Posted on 02/06/2005 5:26:49 PM PST by ken21
[An Phoblacht/Republican News]
The limits of pacificism
Pacifism as Pathology By Ward Churchill Published by Arbeiter Ring (e mail: arbeiter@tao.ca)
I would recommend to republicans a new book entitled ``Pacifism as Pathology: Reflections on the Role of Armed Struggle in North America.'' It is a re-introduction of an essay written by Ward Churchill in 1984. This version includes a supplementary essay by Canadian anti-imperialist Mike Ryan, and an introduction by recently-released American anti-imperialist POW Ed Mead. I think it could be a valuable resource for republicans and their allies.
Ward Churchill, who is of American Indian descent, served for a short time as an Army Ranger in Vietnam. After a short time he realised that he was doing to the Vietnamese what had been done to his people by the US government. He refused to go out anymore, and was soon sent back home.
Immediately after his plane landed in Chicago, he called Students for a Democratic Society, and became an organiser with them. He lived in Peoria, Illinois and had a room-mate who was a Black Panther, named Mark Clark.
In December 1969, when Chicago Police killed Black Panther Fred Hampton in a shoot-to-kill operation, they also killed Clark.
Churchill also became a member of the American Indian Movement at the time that it was engaged in armed conflict with the Federal government in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. He spent some time as a national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Despite not having a PhD, Ward's incredible intellect and writing ability has earned him a top place in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado in Boulder. I can hardly think of an issue he hasn't written about, but along with his work in American Indian Studies, he has also co-authored the standard works on the FBI's ``internal security'' campaigns (such as against the Black Panthers, labour, etc).
The book's main thrust is to analyze and tear apart the ideology of pacifism, explaining how it is, in many ways (as it is usually but not always practiced), a counter-revolutionary ideology. How in many cases pacifism allows people to pose as revolutionaries while ensuring that they are not in harm's way. Churchill argues that pacifism leads to liberalism and limits the ability of popular movements to create real change.
It is also argued that European-American pacifists, intentionally or not, ensure that the burden of violence is on non-European-American and Third World communities who are the most vulnerable to state violence and often have no real choice other than to use physical force in defence and in altering their situation.
Ward concentrates extensively on the Jewish Holocaust, pointing out that the overwhelming response of Jews was non-violence, but that when they did use violence they succeeded in destroying one entire camp, and one of the furnaces at Auschwitz.
Churchill does not advocate a shift from pacifism (especially if practiced in the purest form) to some kind of ``culture of violence.'' He is merely suggesting that left-wing and/or anti-imperialist movements should feel free to keep all options open, from rallies and petitions to armed self-defence to armed struggle and that this should be accepted by those who are not directly involved but who support the oppressed.
Mike Ryan quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. as saying: ``Whether they read Ghandi or Frantz Fanon, all radicals understand the need for action - direct, self-transforming and structure-transforming action.'' The point is that opposing repression and poverty and dismantling the structures which perpetuate them is more important than keeping ourselves out of harm's way.
As Ed Mead puts it, ``the question is not whether to use violence in the global class struggle to end the rule of international imperialism, but only when to use it.''
By Tom Shelley
he's been at this most of his life.
i'm tending to rush's argument:
that he's of more use to us in his teaching job at cu-boulder.
he's on display for all to see.
fine. you insult others when you arrive late and assume you know something we don't already know.
Snapple, the "democratic left in America" (read: Neo-Stalinists) have EVERYTHING in common with Ward Churchill.
Professor Churchill is the Pig.
Listen, you probably don't know this, but Ward Churchill -- who claims to be an Indian -- isn't!
I know you weren't aware of this, so I wanted to educate you.
You can thank me for my teaching, later.
i agree with your neo-stalinism.
but explain this curiosity: several days ago a lawyer and professor at the university of colorado wrote an article, posted on fr, attacking churchill for being a "fascist"!
isn't that choice?
are the communist faculty trying to divorce themselves from churchill by calling him a fascist?
That is why the univesity seems to be on a mission to dump this cretin.
DO try to keep up, though. It's tiring to need to educate you about this man!
Do you know what the statistics are on the grades Churchill actually gives. I'm willing to bet that the average grade is an A-.
yeah, that's what you said yesterday.
it's probably the truth. they need all the cannon fodder they can get, to spread their hate widely.
Quote from the article:
".......Churchill does not advocate a shift from pacifism (especially if practiced in the purest form) to some kind of 'culture of violence'. He is merely suggesting that left-wing and/or anti-imperialist movements should feel free to keep all options open, from rallies and petitions to armed self-defence to armed struggle and that this should be accepted by those who are not directly involved but who support the oppressed.......".
So let me get this straight, he doesn't support violence except where he deems violence is necessary to accomplish his philosophical goals.
Huh?
Weasel words.
The thing is, it should be easy enough to discover. Those kinds of statistics should be public knowledge.
but grades are not.
one time i inquired of a university, and indeed the information is in the public domain, but getting to it is another matter:
they would give me the raw data on a computer tape and written in a social sciences software language!
so, you can get it, if you want it, and can interpret it.
I understand that individual grades cannot be public, but course averages ought to be. Evaluations of professors by students are public.
FOFLOL!
I'm on these WC threads for a reason...gathering and saving the facts. You just happen to go on them to repeat the same,sad statement.
Thanks for you incivility and superciliousness.
Please cite any evidence you have that Ward was a Ranger in Vietnam.
i've never posted to churchill's alleged military experience.
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