The Unity–Struggle–Unity Editorial Board has decided by a unanimous vote to retract one article by Comrade Serj, titled “Imperialist Mass Shooting Syndrome,” published in the Red Clarion on 26 May 2023. The rationale for this retraction has been expounded upon in a previous Editorial Board statement, addressing a broader report from Comrade Mazal, citing a lack of ideological rigor and imprecise analysis. In response to this criticism, the decision was initially made to pull the article from the upcoming May-June print edition of the Red Clarion, with full retraction to be discussed with Comrade Serj at the next regularly scheduled editorial board meeting. That meeting took place on 3 June 2023, the minutes of which can be found here, and a resolution was made to retract the article, with the full assent of Comrade Serj.
The retraction of this article is intended to be a temporary measure, so the broad issues within the article can be reformulated. The problems with the article extend neither to the specific subject matter of the article — the mass shooting perpetrated by Neo-Nazi, Mauricio Garcia — nor to its general thesis of the dynamics by which fascist violence is reproduced in the U.S. empire. Instead, the issues lay with the muddled presentation of that central concept, the inapt examination of racial dynamics, and the article’s general failure to integrate the Clarion’s broader theoretical throughline in a manner that equips its mass audience for revolutionary mobilization. For these reasons, Comrade Serj has offered to thoroughly rework the article in a way that upholds this mission, both for the sake of their own development as a Communist writer, as well as for the theoretical value the article itself bears for our mass audience. Upon completion of this task, the revised article will be published once more on the Red Clarion website.
