Smash Pacifism - Warrior Publications

Introduction
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“In India we want no political strikes... We must gain control over all the unruly and disturbing
elements or isolate them... We seek not to destroy capital or capitalists, but to regulate the relations between
capital and labour.”
(Gandhi, quoted in India and the Raj, p. 219)
“The American racial revolution has been a revolution to 'get in' rather than overthrow. We want a
share in the American economy, the housing market, the educational system and the social opportunities. This
goal itself indicates that a social change in America must be nonviolent.
“If one is in search of a better job, it does no help to burn down the factory. If one needs more
adequate education, shooting the principal will not help, or if housing is the goal, only building and
construction will produce that end. To destroy anything, person or property, can't bring us closer to the goal
that we seek.”
(Martin Luther King, quoted in I Have A Dream, p. 130)
“The liberal is so preoccupied with stopping confrontation that he usually finds himself defending and
calling for law and order, the law and order of the oppressor. Confrontation would disrupt the smooth
functioning of the society and so the politics of the liberal leads him into a position where he finds himself
politically aligned with the oppressor rather than with the oppressed.
“The reason the liberal seeks to stop confrontation... is that his role, regardless of what he says, is
really to maintain the status quo, rather than to change it. He enjoys economic stability from the status quo
and if he fights for change he is risking his economic stability...”
(Stokely Speaks, 170)
Non-violence as an ideology adopted by social
movements is a relatively new phenomenon. While people
have used both violent and non-violent methods throughout
history in struggles against oppression, depending on
circumstances, it was not until the late 19th century that
non-violence came to be promoted as a philosophy
applicable to political action. By the early 20th century,
groups began to emerge claiming nonviolence was the only
way to establish a utopian society.
Most of these groups and their intellectuals derived
their philosophies from organized religions such as
Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Within these
religions were sects that advocated pacifism as a way of
life. Often overlooked in critiques of pacifism, this religious
origin is an important factor in understanding pacifism and
its methods (i.e., missionary-style organizing, claims of
moral superiority, appeals to faith and not reason, etc.).
Ironically, considering that the most demonized
group by pacifists today are militant anarchists, the leading
proponents of pacifism in the 19th century also proclaimed
themselves as anarchists: Henry David Thoreau and Leo
Tolstoy (as would Gandhi).
In 1849, Thoreau published his book Civil
Disobedience, which outlined his anti-government beliefs
and non-violent philosophy. This, in turn, influenced
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Tolstoy, who in 1894 published The Kingdom of God is
Within You, a primer on his own Christian pacifist beliefs.
The idea of non-violence did not gain a large
following, however, and indeed the 19th and early 20th
centuries were ones of widespread violence and social
conflict throughout Europe and N. America, as well as in
Asia, Africa, and South America.
The first significant movement to emerge
proclaiming pacifism as the only way was led by Mahatma
Gandhi. It is based on this that the entire pacifist mythology
of nonviolent struggle is formed, with Gandhi as its
figurehead. Yet, Gandhian pacifism would still be seen as a
strictly 'Third World' peasant phenomenon if it were not for
Martin Luther King's promotion of it during the Black civil
rights struggle in the US during the 1950s and '60s.
Today, there are many well intentioned people who
think they know the history of Gandhi and King. They
assume that nonviolence won the struggle for Indian
independence, and that Blacks in the US are equal citizens
because of the nonviolent protests of the 1950s.
Pacifist ideologues promote this version of history
because it reinforces their ideology of nonviolence, and
therefore their control over social movements, based on the
alleged moral, political, and tactical superiority of