While the media fret over every pick-up truck with a Confederate flag decal, local Maoists are plotting violence on a large scale and are starting their war–at least in words–on their anarchist cousins.
The Kansas City Revolutionary Collective, the Maoists in question, talk a tough game. “We must learn to fight by fighting; we must learn revolutionary violence by wielding revolutionary violence; we must learn combat by engaging in low-intensity combat operations against fascists, gentrifiers and other counter-revolutionaries,” reads a recent and surprisingly well-written diktat.
Nor do the Maoists shy from the consequences of their actions, again at least on paper: “Surely any revolutionary understands that if we take our task seriously it will result in massive civilian casualties.”
The media refuse to acknowledge the threat, but local law enforcement is well aware of it. On September 9, several of its members came to an antifascist rally in a Kansas City park armed and dangerous. The Kansas City Police made them remove their ammo, and they complied. This was a source of some embarrassment for the fledgling militarists.
Among those joining in the ridicule were the anarchists who were there at the park competing to represent the “Antifa” brand. The Maoists dismiss the leftists as “radical liberals” who pass themselves off as anarchists. The Maoists lament that these would-be anarchists “have no plans to smash the state.” Worse, “They prolong the suffering of the masses under capitalism by shilling for reformist efforts and electoral politics.”
A recent point of conflict between the Maoists and the anarchist wannabes was the scheduled Haake concert in Kansas City. A Norwegian heavy metal band, Haake has the taint of Neo-Naziism about it, a dim and vague taint at that. Both the Maoists and the anarchists wanted the show cancelled–it was–but before it was the Maoists threatened violence against anyone who attended the performance.
A prominent anarchist and member of KC IWW (International Workers of the World) scolded the Maoists for threatening violence against fans, calling the threat an “extremely inappropriate escallation (sic).”
“This luke-warm take would be fine from your average liberal,” countered the Maoists, “but coming from a person who claims to be an antifascist and is somewhat of a leader who ‘thinks she’s an anarchist’ in KC, makes these statements abhorrent and dangerous.”
The anarchists take the Maoist threat seriously. As of yet, the liberals in the media do not. They should. As the Maoists say without reservation, “We do not shy away from violence against leftists and leftist organizations who would get in the way of our work, or actively lead our class astray.”
These folks are armed now and dangerous. It is time to pay attention.