In response to my calls for nonviolent social action (to overturn patriarchy and capitalism), a number of people ask what I would propose in the event we are attacked. They pose this question as if they think it represents a conundrum or as if it exposes a weakness in a proactive nonviolent strategy. I certainly have no objection to preparations for self-defense. Its the prudent thing to do. But if we are smart about our strategy, then it will be impervious to attack to begin with. Imagine, for instance, a working class D Day, in which, through global coordinated action, working people in key industries simply refuse to take direction from the business owners. This means the people on the production lines would answer only to themselves. It means the farmers, cooks, carpenters, and engineers would simply refuse to recognize the authority of the owners and their delegates. What do you suppose would happen as a result? If no fewer than just over a third of us (thirty-six to thirty-eight percent) — in the key industries of agriculture, water works, telecommunications, transportation, energy, education (to name a few) — reported on the job but then simply performed our work in a way accountable only to ourselves, what do you suppose management would do? The answer I usually get is that business owners would retaliate. They would strike out. They would respond with violence against us. But no one (with this view) ever plots out for me exactly how this would take place. So lets do that now. Can you imagine if employers en masse, in city after city, called the police to report that their employees are insubordinate? Can you imagine telephone PBX systems and switchboards flooded with reports of this heinous crime? Under such circumstances, what do you suppose the police would do? Keep in mind that as part of this action of non-compliance, no working person would be violent. No working person would be armed. No working person would even refuse to perform their work. They would simply refuse to take any further direction from their bosses. And instead they would take ownership of the enterprise over which they already have control. You may ask about a general strike instead, and many people on the Left do call for this. But I oppose it for two reasons. First, it sends the message that we must appeal to the ownership class for concessions, as if it has any real power or validity. Second, it places working people at great risk because all production then would stop. We dont have to appeal to anyone. We dont have to ask permission to take moral ownership of what belongs to us already. So long as we maintain our unity and solidarity, the power lies with us. Indeed, the only reason capitalism continues is by means of our support. And thus we need not attack the halls of capital so much as only to stop co-operating with it. As working people, we dont need the capital class at all. Its the capital class which desperately needs us. It needs our labor, for it is the sole source of the wealth which it steals. And in order to put a stop to this, we need not cease to work altogether in a general strike. Instead, we can simply work for ourselves. We can serve notice to the business owners that we no longer recognize their authority. You may ask what would happen if the business owners were to retaliate against us for this action of noncompliance. But how do you suppose they would do this? The capital ruling class never does its own dirty work. It hires members of our own ranks to enforce its unjust laws and do its fighting. And thus part of our education campaign must be to open the eyes of working people in all sectors of society. And this includes law enforcement. But even if we fail to reach the people so deeply indoctrinated in nationalism (as the police and military), when our strategy includes the mass renunciation of the value of money, what will the ruling class pay its soldiers with? Valueless paper? How inclined do you suppose the police will be to follow the orders of the ruling class when their money has no value because we, as working people, will have used a strategy to ignore all money and in fact to burn it in bonfires on the streets? So dont be so quick to call for violent revolution. Violence is wholly unnecessary and counterproductive. Indeed, that we fear the ruling class so much, even when we speak of our socialist revolution, only illustrates how locked we are into old ways of thinking. When we neutralize the wealth of the ruling class, it will become powerless. We have nothing to fear except the consequences of doing nothing.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 22:21:11 +0000
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