Is This Communist ‘Cult’ Trying to Hijack the Abortion Movement?

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the street outside the court filled with protesters bearing the green signs and bandannas of a previously obscure group called RiseUp 4 Abortion Rights.

RiseUp tactics like putting red paint on protesters’ pants to evoke coat-hanger abortions and wrapping women in faux-barb wire with American-flag colors have become among the most eye-catching in the latest round of pro-abortion rights activism. The group’s members are ever-present at rallies responding to the ruling—when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) gave a speech outside the court, RiseUp leader Sunsara Taylor held a megaphone for the lawmaker.

But now other pro-abortion rights groups say that RiseUp isn’t what it seems. Instead, they say it’s a front for the Revolutionary Communist Party, a fringe far-left group dating back to the 1960s with a reputation for latching onto social movements for its own benefit.

In late June, 23 abortion funds and other pro-abortion rights groups issued a statement calling Rise Up a “cult” and accusing it of duping well-meaning abortion supporters into a “pyramid scheme” supporting the Revolutionary Communists. In the document, the groups said it was time for pro-abortion rights organizations to “unite in discrediting RiseUp publicly” and push it out of protest “spaces.”

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In an email to The Daily Beast, Taylor described criticism of the group as “outright lies, baseless allegations, and unprincipled attacks.”

Much of the criticism of RiseUp centers on Bob Avakian, the controversial founder of the Revolutionary Communists. Avakian’s followers are notorious for creating myriad front groups to recruit new members and advance their organization’s interests.

After members of the group started appearing at protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the 2014 police shooting of teenager Michael Brown, for example, activists accused Avakian’s supporters of attempting to capitalize on the tragedy for their own end. In an interview with Talking Points Memo at the time, 1960s social scholar Todd Gitlin accused the Revolutionary Communists of having a parasitic relationship with genuine social activism.

“They glom onto a cause, and then they roll with it,” Gitlin said.

Avakian sought asylum in France in 1981 after facing felony charges over a violent protest against police, and his current whereabouts are unknown.

RiseUp’s most visible moment in the aftermath of the Roe reversal came after two of the group’s members were interviewed on MSNBC complaining that Democratic leaders were exploiting the abortion ruling to fundraise.

“My rights should not be a fundraising point for them,” RiseUp member Zoe Warren said in the interview.

The clip received thousands of retweets and seemed to strike a chord with abortion rights supporters frustrated with Democrats’ handling of the issue. But exactly where RiseUp thinks people should donate to support abortion rights has become a flashpoint between it and more mainstream groups.

In February, Taylor wrote a blog post on the Revolutionary Communists’ website claiming that donating to abortion funds as a means to fight anti-abortion court decisions was a bad idea that would mean ensuring “a future where all women are enslaved.”

That angered the abortion funds, which provide money to women facing obstacles to receiving the procedure.

“We denounce RiseUp’s rhetoric against abortion funds,” the National Network of Abortion Funds tweeted on June 27. “There’s never been a more important time to fund abortions.”

The more mainstream groups that signed the statement denouncing RiseUp say it’s also wrong on other tactics. The faux-blood protests, they say, stigmatize abortion and make it look more dangerous to woman than it is, while ignoring that roughly half of all abortions now performed in the United States are obtained through medication instead of surgery.

Other groups associated with Avakian have provided grist for right-wing media attacks in the past. In 2017, plans from an Avakian-tied group called Refuse Fascism for a mass protest sparked conservative media hoaxes that “antifa supersoldiers” would commit mass murder against conservatives.

RiseUp’s foes also points to the Revolutionary Communists’ history of attacks on sex workers and LGBT people. In a 1981 statement, for example, the party vowed that a communist society would “reform homosexuals,” a position the communists claim to have later abandoned.

Despite the criticism, RiseUp doesn’t appear for now to have any plans to back off of abortion rights activism. In a statement responded to the denunciation by the other abortion rights groups, the Revolutionary Communists hit back at their critics. Echoing a conservative talking point, the communists accused their detractors of practicing “cancel culture.”

“Quit acting like soft crybabies,” the statement read.

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