The following is a guest column I wrote for the Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard. By way of background, on January 30 the Eugene Police Department responded to a report that a window had been broken during a protest at ICE headquarters and that at one or more protestors had made attempts to enter.
EPD Chief Chris Skinner made the decision to declare the scene a riot and move in to form a wall between protesters and the building to protect anyone inside the building as well as protesters from a possible overreaction by those inside. Skinner released this statement that night.
While there was some controversy after the fact about whether protesters actually broke the window, it is irrelevant to the points that I make in my article. Please bear that in mind.
I
admire those responding to the brutal actions of ICE in the streets of
America’s cities and join Eugene protesters when I can. I was in town on the
day that ICE attacked protestors with chemical munitions but left before they
arrived. From comments I heard afterward, it appears that the incident provides
a learning opportunity for protesters in this leaderless movement.
I winced at the criticism of Chief Skinner’s statement about the EPD response
to the breaking of a window at the ICE building. Some tried to justify the
vandalism using too-familiar arguments that “everyone has the right to resist
in the way they see fit” and “destroying property is not violence.”
As Skinner explained, the EPD actions were justified not merely by the broken
window, but because it posed a credible threat to those inside the building.
Whatever one thinks of that logic, it is a mistake to make an enemy of EPD when
one is trying to repel a federal invasion and restore the rule of law. As
General McChrystal once said about winning hearts and minds, “…try to go to bed
with fewer enemies that (you) woke up with.”
Would-be revolutionaries should understand that deliberate property destruction
undermines popular support. Most Americans value civil order, even those who
realize we need radical change. Yet in Portland, some former Vietnam War
protestors defended damaging property and physically provoking the thugs Trump
sent to disrupt the Black Live Matter “riots.” Veterans of the anti-Vietnam War
movement should know better.
In the 1960s, the FBI paid agent provocateurs to do the same things in the
infamous COINTELPRO operation. While officially ended, COINTELPRO methods are
likely still being used. They have long been employed in other countries by the
CIA, which has historically worked closely with the FBI in both domestic and
international “national security” operations. This classic divide-and-conquer
tactic has been used by “democratic” countries to justify violence both at home
and abroad since the days of the British Empire.
The struggle to eradicate these modern brownshirts from our neighborhoods will
not be won by violence or property destruction. This battle is only one part of
a much larger war. We must acknowledge the fact that we live in the heart of an
empire that aspires to rule the world.
If we understand how this empire treats the citizens of countries it subjects
to illegal sanctions and proxy wars, we know that it does not hesitate to use
force to subdue resistance. Why then should we be surprised when “the chickens
come home to roost,” as Malcom X pointed out shortly before his assassination
in 1965?
Our aim must be to establish democracy in the US even as we work to end
US-sponsored violence abroad. This requires a strategy based on objectives
aimed at systematically undermining support for a system in which war and
domestic state violence have been normalized. Then we choose tactics that best
achieve those goals.
This is basic military logic. We are in essence creating a leaderless “army.”
Horizontal organization avoids putting targets on our backs, as the martyrs of
the 60s willingly did. Violence has no place in this form of asymmetric
“warfare.” Those who use it only hurt the cause. Only by forswearing violence
can we hope to prevail.
We can best honor all martyrs of the long struggle for peace and justice by
avoiding the use of the tools of the oppressor. Remember that our outrage
stems from our love of those victimized. Our response should reflect that love.
Violence only serves to justify more violence. Property destruction serves the
same purpose.
