Red Guard Party (United States)

Red Guard Party
Founded	1967
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
Ideology	Maoism & Chinese nationalism
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

The Red Guards were a Chinese American civil rights group active from 1967 to 1971. The movement drew inspiration from a variety of sources including the Boxer Rebellion, the Red Guards in China, and the Black Panthers. The I Wor Kuen were a similar group originally based in New York City named after the Boxers and influenced by the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords. In 1972 the two organizations merged to form a single national revolutionary organization under the name I Wor Kuen. The newly formed national party was affiliated with the New Communist Movement and was ideologically aligned with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.

"San Francisco’s Red Guard was patterned closely after the Black Panther Party. In 1969, the federal government wanted to shut down a Tuberculosis testing center located in San Francisco’s Chinese community. At the time, Chinatown had the highest TB rate in the country. The young Asians in the Red Guard organized the community and staged successful protest demonstrations to keep that TB testing center open. Through these protests and the programs that the Red Guard initiated, Chinatown’s citizens were enlightened and became open to more progressive politics. In 1970, members of the Red Guard were part of a delegation that was invited to join Eldridge Cleaver and they accompanied him in a visit to China, North Korea, and North Vietnam. After about two and a half years, due to political and police repression, such as office raids, arrests without warrants, false arrest, and armed stand-offs with police, the organization collapsed."

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References

• http://www.asamst.ucsb.edu/news/newsletter2006.pdf
• http://www.aamovement.net/history/red_guard/redguardparty.html
• http://www.aamovement.net/history/ypm3.html
• http://www.aamovement.net/history/gt/gt.html
• http://muse.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/access.cgi?uri=/journals/american_quarterly/v057/57.4maeda.html
• http://www.blackpanther.org/legacytwo.htm
• Young Lords Origins