"We get to show and what do we see
Banners and flyers for the RCP.
I found the man who had spoke to me
He said I was a dupe for the RCP" ---MDC
World Can't Wait, a group that is organizing protests against the war on terror today, has links to the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party. My colleague Natalia is organizing a rally today, and at my urging, she has not registered our rally with World Can't Wait.
The RCP are not run of the mill Marxists. They openly embrace some of the most heinous positions imaginable, including the bizarre idea that Mao's Cultural Revolution was the truest expression of a workers utopia. They align themselves with ultra-violent rebel groups in Peru and Nepal. These fuckers are bad news.
Essentially, the RCP is to the left what the Moonies are to the right. First of all, they are really a cult of personality around one Bob Avakian. (The Party apparently prefers the term "culture of appreciation") Second they slip into the left's actions the way the Moonies slip into the right. People form coalitions with them because they are well funded and organized, and appear to share your agenda. But really they don't share one iota of agenda with us. We are marching against the war on terror because we value peace and civil liberties. The Maoists care for neither of these things. A while back the Reverend Moon ordained himself God at a ceremony in Washington DC attended by a couple Republican congressmen. I imagine their reaction was much like the reaction of many people who have worked with the RCP: "Dum de dum, I'm just forming a coalition, this is ordinary politics---holy shit!"
Actually, the thing that troubles me most about the RCP is the way they behave in coalitions. They push groups toward unproductive confrontational actions and are not upfront about their agenda. Dave from MDC's experience, told in the song "I was a Dupe for the RCP," of being lied to about the sponsorship of a concert is par for the course. The weirdest thing about RCP members is the way they talk. They engage in soundbite politics and stay on message really well. The language, though, is not just militant, it is militaristic. It is really frightening. Admittedly, it has been 20 years since I shared a car ride from DC to NYC to attend a Stop the City demonstration with a woman from the RCP. But I still have strong memories of it. At the end of the ride she said "I have enjoyed struggling with you." Struggling? I thought we were talking. "Struggling" turned out to be a big RCP word at the time. I've decided not to turn everything into a struggle.
"If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow."
--Lennon/McCartney (really just Lennon)
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5 comments:
That's funny. The Beatles quote.
I always liked John Lennon.
Guess whose picture he took to wearing on his lapel?
Guess again.
John Lennon was actually fond of Mao, as well as Yoko. If you actually listen to Revolution, it is about Lennon's contradictory attitude about the subject. On one hand he wants significant change in the world and revolution, but he is also self-interested (he doesn't want to die).
But I agree JUST carrying pictures of chairman Mao or Bob Avakian is not going to do anything. That is indeed true, and perhaps something RCP doesn't get.
But describing Mao' Cultural Revolution as simply and unprofoundly as you have is as simple as any red baiter has done, or merely dismissing the Maoists of Nepal.
Your cognitive ability seems to me diminutive in proportion to your self assuredness.
I disagree with RCP as well, but I have taken the time to reach a level of comprehension in regards to their line, strategy and tactics necessary to be able to agree or disagree with them. I doubt you have.
Your criticism of an organization because its members are able to "stay on message really well" is idiotic.
If World Can't Wait is organizing anti war protests, and you are organizing a rally, then you (AND RCP) share an agenda by definition of the word alone. How foolish and self important of you not to bring as much attention to your cause as possible.
I suspect your opposition to the current imperialist campaign against the third world is motivated by vanity, not true internationalist compassion for human lives.
Leave political writing to those who know what the fuck they are talking about.
I've had some issues dealing with World Can't Wait & the RCP. I'm in Chicago, and am part of a group that organizes trying to stop war on Iran.
At one point, we were lobbying city hall, trying to get an anti-Iran-war resolution passed in city hall. As part of a calculated strategy, we agreed to compromise somewhat on the language in the resolution, to allow the resolution better chance of passage.
This was unacceptable to the "World Can't Wait" people in our coalition, and they argued with us, went against the rest of the coalition, and bascially ended up trying to damage the whole effort.
We decided that we could not work together after that. What was most angering about working with them was that they used tricky, not-entirely-honest tactics in dealing with the rest of the group.
I don't hate them, but I'll have to think hard about working with them again, in light of what happened.
Thanks for the comment Aaron. The use of dishonest and misleading tactics (like suggesting without evidence that John Lennon was a Mao fan) is what in the end makes it impossible to form coalitions with them, even when you share agendas.
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