Go to the profile of The Daily Demand
The Daily Demand
by Felicia Jarvis (Not actually updated daily)

Let’s Stop Baiting the Right.

There are some easy steps we all can take to stop baiting the right and aiding in the their ability to recruit and organize. Most of us participate in it totally on accident and just need a heads up, so that is what this piece aims to be. I’ll try to keep it as straightforward as possible, but I do want to provide context and specific examples to really explain what baiting the right looks like and how this could be indicative of larger issues within the current movement.

Signs someone brought to the Tacoma Washington Dream Coalition rally on February 19, 2017. Good ‘Ol Billy was added by yours truly.

See these signs?

These ones, right here. With “NO! ILLEGITIMATE & FASCIST REFUSEFASCISM.ORG” on one side with an Arabic translation on the other side for no reason?

These were handed out at an anti-deportation rally organized by the Washington Dream Coalition in Tacoma, Washington- but not by the Washington Dream Coalition. The WDC, which is led by undocumented youth, had organized over 200 people to be in attendance during this rally. They have their own branding, banners, and messaging which are easily accessible to those who reach out with the intention of supporting the efforts of the organization and the struggle of undocumented youth.

Many messages came in afterward asking who made and distributed these strange signs.

These signs were brought and distributed by an unaffiliated organization formerly known as the Revolutionary Communist Party (or Revcomm)(X, X). They are regarded by both the right and left as a left-wing organization. Since the inauguration of the Trump Administration, they’ve rebranded as “Refuse Fascism.” They really deserve a blog post all of their own, but I’ll stick to the point.

These folks pull the same move everywhere they go, running their own spontaneous cooptation model. Here’s how it goes (in the Northwest):

  1. Their organizer shows up whether you invite her or not. Typically she is accompanied by a couple of nice older white folks but never more than a few people.
  2. Her posse bumbles around throughout the crowd passing out flyers for their own events, passing out the unnecessary amount of signs that they bring, and occasionally selling newspapers- all without permission from the organizers.
  3. Before you know it, all of the footage of your event is awash with their signs like the ones posted above, hijacking your event to push their own message. They’ve also made their organization look 4x as large as they turned out. The goal is strictly visibility for themselves.
  4. You’ll hear a strained call for a “MIC CHECK!” where the organizer convinces your audience to participate in a call-and-response. She will then maneuver them into a march with their RCP banner right in the front with all of the signs they brought.
  5. If you were already planning a march, she will make sure her banner is in the front, yell over you with her own megaphone with her own chants, and try to bring the march wherever she feels it should go.
  6. She may also just hover around until the event is over, then snatch your attendees as soon as she can and lead them on the march of shame.
  7. If you ask them not to distribute their signs or newspapers, they will immediately make a scene, accuse you of censorship, pull some variation of IDpol, etc

I witnessed them in Pasco, WA when the community protested the murder of Antonio Zambrano-Montes by Pasco police. I witnessed them in Lakewood, WA when the community protested the murder of Daniel Covarrubias by Lakewood police. I witnessed them in Seattle, Olympia, and on livestreams across the county running the same moves with the same messaging hell-bent on disrupting and reorganizing whatever movement they embed themselves in.

Point being, they don’t show up and pass out their signs to be helpful.

So what?

Maybe they’re just annoying or badly behaved. What does this have to do with these signs baiting anyone, much less the right wing?

Let’s dig a little deeper into what is known about their group- that their main purpose is not to win campaigns (electoral or otherwise) or recruit for long-term organizing- it’s strictly to show up, incite, and then bail.

They are not organizers- they are strictly a propaganda team.

  • They don’t organize events, they just co-opt yours.
  • They don’t appear to ever recruit anyone.
  • There’s little to no information on the figureheads of the local chapters, which is always a good sign that there’s nothing shady going on.
  • The main way they fundraise locally is by selling the newspaper they distribute, the core product of the organization (as seen on their website).

They are directly tied to “World Can’t Wait,”

another propaganda team that is intends to expose what it feels are crimes committed by the US government. Many of the Revcomm organizers are on their steering committee.

  • Like RCP, they don’t do anything except steal media.
  • This is the kind of shit that they do (notice the Revolutionary Community Party branding?). It’s flashy, but also, what the fuck.

They aren’t performing for left leaning media, they’re performing for the right wing.

The group is used by our opposition as a mainstream representation of the left time and time again (despite the fact that most of the left is fairly liberal and not associated with RCP values and tactics).

I could keep going. Rarely, if ever, does right wing media ever seem to credit or pick up actions from the thousands of other groups rallying and protesting around the same causes. The left wing media rarely have interest in responding to their media stunts.

What this means is that when your little sister started volunteering for planned parenthood and your grandpa made some weird remark about her turning into a commie, he may not have just pulled that out of thin air. The right wing media is utilizing Revcomm media stunts to paint a very specific picture of what the left looks like and how it operates.

Every time the left, a movement of mostly liberal, tame, gun-fearing individuals gets talked about like American-hating, dirty communist loving radicals, thank folks like the Revolutionary Communist Party.

*This is not to say there aren’t folks who do fall into the second category. Anyone who knows my politics knows I wish the left was less liberal, more aggressive, took advantage of the 2nd amendment and so on. But the more radical you are on the left the more isolated you become. There’s way more liberal folks doing women’s marches and starting nonprofits than there are radicals. It just isn’t accurate for the right wing to paint radicals as the majority, because it just isn’t true.

So let’s pretend you’re right wing.

A specific type of right-wing individual (just like the left there’s a large spectrum, right?). You read breitbart, you’ve seen all these articles, your perspective is that the enemy (muslims and commies) are all around you.

You wouldn’t call yourself a white nationalist, but you might get called that. You hate islam. You are pro-deportation, America first, pro-travel ban blah blah blah. You can’t really identify what Arabic sounds like or looks like, but it doesn’t matter because this is America and anything other than english is un-american. When you wake up at 4AM and open your first beer to AM radio, you’re being warned about the inevitable invasion of terrorists- and the even scarier prospect that they are already here, all around you…

Then imagine you’re driving in your neighborhood past a large pro-immigrant rally and see these everywhere.

When you’ve got the images of Fox News and infowars seared onto the inside of your eyelids, what might this Revcomm sign resemble in passing?

I googled the isis flag so that you don’t have to explain anything to the FBI. You’re welcome.

If you mistook the Revcomm sign for isis branding, is that your fault? Should those who designed the sign not considered the possibility? WHY would the person who designed the sign even do an Arabic translation (also, learning moment, Farsi and Arabic are not the same) for the sign on the back? What does that have to do with anything? No one in the audience can even read it. Trump/Pence aren’t even the focus on the english side. Literally why?

Suggesting that right-wing folks could mistake the signs for isis propaganda is not an exaggeration. This happens. For example, a flag created for London pride covered in dildos to “disrespect isis” was accidentally identified by CNN as an actual isis flag.

God bless the USA.

Imagine finding out someone called into AM radio to freak out about the giant terrorist gathering and recruitment program they saw on the way to work. You would be like- what the fuck are you talking about? Why does the right make shit up all the time? Why are they like this?

But if you were really racist, ignorant of other cultures, and consuming the same amount of fear-mongering rightwing media, you might think the same thing.

Now, I’m not going to say Revcomm copied isis to make their signs but we cannot just pretend that branding doesn’t exist. It’s not like they dont know that outlets like Breitbart are all over their shit. They read it. They see it. They know.

At the very least these signs are incredibly irresponsible. The US has a bunch of far right white nationalists out here that are so riled up they’re murdering brown people for being mistaken as Arab and this organization is appropriating other languages for shock value and far-right outrage.

As if the right isn’t already agitated. As if they need a reason to organize. As if they are not already in power.

The time to agitate the opposition is done.

I am NOT AT ALL saying people shouldn’t make signs in Arabic in general because god forbid some asshole mistakes them for isis. Not at all. Zero percent.

There’s an obvious difference between someone representing themselves, their language, their culture etc in ways that are accurate and meaningful.

But if you’re Revcomm, you aren’t from those communities, and your goal is to get your signs onto the news with no explanation of why there’s an Arabic translation on the back that no one understands, that’s another story.

Those in the ranks of Revcomm may not consider these things, may not know about the news articles, etc. These decisions are made at the top.

So are they baiting the right on purpose, or out of ignorance of their effect?

When these kinds of propaganda strategies are utilized on purpose (instead of out of ignorance), it’s not a conspiracy- it’s called Black Propaganda.

Black propaganda is false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass, or misrepresent the enemy.[1] …Black propaganda is covert in nature in that its aims, identity, significance, and sources are hidden.

The major characteristic of black propaganda is that the people are not aware that someone is influencing them, and do not feel that they are being pushed in a certain direction.[2] Black propaganda purports to emanate from a source other than the true source. This type of propaganda is associated with covert psychological operations.[3] Sometimes the source is concealed or credited to a false authority and spreads lies, fabrications, and deceptions. Black propaganda is the “big lie”, including all types of creative deceit.[4] Black propaganda relies on the willingness of the receiver to accept the credibility of the source.

The tactics used by Revcomm fit into this category in a few ways:

  1. As said before, Revcomm’s sole purpose is propaganda.
  2. No fucking clue who funds it- propaganda distributed on such a large scale in this coorindated way does not survive on newspaper donations alone. Their organizers/steering committee have almost no accessible online footprint.
  3. The group has many names/fronts/brands that overlap and change according to the region, issue, political climate etc despite being the same funding, same tactics, and same individuals carrying out the program. (Revolutionary Communist Party, Stop Mass Incarceration, RefuseFascism.Org, etc)
  4. It’s always used by the rightwing to represent current activities on the left, even though the left doesn’t really claim them. The organization in actuality is extremely small in numbers and disconnected from both the mainstream and radical elements of the left from a political standpoint and organizational standpoint
    This is why sign distribution is important- to create the illusion for the media that the numbers match up.
    Snopes even had to respond to a claim that “Ferguson protests were all planned and organized by Communists, as proved by their identifiable and professionally printed signs” because of the sign distribution— and rated it as “Mostly false.” 
    The right is always using the fear of communism to strike fear and doubt into the hearts of their ranks, just to make plain old democrats look radical.
  5. It’s not a wild assertion to say that this could be controlled by those on the right, considering the organization never goes after republicans and never helps the left achieve anything. In fact, the narrative serves an actual benefit to the right as it helps recruit, mobilize, and polarize them (no one wants to have a conversation with someone who calls you a communist within the first five minutes... assuming you aren’t a communist).

Of course, you could still say that they are just misdirected or unaware of what they do.

If you don’t believe in controlling or manufacturing your opposition, if you don’t believe in political strategy that puts people in power and think everyone is truly out here just trying to do good in the world, if you really think fighting for political control and influence in a nation that is a global superpower is just a conspiracy theory, then carry on.

Because ultimately, does the intent matter here? Whether it’s strategy or ignorance, the effect is still the same.

They’re baiting the right. And we shouldn’t help them.

Here are some tips to keep your hands clean and avoid baiting the right:

  • If you don’t speak the language printed on a sign, don’t hold it or hand it out.
  • If you aren’t in the organization, don’t hold the sign for that organization (except if the signs are from the organization putting on the event, of course).
  • If you don’t feel comfortable holding the sign, it’s ok to say no!
  • Don’t pass your sign off to someone you don’t know.
  • If you are interviewed, ask what media they are with and verify it before taking part.
  • When making signs and creating messaging, take time to consider how your opposition will reasonably interpret it. Is it accurately conveying your position?
  • When planning an event or an action, or planning to attend an action, consider whether it actually gets you closer to your win. Consider the cost. Actions that really piss off the opposition but don’t do anything for you except make you feel good and expressive and radical are not worth it. That isn’t resistance. That’s not even a fight.

If you’re a communist, then good for you! The issue is not whether communism is good/bad, the issue is that groups that are definitely not communist are being associated with communism (isis etc) just for the purposes of fear, control, and recruitment of right leaning folks.

I‘ve spent a good amount of time participating in actions that accidentally made the opposition stronger. I feel a bit embarrassed for not realizing sooner, but I’m taking steps to make sure I don’t repeat those mistakes again. Most of us are out here trying to do good- I believe that. So let’s hold each other to that, and not be afraid to look at the big picture when we evaluate.

Let’s all stop baiting the right, together!

    Show your support

    Clapping shows how much you appreciated The Daily Demand’s story.

  • Go to the profile of The Daily Demand

    The Daily Demand

    by Felicia Jarvis (Not actually updated daily)