[lbo-talk] Black Panther Coloring Book

[Wojtek S]

I do not want to split hair, but they did not stand a chance -
cointelpro or not.  No armed insurrection in the US stands a chance.
Far better armed and organized efforts, such as 'coal wars' were
defeated, mainly by private goons only with relatively small
government help.  And then there is the Civil War - the confederates
showed tactical superiority over the federals (regardless of what one
may think of their cause) - but they were defeated too.  So what makes
you think that the Panthers had a chance if it were not for
cointelrpo?

If you want my opinion, strategic deployment of political action on
multiple fronts, from community organizing to forming alliances at the
federal level - such as that pursued by MLK - can produce far better
results than "direct action."  In fact, gun toting is not only silly
but also counterproductive - as it legitimizes repression and the use
of violence by the other side.

And this is true of other countries as well.  The Red Army Faction and
the Red Brigades tried that in Europe and failed miserably, and so did
the Basques.  It gets much worse in such bastions of democracy and
human rights as Turkey, Peru, or Mexico.  Kenya can be especially
illustrative: while the Mau Mau uprising was thoroughly defeated,
Kenyatta's political action led to national independence.   So
democracy or not, armed rebellion against modern state stands zero
chance of success.

Wojtek

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 1:33 PM, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:
> At 05:51 PM 10/27/2010, Wojtek S wrote:
>
>
>> It seems that the Panther trick that you describe is even less
>> effective than terror "sting" operations because it does not produce
>> any visible results,
>
>
> Unless you count utter destruction of the Black Panthers.  COINTELPRO was
> very effective.
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