First Published: The Call, Vol. 9, No. 13, March 31, 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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What kind of communists run around fomenting anti-communism? This question could easily be asked about the latest series of escapades on the part of the so-called Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
The RCP leadership has been pushing its members into a number of self-defeating actions in a frantic effort to generate publicity for themselves, and the capitalist press is all too willing to devote space to this ultra-“left” gang. To the RCP, building a revolutionary movement consists of holding up a red flag and’ shouting slogans–and punching out anyone who doesn’t take up the cause. But the only thing the RCP has succeeded in generating is a lot of anti-communism and a discrediting of the progressive movement, even driving people to support police action against the group.
One case in point was the RCP’s “march” through the cafeteria of a Black high school in Southeast Washington, D.C., March 14. The small band of ultra-“leftists” entered Ballou High yelling slogans and apparently expecting the students to rally round the red flag. Instead the students turned out to be much more sophisticated than the RCP gave them credit for. The students pelted the phony “communists” with mustard, milk, apples and garbage and even helped school administrators corner them in a school courtyard until police came and arrested them.
“It was a whole lot of nonsense,” Gilbert Davidson, a 16-year-old Ballou junior, told the Washington Post. “They were talking about how the white man treats us, how we used to be slaves and it’s time for us to speak up... I guess they thought they were putting some sense in our heads.”
“They’re always low-rating us,” said Latanye Magruder, a 15-year-old sophomore, referring to the RCP. “They think we are dumb. They tell us not to go to school. I don’t see their purpose. They’re confused themselves.”
In another action in San Antonio, Tex., March 20, a group of three RCPers, without seeking or getting any support from the people of that city, climbed on to the Alamo, the symbol of U.S. conquest of Mexico, and planted a red flag. They stayed until guards dragged them away.
In Beckley, W.Va., recently it was a similar scene, with RCPers getting into fist fights with townspeople until 18 of them were arrested. This move was supported by a large section of the community.
To the RCP leaders, the masses of Americans are beyond hope. Acting out of despair about their own failures to organize the U.S. working class, the RCP has resorted to isolated acts, with the leaders using the rank-and-file supporters as cannon fodder.
The topper to all this madness should be May 1, the workers’ holiday, when the RCP will try to divert attention from the May Day programs going on around the country by staging their own “general strike.”