The current blowup began in late June, when a coalition of 23 grassroots abortion rights, feminist, and mutual-aid groups shared a plainly-worded statement denouncing Rise Up. The post, which was widely shared on Instagram and Twitter, declared, “It is vital for for all repro groups to now unite in discrediting Rise Up,” and raised a number of concerns, including that the group is “an offshoot,” as the groups put it, of RevCom, which they called “a personality cult” revolving around Avakian.
Los Angeles, CA - July 06: Protestors hold a "die-in" on the steps of City Hall, organized by Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, in protest of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on Wednesday, July 6, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Wesley Lapointe / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Screen capture from the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party
RevCom and the groups its members have founded are all historically keenly interested in growing participation by students—touting, for instance, student walkouts earlier this year in support of abortion rights. The teen said Rise Up organizers were persistent in getting them to recruit other students to the cause, encouraging them to consider doing die-ins at lunch or organize a walkout at their school. But there were already been “red flags” for them in the language that Rise Up used, the teen said. One of Rise Up’s persistent slogans is “Forced Motherhood is Female Enslavement.” The teen, who was assigned female at birth, is uniquely aware that abortion rights affect nonbinary and trans people. Sunsara asked to film an interview with them, and throughout, they used inclusive language, for instance using terms like “people with uteruses” instead of “women.”“They were talking about Bob Avakian up on the mic,” the teen said. “I didn’t know what Bob Avakian was.”
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 04: An abortion rights protestor holds a sign in front of Independence Hall at a rally on July 4, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The host organization, Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, held several protests all over the country on Independence Day. (Photo by Hannah Beier/Getty Images)
As the teen became more involved in Rise Up activism and events, she said she realized that “anyone with power” in the organization also seemed to be affiliated with RevCom, and that both organizations used the same headquarters. (Taylor told Motherboard that the girl is mistaken, and that the headquarters for the two organizations are not the same.) She also noted that these same older organizers used what she found to be trans-exclusionary language, and said younger activists often asked them to correct it. “All the young people involved were like, this is not cool, she said. “We were telling them what was OK and not OK and they were not listening.” The teenager also participated in what she described as a “chaotic” Rise Up protest at a WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx at Barclays Center, where a group of Rise Up activists rushed the court topless with their chests painted green. The teenager was part of a group of four other activists who were sitting in the stands, waiting to unfurl a Rise Up banner. The older activists in the group, she said, had made it sound like a fairly low-risk event, but the banner-holding group were immediately kicked out by security. Her bag was left behind, with her phone and school pass in it. She and a slightly older activist, a woman in her 20s whom the teen said was also not very experienced with activism, were left by themselves to figure out how to get their bags back. They returned to Barclays and had to ask security to get it for them, which led to them being briefly detained and then banned from the facility.“All the young people involved were like, this is not cool,” she said. “We were telling them what was OK and not OK and they were not listening.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 08: Sunsara Taylor speaks during a rally to mark International Women's Day in Union Square on March 08, 2022 in New York, New York. RiseUp4AbortionRights held rallies and marches nationwide to oppose the growing erosion of abortion rights on International Women's Day. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Bob Avakian and Dr. Cornel West in discussion in 2014.
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 14, 2017: Sunsara Taylor, center, leads protesters from RefuseFascism.org outside of Trump Tower. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
