Seriously, nothing good will come out of this, save a bit of schadenfreude. It will only enrage the far right even more and replacements will be found. Just like the daft idea of shooting Trump. He survived and made the most of it propaganda-wise. I am completely opposed to any idea of assassination of our opponents.
Let’s wait to see the results of the police investigation. At the time of writing no definitive evidence is in the public domain about the identity of the assassin.
I noticed some written references to the disastrous arson attack on the German Reichstag in the 1930’s which ultimately benefited the Nazi Hitler régime. An interesting history footnote : for decades I assumed, like many others, that the man convicted for setting the fire – Van der Lubbe – was innocent, and that the Nazis were the arsonists.
Wikipedia entry :
“Van der Lubbe and the four communists were the defendants in a trial that started in September 1933. It ended in the acquittal of the four communists and the conviction of Van der Lubbe, who was then executed. In 2008, Germany posthumously pardoned Van der Lubbe under a law introduced in 1998 to lift unjust verdicts from the Nazi era. The responsibility for the Reichstag fire remains a topic of debate, as while Van der Lubbe was found guilty, it is unclear whether he acted alone.[2][3] The consensus amongst historians is the Reichstag was set ablaze by Van der Lubbe;[4] some consider it to have been a part of a Nazi plot, a view Richard J. Evans labels a conspiracy theory.[5][6]”
I studied this – with the benefit of our friend 20-20 vision – and arrived at the conclusion that Van der Lubbe was the arsonist. The irony is that the Nazis were so reactionary and untrustworthy nobody believed their accusations on this incident. Also many felt “so what” – the Nazis are vermin.
Here is extra context written by a comrade, Adam Johannes :
Leon Trotsky and the Assasination of Charlie Kirk
When I was younger I joined a socialist group. They were always pressing books into our hands, and one writer who came up again and again was Trotsky, a Ukrainian Jew, an organiser, a revolutionary. His stuff could be hard going, but it was alive with arguments that made sense of the world. One piece that stuck with me was called Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism. In it, Trotsky cuts through the romance of lone heroes with guns and bombs.
Some people think you can change the world by killing a politician or blowing something up, the illusion that if you just take out the bad guy everything changes. But that doesn’t really touch the system itself.The politician just gets replaced, the government carries on, and the police come down harder on people:
“If it is enough to arm oneself with a pistol in order to achieve one’s goal, why the efforts of the class struggle? If a thimbleful of gunpowder and a little chunk of lead is enough to shoot the enemy through the neck, what need is there for a class organisation? If it makes sense to terrify highly placed personages with the roar of explosions, where is the need for the party? Why meetings, mass agitation and elections if one can so easily take aim at the ministerial bench from the gallery of parliament?”
Real change comes when we act together. Mass movements show people their power. A strike is far more radical than any bomb. It shows that if workers stop, everything stops. Strikes build confidence, community, and consciousness.
Terror sidelines collective democratic struggle. “Individual terror is inadmissible precisely because it belittles the role of the masses in their own consciousness, reconciles them to their powerlessness, and turns their eyes and hopes towards a great avenger and liberator who some day will come and accomplish his mission.”
After the bang, life returns to normal, only with more fear, repression, and disillusionment. Trotsky never dismisses anger. Anger is holy. It’s what keeps us alive in the face of so much cruelty. But the anger must aim higher, see further to the whole system that pushes us down, not just one manager. Revolutions aren’t made by a heroic few, but the awakening of millions who discover that together, they can change everything, stepping into the wild possibility of a different world.
US President Donald Trump is using this incident to inflame tensions :
He accused the “radical left” of comparing “wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals”.
“This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we are seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Trump’s political allies in Israel and Russia are adding fuel to the racist-reactionary fire :
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had invited Kirk to Israel just two weeks earlier, describing the 31-year-old as a “lion-hearted friend of Israel”.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy, posted on Telegram: “There was an attack on Charlie Kirk, one of the most ardent conservative leaders known for his positive statements about Russia and his calls for dialogue.”
A manhunt continues after two people who were arrested have since been released – officials say they have “no current ties” to the shooting
and
It’s not clear if police have any leads on the gunman – but authorities don’t seem to think they’re still on campus
An American comrade Ashley Smith notes :
Let’s be clear, the assassination of that bigot is a political gift to Trump and the far right. They will exploit it to escalate their war on democracy, workers, and the oppressed. But do not be intimidated. Continue to organize mass action against Trump’s authoritarian transformation of the US state and society.
Solidarity with all genuine left-wing activists based in the USA.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
Leave a comment