Summit rhetoric hides
The class nature of violence
By Greg
Butterfield
The terrible shootings at Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colo., on April 20 have prompted a dialog among
various sectors of society, including poor and working people.
Many feel that violence by youths is rising and that a solution
must be found.
Unfortunately, the discussion has been framed by politicians
and corporate-dominated television and newspapers. These
mouthpieces for the wealthy are working overtime to channel
people's legitimate concerns to suit ruling-class interests,
and away from the real needs of the vast majority.
In Littleton, two white-supremacist youths--Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold--opened fire on their classmates and teachers on
the anniversary of Adolph Hitler's birth. They targeted one of
the school's few Black students plus 12 other students and two
teachers before turning their guns on themselves.
It was the latest in a string of school shootings since the
mid-1990s. Most of these incidents have occurred in rural,
predominately white areas.
Politicians and groups across the spectrum of capitalist
politics have raised demands for more police in schools, more
metal detectors, gun control, curfews, and censorship of films,
television and the Internet.
But are more repressive measures a legitimate solution? Or
does state repression in fact feed the climate that spawns
these reactionary acts of violence?
Those crying loudest for greater restrictions are liberal
supporters of the Clinton administration--which at this very
moment is waging a brutal, violent war against the people of
Yugoslavia. The far right, which openly fans the flames of
racism, sexism and homophobia, joins in, chanting about the
"breakdown of moral values."
Both views are completely divorced from the realities of
capitalist society. Neither has any value for the working class
and oppressed.
See how Clinton brought together a gaggle of media moguls,
corporate lobbyists and politicians May 10 for a high-profile
"summit" on youth violence in Washington. New York Times
reporter Katharine Q. Seelye described this farce:
"Sarah Brady, a crusader for gun control, found common
ground with Robert A. Ricker, a lobbyist for gun makers. Steve
Case, head of America Online, and Doug Lowenstein, a lobbyist
for video-game makers, agreed to try to prevent children from
buying some games on the Internet. And Eric Heydenberk, 12, of
Quakerstown, Pa., said he was creating a Web page to tell other
kids how to handle being bullied.
"Lots of small moments emerged from President Clinton's
three-hour `summit' meeting today on youths and violence, as
did a pledge by the Administration to campaign against
violence.
"But one immediate result of the talkathon, at which 50
people spoke and which reporters were barred from viewing, was
to diffuse blame for the school shootings in Littleton."
Clinton wasn't interested in laying blame at the feet of the
gun industry or Hollywood. High-ranking Democrats and
Republicans rely on them for major funding and political
sway.
No, his sights are fixed on increasing the violent powers of
the capitalist state--the police, the military, the courts and
prisons--by hiring more cops and forking more billions of
dollars into the Pentagon trough.
In that vein, discussion of state-sanctioned
violence--police brutality, the death penalty, the war--was
strictly taboo.
Afterward Clinton said: "This was exactly the kind of
session I had hoped for, where everyone was talking about the
problems and the opportunities. No one was pointing the finger
of blame." Certainly not at the government or the profit
system.
Yet on the same day all that hot air was being pumped in
Washington, a revealing admission came from Columbine High
School officials. Klebold's and Harris's English teacher had
warned their parents a month before the shootings about the
violent character of their sons' writings.
Why was nothing done?
When the teacher learned that Harris's father was a retired
Air Force officer and that his son hoped to enlist in the
military, the teacher concluded that the essay "was consistent
with his future career aspirations." (New York Times, May
11)
Democrats, Republicans and the media condemn violence "in
general" while carefully avoiding any mention of their
involvement in the brutal U.S./NATO war targeting civilians in
the Balkans.
Clinton may mildly rebuke the movie industry for excessive
violence, as he did in his May 15 radio address. But he's not
calling for an end to the glorification of the police in
movies, video games, or the evening news. Yet the epidemic of
racist police terror against Black and Latino youths is well
documented.
The truth is, all the hypocritical condemnations of violence
are part of a war of ideas being waged against young people.
The ruling class wants to twist the real lesson of the
Columbine tragedy by telling people they must never, ever
struggle against the powers that be.
Violence is often horrible--especially in a reactionary
climate like the one that has permeated the U.S. for a
generation. In the hands of the capitalist state, or those
influenced by it, guns are a means for enforcing the system's
built-in bigotry.
But armed resistance can be progressive and liberating.
That's the case when an oppressed community takes up guns to
defend itself against police and Klan terror--as the Deacons
for Defense and Justice and the Black Panther Party did in the
1960s. Or when an armed people rises up to oust imperialism, as
the Cuban and Vietnamese people have done. Or when, as happened
often in this century, workers take up arms to defend their
picket lines from goons and strikebreakers.
The real solution to reactionary outbursts of violence is to
build a militant, mass movement of the working class against
the racist and imperialist "official" violence wielded by the
government at home and abroad.
It's not an easy solution. But history has shown it is the
only real one.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page