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- Race & Ethnicity - Race is more broadly used to refer to the physical and genetic differences among humans, while ethnicity refers to national and cultural differences and heritage.
- Race Politics - Can also known as "multiculturalism" on the one hand, and "narrow nationalism" on the other. Both of these place race and ethnicity at the center of all political questions. In the end this is a bourgeois form of struggle.
- Racism - In general, this is the ideology of imperialism. In practice, it is a form of oppression used among reactionaries to justify their position of power over colonized people.
- Radical - Of or going to the root or origin; fundamental. Thorough going or extreme - a radical change in society can represent a move towards revolutionary change.
Ramirez, Valentina - A famous soldadera of the Mexican Revolution.
- Ramona, Comandanta - Died January 6, 2006, she was an officer of the EZLN. She was perhaps the most famous female Zapatista figure for her role early in the uprising. A member of the Zapatista leading council, the CCRI-CG (Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee), she served as a symbol of equality and dignity for mujeres and all raza.
- Raw Materials - Material before being processed or manufactured into a final form.
- Raza Internationalism - One of the two ideological foundations of UdB. Raza Internationalism recognizes that our struggle is intrinsically linked, through history and practice, to the movements of oppressed and colonized people throughout Nuestra América, and the world. Our obligation as we strive to build a revolutionary party is to recognize the right of all oppressed people to self-determination and we intend to carry forth the struggle on all fronts to bring about a democratic and socialist unified Indigenous - Raza América. Furthermore, our continent's history parallels and intersects with the experiences of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, burdened by our common experience suffering under conquest, slavery, exploitation, and military intervention, as well as a shared challenge to win freedom. Although our liberation struggle is prioritized, we must still support and commit resources to aid those nations who fight for decolonization, against all forms of foreign aggression, and for the right of non-intervention.
- Reactionary - Different from being a conservative. Refers to any political or social movement, ideology, or individual that seeks a return to a previous state (the status quo as it was before something else). The term originated in the French Revolution, to denote the counter-revolutionaries who wanted to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime.
- Reagan, Ronald - 40th president of the United States. Ronald Reagan's career started as a terrible actor, an anti-communist rat that testified to the HUAC in 1947, two terms as governor of California, two unsuccessful attempts to gain the republican presidential nomination, and finally his election to the presidency in 1980. A far right reactionary, during his presidency he was extremely aggressive in Central America and other parts of the world, and sent in the U.S. military under the banner of fighting communism. Within the US he was known for cutting funding for all social programs, and the beginning of neoliberalism within the U.S.
- Reconquista - The process by which the Catholic Monarchs of Spain expelled the Muslim powers out of what is today Spain. More recently used by right wingers within the U.S. to describe the political principles of Unión del Barrio.
- Reformism - To advocate change to political contradictions slowly, within the current system, to make life more bearable for an oppressed group. Reform is used as goal in political and social struggle. Reformism and reformists generally reject organized revolutionary struggle, and will side with the system when revolutionary struggle reached a high point.
- Regeneración - The name of the newspaper started by Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón while in the PLM. Published from about 1905 to 1915 by the Flores Magón brothers, this paper stood in defense of raza on both sides of the "border".
- Reichstag - The main government building in Germany. It was burned down by Nazi agents in secret, and the blame assigned to communists, and used as a cover by Hitler to win total power in Germany. Today when people refer to the "burning of the Reichstag" they are referring to a trick to divert attention against a perceived enemy in order to advance a hidden agenda, and expand political power in a hidden way.
- Religion - A set of magical, metaphysical beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe. Organized religion has been used over time to advance reactionary political power, oppress billions throughout human history, and concentrate incredible wealth in the hands of a few people. Religion is different than spirituality.
- Reparations - Compensation required from one group to another group between which some form of injustice had been committed. Today some African (Black) organizations advocate for reparations from the U.S. for African enslavement.
- Repression - Politically motivated attacks against a group or nation by another group or nation.
- Republic - A state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.
- Republican Party - This is one of the two main political parties in the United States, and it follows a conservative (sometimes reactionary) political platform. Over history this has mostly represented the interests of people with more money.
- Resistance - To struggle in an organized way to push back against some form of repression.
- Responsibility - To assume that what takes place is within the area of concern of a person or group, and to be held accountable for it.
- Revisionism - In political struggle to revise a truth or reality. Revisionists attempt to write history or interpret political situations in a way that changes the truth or reality. Most bourgeois historians/political scientists and/or some former (ex) revolutionaries are revisionists. The "ex" or former activists redefine the struggle in order to justify why they are no longer involved in struggle, or why they sold out.
- Revolution - Pertaining to or of the nature of a revolution as it means a total change in society. Productive of or characterized by radical change. A revolutionary is a person that works to promote a revolutionary change. A revolutionary government represents the interests of workers and the poor within a nation. A revolutionary party struggles to make revolution. For a revolution to succeed, it requires a revolutionary organization, history has proven that there is no other way.
- Revolutionary Nationalism - One of the two ideological foundations of Unión del Barrio. Revolutionary Nationalism identifies the historical, economic, cultural, political, and numerical reality that the struggle of la raza within Aztlán and within Mexico is primarily based on the struggle of Mexican national liberation. In Aztlán this is historically linked to the Chicano Power Movement as the last period of struggle. Revolutionary Nationalism calls for the revolutionary re-unification of Mexico and Aztlán, this of course rejecting the vendido neocolonial government and political class within Mexico proper. It also calls for the establishment of a socialist society and demands a complete transformation of the social, economic, and political institutions that presently form the basis of our oppression. Ours is a struggle for the total transformation of our lives - from a colonized and dependent people, to a life and future of a truly liberated and sovereign nation in the world community. Revolutionary Nationalism is dialectically linked to Raza Internationalism, the second ideological foundation of UdB.
- Revolutionary Process - A dialectical process through which a revolution is possible over time.
- Rhetoric (Political) - In political struggle this usually refers to people who use big words and big ideas when they talk about revolution, but do nothing more than talk about it, and refuse to do anything for the community. Also know as "arm chair" revolutionaries.
- Rights - Recognized entitlements or privileges given to an individual or group by the state. It should be noted that winning "rights" per se requires recognition by the state, and therefore, regardless of the rhetoric (however radical it may be) a struggle for rights is a reformist struggle. The only way reformist struggles for rights can be undertaken is when they lead to revolutionary struggle, and this can only happen by being accountable to a revolutionary organization with a long term political program and vision.
- Right Wing - Generally refers to hard-core conservatives and religious fanatics. Reactionary, racist, war-mongering, imperialist, money grubbing, and openly full of hate, with right-wingers what you see is what you get, which is not the case with modern "liberalism" and political liberals.
- Roaring 20's - A period in the United States, from 1920 to 1929, marked by rapid changes in the economy, the media, transportation, styles, and behavior. It began in a time of euphoria after WWI and ended with the stock market crash at the end of the decade.
- Roosevelt, Franklin - 1882-1945, 32nd President of the United States. Roosevelt became president in 1933 at the depth of the "Great Depression," was reelected for an unprecedented three more terms, and died in office in in April 1945, less than a month before the surrender of Germany in WWII.
- Romanov Dynasty - The name of a dynasty that ruled Russia from the accession of Mikhail Romanov as Czar Michael in 1613, to the abdication of Nicholas II in 1917 with the first victory of the Russian Revolution.
- Romero, Óscar - .
- Roosevelt Corollary - U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt's 1904 extension of the Monroe Doctrine, within which he declared that the United States had the right to exercise "police powers throughout the Western Hemisphere.
- Ruiz, Raul - Leader from Los Angeles during the Chicano Power period of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Was editor of La Raza Magazine.
- Rural - Characteristic of a country, country life, or country people; rustic, living in the country.
- Russia - .
- Russian Revolution - One of the most important revolutions in human history, the uprising began in Russia in March 1917, in which the Czarist government collapsed and a provisional government was established. Later, the provisional government collapsed, and a government controlled by workers, peasants and soldiers and led by the Bolsheviks under V.I. Lenin took control of Russia.
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