[Marxism] 'Negroes with Guns'

[Walter Lippmann]

This discussion is supposed to be based on a discussion of Robert F.
Williams's 1962 book, NEGROES WITH GUNS.

Robert F. Williams wasn't organizing around the right of people to
individually own and operate guns. Because of the history of racist
violence against Black in the South, Williams, who had been a Korean
War veteran, was organizing a Black militia and its goal was to
protect the Black community against violence from the dominant white
racist people and their culture of violent suppression of Blacks. It
should prove useful here look at some of the history of these issues
and struggles to determine where they come from and which side
Marxists ought to be on? Charleton Heston or Robert F. Williams?

Wikipedia offers some informative background on these topics here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_the_United_States

Here is the Editor's Note and Epilogue to NEGROES WITH GUNS which
were written by the Marc Schleiffer, man who interviewed Rob Williams
during his exile in Havana, Cuba. If anything is obvious, Williams
wasn't talking about individual gun ownership. I just scanned this 
today after seeing the parts of Rob Williams's book Sukant posted.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs273.html 

The dominance of individualism, "rugged individualism" which is so
pervasive in this country plays a key role in giving a large number
(any number greater than zero is "large" in my book") the idea that
they have the right to pick up a gun to solve whatever problem they
think is bothering them. So it's this culture of individualism and
the glorification of the individual and (usually) HIS right to bear
arms and kill which is the problem here. Did someone suggest that
this problem was rooted in guns per se? I hadn't noticed that as
my view is that it's the cultural of violence, not the individual
ownership of handguns, which I see is the decisive element here.

GOT IT? Individualism and glorified violence, not merely gun
ownership by individuals. Individualism is one of the deepest,
most profound roots of most problems in this society!


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles, California
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MIKE FRIEDMAN writes:
You of all people should know, Walter, that maybe three quarters of the 
population in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and other countries in Latin America
own guns. Yet, the rate of gun-related violence is far lower there than it
is here. Why? Could it be that guns, per se, are not the problem?



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WALTER LIPPMANN
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
writer - photographer - activist
http://www.walterlippmann.com
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