An interesting discussion on Twitter between Tom Ricks and Daniel Rogers, about MLK, Malcolm X, self defence and nonviolence.
Just to clarify, since I regularly get accused of promoting political violence:
1) I do not advocate for violence against the state, and never have.
For the simple reason that it does not work. Unless you’re willing to ramp it up to full civil war scale, shooting one cop is useless. For that sort of tactic to work, you have to be willing to shoot all the cops, in which case you’ll have to shoot the army as well.
The government has a massively greater capacity for violence than the civilian population. Armed insurrection is a last-ditch desperation tactic that almost always fails, and inevitably carries a great cost. Don’t do it.
2) I do not see anything wrong with violent self-defence against fascism.
The march on Charlottesville was an assault. Antifa were justified in forcefully resisting the invading fascists.
Despite that, it is notable from the eyewitness reports that most of the antifa violence was in direct opposition to acute danger faced by the peaceful protestors. The fascists had no hesitation in beating up non-resisting pacifists, but the antifa crowd repeatedly stepped in to disperse their assaults.
They acted as a largely defensive and reactive force, didn’t kill anyone, and caused minimal injuries and property damage. Most of the fights were broken up with pepper spray. The antifa didn’t shoot or knife anybody, or even beat anyone severely. If the attackers withdrew or surrendered, the antifa let them go.
As Mark Bray says, if you are planning to confront fascists, there is a good chance that the fascists will employ violence against you. Given that fact, is it better to go to that confrontation prepared to defend yourself, or not?
Many of the peaceful protestors from Charlottesville report that, in their view, antifa defended them from severe danger.
NYPD staying true to form:
Good lord…
Steve Bannon’s climate change thriller.
Plot summary: Val Kilmer’s scenery-chewing mad scientist, determined to force a newspaper to publish his article arguing for the obviously-false reality of global warming, locks half a dozen people in a sauna and gradually increases the heat in order to use them as symbolic hostages.
Just coincidentally, this obliges the attractive actors to progressively strip down as the movie continues.
Working class kids, mostly of colour, imprisoned, enslaved and disenfranchised.
According to Rumsfeld, troop surges work! Blech.
If an NFL player’s strike occurs…
Well, celebrate or mourn, according to preference.
Chapo does the '90’s.
Just to assure y’all that things are fucked down here as well:
American politics always bleeds over into Australia. Our local fascists are waking up.
The Democratic Party is dead and buried as a locus of resistance to Trump. They had one last chance, and they blew it. They have done nothing.
So: who are the new American left?
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Black Lives Matter. Best-organised and best-prepared. BLM have the leading voice in this, or else. May or may not come to include half of the NFL.
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Democratic Socialists of America. Working hard at the grassroots, trying to build alliance with BLM, getting good media penetration via Chapo.
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Antifa. Undercover by nature, so they can’t do much via public debate. Absolutely fucking essential in what they do, though.
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Redneck Revolt. The most overtly ideological of the white self defence organisations. Less militant groups like the Pink Pistols are sure to be gearing up as well.
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? I’m not sure who the most prominent self-defence organisers are in the PoC communities. I expect they’ll start drawing media attention soon, though.
Who else?
Trump is planning to loot Afghanistan’s minerals.