Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade

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The Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, first known as the Attica Brigade and then the Revolutionary Student Brigade, is the youth group of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. Members of the group typically wear T-shirts with a large red star superimposed with the silhouette of a young person raising a rifle. These T-Shirts also include the message, "I was born in the sewer called capitalism but now I'm living for revolution!"

The RCYB's founding conference was held in 1977 and the key speech was given by the chairman of the RCP, USA, Bob Avakian. In recent years the RCYB has tried to form alliances with anarchists and other radicals. These efforts have been met with mixed reactions on the left. [1][2]

The most famous member of the RCYB was Gregory Johnson. During the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, he burned the United States flag to protest the policies of the Reagan administration. Johnson was arrested, convicted, and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In his case, Texas v. Johnson, a five justice majority held that Johnson’s act of flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.