Re: The Question of Violence -- Part 1

[Justin Schwartz <jschwart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am a Marxist and a market socialist. But you should learn to read. I
opposed the gun control measure--not on general principles but because it
had a negative political effect in the concrete circumstances. It brought
out a bunch of raving right wingers and mobilized them into political
action. As to general principles, I used to hold the view that "If guns
are outlawed, only the law will have guns." I was in the Communist Workers
Party and we used to march with arms. Unfortunately we had a shootout with
Nazis and Klansmen who were rather better prepared for armed violence than
we and I began reconsider my views. Further involvement with politics of a
more mainstream variety has brought home to me that tyhe people who become
energized around the gun issue are pretty far right. I don't think that
gun control is particularly practicable, whether or not it would be
desirable, so I don't much waste time on it, or efen on thinking it
through. But while an armed proletariat is not something that in itself I
fear; in fact I think it might be a good thing and necessary in some
circumstances, I think that in our own situation, which is very far from
those circumstances, we have to look at who is helped by active support for
gun ownership.

What this has to dow ith market socialism I do not know.

--Justin

On Mon, 5 Feb 1996, Jeffrey Booth wrote:

>
>       Justin's post below betrays the pervasive elitism among most "leftists"
> in the U.S. .  Many working class people, including myself, grew up
> around guns and using guns and so we're not afraid of them.
>       Also, we truly are suspicious, and rightly so, of the police and
> government and lawyers etc... (the whole "Justice" system).
>       How could an armed proletariat be a negative thing to a marxist?  Oh, I
> forgot.  You are a Market Socialist.
>
> "How you gonna come
>  when they kick in your front door
>  with your hands on your head
>  or on the trigger of your gun?"
>
>               The Clash
>
>                                               
>                               -- Jeff Booth
>
> On Sun, 4 Feb 1996, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>
> >
> > A very interesting post, Leo.
> >
> > There's something about a gun that seems to shut off the cerebral cortex
> > in male Americans. I recll a time when an ill-advised DSA member of Ann
> > Arbor city council was inspired for reasons best known to himself to bring
> > a gun control measure up for discussion and vote, altrhough most of the
> > rest of us political activists in town begged him not to. AA is not a town
> > with a big gun problem, except when the cops shoot Black kids. Well,
> > predictably enough the council chambers and city hall filled up with men
> > in camoflage gear, the largest crowd the council had ever had, all of whom
> > were talking up the only constitutional right they care about.
> >
> > --Justin
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >      --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
> >
>
>
>      --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---





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