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Revolutionary Communist Party, Usa




More recently, RCP members were the forefront in establishing the of all four of these organizations.

Historically, one of the group's most notable actions was raising the , burned a United States Flag at the Republican National Convention in 1984, leading to the Supreme Court case known as Texas V. Johnson .

As a result of criminal indictments stemming from a protest against Deng Xiaoping at the White House in 1981 , Bob Avakian and other RCP leaders fled the United States and have been living in France and England ever since. Mostly as a result of this development, the RCP is active in both the United States and Western Europe .

The RCP helped found the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and is the main voice of support in the United States for fellow RIM participants the Communist Party Of Peru (Shining Path) and the Communist Party Of Nepal (Maoist) .


ORIGINS


Robert Avakian was one of many activists in The Sixties who turned to Maoist (referred to by adherents as Marxist-Leninist ) ideas and began organizing in the Bay Area of California . H. Bruce Franklin , Stephen Charles Hamilton, and Bob Avakian together formed the ''Bay Area Revolutionary Union'', or BARU, which was subsquently able to absorb a series of similar local Collective s which had developed out of Students For A Democratic Society . The new nationwide structure allowed BARU to change its name to simply the ''Revolutionary Union''. The RCP claims that of the various groups coming out of SDS, it was the first to seriously attempt to develop itself both at the theoretical level, with the publication of "Red Papers 1", and at the practical level, by sinking roots into Working Class communities and struggles.

Such rapid expansion was not without its problems, however, and in 1971 H. Bruce Franklin led a section of the RU to fuse with the Venceremos Brigade . In 1975, the Revolutionary Union renamed itself the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA; that same year, Franklin and Vice Chairman Mickey Jarvis formally left the RCP to form the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters .


RCP TODAY


In 2001, the RCP published its "New Draft Programme" in which it states its ideas and goals for a new generation. This document contains a reformed position on Homosexuality -- up until 2001, the RCP followed the line of the original communist movement in believing that homosexuality was "something to be struggled against." Now the RCP is fully accepting of homosexuals and the associated struggles.

Following the re-election of George W. Bush , the RCP released a statement called "The Battle for the Future". It calls Bush a Christian Fascist and calls on the masses to resist. The document also puts forward Bob Avakian as a great leader.

In issue of RW newspaper signaled "the end of 25 years of Revolutionary Worker/Obrero Revolucionario — and the beginning of Revolution/Revolución. {Link without Title} e believe that the new name more fully reflects our revolutionary communist ideology and politics, and the enriched vision of a tribune of the people that has been pioneered by RCP Chairman Bob Avakian."

In late ; Clyde Young, a "writer for the revolutionary press"; Akil Bomani, a Revolution Newspaper correspondent; and Joe Veale, Los Angeles RCP branch spokesperson.


CRITICISM OF RCP

The RCP is obviously subject to general criticisms made against campaign.

Alleged Cult of Personality

Competing Communist and Socialist groups often describe the RCP as a Cult Of Personality around the "Great Leader" Bob Avakian . Those opposing such a cult of personality question whether it is necessary or desirable to build one up at all, and particularly whether it is justified to build one up around a leader that may or may not eventually gain the credibility and respect to have one. Such critics say that it is terribly presumptuous of the RCP to put forward Bob Avakian as a Great Leader when he is nowhere near the status of Marx , Lenin or Mao Zedong (from whom their "Marxist-Leninst-Maoist" ideology takes its name). Others also allege that personality cults were a weakness, not a strength, of the old communist movement, and that as such, these mistakes do not need to be repeated in a new revolutionary communist society. This debate has taken on renewed life since the leaders of the Nepalese Maoists have disassociated themselves from this method of promoting leaders.

Anarchist and competing-Maoist criticism

, characterize the RCP as being fake Maoists.


EXTERNAL LINKS


Archives


Articles and news reports


RCP support websites


RCYB websites


Refuse & Resist!


Opinions


Video

  • [http://www.overspun.com/video/F&F-Commies.wmv FOX & Friends "Michael's Supporters" ''Microsoft Player link''] RCP supporter Sunsara Taylor interviewed regarding Terri Schiavo case. Edited version archived on Overspun.com . Retrieved April 12, 2005.



FURTHER READING



Revolutionary Union publications


Pamphlets

  • ''Victory through our struggle, not through elections!''. Revolutionary Union, Chicago. {Link without Title} , 8p., newspaper format.


  • ''The "new economic policy"''. Bay Area Radical Education Project, San Francisco. 1971, 32p.


  • ''India's aggression in Pakistan; the background of "Bangla Desh"''. Revolutionary Union & Bay Area Radical Education Project, San Francisco. {Link without Title} , 28p.


  • ''The red papers, no. 7: How capitalism has been restored in the Soviet Union and what this means for the world struggle''. Revolutionary Union, Chicago. 1974, 156p.


  • ''The Chicano struggle and the struggle for socialism''. Revolutionary Union, Chicago. 1975, 68p. ''The RU paper was adopted by the Revolutionary Communist Party as part of its platform in 1975''


Periodicals

  • ''The Red Papers''. San Francisco, Calif. Bay Area R.U., . Frequency, Irregular. Published - [9 . Imprint varies: San Francisco, Calif. : Bay Area Revolutionary Union, 1969-1971; Chicago, Ill. : Revolutionary Union, 1972-


  • ''West Bronx on the Move/Oeste del Bronx en Camino/On the Move''. Bronx, N.Y. : s.n., 1971 - . Bimonthly, Feb.-Mar. 1973 - Aug.-Sept. 1973. Ceased with: No. 15 (Aug.-Sept. 1973). Issues for Oct. 1971-Apr. '72 in English only. Issues for May 18, '72- in English and Spanish.


  • ''Worker for the New York-New Jersey area/Obrero del area de New York-New Jersey''. Monthly. Nov. 1973-Sept. 1975. None published for Jan. 1974?



RCP publications


Pamphlets

  • ''Programme and constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA''. RCP, N.pl.. 1975, 173p.


  • ''200 years is long enough! And now it is the turn of the working class to overthrow the capitalist system and build a completely new kind of society'''. (From the Programme of the Revolutionary Communist Party). RCP Publications, Chicago. 1976, 28p. Title page: ''the development of class struggle in 200 years of U.S. history and the inevitability of working class revolution''....


  • ''Elections '76 capitalists' desperate deceit vs. workers' growing struggle''. RCP Publications, Chicago. 1976, 13p.


  • ''Auto and the workers movement: learning from the proud past to fight for a brighter future''. RCP Publications, Chicago. 1976, 44p.


  • ''The mass line reprinted from Revolution''. RCP Publications, Chicago. 1976, 12p.


  • Klingel, Bill and Joanne Psihountas. ''Important struggles in building the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.'' RCP Publications, Chicago. 1978, 55p


  • ''Break the chains! Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution''. RCP Publications, Chicago. 1979, 30p. illus.


  • ''New programme and new constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA''. (Drafts for discussion). RCP Publications, Chicago. 1980, 109p.


  • ''New Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, May 1st, 1981''. RCP Publications, Chicago. {Link without Title} , 30p.


  • ''New programme and new constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA''. RCP Publications, Chicago. 1981, 122p.


  • ''The Soviet Union: socialist or social-imperialist? Essays toward the debate on the nature of Soviet society''. Compiled by the editors of The Communist, theoretical journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. RCP Publications, Chicago. 1983, 210p.


Periodicals

  • ''Milwaukee Worker/The Worker for the Milwaukee area and Wisconsin/El Obrero''. Milwaukee, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Monthly. v.1 no. 1 - 3 no.4; Oct. 1975 - Jan. 1978.


  • ''Northwest Worker/The Worker for the Northwest/Revolutionary Worker (Northwest ed.)/El Obrero''. Seattle, Wash. : Communist Party, USA , 1975-1979. Monthly, 1975 - April 1978. Biweekly, May 1978 - 1979. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1975) - v. 4, no. 8 (Jan. 17, 1979).


  • ''Revolutionary Communist Youth / Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade''. Chicago : The Brigade, 1978-1982. Monthly, 1980-82. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1978) - v. 5, no. 1 (Mar. 1982)


  • ''Revolutionary Worker/Obrero Revolucionario''. Chicago, Ill. RCP Publications, 1979- . Weekly. Vol. 1, no. 1 (May 1, 1979) -


  • ''Worker for the New York-New Jersey area/Obrero del area de New York-New Jersey''. New York, N.Y./Elizabeth N.J. Monthly. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1975) - Ceased during first half of 1978. English and Spanish, with Spanish text on inverted pages. Filmed by MSC for New York University Libraries, Preservation Dept., New York, NY 10012, 1987. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.