The Forum

For a brief period of time on Thursday, March 13, two of The Forum’s newspaper racks were home to a handful of copies of The Communist: the official party newspaper published by the Revolutionary Communists of America (RCA).

I had finished placing copies of that month’s issue of The Forum on the 17 news racks that we stocked across campus around noon that day. One of our staff members, Brenen, went to get some of our new copies from the only rack we keep in the Arts and Communications building around four hours later; that’s when he noticed the odd sight of red-branded communist newspapers sitting atop our own in one of our characteristic blue racks. At 4:20 p.m. on the dot, he messaged the rest of The Forum’s staff what he had found, and sensing that the event could be an interesting story and wanting to ensure that our newspapers weren’t being covered, I rushed back to campus.

The Revolutionary Communists of America are a relatively underground far-left political organization that self-describes as “a party of class fighters committed to the complete overthrow of capitalism.” They’re a member of the Revolutionary Communist International—formerly the International Marxist Tendency—and have an active chapter in St. Louis that commonly works with other organizations of the region’s left-wing including the St. Louis chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). 

When I arrived on campus, I found Brenen and briefly examined the two copies of The Communist that he had found. They had striking graphic design and highly robust news coverage spread across 16 pages of newsprint. The cover article was about the Luigi Mangione case, the banner headline reading, in bold, all capital letters, “CEO ASSASINATION BRINGS OUT CLASS ANGER IN THE U.S.” Below that, I saw the paper’s lead photo, a still frame from security camera footage of the deadly shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by a hooded figure, joined by a photo of suspect Luigi Mangione and a large pull quote, again in all capital letters: “DENY, DEFEND, DEPOSE.”

Quickly, I went to the Arts and Communications office to see if anyone there knew anything. The office is directly across a small hallway from our newspaper rack there, and the office’s large windows into the hall makes the rack visible from the often-busy lobby. Asking around, and spreading the entertaining news to faculty and staff in the office, a faculty member peered out of his office and told me that he had seen two unfamiliar people place the newspapers on our rack.

The faculty witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the two people as a tall, well-dressed young man with white skin and a much shorter dark-skinned young woman, neither of whom he recognized as students. He said they entered the Arts and Communications building and seemed uneasy and skittish, so he approached them and asked if they needed any help. According to the faculty member, they did not respond and quickly walked away, leaving behind small red stickers promoting the RCA on a bulletin board near an entrance before leaving the building, followed by the curious faculty witness.

He offered me one of the stickers, which he had torn off the bulletin board shortly after the young communists left. It bore an image of Karl Marx photoshopped to be pointing to the reader like an old Uncle Sam recruitment poster. I’d seen a larger version of this exact sticker before on an electric box off of Howdershell near my home in Hazelwood, but it was torn down within a few days; only stubborn, faded bits of it near the corners remain now. I temporarily stuck it onto my purse for safekeeping, and when I got home, I put it on my bedroom wall as a memento of the Communist Kerfuffle of 2025, which I suppose you could call it.

I had already checked for more communist newspapers in the Communications building, and after hearing the story of our anonymous faculty witness, I was pretty sure that we would only find a few more copies if we found any at all, but I checked several of The Forum’s newspaper racks to be sure. We found a total of four copies of The Communist: the original two placed on the news rack in the Arts and Communications building and another two placed on one of the two Forum racks in the Social Sciences building.

The four papers were removed from the Forum’s newspaper racks and distributed among interested students and staff. Brenen had already taken the first one to gawk at with other art students. A photography professor took one because she was interested in using it in a future art project, utilizing its eye-catching graphics, particularly the back-page spread. After I found the additional two papers, I gave one to a secretary in the Arts and Communications office who was very intrigued by The Communist and the whole ordeal; I took the last one for myself—another memento.

The following day, at around noon again, I found the Instagram page of the St. Louis RCA chapter. It invited anyone interested in the group to DM them on their page, so I reached out on my personal account, explained the situation and who I am, and asked them for any information that they’d be willing to share for an article. Within two hours they had blocked both my personal Instagram page as well as the official page of The Forum.

I found this odd. I wasn’t upset with them; I just wanted to speak with them. In fact, I was excited to see such an interesting publication appear on our campus. We don’t really get communist newspapers here, nor does STLCC have a particularly virile student activist scene, so it was a pleasant surprise. The only problem was that the copies of The Communist were covering new stacks of The Forum in The Forum’s own, branded newspaper racks. I have to remove other pamphlets and such from our racks regularly when distributing the paper, and this leftist publication was no different. However, as I was prepared to tell them, if they wanted to reach Flo Valley students through our news racks, they just needed to send us a letter to the editor, and I would happily consider it for publication. In case our young wayward communists are reading this article, I’d like to note that this offer still stands—under the condition, of course, that you talk to us and avoid using our racks in the future.