To be able forcefully and threateningly to oppose this party, whose betrayal of the workers will begin with the very first hour of victory, the workers must be armed and organized. The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition, and the revival of the old-style citizens’ militia, directed against the workers, must be opposed. Where the formation of this militia cannot be prevented, the workers must try to organize themselves independently as a proletarian guard, with elected leaders and with their own elected general staff; they must try to place themselves not under the orders of the state authority but of the revolutionary local councils set up by the workers. Where the workers are employed by the state, they must arm and organize themselves into special corps with elected leaders, or as a part of the proletarian guard. Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary. The destruction of the bourgeois democrats’ influence over the workers, and the enforcement of conditions which will compromise the rule of bourgeois democracy, which is for the moment inevitable, and make it as difficult as possible – these are the main points which the proletariat and therefore the League must keep in mind during and after the approaching uprising.
– Karl Marx, 1850
As I too would wish to live in a world without the need of arms and conflict. But so as long there is wealth inequality and people seeking power, there will be opressors.
Americans (and by extension westerns) today have been pacifified by labor rights that allowed a middle class to expand, and fed propaganda their entire lifes that they just have to work hard and they too can be successful. All things weakening the cooperation power of the working class. Those rights we enjoy today were not given by charity. They were fought with blood and tears. And those rights are slowly being stripped away. The middle class is eroding away. Taking away people rights to arms only serves to strengthen the oppressors. And when all on the rights people before us fought for are gone, we will have nothing to fight back.
And right now, america has a nazi problem. The last thing we need be doing is forfeiting arms to them.
I am not a fan of guns at all. I wish we had Australia’s gun policies. Are a lot of leftists moving to the right on guns?
As I too would wish to live in a world without the need of arms and conflict. But so as long there is wealth inequality and people seeking power, there will be opressors.
Americans (and by extension westerns) today have been pacifified by labor rights that allowed a middle class to expand, and fed propaganda their entire lifes that they just have to work hard and they too can be successful. All things weakening the cooperation power of the working class. Those rights we enjoy today were not given by charity. They were fought with blood and tears. And those rights are slowly being stripped away. The middle class is eroding away. Taking away people rights to arms only serves to strengthen the oppressors. And when all on the rights people before us fought for are gone, we will have nothing to fight back.
And right now, america has a nazi problem. The last thing we need be doing is forfeiting arms to them.