In memory of older Third Worldists
In memory of older Third Worldists
Shubel Morgan the GOAT
Recently that ‘Fine, Fine Hate Amerikkka Beat’ has been going around Twitter. It’s interesting to see this classic meme reintroduced to a completely new audience that knows nothing about its history. The music video has aged incredibly well, both aesthetically and politically. Its creator Shubel Morgan was a brilliant satirist and deeply committed member of the movement. He belonged to a tiny Maoist-Third Worldist group called Leading Light Communist Organization (LLCO), founded by Prairie Fire, which originally emerged as a splinter of Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), founded by Henry Park. These two organizations (or more accurately, sects) were the only representatives of Third Worldism in the Anglophone Left during the 1990s and 2000s. Shubel was perhaps the most media-savvy member of either group, but both were quite clever when it came to media, especially the then-new internet. Over the years, across scattered writings and unwritten conversations, a good idea of these stories have emerged. I am writing this sketch in honor of these people and their organizations. For better and worse, they played a major role in crafting modern far-left internet culture.
Shubel Morgan
As far as I know, Shubel Morgan’s biography has not been written anywhere. He lived a secretive and dramatic life, some details of which were transmitted to me by a former MIM member, and which I am now publishing for the first time. Shubel was a white student activist at Harvard University during the 90s. At some point, one of his friends, a MIM member, gave him a copy of Settlers by J. Sakai. This apparently changed his entire worldview and gave him a completely new perspective on politics. He soon joined MIM and got to work, though the nature of Shubel’s early activities are mostly unknown. It is likely he partook in MIM’s prisoner solidarity work, as this was a major component of MIM–indeed, it’s the only surviving contingent, called MIM Prisons. The difficulty in tracking Shubel’s activities is due to the membership’s general anonymity. MIM members were known only as ‘MC[#],’ an abbreviation of ‘MIM Comrade,’ followed by a number, which usually (but not always) designated the order in which the member had joined the group. In some cases, these numbers seemed to be purely random. For example, the founder Henry Park was known as MC3, but more on him further below.
At some point, Shubel took on the name ‘Shubel Morgan,’ an alias originally belonged to John Brown during his militancy in Bleeding Kansas. This alias was a twin reference to Shubel’s favorite American revolutionist and to his own white identity. By the early 2000s, Shubel became MIM’s main media person, making a number of memes. He soon focused on videos, most of which have been immortalized on the Shubel Morgan YouTube channel. His unmitigated hatred of the United States and of Americans was unsurprisingly shocking to most other left groups, much to his and MIM’s (then LLCO’s) delight. Shubel spent several years in this capacity, making several quite phenomenal videos, before becoming disillusioned. He apparently felt that he was wasting his time and effort by essentially larping as a revolutionary–he wanted the real thing. Shubel left the US for Latin America to kill imperialists. Here, the story becomes unclear. By one account, he went to Mexico to join either the Zapatistas or the Cartel. I’m skeptical of the latter idea, but it’s humorous and Shubel was certainly a kooky guy. By another account, he went to Colombia to join either FARC or ELN. Whatever the case, Shubel was killed in combat while fighting government forces during the late 2000s, perhaps the very early 2010s.
Henry Park
Born in 1962, Henry Park’s early politics were influenced by the New Left, then the New Communist Movement during the 1980s, when he studied at Harvard University. In 1980, in his freshman year, Park formed ‘GUERRILLA,’ a dramatically named group dedicated to protesting limited library hours. Then in 1982, he and some other student activists formed the Radical Academics, or RADACADS. The group’s earliest activities seem to have been student political development. In September 1982, the Harvard Crimson reported:
Harvard undergraduates have received unsolicited suggestions this term on which classes to select thanks to a self styled group of radical Leftist students who are distributing a list of recommended courses.
The list compiled by a group called the Harvard Radcliffe Radical Academics (H-R RADACADS), includes 22 courses which according to members of the organization teach "materials that is about radical change or analysis."
Henry Park '84, the president and founder of RADACADS, said the list recently available at dinning halls, libraries and at registration is necessary because Harvard students "are bombarded each semester with courses with explicitly conservative new points."1
The RADACADS soon became an anti-apartheid and prisoners’ solidarity group. Its open far-left views quickly drew the ire of the Harvard administration. On May Day of 1983, the RADACADS put up an International Workers’ Day banner, which the administration confiscated without compensation (the banner was worth $500). Later that summer, Park wrote to the Harvard Crimson to voice his displeasure.2 By the late 1980s, the RADACADS turned into the Maoist Internationalist Movement, or MIM. This group emerged from the New Left tradition instead of the Communist Party anti-revisionist one, like other Maoist organizations of the time. MIM’s politics were mostly boilerplate Maoism, with the unique feature of intransigent Third Worldism, based on Lenin’s theory investment imperialism. In later years, Park confirmed that he was MC3, or MIM Comrade 3, one of the group’s main writers in its MIM Notes newsletter and MIM Theory journal. This is unsurprising as Park was a serious (though flawed) scholar, having written a comparative analysis of Dengist China and NEP Soviet Union in 1986.3 Park later became a statistical consultant4 but continued his work in MIM for roughly two decades, leading the organization through the 90s and early 2000s, a time surely difficult for any sincere communist.
At some point, Park went public to clear his name from a number of allegations, seemingly pertaining to sexual harassment, but the details are still unclear. A former MIM member told me that Park had come under intense government harassment, which other writings have also alleged. In these years, Park experienced a mental breakdown and suffered from mental illness, especially paranoia, as seen in his final writings, which are unnerving to read. He often claimed that ‘attackers’ were trying to ‘lynch’ him for inscrutable reasons:
Rev. Wright “is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with,” said Barack Obama campaigning for president via trafficking in lynching. So came one of the payoffs for a lynching 20 years ago. The lynching ended up used not just 20 years ago, but again now as part of infiltration tactics and the creation of an appearance of scandal between me and my lyncher’s alleged uncle, and also my lyncher’s father.
A racist lynching for political career purposes took place — involving me, Henry Park. The federal government knew a false accusation was at its core no later than 2002, but it did not prosecute a criminal conspiracy against civil rights.
My cowardly attackers have spied on me and conspired against me for 20 years now. They attempt to discredit me by going on the offensive to make up more stories on me including connecting me to terrorism. They do so anonymously, now especially for the benefit of career and Obama’s political fortunes. These attacks have all come outside formal procedures, and that is especially important to Asian-Amerikans who have less familiarity with English, including literary symbolism and ole’ boys’ language.5
It’s possible that he really did harass someone, but the story seems very COINTELPRO-esque to me. Park was clearly not well and his decline was disturbingly sudden. In 2023, someone issued a FOIA request on Park’s file but nothing turned up. The government claimed there were no documents on him.6 I suspect this was a lie. By all accounts, Park was being harassed by law enforcement, but the story is very murky. On 17 May, 2011, Henry Park died of aortic rupture in Somerville, Massachusetts.
MIM
Henry Park’s story is inextricably linked with that of MIM, which he founded and led for roughly 20 years. As stated above, MIM was Maoist-Third Worldist. Its Maoism was extremely orthodox (in the NCM anti-revisionist sense), but its Third Worldism was highly unusual. Few organizations or figures held such a harsh line about the First World. Naturally, this made it the center of many debates, most of which are still repeated in some form with little meaningful difference from 30 years ago. MIM argued with seemingly every Marxist organization or figure active at the time. They especially hated RCP-USA, which they considered to be total rightist scum. Many of these debates took place online, either on forums or over email. One such feud was over RCP’s quite misogynist and queerphobic politics. In this respect, MIM was very advanced for its time, sometimes to the point of Tumblr-esque parody. The group routinely ridiculed RCP’s position, in addition to the usual Third Worldist polemics. The beef was deep despite its total irrelevance to whatever existed of the American left at the time. At times, it became physically violent. During the run-up to the Iraq War, RCP and MIM both held anti-war protests. At one, RCP members held up posters, allegedly saying ‘Say no to war, Say no to Islam, Defend gay rights.’ There is no record of this protest, but given RCP’s general stupidity and chauvinism, I believe it. Given RCP’s long-held homophobia, the hypocrisy naturally enraged MIM, which spent several months lambasting its rival, especially online. This played a role in tarring RCP’s reputation among a new generation of left-wing activists.
As alluded to above, MIM stood out due to its very online presence. This was to its credit. Alongside the late Louis Proyect, MIM played a massive role in pioneering left-wing internet circles. Even now, modern left internet subculture, especially the ‘anti-imperialist’ side, is quite influenced by MIM. FuknSlammer’s famous meme style is heavily based on MIM and LLCO memes, such as ‘Unlimited Genocide on the First World,’ which was first made in the mid- or late 2000s. Some of these still circulate, though sharers and viewers alike mistakenly believe the images to be recent, which speaks to their staying power. Despite MIM miniscule size (never more than 100 members), its cultural footprint is oddly wide. For example, it made a music video for ‘Rebel Girl’ by Bikini Kill, a hardcore punk band from the 90s.7 More impressively, in 2007, MIM’s website had at least 100,000 monthly readers, making it the second most trafficked communist website after People’s Daily in China. Half of its audience were Anglophone (likely entirely American) while the other half were not, representing various nations.8
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of MIM was its operational security, as even now, the only publicly identified member is Henry Park. The rest remain anonymous. This is due to MIM’s semi-underground existence. For all its goofy polemics and aesthetics, MIM genuinely cared about its anti-apartheid, then prisoners’ solidarity work. The membership went to great pains to protect themselves from repression, a wise choice. By the mid-2000s, MIM was slowly unraveling due to flagging recruitment and squabbles in the leadership. This was around the same time that Henry Park came under fire and began losing his mind. MIM eventually disbanded, with the remaining members forming MIM Prisons to continue their prisoners’ solidarity efforts. This organization still exists, though it is quite small. Its main activities are running the Under Lock & Key newsletter,9 in which most articles are written by prisoners, providing charity for those inside, and prisoners’ political education. It also hosts an extensive archive of MIM’s media.10
Prairie Fire and LLCO
Like MIM Prisons, Leading Light Communist Organization (LLCO) emerged from the disbandment of MIM proper. Its leader was Brennen Ryan, better known as Prairie Fire (named after the Weather Underground’s journal), who had originally belonged to RCP-USA but joined MIM. The latter’s influence on LLCO was immediately obvious. Both organizations shared a similar Third Worldist orientation and analysis. Aesthetically, both were almost identical, which is unsurprising as Shubel Morgan belonged to both organizations, bringing his signature style from the one to the other. LLCO also shared MIM’s immense self-confidence/arrogance, eventually veering into sheer delusion. The group later abandoned the ‘Maoist-Third Worldist’ label in favor of ‘Leading Light Communism,’ which it claimed was a completely new stage in Marxism (it wasn’t). This was due to its cult of personality around Prairie Fire, in sharp contrast to MIM, which prided itself on its vigilance of potential personality cults. Prairie Fire was always an unstable and volatile personality, suffering from a long-time drug addiction and general kookiness. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to prison, where he once again got to work. From prison, he went online to inform his comrades on the outside of his successes in prison organizing. Humorously, Prairie Fire claimed to have ‘formed a left-wing layer in the Aryan Brotherhood,’11 one of the biggest neo-Nazi organizations in the US. He seemed to have taken Shubel Morgan’s description of First World Marxists as an aspiration: ‘klownish white nationalists!’ In 2019, Brennen Ryan’s aka Prairie Fire’s story came to an end, when he died of a heroin overdose.
“Leftist Students Offers Hints On Choosing Term's Courses,” Harvard Crimson, 30 September, 1982. Link: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1982/9/30/leftist-students-offers-hints-on-choosing/
“Banner Stolen?,” Harvard Crimson, 9 August, 1983. Link: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1983/8/9/banner-stolen-to-the-editors-of/
Henry Park, “Postrevolutionary China and the Soviet NEP,” Research in Political Economy 9 (1986). Link: https://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/books/sovietNEPvChina-ParkH.pdf
The stereotype of Third Worldists being white is false, but the stereotype of them being well-off parasites is true. The present writer is one such case.
Full issues can be found at: https://www.prisoncensorship.info/ulk
This would be a good name for the DSA.
i salute Shubel Morgan 🫡