revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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military adventurist approach, into political cadres . They realized they
had been wrong previously when they said
that the black youth (black
street force) was the vanguard of the revolution . While much of the RAM
membership was young, the overwhelming majority were workers .
Having mobilized communities, RAM organizers were trying to address
themselves to whose class interests the organization would represent, and
how the organization was going to finance itself .
Toward the end of October, a shoot-out occurred in
the Black Guards
in West Philadelphia . The police used the shoot-out as an excuse to increase
repression against the organization .
Mass arrests took place, while
some RAM members went underground . The RAM national central committee met
in Cleveland, Ohio .
At that meeting, it was decided that the intelligence
apparatus of the U .S . capitalist state was using the word RAM as an excuse
to arrest black people who were not even in the organization . Many members
were under indictment, others in prison and others underground . The
organization had exhausted its contacts for financial support . It was
under attack, infiltrated and full of internal contradictions . There were
different
ideologies and factions in the organization and militarism, the
gun in command, was rampant . A report on the breakthrough in mass organization
in Detroit was given . Discussion centered around saving as many
cadres as possible from the counter-insurgency program being waged by the
government . It was decided to dissolve RAM and that the word RAM would no
longer be projected .
Efforts would be centered on
training second-line leadership for the
Black Liberation Party, and all cadres would focus on DRUM as a model for
mass work . The leadership would concentrate its efforts on building strong
DRUM movements in Detroit .