From street gangs to revolution.

[Bala Perdida]

I've searched old threads concerning the topic of street gangs, but I think it's an important topic to be revisited considering the people who join the street gangs. I thought I would bring up some old questions, as well as some that I haven't seen asked in those threads. After all, in the US, before Compton was patrolled by gangsters, it was patrolled by Black Panthers. As well as El Salvador, today a home to two of the biggest street gangs in the world, formerly engaged in one of the bloodiest class struggles in Latin America.

*Sorry in advance, when I started this I did not mean to make an essay. :grin: JAJAJA!*

So, first I think it's necessary to examine how a gang emerges, and how/why a gangster is recruited. Street gangs usually emerge for protection in impoverished urban neighborhoods. Looking to fund their organizations the street gangs degenerate into black market armies, this usually happens after a generation. The gangs recruit from their ethnically diverse impoverished enclaves, in some areas there is segregation by nationality or race. The targets for recruitment are usually poor children ranging from ages 8-16. Their parents are usually working various hours and not around to raise them, or do not make enough money to support them, so the kids turn to the gang for a sense of belonging or promises of economic support. The kids then go through a rite of passage, and then begin their life to be drowned by criminality. Most gangs function on a principle of "Blood in, Blood out." which can mean various things, usually membership till death or exit by committing of crime. So it's a tough, tight bond to break.

Next, are the problems street gangs present to the working class and the class struggle. Their are obvious problems like the domestic sale of drugs, the abuse of women and girls, the extra tyranny enforced on the people, the murderous gang warfare tendencies, and the systematic imprisonment of the working class. In addition, there are also problems like inner-minority racism and the gang-color coded separation of the working class, as well as the separation by cities. All of these problems are heavily enforced by the gangster mindset. The gangster mindset is to put money, power, and commodities over the lives of your fellow proletarians, the respect of women, and even the gangsters own life. Street gangsters usually consolidate power in prison and/or through violent acts, leading the individuals to violence and deliberately attempting to be imprisoned. This gangster mindset has also been visibly glorified in movies, music, and television, so most impoverished youths hold the mentality before joining the gang. This mentality has to be overcome and eliminated before we can create a revolutionary/activist.

Now, we examine the members most opt to change. Most gangs are organized by a hierarchy. As with every hierarchy, the higher you are the more you have to loose. So the most easily influenced gangsters, or gang related people, will be the prospects or soldiers. However there will be enforcers, veteran members, and high ranking officials that will grow sympathetic to the movement and later join. High ranking members joining the organization could strengthen the movement, but if former gangsters revert to the gangster mindset this could cause a problem for the image of the movement. This stresses the importance of overcoming the gangster mindset. Still, the tight violent bond held by the gang will probably keep those associated to the gang from leaving it, but this is why we must get to the youths before the gangs do.
Historically during revolutions, black market criminal organizations usually seek shelter in areas where the regime they thrived under holds power. This can be seen to my knowledge in the Mussolini's overthrow of Italy, the Chinese 1949 revolution, the Cuban revolution, and Vietnam war. So surviving gangsters will probably flee with the bourgeoisie at the moment of revolution. This usually rids the country or area of organized crime, and concentrates class consciousness.

So now that we covered how gangs work, the question arises of how to solve the problems. My ideas are as follows:

1. Spread the revolution by appealing to the people's struggles, somewhat like platformism through my understanding of the concept. Oppressed people don't like authority, neither do we. People who join gangs don't want to live in poverty, we don't want them to either. Addressing issues like these will help spread the cause.
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2. Publish the ideas, and replace the gang culture with a revolutionary culture through propaganda. My favorites here are music, posters (leaflets, flyers, pamphlets, ect.), and especially graffiti. They have the media, we have the murals.
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3. This is one I've been having much thought about, it seems very achievable but hard to maintain under these conditions. We basically turn the 'ghettos' into urban communes or some sort of mutual-aid arrangements. We have them organized democratically, and have apartment complexes and neighborhoods with free stores. There should be a collective effort to provide food, water, shelter, electricity, and other things to the members. Efficiency, to try to keep the cost low, benefiting the proletarian. As well as creating programs and activity centers for aiding and entertaining youths.

The bourgeoisie will be hostile to these changes, which will probably push the populace towards revolution as conditions worsen and solidarity is seen as the better alternative. These are my ideas on going from street gangs to revolution. I want to know your thoughts, and ideas on doing this. I want to know if you even think we should be concerned with street gangs and the gangster mentality. You guy's will probably find that the gangster mentality can be applied to several other groups, and it would be good to share those groups. Sharing these groups and the results of applications can help strengthen the ideas. It is these most oppressed of people that will be crucial to sparking a revolution.

[Crabbensmasher]

I think there's a widespread tendency to simplify the idea of gangs. I remember as a kid staying out late at night and being scolded as my mom told me that I could be beat up by 'gangsters'. What even are 'gangsters?'

Not surprisingly, I think hollywood has a big part to play in this one. There's definitely a stereotype associated with a gang. A group of bandana-wearing black males with baseball bats. It's like 'We better run, here comes the gang". In reality though, I think that stereotype fails to play out a lot, and even when it does, there's a bigger problem behind it.

The idea of a street gang as a sort of social organization is overtly-simplified. I don't think you can stamp different characteristics like 'greedy' or 'protective' to street gangs. They all develop from differing, unique situations for different reasons. All we can say for sure is their cause is definitely socioeconomic. Beyond that, we're just feeding off Hollywood stereotypes.

This brings us to the more pervasive problem - the hollywood stereotypes in question. Whether or not gangs actually play out this stereotypes is irrelevant, because at the end of the day, their being fed to us regardless. This is problematic because what we're being shown is often unrealistically violent, patriarchal and misogynistic. It fuels false conceptions of masculinity, often leading to aggression and hatred (homophobia, sexism, etc). As you guys have all seen, these ideas kind of permeate North American culture at the moment, and they're regressive, dogmatic, and reactionary. They should be treated as such.

The presence of actual gangs in a revolutionary context should be treated case-by-case. I always hesitate to pull out the term 'lumpen-proletariat' because everyone seems to disagree on its meaning, but perhaps this is a time to toss it around. Depending on your tendency, you'll have a different conception of what this means, and their role in the larger struggle.

As I've said, I don't think the problems lie in the gangs themselves, but the hollywood-perpetuated culture surrounding them. This culture is not dependent on the gangs themselves, and in a way, its become even larger than them. So yeah, focusing all our energies on the gang will not be attacking the root of the problem. There's an entire world surrounding the culture, and its too big to pin down on any specific target.

[Hrafn]

I don't have time to comment, but here's a text that's a bit relevant and interesting. http://libcom.org/library/la-riots-aufheben-1

[RA89]

This brings us to the more pervasive problem - the hollywood stereotypes in question. Whether or not gangs actually play out this stereotypes is irrelevant, because at the end of the day, their being fed to us regardless. This is problematic because what we're being shown is often unrealistically violent, patriarchal and misogynistic. It fuels false conceptions of masculinity, often leading to aggression and hatred (homophobia, sexism, etc).


Tbh from my experience this is not true. In fact I might even say it is the opposite, that a lot of violent things go down which are sometimes never reported, or known by the police/papers etc.
I'm talking about people who make the bulk of their income unlawfully.


If we mean suburban kids who hang around in groups trying to look bad then you have a point.