“Revolutionary ideas and spirit demand revolutionary artistry, not mediocrity and sycophancy. Revolutionary art is about what is coming into being. Therefore, it is innovative, not imitative or mimicking fads.” – Fred Houn

bit of a bible here.

This is not an easy book to review, as it heaves with such a wealth of brilliance, across an expansive array of dimensions.

I could run with any of them, & easily draw the review into an essay or dissertation format (its totally worthy of such treatment), but ain’t got the time, so will just rake with machine-gun spray.

I’ve become a little transfixed – & somewhat of a collector – of scribe on “yellow power” history. I don’t know why the marginalization & muting of “the movement” & certain experiences & perspectives within it seems to be so successful (another essay required)? or why there seems to be such a disinterest – or even fear – of the community to investigate & celebrate its own rich history in activism & radical culture, but it remains a muzzled, obscured, & seldom surfacing subject.

Converse to the mild-mannered “model citizen” integrationist, Asian American’s had a very significant involvement in what we might reductively dragnet as “counter culture”.

As this book attempts to collate the varied voices of this wide-ranging orbit against the “very insular and conservative, representing merchant interests” of the then Asian establishment outlets & narrative, the contributors to this book are drawn from Asian street youth

Maoist, Leninist, Trotskyist, Socialist, anti-capitalist, urban guerrilla, “radical revolutionary” activist, & radical artistic stock.

And what a startling cast & body of subjects that are marshalled here, comprising thesis & interviews.

This is an amazing tranche of testimony & hidden history, straight form the horses mouths/pens.

Its really important work, & having it committed & preserved in writing is a major success.

It’s worth relating the parables to scholar & writer Karen Ishizuka’s excellent Serve the People – Making Asian America in the Long Sixties, although Legacy has a far more radical leaning.

Just a few names from the contributors (there is about thirty in all) include Fred Ho (also sometimes spelt as Houn), Peggy Choy, Yuri Kochiyama, Merle Woo, Moritsugu Nishida, Steve Yip, & even the controversial/disgraced Richard Aoki (Aoki was a prominent Asian Black Panther member that was outed as a fed by journalist Seth Rosenfeld in Subversives-the FBI’s War on Student Radicals & Reagan’s Rise to Power which we reviewed yonks back).

the groups & organisations are highly numerous, but just a few from the medley include ~ I Wor Kuen, Asian Revolutionary Circle, Asian Left Forum, API Force (Asians and Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment), Yellow Brotherhood,

“beyond historical documentation, I want to provide lessons and summations to be used by radical activists today.” – Fred Ho

& that admirable ambition has definitely been fulfilled here.

besides the specific cultural field of interest, there is also all the education & insight into class struggle, community politics, & the corruption, subversion & co-option of radical art/activism/movements by opposing actors or compromised internal elements.

And you know how much this sector/experience defines my own field & war path (heh!).

The “radical” & “avant-garde” arts are probably more prostituted & pliable now than they ever have been before, a contemporary nadir I can write reams about & fulminate on until the crows blot the sky.

But reading the detailed conclusions & experiences of these fellow strugglers from a different era was an extremely poignant correlation & concurrence for me.

Here are just a few of the observations, criticisms & chide from some of the characters involved that would easily fit the current shit-sty –

“This anthology has also given a platform to militant, radical artistic and literary expressions and viewpoints generally by the preponderance of mainstream/assimilationist-orientated cultural publications and literary collections.”

“We were seduced by the power of the gatekeepers.”.

“We liquidated, i.e, gave up, Marxism, Socialism and revolution, because of our own deterioration, seduced and subsumed into electoral politics and mainstream acceptance, and the careerism of a handful of charismatic leaders who decided to bail out for corporate and academic careers who had to justify themselves by getting most of the organisation to turn against its own history. How could this happen to so many people with decades of history as revolutionaries? Why didn’t it happen to some? – Fred Houn

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. Do you have any idea on the accuracy of these words/accusations?

“A dangerous outgrowth of this trend is the formation of the so-called “Women’s Leadership Initiatives” funded by corporate and right-wing entities such as Philip Morris and Coors. Ostensibly formed to train women of colour for leadership roles, the agenda is one that rewards abject assimilation into the dominant society and the abandonment of one’s ethnic culture.” – Marge Taniwaki from the chapter Yellow Peril and Yellow Power

“In both Women Studies as in the women’s movement, and in Asian American Studies or the Asian American Movement, there is the establishment. Just like bureaucrats, they skim the cream off the top and keep the goodies for themselves. They live off our collective oppression. They sit on the grand boards. They control the monies and the funding. They’re put in control of the directions of departments and movements. Their job is to keep a lid on rebellion.” – Merle Woo, from the chapter Three Decades of Class Struggle on Campus

sections of this book, spots of critique & deconstruction from the numerous authors, really nail the insidious adversary & enemy that “the Great Cancer”, the establishment, the machine – & the sell out or imposter class – constitute, in all their destructive & disempowering leeching & lowering.

Its so accurate, & the feeling imbued when reading it being so clearly identified & described by others is powerful, & strangely encouraging.

This is also where the book’s contents becomes so potent & extrapolative to other cultures & struggles.

Today’s enhanced division & ebulition of online exacerbation, stoked in part by artificially engineered & amplified “identity politics” are also at play here (but less so as the cursed internet & communications technology was not yet developed, & had not mutated & warped “the common mind” with such ubiquity), & there is a lot to learn from the ravages of COINTELPRO, which affected many of the authors personal efforts & associated movements.

“political divisions” & internecine inflammation, often antagonised by insistent & over-driven individualist ideologies, become an extreme hazard & force of disunity, usurping the common good & core -”all-benefitting”- objectives.

“The Man” knows this also & can then install or foment “infighting”, & rupture, to destroy or frustrate progress & effective resistance.

Japanese American hood turned “radical activist” – Moritsugu “Mo” Nishida puts the problem & anecdote perfectly:

“ – they start really pushing the study of Marx, Engles, Lennin and that kind of stuff. Talking about we got the solution, that the other’s didn’t have it, we got it. We didn’t have anywhere to go with the Panthers and none of us had enough sense to go deeper into Mao.That’s when the CWC started a study group to study the classics. I didn’t join right away. I had gotten some criticism ealrier about being a male chauvinist and elitist and all. I said “Fuck it. I don’t need to be part of most of this stuff. I’ll just go along and be a soldier.” – Moritsugu “Mo” Nishida (as interviewed by Fred Ho)

Practice your individualism, & defend the right to exorcise it on your own terms, but don’t let it fuck with others & the cooperative unity/grand objective.

Another incredible contributor is Peggy Myo-Young Choy, a Korean American/Hawaiian dancer, choreographer & activist of distinction.

She supplies a few chapters, including an astonishing one on Hawaiian resistance culture titled Return the Islands Back to the People – A Legacy of Struggle and Resistance in Ka Pae ‘aina

don’t have the time to dissect it right now, but its superb. Her next submission to the book –

Dancing Outside the American Dream – History and Politics of Asian Dance in America – is also a riveting & eye-opening instalment.

Then there is Richard Aoki, the once celebrated Asian American Black Panther “field marshal” who was actually an undercover working in conjunction with the FBI.

& its disturbing, as the spiel from him in his chapter is good. The question is, was he compromised & “turned”? Or did he start out as a willing informant/agent provocateur working for the FBI?

Legacy to Liberation is a treasure trove.

and very, very importantly, here within are many genuinely “radical” & authentic voices (Richard Aoki being tarred & conflicting exception) … this isn’t soft & pacified shit, punches are definitely not pulled, the language & terms are bold & unbowed. Hence it was Fred Houn’s Big Red Media imprint combined with AK Press that published the work.

& honestly, its only really become more precious over time, & possesses a strikingly salient & utility for the current clamour.

Also merely from the perspective of art integrity, & the kind of keen & sleepless vigilance that needs to be exercised to prevent adulteration, dereliction or expiry.

Having such a broad concentration of Asian American voices & viewpoints – Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Hawaiian – is another triumph of solidarity & shared unity.

Exceptionally inspiring, vital, & of tremendous importance & growing relevance.

Various (edited by Fred Ho), 2000, Big Red Media & AK Press, 417 pages.