Gun Control Cannot Protect Us here ♦ Who should control guns? here ♦
El Salvador We have learned from experience that a communist revolution requires a party with a mass base, a revolutionary line and a military strategy.
Gun Control Cannot Protect Us End Capitalist Violence with Communist Revolution
USA, June 20— “I don’t understand why an 18-year-old would need an assault weapon,” said a friend. “The Republicans and Trump supporters are crazy, and so many people have been killed!” Another said, “Expecting teachers to have weapons in the classroom so they can defend their students is ridiculous! This breaks my heart.”
We share their anger at the heinous gun violence against children and working-class people of color. But the proposed solution, strict gun control laws, addresses only a fraction of the violence capitalism commits worldwide every day.
“There are so many intersecting factors it makes a person want to scream,” said another friend. The only way to address those intersecting factors is by smashing capitalism.
While there is capitalism, workers can never be safe.
In the US, suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people. One child in thirty experiences homelessness each year. Death from gun violence intersects with lack of health care, especially mental health. Capitalism’s vicious racism and sexism mean that people of color and women are disproportionately affected.
For the masses, there is no such thing as safety and security under capitalism, a society built on exploitation for profit. Capitalism means suffering and death for the working class: Profit wars. A billion people facing starvation. Six million confirmed Covid deaths. People of color killed by the cops. Families forced to flee their homes and turned away at borders.
We are fighting not to end one deadly issue, but to end them all.
Laws Are Made to Benefit the Rich
Ruling-class laws can never truly benefit the working class. Seeming advances such as abortion rights can be taken away in a heartbeat if the ruling class feels it will benefit.
Another friend asked, “But what if more representative politicians were voted in? And everyone had a chance to fairly vote… would this argument still hold?”
Absolutely. Politicians represent the people who pay them. Big money chooses candidates and finances campaigns. The class who profits from the system will never allow it to be any other way.
Until we have eliminated money and wage slavery, the material cause of racism, sexism, and xenophobia, the masses will have no power and no security.
Historically, US gun control laws have been enacted and enforced selectively. The ruling class passed the Milford Act when it was terrified of guns in the hands of the Black Panthers. Any gun control law the politicians make will be to protect their position and assets, not for the good of the masses.
Trump supporters may want to have their guns ready for another insurrection, but the main faction of the US ruling class is more concerned with controlling the military, where the real weapons lie. Neither side worries about protecting us or our children. If they did, refugees would not be whipped and forced back at the US southern border. Healthcare would be universal and free. No one would be unhoused.
But instead of providing for us and protecting our children, the rulers attack us by denying abortion rights and access to safe medical care. They promote racist, sexist theories to divide us and to build a fascist movement. The global capitalist crisis fosters racist, sexist, homophobic violence as the imperialists move towards world war.
End Capitalist Violence with Communist Revolution
Our work as communists is to build a mass party in preparation for a revolution to end the scourge of capitalism. It will take armed struggle with guns in the hands of the ICWP-led working class, alongside revolutionary soldiers, and sailors.
The state claims a monopoly on the use of force. But the military is composed mainly of working-class young people. They will learn that their interests do not lie with the bosses who send them to kill and die in wars for power and profit. We can win them to turn the guns around and join the communist revolution.
We don’t want the bosses to disarm the working class. Agitation for gun control laws leads workers and youth to recoil from armed struggle. Pacifist ideology is suicidal for our class. It means remaining wage slaves and cannon fodder instead of overthrowing our oppressors.
So our immediate task is political: to win soldiers, sailors, workers, and youth to the necessity of armed revolution.
In communism, we will make decisions about gun usage collectively, not individually. Decisions will rest on struggle for the workers’ best interests. The racism, hate, and fear that motivate murderers will eventually become a thing of the past.
No one will be isolated. With close relationships, we will know if someone is planning to harm themselves or others. This is the only real safety for us all, and it will come with the death of capitalism-imperialism and the building of a communist world.
Who Should Control Guns?
In conversations about the unending series of shocking gun massacres, especially the school shootings, people often ask: Is ICWP in favor of gun control?
I think the best answer is yes – control by the Party.
Of course, what they meant was US government restrictions on who can own guns and what types. We don’t endorse these because we might want to own guns ourselves. And, anyway, it’s not likely to happen. The Republicans are totally against it and the Democrats are for it but in a typically wishy-washy way. The slaughters will continue until communism washes it all away.
But what about in communism?
Communism will have strict control of guns. The basic principle is that guns will only be available to members of the Party and its mass organizations. We will mobilize the masses to recruit into our Red Army and other organizations like community defence groups.
Membership in such armed organizations will be controlled. Guns will only be distributed to individuals who have demonstrated loyalty to communism and even they will not be given unlimited access. For example, they won’t necessarily be permitted to keep their guns in their living quarters.
There will be no guns in the hands of unaffiliated private individuals. Special arrangements will be made for sports, like target shooting, hunting, and animal control.
Communists in the past sometimes talked about the need to arm workers in general, but this was a mistake. Initially not all workers will support the revolution and we don’t want to put guns in the hands of our opponents.
Nevertheless, before communism ultimately triumphs, we will try to arm as many supporters as we can. We will encourage young people to get experience with firearms, from handguns through assault rifles to heavy artillery. Under Party guidance, of course.
Some people with arms will be, or become, terrorists. They may plan or attempt mass shootings. How will we thwart these counter-revolutionary attempts?
By mobilizing the masses to defend themselves. Some especially reliable individuals will be allowed to go around armed, including carrying concealed weapons. They will be trained to immediately confront terrorists and lead others to do the same. (Unlike the cowardly Uvalde cops).
Some readers may be shocked that the ICWP is enthusiastic about arming youth and workers. But communists are not pacifists. Every communist revolution has had to defend itself against massive armed attacks. We will not be wiped out because of underestimating the importance of armed struggle.
Let’s also remember that this is a temporary situation. Once capitalism and its supporters have been eliminated worldwide, that will be the end of guns being used against people. We may keep a few around, for sporting use or for use against wild animals. But never again will parents have to worry about their children being shot.
—Comrade in Canada
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