Maoist Rebel News: Not Our Comrade

Statement by the uOttawa Marxist Students' Association

The University of Ottawa Marxist Students' Association unequivocally condemns the recent misogynistic and homophobic outburst of Maoist Rebel News, which can be found in a video he posted to his YouTube channel on March 20, 2013. In said video, Maoist Rebel News defends his use of bigoted language on the basis of 'free speech' and on the basis that so-called 'language police' should not be able to dictate how he acts in his private conversations. He also accuses those that attack the use of such language as hiding behind what he terms the 'feminism shield', and equates them with Nazis. This is unacceptable.

First and foremost, the Marxist Students' Association stands with marginalized groups in their struggles against oppression. This includes struggling against the use of oppressive language, which reinforces the dehumanisation that these groups face on a daily basis. Regardless of whether or not Maoist Rebel News is a homophobe or a misogynist, the language that he uses lets homophobes and misogynists know that their thoughts and actions are OK. Before he disabled the comments on his youtube video the effects of this were fairly obvious; legions of his followers felt empowered to lambast women and LGBTQ*+ people. Furthermore, the use of these words in private is no different; Maoist Rebel News must combat this liberalism towards himself. We feel it is obvious that such activities are unacceptable for someone who has pledged himself to the liberation of humanity.
Given that Maoist Rebel News considers himself to be a Maoist, we make this appeal to him: the Maoist tradition is renowned for the spirit of self-criticism as a means of accounting for past mistakes. We demand that Maoist Rebel News self-criticise for his actions and words and issue a public apology. Only then will be able to again consider him a comrade.

-uOttawa Marxist Students' Association

Whither the Student Movement in Ottawa? (2010)

This article originally appeared in Social Revolution Volume #1, Issue #2, published in the summer of 2010. It was written as response to fractures developing within the student “movement” at the time. The student “movement” has not remained static since the publication; there have been numerous developments (such as: the almost complete degeneration of the social-democrats at Carleton University, the deepening of tensions between radical and reformist trends within the student “movement”, the establishment of the Marxist Students’ Associations at Carleton and uOttawa, and the founding of the Revolutionary Student Movement) that render much this article obsolete. Despite this, the author feels that the article still consists of a decent appraisal of the class forces at work within the student “movement”, and the developments since this was written have served only to reinforce the predicitions and solutions suggested herein.