On "Redneck Revolt" from Post-Proletariat

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 7, 2017

https://postproletariat.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/sailing-close-to-the-wind-personal-explorations-into-redneck-revolt-and-a-motel-of-mysteries/

zylas

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by zylas on March 7, 2017

I don't think it's entirely fair to Redneck Revolt. Many of the issues mentioned in the blogpost are adressed, just under the fragment cited in it:
"The history of the white working class is also one filled with collaboration with those same rich elite power holders. White working people have played the role of footsoldiers for the political and economic elite, participating in genocide, enslavement of other peoples, and overall protectors of the ruling class. White working class participation in state and paramilitary organizations and formations like the Ku Klux Klan, the Minutemen, the U.S. Armed Forces, and the Council of Conservative Citizens has undermined the struggle for freedom among all people.
It is with these conflicting histories in mind that the authors of this blog hope to incite a movement amongst white working people that works toward the total liberation of all working people, regardless of skin color, religious background, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, or any other division that bosses and politicians have used to fragment movements for social, political, and economic freedom."

Juan Conatz

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Juan Conatz on March 8, 2017

Not worth reading tbh. Written in the style, terminology and perspective of early 2000s American anarchism. In its vague critiques, the piece sort of dishonestly omits stuff that would get in the way of what the author wants to criticize (see zylas comment above). Also makes a pretty serious, but half-assed, accusation (without evidence) that Redneck Revolt seeks to or does organize LEOs. In the end there are no practical suggestions of an alternative or improvement but instead an acknowledgment that the author has no idea what should be done. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get out of this and I assume anyone involved in Redneck Revolt would see it the same way.

el psy congroo

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 8, 2017

Juan, what's your involvement with the group? Are you familiar with their goings-on? I viewed the article a lot more favorably.

Juan Conatz

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Juan Conatz on March 11, 2017

el psy congroo

Juan, what's your involvement with the group? Are you familiar with their goings-on? I viewed the article a lot more favorably.

I have no involvement with the group. I know a few of the people involved from anarchist stuff a decade ago but haven't spoken with them in years.

I'm familiar with their going-ons as far as what they post on their Facebook page.

el psy congroo

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 12, 2017

Juan Conatz

I have no involvement with the group...I'm familiar with their going-ons as far as what they post on their Facebook page.

So under what pretense are you refuting the authors polemic?

el psy congroo

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 12, 2017

Actually, you go a step further and dictate to this community what is worth reading and not.

Khawaga

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on March 12, 2017

For fucks sake, Juan gave his informed opinion. That's not dictating at all; you read it, no? You just seem upset that people are disagreeing with your interpretation, which by the way, you have not explained. Instead you just attack Juan through two different logical fallacies.

S. Artesian

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by S. Artesian on March 13, 2017

Exactly. Juan gave an opinion. That's not dictating anything

el psy congroo

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 13, 2017

So where's the actual criticism? Why and how is Redneck revolt different from the way the article portrays it?

Khawaga

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on March 13, 2017

See, you could have just asked those questions immediately. You know something like: "Ok, Juan, but could you please explain in more depth? " And then ask your specific questions. But instead you attacked him.

Btw, you even said the piece is a polemic; two other posters pointed out that the piece, likely because it's a polemic, elided stuff about the group. Maybe start asking about what they think is missing.

el psy congroo

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 15, 2017

I did. What's it missing? Who here can accurate describe the internal culture of the org? Thanks and sorry for the trouble.

Juan Conatz

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Juan Conatz on March 15, 2017

Not really interested in writing an essay about why I thought this piece wasn't great. I think I was pretty clear in my previous statement that I did not like the writer's style, the politics it seemingly revealed, they way it highlights some things to criticize while downplaying or omitting stuff that may make their criticism unnecessary and the way it insinuates that Redneck Revolt currently or in the future may knowingly or accidentally attempt to organize federal agents. I also found it annoying that the author acknowledges they have no idea of what an alternative would be, so I find criticism without alternative suggestions obnoxious as my years on the left reach double digits. It's easy to find things to criticize. It's called nagging, and we all know people in our life that do this. What's harder, but in the end, more useful is suggesting alternatives so experimentation and lessons can be learned.

Since you're the one who posted this without comment (a kind of violation of unsaid, but conventional, forum decorum), can you let us know what you found useful in this piece?

el psy congroo

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on March 16, 2017

Ok well there's a number of my personal political contacts who have been involved with this effort or recommend it to folks. Take my word for it or don't. But the org is pretty sketchy from what I have seen of it.

As far as I'm aware this is the only public criticism of the org online.

I like the author worry about what an organization with the aims of RR, none explicily communist remember, could become...besides irrelevant.

Gregory A. Butler

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Gregory A. Butler on April 2, 2017

That article is spot on!

When you organize White people along racial lines in America, you might as well put on the sheets and start burning the cross - it's inherently racist, because "whiteness" as a category in America has always been the bedrock of capitalist class dictatorship here, and the rock that working class unity was broken on.

Add to that the tone deafness - or more accurately, dog whistle - of calling themselves the "Redneck Revolt"

I'm African American, and my family was from the Jim Crow South.

To them - and to pretty much every Black person in America - "redneck" means one thing and one thing only

Hint - it has nothing to do with coal miner strikes.

"Redneck" means a racist working class White person - the rank and file of the Klan, the audience watching a Black man being lynched, the Birmingham cops who unleashed attack dogs and firehoses on teenage civil rights protesters, the White man who puts a rock through the window of the first Black family to move on the block, the White workers who go on strike to stop their boss from hiring Blacks...that's a "redneck"

Add to that the military style machine guns that these guys carry, and they might as well put on the White sheets and get out the Confederate/KKK battle flag

As a Black man....they look like a lynch mob to me, or the audience at a Klan rally.

I'm sure lots of Latinos, Asians, Muslims...and decent White people...feel the same way

Who in the hell are they trying to recruit - ex Klansmen?

Maybe not so ex

I've been on the left for about 30 years and I've seen a lot of pandering to White racism - but this really takes the cake - an all White group, who openly call themselves "rednecks" and parade around with machine guns, and they claim to be anarchists?

More like Klanarchists

I'm glad you all published this article, which is a by the numbers takedown of these left wing White supremacists

Gregory A. Butler

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Gregory A. Butler on April 2, 2017

Why exactly are you being an apologist for these blatant White supremacists?

They are a disgrace to anarchism, and the left as a whole - and, what with them parading around with machine guns, they might even be agent provocateurs in the pay of the state.

potrokin

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by potrokin on April 2, 2017

Gregory A. Butler

Why exactly are you being an apologist for these blatant White supremacists?

They are a disgrace to anarchism, and the left as a whole - and, what with them parading around with machine guns, they might even be agent provocateurs in the pay of the state.

It kinda reminds me of the Young Patriots or whatever they were called. I can understand why a black person might be alarmed by a group with redkneck in it's name and I'm not sure I agree with that and if they are just gonna recruit white people then that doesn't sound right to me.If you look at the definition of redkneck though, racism has nothing to do with it as far as I am aware. I seem to remember these people being interviewed on an anarchist youtube channel and they seemed to me like nice, genuine people with good intentions and if they can divert angry, white working class people away from the far-right then perhaps thats worthwhile.

potrokin

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by potrokin on April 2, 2017

I found the video, here it is . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZArMg2xGhwY
[youtube]ZArMg2xGhwY[/youtube]

Khawaga

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on April 2, 2017

Here comes Gregory with yet again a post revealing his absolute lack of knowledge.

"Redneck" means a racist working class White person - the rank and file of the Klan,

Sure, it has come to get those connotations, but the

wikipedia

term characterized farmers having a red neck caused by sunburn from hours working in the fields. A citation from 1893 provides a definition as "poorer inhabitants of the rural districts...men who work in the field, as a matter of course, generally have their skin stained red and burnt by the sun, and especially is this true of the back of their necks"

While I know very little about the organization in question, their use of the term Redneck is clearly referring to more than just white, working class racists.

Cooked

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Cooked on April 2, 2017

I read their about page quite a while ago and was quite "chocked" for want of a better word. But I've never really understood race in USA. Everything has a race prefix white working class, latino this black that. The whole political discourse seem to rely so much on grouping people by race and making sweeping statements about the wants, needs and behaviours of these groups. So I just put it down to the way race works in the USA.

I'm aware of the criticisms of colour blindness but it still makes me a little uncomfortable to see race identities being affirmed and embraced by radical movements. Much more so when the group is white. What happens when a non white person joins the group? Is the whole website re-written?

bootsy

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bootsy on April 4, 2017

It might interest Gregory to know that these blatant white supremacists donated thousands of dollars worth of guns to the African American, anti-racist & anti-police group 'Brothers Against Racist Cops'... donating arms to militant African American groups seems like pretty strange behaviour for a group of white racists to indulge in but what do I know, I'm not from the US.

Gregory maybe you should do a little research before throwing around accusations which could get a person or group thrown out of radical spaces and possibly beaten up.

bootsy

6 years 12 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bootsy on April 4, 2017

Amongst the radical left these days getting labelled and denounced as a racist, sexist or whatever else is akin to being tarred and feathered - you're marked for good and many of your 'comrades' will no longer associate with you, never mind defend you, regardless of whether or not there's substance to the allegations. While I believe that is a better state of affairs than allowing racists and other such scum to operate with impunity, it should still be common practice to ensure such allegations are actually based on evidence and not just political or petty personal disagreements. Unfortunately it doesn't always happen like that.

I'm not speaking from personal experience but I have seen this happen in Aotearoa to a friend and comrade of mine and it is very ugly.

So Gregory here's a suggestion - how about you put up, or shut up? If you have evidence that Redneck Revolt members are klan members or other white racists, or that the leadership of Redneck Revolt collaborate which such people in order to pursue a white nationalist ideology, then lets see it. If you don't have any such evidence then maybe you should shut the f**k up... Just a suggestion.

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on April 4, 2017

Good thing, too, 'cause if it weren't that'd be pretty authoritarian of you to go beyond suggesting people be gagged.

I see this as a gang of folks dog-piling on Gregory's very valid opinion which shouldn't be controversial at all. It's not about racial affirmation. It's about how Gregory's perfectly valid and widely clung-to definition of "redneck" has been immediately invalidated, not explicitly in the name of whiteness perhaps, but invalidated nevertheless...because the Marxist communist utopia and thee "workers state" will immediately transcend all of human consciousness into a realm beyond racism. It's determinism, of the political variety. No masking it.

zylas

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by zylas on April 4, 2017

As I see it, RR is directed at whites specifically because of its anti-racist stance. The people it's aimed are angry and desperate, susceptible to racist propaganda. RR is there to show them that people of other races or religions are not the enemy and that they're being used by the actual enemy. It's basically to turn whites into allies.

bootsy

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bootsy on April 4, 2017

Calling members of a radical socialist organisation 'klan members' with no evidence whatsoever is not a valid opinion in the slightest. Its a bullshit slur which has the potential to stick since (rightfully) most radicals take a militant stance against racists and fascists in their midst.

Like I said if Gregory has evidence then I'm all ears but since he didn't present any initially I doubt he does. Taking issue with the word 'redneck' is not evidence particularly when the groups founder has explained the reasoning for using such a word and racism has nothing to do with it. Maybe it was a mistake to use the word 'redneck' as a name but that don't make them klan members and outright bigots.

recuperation

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by recuperation on April 5, 2017

I think I'm less interested in the consequences of whites organizing around racial lines than the consequences of preemptively militarizing a movement which doesn't really exist as of yet. The overall 'resistance' to Trump and the response to the fallout from his election still seem to be well within the confines of normal American political activity. Marches, rallies, encouragements to get involved in local elections, the push for midterm participation, etc. The occasional riot or scuffle at one of these events is not enough to convince me that we've entered some new stage of crisis. A militarized ideology combined with an almost complete absence of a mass movement can only lead to isolation and disillusionment.

I feel that these people have essentially jumped the gun and doomed themselves to failure in the process.

JunkyJeezis

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by JunkyJeezis on April 6, 2017

There are some major misconceptions here in the comments.
A) Redneck Revolt is not an all white organization. The pictures of them at marches can prove that from a quick glance. They have PoC members, queer and trans members, Muslim and Jewish members, etc. It is very much a mixed group filled with folks at high risk for violence.
B) Redneck Revolt does not recruit Klan Members. They go to areas where Klan members try and recruit folks and counter the narrative there in an effort to bring folks on to our side of the barricades. They have stated numerous times they do not intend to recruit people involved on racist organizations. They do not recruit law enforcement of any kind and are very much against working with police.
C) The term Redneck came in to popular usage during the Battle of Blair Mountain and is a term that describe working class people of all color and was actually an prime example of racial unity among the working class. Not every poor white person who identifies as Redneck is a white supremacist and that notion is just ridiculous and is exactly why a huge contingent of this country was abandoned to the right. This is coming from a PoC who has been jumped by nazi skins more than once.
D) The organizing being done outside of the counter recruitment efforts (again not membership poaching) is very much providing material support for defense purposes to folks at higher risks of violence. They've bought groups like BARC firearms and provided trainings to other various groups across the country. Hell in the most recent story the Phoenix chapter is marching with the Brown Berets, a very much not white group.

Cooked

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Cooked on April 6, 2017

A search like this gives a bit of an overview of the usage of "white work" on the site.

I'm not one of those suggesting there's anything wrong with redneck revolt or the word redneck. But it would be interesting to hear what one should make of it as I really can't understand why a radical group would prefix the working class with "white" and speak about white identity in such a way.

Are the race categories so important in USA that you have to section off and tailor to the same divisions as the mainstream to have an audience at all? Or is it a conclusion of other sectional thinking and separatism?

As someone from periphery of europe with a culture of hunting, self sufficiency and a direct mode of communication* I'm really happy to see groups working in their local culture but whats with the white thing? Please someone explain.

"Hell in the most recent story the Phoenix chapter is marching with the Brown Berets, a very much not white group. "

Unfortunately identitarian ethnopluralists could theoretically work with and support other ethnic groups as long as the race identity is maintained. Again not by any means implying that RR are anything like that just that it's a poor example.

*I'm now almost cosmopolitan and really quite refined... ;)

bootsy

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bootsy on April 8, 2017

Thank you for the clarifications JunkyJeezis also as a former dope-feen myself I like your name...

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on April 12, 2017

A more personal account from the same blog:

I first got in touch with Redneck Revolt through the Internet.

Shortly after major rioting events in a nearby city, in response to racist and classist police violence there and elsewhere, a brief period of feeling out happened. Since around the time of Occupy in 2011, self-described socialists and anarchists, individuals and groupings, have become noticeably more prominent in my area. Some of these groups decided to venture out their comfort zones following the major rioting I mentioned before. Some statements from blogs were shared on the Internet and emails were exchanged.

I was initially in contact with a group called “Workers Assemble” (you know, like Voltron) who were claiming to have started an actually existing commune of working-class folks. Even though this sounded cooky, I’m desperately isolated, and haver been for years. I leapt at the prospect of having friends in my life who share my values.

What had initially interested me was a rejection of status quo politics and even democracy itself. But the fledgling group was clearly full of idealism, and I guess out of being sick of talking to me, having to listen to my criticisms regarding this political determinism (they were basically edgy Bookchinites), they referred me to another group nearby me. This group was Redneck Revolt.

The first thing I did after being referred was read everything I could from anything or one I could who was involved with the organization. There were some encouraging things, although, I’m honestly having a hard time recalling them right now. The website is very design savvy. The whole effort seems and looked really “cool”. But as I continued to read and reread position pieces, blog posts, semi-randomized bits of posts, I began to see certain weaknesses, places where the group was lacking, and tossed these weakness up initially to them being “new”.

I didn’t know at that point like I do now that the organization had been around for almost a decade.

So after maybe five email exchanges, full of a lot of brown-nosing on the part of the RR organizer, I agreed to meet with the group in person. I will say there is a certain openness, a “counter-paranoia”, I initially found very refreshing with the organizer I was in contact with. Unlike with other groups in decades long my journeys, and even the group I mentioned before, there seemed to be a very good grasp on what security measures were reasonable for meeting new political contacts. I mean, it’s just common sense stuff. People who are doing felonies don’t talk about felonies. I’m not scared of the cops kicking down my door for reading revolutionary material, even for discussing revolutionary material, and I think the organizer I was put in touch with also understood this. We can’t be too paranoid to be social.

Things seem to be off to a decent enough start during our discussion over dollar tacos. I remember bringing up a number of things that would disqualify my participation with the group, something I’ve learned now should be done before becoming deeply involved with or joining an org.

First and foremost I made it clear that it is my understanding that democracy and fascism are two sides of the same coin, that fascism is even fair to be considered a highly evolved form of the liberal democratic state and that I would have no part in so-called “antifa” shit. I was consoled immediately and reassured that the Silver Valley Redneck Revolt, as well as those “in the know” in the internal working groups of the organization, had no interest in this sort of activity. This ended up being unremarkably false. The bulk of Redneck Revolt’s activity revolves around “antifascists” actions and counter-demonstrations of strength and American service rifles.

Getting back to the day I joined up…

We also briefly discussed race. Talking racial politics in America, especially with white socialists is almost always inviting a shit storm of a certain type of politics I don’t see as revolutionary or proletarian. So without getting too deeply into it, I inquired about the racial makeup of the group. I wondered if it was all white people.

“No, no…Well, I mean. No. Yeah, you can have Black rednecks, too. I think there are few guys up in Ohio, the chapter there.”

Perhaps this was the point where I should’ve jumped out of my seat in protest, but at the time and in that environment I wasn’t in my best of thinking minds, and even though it did seem at the time like a “harmless” version of “my best friend is black”/“my favorite teacher is black”… Plus, I mean… Maybe there are Black rednecks. I mean haven’t you heard Hootie & the Blowfish?

Most of the people in my life who might get called “rural”, and are people of color, sure as hell wouldn’t identify as ”rednecks” except in a sarcastic, joking manner. A manner intended to highlight, even if “unconsciously”, the inherent exculpatory nature of the “redneck” identity. In fact, they simply refer to themselves as “country”.

This is something I find interesting. Perhaps what constitutes being a redneck is not seen as racial by certain white people, even though the consensus is definitely racial, I mean who hears the word redneck and doesn’t think white person? White people have this understanding, black people have this understanding, Asian people have this understanding… I mean of all the words that we need to reclaim, why go after redneck? Is it not hard enough describing ourselves and ideas as anarchist? Communist?

I’m a person a color, and I have an uncle who is also personal color, who teases me and calls me “the Arab redneck”.

This is a reference of course to my rustic nature. I think the peasantry, or today what should be more accurately called the rural proletariat, is more than a little revolutionary. I like farming, I like growing things. I like animals. So… I might be a redneck?

Dear Jeff Foxworthy. No, I’m not the long lost person of color missing on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Sorry to disappoint.

One thing is clear and that is that my uncle was making fun of me, being just a bit cruel, saying to me “Look how much like these white Americans you have become”. If you’re not white, being called a redneck is not a term of endearment. Maybe it should be. But it’s not. Welcome to this place we call reality. Sure, you’re awesome, supposedly correct and original definition sounds awesome. Sure I’d like to revise history and make redneck and to some rebellious, proletarian term that stabs at the neck of the bourgeoisie.

Oh, by the way, the local chapters charged $8/mo for dues. Anyway, let me try to keep this account moving.

So… After agreeing to participate, moving closer to the local chapter and discussing our aims for political practice, I started to feel a bit unsettled about the racial issues again. Everyone in the chapter except for me was white.

I come from a city, more like a town, where the racial makeup is pretty diverse. Especially for the South. I don’t think white people even constitute a majority in my hometown, although that’s not true for my state. But the South as a whole for my experience tends to have a lot more nonwhite people, at least in proportion. I mean, I know New York City is not like this, but I was quite amazed at how less diverse in many places up north and in the Midwest are. I almost feel like we down here are somehow less segregated in the South. But not by much.

I have no problem with the fact that my local chapter of redneck revolt was only a fifth non-white. Doesn’t this kind of reflect a national average? In the workplace? On juries?

No. What bothered me was how we were orientating our political activity almost exclusively towards white people. We were reaching out to white people. We were organizing in areas that were predominately full of white people, even white racists. Our barely existent literature discussed whiteness. The whole approach was to drop a bucket of racial Tums directly into this reactionary indigestion of a political climate.

I mean say what you want about the tactic of organizing in the belly of the beast. I don’t see it as having any a special effectiveness either way. But there’s something to be said for racial education on antiracism disseminated by white people, tailor-made for white people. It just all seems too… Cozy… and in the era of Trump. Seeing this rise of white nationalism and white supremacy during the campaigns of this bourgeois asshole does not make me want to run up to white people with open arms strictly based on an antiracist conception of whiteness that just does not have a firm foundation in reality.

One of my best friends, or former best friends now, voted for Trump and still can’t get over their WASP-y fucking behavior. I mean you can take the most proletarian of white workers – do anything that threatens their privilege – and the result is fuck the proletariat. The only folks I know, with stable jobs, stable places to stay, and in stable relationships are white Christians in good health. And they are easily the most susceptible to Trump’s vitriol and the ones most likely to be oblivious, unaware, or just plain ignorant about the things happening in the United States. It’s almost like being a healthy white Christian individual just totally blinds you. Healthy white Christian individuals, the people arguably least affected by bourgeois austerity, the bourgeoise base, their core, these people are the foundations of this society. They’re the foundations of patriarchy, the stalwarts of reaction.

How long do we have to stay friends with these people? How long should we continue to consider them as viable and prospective members of our fledgling communities? I don’t remember any major proletarian revolutions which were established on the foundation of convincing the most backwards, least likely sections of society to join the team. These are the people that usually end up fighting us in civil wars. Unfortunately, this is also how the very familiar pattern of reprisals begins to form.

Furthermore, all this racial shit it is a trap. It’s so stupid, it’s so fucking stupid. The color of a person’s skin should have no more significance than the color of their eyes. But in this world, the darker someone is the more likely they are to be poor. In the United States of America, the powers that be love to blur the lines. Turn on the TV and you might see an episode of Empire. Turn on the TV and you might see a struggling white working-class family in rural America. The bourgeoisie will do and give us anything to distract us from the truth, real reality, capitalism.

I think that people can change. But people change in the “afters”. The person who loses their legs only misses running when the legs are gone. The shady boyfriend only regrets his mistakes when you take that cookie away from him. And then he wants it back. The person with lung cancer wishes they never started smoking. The abused are a shell of what they once were in some cases. My point here is that shit happens. But things don’t change until they start changing. You want to stop racist white people? End capitalism. It’s the only way.

So week or two after our first meeting of the local chapter, I finally got around to creating a Facebook account (I didn’t have one before and was coerced into it) in order to start participating in the national level discussion and working groups. I was given access and lurked for a few days. They had a “shit chat” which was deplorable. It was like being in a high school boy’s locker room. I lurked, I read, I researched, I reflected… Nothing happening and these Facebook groups was good. I felt pressured to be involved now that I had been added, but had nowhere to start. No idea of where to even begin.

So I figured, fuck it, I’ll just pop in the main chat channel and ask what the procedure for this kind of thing was. I did absolutely nothing but inquire as to how one would properly go about suggesting and making changes in the group. I cannot emphasize the amount of hostility these types of requests were met with. One of the chiefs of the organization, someone very visible at the national level and in past interventions by the group, just completely got after me. They asked me all these questions. Who are you? When did you join? What chapter are you in? Why are you asking these questions? All this hostile shit. I was basically told you all get to join and come up in here and start changing things, or even start suggesting to change them, and just a matter of a few weeks. I decided right then this was not the group for me.

I mean what the fuck? Who the fuck do you think you are? I can make whatever suggestions that I feel like should be made. What the seniority had to do with it is beyond me. I was being asked for credentials. I was being made to prove my credibility, something we workers are familiar with doing everyday, to our managers, our bosses and society itself. But I was being made to prove my credibility inside one of our institutions. Fucking travesty,

I started asking, is this group even anarchist? Is this group even communist?

“No”.

That’s the response I received. I was told this was a group of leftists. I was told people were not to be excluded. I was told the group was committed to legal action. I was told a lot of things. And then messaged by another member and reassured the opposite. This was an anarchist group, we were communists, we do stand firmly opposed to reformism. But it is/was all just talk.

It’s all hollow talk in Redneck Revolt. They need to get the fuck off the shitty parts of the Internet, put down the rifles and ammo, and read of fucking book or two, or ten, and come up with some ideas worth defending with those guns they parade around so proudly.

I get it. I really do. You think Trump and company are fascists and there are really scary and they are all about to take over the world. As an Arab-American, the first of a generation of immigrants, someone with a shit ton more to fear in the era of President Trump, I am less scared of Trump than Redneck Revolt. Steve Bannon, Mike Flynn can go fuck themselves. You know what is pretty scary, though? The number and types of people who identify with the redneck identity.

I’m no coward. I’m also not blind. Redneck Revolters: You want Spanish Civil War 2.0. Well, there’s one big thing missing – communities. In 2017, they barely exist anymore. We have to build not only a revolutionary movement, not only revolutionary networks and groups, not only our own individual theoretical strength, but communities. The now mythological legendary revolutionaries, the Malatestas, the Durruitis and Mahknos, the Volines – these people came from a time when they were a part of something. They belonged to something. They belonged to communities who belonged to them. It was organic. They weren’t middle class white kids volunteering to tune-up people’s bikes and help people at the shooting range, even those these activities were happening. There was no time to waste sitting behind a keyboard in an Internet chat room on Facebook all day, no Internet to waste it on. They were from the neighborhoods they were in. There was a rich anarchist tradition full of vitality and potential because of this.

Today in the age of austerity, the lack of open mass struggles – the acute battles with the prospects of improvement of daily life under capitalism – there has been an exaggeration of this separation between revolutionaries and communities. We have to fix this. And organizing along racial lines, no matter how much of the American way it is, is the wrong way to go about it.

Written by a former member-candidate of Redneck Revolt active with those folks during Winter 2017

Khawaga

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on April 12, 2017

Thanks for posting that account el psy, now it makes much more sense where you are coming from.

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on April 13, 2017

You're welcome, K. but I can't take any credit for the post. I just read the blog

bootsy

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bootsy on April 13, 2017

That is a much better critique of Redneck Revolt than the previous one you posted. I can sympathise with a lot of it for sure. Except for the part about white working class communities inevitably siding with the ruling class. It might happen in some cases but it is certainly not a given and don't forget that Appalachian coal mining communities, which these days are the heart of reactionary white rednecks, have also been at the heart of some of the biggest class struggles in American history during the strike movements during the 1930s and 1970s. The ascendency of reactionary ideology amongst these communities is both a product of their previous limitations as well as the defeat of their class struggles and the current situation of class peace. As the author will agree class peace can often be dependent upon a slow fizzing civil war within the proletariat itself, in many cases anyway.

Part of the issue I have with Redneck Revolt is they are overly focused on the issue of race whereas the only context within which the racial issue can effectively be tackled and combatted is one of increased class antagonism. Its class war which creates the possibility of dominant ideologies coming unstuck and new perspectives based upon solidarity and revolution can have the potential to flourish.

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on April 14, 2017

Word up. Well said

el psy congroo

6 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by el psy congroo on April 18, 2017

https://www.redneckrevolt.org/single-post/2017/02/20/A-MESSAGE-TO-THE-PATRIOT-MOVEMENT

Juan Conatz

6 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Juan Conatz on May 12, 2017

That account is better than the critique from the first post. That said, the person who wrote it sounds like a difficult person to be in an organization with. They are unsure of what they exactly want, are still very much processing personal matters, yet are very sure of what they don't want.

I'm still a bit vague on the actual critique of RR. That they specifically target white Americans with an anti-racist, class war message but that they aren't really connected to anything other than gun culture?

Reddebrek

5 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on August 11, 2018

Been listening to a podcast by Its Going Down that interviewed a member of the group on its recent actions and views.

https://itsgoingdown.org/counter-recruitment-against-white-supremacy-in-militia-patriot-movement/