VIOLENCE AGAINST HUMANS

It must be said that violence against people goes against core leftist beliefs including our opposition to oppression and our commitment to everyone's right to live with dignity. Beyond that, hurting people is often tactically ineffective. In most cases, violence only hands authoritarians a convenient excuse to launch crackdowns and purges, leaving our movement weaker than before. Meanwhile, the system itself keeps running smoothly, since whoever we targeted is quickly replaced. Even so, violence against leftists has a long and painful history, both in the United States and abroad. For that reason, our movement needs to understand how our opponents operate and be prepared for the rare situations where violence may be tactically necessary. In the words of Malcolm X, “I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.”