Radical cheerleading

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The Resistin Radicatz, a radical cheerleading group, do a cheer in front of AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington before joining the Million Worker March at the Lincoln Memorial.

Radical cheerleading is a form of cheerleading originating from Florida, but now spread across the United States and to Canada, Europe and beyond. The idea is to use the aesthetics of cheerleading but changing the chants to be promoting feminism and left-wing causes. Many radical cheerleaders (some of whom are male, transgender or non-gender identified) are far in appearance from the stereotypical image of a cheerleader.

Radical cheerleaders often perform at demonstrations. They also often perform at feminist and other radical festivals and events. Radical cheerleading is used at demonstrations to promote a radical message in a media-friendly, people-friendly way. It is also used to support the actions of other activists who are putting themselves at risk, to denounce infiltrators and opponents, and to escalate or de-escalate situations.

One of the most successful radical cheerleading appearances was at the March for Women's Lives in Washington, DC on April 25, 2004. The cheerleaders had their own feeder march and bloc within the larger march with over 2,000 participants. The purpose of this group was to raise awareness about the lack of access low-income women have to abortion despite its legality.

Radical cheerleaders are often anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist. Their cheers are written from scratch or by rewriting the words to popular and historical songs. Radical cheerleaders dress in diverse ways but often wear red and black.

Radical cheerleaders make pom-poms using garbage bags by folding them in half, tying off one side with a rubber band and then cutting strips from the other end.