Kansas City pigs and the FBI in the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force scramble to terrorize student activists
RGA torch an effigy of Donald Trump on January 20th, 2018
Urgent call—please share far and wide!
In preparation for a visit from proto-fascist President Donald Trump, over the past few days, the Kansas City pigs and the FBI have harassed and attempted to intimidate as many as three student activists. Much as in Austin, our student comrades in Kansas City have been stalked and interrogated by the FBI and local police Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force. Student organizers are no terrorists; the state only seeks to scare the youth away from voicing their just outrage at the arrival of the bourgeois dictator in chief. We express our unending solidarity with the comrades of Progressive Youth Organization KC, who have refused to relent, and continue with their plans to give Trump the only welcome he deserves—the anger of the masses.
This is no minor police harassment; one comrade has already been arrested on trumped up property destruction charges stemming from an organizing campaign against rape on the University of Missouri Kansas City campus back in January. The forces of reaction are grasping at straws to prevent public outcry at Trump’s reactionary policies.
The aims of the FBI-KCPD joint task force are clear: they want to accumulate snitches and build an informant network in Kansas City against the growing Maoist movement and their supporters. They desire disunity, and we must respond with overwhelming unity! Right now, as you read this, there is a pig lurking on a comrade, hoping to turn them into an informant.
US imperialism is desperate, and since the last election it has been gearing up its repressive forces and unleashing them upon progressive and revolutionary elements. Enraged at the J20 defendants getting their charges dropped, the reactionary state is looking to harass and arrest whoever they can, in constant search of scapegoats. It is now more important than ever to establish an impenetrable red front against this enemy. In the face of their assaults, arrests, and intimidations we must be resolute and frustrate their every effort.
Fascism, since the election, has been finding its expression in right-wing populism, taking the form of a swell of far-right nationalism outside of office and increasingly now in the actions of the State. With hopeless bills like the “Unmasking Antifa Act,” which has only three Republican sponsors and very little chance of moving forward, we can see that the far right and fascist politicians in office are making a play to mobilize the sentiment in society related to fascist populism to push extreme bills that criminalize antifascism—not in the interests of society as a whole, but in the sole interests of fascism.
Now more than ever the comrades in KC deserve our support and solidarity, so we call on you all over the country and in the broader internationalist movement to show your support in any way you can. Stop the repression of KC youth activists—Trump not welcome in Kansas City!
Fundamentally, when students are denied the right to dissent and intimidated from protesting a presidential visit, the germ of fascism is being planted and basic democratic rights are withering away. Do not wait until it is activists of your city: show solidarity now!
We must cast aside all illusion and prepare for struggle. We must abolish all fear.
Please donate anything you can and share this link far and wide. Your solidarity makes all the difference.
One Red Front!
—Red Guards Austin, 2018
Donate here: https://www.fundedjustice.com/d1NTB8?ref=ab_c7PDg6_ab_Ai90IrM7WKXAi90IrM7WKX
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Since state repression has amplified against activists all over the country we have chosen to include a small section from our upcoming Condemned to Win 2 that pertains to organizational security protocols.
Dangers of a voluntarist approach to individual and collective security
There is a clear difference between security protocol and security culture. Bad influences in the left make everything a question of voluntarism. Postmodern ideas mutate into a myriad of errors of framing things incorrectly. Everything becomes a question of culture only, and what is proposed as “security culture” relies mainly on developing personal traits and habits that are alleged to be able to protect participants in struggle. This method pursues security as a voluntary choice between activists engaged in a decontextualized struggle.
Instead we argue for the development of policy and protocol in regard to security in which clear violations can be struggled against. We are for developing a culture around these protocols and policies and not for developing these protocols and policies around a mythic “security culture.” Communists are for rules and regulations organizationally that make certain that all members march in step with the revolutionary struggle and do not deviate from it. Mistakes of course will be made, and each mistake must be evaluated on the basis of its specific context and nature, and on what level of threat it constitutes.
By simply asking people on their own to voluntarily improve their security practice, the principles of leadership are negated and the dominant culture can and inevitably will still impose itself on revolutionary activity. Everyone is left doing what they are comfortable with and very few are concerned with doing what must be done. It is only individualism that seeks to buck the systems developed by revolutionaries to protect themselves. This trait must be ripped out and tossed aside within our ranks, and those persisting in it must be ideologically confronted with MLM. The conduct of revolutionaries must always reflect their conditions and must always seek to rise to the occasion of what is required of them. There can be no exceptions to this. Red fighters must maintain certain standards, taking integrity and their commitment to securing operations seriously.
This is not simply a matter of conduct either but of advancing our capacities to provide security to the masses and the mass movements where needed while supporting the already advanced abilities of the people to fight back. Some argue that the people have something without a People’s Army, that on their own they are capable of adequate defense. This is not faith in the masses but treacherous rightism. The ability of the people to fight back must be enriched by forming organized defense groups that can implement proper security protocol. The masses in the struggle must be militarized by the militarized Communist organization. Step by step the people go from having nothing to having something—a People’s Army, which is the best solution to the question of security. This is a solution far beyond the petty-bourgeois concerns and demands about “security culture.”
—Red Guards Austin, excerpt from Condemned to Win 2
Red Guards Austin 