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?

  • albigu@lemmygrad.ml
    3·
    8 hours ago

    All revolutionary Marxist (and specifically Marxist-Leninist) parties should prepare themselves to operate in conditions of illegality eventually, which follows from seeking to seize power.

    So, with that in mind, all parties should have at the very least an internal group focused on security, as in physical security in protests and such. Depending on the legal conditions this can include firearm security. There should also be militants in charge of understanding warfare, not only because of its analogues to militant politics but also because of the possibility of needing to put that understanding into practice.

    But other than that, martial arts training and self defense courses are a great idea, but they shouldn’t only be for militants. One of the many social failures of capitalism is the seclusion and lack of hobbies or leisure for youth, particularly poor youth. If it’s possible with the party resources, having public gyms for training some sort of martial art would both materially and mentally help that audience while also enabling some combat experience for militants. And it can be relatively cheap too.

    We should never be “above” any tactic, including combat training. Though training mobs of hooligans is not the wisest idea, rather it’d be more along the line of “defense personnel” for protecting civilians in protests and such. And always keep in mind that no amount of training will make anybody bulletproof.