Leaders & Organization

  1. Leaders of the CR-CPUSA
    1. Jared Roark
    2. Lisa Hogan
    3. Chris Ledesma
    4. Luis Rivas
    5. Liam Swanson
    6. “Micah”/”Gray”
  2. Organizational analysis
    1. Other key terms
  3. Public CR-CPUSA Organizations & Front Groups

Leaders of the CR-CPUSA

While Jared Roark functioned as the charismatic authority on which the cult was based, he was closely matched by an inner circle of leaders who enjoyed almost equal positions of power and control, as part of the cult’s “Politburo,” and who have have not faced any significant repercussions for the harm they caused. What’s more, all of them continue to support the reorganization of the cult. I believe their victims, whose lives were in some cases irrevocably altered by their actions and orders, have a right to know who they are.

Jared Roark

Charismatic leader of the cult, main author and editor of the cult’s blogs and newspapers. AKA “Comrade Dallas,” “Ed Dalton,” “Cathal,” “Kavga,” and on his new website, “A.D. Nachalo.” From Austin.

Lisa Hogan

AKA “Avanti.” Politburo member who co-founded Red Guards Austin with Jared; also his wife.

Chris Ledesma

AKA “Rico,” “Rio,” “David Martinez,” “Enrique.” Politburo member, head editor of Tribune of the People from May 2021 onwards. From Austin.

Luis Rivas

AKA “Facundo Rompehuevos,” “FRH,” “Bonifacio.”
Politburo member and leader of the cult’s other center of influence, Los Angeles.

Liam Swanson

AKA “S. Hausner,” “Connor, “Jeremiah,” Politburo member and a main propagandist, head editor of Struggle Sessions from May 2021 onwards. Originally from Pittsburgh.

Quintin Hatt

AKA “Micah,” “Grey.” Politburo member and Commander of the “Red Army Embryo,” the cult’s military/servant class, he played a key role in designing the cult’s military training and chain of command requirements, developing the official control mechanisms which supported the implicit mechanisms of charismatic and psychological control. From Austin.


Organizational analysis

In this section, I’ll describe the cult’s organizational structure and give an abridged glossary of useful terms.

Hierarchy of power and types of members in the CR-CPUSA. Red = internally organized members. Yellow = public organized. Gray = unorganized supporters.

In the 2010s, a new Maoist movement surfaced in the US and coalesced into various collectives and tendencies. A man named Jared Roark became interested in this movement after bouncing between various identities and niche ideologies as a tattoo artist, militant vegan, straight-edge punk, addict, and drug dealer. In 2014, with the help of his wife Lisa and their friend, he founded an unnamed Maoist collective that would later go on to style itself the “Committee to Reconstitute the Communist Party of the USA” or “CR-CPUSA,” and involve around 200 members at its height.

From the beginning, the organization was founded by Jared, bound by his ideology (following it even as it shifted over the years), and obedient to his leadership. Jared is the defining thread of continuity across the cult’s development, he is the charismatic authority, the “cult leader” proper. (He is also inextricable from the history and spread of Gonzaloism in the US, a topic for further consideration). No matter what form the cult took over the years, it had one consistent organizational feature: Jared.

Initially, from 2014-2019, the cult was organized as a federation of collectives pledging allegiance to Jared’s program, the Red Guards model, and looking to Jared (personally, or through the vehicle of his own collective, Red Guards Austin) for ideological leadership. These were semi-underground Maoist collectives, carrying out propaganda and recruitment through public front organizations.
As a national body, this initial structure was disorganized and poorly controlled, but it was undeniably bound to Jared. Leaders of the Red Guards collectives visited Austin for months at a time for personal training from Jared and his inner circle, or received visits from him where he criticized and supervised their activity directly. This early period was characterized by Jared’s constructing his primary support base and training up devotees who would spread his influence.

Participants in the cult’s training program, “cadre school”, 2017, wearing the red masks with a white PCP-style hammer and sickle characteristic of the Red Guards collectives.

In 2019, the cult dissolved the Red Guards collectives to send its leadership fully underground, taking on the name “CR-CPUSA,” while expanding its public front organizations. It converted its organizational structure from a federation of collectives answering to Jared to a more compact, single national organization answering to Jared. Official organizational leadership fell now to the “Politburo“– a three-person governing body with the Chairman (usually Jared) at the helm. On the few occasions members of the Politburo dared to take a strong stance against Jared’s positions, he would retaliate dramatically and find justification for removing them from their position.

Along with the Politburo, an inner circle of four or five more people maintained positions of influence over the national organization, for example as commander of the military force, “commissar” of this or that, etc. All of the above, I consider the “top leaders” responsible for the perpetuation of the cult. While Jared directed from the helm, this inner circle worked closely beside him in drafting policies and directives, enforcing compliance, and protecting abuse. These are people who, while undoubtedly manipulated and traumatized by Jared in their own way, also rose with him and made substantial contributions to the creation of such a harmful organization. and so bear serious responsibility alongside him, in my opinion. All but one or two have continued helping Jared try to reorganize following the collapse.

Below these top leaders, local leaders oversaw the work in large cities besides the cult’s headquarters of Austin. These, too, had known Jared in the early years, but fell more under the category of devotees than seconds-in-command like the inner circle. They exerted the cult’s control over rank and file below them, and colored the abuse with their particular personal tendencies towards arrogance, lack of empathy, sexism, etc. But they were themselves bound to higher leadership and suffered harsher consequences for mistakes.

Finally, at the bottom levels were rank-and-file members, who belonged to the clandestine side of the organization but had little to no power within it, and front members, who belonged to the cult’s public organizations and had varying degrees of awareness of the hidden leadership directing their work. I also add the category of “supporters” to the cult’s membership, as a contingent who didn’t formally join, but circulated its propaganda online, donated to it, put up graffiti with its slogans, etc. These meet the definition of a cult member in the broadest sense as members of a social movement bound to a charismatic leader and transcendent ideology, but lack the perspective and extent of trauma organized members experienced. Cheerleaders are to MAGA people as organized members are to Patriot Front– in the right conditions they might be mobilized to storm the capitol, but they don’t train for it weekly under threat of disciplinary action. I also differentiate “managers” –rank and file members or front members who took on “leadership” positions in the cult’s front groups, from leadership proper. Managers were just fronts for the cult’s true leaders and had little to no real influence.

A community fighting for justice convinced by cult members among them to pose holding up Tribune articles about their struggle — As it evolved, the CR-CPUSA became more adept at co-opting and influencing progressive movements, stealing credit for the genuinely good work of rank-and-file or unaffiliated activists.

Due to the lack of information published on the cult so far, some mistakenly assume the cult stood independent of Jared and that he was only a predominant leader among many. While some of the collectives outside Austin were founded independent of Jared, they all merged into the cult under his control; and while there were other top leaders commensurate with Jared in official authority, only Jared had the charismatic authority demanding special veneration, exerting ultimate control, and answerable to no higher body (on the rare occasion he did not hold the official top leadership position of Chairman, and top leadership opposed his wishes, he simply deposed and punished them). Those that think the cult could have gone on to be a successful political organization if Jared and the inner circle had been deposed base this judgement on a lack of understanding the history of the cult and the false premise that it was ever a legitimate revolutionary organization to begin with.

Jared Roark (left) burns a flag with an unaffiliated protester – fearlessly radical and spectacular actions in the early years earned Jared clout and authority.

Other key terms


Internal organization / Internal members – What one might think of as the “cult proper.” The clandestine side of the cult, whose members are bound by the highest level of control

External organization / External members– The external side of the cult, including members in the cult’s front organizations who are unaware, or aware but not involved, in the cult’s internal organization and control.

Party Embryo (PE) – [Term the cult used] Top and local leaders in the internal organization, with at least some access to internal directives guiding the organization and some democratic (increasingly less so for local leaders post 2020) rights and say over direction of the organization. Party members were referred to as “cadres” or “militants” internally. Came into being with reorganization as the CR-CPUSA.

Red Army Embryo (RAE) – [Term the cult used] Essentially a servant class within the internal leadership, with no democratic rights but bound to carry out its directives. Could be found in public positions in front organizations and/or serving leadership privately, for example doing childcare for Jared and Lisa, running errands and delivering messages across the country, or serving as cooking, cleaning, or security for events. RAE members were referred to as “combatants” internally. Came into being with the reorganization as the CR-CPUSA.

Front organizations – What the cult called “mass organizations” or “Party Embryo Generated Organisms” (PEGOs), these were a variety of groups from overtly linked to the cult/its ideology like its newspapers and Serve the People charity-style service work to those whose connection to the cult was intentionally obscured so as to attract the widest audience and members possible, as in attaching itself to worker, tenant, and Black struggles.

This diagram and terms depict the hierarchy of control in the CR-CPUSA. These are my invention in order to clarify how the cult worked and what level of power and influence a member had when I talk about them in the Timeline below and in my research. They are not terms the cult used for itself, unless otherwise specified. These distinctions are not perfect, but they are my best approximation.

Public CR-CPUSA Organizations & Front Groups

This is a handy list of names of known organizations that carried out the cult’s work, with links where available. More information about the functions of these different organizations can be found in the history of the CR-CPUSA, or elaborated in further posts.

Red Guards Period

CR-CPUSA and beyond

  • The cult also infiltrated non-cult organizations to recruit people out of them and into its own, usually Tribune. For example, the Maoist Discord, Six Heads Study Circle, was the site of recruiting to broader Tribune of the People’s reach in 2021, with an implanted cult member successfully encouraging several people to join Tribune.
  • Following the collapse of the cult, Jared started a new online newspaper called “the Worker” with his handful of remaining followers, posting under the name “A.D. Nachalo”

Red Guards Austin, May 16, 2017

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