Venceremos (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

for "We will be victorious") was an American

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...

and primarily

Chicano Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...

political group active in the

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, 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 Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

area from 1969 to 1973. Bandera de Venceremos

History

Katerina Del Valle was its chairperson. In 1971 they were joined by a faction of the

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 ...

organization

Revolutionary Union The General Workers' Union of Germany (german: Allgemeine Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands; AAUD) was a factory organisation formed following the German Revolution of 1918–1919 in opposition to the traditional trade unions. The AAUD was formed by the ...

(RU), led by H. Bruce Franklin. Venceremos and Franklin favored a

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

strategy based on protracted

urban guerrilla An urban guerrilla is someone who fights a government using unconventional warfare or domestic terrorism in an urban environment. Theory and history The urban guerrilla phenomenon is essentially one of industrialised society, resting both ...

warfare. According to Franklin, "... these collectives had been heavily involved in youth organizing within

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philoso ...

communities, in factory organizing and in

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 ...

struggles on the campuses. ..The new combined organization was multi-national, extremely diversified in its activities and base, and quite militant." Venceremos publicly advocated for armed self-defense by the citizenry, community control of the police, and reform of the prison system. To these ends, the group's members engaged in a number of legal activities, such as working to educate prisoners and defend

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 ...

protesters. The organization's ultimate stated goal was the overthrow of the government. In 1970, Venceremos opened its own

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...

in a Redwood City storefront; it operated for two years until running out of money. The United States government considered Venceremos a serious threat, as described in the 202-page House Committee on Internal Security report ''America's Maoists: the Revolutionary Union, the Venceremos Organization'' (1972). Venceremos members often participated in City Council and School Board meetings in Palo Alto with a verbal aggressiveness rarely before seen in the city's politics. Member Jeffrey Youdelman was known for shouting down council members and presenting petitions for radical left causes. Venceremos members also ran for local office in Palo Alto, including Jean Hobson and Youdelman for City Council, and Doug Garrett for the School Board. Venceremos held weekly rallies at Lytton Plaza in Palo Alto, which they dubbed "The People's Plaza." In May 1971, Venceremos's Easter Division drifted away from the center and began organizing through the

United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...

union. The beginning of the end for Venceremos came on October 6, 1972, when several of its members were involved in a headline-grabbing murder. Member Jean Hobson was romantically linked to prison inmate Ronald Beaty, and Venceremos hatched a plan to help Beaty escape. According to police and Beaty, who would become the prosecution's star witness, two unarmed prison guards were taking Beaty to a court appearance in

San Bernardino San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...

when their vehicle was ambushed near Chino. Beaty was freed, but Venceremos member Robert Seabok shot both guards at

point blank range Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm can hit a target without the need to compensate for bullet drop, and can be adjusted over a wide range of distances by sighting in the firearm. If the bullet leaves the barrel paral ...

, killing Jesus Sanchez and wounding his partner George Fitzgerald. Venceremos members Hobson, Seabok, Andrea Holman Burt, and Benton Burt were named by Beaty as the perpetrators.

Aftermath

Venceremos disintegrated under the duress of legal troubles, recriminations over the Beaty incident, and general factionalism. By September 1973 it had ceased to function as an organization. Robert Seabok was convicted of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

; while Jean Hobson, Andrea Holman Burt, and Benton Burt were convicted of

second degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. In March 1973, far-left militant

Donald DeFreeze Donald David DeFreeze (November 16, 1943 – May 17, 1974), also known as Cinque Mtume and using the nom de guerre "General Field Marshal Cinque", was known as the "spokesman" of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small, American far-left gro ...

escaped from

Soledad Prison Correctional Training Facility (CTF), commonly referenced as Soledad State Prison, is a state prison located on U.S. Route 101, north of Soledad, California, adjacent to Salinas Valley State Prison. Facilities The institution is divided into ...

and made his way to Oakland. He found shelter with members or associates of Venceremos at the Peking House commune, but members were concerned about police surveillance. They moved DeFreeze to a lower-profile location east of the hills in

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

. Calling himself General Field Marshal Cinque, he co-founded the

Symbionese Liberation Army The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was a small, American far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the ...

with

Patricia Soltysik Patricia Monique Soltysik (May 17, 1950 – May 17, 1974) was an American woman who was best known as a co-founder and activist in the Symbionese Liberation Army, a far-left militant group based in Berkeley and Oakland, California. She participat ...

, a white woman, and a few mostly white associates he met as a prisoner and member of the

Black Cultural Association The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an African-American inmate group founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the B ...

Vacaville Prison Two prisons are located in Vacaville, California, United States: * California Medical Facility (CMF) () * California State Prison, Solano () These two prisons are located together at the base of several hills on the outskirts of Vacaville. These ...

. The

Communist Party USA (Provisional) The Communist Party, United States of America (Provisional) also known as the Communist Party, United States of America (Provisional Wing) or by shortened names such as the Provisional Communist Party, Provisional Party, Provisional Party of Commun ...

also traces its origins to the 1973 split within Venceremos.

References

External links

*{{cite web , last=Rettman , first=Tony , title=The Warriors of a Failed Revolution , website=Narratively , date=2020-09-30 , url=https://narratively.com/the-warriors-of-a-failed-revolution/ , access-date=2021-10-24 , ref=none
Venceremos at the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online
Far-left politics in the United States Left-wing militant groups in the United States Defunct Maoist organizations in the United States COINTELPRO targets 1969 establishments in California 1973 disestablishments in California

History

Aftermath

See also

References

External links