Philadelphia, PA (TFC) – The Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), Bob Avakian’s pseudo-Maoist group, held a guerrilla rally at a cannabis legalization event at the Democratic National Convention in downtown Philadelphia. The event was marked by their normal enthusiasm and soap boxing, but also with a brief altercation. The RevCom delegation marched in with chants of “One, Two, Three, Four, Slavery Genocide and War! Five, Six, Seven, Eight, America was Never Great!” and began speaking.

As you can see in the beginning of the below video, there was a heated verbal exchange taking place between a young man who appears to be a Sanders supporter and another man who had been heckling the RCP presenters; it is unclear whether or not the Sanders supporter was a RCP member, but he clearly was supporting their position in this context. To the right, a man, who was reported as being a “Clinton supporter,” is knocked down, and an altercation begins. See below:

The RCP claimed that the man had tased a member, while other accounts say he had groped a woman in the crowd; regardless, a member of the crowd stepped in and diffused the situation, and a Philadelphia police officer escorted the man away without further incident. The rally continued for a few minutes, ending with a military-style call and response chant and an organized march down the street and away.

The Revolutionary Communist Party is a ostensibly Maoist revolutionary organization based around the ideology and writings of Bob Avakian, an activist and organizer that came out of the Bay Area SDS movement. The group has begun making great strides in their membership drives of late, appealing especially to young people and minority groups. Though beginning as a Maoist Communist organization, the RCP has moved further towards Avakian’s “New Synthesis of Communism,” and it is clear from this rally that the RevComs have developed a strong response to the recent mood of the United States – though not everyone welcomes it.