It’s Getting Hot in Here and We Ain’t Taking off No Clothes: Public Report on the Workhouse Struggle and Al-Aqsa Demonstration.

 

The “Workhouse” is, essentially, a medieval torture facility built in 1966 to warehouse working class black people who can’t afford to pay exorbitant bail and court fees. If you can’t pay, they throw you in here. Once you are in here, you are forced to fight for the amusement and gambling of guards, deal with black mold, infestations of vermin such as rats and roaches, and food unfit to be fed to animals. The general line of those who have had the misfortune (imposed by capitalism) of ending up in this hellhole is “Close It!”. This month’s storm was brewed by the revelation that incarcerated comrades are forced to survive in this facility in conditions without air conditioning in temperatures that have reached all time highs for our area. Saturday, July 22, saw record breaking temperatures outside of 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Inside, the temperature is 10 degrees higher due to the fact that the facility is built out of brick. Reports from comrades who have been incarcerated as recently as a week ago have informed us that people have been fighting for access to the trifling popsicles, ice, cold water, and access to “the hole” where there is cool air. All showers are hot. Comrades inside called for those on the outside to “help”, and help we did. On Friday, July 21, revolutionary minded and progressive elements from a variety of organizations and ideological tendencies ranging from anarchism to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to “this shit is fucked up-ism”, along with the advanced masses, many of whom have been inside or have relatives inside this facility showed up to shut it down.

This was a noise demo, and make noise we did. The fence was weak. Our comrades raised the motherfucker and a few brave comrades scaled the fence and breached the first perimeter. There were roughly 300 comrades there that night, and we had great success. There was real solidarity built between those on the inside and outside. Messages of support were exchanged, and we witnessed several family reunions, mothers bringing their children to meet fathers that they had never seen before, forced to communicate between two fences and a brick wall. This is what capitalism does to us. There were various opportunist local political elements present, but the militancy of the crowd and the adherence to the “Close the Workhouse” line neutralized them and they were forced to stand back and shake their heads at us. Let them shake, because they’re shook. We also had the presence of family members of Vinny Hammett, a victim of police murder on the South Side last month, who was killed when a SWAT team barged into his residence, shared with his grandfather, a Vietnam Veteran, and riddled the house with bullets. The police then proceeded to manufacture several lies, all of which were easily disproven. Justice for Vinny Hammett, Mike Brown, Vonderrit Myers, and Kajieme Powell will not be served truly until the people rule, and to ensure that the people rule, a mass movement and a revolutionary party is needed. The police were woefully unprepared for the rebellion that we had in store, and could not get organized and mobilized until 45 minutes after the demonstration began. They waited until nightfall and began their usual fuckery, bringing out the riot gear and making the “this is an illegal gathering” announcement. They brought out a tow truck to frighten and intimidate comrades who had parked their vehicles on Hall Street. We have reports that they punctured the tires of comrades who parked further out of the way. They then proceeded to bash with riot shields, use pepper spray indiscriminately, and attack/single out presumed “leaders” and advanced elements, especially black women, for attack. A comrade was hauled off brutally, all while being called homophobic slurs by our notoriously homophobic pigs. Pushed us all out into Hall Street so that we would get hit by cars. Essentially, they tried to kill us. But they fail to realize that even if they get rid of everybody that was out Friday, the struggling spirit runs deep in this city and the building of the revolution in this city will continue until final victory. Comrades returned Saturday night, the hottest night of the year, and there was an increased riot police presence and brutal attacks on individuals who were out the night before were done with disregard to the fact that cameras were present. STL Pigs don’t care, as we learned from Ferguson. They had sealed off access to the Workhouse grounds, forcing comrades to demonstrate across the street.

Pigs had been given a Metro bus to “cool down” in. (July 22)

We were also treated to a display of blatant hypocrisy. The pigs were given an entire Metro bus to sit in and stay cool when they felt the need. Who missed work for the pigs, that is the question! Pigs began to mock and torment comrades, and would routinely make feints across the street to try and provoke fear. It began to rain, and the pigs turned on floodlights, causing at least one auto accident. Once again trans comrades and comrades who were seen Friday were singled out, manhandled and arrested for no reason whatsoever. Once again the world saw the pigs and their class nature. The demo dispersed, all determined to strengthen ties to those on the inside, all determined to close the workhouse, all determined to link up and strengthen ties and build a united front to close the Workhouse across racial boundaries, across geographic area, across ideological spectrums. This is a class struggle and a class war and our cadre and mass members are being sharpened, trained, and built up through participation in mass struggles like that to close the Workhouse. Saint Louis dares to struggle, and we shall win whether it takes us a day or 3 million days. We have received a temporary “victory” in the form of “temporary” AC units (costing the city $40,000/day) installed Monday. This is not a temporary struggle, and even if they make the workhouse so cool that ice forms on the floor in July, we will never be satisfied until we are dismantling it brick by brick. This is one step on the road to inevitable victory.

Sunday saw the demonstration called by the city’s Muslim community against the Zionist siege of al-Aqsa Mosque. Comrades from PYO-STL responded in solidarity and the desire to build stronger ties of anti-imperialist solidarity with our Muslim comrades. Comrades used their discipline and training to successfully drive away and neutralize the impact of Zionist and fascist trolls who had shown up to attack and disrupt the demonstration and the public prayer. The masses of the Muslim community extended their heartfelt thanks at the fact that we displayed international solidarity and material support as one of their holiest sites falls under attack from imperialist occupiers. This shows that the correct decision for the revolutionary at all times is to stand firmly alongside the people, to unite with their interests, and to defend their right to religious expression and their land. Long Live Palestine! End the siege on al-Aqsa!

Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!

Close the Workhouse, Free the People Immediately!

Justice for Isaiah Hammett, Vonderritt Myers, Mike Brown, Kajieme Powell, and all who have been murdered by the police nationwide!

We Will Make Revolution in Our Lifetime!

End the siege on Al-Aqsa!

Paper Tigers on Fire: A Summation of Two Victories

If anyone attacks us and if the conditions are favorable for battle, we will certainly act in self-defense to wipe him out resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely (we do not strike rashly, but when we do strike, we must win). We must never be cowed by the bluster of reactionaries. – Mao Zedong

 

What is a paper tiger? One who, at first glance, looks very dangerous, but upon being stepped on, or lit, or having water thrown on them, melts and burns. Of course, we’re referring to human beings and human phenomena. The fascists, the police, and their helpers are paper tigers in the long run because their system, the capitalist-imperialist order, is ultimately doomed. These paper tigers also have traits of real tigers, they are armed and have experience in killing and destruction, this means that we must take their capacity to do damage seriously in planning and organizing against them and in general. Anti-fascist organizing must rely on the masses, mobilize them, and educate them in a real way, and consistently bring them deeper and deeper into the movement. A few scattered bands of Communists or Anarchists cannot make revolution. Without the people, we are nothing. This is what Maoism teaches us. The victories of this month, and all victories, come from firmly relying on the masses, particularly the masses of working class nationally oppressed people in our city, not on the efforts of one individual or organization. Keeping this in mind and consistent, correct application of the mass line method of leadership in antifascist work and in all work will enable us to win more and greater victories and avoid left deviations.

 

There was a memorial to Confederate soldiers in Forest Park, built by the Daughters of the Confederacy in the early 20th century. There will soon be no memorial, the city’s elite led by the pig loving homeless hating Mayor Lyda Krewson doesn’t want continued embarrassment so the order was swiftly issued to dismantle it. This was after months of struggle and organizing against the monument, and a public GoFundMe campaign that raised several thousands of dollars. Despite all this, the black traitor and sellout Peggy Hubbard, married to a police officer, who rose to infamy by opposing the Black Lives Matter movement, saw an opportunity to once again get into the spotlight, and organized a fascist demonstration masquerading as a picnic in order to “celebrate America”, set for June 3rd. This demonstration attracted several fascist, neo-Confederate, and other bad elements to our city, and organizing against it was done under the auspices of strict secrecy to prevent infiltration and revealing of our plans to shut down this event. This was one of the reasons that the action was successful and the event was forced to cancel. Putting everything up on the internet and ignorance of security culture, especially organizational details, leads to disasters and failures. We have seen this time and time again. As far as the fascists were concerned, there was no organized response to their demonstration. This is what we wanted them to think, and subsequently, they let their guard down. There was no effort to defend their area, there was no perimeter in place, and the police were stretched to the limit, forced to run here and there. Surprise was a major factor in this victory. Comrades were able to materialize in their midst, attract their attention, draw the crowd to one end of the designated space or another, and make room for others to break through. The fascist pigs on motorcycles that Hubbard had called “security” were cowards and were extremely unprofessional, undedicated to their task, and easy to provoke, forced to leave after their precious bikes were surrounded. What type of so-called security force abandons their comrades! The police were easily demoralized, being told several times that they should die in the line of duty and we sharpened contradictions when they decided to engage in kidnapping of comrades, openly display pepper spray, and mention “breaking out zip ties”. They refused to arrest any fascists at the event until the masses pointed out how they were targeting black and brown comrades, especially women, for arrest or detention, but displayed a heavy hand towards us, shoving and pushing and assaulting. We held our ground. Hubbard also had who we presume to be her husband, a police officer employed with Hillsdale Police Department, show up and attempt to intimidate us with a rifle. This is a common trend, fascists acting like this isn’t a country where a firearm is easier to get than healthcare or education. This is a city that has a murder or two almost every day, and a gun could be had for $50. Guns don’t intimidate anybody in Saint Louis. Comrades were also armed, so we really don’t know what they were trying to demonstrate. Some comrades carried openly, some did not. The correct choice, whether to promote concealment or open display of firearms is dependent on a variety of considerations. We do advise comrades to arm themselves with a firearm if they are able and can afford it. Study and take advantage of Missouri’s very lax firearms laws, because our enemies most certainly do. The important thing is that one recognizes where political power comes from and what we must do to get it. Once again, we held our ground. Essentially, this was a battle of attrition. All confrontations and street battles of this type are protracted people’s war in miniature. We seek to fight a protracted people’s war on a national level. This is practice, learn to struggle and fight through struggling and fighting. People’s forces, oftentimes outnumbered and outgunned, must rely on creativity, ability to adapt, and the enemy’s own weaknesses to have any hope of victory. The people and their will to win are key. The fascists, puffed up, arrogant, half of whom were drunk, undisciplined, and secure, were ripe for the picking, and could not hold up to people’s forces and our superior discipline, nor could they deal with the demoralization that our presence offered. Thus, they buckled. The numbers began to dwindle, and by early afternoon Hubbard was crying on Facebook live (after breaking down earlier) about “being threatened with physical violence” and comrades were able to snatch the flowers from the Confederate memorial. Hubbard raised $8,000 for this event. Apparently, they didn’t have time to even open a single bottle of ketchup. We also point out that Hubbard, a black woman, is so detached from the affairs of her own people that she said that she will be donating the food to a homeless shelter that has been closed for months. It’s not easy being a sellout, is it? This event, held in a near majority black city, a city that rose in rage in 2014 and where racial and class contradictions are especially sharp and growing, is not a welcome or safe space for white boys from the Ozarks to come and play Johnny Reb. If they don’t believe this, they are certainly more than welcome to come back and try us again.

 

The fascists didn’t get enough after losing at Forest Park on the 3rd. The local reactionaries working under the auspices of the fascist organization “ACT for America”, an Islamophobic organization that believes that “sharia law will take over America”, organized a demonstration as part of the “National March against Sharia Law” effort in the Saint Charles area, which they apparently had marked as a “safe space”, or at least a safer one than Forest Park. This was especially vicious in the face of the recent murders of two people in Portland, Oregon, by a white supremacist and Islamophobe on public transport, for standing in solidarity with two women of color who he was verbally abusing. Once again, these incompetent and arrogant characters openly publicized their intentions and location to meet up. Our people did not. Comrades arrived at the park that was to host the march and speeches and intimidated both the fascists and the police (really, no difference that matters), with Palestinian and red flags. The police got nervous, and ordered the (permitted) march to cancel. Strike two for revolutionary people’s forces in Saint Louis.

So, that’s how the paper tigers burned themselves this month. If they feel like enjoying the summer anymore, they’re welcome back anytime if they want to see who has teeth and who does not. Saint Louis will be a red base, whether they like it or not. We raise a firm red salute to our comrades both nationally and locally who have guided us, correctly, since our formation as a collective, criticized us in due time, assisted us, and who continue to build for revolution in our lifetimes. We will win.

In Memory of Edward Crawford: Build Up 10,000 More!

Thousands upon thousands of martyrs have heroically laid down their lives for the people; let us hold their banner high and march ahead along the path crimson with their blood! – Mao Zedong

“I didn’t throw it back at police. I threw it out of the way of our children.” – Edward Crawford, Jr.

 

Edward Crawford, Jr. A working class, New Afrikan from Saint Louis. 27 years old. Father of four children. Outstanding leader of the people that came forward from the masses in the wake of the 2014 uprising in Ferguson. Found dead in his vehicle from a gunshot wound. The “investigating” pigs were quick to rush and attempt to sweep this case under the rug as a “suicide”, much like many others. But, the movement and the masses know better. The FBI tried to convince Martin Luther King, Jr. to commit suicide, because his anti-imperialist turn, criticisms of the capitalist-imperialist system, and opposition to the war in Vietnam so frightened them. They promoted sectarian, fratricidal violence in the Black Panther Party, leading to the deaths of many cadres and organizers. The police and their lackies will seek to wreck and ruin any genuine revolutionary movement in this country, and will not stop at murder. Our lives mean nothing to them. They are the unequivocal enemy of our people, 100%, full stop, no exceptions. None are good, if they were good, they would not be police. Darren Seals, another outstanding mass leader and activist that came forth from the Ferguson struggle, was found dead in similar circumstances, except in this case, he was shot and set on fire in his vehicle. Seals was the sixth person found murdered in this way in our area.

 

Tef Poe does not expect the Ferguson Police Department to properly investigate Seals’ death. He said the people of the St. Louis suburb “don’t have any misconceptions about what is going on.”

Carlos Ball, a close friend of Seals, agreed with Tef Poe’s belief that the Ferguson activist was executed and said, “the manner and the way in which he died” proves there was some foul play involved in his death.

 

“For him to be shot and then set on fire – that’s not random – that’s a targeted hit,” Ball said.

Ball went on to expound on how the community is reacting to the mysterious death of Seals and said, “Some activists are scared or have a little fear, but you have to when we know who we are going up against and what we’re going up against.

 

“We won’t be quiet about Darren’s death because Darren wouldn’t have been quiet had it been me, had it been Tef, had it been anybody else. Darren would have been vocal, been loud, and we got to do the same thing for him.”

 

It is well known that activists and revolutionaries from the working class of the oppressed nationalities are the greatest threat to the capitalist-imperialist, fascist style of governance in this country and in this world. In the Philippines and India, we see violence enacted by the state on oppressed peasants, workers, and mass organizers. People are routinely rounded up by death squads, military and the police (not necessarily separate organizations, mind you) and executed, or thrown in jail for no reason other than having attended a protest, or spoken out in public. In India, we see masses of oppressed indigenous people (called adivasis, or “tribals”) who have been struggling heroically against imperialist theft of their land and natural resources alongside the CPI (Maoist) labeled as “terrorists” and hounded, tortured, and murdered, particularly women. Essentially, wherever there is a revolutionary movement that poses a threat to the criminal order of things, we see the desperate acts of a dying class and regime. Organizers and revolutionaries, especially Maoists, from the New Afrikan and Chicano/Latinx nationalities are at special risk because of the revolutionary character of the working classes of these nations. Maoists of all nations are at risk because our ideology, which is the summation of centuries of proletarian struggle, is the grave digger of capitalism, imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism the world over. The American system is doomed, there is no salvation for it in the grand scheme of things. We are its gravediggers. The American regime does not want political development of the masses of the oppressed, it does not want a rapidly growing mass movement, it does not want more and more masses of our people acting upon the principle that political power does not grow out of a ballot box, but out of the barrel of a gun. It certainly doesn’t want Maoism to become a hegemonic force. Maoism recognizes that power never concedes to anything other than greater power, we are not ballot box “revolutionaries”, pray and play “revolutionaries”, NGO “revolutionaries”, or, to use Malcolm X’s term, “begolutionaries”. You can not offer a Maoist or any other real revolutionary who loves their people a billion dollars to do what is contrary to the wishes and desires of the masses of people, or to go against their interests. Yet, for all that it does not want, America truly has no power to stop it. It could not stop the resistance of the Vietnamese people to its war of aggression in their country. It has not stopped the people’s wars in the Philippines and in India, despite billions of dollars in aid and weapons that they have dumped there and the NGO lackies that they have sent. So, they engage in these desperate acts of a dying class. They promote reformist, sell-out elements such as DeRay McKesson as “leaders” of the struggle, despite him not having done anything concrete in Ferguson besides play on Twitter and boost his own platform. He gets to eat with Hillary Clinton and run for Mayor of Baltimore (and lose, the masses there don’t fuck with him either). Darren Seals and Edward Crawford get shot to death. Revolutionary women activists get hounded by the police. Revolutionary organizers are followed, hounded, tormented, and beaten, by both fascists and their pig friends. Yet, we continue. For each of us that falls, 100 more shall rise. No matter how much money they dump on the NAACP, on the McKessons and Jacksons and Sharptons to try to contain our rage, it will never work. We have no fear, we know that we will win, we know that America is doomed and our fallen comrades shall be avenged ten fold. There will be many more Fergusons. There will be Fergusons of a new type, beyond spontaneous and righteous rebellions of rage, there will inevitably exist a Marxist-Leninist Maoist party in this country that will wage a protracted people’s war that will make them long for the days when a molotov cocktail was all they had to fear. As long as there are people, there is power. As long as they keep doing these desperate acts, the people’s rage will grow. As long as we can’t breathe, our people will develop in tactics, strategy, and knowledge. They cannot kill us all. They can certainly kill themselves by continuing along this path, though. Solidarity and rage to the family of the fallen comrade, the comrade who stepped forth from the masses, threw their poisonous chemical weapon back at them, out of the way of children. Let us remember him and solidify our determination to develop further the revolutionary movement, grow new mass activists and revolutionary cadres, and uphold our end of the task to develop a Maoist party in the United States.

Red Salute for International Worker’s Day, 2017!

 

People of the world, unite and defeat the U.S. aggressors and all their running dogs! People of the world, be courageous, and dare to fight, defy difficulties and advance wave upon wave. Then the whole world will belong to the people. Monsters of all kinds shall be destroyed. – Mao Zedong

 

International Worker’s Day, also known as May Day, is the day that proletarian fighters the world over, from the Philippines to India, from Portland to New York, take to celebrate and remember our comrades lost in the struggles of the past centuries, and reach out to and join with those still struggling, like us, across the world, to realize the world-historic task of the proletariat and all progressive humanity, that of overthrowing the forces that inhibit the development of humanity and threaten to wipe us off the face of the Earth, and then constructing the socialist order, struggling through to Communism. We Marxist-Leninist-Maoists struggle because we refuse to die, and we refuse to watch humanity die. It is a day of festivities, a day of remembrance, a day of solidarity, a day of reflection, a day of affirmation of proletarian values. It is the day of the proletariat. Thus, we celebrate, along with millions of others. Democratic, progressive and revolutionary elements working with Progressive Youth Organization (Saint Louis), Serve the People – Saint Louis (for clarification – not affiliated in any way with other organizations in other cities working under the “Serve the People” name), Socialist Alternative, Latinos en Axión, Democratic Socialists of America, Socialist Party, USA, Earth Defenders Coalition, Green Party, USA, Student-Worker Alliance, and the International Marxist Tendency will come together to celebrate and rebel on May Day, 2017, in Saint Louis.

 

May Day 2017 is particularly important because of the conditions we, proletarian revolutionaries and democratic, progressive elements in the United States, and particularly in Saint Louis, find ourselves in. At the national level, the fascist Trump and his clique is currently in the process of using all of the forces and tools available to him as President of the Amerikkkan Empire to roll back what trifling reforms and concessions the masses have been able to wring from this fascist system over decades through struggle. He threatens and attacks our undocumented migrant comrades. Klansman Jeff Sessions is currently preparing to step up the war on black and brown working class people in the legal sphere. Trump is also beating the war drums against the Syrian, Afghan and North Korean people, launching several dozen missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to a chemical weapons attack spuriously attributed to the Assad government, threatening to attack the DPRK, and using the “Mother of All Bombs” weapon of mass destruction, developed during the war on the Iraqi people under the Bush II regime, to unsuccessfully attempt to cow and frighten the Afghan people under the pretext of “fighting ISIS”. We see fascists organizing openly and boldly in our streets, on our campuses, and in our neighborhoods, leaving flyers and leaflets everywhere, holding open demonstrations, posing with weapons, and taking all of the desperate steps of those who know that their historical day in the sun is rapidly coming to an end. This does not frighten us, this steels our resolve and our determination to expand the mass movement and the Communist movement in our city. Every trench of combat and every trench of struggle is or will be soon filled with stern, disciplined and resolute proletarian fighters and mass activists. The spirit of Ferguson, 2014 was reawakened and rekindled by the ascension of Trump to power. Not stifled, nor put out.

 

In Saint Louis, the reactionary pushback has developed along several lines, and our work has developed or will develop accordingly to deal with it. Comrades in Progressive Youth Organization, Student Worker Alliance, and Socialist Alternative have been in the forefront of waging struggle against reactionary actions taken against adjunct workers at Saint Louis University, Washington University, and other universities and building student-worker solidarity, along with organizing against fascist harassment and intimidation of students and staff on several campuses in our area, especially at Webster University. This has gained coverage in several media outlets and subsequent expanding of the student movement. There has been sharp line struggle between organizations and many individuals involved in the movement over which path to take, that of conciliation and reformism, solely legal struggle and rapprochement with the police and their system, or that of militancy, mass organization, and mass action. The result of this struggle has been the entrenching of the revolutionary line, the confirmation of the correctness of the revolutionary line through practice, and the defeat of the reactionary reformist line through practice as well. Correct line develops through struggle with incorrect lines, and the triumph of the revolutionary line here bodes well for the future of the revolutionary movement. The principle of unity-struggle-unity within the movement is one that should be remembered and used, along with the principle of “curing the sickness to save the patient”. To really serve the people, we must be able to both struggle with each other and unite with each other, both on a principled basis. Unprincipled peace and unprincipled and merciless struggle are both wrong. We struggle for unity, we unite for struggle. One cannot exist without the other. On the environmental front, we have seen comrades in EDC (Earth Defenders Coalition) gain national and international attention through their consistent militant actions and mass organizing against the presence of radioactive nuclear waste from the Manhattan Project era at a local landfill in Bridgeton. The result of these consistent actions, many of which have involved direct confrontation with reactionary politicians and blockading of roads and buildings, has been consistent exposure of these government frauds before the masses and more and more people becoming involved in the struggle for environmental justice. In Ferguson, comrades of STP-STL, founded in January of this year,  are consistently expanding their activity (a tutoring program along with a road servicing program is currently being planned), working with and developing firm links to the broad masses, and developing mass activists from among the people of this area. A truly mass organization must involve the participation of the people, otherwise it is a masquerade, a formalistic thing, not a living thing. This is the principle that we must always remember to apply. If every current member of STP-STL drops dead tomorrow, the masses must be able to continue the work.

 

In closing, we extend revolutionary greetings to all genuine revolutionary elements in the country and on planet Earth, from the city that righteously burned in 2014 in outrage for the police murder of Michael Brown, the city that brought you the general strike of 1877, the city that refuses to die, the city of struggle, Saint Louis.
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!

Lifting a Rock Only to Drop it On One’s Own Feet: On The 4/6/17 Attacks on Syria

“Lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet” is a Chinese folk saying to describe the behavior of certain fools. The reactionaries in all countries are fools of this kind” – Mao Zedong

Exactly one hundred years after the United States involved itself in WWI in Europe (at the tail end), the fascistic administration of Donald Trump, in response to a chemical weapons attack of April 4th on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun that was spuriously and disingenuously attributed to the Syrian government by the forces of NATO and its lackeys, launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at al-Shayrat airfield, the supposed source of the aircraft that launched the chemical attack. Six people were killed, aircraft were destroyed, buildings were set afire, and the runway was heavily damaged.

What was this attack? Of course, we all know that the United States, its proxies, and its junior imperialist partners have been slaughtering Syrian civilians for years. But, this latest attack introduces yet another dangerous monkey-wrench into the whole situation. This was an attack on the Syrian government, directly, on a false pretense. There is no evidence that Assad conducted the chemical attack, contrary to the claims of bourgeois “human rights” activists that are simply puppets and water carriers for US/NATO imperialism, swallowing every piece of garbage thrown their way without investigation or application of common sense. Why would a person who is winning a war and preparing to enter negotiations just decide, out of the blue, to launch a chemical weapons attack using a deadly nerve agent, generating outrage from the international community and opening itself up to reprisals? Why does Trump ban refugees from Syria, and then bomb their country, claiming concern about the use of chemical weapons? What are pepper spray, mace, and tear gas? Are they not chemical weapons as well? The US is the world’s biggest hypocrite and liar. The Western liberals carrying this myth are Orientalists, caught up on the stereotype of the “maniacal Arab dictator” who, for no good reason, kills people at random. They squawk and whine and beat the war drums against Russia, Assad, and whoever else CNN and MSNBC tell them the enemy is, while living in the US. What good does this serve? Are they Syrian? Are they Russian? What country is the number one enemy of the world’s people, as stated by the people of the world themselves? That in which they live! This is the height of irony. Their supposed good intentions lead them directly into unity with the Trump camp that they claim to hate so much, which also wishes to see Assad removed, possibly dragged through a Damascene street like Gaddafi was in 2011 (thanks, Clinton!), and the country fractured and destroyed, much like Libya and Iraq. US intervention in any area of the world is objectively bad, because the US and its imperialism is an objectively bad, negative, evil, parasitic influence on the world. Thus, we oppose it. The US has no business in the Middle East, the Philippines, Japan, Palestine, Kurdistan, or anywhere else.

 

Assad is, of course, a bureaucrat capitalist, a lackey and crony of Russian imperialism, which, while rising, is not at the level of the US. It has its own interests in the region, interests which it is defending. This is an inter-imperialist conflict, ultimately. While we oppose all imperialisms, we recognize that we are actually in a position to do something about that under which we live, that which is the main cause of the troubles impacting the peoples of the world today. It is the job of genuine Communists and democratic elements in Russia and Syria to work for their own revolution. We can not do it for them. We also cannot let ourselves be duped by war propaganda and phony reports and fall into anti-people blind alleys. We are confident that our comrades around the world in other imperialist countries such as Russia and social-imperialist countries like China are carrying out their own work and organizing effective struggle against their own countries’ imperialism, and are preparing their own revolutions. It is our task, as revolutionaries in the world’s number one imperialist and terrorist country, to prepare and build for our own. The destruction of the US is a gain for the people of the world. This is our historic task. This means building up our own Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party capable of providing material support for the peoples of the world in their struggle by directly harming and working for the defeat of the United States in whatever new war its nature leads it to enter. Statements and demonstrations led by peace police and think-pieces written by people with Ph.Ds and pockets full of Yankee money don’t do anything of tangible value. Actions, development of the political consciousness of the working class, the revolutionary class, the class that is the guiding force of any socialist revolution, do. Building strong mass movements, mass activists, and solid cadre, this is what is valuable. The best thing we can do, from the United States, to help the Syrian people and the people of the world is to build up our class’s weapon against that which is killing them, and us, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party. We oppose the artificial partition of Syria to the benefit of the imperialists. We support Syrian and Kurdish self determination free from outside meddling or coercion. The affairs of a country are those of the people of that country and their government. None else. The role of the US and all other imperialists is to leave. Everywhere. Pack up the bases, and go home. Since it won’t do this, because it’d run counter to the interests of its ruling clique, it must be destroyed.

“During a reactionary war, a revolutionary class cannot but desire the defeat of its government”. Lenin wrote this during WWI, and it holds true today. The revolutionary people, the working class, the oppressed nations, in the US, are oppressed by the same people that are oppressing and destroying the people of Syria. A country that claims to not be able to afford to fix infrastructure, fund schools and healthcare, and take care of the other needs of its people can launch millions of dollars of missiles and miss with half of them, and build a worthless wall on its border with a country that it has also worked to destroy. We desire the defeat of the US government in any war it makes on Syria, the DPRK, or any other country. Our war is here. Let’s sharpen it, let’s expand it, let’s bring more people into it. When the US launches a war abroad, our job, our duty to the people of the world is to bring it home. Cast away illusions, prepare to struggle. Dare to struggle, otherwise you don’t deserve to win. Prepare for militant proletarian internationalist, anti-imperialist actions, demonstrations, and struggle in Saint Louis, led by Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective and mass activists.

US out of Everywhere!

Stop the U.S. War Machine!

Rot the Empire from the Inside!

Solidarity Message to the New People’s Army on the 48th Anniversary of its Founding:

March 28th, 2017

We in Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective join all earnest revolutionary forces in the world today in congratulating the workers, peasants, and all progressive/revolutionary minded strata of the Filipino people and their New People’s Army in their 48 years (on March 29th) of waging people’s war against bureaucrat-capitalism, the US imperialism that props it up, feudalism, reaction, and all other mountains and storms that would dare to seek to suppress and eradicate this people. We, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist comrades in the city of Saint Louis, Missouri, a city that is torn by drugs, gang violence, poverty, corrupt and racist government, and police outrages against our majority Black population follow the development of the people’s struggle in the Philippines with revolutionary pride, for we know that a win for the masses of the Philippines is a win for the masses of the world.

The development of the people’s struggle, led by their party, their united front, and their people’s army, anywhere in the world, is an objective development in a positive direction. We recognize the New People’s Army and the Communist Party of the Philippines as the a guide, a shining beacon for the people of the world in their struggle against capitalism, imperialism, and compradorism. We also recognize that that our task in STL-RC, along with other principled Maoist comrades in collectives working across the United States, the world headquarters of imperialism and monopoly capital, is to develop our Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party befitting the objective and subjective conditions of this country, our own mass movements and united front against capitalism, against fascism, and against imperialist war, and our own instrument in the form of the people’s army. A strong movement in the United States is what the masses of the world have demanded, and what we intend to deliver. Our task, at the present time, is to develop and build the mass movement in our own city, while building principled and comradely relations with Maoist comrades in other cities as well, and lay the basis for the strong foundation of a strong, integrated Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party in this country. Taking inspiration from comrades who have fought and been martyred in India, the Philippines, Peru, Turkey, Kurdistan, and countless other countries in the service of the revolution in the past decades, we will surely accomplish this task. Over 48 years of puppet regimes and dictatorships such as those of Marcos, the NPA still exists, still struggles, and the comrades of the National Democracy Movement and the CPP continue to demand and work for a just and lasting peace for the people of the Philippines and the world. We continue to follow, take inspiration from, and fully support our comrades working in the movements in the Philippines, and proudly join the rest of the revolutionary and progressive minded world in congratulating the Filipino people and their New People’s Army on this 48th anniversary.

Long Live the New People’s Army!

Victory to the People’s War in the Philippines!

Long Live International Solidarity!

Whither Saint Louis? Whither American Maoism?

“We should be modest and prudent, guard against arrogance and rashness, and serve the Chinese people heart and soul.” – Mao Zedong

Saint Louis is the western hole on what is commonly known as the Rust Belt, a region that cuts a wide swath through the middle and upper United States. Cities such as Detroit, Gary, and East Saint Louis share the characteristics of being majority black, and cut to the bone by deindustrialization caused by neoliberalism’s search for cheaper labor to exploit in Mexico and China. The “black middle class”, comprised of Southern migrants who poured into the cities from the cotton fields and KKK lynching craze during the early and middle decades of the 20th century, was gutted in the ‘70s and ‘80s as capital pulled the factories and the jobs that had built this class from the cities. Now, these cities are shells of themselves, no jobs, dilapidated housing, drugs abundant, killings and shootings every day by gangs and by the pigs, ruled by corrupt (and black) political machines. Gentrification setting up, driving more and more black and brown families to the brink. In short, cities like ours are where Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the science and practice of liberation of oppressed nationalities and the working class, must take root. But, only if the course is correct, and only if the mass line method of organizing is applied correctly. You cannot fake the mass line, you cannot deceive the masses, you cannot bogart and barge your way in with red flags and Little Red Books and expect to build a base area.

 

The conditions of our city are unique. Situated on the Mississippi River, a decaying industrial shell, we are a shrunken city, one built for a million people but now holding only around 320,000. We are divided along racial and class lines by Delmar Avenue, the white and “middle class” living South, the poor and black living North. This line is apparent to anyone that comes to the city. This line extends to the country, the communities of Ferguson, Calverton Park, Country Club Hills, Pine Lawn, Kinloch, Wellston, and others form a patchwork quilt of majorly black communities exploited by businesses that have moved into the communities and bleed them dry, selling expired groceries in these food deserts at dear prices, by the police and local governments, some of whom don’t even have insurance for their police vehicles, and by employers who cheat and exploit them at every turn. STLRC cadre, along with mass members of Progressive Youth Organization, conducted thorough social investigation in this area, reaching out to our contacts that live in the area, studying patterns of organizing in this area beginning in 2014, the year of the uprising, and determined together that this area was ripe for the formation and basing of Serve the People, Saint Louis, a mass organization of a new type for this city. Many seem to be confused as to the nature of these organizations, seeing it as simply being another “charity” that swoops into the community and tries to save the people from themselves, this is wrong. A mass organization guided by Maoist cadre can not be something that is run for its own sake, or from a condescending position, we are not condescending saviors. The purpose of STPSTL is to serve to build up a red base, first in Ferguson, then in the rest of North County and Saint Louis City. The principle of “from the masses, to the masses” is the guiding principle of the mass line method of leadership and the STPSTL organization. The mass line is like a factory, we collect “raw material” in the form of ideas from the masses, both unorganized and organized in our mass organizations, synthesize them together, and present them in the form of a line, whether it be a slogan, a program, a coalition, or a campaign. The first event of the STPSTL organization was held at a park in a working class area of Ferguson on International Women’s Day, and was well received by the masses, who were refreshed and happy to see the fact that there was a break from the tired old routine of electoralism, “buy black”, and other things of that nature that do not develop people’s power, but channel it back into the hands of the pig. Several expressed interest in either joining us, spoke bitterness about the problems in the community (particularly the police), and discussed creative ways of solving these problems. Thus, we can conclude that the masses in our area see STP as a good thing. We will continue to do frequent activities at the park (free stores), and also, hopefully, develop a free tutoring and a copwatch program. The key thing for all Maoists to remember when conducting mass work is to remember that the masses must be organized in actuality, bridges must be build, links must be formed, and unity must be built in communities. We should reach out to well known community organizers who have developed their own initiatives to work together, build coalitions, build bases of support, and expand our initiatives to include schools, churches, community centers, and other mass spaces. By doing this, we will develop further a fighting communist movement and a strong mass movement in our city. We should also continue to reject electoral politics, regardless of whoever wins the mayoral election, there will continue to be depredation and oppression. Only the masses organized in mass organizations guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism can solve these problems and storm heaven. No candidate can do that for us.

 

As is well known, our STP organization was developed in the midst of struggle between ourselves and several other collectives across the country, particularly “Red Guards Austin”, who were, apparently, initially confused regarding the “orientation of our program towards the homeless” and generally expressed very bad faith and liberal tendencies towards our collective. Even after clarification and rectification of our line, their position towards us was still extremely hostile. They went so far as to present us with a spurious, dubious, and scurrilous letter, accusing us of “going against the existing STP movement” and calling us “renegaged”, and attach the names of other STP organizations to it. Our position is that this trifling letter does not even deserve a response, if unity can not come after seeing us in action and witnessing the steady development of a base area in Ferguson, so be it. We will still be here, and we will strengthen and grow the revolutionary movement. If dogmatic and hamfisted so-called Maoists, for whatever reason, are unwilling or unable to unite with us, that’s unfortunate, but we will develop our city, regardless. If unity is possible with these elements later, we are all for it. This negative experience teaches us some key lessons about party building and struggles for unity. We Maoists know that we must unite all who can be united with to oppose real enemies. Individuals and collectives that are wont to hop on a high horse, claim leadership that they are not entitled to in lieu of a party, disregard the work of other collectives, place priority on their own work, attack and slander others in public and private, and generally behave themselves in a trifling and liberal fashion, cannot be united with. We in Saint Louis do not follow the vulgar “struggle-struggle-struggle” spirit displayed by many Maoists in this country, we start from a position of unity with all Maoists who are interested in forming a Maoist party in this country. We do not cultivate entangling personal ties and allow bad politics to run amok, this is harmful to the Maoist movement in this country. It is this spirit that will build the party in this country. Furthermore, it is our position that this party must, by necessity, be led by oppressed nations people. Any party that calls itself “Maoist” and arrogates for itself the role of vanguard without having firm and true links with the masses of people of oppressed nationality, with prestige and a record of mass work in these communities and is a part of daily life there, simply will not be legitimate and cannot make revolution. Such a party would inevitably be a party for white academics, hipsters, tin pot intellectuals and gentrifiers, this is not what we seek. We seek to destroy America. This is why work such as that being done by the principled and serious Maoist collectives that currently exist and the mass organizations that their cadre are involved in is extremely important. We would call on all currently unorganized Marxist-Leninist-Maoist comrades in cities such as Flint, Detroit, Cincinnati, Newark, Gary, Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans, Birmingham, Jackson, and others that share similar demographics and class breakdowns to organize collectives and mass organizations as soon as possible, to struggle for comradely and principled unity first and foremost, and to orient yourselves towards the masses of your city to build an effective and fighting mass movement. This is our advice to comrades who have done well in abandoning revisionist parties and organizations to found Maoist collectives and mass organizations. Stop allowing yourselves to be embroiled in petty quarrels and spats, do not allow yourselves to be tossed and turned like a tiny boat on a stormy sea. Do not follow those who seek hegemony, do not be liberal, do not forget to criticize and self-criticize frequently and in due time, in good faith. Build in prisons, in working class communities, in community colleges, in high schools, in tech schools. Reject dogmatism and subjectivism, reject posturing. If we want to build a Party worthy of the name, games must be ended and serious business must be gotten to. We needed a party years ago. Let’s make up for lost time.

 

If there is to be revolution, there must be a revolutionary party. Without a revolutionary party…it is impossible to lead the working class and the broad masses of the people in defeating imperialism and its running dogs.” – Mao Zedong
Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective

Sound and Fury, Bombast and Bravado, Signifying Nothing: On Recent Deterioration in Relations Between Red Guards Austin and Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective

 

2017, for us, marks the deepening and sharpening of the revolutionary struggle in Saint Louis. Our youth mass organization, Progressive Youth Organization, Saint Louis, recently put out a  statement, titled How can Red Political Power Exist in Saint Louis in 2017, setting tasks and line  for the year ahead. A key element of our work is the establishment of a new mass organization, Serve the People – Saint Louis, under the leadership of STLRC cadre. The purpose of this organization is to lay the foundation for the establishment of and struggle towards dual power in the working class, New Afrikan communities of North County, beginning with Ferguson. This program is not a charity, or a simple instrument for obtaining items and passing them out to people. Of course, material support to our class is a major part of this work, but the goal is to raise the level of political struggle. STP-STL seeks to enter the homes, schools, and other gathering places of the masses of the working class in our city, and build up working class power to combat reactionary pig power. The establishment of this organization was met with congratulations from comrades in our city, across the country (who are already organized in STP organizations), and even in other countries with established Maoist parties, such as Canada. The cadre collective in Austin, Texas, “Red Guards Austin”, on the other hand, seems to not want us to have this organization here, and has been quite antagonistic to our efforts to form and consolidate one, according to the conditions of our own city! We ask, do these comrades want Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to grow in this country, or not? Do these comrades believe that they, a collective 825 miles away, who know nothing about the conditions of this city and our struggles here, can dictate and stifle our work? It appears so. This, of course, requires a response from us as an autonomous Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collective organizing in one of the most dangerous cities in the country for this kind of work.

 

What is Saint Louis? It is a majority black city, formerly home to several types of industry that have since fled to exploit workers elsewhere and leaving thousands in a state of privation and precarity. It is a pig city, where those that attempt to offer material support to the houseless (again, predominantly African-American), downtown are punished mercilessly, with arrests and fines. It is a city where the people rose in rebellion in 2014, capturing the attention of the world. The NGOs have picked our bones clean, and we still suffer. Darren Wilson walks free. Mass activists such as Darren Seals have been murdered and their vehicles set afire. On December 31, a body was found hanging from a tree in North County, supposedly the result of suicide, but we know better. In sum, our city is a dangerous one, a brutal one, and a corrupt one. Yet, the masses here continue to struggle and refuse to submit to the pig order. The purpose of mass organizations such as STP and PYO is to integrate cadre within the ranks of and organize the people. PYO-STL organizes the students youth of our city, STP-STL will organize the working class of all ages, with stress placed on the New Afrikan population, as this strata is the most oppressed, the most numerous, the most exploited, and, as a result, the most revolutionary. STP-STL will provide material support in the form of clothing, food, and personal care items to the working class and poor population, soon to victimized by budget cutbacks in social services funding at the national level, courtesy of Trump and his clique. Most importantly, we will use STP as an instrument to practice the mass line. It is, after all, a mass organization. We also seek to expand to provide more than basic material support in the future. It is a shame that Maoists in the United States do very little prison work, considering that we enjoy using and appealing to the imagery and legacy of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the most advanced revolutionary formation in the United States to date and thus one which realized that the vanguard of revolution in the United States is the nationally oppressed population, masses of whom have been kidnapped by the forces of white supremacist capitalist-imperialism and forced to reside in prisons and jails. Thus, they organized prison transport services to maintain links between the community inside and outside, and also had many cadre and members in prisons. Prisoners are treated as slaves, forced to work for free. Do they not wage class struggle? If we are communists, why would we not support them? STP-STL will work with this knowledge and in this tradition, to serve the people means to serve all of the people. “Our duty is to hold ourselves responsible to the people. Every word, every act and every policy must conform to the people’s interests, and if mistakes occur, they must be corrected – that is what being responsible to the people means.”

 

What of Red Guards, Austin? Their opposition to our Serve the People organization, apparently, stems ultimately from the fact that they see the name as some sort of “trademark” that they control, a “franchise” that they can dole out, issue, and rescind at will. A member of the Austin collective expressed recently that they would not consider our STP organization a “real STP”, apparently, because we will also work with the homeless population. Of course, this will not be our primary stress (the result of a phone conversation between a member of RGA and a member of STLRC, during which criticisms of this orientation were made which, we accepted). We have no problem with criticism, and we accept advice when given and correct. One of RGA’s contentions was that “the homeless are not the revolutionary class”. This is true, however, the homeless struggle is a major contradiction in this city. Why would we sit out this struggle, or refuse to delve into it? We do not fear criticism, nor do we avoid it. We keep the good, and reject the bad. Red Guards, Austin, on the other hand, has major issues with accepting criticism, a fact which is known to many. Criticisms made of the white chauvinist and outright ridiculous behavior of one of the organization’s cadre have been simply blown off, or met with attacks. Our organization’s New Afrikan cadre and branch leader has been attacked by this individual from Austin online on many occasions, condescended to, talked down to, mocked, accused of “throwing a temper tantrum”, and infantilized. This individual is white. The leader of RGA is a New Afrikan woman. Criticism of this individual’s behavior has been met with a crude and ironic identity politics, RGA’s leadership is black, thus white chauvinist behavior is not able to exist within the organization, a ludicrous assertion. Lately, our branch leader and this individual were engaged in a debate on Facebook over the legacy of Abimael Guzman, known to us as Presidente Gonzalo, and the Communist Party of Peru under his leadership. Our branch leader made valid and correct criticisms of Gonzalo’s legacy and, again correctly, noted that the People’s War in Peru, objectively, failed. The individual from Austin responded by making a condescending post, stating that he “respected your [branch leader’s] intellect, but don’t act as if you can come close to us in practice”. He was then blocked by the cadre from Austin. This is just one of many instances of antagonistic behavior suffered by our cadre from this individual, we have seen other instances of this type of behavior towards non-white comrades, and we have seen no instances of similar behavior towards white people. This leads us to believe that this individual has white chauvinist tendencies, requiring rectification. Instead of placing him under discipline, the response of RGA has been to protect and make excuses for him, attacking and seeking to isolate those that criticize this behavior. Our branch leader was also recently called “arrogant” and “willing to start an argument about everything” by the RGA branch leader, while tolerating actually arrogant behavior from the aforementioned individual, who is, ironically, known for his temper and arrogant online behavior. What caricature of Maoism is this? As we all know, white chauvinism is a major obstacle to the presence of a strong fighting Communist movement in this country, and it needs to be stamped and rooted out. No white person in this country is exempt from or free from white chauvinist thoughts, practices, and behaviors, Communist or not Communist. When nationally oppressed comrades criticize you, the Communist response is not to seek affirmation from your circle of comrades that, for whatever reason, tolerate this behavior. Nor is it to appeal to identity politics to suppress or blow off criticism. This is the behavior of a clique, not a collective. We have strong reason to believe that this antagonism between cadre from our two organizations is part of the reason for Austin’s opposition to our founding of an STP organization here. This is the epitome of liberalism, melding the personal with the political. We had and have contradictions with individuals in Austin, but we have never allowed our contradictions to lead us to refuse to support their work.
Red Guards Austin has since broken off communications with STLRC, refusing to talk with our branch leader, and has stated that they are “not inclined to speak with us” because of our establishment of the Serve the People, STL organization. This is, in our eyes, unfortunate, but progressive. We are not so hungry for unity with those who, frankly, have been more of a headache to deal with than not, that we surrender our autonomy, our struggle, and our spine to the arrogant, the bombastic, and the petty. The only people that do not want an STP in this city are the bourgeoisie and the police. Our accountability is to the masses of our city, and to comrades that respect our autonomy, support our work, and are interested in struggling for genuine unity with us and engaging in the party building project together. Red Guards Austin is not a party, nor is it a party’s Central Committee. We are not subject to them. It has no right to say that other Marxist-Leninist-Maoist formations may not use a name. As Maoists, we are unchained by sentimentality and acknowledge the fundamental truth that “one divides into two”. Arrogance, cliquishness, and sectarianism, along with the massive chauvinism that RGA displays, are not becoming of the revolutionary. Neither is the extreme dogmatism that RGA seems to display. Until Red Guards Austin issues a collective self criticism, and the individual that has antagonized and displayed white chauvinist behavior towards our New Afrikan cadre issues a thorough self-criticism and we see proof of his rectification and transformation, we are not interested in building with RGA, nor will we engage with any spurious, slanderous, and baseless claims hurled in our direction. This petty and juvenile behavior has no place in the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement in the United States, and it’s quite shameful that a Maoist collective, at this critical moment in our movement and in our history, chooses to behave so.

– Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective

A STL-RC Cadre’s Thoughts on the US Elections

 

 

It’s Election Day again, which means that a new member and representative of the ruling class will be put in the White House. The masses of people have been prodded and threatened for the last year, even longer, into voting today for a neo-liberal war criminal and imperialist, Hillary Clinton. They attempt to hold us hostage, to frighten us, with the threat of the puffed up paper tiger, Donald Trump. To the most oppressed and most exploited, this means nothing. Poor communities of color know this election is a fake, a fraud and a shell game, and in recent polling, have shown that their turnout will be significantly lower than the last election. The petty bourgeois liberal loves to condemn those who don’t vote and complain about “civic duty”, but we Maoists know better. Our duty is to make revolution, to dare to struggle and dare to win. Putting any hope in the polls for our liberation is a fool’s errand, and those that push this line are the biggest fools and the biggest frauds of all. The most exploited and oppressed don’t vote, precisely because they see the direct effect of what voting does for them; nothing. For the vast majority of working and oppressed people, nothing will change, or things will get even worse, regardless of which warmongering marionette win. Their apathy towards the polls is a direct result of the recognition that this system is a fraudulent one, a shell game, an apparatus set up to manage the affairs of the bourgeoisie, those who lie to, cheat, steal from, and exploit us mercilessly every day. No one elected in the US, which is the core of imperialism and capitalism, can bring about real liberation. No election, anywhere that the bourgeois-imperialist order of things exist, can liberate us. Only revolution is the solution. The two political wings of the bourgeoisie use racist dog whistles, transphobic pandering, xenophobic fear mongering, and other tactics of this nature to beguile and fool us, but this is working less and less. Voting either Trump or Clinton is a perpetuation of this. Likewise, voting for candidates like Jill Stein will do nothing, and those that push these candidates and channel the anger of the masses of people back into the system through false promises that can never be kept must be criticized and exposed as representatives of bourgeois charlatanism and cretinism in the ranks of our movements. There is no way that a so-called Communist party can “tactically intervene” or engage in these elections in a meaningful way that advances the tasks laid before us.

 

Socialism cannot be brought about through reforming bourgeois liberal democracy and there is no such thing as “green capitalism” or “inclusive capitalism”. Capitalism must perish. What the STL-RC, what all real Maoists, are calling for and actively struggling towards is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party, a firm weapon and vanguard of the proletariat, a Communist party capable of seizing state power and overthrowing the bourgeoisie through revolutionary protracted people’s war, and waging the class struggle under socialism without yielding or feinting or pitching off to the right, until we establish a Communist order of things. This can only be done by forming links with the masses of people, building up mass organizations like Progressive Youth Organization or Serve the People or Revolutionary Student Front, organizing Maoist collectives of cadre, and organizing in our communities with Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theory and practice as our guide. As Comrade Mao Zedong said, the masses are the motive force of history. We recognize this fully and understand that liberation can only come from the masses themselves. Nothing reactionary falls, unless you make it fall. Let’s make it fall.

DON’T VOTE, REVOLT!

OUR POWER IS IN THE STREETS!

US IMPERIALISTS! NUMBER ONE TERRORISTS!

BUILD THE NEW POWER! TO HELL WITH TRUMP AND HILLARY!

Red Sun Rises on the Mississippi: Founding Statement of the Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective

 

 

We are excited to announce the formation of a new Marxist-Leninist-Maoist collective on the 50th anniversary of the founding of what would become and be recognized both at home and abroad, for a time, as the vanguard in the United States, the recognized advanced formation in the United States, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. We, working class and revolutionary working class students in the city of Saint Louis and the Metro East, form this collective on this important anniversary to pay homage to their revolutionary tradition, learn from their examples, develop beyond their shortcomings, and continue the path of struggle laid out by these comrades. and declare our intent to continue in their best revolutionary tradition. Reformists, revisionists, phony communists, cultural nationalists and liberals, all roundly and sharply criticized by the BPP when they manifested themselves back then, love to play with the Panther legacy, invoking them as some sort of distant dead gods, fetishizing the fact that they carried weapons, dragging out former BPP members turned into reformists and reactionaries,and paying petty homage while wrenching out and discarding all revolutionary Communist theory and practices used, laid out and developed by BPP cadre such as George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton, and countless others. This is historical and political revisionism, whitewashing, and dangerous reformism of the highest degree, and we declare our Maoist collective on this day to show true homage to and express our firm dedication to upholding the actual legacy, that of class struggle, that of the struggle for Communism, that of Serve the People, that of Seize the Time, that of Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, of this group that was inspired by and took guidance from, in major part, the revolutionary struggle of Mao Zedong and the Chinese people. We revolutionary Communists, we Maoists, we nationally oppressed and working class revolutionaries are the true inheritors of the legacy and struggle of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, not reformists, reactionary cultural nationalist formations, and revisionists. We share Huey’s Newton’s dream, we long for revolution, we prepare for revolution, we build up our collective, we build up our mass organizations, we serve and love the people, because we are of the people, not separate. We know that the red flag will one day fly over the Mississippi River, and the Red Sun will rise over the Midwest. This is a fact that is independent of our will or the will of the oppressor. From our small beginnings, we will revolutionize, educate, mobilize, unite, and build for revolution in this city. The foundation of this Maoist collective now means that we have two MLM collectives in the State of Missouri alone.

 

 

Saint Louis has seen sharpening contradictions and bitter struggle since August 2014, when Mike Brown was murdered by Pig Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri. Many people, including members of this collective, were politicized and spurred to begin organizing for revolution in the heat of this struggle. This is a de-industrialized city, a victim of neoliberalism, where people of color have a near majority, this is a city that is segregated, with poor/working class black people residing north of Delmar Avenue. It is possible to stand on Delmar and see opulent mansions on one side and housing unfit for the lowest of animals on the other, into which the masses of poor black people are crammed and charged ridiculous rent. Washington Avenue is a gentrified playground for the city’s rich parasites, one from which the houseless masses are shooed and driven away. Our people beg on the corners while the city’s parasites eat $50 and $60 meals just 10 feet away. All throughout the metropolitan area, constantly, working class people, black people, brown people, are constantly driven away, exploited at work and at home, beaten, arrested, shot and killed, and generally driven further and further to the breaking point by this abominable and decadent system. This is a metropolitan area where residents of the Metro East inhale toxic chemicals from the myriad of chemical plants and factories in their area. Many see a hopeless hellhole, we Communists see revolution, we see fellow Communists and revolutionary partisans in the making. Yet, many liberals still do not understand, or willingly confuse and hide, the reasons why Ferguson exploded in 2014! They do not go among the masses, they despise and loathe the masses. They see the rage, but seek to channel it into something else. If they call themselves Marxists, their Marxism is a dead thing, a thing to be studied and discussed in private, something to be kept on the shelf and not propagated and popularized among the masses. These are sham Marxists. Saint Louis has, until today, had no speakable Communist movement. There are several reformist groups, activist cliques, NGOs, and other groups that parachuted into the city to pick the corpse of Mike Brown, of course, but they are fleeting, confused, tossed here and there and constantly looking for dues, people to register to vote, rage to channel back into the oppressive system, elections to run in, candidates to hawk, and people to follow them on Twitter. The masses are not the makers of history to them, they’re warm bodies for demonstrations, signatures on pieces of paper, or things to mobilize for their own ends. Let them do what they please, they will bash their heads against brick walls for a few more years, the masses will tire of and reject them, and they will peter out, chase the next riot, or split. We, on the other hand, seek to form a rival dual power, people’s power, in our city, to do our part and our duty to overthrow the system of capitalism and imperialism that drives so many of our brothers and sisters to death, prison, or drugs. We refuse to sit idly by and hawk reforms and voting while we die! To build this dual power, we will continue to build and participate in mass struggle, and will develop mass organizations that unite as many of the masses as possible for higher forms of struggle, raise political consciousness, and provide revolutionary alternatives to the existing bourgeois apparatus. We will not beg, we will not grovel, we will not register people to vote, we will not engage in, organize, or promote toothless, worthless acts that are objectively counterrevolutionary and promote the continued legitimacy of the bourgeois order of things. We seek to build the tools with which the revolutionary tasks of the proletariat will be accomplished. Without power, all is illusion.

 

The Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective is Founded on the Following Basis:

 

I.) We are Marxist-Leninist-Maoists.

 

 

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is the highest, to date, development of Marxism, and thus is the guiding force that informs all of the practice and theory of the Saint Louis Revolutionary Collective. We don’t embrace theories that have not been picked up successfully by the masses of people and their parties to successfully make revolution and win liberation. We hold that revolution, the overthrow of the exploiting class by force and the institution of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the socialist order, requires the formation of a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party and none other. This party, comprised of the most advanced elements of the working class, will lead this class in the protracted task of overthrowing the capitalist-imperialist system in the United States. We are Maoists because Maoism is the synthesis of 150 years of revolutionary theory and practice/activity, with the key points being the experiences and periods known as the Paris Commune (1871), the Russian Revolution that gave the world proletariat the Soviet Union and the subsequent socialist period (1917-1956), the Chinese Revolution (1927-1949), and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is a revolutionary ideology for the 21st Century that can be divided into three basic realms/spheres: Political Economy, Philosophy, and Scientific Socialism.

 

Our country at present practises a commodity system, the wage system is unequal, too, as in the eight-grade wage scale, and so forth. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat such things can only be restricted. Therefore, if people like Lin Piao come to power, it will be quite easy for them to rig up the capitalist system. That is why we should do more reading of Marxist-Leninist works. Lenin said that “small production engenders capitalism and the bourgeoisie continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneously, and on a mass scale.” They are also engendered among a part of the working class and of the Party membership. Both within the ranks of the proletariat and among the personnel of state and other organs there are people who take to the bourgeois style of life.

 

• Political Economy: Proletarian politics and correct revolutionary line must always remain in command. Maoism teaches us that during the struggle for and after the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, politics must be in command in all spheres, and proletarian line must be consistently upheld and developed, otherwise, revisionism will take hold and the socialist state will transform into its opposite, the capitalist order of things will be restored and we will repeat the path taken by China and the Soviet Union. Seizure of the Communist Party, the “commanding heights”, by bourgeois individuals with bourgeois lines masquerading as proletarian ones will lay the foundations for the rigging up of the capitalist system and the replacement of the socialist system with the capitalist system. This is why revisionist groups are so dangerous, and Maoists attack revisionism without mercy, because their lines pose a direct threat to the struggle towards communism. The socialist transitional period, with the continued existence of the wage system, the law of value (although not to the extent as in capitalist society), and other things of this nature is rife with contradictions and class struggle, and neglect of class struggle/allowance of the rise of revisionist lines such as the metaphysical, undialectical, one-sided economic determinist “theory of productive forces” we know will lay the foundations for new Deng Xiaopings and Nikita Khrushchevs to subvert the dictatorship of the proletariat. Under socialism, the necessity is to exercise full and all around dictatorship over the bourgeoisie. The revolutionary today realizes the necessity of the continuance of the class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Maoists realize that development of the socialist economy in a firm way comes through the unleashing of the creative abilities and capabilities of the masses, not through bureaucratic commandism from above.

• Maoist Scientific Socialism: The theory of class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat and recognition of its central role in the construction of socialism, the Cultural Revolution, proletarian military strategy and tactics (protracted people’s war led by the Maoist Communist Party), proletarian feminism, the national question, and the mass line method of leadership are the main hallmarks of Maoist scientific socialism.

• Philosophy: Maoist philosophy is marked by the recognition and stress on the law of contradiction, which holds that the principal law in nature and society is the unity and struggle of opposites, with unity being temporary and fleeting and struggle being absolute and eternal. This means that there are radical, revolutionary, and necessary leaps, breaks, and ruptures in struggles and lead to higher developments in the course of these struggles. Essentially, “one divides into two”. Revisionists and reactionaries uphold the line of “two combines into one”, which leads to horrible errors and counterrevolutionary conclusions. Our philosophy isn’t the province of stuffy academic philosophers wearing tweed in rooms full of books, our philosophy is a razor sharp weapon that is directly aimed at the exploiter.
  

 

The ultimate test of whether or not a line or theory is correct is social practice. All correct ideas and knowledge come from practice, there can be no theory that is successful   without being rooted in actual social practice and struggle. This is why we reject such things as Left Communism, “democratic socialism”, Trotskyism, and other petit-bourgeois trinket theories that have developed in classrooms or have not had the slightest whit of success in actual revolutionary practice. This is the basis of Maoist philosophy and revolutionary leadership, rooted in actual practice and involvement in struggle using the mass line method of leadership in which ideas are gathered from the masses, processed, studied and analyzed, and then returned to the masses in the form of a systematic and concentrated line until they accept them as their own and transform them into a material force. If a line is incorrect and wrong, it will be rejected by the masses, rightfully, and those that continue to propagate it after this rejection will be isolated.

II.) We are Proletarian Internationalists

 

 

Class struggle is something that occurs all over the world, not just in the United States. Capitalism-imperialism is an international system of oppression, and it will take actually existing and tangible solidarity both in word and deed with our class comrades across the world in the midst of their struggle. International fraternal bonds of solidarity are required. It warmed our hearts to see our oppressed comrades in Palestine showing solidarity with the masses of Ferguson in 2014, teaching us how to successfully deflect and block the effects of tear gas. It warms our hearts to see Kurdish comrades showing solidarity with our struggle from the battlefield, and Mexican comrades from Ayotzinapa coming to see us. The fact is that a loss in Palestine is a loss in Ferguson, a win in the red areas of India is a win in Kinloch, a win in the Philippines is a win north of Delmar. We firmly stand by the side of the masses waging revolutionary struggles in India, the Philippines, Nepal, Turkey, Palestine, South Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil, and wherever the masses in their dozens, hundreds, thousands and millions are making revolution.

 

III.) We are Proletarian Feminists

 

 

Since bourgeois/postmodern feminism developed by and for middle class women is the standard “feminism” in the United States, and working class/oppressed nationality women are generally excluded from this “feminism”, and bourgeois feminism seeks to unite women based on their gender rather than holding class interests as the material basis for unity, it can be said that there really is no actual feminist movement in the United States today, at least as far as working class women are concerned. The majority of so-called feminists in the United States today care more for Hillary Clinton and Kim Kardashian than working class women who live in prisons or tumbledown hovels in our nation’s ghettos and barrios. Proletarian feminism, revolutionary Communist feminism as it stands today, teaches us that it is necessarily to realize how fluid gender is, and the necessity of struggling for inclusiveness of queer, transwomen, and all non-men in our proletarian feminist line, and orients around their issues and their organization, from a class perspective, for  anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggles in their communities and as part of the general anti-imperialist/anti-capitalist program. Women hold up all of the sky, this is not just an empty slogan, it is material reality.

 

In the realm of the struggle against imperialism and national oppression we recognize that the national oppression aspect coalesces with and makes much worse the oppression faced by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous women/nonmen in comparison to white women, particularly in terms of sexual abuse and exploitation, capitalist exploitation and abuse, and violence. A proletarian feminist line and program is distinct from a bourgeois feminist or class reductionist line on this question in that it does not paper over or reduce away this very real triple oppression of working class, nationally oppressed women/nonmen. To refuse to recognize material reality and develop accordingly is un-Marxist.

 

It is no accident or mistake that the industries that pay less are heavily feminized. It’s no accident or mistake that there is a wage gap between working men and working women, nor is it an accident that capitalists and their politician helpers enact violence against and drive working class women, single mothers, into the deepest depths of despair, denying them access to free childcare, not allowing maternity leave, cutting social programs, etc. The pig Reagan attacked black and latinx women as “welfare queens” all throughout the 1980s and the pig Clinton continued this war throughout the 1990s. This is something that we acknowledge as being a critical aspect in the oppression of women and nonmen under capitalism. Replacing male exploiters with women exploiters like Hillary Clinton is nothing to be proud of, like bourgeois feminists would have us believe. Women’s exploitation and oppression under the capitalist, patriarchal, imperialist system can only be ended by the overthrow of the capitalist system, not by a tweak or an addition of more women to posts at the helm or in the wings of the Empire. Women are being killed at an astonishing rate in the city of Saint Louis, and the election of Hillary Clinton will not stop this. Women are being raped every day in Saint Louis, the installation of a Mayor that isn’t a man will not end this. Only the masses of women organized for their own liberation and led by Communists can end this for good.

IV.) We are for LGBTQI* liberation

Queer people played a major role in the development and struggle towards the founding of this collective. We recognize that we are oppressed by capitalism as working class queer people, and that our liberation can ultimately come from the destruction of the capitalist-imperialist system that drives our brothers and sisters to the street, to drugs, to prison, to alcohol abuse, and in many cases, into their graves. We have no relation to and do not identify with wealthy white queer people who gentrify, who express hatred against other queer people or against nationally oppressed people, and who have arrogated for themselves and have been assigned the public face of what it means to be “queer”. A key aspect of any revolutionary Maoist collective’s practice is upholding, promoting/accepting leadership from, and affirming queer comrades. We would greatly like to see the formation of a RATPAC (Revolutionary Alliance of Trans People Against Capitalism) branch here in Saint Louis, a city that is rife with homophobia, transphobia, and other backwards attitudes that have been transformed into life-ending violence, homelessness, or severe privation for too many of our queer comrades. It will not stop until we ourselves stop it.

 

Requirements for Orientation to Maoist Collectives:

 

We seek to unite with all that can be united with in the process of struggling towards the formation of a Maoist Communist Party in the United States, capable of leading the revolutionary struggle through to victory, and the continuance of the struggle after said victory through all ebbs and flows and highs and lows until we achieve the Communist order. But, this does not entail seeking and promoting liberalism, the “left unity” line, which really means unprincipled, unequal unity for unity’s sake.

1.) We do not orient ourselves towards individual Maoists. Individuals are not accountable to the masses or to an existing collective in their city, we orient towards collectives and mass organizations who hold them accountable for their behavior, who have a verifiable record of mass work and involvement in mass struggles in their communities, and who have organized according to the climate and conditions of their city or locale.

 

2.) We orient towards collectives who recognize the necessity of proletarian leadership. The proletariat is the revolutionary class, the class that has nothing to lose and everything to gain through revolution, and thus is the class that leadership objectively must be developed from. We are not averse to struggling for unity with collectives that have developed out of student struggles or other petit-bourgeois in class orientation, particularly if they are led by revolutionaries of oppressed nationality, but these must constantly struggle against and provide summations of their struggles against petit-bourgeois tendencies, lines, and behaviors, especially liberalism, both within their collective, in relations with other organizations and in the working class/revolutionary movement in their city as a whole, along with their efforts to encourage, develop, and yield to proletarian leadership. Most importantly, these collectives must be actively involved in struggle and engaged in provable mass work, whether it be in anti-gentrification, student struggles, anti-police, tenant organizing, etc.

3.) We struggle for unity with Maoist collectives who show willingness to engage in principled two-line struggle, in a non-chauvinistic and good faith way, on ideological questions of importance to the Maoist movement in this country and in the world as a whole, and the struggle to build a Maoist Communist Party in the United States that can lead the masses in making revolution. Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom! Line struggle is to be welcomed, not avoided. We also encourage collective study of questions of political economy, philosophy and scientific socialism between and within collectives as frequently as possible.

 

4.) We struggle for unity with collectives that take proletarian feminism seriously, and struggle for development and sharpening of proletarian feminist theory and practice, and promote/accept leadership from/encourage the development of non-men leadership. We will not unite with and will not encourage others to unite with collectives that tolerate the presence of sexual or emotional abusers or tolerate the presence of those who maintain social or political relations with known abusers. We will sharply criticize any organization or collective that tolerates or harbors those who abuse, and will constantly check up on those who have declared an intention to rectify bad gender practice to ensure consistent maintenance of proletarian feminist line in command and accountability before the masses.

 

5.) We will not struggle for unity with collectives that take a chauvinistic stance towards other collectives in other regions of the country. Each collective is autonomous. Criticism is indeed a gift, but no collective has the right to attempt to direct others’ mass work or struggle in cities to which they have no ties and in which they have not done any deep-going investigation, nor should criticisms be issued in bad faith or with the intention of controlling/issuing orders to autonomous collectives. There is no “Maoist center” in the United States, there is no Party yet, and there is no room for arrogant “independent kingdoms” that seek to dominate over others or run others’ business through bureaucratic and underhanded means. We struggle for unity with collectives that respect other collectives’ autonomy and right to conduct mass work and struggle in a fashion appropriate to the situation and contradictions of their own locale.

 

6.) We struggle for unity with collectives that recognize the utmost importance of developing leadership from oppressed nations communities. The proletariat of oppressed nations communities are the vanguard, the moving force of struggle in the United States, and leadership must be developed from these groups. Any collective that does not encourage or accept leadership from ON proletariat, engages in white chauvinistic practices/pushes white chauvinist lines, or tolerates those who do will not enjoy comradely relations with us until they show proof of their willingness to rectify and actually begin and carry out this protracted process. The national question and the question of self-determination must be taken seriously, and any Maoist collective who does not recognize the fact that after the revolution, there will not be a United States as we know it (a settler colonial prisonhouse of nations), pushes an American exceptionalist/chauvinistic line, or otherwise does not put themselves in direct contradiction to the United States Empire is no comrade of ours, and is not Maoist.

 

7.) Any collective or organization calling itself Maoist who upholds the line that there is “Actually Existing Socialism” or base areas in the world today that we are bound to accept leadership and guidance from from is a revisionist clique posing as a MLM collective, and will be exposed and sharply/ruthlessly criticized until they cease calling themselves Maoists or transform themselves into actual Maoists. We are in a period of retreat of revolution on a global scale, and this fact requires serious reckoning with. Our duty is to make revolution in the United States, and support and learn from current people’s wars and uphold the legacy of previous people’s wars across the world, learning from both their successes and their failures. We are willing to carry out and promote active and vigorous two-line struggle on questions regarding the way in which revolution is to be carried out in the United States, but do not orient towards vested revisionist “parties” or formations.

 

LONG LIVE THE SAINT LOUIS REVOLUTIONARY COLLECTIVE!

LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!

BUILD REVOLUTIONARY COLLECTIVES OVER THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES! HELP BUILD THE PARTY AND BRING DOWN THE EMPIRE!