By Sam Farfan
Following the demonstration held in front of the University Bookstore, several members of Revolution Club L.A. were prohibited from entering campus for seven days after violating school guidelines, University Police say.
Members of the Revolution Club L.A., also known as Revcoms, held a rally at noon on Thursday, Oct. 27 at the Free Speech Lawn in hopes of gathering and engaging students in the message of Revolutionary Communist Party, USA’s leader Bob Avakian.
After several attempts to interfere with the gathering, CSULB faculty members contacted Student Affairs to monitor the situation after the group began to yell profane language into their microphone and refused to turn off their speaker.
University police officials were then contacted to remove the group as the amplified sound from the organization’s microphone was a violation of California Penal Code Section 626.6, CSULB’s “Time, Place, and Manner” policy and CSULB Campus Regulations.
University Police Department’s Chief of Police John Brockie clarifies that these codes allow for demonstrations to occur on school grounds under the condition that no sound amplification is utilized. These codes are established to prevent a disruption of university activities and environment.
“Any group can come on campus. As a police department, we don’t determine politics or views. We look at First Amendment rights and campus regulations, and we’re here to ensure that all groups have that ability to exercise their [rights] within the regulations,” Brockie said.
However, they were not detained until after the group moved from the Free Speech Lawn to the Latinx Resource center in the FO-4 building in an attempt to confront members of La F.U.E.R.Z.A..
Tensions between the groups started after La F.U.E.R.Z.A warned students to steer clear from the Revcoms’ demonstrations in the past.
The escalation of the situation prompted faculty members to call UPD officials for the last time before the members of the Revolution Club L.A. were given the seven-day ban.
However, Revcom member and spokesperson Michelle Xai argues that the police officials had not made it clear why they were being banned.
“They told us that if we didn’t give them our information, we were going to get arrested because we were being banned. They didn’t tell us it was because we had amplified sound,” Xai said. “It seems like they keep changing their story to justify the ban when it comes down to trying to stop [our] message from getting out.”
Although they have previously hosted demonstrations at other college campuses in the Los Angeles area like UCLA and Cal State LA, Revcom members had not been banned from any campus prior to their gathering at Cal State Long Beach.
California Penal Code Section 626.6 only allows for a seven-day ban to be placed on any group. However, if said group were to re-enter campus grounds while the ban is still in place, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor and could be banned permanently from the institution.
Following the ban, members of Revolution Club L.A. returned to campus on Thursday to screen an episode of Bob Avakian’s three-part interview series, “Heart and Soul & Hard-Core for Revolution” on the pathway in front of the Free Speech Lawn.
They also continued to promote Avakian’s revolutionary-driven leadership and anti-capitalist principles in hopes to spark a collective discussion amongst students regarding the content of the interview series.
Members of Revolution Club L.A. plan to return to campus for future screenings of unreleased interviews of Avakian while further challenging institutional discrimination through campus demonstrations.
