REVOLT! “We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe” ―Frantz Fanon In This Issue Martin Luther King Day Justice for 2 killed in East LA! Mao Zedong on Black Liberation More... It Doesn’t Stop Until We Stop It After Daniel Pantaleo, a white New York City Police Department officer, killed an African American, Eric Garner, by choking him to death on July 17 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, a New York City grand jury on Dec. 3 refused to indict him or any of the other officers involved in the murder. But we are not surprised. We are not surprised by the New York City grand jury’s decision – similar to the Ferguson grand jury which also refused to indict officer Darren Wil- son in the killing of Mike Brown. It stands as an affirmation that the U.S. is a white supremacist country, whose principal character is that of being a prison house of nations. It stands as an affirmation of this country’s legacy of national oppression when it sends in an overwhelmingly white police force like an occupying army into its internal colonies/oppressed nations (communities of color). It stands as cemented proof, for those that needed it, of this country’s legacy as an imperialist, white supremacist, settler- colonial state. Protests have erupted in response all across the country, many of which are continuing from the Ferguson and Mike Brown solidarity movements. More and more, people—the masses—are rising up in coordinated and spontaneous actions in cities throughout the U.S., from the East Coast (New York) to the Midwest (Kansas City) to the West Coast (Los Angeles, Oakland and Portland). And, still, more and more people are echoing some of Eric Garner’s final words of resistance against the racist police, “It stops today,” to which we say, yes, of course, and let ’s add to that: “This doesn’t stop until we stop it!” Continued on page 3 A publication of the Red Guards-Los Angeles (New Communist Party-Liaison Committee) January 20, 2015 Issue 1
Transcript
REVOLT!
“We revolt simply
because, for many
reasons, we can
no longer breathe”
―Frantz Fanon
In This Issue
Martin Luther King
Day
Justice for 2 killed in
East LA!
Mao Zedong on Black
Liberation
More...
It Doesn’t Stop Until We Stop It
After Daniel Pantaleo, a white New York City Police Department officer, killed an African American, Eric Garner, by choking him to death on July 17 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, a New York City grand jury on Dec. 3 refused to indict him or any of the other officers involved in the murder.
But we are not surprised.
We are not surprised by the New York City grand jury’s decision – similar to the Ferguson grand jury which also refused to indict officer Darren Wil-son in the killing of Mike Brown. It stands as an affirmation that the U.S. is a white supremacist country, whose principal character is that of being a prison house of nations. It stands as an affirmation of this country’s legacy of national oppression when it sends in an overwhelmingly white police force like an occupying army into its internal colonies/oppressed nations (communities of color). It stands as cemented proof, for those that needed it, of this country’s legacy as an imperialist, white supremacist, settler-colonial state.
Protests have erupted in response all across the country, many of which are continuing from the Ferguson and Mike Brown solidarity movements. More and more, people—the masses—are rising up in coordinated and spontaneous actions in cities throughout the U.S., from the East Coast (New York) to the Midwest (Kansas City) to the West Coast (Los Angeles, Oakland and Portland). And, still, more and more people are echoing some of Eric Garner’s final words of resistance against the racist police, “It stops today,” to which we say, yes, of course, and let’s add to that: “This doesn’t stop until we stop it!” Continued on page 3
A publication of the Red Guards-Los Angeles (New Communist Party-Liaison Committee)
January 20,
2015
Issue 1
All over the world, and including the United
States, oppressed and exploited people con-
tinue to be brutalized and gun downed by law
enforcement under the guise of protecting and
serving our communities.
But in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles,
South Los Angeles, Ferguson and elsewhere
oppressed nationalities (people of color) and
our allies are rising up. Our communities are
internal colonies within the U.S. Euro-
American capitalist-imperialist state. We are
organizing and resisting their violence, the
brutality of the Los Angeles Police Depart-
ment and the County Sheriff’s Department.
On Nov. 16, Eduardo Bermudez and Ricardo
Avelar-Lara were shot to death by the Los An-
geles County Sheriff’s Department, under the
justification that they were armed. Later on, it
was proven that the supposed gun in question
was a fake gun, a BB gun.
Red Guards – Los Angeles, a Marxist-
Leninist-Maoist organization based in Boyle
Heights under the leadership of oppressed
nationalities, stands in solidarity with the
families of both Eduardo Bermudez and Ri-
cardo Avelar-Lara and our communities who
are organizing for justice.
We understand that the police and sheriffs
are a violently antagonistic force in Los An-
geles, especially South and East Los Ange-
les. And it is for that very reason that we
urge our communities to organize against the
repressive state apparatus and begin the for-
mation of self-sufficient peoples’ organizations
that can be held directly accountable to the
masses within our communities.
The police and sheriffs want us kettled in our
internal colonies, afraid and controlled. But we
are many, they are few. We are strong, they
are weak. We are revolutionaries, they are the
state.
Solidarity with the families and people of Fer-
guson, South LA and East LA!
Long live a world without killer sheriffs and
police!
Down with the state, up with the people!
To help the families with burial expenses,
please go to:
http://www.gofundme.com/hgm92g
Page 2
¡Eduardo Bermudez and Ricardo Avelar-Lara,
Presente!
A statement from Red Guards–Los Angeles (New Communist Party-LC)
Page 3
Continued from page 1...
But, still, many think activism starts and ends with a hashtag, with a non-profit coalition, with a city-permitted demonstration.
But we think differently. We recognize the ne-cessity of putting an end to the tragically long list of names of black and brown lives taken by the capitalist-imperialist state.
Let it be clearly understood now: the capitalist-imperialist state is waging a war, particularly against its internal colonies/oppressed na-tions. They want us kettled in, powerless and utterly dominated. They want us dead or con-trolled. Not only does the U.S. need its con-sumers, it also needs its surplus reserve of cheap labor, largely made up of people of Af-rican Americans, Chicanos and immigrants/migrants from oppressed nations around the world.
The state has its armed forces; this is referred to as the repressive state apparatus (RSA). The RSA is one side of state power; the other is its ideological state apparatus (ISA). The RSA is a section of the capitalist state that maintains the relations of capitalist production and white supremacy through the use of orga-nized force: the army, the justice department, congress, police, courts, prisons etc. The ISA justifies and tries to legitimize the white su-premacist and capitalist order through ideolo-gy – in schools, in the media, etc. The NYPD
is part of the repressive state apparatus that maintains the order of white supremacist capi-talism through organized violence. The NYPD protects the interests and property of the capi-talist class along with their allies in the finan-cial capital of the world, by repressing working class people and oppressed nationalities so as to keep us ready to be exploited.
We cannot afford to treat these killings as in-dividual phenomena, as particularities in an otherwise smooth and frictionless existence; we exist to resist. The killings of black and brown people will not stop without calculated and protracted confrontation.
The state and its repressive and ideological state apparatuses will not tire. They must be completely and mercilessly destroyed, and this can only be done with a well-coordinated and disciplined mass movement. For this, we say, we understand, that we need a concen-trated effort carried out by the masses that are committed for proletarian revolution, for a Peoples’ War—this is what we call for a com-munist party. It doesn’t exist, but it must. And that’s why we exist.
The New Communist Party (Liaison Commit-tee) exists simply and only for the sincerest reason to build proletarian revolution and communism. As we attempt to build the party, a new party, an authentic communist party, we encourage all oppressed and exploited people in this country to organize Cop Watch-
Dare to Struggle! Dare to Win! -Red Guards-Austin
Page 4
On Burning Houses:
A Report Back From the Militarized
Martin Luther King Day Parade in
South Los Angeles.
"We have fought hard and long for integra-
tion, as I believe we should have, and I know
that we will win. But I've come to believe
we're integrating into a burning house."
As the Red Guards approached the Martin Lu-
ther King day parade in South Los Angeles, we
found a group of 30 armed police officers
mounted on motorcycles flying back and forth in
complex formations with sirens wailing. This car-
ried on for almost half an hour as we asked our-
selves, “what could this be besides a display of
military might?”
As the parade approached, we were disappoint-
ed to find that it was conducted in a way to ex-
clude participation of the masses and to provide
a platform for the police, ROTC, city council, and
the military to co-opt the legacy of Martin Luther
King Jr. and turn it into a nationalistic celebration
of imperialist exploitation and oppression.
Despite their dishonest attempts at showing the
diversity of their white supremacist institutions,
the masses were not fooled. Several people
watching the parade chimed in by shouting
“Fuck the pigs!” and other anti-establishment
phrases. We know the cops, city council, and
military don’t represent the interests of the work-
ing class, especially those members of the work-
ing class who experience national oppression
and racist violence by these institutions.
The ruling class and their cronies in the state
know that there is a deep anger among the op-
pressed nations in the United States and they
actively sought to contain that anger by outright
excluding the masses from the parade. They are
afraid of the masses protesting and fighting back
against their oppression. They are afraid of op-
pressed people reviving the militant legacy of
Martin Luther King Jr.
es, to organize self-defense organizations, to organize for self-preservation and survival and continue to build mass organizations that seek to make revolution against the capitalist-imperialist bourgeoisie.
Revolutionaries from past history have come to several universal truths. Among them Chair-man Mao Zedong understood this all too well during the Chinese Revolution of 1949 and then again during the Great Proletarian Cultur-al Revolution of 1966-1976 with the dictum: “Without a People’s Army, the people have nothing.”
Let us struggle, let us win, let us make revolu-tion!
Page 5
The Radical Legacy of Dr. King
As Dr. King grew older, his confidence in capi-
talist “democracy” had greatly diminished. He
had begun to view white moderates affiliated
with the Democratic Party as the “great stum-
bling block to freedom. He grew contemptuous
towards those who were “more devoted to order
than to justice” or who told him to put off his
struggle for the liberation of black America until
a better time. He started to publicly make con-
nection between poverty, racism, and the geno-
cidal imperialist war in Vietnam. Dr. King began
to recognize the exploitative and oppressive na-
ture of the capitalist system wherein African-
Americans were sharply exploited and discrimi-
nated against in order to enrich a predominantly
white privileged few and the need to fight not
only against discrimination and Klan-style racist
violence, but all of bourgeois society.
In the months leading up to his death in 1968,
Dr. King began to organize a “Poor People’s
Campaign” demanding the right to work and a
livable income for the poor of all communities in
the US.
Although his conception of the Poor People’s
campaign had its ideological and strategic short-
comings, it was an attempt to highlight the deep
interconnectedness off class struggle and na-
tional liberation.
Let the House Burn! Fight for Revolu-
tion!
White liberals showed their true colors as Dr.
King moved further to the left. They abandoned
and demonized him. After his death, they co-
opted his struggles and image in order to justify
their attempts to divert the anger of the masses
into channels that don’t threaten the system of
capitalist white supremacy.
There is no room for the emancipation of black
people in capitalist America. The United States
would have never existed without the subjuga-
tion and enslavement of millions of Africans and
to this day, it maintains the status of the black
community as a source of cheap labor and pris-
on fodder. It murders black men, women, and
children with impunity just for existing. It rele-
gates them to crippling systemic unemployment.
American capitalism isn’t broken and it can’t be
salvaged. It was built this way and it can only
exist as a viciously racist social arrangement.
Capitalism requires pools of workers who are
forced to work in substandard conditions for
substandard pay.
The only solution is communist revolution. Only
the complete transformation of all of society can
defeat white supremacy and bring about a
world without poverty, racism and national op-
pression!
“During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the op-
pressing classes constantly hounded them, re-
ceived their theories with the most savage malice,
the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous
campaigns of lies and slander. After their death, at-
tempts are made to convert them into harmless
icons, to canonize them, so to say, and to hallow
their names to a certain extent for the “consolation”
of the oppressed classes and with the object of dup-
ing the latter” -Vladimir Lenin
“A New Storm Against
Imperialism” by Mao
Zedong April 19, 1968
Some days ago, Martin Luther King, the Af-
ro-American clergyman, was suddenly as-
sassinated by the U.S. imperialists. Martin
Luther King was an exponent of nonvio-
lence. Nevertheless, the U.S. imperialists
did not on that account show any tolerance
toward him, but used counter-revolutionary
violence and killed him in cold blood. This
has taught the broad masses of the Black
people in the United States a profound les-
son. It has touched off a new storm in their
struggle against violent repression sweep-
ing well over a hundred cities in the United
States, a storm such as has never taken
place before in the history of that country. It
shows that an extremely powerful revolu-
tionary force is latent in the more than twen-
ty million Black Americans.
The storm of Afro-American struggle taking
place within the United States is a striking
manifestation of the comprehensive political
and economic crisis now gripping U.S. im-
perialism. It is dealing a telling blow to U.S.
imperialism, which is beset with difficulties
at home and abroad.
The Afro-American struggle is not only a
struggle waged by the exploited and op-
pressed Black people for freedom and
emancipation, it is also a new clarion call to
all the exploited and oppressed people of
the United States to fight against the barba-
rous rule of the monopoly capitalist class. It
is a tremendous aid and inspiration to the
struggle of the people throughout the world
against U.S. imperialism and to the struggle
of the Vietnamese people against U.S. im-
perialism. On behalf of the Chinese people,
I hereby express resolute support for the
just struggle of the Black people in the Unit-
ed States.
Racial discrimination in the United States is
a product of the colonialist and imperialist
system. The contradiction between the
Black masses in the United States and the
U.S. ruling circles is a class contradiction.
Only by overthrowing the reactionary rule of
the U.S. monopoly capitalist class and de-
stroying the colonialist and imperialist sys-
tem can the Black people in the United
States win complete emancipation. The
Black masses and the masses of white
working people in the United States have
common interests and common objectives
to struggle for. Therefore, the Afro-
American struggle is winning sympathy and
support from increasing numbers of white
working people and progessives in the Unit-
ed States. The struggle of the Black people
in the United States is bound to merge with
the American workers’ movement, and this
will eventually end the criminal rule of the
U.S. monopoly capitalist class.
In 1963, in the “Statement Supporting the
Afro-Americans in Their Just Struggle
Against Racial Discrimination by U.S. Impe-
rialism,” I said that the “the evil system of
colonialism and imperialism arose and
throve with the enslavement of Negroes and
the trade in Negroes, and it will surely come
to its end with the complete emancipation of
Page 6
Page 7
the Black people.” I still maintain this view.
At present, the world revolution has entered
a great new era. The struggle of the Black
people in the United States for emancipa-
tion is a component part of the general
struggle of al the people of the world against
U.S. imperialism, a component part of the
contemporary world revolution. I call on the
workers, peasants, and revolutionary intel-
lectuals of all countries and all who are will-
ing to fight against U.S. imperialism to take
action and extend strong support to the
struggle of the Black people in the United
States! People of the whole world, unite still
more closely and launch a sustained and
vigorous offensive against our common en-
emy, U.S. imperialism, and its accomplices!
It can be said with certainty that the com-
plete collapse of colonialism, imperialism,
and all systems of exploitation, and the
complete emancipation of all the oppressed
peoples and nations of the world are not far
off.
Mao Zedong and African American Revolutionary Robert F Williams
“Only by overthrowing the reac-
tionary rule of the U.S. monopoly
capitalist class and destroying the
colonialist and imperialist system
can the Black people in the United
States win complete emancipa-
tion. “
What is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism?
MLM is the synthesis of the experiences of class
struggle in all countries since the emergence of
the international proletariat more than 160 years
ago. It was forged and expounded mainly by Marx
and Engels, Lenin and Stalin, and Mao. Marxism,
Leninism, and Maoism are three stages in the de-
velopment of proletarian theory, which advanced
through the heroic struggles waged by hundreds
of millions of downtrodden masses and the sum-
ming-up of the historical milestones of the world
proletarian revolution: the Paris Commune
(1871), the October Revolution (1903-1917), the
Chinese Revolution (1921-1949), and the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China (1966-
1976). It is our ideological guide towards the con-
struction of a communist society in which classes,
sexism, racism and all other forms of oppression
have been abolished!
Why does the Working Class Need a Party? The 21st century has proven to be an era of
revolt. People from India to Ferguson are
standing up and saying enough is enough.
They are getting angry and are taking to the
streets and picking up arms. However, pas-
sion isn’t enough to defeat our enemies. We
need strategy and leadership. A genuine
communist party seeks to play this role by
integrating into the struggles of the masses
for liberation not to take them over , but in-
stead to become the struggles’ most stead-
fast and hardest working fighters and win
over the trust of the most politically advanced
groups and individuals in order to help chan-
nel the masses’ rage towards our only solu-
tion, communist revolution-the complete abo-
lition and transformation of all exploitative so-
cial relations.
History has shown that we can not rely on the
capitalist parties or the state to consider our
interests. They are the representatives of the
rich and will fight tooth and nail to defend this
violent system of exploitation and oppression.
We have been forced to accept fighting for
scraps from the table for too long. The Prole-
tariat needs a revolution and a revolutionary
party to get what is rightfully ours.
We have nothing to lose but our
chains and a world to win!
Page 8
What is La Concha?
La Concha is an au-
tonomous commu-
nity center based
out of Boyle
Heights run by East
LA’s all women of
color bicycle advo-
cacy and communi-
ty building organi-
zation, The Ovarian
Psycos.
It seeks to create a
safe space for or-
ganizations in the
community to or-
ganize out of and to
hold public events.
La Concha gra-
ciously allows Red
Guards-Los Ange-
les to utilize their
space to co-host
monthly movie
screenings with our
comrades in the Ju-
ventud FMLN, a
Slavadoran revolu-
tionary youth or-
ganization with a
branch in Los An-
geles as well as our
weekly study
groups.
Check out Ovarian
Psyco-Cycles at:
http://
ovarianpsycos.com/
Study groups are open to all., particularly those who are not familiar with Maoism
Page 9
Red Guards - Los Angeles (RGLA) Mission:
Red Guards - Los Angeles, as a cadre organization, seeks to politically
educate and revolutionize the communities in Los Angeles, especially
in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, into rivaling capitalist-
imperialist power structures by forming our own parallel dual power
systems. We seek to create and promote self-determination to op-
pressed communities through all practical means. We will join, pro-
mote and create, where appropriate, mass organizations to effectively
carry out building class consciousness and revolutionary organizing.
RGLA Vision:
We seek the creation of a communist society in the U.S. and the world
through a genuine proletarian revolution under the ideology of Marxism
-Leninism-Maoism, with heightened attention to the dynamic oppres-
sion faced by oppressed nations and nationalities within the U.S. We
understand the U.S. as being a settler-colonialist capitalist-imperialist
empire that houses several oppressed nations and oppressed immi-
grants/migrants that contribute to the wealth of this country. Our ulti-
mate aim is communism, and we seek to welcome oppressed nations
and nationalities into our ranks, as well as nation and class traitors (i.e.
What is the New Communist Party-Liaison Committee? There is no revolutionary party in the US, despite there being parties that claim to be the vanguard of the proletariat in the US. However, there are numerous individuals and organizations throughout the US with whom we share enough ideological unity as Marxist-Leninist-Maoists to engage in building a party together. Thus, we have taken up the task of forming the Liaison Committee for a New Communist Party to engage these forces and begin taking the steps to unite.
The liaison committee functions by overseeing the establishment of branches and collectives in different cities, states and regions of the US. Each branch engages in doing political work among the masses (organizing workers, students, women, etc.) on the basis of building up for proletarian revolution. The different branches and collectives are not just doing mass work but engage in political and ideological struggle to put us on the path of building a strong, democratic cen-tralist pre-party formation. As ideological unity is built in the Liaison Committee, and more collectives and branches join, we will reach a stage where can declare an organizing committee in which the infra-structure for the Communist Party will start to be built.
The purpose of the NCP-LC is to be this liaison between these
branches and collectives, to develop unity in practice and theory,
and to advance the study, propagation, and leadership among the
masses of communist politics guided by MLM until which time the
quantitative and qualitative conditions exist where a Party can be
organized.
How can people get involved?
By contacting a branch if they are in the areas they cover, or the na-tional liaison if they are not. Generally membership is only after a rigorous process of vetting for ideological and practical reasons, but all branches engage in mass work that allows supporters to partici-pate under the guidance of MLM.
On the other hand, we are always looking for collectives with proven
work among the masses as part of uniting the advanced. New
branches should spring everywhere – and the quickest way to be-
come part of the NCP-LC is to develop your own independent col-
lective and mass organization and join together as a group. We are
not a Party, not even a pre-Party, but a liaison committee, intended
to create liaisons among Maoist collectives. We are not an eclectic
formation, however – the points of unity are explicitly MLM – so
while fraternal relations are possible with communist, anarchist,
and other left forces, we are not a wider regroupment effort of the
left, but a Maoist pole making an honest attempt at the party building
