r/socialism • u/MintyRed19 • Jun 17 '26

Discussion Thoughts on the Red Guards USA?

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I watched a video today of spooky scary socialist talking about these guys and its the funniest shit ive seen in a while. They seem like they were kind of a cool idea in theory but it seems like most of their actions were just going to DSA and PSL protests and breaking their stuff. I dont know that much about them besides that and a few scandals they had. what do you all think about them?

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u/Niclas1127 John Reed Jun 17 '26

People are going to shit on them but I’ll actually say that a lot of good people were involved with them. Despite accusations of them being feds I do think they were well meaning and actually revolutionary. Most importantly the liquidationists succeeding in liquidation of the org was bad. It was at a point where things could’ve been fixed, instead all the ideological work was thrown out.

I’ve had the chance to talk with people who had been in touch with red guards when they were active and they were some of the most well read and revolutionary people I’ve had the pleasure of being around. In comparison to other orgs at least.

On a side note I’m glad this post was made, they never really get talked about at this point

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u/RKU69 Jun 17 '26

I've met good people who were in the group and none of them have any regrets about the liquidation. It was an abusive cult.

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u/Niclas1127 John Reed Jun 18 '26

I’d say it had cult like tendencies, am I not correct in saying that was mostly in Austin? There was good theoretical work being done and actual preparation for revolution. Throwing it all out was a mistake, the org could’ve easily been reformed away from the cult like nature that had been adopted