The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade (RCYB) was the former youth group of the

Revolutionary Communist Party, USA The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (also known as RCP and The Revcoms) is a communist party in the United States founded in 1975 and led by its chairman, Bob Avakian. The party organizes for a revolution to overthrow the system of capitali ...

History

The group was launched in 1977. It was founded as the Attica Brigade, and then was renamed the

Revolutionary Student Brigade {{unreferenced, date=November 2014 The Revolutionary Student Brigade (RSB) was a Marxist-Leninist student organization active in the 1970s in the United States. The RSB was founded at a conference on June 15–17, 1974 which was attended by about ...

. RCYB’s ultimate objective is to help create “a world of for-real Communism; a world where a few rich nations don’t oppress and dominate the globe; where whites don’t lord over non-whites; where men don’t dominate over women; and where one class of people doesn’t exploit the rest.”

Activities

During its existence, the most famous member of the RCYB was Gregory Lee "Joey" Johnson. During the

1984 Republican National Convention The 1984 Republican National Convention convened on August 20 to August 23, 1984, at Dallas Convention Center in downtown Dallas, Texas. The convention nominated President Ronald W. Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush for reelection. I ...

in Dallas, Texas, he burned the United States flag to protest the policies of the Reagan administration. Johnson was arrested and convicted, but had his conviction overturned on appeal. The State of Texas then sought and obtained review by the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. In

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 ...

, a five-justice majority of the court held that Johnson’s act of flag burning was protected speech under the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

. In 1978 Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade published ''Minorities and whites, unite to smash the Bakke decision!'' In 1979 they protested nuclear weapons. In 1989

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...

and four others justices ruled that a Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade member's right to burn the US flag was a protected right. In 1991 they protested American involvement in the Persian Gulf, and members were arrested. In 1992 they participated in agitation and organization efforts during the Rodney King protests and uprising in Los Angeles.

References

Youth wings of political parties in the United States Youth wings of communist parties Defunct Maoist organizations in the United States Revolutionary Communist Party, USA Left-wing militant groups in the United States {{US-party-stub