The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (also known as RCP and The Revcoms) is a
communist party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
founded in 1975 and led by its chairman,
Bob Avakian
Robert "Bob" Bruce Avakian (born March 7, 1943) is the founder and chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP). Avakian developed the organization's official ideology, a theoretical framework rooted in Maoism, called "the New Synth ...
. The party organizes for a revolution to overthrow the system of capitalism and replace it with a
socialist state
A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a Sovereign state, sovereign State (polity), state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The ...
, with the final aim of
world communism
World communism, also known as global communism, is the ultimate form of communism which of necessity has a universal or global scope. The long-term goal of world communism is an unlimited worldwide communist society that is classless (lacking ...
. The RCP is frequently described as a
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
, a characterization to which it strongly objects.
History
1960s–1970s
In early 1968, Avakian, Leibel Bergman,
H. Bruce Franklin, Stephen Charles Hamilton and a score or so others—comprising both veterans of the Communist Party USA and Bay Area radicals based in
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was estab ...
, Berkeley, and San Francisco, formed the Bay Area Revolutionary Union (BARU). Among the BARU's first tasks was to challenge the Maoist
Progressive Labor Party (PLP) over its positions on the Black Panther Party, the
Chinese Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
and the direction of Maoism. The early RU joined with the Revolutionary Youth Movement faction in the
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...
(SDS) in opposing PLP's role in SDS at its national convention in Chicago in 1969. The resulting split led to PL controlling the SDS name, while RYM split into two factions.
In 1971, Franklin led a more militant faction of BARU out the organization to join
Venceremos. The RU continued to expand, uniting
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 ...
s across the country and becoming a national organization with the long-term goal to form a new
communist party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. The new nationwide structure induced BARU to change its name to simply the Revolutionary Union (RU). Avakian was elected to the central committee of the RU shortly thereafter. The RCP claims that of the various groups coming out of SDS, it was the first to seriously attempt to develop itself at the theoretical level, with the publication of ''Red Papers 1''. In 1974, RU started publication of its newspaper ''Revolution'' (renamed ''Revolutionary Worker,'' and adopting a weekly format in 1979).
In 1973, the anti-war group
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is an American tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation founded in 1967 to oppose the United States policy and participation in the Vietnam War. VVAW says it is a national veterans' organization ...
(VVAW) entered into reforms after the end of the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, including an explicitly
anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
stance and opening its membership to civilians. During this period, the RU became a popular faction within the VVAW, reaching its peak in 1975, when the RU-controlled national office voted to remove members, expel chapters and place the organization into ideological uniformity. After the integration, RU reconstituted itself as the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
After the
death of Mao in 1976, the RCP split, with about 40% of its membership leaving, over which position to take in relation to the new Chinese leadership. Avakian led the majority of the party that rejected what it analyzed as a counterrevolutionary coup against
Mao's allies. After this split, Avakian wrote and published the book ''Mao Tsetung's Immortal Contributions'', which summarizes the developments of
Maoism
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...
.
In January 1979, Avakian and 78 other Party members and supporters were arrested and charged with various crimes in connection to a militant protest against
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...
's visit to the White House. Seventeen demonstrators, including Avakian, were charged with multiple felonies that carried a combined sentence of up to 241 years. After the RCP and its supporters waged a mass campaign for political, legal, and other support for the defendants, the charges were dropped in 1982, by which time Party leadership had decided to go into
exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
, with Avakian applying for
political asylum
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...
in France, where he remained for many years.
1980s–2000s
The RCP organized May Day 1980 rallies in 16 cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. Weeks before the May Day demonstrations, RCP member Damian Garcia and two others climbed
the Alamo, tearing down the American flag from its pole, and raising the
Red Flag in its place before being arrested. Shortly thereafter, on April 22, Garcia was stabbed to death while organizing in a Los Angeles
housing project
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authorities, government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the d ...
. At the time, police said that Garcia's murderer was gang-affiliated, while RCP insisted that he had been assassinated by the state in retaliation for his action at the Alamo. Avakian remarked in his memoir that Garcia's murder was "very clearly tied in with police agents ... it was an attack on our Party."
In 1984 Avakian and other members of the RCP co-founded the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) was an international communist organization founded in France in March 1984 by 17 various Maoist organisations around the world. It sought to "struggle for the formation of a Communist Internation ...
(RIM), a now-defunct international grouping of Maoist parties, which were united by a founding declaration upholding
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Other participating parties in RIM included the
Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path)
The Shining Path ( es, Sendero Luminoso), officially the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a communist guerrilla group in Peru following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Commun ...
, the
Union of Iranian Communists (Sarbedaran)
Union of Iranian Communists (Sarbedaran lit. ''the head-on-gallow mass'') (UIC(S); fa, اتحادیه کمونیستهای ایران) was a Maoist organization in Iran. The UIC(S) was formed in 1976 after the alliance of a number of Maoist gr ...
, and the
Revolutionary Communist Group of Colombia. RIM published and distributed the magazine and news service ''A World to Win'' from 1981 to 2006. Since RIM's dissolution in the 2000s, the publication is updated only on its website. In 2017, ''A World to Win'' was restructured as "a more thorough-going tool for revolution based on Bob Avakian's new synthesis of communism."
Flag-burning by RCP members led to the ''
Texas v. Johnson
''Texas v. Johnson'', 491 U.S. 397 (1989), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that burning the American flag was protected speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, as do ...
'' case, which established the burning of the American flag as a constitutionally protected right.
2010s
In 2011, RCP spokesperson
Carl Dix and
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and ...
co-initiated the campaigns to ''Stop "Stop and Frisk"'' and ''Stop Mass Incarceration''. Dix and West appeared on ''
Democracy Now
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
!'' to discuss the state of Black America in the age of Obama. RCP organized ''Rise Up October'' against racism and police brutality; attendees included
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
.
In July 2016, mass protest and police arrests erupted over a flag-burning by the RCP outside the Republican National Convention before a crowd of thousands. The next week, the RCP staged another flag burning outside the Democratic National Convention after denouncing the United States. Later that year, in response to
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
's tweet calling for the criminalization of flag burning, RCP supporters burned another American flag outside the Trump International Hotel in New York City.
In October 2016, RCP supporters were banned from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
for trespassing after encouraging students to get organized with the revolutionaries, with one activist arrested by police; the next day, they returned to defy the ban, while denouncing U.S. elections and America.
In August 2016, the RCP led protesters in a two-day march on a barricaded police station after the fatal shooting of a black man by Milwaukee police; the police chief said the RCP had incited violence toward police.
![Revcoms-at-immigration-march-Chicago-2019](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Revcoms-at-immigration-march-Chicago-2019.jpg)
RCP members handed out fliers outside the San Diego Levi's Stadium in support of
Colin Kaepernick
Colin Rand Kaepernick ( ; born November 3, 1987) is an American civil rights activist and football quarterback who is a free agent. He played six seasons for the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). In 2016, he knelt dur ...
and
NFL protests of the U.S. national anthem.
In December 2016, in response to
the election of Donald Trump, the RCP helped initiate and lead the ad-hoc coalition
Refuse Fascism
Refuse Fascism is a U.S.-based anti-fascist coalition organization, led by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Until the 2020 United States presidential election, it was characterized by its call for the removal of the Trump administration by ...
, which had as its goal the prevention of
Trump's inauguration through mass political protest and civil disobedience. After the inauguration, the organization adjusted to a mission of launching sustained mass protests aimed at forcing the removal of the Trump administration before the scheduled election of 2020.
In July 2018, Refuse Fascism and RCP organized 100 handmaids to protest U.S. Vice President
Mike Pence
Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 50th ...
in New York City, saying "
eis a Christian fascist theocrat for whom
the handmaid's tale
''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which h ...
is a model."
In October 2018, the RCP organized a demonstration in Chicago's Daley Plaza on the 23rd Annual "National Day of Protest to STOP Police Brutality," in response to the police
murder of Laquan McDonald
The murder of Laquan McDonald took place on October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. McDonald was a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a Chicago Police Officer, Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically ...
and other black youth.
During the Q&A at a February 2019 event at
USC
USC most often refers to:
* University of South Carolina, a public research university
** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses
**South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program
* University of ...
, RCP supporters sparked controversy after criticizing speaker
Amanda Nguyen
Amanda N. Nguyen (born 1991) is a social entrepreneur, civil rights activist, and the CEO and founder of Rise, a non-governmental civil rights organization. She was involved in proposing and drafting the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act, whi ...
's work in the
U.S. government during the
War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
.
In March 2019, police detained a ''Revolution Newspaper'' correspondent on the anniversary of the police
shooting of Stephon Clark
In the late evening of March 18, 2018, Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed in Meadowview, Sacramento, California by Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet, two officers of the Sacramento Police Department in the ...
, after the correspondent got into an argument with
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr. (born October 3, 1954) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, talk show host and politician. Sharpton is the founder of the National Action Network. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic ...
while urging attendees to organize for revolution rather than political reforms.
On
International Women's Day
International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against wom ...
2019, the Revolution Club joined supporters of the
Communist Party of Iran (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist)
The Communist Party of Iran (Marxist–Leninist–Maoist) ( fa, حزب کمونیست ایران (مارکسیست-لنینیست-مائوئیست)) is an Iranian communist party working for revolution to establish a new socialist republic in p ...
, to march through Westwood, California, calling for universal women's rights.
On Independence Day 2019, the RCP staged
flag burnings at the
U.S.–Mexico border and the White House, the latter being a demonstration against the "
Salute to America" military parade, which resulted in two RCP supporters being attacked by the
Proud Boys
The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States.Far-right:
*
*
Fascist:
*
*
*
*
*
Men only:
*
*
*
Political violence:
*
*
* It has ...
and arrested by
Secret Service
A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...
officers.
Political ideology
The RCP originated as a
Maoist
Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
political organization with roots in the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
of the 1970s. In the 1990s, its political ideology was Marxism–Leninism–Maoism. Today, the framework for its political ideology is Avakian's "New Synthesis" (or "New Communism"), which it sees as an advancement of revolutionary theory; this has been debated among Maoists internationally. The RCP is
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
and claim to stress the
scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...
.
RCP leadership says "the system cannot be reformed, it must be overthrown," and does not participate in charity or elections,
instead organizing for total revolution, to replace the capitalist system with a socialist system aiming for communism worldwide. Its goal is not to "make America socialist" but instead "a world without America and everything it stands for."
Since the 2000s, Avakian's "new communism" is the RCP's ideological framework, which it considers a scientific advancement of
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism (MLM) is a political philosophy that synthesizes and builds upon Marxism–Leninism and Maoism. Its proponents refer to Marxism–Leninism–Maoism as Maoism and Maoism as Mao Zedong Thought (MZT) or Marxism–Lenin ...
. Before that, the party was a founding member of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) was an international communist organization founded in France in March 1984 by 17 various Maoist organisations around the world. It sought to "struggle for the formation of a Communist Internation ...
.
Cult of personality
The RCP began developing a cult of personality around Avakian as part of the 1979 pivot catalyzed by the Deng Xiaoping protest trial. The goal was to both increase support for Avakian in the legal arena while also making RCP a more revolutionary organization, inspired by Stalin's rule, the Mao Zedong cult, and the more recent
Free Huey! campaign in which Avakian and company had participated. Relying on the theory of
Georgy Plekhanov
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (; rus, Гео́ргий Валенти́нович Плеха́нов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revoluti ...
and framing the development of a cult as a scientifically based organizational strategy, Avakian was put forward as a larger-than-life figure to revitalize the group.
Members of both the left and the broader public often see the RCP as a small cult around Avakian. This perception was noted in ''
The Indypendent
''The Indypendent'' is a progressive newspaper based in Brooklyn, New York. It is published monthly, distributed worldwide and is available for free throughout New York City and online. It currently prints 30,000 copies per issue, covering local ...
'' in 2014,
''Harper's'' in 2016,
Mic in 2017, and ''
Vice magazine
''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, the founders later launched the youth media company Vice Media, ...
'' in 2022.
Members and groups on the left, in organized labor, and in protest movements have called RCP a cult. In 2016, former USLAW national coordinator Michael Eisenscher called RCP primarily "a cult around Avakian".
In June 2022, a coalition of 23 abortion rights, feminist, and mutual-aid groups released a statement denouncing RCP and the affiliated organization
Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, including a description of RCP as a cult.
RCP members celebrate the organization as a
cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...
around Avakian.
RCP publications say that the RCP and Avakian have encouraged controversy and serious debate over their views and a wide range of issues, engaging in numerous debates and polemics, while also taking a strong stand against destructive allegations in place of principled dialogue and building unity for what they term "the emancipation of humanity".
LGBT issues
In the 1970s and 1980s, the RCP called
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
"petty bourgeois" and prohibited LGBT people from joining the party. This outlook coexisted with a public line against
gay-bashing
Gay bashing is an attack, abuse, or assault committed against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or ge ...
and attacks on homosexuals by religious bigots and fundamentalists, and was consistent with numerous groups of the
New Communist movement
The New Communist movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement principally within the United States, during the 1970s and 1980s. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and ...
and the broader Marxist–Leninist movement of the period. The party's policy against homosexuality ended in 2001. The RCP platform now demands full recognition of
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 33 ...
as a fundamental element of establishing socialism.
Activities
The RCP releases daily updates online and a periodic print edition of its weekly newspaper, ''Revolution'' (formerly called ''Revolutionary Worker'', 1979–2005), in English and Spanish.
In December 2016, party members and others co-initiated Refuse Fascism, a coalition group aiming to "drive out" the
Trump administration
Donald Trump's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 45th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Donald Trump, his inauguration on January 20, 2017, and ended on January 20, 2021. Trump, a Republican Party ...
through sustained street protests.
InfoWars
''InfoWars'' is an American far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones. It was founded in 1999, and operates under Free Speech Systems LLC.
Talk shows and other content for the site are created primarily in studi ...
and other
far-right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
conspiracy theory
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
*
*
* The term has a nega ...
websites claimed the RCP and Refuse Fascism were organizing a military overthrow of the government on November 4, 2017. Several nationwide anti-Trump protest marches were organized for that day, numbering in the thousands.
Refuse Fascism protesters were arrested in September 2017 after blocking four lanes of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles during rush hour, to "sound the alarm about fascism."
RCP supporters Michael Slate and
Sunsara Taylor have regularly aired shows on radio networks
KPFK
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves Southern California, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet. It was the second of five stations in the non-commerci ...
and
WBAI
WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...
, respectively, where they discuss news and politics with guests.
Revolution Books
RCP branches opened Revolution Books stores in major U.S. cities and became a frequent presence in protest movements.
Prison outreach
The RCP runs the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund, which sends its newspaper and other political works from its publishing press to hundreds of incarcerated people nationwide to spread a revolutionary message. As its aim, the fund "provides an educational opportunity for prisoners to engage with world events and key political, cultural, and philosophical questions from a unique communistic perspective, including discussions of morality, religion, science, and the arts centered around a positive socialist-light."
The RCP has faced increasing censorship by prison officials who seek to deny inmates access to revolutionary literature.
References
Further reading
Books
*
*
''The Red Paper I'' (1972)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Revolutionary Communist Party, Usa
COINTELPRO targets
Political parties established in 1975
1975 establishments in the United States
Anti-revisionist organizations
Communist parties in the United States
Maoist parties in the United States
Cults of personality