"People's War" or self defense? —we must know both

Marxist believe in overthrowing capitalism. Many Maoist around the world call for "people's war." In some countries that is obvious. It has been practiced in Peru, India, Nepal, the Philippines and elsewhere. But that is in the third world, or the really poor countries of the undeveloped world. What does "people's war" mean in an industrialized country, such as in the US or Europe?

So far I have only read one declarations of "people's war" from a Maoist party in the industrial first world, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada. They have talked about it, since June, 2005, or possibly before. They have had several articles in print since that time, discussing "people's war." They have an article called, How We Intend to Fight, but they really don't go into a lot of specific details as to what they will do. They do say:

"Through the Revolutionary Communist Party, we will cultivate and organize our resistance. In other words, organize our struggle and our refusal to submit to capitalist exploitation. This struggle in turn will transform the shape of society in a thousand ways. We cannot fully measure it at this point. But unquestionably, the aspect of these transformations will be spectacular. All that is currently in the shadows will become clearer, more obvious and impossible to hide. And this begins with the proletariat, the class the rich despises, and who will appear under a new light: different, daring, brave and sure of itself. The proletariat will transform society and transform itself at the same time."

They talk a lot about resistance, but not how they will do it. Maybe it is not important for them to go into their own forms of people's war for security reasons.

In an article called "In Defense of People's War" they defend their ideas against Curtis Cole, who wrote an opposition to the "people's War" on the Kasama Project. They also discussed some differences they had with him over  “Gonzalo Thought.”[1]

Chairman Gonzalo made war in, Peru, a poor country with large underdeveloped areas. His main mistake was not having any back-up plan in case he was captured. After he was caught, his revolution began to fade. The RCP-Canada is correct that Gonzalo has contributed to the theories of "people's war." They also pointed out that he made some mistakes and they are not Gonzalistas. Gonzalo's ideas would not work well in the US, at present. So does the RCP of Canada mean an actual guerrilla army that lives in the forest lands to make attacks in the city? Does it really just mean more vigilante actions against the state? Or does it mean some kind of militancy? Maybe conditions are different in Canada.

In the US most of us feel an actual guerrilla war will end in our destruction by an over militarized system that is actually waiting for us to launch some type of military adventures. In other words physically attacking them would be doing exactly what they have been waiting for us to do. So we don't want to make things easy on them.

But in the US most of us are not prepared for guerilla war, but we should be and we should start now. Right now in the US, the government has been training for years on various anti-terrorist- -anti-insurgency tactics and they are ready for us if the left decides to take such actions.

We can see from their reaction to the Islamic militant actions or near actions some of the methods they would use against us. Some of these  tactics they may have originally been devised to use against Marxists.

We see, over and over again, FBI agents tricking would-be suicide bombers into buying truckloads of explosives. They scan for people who show an interest in taking up armed Jihad and when they find their victims they pretend to sell them their explosives—only to surprise them with arrest and the explosives don't work. They even did that to a small group of anarchists, in Ohio, who wanted to blow up a bridge. If a friend says they can get explosives—run away. They are sure to be FBI agents or have been in contact with such agents.

We know they spy on us on the internet and they infiltrate every organization they can. There is a reason they went after Edward Snowden.[2] As we saw in the Boston Marathon bombing, they have the technical tools and the trained police manpower to capture such people within a day or two of such actions. 

In other words they could wipe out our "people's war" in a very short time.

So most of us have ruled out military action or launching a "people's war" anytime in the near future. But that does not rule out studying the possibility of "people's war" and how to launch such a campaign if the need ever arises.

If we had some kind of revolutionary situation, where the state temporarily broke down or if we had the numbers to overwhelm their security apparatus, we could make use of military moves against the state.

It is my belief that we should study all aspects of peoples war— how to make explosives, how to make can-grenades, how to make use of guns and various types of vandalism against the bourgeoisie system.

It is perfectly legal to go and buy guns. As long as people buy guns and ammunition they are braking no laws at all. Some explosives can be made without detection, especially for use as anti-personnel weapons, such as home made grenades—using cans or pipes that can explode and shred shrapnel. Other explosives, such as gunpowder or 4th of July fireworks can also be legally bought.

We can also study black block tactics and simple sabotage techniques that are not necessarily violent and can't really be classified as terrorist. We can spray paint slogans on walls. We can put broken glass in the driveways of those who defend the system. There are all kinds of simple sabotage methods we can use. The CIA actually makes books on how to sabotage an economy. Again, we can use some black bloc tactics, but actually killing people or war is off the table, presently.

Then there are the needs of self defense. The political right-wing and ultra-right-wing have made their beliefs clear and they want completely unrestricted gun rights. They want legal guns and they want the right to carry them anywhere. And they do mean ANYWHERE.

For our interests it looks as if these rules are for our advantages. We can buy all the guns and ammo we want. We can defend ourselves.

But are right-wing gun people mostly worried about defense against criminal elements? No! They also want the ability to attack political (and religious if we include jihad) elements they really hate. They hate parts of the government and want to be able to intimidate those agencies. Just look at welfare cowboy Cliven Bundy. He has intimidated the federal government into letting his cows graze free on government land. He owes them more than a $million. Government officials have backed off of him. His guns worked.  

The gun people usually hate liberals, some of them are racist, but most are deeply pro-military and their recent reaction to the shooting of five army recruiter personnel shows how their guns can quickly focus on new targets. One of their favorite targets now include just about anything Islamic. After the army recruiter shooting, gun people across the country came together to volunteer to protect gun-les army recruiters. One group calls itself Operation Hero Guard. Most of these right-wing people consider any one in the military a hero, even those who just recruit young people for their imperialist wars. It was mostly a symbolic move, but it demonstrated how quickly they can turn their guns on someone besides criminals. Their aim now is Islamic militants and Islamic Americans.[3]

What is to keep these right-wing vigilantes from moving their targets from Islamic radicals to left-wing radicals? The answer is very little. They can realign themselves any day and go after us with gusto. They can become modern day black shirts. They can even be used by the government to attack us. That is why we must be ready to fight against vigilantes, black shirts or any government agency that tries to back us into a corner or wipe us out. This is not just "peoples war" it is also self defense.

-សតិវ​អតុ

Pix by party9999999.deviantart.com.

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[1] Chairman Gonzalo/AKA Abimael Guzmán

[2] Edward Snowden is a former National Security Agency subcontractor who made headlines in 2013 when he leaked top secret information about NSA surveillance activities.

[3] See Allen Lardieri, https://youtu.be/2uSleMwRXVo, or Tomi Lahren, http://tiahrtfolly.blogspot.com/2015/07/idiot-conservative-news-anchors-message.html.