Communists who burned US flags outside Jason Aldean concert branded as ‘cult,’ ‘pyramid scheme’ by left-wing activists

The communist group that burned American flags outside a Jason Aldean concert in Chicago Saturday night has previously been branded a “cult” and “pyramid scheme” by scores of left-wing organizations and activists.

The Revolutionary Communist Party, also known as RevCom, was denounced by 23 grassroots abortion rights and feminist groups in a scathing 2022 letter pleading with activists to avoid the organization during protests following the overturning of the Roe v. Wade abortion legislation.

“RevCom and its fronts — RiseUp and Refuse Fascism — are notorious for raising tens of thousands of dollars and using those funds to pay RevCom leadership,” the letter read.

The group and its offshoots “essentially function as pyramid schemes that prey on social movements,” it continued, saying the groups’ “only goal appears to be gaining more followers in order to raise more and more money.”

The letter levied a criticism that has dogged RevCom for years, accusing it of being “a cult of personality” around its founder, 80-year-old “new communist” writer Bob Avakian.

“While RevCom fervently denies accusations of being a cult, RevCom’s own website claims the only effective way to achieve social change is to follow Avakian’s leadership and teachings,” the letter read.

As RevCom demonstrators torched flags and shouted “F–k the US and all its might” outside the Aldean concert over the weekend, they also carried signs reading “Watch the Bob Avakian interviews” — a statement that’s omnipresent across the group’s website, demonstrations, and messaging on the internet.

“Bob Avakian is the most important political thinker and leader in the world today,” RevCom’s website writes about its leader.

“Bob Avakian is the architect of a whole new framework of human emancipation, the new synthesis of communism, which is popularly referred to as the ‘new communism,’” the website continues, before reiterating the point again.

“Being a communist today means following Bob Avakian and the new path that he has forged.”

Across RevCom’s social media, it is rare to find a post that doesn’t end with a mention of Avakian’s greatness, and a plea to read or listen to his teachings.

Avakian has been a divisive figure across the American communist landscape since he first came to prominence in the 1960s and ’70s, with critics raising their eyebrows over the cultish following that has cropped up around his teachings — which largely call on his “scientific understanding” that capitalism must be overthrown by millions of people undertaking a global revolution.

“Let’s get down to basics: We need a revolution. Anything else, in the final analysis, is bulls–t. —Bob Avakian, Basics 3:1,” RevCom’s website quotes, including almost biblical verse direction from one of Avakian’s books.

RevCom has denied accusations it is a cult, calling the label “complete and utter nonsense” in a 2014 article which argued anyone who called the Revolutionary Communist Party that must ultimately be under the influence of capitalistic-imperialist propaganda.

The group did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

About 20 members from a Chicago chapter of RevCom gathered outside the Credit Union 1 Amphitheater in Tinley Park during the Aldean concert, taking jabs at his controversial song “Try that in a Small Town,” which took used footage of protesters in big cities in its video, which they called “a piece of fascist s–t.”

“Guess what, Jason? We will try that in a small town,” activist Rafael Kadaris told the Chicago Tribune,

“We will try that in a big city. And we will try it right in front of your concert.”

Aldean’s song has been accused of criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement, glorifying gun violence and being against civil protest, which he has denied. The video for the song was taken out of rotation by the CMT network shortly after its release.

The RevCom protestors finally dispersed following warnings from the police, with no arrests made.