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A Marxist Leninst Response to Gun Control
By Daniel Lee
In a recent editorial piece published by Peoples World, the newspaper of the CPUSA, titled “Guns, profits and Sandy Hook” – the article started by opening with the need for the country to “get serious about regulating guns.” It pontificates further, giving a perfunctory nod to universal health access as “a piece of the puzzle” to preventing the epidemic of gun violence. The editorial then issues a call for a “broad enough coalition to confront and curb those who profit from manufacturing and dealing in these individual weapons of mass destruction”. It places the blame squarely on the gun lobbyists, and the corporations that profit from the sale of guns. The article ends finally in demanding a “Ban [of] assault weapons and high capacity bullet clips”. This article, which could have been written by any bourgeois Democrat or liberal group from Nancy Pelosi to Moveon.org, buys into the reactionary “liberal” approach of treating the symptom without curing the disease. Certainly those profiting off of the sale of weapons through the promotion of violence and racism must be made accountable for their exploitation and oppression of our fellow workers – and let us not forget that the US Government is one of the largest gun runners in the world, fueling instability, murder, and genocide of the proletariat around the globe, a fact PW conveniently leaves out. The article fails to mention that nearly 2,000 civilians were wounded in our War of Imperialism in Afghanistan , Pakistan, and Iraq during the first six months of 2012. About 1,145 civilians were killed in that same time period, according to U.N. totals. James Holmes’, Adam Lanza’s, and other serial killers’ crimes are dwarfed by this monstrosity in comparison, making the US government by far the most psychotic killer, still at large and continuing to slaughter men, women and children by the thousands. These figures don’t even take into account the hundreds of unarmed civilians slaughtered by uniformed bourgeois Police gangs across the country. Where is PW’s outrage to this crime? Where is the demand to confiscate the government’s guns?
As Marxist-Leninists, we must approach the issue of gun control as we do any other issue – under the scientific principles of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and practice. We affirm first and foremost the absolute supremacy of the interests of the working class, and the necessity of revolution for the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat to completely overthrow the oppression of the Bourgeois state and its minions. As Marx and Engels famously wrote at the end of the Communist Manifesto, "The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.”
When we talk about gun ownership then, we must talk about the rights of the workers to bear arms. One way or another, the bourgeois will exert their will through force either directly or indirectly, and usually through the cats-paw of the government and its military and police institutions to repress the working class and protect their own property interests. How then shall the workers protect their interests? As Marx writes,"The arming of the whole proletariat with rifles, guns, and ammunition should be carried out at once [and] the workers must ... organize themselves into an independent guard, with their own chiefs and general staff. ... [The aim is] that the bourgeois democratic Government not only immediately loses all backing among the workers, but from the commencement finds itself under the supervision and threats of authorities behind whom stands the entire mass of the working class. ...As soon as the new Government is established they will commence to fight the workers. In order that this party (i.e., the democrats) whose betrayal of the workers will begin with the first hour of victory, should be frustrated in its nefarious work, it is necessary to organize and arm the proletariat." - Karl Marx, Address to the Communist League (1850)This quote sounds as if it were written for the times we are facing today! However, Dialectical Materialism teaches us that the issues and struggles of history are cyclical, and though taking new forms, at the heart of the struggle remains the eternal war for class dominance.
Moving forward to Lenin, the great leader of the October Revolution in Russia, we see that he too advocated arming the workers:“The minimum programme of the Social-Democrats calls for the replacement of the standing army by a universal arming of the people. Most of the official Social-Democrats in Europe and most of our own Menshevik leaders, however, have “forgotten” or put aside the Party’s programme, substituting chauvinism (“defencism”) for internationalism, reformism for revolutionary tactics. Yet now of all times, at the present revolutionary moment, it is most urgent and essential that there be a universal arming of the people. To assert that, while we have a revolutionary army, there is no need to arm the proletariat, or that there would “not be enough” arms to go round, is mere deception and trickery. The thing is to begin organizing a universal militia straight away, so that everyone should learn the use of arms even if there is “not enough” to go round, for it is not at all necessary that the people have enough weapons to arm everybody. The people must learn, one and all, how to use arms, they must belong, one and all, to the militia which is to replace the police and the standing army.Comrade Stalin, the fierce defender of the fledgling workers’ Soviet democracy and the Champion against Nazi aggression, said that the “most important countermeasure against counterrevolution is the arming of the workers and peasants.” Finally, from the writings of the revered leader and liberator of the Chinese people, Mao Zedong, we find this important commentary on the role of the Red Army: "The Chinese Red Army is an armed body for carrying out the political tasks of the revolution. Especially at present, the Red Army should certainly not confine itself to fighting; besides fighting to destroy the enemy's military strength, it should shoulder such important tasks as doing propaganda among the masses, organizing the masses, arming them, helping them to establish revolutionary political power and setting up Party organizations."
The workers do not want an army standing apart from the people; what they want is that the workers and soldiers should merge into a single militia consisting of all the people.” - A Proletarian Militia by VI Lenin
Certainly, each statement above applies to a particular instance in time at that particular stage of revolution in each writer’s respective countries. However, the principle remains the same. The workers must be made able to protect and defend themselves. In some cases, such as in 1916 Russia, the bourgeois were even willing to finance a workers militia - to protect their own interests – which Lenin said should be paid for by the bourgeoisie, but that the militia must above all protect the workers both from external threats, and from the bourgeois within the gates.
At this point in time, the bourgeois state is not in a state of flux which would necessitate them calling upon the workers to form militias – in fact, such a thing is considered a threat to the Imperialist State’s hegemonic domination. Thus we can expect no checks to be coming in the mail from the rich for the funding of workers’ protection. However, we must still encourage the exercising of such rights still granted to all people by the Bourgeoisie state for the protection of the working class and minorities. We can take a lesson from the Black Panthers, who encouraged black communities to arm and protect themselves instead of relying on the unpredictable and brutal police forces and judicial system for protection. We can encourage the formation of community defense groups which are founded along class lines, upholding and protecting the rights of oppressed minorities. We can encourage and sponsor gun safety training, and work to create the best conditions possible for working class neighborhoods to protect themselves. We can encourage organized labor to stand together in solidarity to help protect the schools and surrounding communities, creating a “thin red line” of our own which acts as a deterrent against crimes from any source. And in the center must be the party, directing, protecting, and organizing the workers defense. Lenin would do no less.
Originally posted at: www . okworkersmonthly.blogspot. com - Oklahoma Workers' Monthly, the #1 news source for the Oklahoma working class, produced by the Communist Party of Oklahoma
I mean, I agree that we should never concede the bourgeois state a monopoly on gun ownership, but this article sounds like a parody.
"under the scientific principles of Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and practice"
"Comrade Stalin, the fierce defender of the fledgling workers’ Soviet democracy and the Champion against Nazi aggression"
"revered leader and liberator of the Chinese people, Mao Zedong"
"Lenin, the great leader of the October Revolution in Russia"
Who writes like this? Seriously. It sounds like a parody of the stale Soviet era writings.
Last edited by goalkeeper; 11th January 2013 at 17:54.
Althusser, Brosa Luxemburg, Caj, Conscript, Danielle Ni Dhighe, Flying Purple People Eater, JPSartre12, Le Libérer, Let's Get Free, o well this is ok I guess, Ostrinski, p0is0n, Pelarys, Philosopher Jay, Popular Front of Judea, Raúl Duke, Red Banana, Red Enemy, Regicollis, Rusty Shackleford, Sankara1983, Skyhilist, TheRedAnarchist23
Am I reading the Pravda in 1930?
Apenas um rapaz latino americano apoiado por mais de 50 mil manos
Brosa Luxemburg, Caj, Danielle Ni Dhighe, Flying Purple People Eater, goalkeeper, JPSartre12, Let's Get Free, Luc, NGNM85, o well this is ok I guess, Os Cangaceiros, p0is0n, Pelarys, Philosopher Jay, Raúl Duke, Red Enemy, Rusty Shackleford, Sankara1983, Skyhilist, Trap Queen Voxxy, Vladimir Innit Lenin
Sounds like something written by a PCP militant...
I'm not from Portugal, but I have a friend who moved to the states from there and he said they are the most fanatical and irrational group of people he had ever met. Would you agree?
"The exploited are not carriers of any positive project, be it even the classless society (which all too closely resembles the productive set up). Capital is their only community. They can only escape by destroying everything that makes them exploited...Capitalism has not created the conditions of its overcoming in communism-the famous bourgeoisie forging the arms of its own extinction-but of a world of horrors." -At Daggers Drawn
"Our strategy is therefore the following: to establish and maintain a series of centers of desertion, or poles of secession, of rallying points. For runaways. For those who leave. A series of places where we can escape from the influence of a civilization that is headed for the abyss." -Tiqqun, Call
Despite the pravda style language, can we focus on the issue at hand?
I don't think there would be much disagreement with the basic idea behind the article that 'workers having guns in capitalism is good' on a forum for the Revolutionary Left. So there isn't much to discuss.
Yep, arming a few workers with assault rifles is gonna be a load of good against a standing, national army how strong? Fuck sake, if it ever came down to a civil war, the deciding issue would be how many working class soldiers defected, not how many pistols/rifles ordinary workers had. They wouldn't stand a chance against an organised army.
Also, you say that anti-gun people treat the symptom without the disease. But I pose this: since when has someone treated a disease without a care for the symptoms? Yes, we need to shine a light on mental health care, but why should that mean we can't deal with the very real issue of gun proliferation at the same time?
Yeah - take Libya. The rebels were supported by most of the population, they were very heavily armed, and they were thrashed until the French turned up. Either revolutionary socialists start campaigning for a right to own tanks and anti-aircraft batteries or they consider a different method.
What about Cuba? 11 guys one of them asmathic against a state and they succeded. And China? A popular militia who fought against the Japanese in WWII and a civil war, an they won. And Vietnam? Agrarian country who won the independence of France and shortly after they got invaded by the US and they ultimately won. The list can go forever, I agree it is difficulf, bloody difficult, but not imposible.
Para los pueblos de todo el mundo, que luchan por la paz, la democracia y el socialismo, el leninismo es como el sol que trae consigo una vida alegre. - Ho Chi Minh
Comunes el sol y el viento, común ha de ser la tierra, que vuelva común al pueblo, lo que del pueblo saliera
Maoism is (...) Marxism Leninism on cocaine - Rafiq
Pas de liberté pour les ennemis de la liberté - Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
El marxismo conlleva muchos principios que en últimas instancias se compendian en una sola frase: “es justo rebelarse contra los reaccionarios" - Mao Tse-Tung
Die Barrikaden schließen der Strasse aber geöffnet der Weg.
Despite the fact a Stalinist wrote this, it's changed my opinion about the issue of gun control. Mental health care and more funding for education should be first before limiting weapons.
Are you trying to make a point about the subject of this thread or going off on a tangent? I sure hope the latter.
What's here to discuss? goalkeeper put it cristal clear above, I just wanted to express my opinion on the comment that armed civilians cannot overcome profesional military, so lets relax
Para los pueblos de todo el mundo, que luchan por la paz, la democracia y el socialismo, el leninismo es como el sol que trae consigo una vida alegre. - Ho Chi Minh
Comunes el sol y el viento, común ha de ser la tierra, que vuelva común al pueblo, lo que del pueblo saliera
Maoism is (...) Marxism Leninism on cocaine - Rafiq
Pas de liberté pour les ennemis de la liberté - Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
El marxismo conlleva muchos principios que en últimas instancias se compendian en una sola frase: “es justo rebelarse contra los reaccionarios" - Mao Tse-Tung
Die Barrikaden schließen der Strasse aber geöffnet der Weg.
Armed struggle cannot overpower a military with enough bombs and nuclear weapons to destroy the world multiple times over as well as tanks, planes, helicopters, and all sorts of other fun stuff. The best bet is to get large swaths of the armed forces on our side.
The issue about the government having tanks, aircraft etc. is true, but most insurgencies are fought with small arms. A .223 vs a tank is not a fair fight, but the proliferation of hundreds of millions of small arms can sure as hell make civil society completely ungovernable.
"Win, lose or draw...long as you squabble and you get down, that's gangsta."
It isn't that there aren't enough guns in the country and people willing to use them. The problem is that the state has possession of so much more lethality and has practice and the willingness to use it (through the armed services).
A citizens' militia which posed a real threat to the government would not be treated kindly. If I were in that militia, I would expect to be dead before breakfast.
Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety. And at such a moment, unable to see and not daring to imagine what the future will now bring forth, one clings to what one knew, or dreamed that one possessed. Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long possessed that he is set free - he has set himself free - for higher dreams, for greater privileges.”
-James Baldwin
"We change ideas like neckties."
- E.M. Cioran
An army marches on its stomach, meaning wars are won through superior logistics not firepower. Meaning we don't need large swaths of the armed forces we just need large enough worker occupations to prevent military stockpiles from replenishing and a revolutionary army strong enough to keep the bulk of the means of production out of the hands of the army.
In this kind of war then arming the masses is the best strategy due to it being a war of attrition and the extra armed manpower helping in outlasting the enemy till they no longer have the means to continue fighting.
Maybe a little off topic, but why is there a Communist Party of Oklahoma?
No one on this forum will disagree with the basic premise of the article, but the way we can control the discussion among the wider left is like this: is it really in the best interests of the working class to have capital's state, the same state which wages a war on drugs, on opposition to imperialism, on working class militancy, etc. wage a war on guns? Why do we give a fuck about "gun proliferation"? Why create absolute dependence on the cops to defend our communities?
Last edited by Paul Pott; 12th January 2013 at 05:44.
This is the logic of a hundred years ago. Now, most acting governments have nuclear weapons and international partnerships at their disposal.
'despite being a comedy, there's a lot of truth to this, black people always talking shit behind white peoples back. Blacks don't give a shit about white, why do whites give them so much "nice" attention?'
- Top Comment on the new Youtube layout.
EARTH FOR THE EARTHLINGS - BULLETS FOR THE NATIVISTS
Nuclear weapons destroys the means of productions and radiation makes it impossible to rebuild it (i.e Chernobyl is still uninhabitable). International partnerships only means other bourgeois nations will try to supply the bourgeois state under attack, yet if these nations are also crippled by strikes they would have the means to do so.This is the logic of a hundred years ago. Now, most acting governments have nuclear weapons and international partnerships at their disposal.
