“Fear Nothing–Be Down for the Whole Thing Tour” was emblazoned at the top of the leaflet. Underneath that: “Carl Dix, National Spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, Delivers an Urgent Message to the Youth.” The tour was to hit Detroit, LA, New York, and other cities. Late last month was Chicago’s turn, at the United Electrical Workers’ hall on Ashland near the Eisenhower. Besides Dix, speakers were to include Joey Johnson, the man whose flag-burning case resulted in the 1988 Supreme Court decision that touched off the still-current flag desecration furor, and Sasha, described as “a ferocious female revolutionary who is driving the Los Angeles police department crazy.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Inside, the audience–predominantly white, with a smattering of black faces–is seated on folding metal chairs. Banners dominate the walls: “Seize the Power! Prepare for Revolutionary War! Fear Nothing–Be Down for the Whole Thing” (the RCP’s current slogans). “Support the People’s War in Peru” (the RCP backs the “shining path” guerrillas). “Phony communism is dead. Long live real communism. Mao More Than Ever” (their response to the breakdown of the Soviet system).
The room finishes filling up–there are a little over 100 all told–and after an apology for delays due to technical difficulties, the event begins with some lively music and a procession of this afternoon’s speakers and their bodyguards, led by several youths carrying red flags, dance-stepping in time to the rhythm. They seat themselves in the front row, and two black men in sunglasses and black berets take up positions on either side of the speaker’s platform. At a table stage left, a man speaks into a microphone throughout the event, giving a simultaneous translation into Spanish over headsets. Only one or two people appear to be availing themselves of the service.
But first it’s time to play a new rap song, “Burn, Baby, Burn,” a song inspired, according to Dread Scott Tyler, by “the whole war over the U.S. flag–to put that flag in the righteous dustbin of history where it belongs.” As the song plays, someone passes the hat while Tyler exhorts the crowd to give.
The crisis in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe also receives short shrift: “None of this means that communism is in crisis. What’s in crisis is restored capitalism–that’s what they really got in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and China today.” (The RCP holds that the Soviet Union ceased to be socialist and became capitalist after the death of Joseph Stalin, and similarly in China after the death of Mao Tse-tung.)
At the end of his speech, Dix leads the assembly in call-and-response chants: “I am a revolutionary.” The crowd repeats the sentence. “I ain’t afraid to die fightin’ to free the people.” This litany is repeated. Then it’s Sasha’s turn: “I am not afraid to die to overthrow the system…. I am not afraid to die for a better world that is real communism.” The audience repeats each chant.
