Revolutionary Communists Capturing Hearts and Minds Inside Prison and Out
May 2018
The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (‘Revcom’) is mounting influence operations in U.S. prisons with the goal of recruiting as many prisoners as possible for its revolution. Revcom, whose professionally-made signs have frequently turned up at Ferguson and other protests, is quite open about these operations, describing them in detail in its Revolution newspaper.
Revcom is closely allied with the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF). PRLF works to get The New Communism, a book by Revcom chairman Bob Avakian, into prisons. PRLF also fills requests from prisoners for revolutionary literature, the main requests being for Revcom’s Revolution newspaper in Spanish and English and for items cited therein.
Letters from prisoners on Revcom’s website indicate that a variety of Revcom-related materials have found their way inside prison walls:
Undeniably, Revcom’s literature is having an impact. In letters to Revcom, prisoners have stated:
Make no mistake, the communists are building an army, ardent anticommunist Jimmy from Brooklyn says. Jimmy developed his knowledge of how U.S. communists work from many years of infiltrating their meetings.
The communists recruit hard-core violent people into their revolution, Jimmy says. “Politicize, radicalize, militarize,” is the operating principle. Revcom’s exploitation of criminal psychology is “brilliant but demonic,” Jimmy says. Revcom tells criminals ‘it’s not your fault – you’re a victim of the racist capitalist system.’ Criminals feel relieved when told it’s not their fault and then direct their ensuing anger at the system. The communists don’t want criminals to stop killing; the communists just want criminals to kill the ‘right’ people – ‘class enemies’, ‘reactionaries’, etc.
While Revcom’s prison literature project may sound small potatoes now, don’t make the mistake of thinking it can’t grow. Actually, the communists are quite methodical in pursuing growth. They find a few who teach a few, and build up the revolution from there, Jimmy says.
May 2018
The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (‘Revcom’) is mounting influence operations in U.S. prisons with the goal of recruiting as many prisoners as possible for its revolution. Revcom, whose professionally-made signs have frequently turned up at Ferguson and other protests, is quite open about these operations, describing them in detail in its Revolution newspaper.
Revcom is closely allied with the Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF). PRLF works to get The New Communism, a book by Revcom chairman Bob Avakian, into prisons. PRLF also fills requests from prisoners for revolutionary literature, the main requests being for Revcom’s Revolution newspaper in Spanish and English and for items cited therein.
Letters from prisoners on Revcom’s website indicate that a variety of Revcom-related materials have found their way inside prison walls:
- books listed on Revcom.US including: BAsics, Away With All Gods!, The Science of Evolution, Science and Revolution, and Constitution for the New Socialist Republic
- Avakian's book From Ike to Mao and Beyond
- material on Revcom.US about street protests, and
- a questionnaire
Undeniably, Revcom’s literature is having an impact. In letters to Revcom, prisoners have stated:
- I read the whole newspaper. Every article attentively hoping not to miss anything. By the time i was through i was hooked.... I would spend the next eight years studying and researching the things P.R.L.F. sent.
- The leadership of Bob Avakian is what we need.... Stand up for humanity and get down with BA and this New Wave of Revolutionary Communism.
- I read The BAsics...It's time for us to focus that fearlessness towards a BETTER WORLD.
- I passed on your knowledge to other prisoners.
- Every prisoner or former prisoner who has been caught up in the gang life themselves, and has any sense that our youth are capable of so much more than running around killing each other, has an obligation to speak to these youth. Get at your young homies in the streets, tell them that there are revolutionaries out there that they have to get with.... reach out to every one who needs to know that their life could have real meaning and purpose by fighting and dying for a whole new world.
Make no mistake, the communists are building an army, ardent anticommunist Jimmy from Brooklyn says. Jimmy developed his knowledge of how U.S. communists work from many years of infiltrating their meetings.
The communists recruit hard-core violent people into their revolution, Jimmy says. “Politicize, radicalize, militarize,” is the operating principle. Revcom’s exploitation of criminal psychology is “brilliant but demonic,” Jimmy says. Revcom tells criminals ‘it’s not your fault – you’re a victim of the racist capitalist system.’ Criminals feel relieved when told it’s not their fault and then direct their ensuing anger at the system. The communists don’t want criminals to stop killing; the communists just want criminals to kill the ‘right’ people – ‘class enemies’, ‘reactionaries’, etc.
While Revcom’s prison literature project may sound small potatoes now, don’t make the mistake of thinking it can’t grow. Actually, the communists are quite methodical in pursuing growth. They find a few who teach a few, and build up the revolution from there, Jimmy says.
