Ferguson and “them thar outside agitators”

I normally don’t endorse Bob Avakian and his Revolutionary Communist Party, but I applaud their efforts to work on promoting revolutionary politics in Ferguson MO. I may disagree with his latest synthesis and the cult of personality, but it is a communist party and they are trying to promote revolution. I have nothing against that. On the other hand a lot of liberals and other mainstream pundits have called the RCP “outside agitators.” That is a throwback to the reactionaries of the 1960s, such as George Wallace. In today’s politics it is common for people outside a state to contribute huge sums of money to influence elections in places they are not residents. The latest example of that is Ted Nugent (not from Kansas) putting a fundraising effort together for the benefit of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. So it is a little hypocritical for pundits to criticize any group for promoting their politics in another state.

For that reason I am posting these story leads from Kasama Project:

- សតិវ​ អតុ

On liberal anticommunism and Outside Agitators

Whatever one's opinions on the RCP and their effectiveness in Ferguson, the recent attacks on them by liberals are nothing but good old fashioned red-baiting portraying them as "outside agitators."  The term "outside agitators" goes back to the Jim Crow South when white supremacists referred to civil rights activists, such Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as "outside agitators" who had come to "rile up" the otherwise content peaceful black populace. To the white supremacists, black people were seen as too dumb to protest without "Red influence." We should reject these stereotypes and stand in principled solidarity and defend the RCP from these anticommunist attacks.

-Doug Enaa

How liberals brought an anticommunist slur from America’s past back to life.

By Douglas Williams, originally published at Jacobin.

 “Outside agitator.”

These words were spoken by Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett when asked about the Freedom Summer voting registration drive in 1964. They were also uttered by Alabama Governor George Wallace when he was asked about the protests in his state’s largest city, ignobly labeled “Bombingham.”

Bull Connor referred to Martin Luther King, Jr. as one, even though his church was in the state capital, Montgomery. These two words were also uttered by Thomas Jackson, the police chief in Ferguson, as he tried to describe why his mostly-white police force could not stop the protests occurring in the nearly 70 percent black city he was charged with patrolling.

All of these men were segregationists, anticommunists, and purveyors of state-sanctioned violence against African Americans. But now you can also find some  prominent liberals using the term, ostensibly in relation to the activities of small pockets of anarchists and the Revolutionary Communist Party in the city.

For the rest click here.

Pix from www.dailykos.com.