Maoist kid soldiers draw blood

[GracchusBabeuf]

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[Saorsa]

Firstly, this article was definitely published to try and damage the Maoist's image. And secondly, I don't see why we should oppose 14 year olds having the right to take part in revolutionary struggle if they want to. They don't have a choice about being born into poverty and oppression, we shouldn't deny them the choice to fight it.

[Killfacer]

:confused: Yes 14 year olds, go fight in a war and die at the age of 14. We should definatly encourage that. 14 year olds are hardly in a position to really understand the nuances of a maoist conflict. Let them grow up a bit before giving them a gun and throwing them to the lions.

[red cat]

Most kids there never get a chance to grow up.

[Искра]

You we should give them a chance to meet "comrade" Mao?
Yeah, Maoists... such a revolutionary force. No one to support them but kids.
I hope that those 14th year old kids read "The Red Book", hm I hope that they can read at all... It's good to read a book which sentenced you to death.

[red cat]

You we should give them a chance to meet "comrade" Mao?
Yeah, Maoists... such a revolutionary force. No one to support them but kids.
I hope that those 14th year old kids read "The Red Book", hm I hope that they can read at all... It's good to read a book which sentenced you to death.

No. I guess they should just starve and die as before, instead of liberating themselves and others. Got a red-and-black book to guide them?

[Hiero]

widely used by the Tamil Tigers, Khmer Rouge and African militias

What is the point in mention these three very racialised imagery of the "child soldier". In the Warsaw up rising against Nazi-occupation, young people joined the fight. Are we to criticise this too?

[NaxalbariZindabad]

Here in Canada you can join the imperialist army at 16. Some of these 16 y-o soldiers surely “look as young as 14”. However, I don't see any bourgeois news articles (and Internet leftists) complaining about this and comparing the Canadian army to the Khmer Rouge or African militias. Strange...

[revolution inaction]

Here in Canada you can join the imperialist army at 16. Some of these 16 y-o soldiers surely “look as young as 14”. However, I don't see any bourgeois news articles (and Internet leftists) complaining about this and comparing the Canadian army to the Khmer Rouge or African militias. Strange...

does the canadian army claim to be revolutionary, do people who claim to be revolutionary leftists support it?

[LeninBalls]

does the canadian army claim to be revolutionary, do people who claim to be revolutionary leftists support it?

No. What point are you trying to make?

[NaxalbariZindabad]

does the canadian army claim to be revolutionary, do people who claim to be revolutionary leftists support it?

No. I'm not saying that just because our "democratic" governments do it, we can do it too.

I'm pointing out that the bourgeois news (in this case telegraph india) don't care about the issue at all (at which age can people join an army), they're just constantly searching for excuses (based on truth or lies, depending) to attack revolutionaries with. This is pure hypocrisy and we sould see that. We shouldn't promote that type of propaganda.

If we want to talk about recruiting age for soldiers fine. But let's not do it based on one-sided demagogic "news articles" from hypocrit counter-revolutionaries.

[Annoying Person]

Man, little rat kids showing up at the corner store and shooting people... get some AK's and shotguns and be ready for them when they come back.

[Comrade B]

Man, little rat kids showing up at the corner store and shooting people... get some AK's and shotguns and be ready for them when they come back.
Um... what the fuck?
"Yeah! There shouldn't be child soldiers, lets kill them!"


Firstly, this article was definitely published to try and damage the Maoist's image. And secondly, I don't see why we should oppose 14 year olds having the right to take part in revolutionary struggle if they want to. They don't have a choice about being born into poverty and oppression, we shouldn't deny them the choice to fight it.
Dude, I know 18-20 year olds who I don't think should be going to war, but have joined the marines. Have you ever met a kid you thought, "that guy could live quite well on his own"? How about "that kid could survive in a war zone on their own very well"? How about "I could see that kid not being fucked up for life after shooting some people"?

[chegitz guevara]

While children should certainly be allowed to participate in their own liberation, and I have nothing against kids engaging in armed self-defense, we are supposed to be for the liberation of all humanity. Children should not be used as militia or regular troops, unless there's no other choice.

Children are not emotionally prepared to handle military service. There are lots of other ways for children to help the movement go forward. We don't need to be messing their heads up by having them kill when their brains haven't even finished developing.


Meanwhile, on BBC World News today, they said the Indian government is claiming that they are losing the battle to the Naxalites, so it looks like I have to eat some crow. :thumbup1:

[Saorsa]

I think the first thing to keep in mind (and I'm unsurprised some of the anarchusts here aren't capable of doing this) is that this is probably not true. The Indian bourgeois media are not to be trusted when they report on the steadily growing Maoist revolutionary movement in India (now spread to 20 of India's 28 states), and knowing the emotiveness and moralism of much of the West (particularly western liberals), accusing the Maoists of using child soldiers is a great way to slander them. Similar to how the anarchists in civil war Spain went around raping nuns...

I don't know so much about India, but in Nepal, children under the age of 16 couldn't fight on the frontlines. They were still involved in the PLA, but as cooks, cleaners, cultural cadres, carrying equipment etc. There were cases of people under 16 fighting in various battles but there was policy against it and it was enforced. I'd suspect there's a similar policy in place in India.

It's worth remembering that in the poorest, most underdeveloped parts of India where the Naxalites draw their strongest support base, life expectancy is pretty low. By the age of 14, 15 or whatever you may already be working, may be involved in raising a family (perhaps even a family of your own kids! if not, brothers and sisters), and you are far more of an adult than many 18 year olds in the West. I think 14 year olds should be discouraged from participating in violent revolutionary struggle, but the whole point of a People's War is that it involves all the people who can be mobilised - male and female, healthy and sick, young and old.

Even if this is true, it's not a big deal. We're revolutionary communists, not Amnesty International.


How about "I could see that kid not being fucked up for life after shooting some people"?

Considering all the shit they'd have had to go through just because they were born into the poverty and oppression they were, all the trauma and suffering that's probably been associated with that, I'd say they're pretty fucked up already. Being involved in armed revolutionary struggle offers them a way to change this, and ensure that their children don't grow up in the same circumstances.


Yeah, Maoists... such a revolutionary force. No one to support them but kids.
I hope that those 14th year old kids read "The Red Book", hm I hope that they can read at all... It's good to read a book which sentenced you to death.

I wonder how many kids under 16 fought in the anarchist militias in the Spanish civil war.

[China studen]

Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!

[bcbm]

I wonder how many kids under 16 fought in the anarchist militias in the Spanish civil war.

Well...


The centuria was an untrained mob composed mostly of boys in their teens. Here and there in the militia you came across children as young as eleven or twelve, usually refugees from Fascist territory who had been enlisted as militiamen as the easiest way of providing for them. As a rule they were employed on light work in the rear, but sometimes they managed to worm their way to the front line, where they were a public menace. I remember one little brute throwing a hand-grenade into the dug-out fire 'for a joke'. At Monte Pocero I do not think there was anyone younger than fifteen, but the average age must have been well under twenty. Boys of this age ought never to be used in the front line, because they cannot stand the lack of sleep which is inseparable from trench warfare. At the beginning it was almost impossible to keep our position properly guarded at night. The wretched children of my section could only be roused by dragging them out of their dug-outs feet foremost, and as soon as your back was turned they left their posts and slipped into shelter; or they would even, in spite of the frightful cold, lean up against the wall of the trench and fall fast asleep.