This video covers the rise and fall of the red guards (later known as the CR-CPUSA) from the perspective of an anonymous former member. This former member, like a lot of the old movement, failed to understand the trappings of the old lumpen leadership and instead blamed the collapse on “Gonzoloism” This move was extremely damaging to the movement, and mislead hundreds about the nature of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism by only further tying those who purported Gonzalo thought in name only to the lumpen gangsterism of the cliquish old leaders and, instead of a restructuring, completely liquidated the CR-CPUSA. Read “The Collapse” for a thorough, if not slightly biased chronicle of this collapse.
Declaring Gonzalo thought “Revisionist” within the first 10 minutes should be enough to prove to you the right-deviationism of the hosts and their guest, who later goes on to completely disregard the peoples war in Peru and, contradictorily, claims that the CPP were somehow “good Maoists” while simultaneously “distorting Maoism”. Their guest further explains the over-militarization of the old movement, pinning it again onto “Gonzaloism” and not the mistakes of the old leadership. They again contradict themselves when they say later on they didn’t fully understand what militarization is.
This cannot be perceived as anything but right-deviationist revisionism that aims to defer the revolutionary path of Maoism as a developing science in favor of an almost Trotskyite adherence to some orthodox “Maoism” that is not Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This needs to be debated, combatted, and disproved. And if any comrades have questions, feel free to let them be known.
Let it be known: The Maoist movement in the United States lives on, even if that is disputed by the liqudationists on their soapbox. There is the Revolutionary Study Groups, who hold quite a few chapters across the country, including Rising Tide Columbus and Cincinnati Communists - beyond that there are quite a few Revolutionary Maoist Coalition chapters, with a sizable one in Chicago. These movements aren’t moribund or vacillating, but actively building the revolutionary base that has been under attack in this country since the inception of the communist party. Outside of that, nearly every city has a mass organization or activist group you can join and build! Don’t just sit online, don’t spread fatalistic defeatism, get out there and do the work!