Setting Sights: Histories and Reflections on Community Armed Self-Defense

by scott crow (Editor), Ward Churchill (Foreword by)

Overview

Decades ago, Malcolm X eloquently stated that communities have the legitimate right to defend themselves “by any means necessary” with any tool or tactic, including guns. This wide-ranging anthology uncovers the hidden histories and ideas of community armed self-defense, exploring how it has been used by marginalized and oppressed communities as well as anarchists and radicals within significant social movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Far from a call to arms, or a “how-to” manual for warfare, this volume offers histories, reflections, and questions about the role of firearms in small collective defense efforts and its place in larger efforts toward the creation of autonomy and liberation.

Featuring diverse perspectives from movements across the globe, Setting Sights includes vivid histories and personal reflections from both researchers and those who participated in community armed self-defense. Contributors include Dennis Banks, Kathleen Cleaver, Mabel Williams, Subcomandante Marcos, Kristian Williams, George Ciccariello-Maher, Ashanti Alston, and many more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629634449
Publisher:	PM Press
Publication date:	01/01/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

scott crow is an international speaker and author. His first book, Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy, and the Common Ground Collective, was included on NPR’s Top Summer Reads of 2015. Black Flags and Windmills has been translated into Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. He is a contributor to the books Grabbing Back: Essays Against the Global Land Grab, Witness to Betrayal, The Black Bloc Papers, and What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation.

Ward Churchill was, until moving to Atlanta in 2012, a member of the leadership council of Colorado AIM. He is a life member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and currently a member of the elders council of the original Rainbow Coalition, founded by Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in 1969. Now retired, Churchill was professor of American Indian Studies and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies until 2005, when he became the focus of a major academic freedom case. Among his two dozen books are Wielding Words Like Weapons and Pacifism as Pathology.

Table of Contents

Preface Scott Crow ix

Foreword Ward Churchill xi

Introduction scott crow 1

Analysis And Theory

Liberatory Community Armed Self-Defense: Approaches toward a Theory Scott crow 7

Politicians Love Gun Control: Reframing the Debate around Gun Ownership Neal Shirley/North Carolina Piece Corps 14

Gun Rights Are Civil Rights Kristian Williams Peter Little 30

Notes for a Critical Theory of Community Self-Defense Chad Kautzer 35

Three-Way Fight: Revolutionary Anti-Fascism and Armed Self-Defense J. Clark 49

The Liberation Gun: Symbolic Aspects of the Black Panther Party Ashanti Alston 68

Desire Armed: An Introduction to Armed Resistance and Revolution Western Unit Tactical Defense Caucus 74

Mischievous Elves: Defending a Broader Concept of the Self Leslie James Pickering 79

Antagonistic Violence: Approaches to the Armed Struggle in Urban Environments from an Anarchist Perspective Gustavo Rodríguez 82

Ten Ways to Advance Liberatory Community Armed Self-Defense North Carolina Piece Corps 92

Histories Of The Twentieth And Twenty-First Centuries

Russian Anarchists and the Civil War, 1917-1922 Paul Avrich 97

Not Only a Right but a Duty: The Industrial Workers of the World Take Up the Gun in Centralia, Washington, 1919 Shawn Stevenson 105

The People Armed: Women in the 1930s Spanish Revolution Anti-Fascist Action UK 113

Schwarze Scharen: Anarcho-Syndicalist Militias in Germany, 1929-1933 Helge Döhring Gabriel Kuhn 121

Other Stories from the Civil Rights Movement: A Spectrum of Community Defense Lamont Carter scott crow 131

Negroes with Guns: Oral History Interview with Mabel Williams David Cecelski 143

Self-Respect, Self-Defense, and Self-Determination: A Presentation Kathleen Cleaver Mabel Williams Angela Y. Davis 147

Repression Breeds Resistance: The Black Liberation Army and the Radical Legacy of the Black Panther Party Akinyele Omowale Umoja 154

Drifting from the Mainstream: A Chronicle of Early Anti-rape Organizing and WASP Nikki Craft 168

Oka Crisis of 1990: Indigenous Armed Self-Defense and Organization in Canada Gord Hill 176

We Refuse to Die: An Interview with Dennis Banks scott crow 185

Ampo Camp and the American Indian Movement: Native Resistance in the U.S. Pacific Northwest Michele Rene Weston 191

Mujeres en Acción: Indigenous Women's Activism within the EZLN Laura Gallery 201

Twelve Women in the Twelfth Year: January 1994 Subcomandante Marcos 207

On Violence, Disasters, Defense, and Transformation: Setting Sights for the Future scott crow 216

Gut Check Time: Violence and Resistance after Hurricane Katrina Suncere Shakur 230

Breaking the Curse of Forgotten Places in Mexico Simón Sedillo 237

Feminism, Guns, and Anarchy in the Twenty-First Century: A Southern U.S. Story Mo Karnage 248

Defending Communities, Demanding Autonomy: Self-Defense Militias in Venezuela's Barrios George Ciccariello-Maher 257

Toward a Redneck Revolt Dave Strano 263

Defense in Dallas in the Twenty-First Century: An Interview with Members of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Interview scott crow 268

Trial by Fire: Democracy and Self-Defense in Rojava Alexander Reid Ross Ian LaVallee 272

Bibliography 282

Glossary 286

Acknowledgments 288

Contributors 290

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

This book is a must read. It looks like self-defense and resistance today, but it is more. It is about courage, lucidity, and tools to create new worlds under the storm, in the midst of disaster.”
—Gustavo Esteva, founder of the Universidad de la Tierra and author of The Future of Development: A Radical Manifesto

“In Setting Sights, scott crow pulls together an important collection of historic and contemporary essays and interviews on politically informed armed self-defense. Thoughtful, considered, compelling, and even provocative, this edited collection brings together many perspectives, raises important questions, and gives considerable attention to the ways race and gender inform these crucial issues.”
—Emilye Crosby, author of A Little Taste of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi

“This provocative book, well worth reading, confirms that there is intellectual heft in revolutionary ideas. A valuable contribution to the history of community self-defense.”
—Charlie E. Cobb Jr., author of This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible

“An extensive volume that vividly illustrates the foundations and necessity of community armed defense in struggles for freedom against injustice and racism.”
—Robert Hillary King, author of From the Bottom of the Heap

“. . . crow is considered armed and dangerous. He is proactive in civil disobedience skills and goes to events to instigate trouble.”
—FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force

From the Publisher