Venceremos (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

for "We will be victorious") was an American

far-left Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...

and primarily

Chicano Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...

political group active in the

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

area from 1969 to 1973.

History

The organization was founded in 1966 by Aaron Manganiello (a former Brown Beret) as a largely Latino left-wing group; it evolved to an increasingly Maoist/Communist brigade. Katerina Del Valle was its chairperson. In 1971 they were joined by a faction of the

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

organization Revolutionary Union (RU), led by H. Bruce Franklin, a

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

English professor. More whites joined the organization through this period. Franklin was fired in 1972 on charges of violating his commitment to the university by "inciting to riot" in 1971. Venceremos and Franklin favored a

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

strategy based on protracted

urban guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism, ...

warfare. According to Franklin, "... these collectives had been heavily involved in youth organizing within

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

proletarian The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist philo ...

communities, in factory organizing and in

anti-imperialist Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influenc ...

struggles on the campuses. ..The new combined organization was multi-national, extremely diversified in its activities and base, and quite militant." Venceremos publicly advocated armed self-defense by the citizenry, community control of the police, and reform of the prison system. To these ends, the group's members engaged in a number of legal activities, such as working to educate prisoners and defend

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

protesters. The organization's ultimate stated goal was the overthrow of the government. In 1970, Venceremos opened its own

community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

in a Redwood City storefront; it operated for two years until running out of money. The House Committee on Internal Security considered Venceremos a serious political threat, as described in its 202-page report ''America's Maoists: the Revolutionary Union, the Venceremos Organization'' (1972). Venceremos members often participated in City Council and School Board meetings in Palo Alto with a verbal aggressiveness rarely seen before in the city's politics. Member Jeffrey Youdelman was known for offensive shouting down of council members and presenting petitions for radical left causes. Venceremos members ran for local office in Palo Alto, including Jean Hobson and Youdelman who unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 1971 and 1973, respectively. Doug Garrett ran for the School Board. During this period, Venceremos held weekly rallies at Lytton Plaza in Palo Alto, which they dubbed "The People's Plaza." In May 1971, Venceremos's Easter Division drifted away from the center and began organizing through the

United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the National Farm Workers Associatio ...

union. A small group of Venceremos members attempted to free a federal prisoner on October 6, 1972; several members were involved in the murder, which hit the headlines. Member Jean Hobson had been romantically linked to federal prison inmate Ronald Beaty, who was incarcerated at

Chino Prison California Institution for Men (CIM) is a male-only List of California state prisons, state prison located in the city of Chino, California, Chino, San Bernardino County, California. It is often colloquially referenced as "Chino". In turn, locals ...

. She and other Venceremos members made a plan to gain Beaty's escape. According to police and Beaty, who became the prosecution's star witness, two unarmed prison guards were taking Beaty to a court appearance in

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

when their vehicle was ambushed near Chino. Beaty was freed when Venceremos member, 23-year-old Robert Seabok, shot both guards at point blank range, killing Jesus Sanchez and wounding his partner George Fitzgerald. After the police captured Beaty and Hobson nearly a month later, Beaty named Venceremos members Hobson, Seabok, Andrea Holman Burt, and Benton Burt as the perpetrators of the fatal assault on the prison guards. Former professor H. Bruce Franklin, four Venceremos members, and three Arizona residents were arrested in this case in late December 1972. A total of fourteen people were arrested; twelve were charged either with murder or, as was Franklin, with harboring Beaty, classified as a federal fugitive. While charges were dropped against some, the chief perpetrators were tried. Jean Hobson, 19 year-old Andrea Holman Burt, and her husband 31-year-old Douglas Burt were all convicted of

second-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excus ...

in 1973 and 1974. Seabok was convicted of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse ...

and sentenced to life imprisonment. Beaty had become a prosecution witness; he pleaded guilty for being part of Sanchez's death and was sentenced to life as well. By September 1973 Venceremos had officially disbanded. Some members went on to other leftist groups, such as

Joe Remiro Joseph Michael Remiro (born 1947) is an American convicted murderer and one of the founding members of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the early fall of 1973. It was an American leftist terrorist group based in the Bay Area of California. He u ...

, who joined the small

Symbionese Liberation Army The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (commonly referred to simply as the SLA) was a small, American militant far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and wider Am ...

in its early days.

Aftermath

Venceremos disintegrated under the duress of legal troubles, recriminations over the Beaty incident, and general factionalism. By September 1973 it had ceased to function as an organization. Robert Seabok was convicted of

first degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

; while Jean Hobson, Andrea Holman Burt, and Benton Burt were convicted of

second degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse committed with the necessary intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisdiction. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, ...

. In March 1973,

Donald DeFreeze Donald David DeFreeze (November 16, 1943 – May 17, 1974), also known as Cinque Mtume and using the nom de guerre "General Field Marshal Cinque", was an American man involved with the far-left radical group Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and co ...

, a prison inmate who was on somewhat familiar terms with Bay Area radicals through visits from the UC Berkeley Prison Outreach Project, escaped from Soledad Prison and made his way to Oakland. He found shelter with members or associates of Venceremos at the Peking House commune, but commune members were concerned about police surveillance. They moved DeFreeze to a lower-profile location east of the hills in Concord. Calling himself General Field Marshal Cinque, he co-founded the

with Patricia Soltysik, a white woman, and a few mostly white associates he met as a prisoner and member of the

Black Cultural Association The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an African-American inmate group founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the ...

at Vacaville Prison, including former Venceremos members Joe Remiro and Willie Wolfe. The Communist Party USA (Provisional) also traces its origins to the 1973 split within Venceremos.

References

External links

*{{cite web , last=Rettman , first=Tony , title=The Warriors of a Failed Revolution , website=Narratively , date=2020-09-30 , url=https://narratively.com/the-warriors-of-a-failed-revolution/ , access-date=2021-10-24 , ref=none
Venceremos at the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online
Far-left politics in the United States Left-wing militant groups in the United States Defunct Maoist organizations in the United States COINTELPRO targets 1969 establishments in California 1973 disestablishments in California

History

Aftermath

See also

References

External links