I used to be a football hooligan in what now seems like a previous life and I hope it comes as no surprise that the vast majority of the ultras sections are hunting grounds for right wing movements seeking out young (mostly) men who are willing to form what are essentially militias.

Apart from this several right wing groups throughout Europe and the US have their own militias who do martial arts and combat training.

This, of course, seems all very LARP-y until it doesn’t and they come to protests better equipped to fight.

For the time I have been active in political organizing not once have I seen the same effort coming from a left wing party and honestly it seems rather naive. I don’t think you should advertise stuff like that out in the open because that would make you an easy target for bad press and it will probably scare people away anyway.

But still. Should left wing organisations offer martial arts or other self defense courses? Should we be ‘above that’? And what if shit does hit the fan?