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 * Week 5 assignment (article evaluation):

The introductory paragraph of the May 19th Communist Organization article seems like it could be made more concise, as it references several pages for other organizations that helped form the movement in a way that is mildly confusing. This distracted me from information about the group itself. Additionally, the group is listed as an alliance of two of the aforementioned other groups while not referencing the May 19th Communist Organization itself or any of the other groups previously reported to make up the group. Beyond these content-based evaluations, there also seems to be a lack of supporting evidence for several claims. Among the article's introductory paragraph, list of objectives, list of 12 purported attacks, and the other information provided in the article, there are only six citations.


 * Week 6 assignment (adding a citation): Added a citation to the May 19th Communist Organization article supporting information about the origins of the name of the group. Used Adolfo Perez Esquivel's book Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners.

1)     Lead Section

In addition to the May 19th Communist Organization being made up of the Black Liberation Army, the group was formed because of infighting in the Weather Underground Organization. Following the split of the Weather Underground Organization into factions, the faction that favored more extreme actions to achieve its objectives joined the Black Liberation Army, forming the May 19th Communist Organization. One of the founders, Laura Whitehorn, was also part of the Weather Underground Organization's predecessor, the Students for a Democratic Society. In addition to being known as the May 19th Communist Organization and the New York chapter of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, the group was also known as the Armed Resistance Movement, the Red Guerilla Resistance, Resistance Conspiracy, and Revolutionary Fighting Group. Despite these other monikers, the group was most popularly known as the May 19th Communist Organization, predicated on the Communist Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh's birthday.

2)     Objectives

On top of the goals of freeing political prisoners in the United States, appropriating capitalist wealth to fund operations, and initiating a series of bombings and terrorist attacks, the group had the broader goal of violently toppling established power in the United States. These goals were aimed at the eventual goal of transforming the political landscape in the United States from one of capitalism to one of communism. This regime change was predicated on the idea that capitalism oppressed the public, particularly those that were imprisoned under the capitalist system, believing that such actions would not be undertaken in a political system by the people and for the people.

The 1981 attack on the Brinks armored truck, perpetrated by Judith Clark, Kathy Boudin, and David Gilbert, resulted in the theft of $1.6 million, which was planned for use in creating an ethnostate for black Americans in the south, termed "New Afrika."

Members of the May 19th Communist Organization, even when showing support for the group's goals of ridding the United States of racism, police brutality, and insufficient public housing, were often accused of not being fervent enough about the causes that the group pursued.

3)     Activities

4)     Arrests

Marilyn Jean Buck was arrested in 1985 and was, prior to joining the May 19th Communist Organization, the only white member of the Black Liberation Army, one of the two groups that formed the May 19th Communist Organization. While the May 19th Communist Organization was made up of individuals of several racial heritages, the Black Liberation Army was previously entirely made up of black Americans, save for Marilyn Jean Buck.

On October 20th, 1981, Judith Clark was arrested in connection to the attack on the armored Brinks truck. Clark was the spokesperson of the May 19th Communist Organization as of 1978, and was previously a member of one of the May 19th Communist Organization's predecessor groups, the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. Judith Clark is eligible for parole and is scheduled to be released from jail on May 15th, 2019, 37 years after she was arrested on the same day as the robbery of the armored Brinks truck.

Donna Borup "is thought to have a photographic memory and is highly intelligent," according to the FBI.

5) Impact

The May 19th Communist Organization, along with other domestic terrorist organizations like the United Freedom Front and the Aryan Nations, are noted as advancing the FBI's strategy and capacity to investigate domestic terrorism in the United States.

Following Congressional hearings in the mid-1970s, the FBI's capacity for surveillance of domestic terrorist groups was curtailed due to alleged overreach. This rollback on the FBI's ability to gather intelligence allowed the May 19th Communist Organization and the United Freedom Front to conduct terror attack in the late 1970s, which garnered a renewed support for the FBI's ability to gather intelligence about domestic terrorist organizations in order to prevent future attacks.

In 1982, FBI director William H. Webster reported to the Senate Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism that the Justice Department was relaxing rules that allowed the FBI to keep surveillance on domestic terrorist groups, inspired by the actions of the May 19th Communist Organization, as well as the Socialist Workers Party, the Progressive Labor Party, and the May 19th Communist Organization's predecessor group, the Weather Underground Organization. These new guidelines were aimed at repressing domestic terrorist organizations while not curtailing legitimate political protest and dissent.

Francis McNamara, former executive secretary of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, allegedly sought a return to McCarthy-era politics, surveying Americans who were a part of communist or left-wing organizations, and allowing these political views to deem the May 19th Communist Organization a terrorist group following the 1981 robbery of an armored Brinks truck perpetrated by members of the May 19th Communist Organization.