Editorial: The Pageantry of Revolution

This past Saturday, on International Women’s Day, a protest organized by Refuse Fascism moved through West Hollywood like a fever dream down Santa Monica Boulevard. Young activists, draped in Progress Pride flags, marched in tight formation. From the back of an open truck bed, two young women commanded the crowd with megaphones, their arms pumping as they repeated the mantra of the day:  

“Donald Trump? Illegitimate!” they yelled, their voices hoarse from chanting.  

Onlookers watched with amusement, some raising their phones to capture the scene, others simply gawking. At first glance, this had all the markings of a grassroots protest—a spontaneous uprising of concerned citizens. But as always, there was a hidden hand behind the spectacle.  

After all, this is West Hollywood, where radical aesthetics are fashionable… but real revolutionary principles never get in the way of political fundraising.

So, who the F*#% are Refuse Fascism?

Refuse Fascism presents itself as a broad anti-fascist front, but in reality, it is a front group for the Revolutionary Communist Party (RevCom), a fringe Maoist sect led by the enigmatic Bob Avakian. Founded in 2016 to capitalize on anti-Trump hysteria, Refuse Fascism claims its goal is to build a mass movement. In reality, it was created to lure in young, politically homeless activists and funnel them into the rigid ideological framework of RevCom.  

Avakian himself is a near-mythical figure among his followers, issuing grand ideological decrees while living in self-imposed exile in France. His rule is absolute, though distant. He is the Wizard of Oz—worshiped, yet rarely seen. His followers accept his teachings without question, even as RevCom’s influence remains limited to small, insular cells that appear at protests like the march in West Hollywood.  

RevCom is not just socialist—it is unapologetically Maoist, idolizing one of history’s most brutal dictators. Under Mao Zedong’s rule, an estimated 45 million people perished during the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Yet Avakian’s disciples venerate Mao while denouncing Trump as an unprecedented existential threat to democracy.  

But Refuse Fascism and RevCom aren’t just ideological warriors—they are street-level operatives. Unlike other socialist groups that maintain a veneer of respectability, RevCom has actively aligned itself with violent Antifa factions.

During the height of the protests against lockdowns and government authoritarianism in Los Angeles in 2020, RevCom-backed Antifa members played a leading role in physically attacking anti-lockdown demonstrators. Viral footage from downtown LA showed black-clad militants lunging at protesters, ripping signs from their hands, and, in one notorious clip, brandishing a knife. The media dismissed these incidents as isolated scuffles, but they were part of a broader strategy: infiltrate street movements, escalate tensions, and use the chaos to radicalize recruits.  

This is a long-standing tactic of radical leftist groups. RevCom took its cues from the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a competing communist sect that has mastered the art of mainstream infiltration.  

But inevitably, the Left eats its own.  

While RevCom positions itself as the hardcore vanguard of revolution, PSL plays the long game. The Party for Socialism and Liberation controls the ANSWER Coalition, an anti-war group that gained national prominence after 9/11 by organizing mass protests against the invasion of Afghanistan. Since then, PSL and ANSWER have embedded themselves into mainstream Democratic activism, hosting fundraisers for groups like Planned Parenthood and The Trevor Project to gain credibility while continuing to push their brand of Marxist-Leninism.  

Despite sharing similar ideological roots, PSL and RevCom despise each other. PSL leadership quietly dismisses RevCom as a personality cult obsessed with Avakian, while RevCom sees PSL as a watered-down, opportunistic faction willing to compromise for institutional power. Yet both engage in the same practice—entryism, the strategic infiltration of popular movements to redirect them toward hardline communist ideology.  

Even within far-left circles, both PSL and RevCom face accusations of being cults. Former PSL members have alleged that low-ranking activists are pressured to work unpaid and to exhaustion, have their social media monitored for “wrongthink”, and are subjected to routine struggle sessions where their loyalty is tested under threat of excommunication. RevCom operates similarly, though it lacks PSL’s mainstream influence and financial backing.

And then there’s BAMN—By Any Means Necessary—a lesser-known but equally ambitious communist faction that has spent years vying for leadership within the activist Left. Originally focused on radicalizing student movements, BAMN has more recently sought to challenge PSL and RevCom for dominance, often clashing with them in factional infighting that outsiders rarely notice. 

If history has shown anything, it’s that radical leftists—even those involved in violence—are often rewarded with credibility over time.

When accused assassin Luigi Mangioni became an unexpected cultural icon earlier this year, these factions of the revolutionary Left all clamored to claim the emergent mythology of the charismatic Leftist vigilante. 

Angela Davis, once implicated in a deadly 1970 courthouse takeover, went on to enjoy a distinguished career in academia. The Weather Underground, responsible for multiple bombings in the 1970s, saw its former members transition into comfortable positions in universities and cultural institutions. Even those who once openly advocated for violent revolution have been rehabilitated into mainstream progressive circles.  

But contrast that with how right-wing dissidents are treated. There is no second act for them. The radical Left is absorbed into institutions. The Right is erased.  

In cities like West Hollywood, the aesthetics of revolution are treated as useful accessories. 

When BAMN-aligned protesters were arrested for committing a violent assault against a conservative activist on WeHo City grounds, no members of the West Hollywood City Council spoke up—except to decry the arrests of the BAMN-affiliated activists. Local politicians will nod along at their protests, take photos with their activists, and amplify their rhetoric when it serves them. 

Regionally, Los Angeles’s political establishment treats socialist and communist factions as a moral compass for their progressive branding. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have single-handedly saturated LA’s political leadership with progressive Democrats— all vying to prove their fealty to Marxist ideologies in private while projecting the optics of centrism in public.

Yet, despite donning the drag of revolution, WeHo’s progressive leaders know where their true loyalties lie—with big-money donors, multinational corporations, and the Democratic Party machine that rules LA politics. From LA Mayor Karen Bass and LA City Council’s Nithya Raman, to Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and WeHo’s own “young progressive” slate, many politicians posture as revolutionaries when convenient but abandon the cause when it threatens their standing. 

The same West Hollywood officials who flirt with radical leftist groups will just as easily vacation in Tel Aviv on lobbyist-paid “fact-finding” trips, attend Rockefeller-backed “eco” conferences, and court old money families and the DAVOS set for financial capital.

For the casual onlooker caught up in the spectacle of the weekend’s Refuse Fascism march, it may seem like just another passionate display of activism. But these movements are not spontaneous—they are carefully engineered efforts by radical factions and are exploited by a faux-progressive political machinery— with each vying for control over America’s political future.  

And they are willing to achieve it—by any means necessary.