Communist Group Backs Black Lives Matter Protests – Truth! & Misleading!
Summary of eRumor:
The Revolutionary Communist Party provided protest signs and supported “Black Lives Matter” rallies in the wake of the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hand of police officers.
The Truth:
It’s true that members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) participated in the Black Lives Matter rallies that followed the deaths of Eric Gardner and Michael Brown.
The group’s participation hasn’t, however, been welcomed.
Politicians and rally organizers have been at odds with the RCP and have called members of the group “opportunists” who use public outrage to advance a communist agenda, Gawker reports.
A claim that the RCP was providing protest signs and was participating in Black Lives Matter rallies started immediately after a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, opted not to pursue charges in the shooting death of Michael Brown. A photographer for Getty Images captured a photo of a protest in New York City on December 1, 2014, that showed two protestors holding signs that read:
Ferguson is Everywhere
Police Brutality and Murder MUST STOP!
The web address for the RCP is revcom.us. The group uses the site to publish digital copies of its newspaper, Revolution. According to the site:
“Through publishing works of Bob Avakian, and through many different articles, interviews, letters, graphics, and other features, Revolution newspaper enables people to really understand and act to radically change the world. It gives people a living picture and scientific analysis of what is going on in the world, and why. It exposes the true nature of this system, and shows how major events in society and the world are concentrations of the basic contradictions of this oppressive and putrid system. It brings alive the need and possibility for revolution and a whole new society and world…”
It’s not known if the RCP undertook a coordinated effort to provide signs to protestors, or if individual members of the group added the web address to their signs independently. TruthorFiciton.com has reached out to the RCP for comment, and future updates will be posted here.
And while the RCP’s web address appeared on just a handful of protest signs, a secondary eRumor emerged that the address and been airbrushed out of many more pictures. There’s no evidence to support that claim at this time.
Whatever level of involvement the RCP has undertaken in the rallies, so far it’s been unwelcome. Local politicians and rally organizers have criticized the group’s participation since Brown’s death in August of 2014, Gawker reports:
“Over the last few days, a great deal of the social media chatter on the crisis has identified another group increasing the tension: the Revolutionary Communist Party. RCP members, as the rumor goes, have parachuted into Ferguson and are trying to incite a riot.
“The person who has been most vigorously documenting the RCP’s involvement is St. Louis Alderman Antonio French. Last night, for example, he posted this Vine of a local leader arguing with two men in telltale RCP black t-shirts.”
A similar YouTube video also shows an RCP member at a rally in Ferguson yelling, “How many of you pigs already have bodies on you, have already killed people?”