> On Apr 21, 2026, at 15:41, Charles via groups.io > <[email protected]> wrote: > > I heard the account of events from someone who was there, someone who was > talking to a group not only to me, someone who had a lot to lose in respect > by this group if he was not reliable. > > Comparing the details I presented with your reworking of them, the b.s. comes > from you.
Here's the only verifiable detail that we have discussed: NG were deployed to the streets of Minneapolis/St Paul. That fact causes me to question the report that the NG were too unreliable to deploy weeks earlier. Let's just assume, however, that your source is correct: The first time the NG were activated for the streets, commanders determined that the troops were too unreliable to use, and the second time they were reliable enough to use. Fine. In that case, why expend organizing effort trying to get troops to refuse orders or exit the service? If troops are ready to rebel against their misuse, why not channel that into cooperative action rather than individual acts of conscience? Urge troops to use their rights, such as to petition congress to stop their deployment. Class-struggle strategies counter the power of capital with the power of mobilized masses. A large social movement can often find support inside a mass military organization, and even the US Marines in the case of the Black Power movement. From a class-struggle perspective, a mass organization is likely to have the political currents from the general population particularly if a mass movement reaches out to troops. It's happened in the past: Movements politically split the population, and those splits appear in the military, particularly the Army; the result may be an army with hostile internal camps (Oliver Stone's "Platoon"). In the US Vietnam war, the only thing troops could agree on by 1970 was Fuck the Army. Dennis mentioned dogmatic purism, but I think the approach I am describing applies historical lessons going back to Zimmerwald, such as pacifism versus revolutionary defeatism. I would start with the lessons of the past before innovating. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41543): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41543 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118937890/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
