Changes

===Blame America===

===Blame America===

On the night after the [[September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]] STORM held a vigil in [[Oakland]], [[California]], "mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world." In a document entitled, ''Reclaiming Revolution: history, summation & lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM)'', Jones is quoted as saying,

On the night after the [[September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks]] STORM held a vigil in [[Oakland]], [[California]], "mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world." In a document entitled, ''Reclaiming Revolution: history, summation & lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM)'', Jones is quoted as saying,

{{Cquote|Anti-Arab hostility is already reaching a fever pitch as pundits and common people alike rush to judgment that an Arab group is responsible for this tragedy," said Van Jones, founder and national executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. "We fear that an atmosphere is being created that will result in official and street violence against Arab men, women and children.}}

{{Cquote|Anti-Arab hostility is already reaching a fever pitch as pundits and common people alike rush to judgment that an Arab group is responsible for this tragedy," said Van Jones, founder and national executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. "We fear that an atmosphere is being created that will result in official and street violence against Arab men, women and children.}}

''Reclaiming Revolution'' also blamed the U.S. for 9/11. A passage on page 45 (27 of the PDF file) reads:  

''Reclaiming Revolution'' also blamed the U.S. for 9/11. A passage on page 45 (27 of the PDF file) reads: [[File:Thebobbsietwins.JPG|thumb|400px|left|Van Jones with [[Barack Obama]] ]]

{{Cquote|That night, STORM and the other movement leaders expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of innocent working class people. We were angry, first and foremost, with the U.S. government, whose worldwide aggression had engendered such hate across the globe that working class people were not safe at home. We honored those who had lost their lives in the attack -- and those who would surely lose their lives in subsequent U.S. attacks overseas. <ref>[http://spectator.org/blog/2009/08/29/van-jones-and-his-stormtrooper Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America the Night After 9/11], By Matthew Vadum, AmSpecBlog, 8.29.09.</ref>}}

{{Cquote|That night, STORM and the other movement leaders expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of innocent working class people. We were angry, first and foremost, with the U.S. government, whose worldwide aggression had engendered such hate across the globe that working class people were not safe at home. We honored those who had lost their lives in the attack -- and those who would surely lose their lives in subsequent U.S. attacks overseas. <ref>[http://spectator.org/blog/2009/08/29/van-jones-and-his-stormtrooper Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America the Night After 9/11], By Matthew Vadum, AmSpecBlog, 8.29.09.</ref>}}

==Role in the Rodney King riots==

==Role in the Rodney King riots==

[[File:Thebobbsietwins.JPG|thumb|400px|right|Van Jones with [[Barack Obama]] ]]

[[File:Reginald-denny-brick.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The 1992 L.A. riots left 58 people dead. A [[Mao]]ist group was instrumental in fomenting the unrest. Van Jones traveled across the United States to be on hand when tensions in the city erupted, and was arrested in the violent aftermath. [http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e8c_1251337698 Video] ]]

 

On April 29, 1992, more than a year after the founding of STORM, members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) looted and trashed the downtown and government districts of [[Los Angeles]], triggering the infamous [[Rodney King]] riots. The RCP is known as the premier Maoist party in the United States.<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6197 Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).] Retrieved from dicoverthenetworks.org, March 8, 2010. In 1962 a group of Maoist radicals split with the [[Soviet]] spnosored [[CPUSA]] and formed the  Progressive Labor Movement (PLM). By 1966, the PLM renamed itself the [[Progressive Labor Party]] (PLP) and joined forces with the [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS). PLP tried unsuccessfully to take over SDS's National Office, thereby pushing SDS even further to the left toward hard-line Maoism. Opposition to PLP tactics led to the formation of another Maoist faction, the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM). The RYM eventually split into two factions, one the notorious terrorist group [[Weatherman]]; the other spawning a 1969 splinter group called the Bay Area Revolutionary Union (RU),  co-founded by H. Bruce Franklin, Robert Avakian, and Charles Hamilton, which became the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) in 1974.</ref> During the days immediately preceding the violence, RCP, which maintained close ties to the L.A. gangs known as the Crips and the Bloods, circulated throughout South Central Los Angeles a leaflet featuring a statement by RCP National Spokesman Carl Dix, titled ''It's Right To Rebel,'' a quote popularized by [[Mao Zedong]]. Encouraged by Dix, RCP activists helped lead the riots that would leave 58 people dead and more than 2,300 people injured.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/national/19king.html ''12 Years After the Riots, Rodney King Gets Along''], J. Emilio Flores, ''[[The New York Times]]'', September 19, 2004.</ref>

On April 29, 1992, more than a year after the founding of STORM, members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) looted and trashed the downtown and government districts of [[Los Angeles]], triggering the infamous [[Rodney King]] riots. The RCP is known as the premier Maoist party in the United States.<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6197 Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).] Retrieved from dicoverthenetworks.org, March 8, 2010. In 1962 a group of Maoist radicals split with the [[Soviet]] spnosored [[CPUSA]] and formed the  Progressive Labor Movement (PLM). By 1966, the PLM renamed itself the [[Progressive Labor Party]] (PLP) and joined forces with the [[Students for a Democratic Society]] (SDS). PLP tried unsuccessfully to take over SDS's National Office, thereby pushing SDS even further to the left toward hard-line Maoism. Opposition to PLP tactics led to the formation of another Maoist faction, the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM). The RYM eventually split into two factions, one the notorious terrorist group [[Weatherman]]; the other spawning a 1969 splinter group called the Bay Area Revolutionary Union (RU),  co-founded by H. Bruce Franklin, Robert Avakian, and Charles Hamilton, which became the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) in 1974.</ref> During the days immediately preceding the violence, RCP, which maintained close ties to the L.A. gangs known as the Crips and the Bloods, circulated throughout South Central Los Angeles a leaflet featuring a statement by RCP National Spokesman Carl Dix, titled ''It's Right To Rebel,'' a quote popularized by [[Mao Zedong]]. Encouraged by Dix, RCP activists helped lead the riots that would leave 58 people dead and more than 2,300 people injured.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/national/19king.html ''12 Years After the Riots, Rodney King Gets Along''], J. Emilio Flores, ''[[The New York Times]]'', September 19, 2004.</ref>