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?
My mantra, everyday, “a fascist worked out today, did you?” Right now I can prepare myself, but agree there should be a collective effort to improve ourselves in a diverse set of skills
Martial arts would probably be harder to vilify and easier to frame as self-defense (not like it’s a deception either and there’s precedent at least in some places for learning martial arts to be a personal thing you do for self-defense). I mean, I took some martial arts as a kid and it wasn’t for any particular ideological reason, just encouraged to I guess as self defense, hobby thing, got me exercise. I’d assume (though could be wrong) that once you start getting into the territory of training in firearm use, it becomes a lot easier to vilify, in particular in countries with stricter gun laws. Though depending on what kind of state apparatus we’re talking about, to some extent, they’re going to vilify regardless of what you do if they decide you’re a threat. Like how the Black Panther party of the US had their breakfast program for schoolkids vilified and if I remember right, one of their kitchens straight up destroyed by cops. But it’s probably not going to be the same calculation for every country and organizing effort.
If the fascists start cracking down, you don’t want to have only ideological support on your side and that’s it. Ideological agreement isn’t a defense in a firefight. But you also have to consider what the existing state will try to crack down on in general. I don’t think it’s ever a matter of being “above it”; community defense is important in general and even a silver-tongued capitalist propagandist would, I think, have a hard time arguing that’s bad. It’s more a question of what is best for the conditions you’re dealing with.
Militant leftists groups did exist and were systematically destroyed by western states. Think Black Panthers in the US.
Definitely something missing imo. The right has the monopoly on violence, and even though I’d say the left can ultimately appeal to more people and have strength in numbers, a willingness to use violence can overcome that. I think it is as you said: it sounds very LARP-y until it isn’t. This is probably by design though, as any leftist group that does pick up arms or does combat training will be a target for repression.
Leftists should be doing combat training if they have the knack but I don’t think it is as important to a socialist revolution as it is to a fascist one.
Fascists use intimidation and violence to enforce their ideology. They exclude and persecute minorities but they are sure to communicate that if an individual isn’t supportive they can be targeted too. The only way to prove yourself a good fascist is to do inhuman acts to minorities or anti-fascists. Violence is the only path of upward mobility for most fascists.
Leftists use community and organization to build government after the masses overthrow the capitalists. The left does need people that are capable of violence but the primary concern is agitation. Why do martial arts training for an hour if you can make a crowd of ten people angry at capitalists instead?
Tactics is definitely something that leftists should study. If you can agitate and direct people to victory they will respect you and that respect can turn into support for the party easily. (I should read more Mao.)
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.
There is some tradition in this idea, maybe this is worth looking into: https://libcom.org/article/overview-italys-anti-fascist-gyms-and-boxing-clubs
