Aaron J. Leonard - Heavy Radicals: The FBIs Secret War on Americas Maoists: The Revolutionary Union / Revolutionary Communist Party 1968-1980

First published by Zero Books, 2014

Second edition published by Zero Books, 2022

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Aaron J. Leonard, Conor A. Gallagher 2014

ISBN: 978 1 80341 317 4

978 1 80341 318 1 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022944391

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For Irka, Emily, Jarina, and Amawta

AARON J. LEONARD is the author of the Folk Singers & the Bureau and Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion & Repression 1955-1972. He has a BA in Social Sciences and History from New York University, magna cum laude. He lives in Los Angeles.

CONOR A. GALLAGHER is an educator, author, and researcher of US government repression of post-WW2 communist groups. He earned his BA from the CUNY Graduate Center and his masters from the University of Southern California. He currently lives in Italy. He supports Vlez Sarsfield.

One of the questions Conor and I confronted when we started working on Heavy Radicals ten years ago, and which still comes up, is why, in the twenty-first century, would anyone be interested in US Maoism. It is a reasonable question if one usually asked with an edge of mockery.

Driving the question is the fact that Maoismthe most animating revolutionary current of the late 1960s and early 1970shas garnered only the barest mention in relevant US historiographies, the exception being Max Elbaums Revolution in the Air, about which more in a bit. On the whole, however, to read the available history, one would think there was no significant gravitation to Maoism in the US. This, in turn, has created a self-reinforcing situation where its absence from the historiography becomes evidence of its absence from history.

That is not to deny that, as a credible political philosophy, Maoism has taken a serious hit. This is especially true in China, where Mao is still canonized as a founding father, but his presentation is completely disconnected from any revolutionary history. However, given the power of certain of Maoisms cohering principles, and the fact that there are tens of thousands, if not millions, worldwide who still adhere to this interpretation of Marxism, it strikes us as highly negligent to minimize, or worse, omit, its legacyto say nothing of its potential, remote or otherwise, for resurgence in an era where a younger generation are once again beginning to look to various forms of socialism.

With that in mind, we thought a new edition of Heavy Radicals would be of some use. While we have not altered the books text, aside from necessary grammatical, style, and spelling fixes, we offer this introduction with clarifications and elaborations on our initial discoveries. of an interview with one of the participants in the Revolutionary Unions 1971 China visit, which offers a rare picture of Maoist Chinaor at least how it sought to present itself to international supportersbefore it abandoned most of Maos policies.

Between Heavy Radicals and its follow-up, A Threat of the First Magnitude, it would seem we have written near all we could about the former RU leader and FBI informant, Donald H. Wright. However, a new piece of evidence is worth noting. This comes by way of recently declassified documents of a former CIA asset, Richard Gibson, referred to by the code name Sugar.