How Can This Happen In America?

Back in the early '90's - 1992 I believe - a group out of San Francisco was created called Roots Against War (RAW). The organization was committed to involving young people of color in direct action protests against the Gulf War. It grew out of the people protesting against the Rodney King verdict. It transformed into Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM). STORM expanded the membership to include people of all colors, though the majority was made up of women (60%) and people of color (75%). This organization also included anarchists, communists and revolutionary nationalists. Eventually the anarchists left the organization and STORM became an organization with a mainly communist ideology. STORM officially dissolved in 2002, but published a book in 2004 called Reclaiming Revolution: History, Summary and and Lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (you can read the entire text here http://www.leftspot.com/blog/files/docs/STORMSummation.pdf). But here are excerpts from just the first two pages of this book. PREFACE: WHY THIS DOCUMENT This is the story of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), a revolutionary cadre organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. From September 1994 to December 2002 STORM helped to re-invigorate the Left, both locally and nationally. STORM members fought on the frontlines of some of the most important struggles of those eight years. We built organizations and institutions that continue to fight. And we supported the development of a new generation of revolutionary internationalists in the Bay Area and across the country. During that time, we gained a wealth of information that offers the Left some important lessons. To ensure that those lessons are not lost or clouded by time and memory, we have chosen to document that experience now. We humbly offer this document in hopes that it may move the Left forward. As young leftists starting a new revolutionary organization, we certainly could have used such a document. Most of us had never been in a revolutionary organization. After all, STORMS membership was always more than 60% woman and more than 75% people of color - people all too often (and tragically) marginalized and alienated from the U.S. Left. For eight years, we fumbled in the dark of our youth and inexperience as we tried to build STORM and a broader movement that would finally end the murderous reign of U.S. imperialism. And with the left in retreat globally and nationally, we seemed to be starting nearly from scratch. WHO WROTE THIS DOCUMENT Many of STORMS former members contributed to the development of this document, including almost all of the people who were part of it's dissolution in 2002. Once it was completed, nineteen of STORM's former members (a majority of our membership) expressed strong support for the analysis and conclusions of this document. Reclaiming Revolution is an attempt to pull our various perspectives on our history into a single document. Although our unity is not absolute, the majority of STORM's former members felt like we could stand by the conclusions of this document. These people all remain deeply engaged in movement-building work. Many of us are building power in working class communities of color. Others are building left institutions. Still others are finding ways to "serve the people". But all of us remain explicitly committed to revolutionary politics and revolutionary organization. As you read the document, you will learn of the organization's hatred for America, which they incorrectly categorize as imperialistic. And their response to the attacks of 911 are quite revealing relative to their thinking and ideology. They are self-avowed Marxists. Now the kicker. The founder of STORM is none other than Van Jones - the "green jobs Czar" in the Obama administration. Several questions arise. How can someone who formed these "hate America" organizations now be leading an economic movement in America supported by the President of the United States? How can someone who hates American "imperialism" now embrace the government he so blatantly loathes? And how can someone who is a self-avowed communist (yes, he admits that) be a top advisor to the President of the United States, and be running a major facet of American government? And lastly, and most importantly, how can any President of the United States allow a communist to come close to the power of the American government. Obama has surrounded himself with no less than five of these ideological idiots. How can that happen in America? Why have we allowed it? Why are we still allowing it, even after we have become aware of it? Is it treasonous? I don't know, but it seems to be to me. Wake up America!