestablishments in New York (state) Organizations established in 1969 Organizations disestablished in 1978 Political parties of minorities Identity politics in the United States Defunct American political movements Far-left politics in the United States Defunct Maoist organizations in the United States Chinese-American organizations Chinese-American culture in New York City Organizations based in California Organizations based in New York City History of social movements Columbia University student organizations