From rebellion to war: escalate the anti-gentrification strategic defensive to equilibrium!
From rebellion to war: escalate the anti-gentrification strategic defensive to equilibrium!
At the meeting and march called for by the Defend Boyle Heights coalition approximately three weeks ago titled “For the Love of the Hood,” on Feb. 7, advances were made but setbacks were also experienced. The following is a summation of the night by the leaders of the militant march-bloc, Red Guards – Los Angeles (RGLA).
The growing presence of pigs in the war against gentrification
By approximately 5 p.m. LAPD Hollenbeck Division pigs were already closely monitoring the meeting as DBH supporters were setting up chairs, tables and other materials for the evening at Mariachi Plaza. A white Dodge Charger with uniformed pigs was parked nearby. Pigs walked up to DBH supporters to suggest that the march be contained to the sidewalk and that the meeting’s organizers communicate with the pigs. Most people refused communication with the pigs except for a guest speaker who, not knowing any of the evening’s plans, answered as vaguely as possible. Toward the end of the DBH-led public meeting, the facilitators announced a plan to march in Boyle Heights without disclosing the route, its destination or leadership.
The plan, as it was revealed, was to march to the art galleries in the so-called “arts district” of Boyle Heights and focus on the main target, the new breweries. A polemic against the breweries and gentrification in general issued by DBH had been released the day prior and a Facebook event page for the public meeting at Mariachi Plaza had been made public for close to a month. While it acted as a rallying call for militants and defenders of the community and masses to come out, it, in the end, hindered the militancy of the march. Hollenbeck Division pigs were adequately prepared as they have a seemingly good, but incomplete, understanding of the high level of militancy of the Boyle Heights anti-gentrification movement. We say they have a good understanding of the all-around growing militancy of the movement, but it is incomplete because they do not grasp its essence. They do not fully understand the high-level of discipline and naked revolutionary selflessness of the movement’s soldiers, who have shed the dead skin of their activism.
The time for activism is over. Now is the time of war.
Hollenbeck Division pigs ended up attempting to escort the RGLA led march-bloc with police cruisers, undercover Ford Crown Victorias and Dodge Chargers following closely behind, in the front and waiting on most corners – with one or two exceptions. Although the route had not been announced, it was fairly evident the marchers were going toward most of the big-name art galleries.
The first stop was at Chicano comprador bourgeois institution Self-Help Graphics & Art. RGLA gave a brief overview and analysis of the institution’s class and Chicano Nation traitors, specifically naming Alfred Fraijo, Jr. as one of the principal enemies of the people for his carrying out evictions against proletarian immigrants and Chicanos in the community, as well as his loyal lapdog (comprador) servitude to arch-gentrifier Vera Campbell – one of the richest capitalist-gentrifiers in Boyle Heights.
The militants, then, carried on with the rest of the route. But the pig presence continued, if not increased. RGLA operation leaders created scenarios in the event of the pigs showing up at the start of the march. One scenario, as some militants had addressed the marchers during a brief strategic retreat midway in the march, was to end the march early and scatter. But it had been decided to carry on with the march for two reasons: 1.) because the goal was still within reach – all-out intimidation of the gentrifiers residing in the arts district and confronting the breweries at the end of the arts district’s gallery row near 7th and Anderson, and 2.) earlier in the evening, at the end of the DBH meeting, there was a collective oath taken by the vast majority of the attendees at the meeting to defend Boyle Heights – the vast majority made up by the advanced and intermediary sections of the masses of Boyle Heights and Los Angeles would fight by any means necessary, up to and including laying down their lives and risking imprisonment – against the strategic offensive of the collaborationist state-and-non-state gentrifiers and their pig army.
This was not a civic expression of exercising freedom of speech and assembly as the bourgeois activist would say. The two above-mentioned reasons were the guiding philosophy of the military operation.
In the end, it was evident and proven correct to not abandon the operation. The goal was enthusiastically fulfilled.
Necessary risks for a necessary outcome
As mentioned earlier there was a steady presence of pigs in the rear and front of the march-bloc. Therefore, the operation leaders reverted to an auxiliary plan with a near-immediate adjustment. While the plan succeeded in fulfilling the objective and fulfilling the goal of the operation, its errors were dangerous because it did not take into account certain scenarios. For that very reason it put comrades more at risk. Nonetheless, in adherence to the march-bloc’s collective oath, it was decided that the risk was necessary, come what may, pig baton, arrest or worse.
It was evident that attempts were made to evade and obstruct police presence, which included a breaking off and sprinting en masse from the pigs and quickly changing route to the front of 356 Mission. This on-the-spot sprint worked momentarily. In a hurried speech, hurried because pig cruisers could be seen surrounding the march-bloc, another analysis was offered by RGLA and a DBH supporter as to why 356 Mission remains another principal enemy of the people, specifically naming capitalist-gentrifier Gavin Brown and petite-bourgeois artist Laura Owens.
But overall, the march-bloc’s speed was no match for the speed of the police cruisers. Many militants were out of breath. Militants and allies shared concerns over their state of health and physical fitness. Some were overheard to have said that they would here on out smoke less, exercise more, etc., to essentially militarize.
Another stop was at artist live-in lofts where militants launched heavy trash on top of cars over a tall wrought-iron fence. Other militants shook the fence, repeatedly slammed a dumpster with heavy debris. The goal was to ensure the lofts residents were awake and aware of the march-bloc and its thirst for revolutionary violence.
Gentrifier-hipsters were terrified. The pigs were seen shining lights on hipsters walking out of or around the art galleries and breweries, being told to go inside, to probably lock the doors, and stay away from the windows. This was emergency code red for gentrifiers.
If it wasn’t clear to any of the masses in attendance in the march-bloc, this example made it evident that the pigs only exist in capitalist society for the protection of private property and the oppressor sectors and classes.
During the march and operation, rear and mid-section militants moved tires, street sandwich boards, traffic cones, and rolled dumpsters into the street to momentarily delay and block following police cruisers.
Final confrontation at breweries
The march-bloc eventually reached its last stop, the newly-named enemies of the people, the breweries. This is where pig confrontation increased but still remained overall tame. Due precisely to the close proximity of pig presence there was minimal disruption and damage against the enemy.
This is where perhaps the most bold and daring actions were taken by the RGLA-led march-bloc as part of the operation. It is unclear exactly what damages had taken place, but many public posts on social media or in-person reports claimed militants launched heavy items into a brewery, walls, windows and other property, and vandalized vehicles, – including “Fuck hipsters” spray-painted on a nearby car. However, the enemy has yet to furnish any proof. Without proof, we cannot say it actually occurred. Nonetheless, confrontation ensued but ultimately nothing major came out of it other than a few angry and traumatized gentrifier-hipsters. One was seen praying or meditating with his palms pressed together in the face of the protesters, seemingly as a bourgeois symbol of meaningless protest. This is not a joke. It is a sign of desperate times for the enemies of the people.
While the last action of the overall operation was fine, it was not satisfactory. The people wanted more, but the pigs were too close to truly unleash the full fury of the masses and militants. Even so, we applaud the actions of the march-bloc.
While the enemy, the gentrifier-hipsters, did not flee en masse, one jeep did quickly load up its passengers, busted a U-turn and sped down Anderson and 7th.
The spark of the anti-gentrification war will ignite the prairie fire of Protracted People’s War
In the end, the march-bloc disengaged and walked toward 7th Street. It was reflected and agreed upon in a quick debrief that the fighting had been too fair. The RGLA operation leaders addressed the two different types of violence, revolutionary violence and reactionary violence. We said the only way to resist gentrification and capitalism is through the mastery and popularization of revolutionary violence. The march-bloc enthusiastically agreed.
An analysis was laid out on the state of the gentrification war in Boyle Heights. The militants are small. The enemy is not. The militants strength, while commendable, is comparatively weak. The enemy’s is not. The militant’s are poorly armed. The enemy is not. This is the less concerning, for as Maoists we know armament comes when politics are kept in command in building up the masses. But, in the final analysis, both camps powers are dialectically related and changing. As one grows strong, the other is beaten down to a weaker level.
Currently, the method of warfare is mobile guerrilla tactics, correlating appropriately with the anti-gentrification war’s stage of strategic defensive.
In our analysis, the militants will not fight fair and for that we all will win.
We, however, have to offer a self-criticism for ignoring the original plans without having fully developed auxiliary plans. Because of that, their was great potential for one or more comrades being arrested, hurt or worse, during that action. While in war loses are unavoidable, we as operation leaders will do a better job of gaining mastery in military operational planning and reducing the risks of loses as much as possible.
RGLA, the militants and the masses are invincible because we have proven our character as militants of a growing army, forged in the fire of struggle. We are subordinate to highly-centralized and disciplined organizational body, RGLA, guided by the invincible ideology of Maoism. We are popularly supported by the advanced and intermediary sections of the masses.
These military operations are part of a larger preparation in the coming Protracted People’s War (PPW). The militants and certain sectors of the masses appear to be transforming into soldiers, into the future soldiers of the People’s Army.
As Maoists, we see the initiation of the PPW not as a far-removed date in time, but rather as a life-or-death test we are in constant conditioning for. Military operations, like the one mentioned in this summation, should be seen as an application of one of the most important aspects of Maoism, the universality of PPW. As a universality, it exists everywhere, all the time, with or without anyone’s acknowledgement, just like gravity or the air with breathe. In order to fully carry out PPW successfully, it must be weilded by a genuine principally Maoist Communist Party, with the anti-revisionist United Front combining the militarized masses with the militarized Party, and the People’s Army also made up of soldiers who are Party militants and mass militants.
It is evident that the line of demarcation has been drawn. The question was asked, the oath posed, at the DBH event by the meeting’s facilitator, “How many of you will do whatever is necessary to defend the masses of Boyle Heights?” Almost unanimously those 40-to-50 in attendance thrusted their hands up to the night sky. The line is being drawn by the militants and masses – and this action acted as one solidification. There can be no middle-of-the-roaders in the war against gentrification. There only exist two lines, that of fighting against gentrification wielding the invincibility of revolutionary violence or supporting the reactionary violence of the state-and-non-state gentrifiers.
We as Maoists will not wait for the war to become soldiers. We are becoming soldiers every day, in and outside of small and big operations, and in serving the people. These anonymous masked militants and the masses embolden our efforts, our guiding ideology and our conviction. Militarize all the pre-Party Maoist formations in the country! Militarize the masses of the country! Grasp Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism!
Long live the anonymous masked militants and the masses who risk their freedom and lives for the defense of Boyle Heights!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism!
Long live the building of the Communist Party, the United Front and the People’s Army!
Source: https://redguardsla.org/2018/02/20/from-rebellion-to-war-escalate-the-anti-gentrification-strategic-defensive-to-equilibrium/
