According to a report in The Daily Beast, several organizations speculated to be connected to former Red Guards, such as the Committee to Reconstitute the CPUSA, United Neighborhood Defense Movement, and the dormant Mike Ramos Brigade, continued activity through 2022 before shutting down [3] They received media attention for confrontational protest tactics, conflicts with other left-wing groups, and alleged mistreatment of their members.

The Red Guards first originated in Austin, Texas, when in 2015, communists that were previously participating in an effort to form a communist party based around Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology split, and instead organized into a smaller grouping, known as the Austin Red Guards, whose activities were initially limited to charity and small demonstrations in favor of the LGBTQ+ community, which were commonly done under the slogan "serve the people.

According to former members, some Red Guards went underground rather than dissolving, and later formed the Committee to Reconstitute the Communist Party of the United States of America (CR-CPUSA).

[3] The Red Guards released an extensive description of their political philosophy in a position paper published online in 2016, titled "Condemned to Win!

The Red Guards place a specific reverence for Abimael Guzmán, also known as "Chairman Gonzalo", who led the Shining Path revolutionary organization and waged a protracted guerilla and terrorist campaign in Peru.

[24][25] Since the initial collapse of Red Guards proper in 2019, various statements from former members have circulated online, revealing the internal culture of the organization and the behavior of its leaders.

They describe the structure of the Red Guards as extremely bureaucratic, controlling, and even "cultish", with discipline revolving around leaders' subjective interpretations of members' conduct.

[26] Dissenting members that performed unsatisfactory to this discipline would often be subject to physical and verbal assault, forced sleep deprivation, stalking and isolation, and death threats.