No to revolutionary terrorism!
The murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson must be loudly condemned
Following the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the internet was full of commentary. Zeynep Tufekci, in an opinion piece in The New York Times on December 6, 2024, entitled “The Rage and Glee That Followed a C.E.O.’s Killing Should Ring All Alarms,” writes that “I’ve been studying social media for a long time, and I can’t think of any other incident when a murder in this country has been so openly celebrated.” Tufekci is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University.
Initially, Tufekci reports, minutes after the news broke and before any details were available, the internet was full of speculation that the company had refused insurance coverage for the killer. It subsequently was reported that bullet casings bearing the words “delay,” deny,” and “depose” were found at the scene, suggesting a critique of insurance companies for delaying and denying claims and the need to depose persons from high positions. When the bullet casing information was reported to the public, it launched an avalanche of commentaries. Some compared the shooter to John Q, a fictional father in a 2002 movie, who holds an emergency room hostage after a health insurance company refused to cover his son’s lifesaving transplant. Many urged people with information concerning the killing to not share it with the authorities, and the names and photos of other health insurance executives were disseminated.
Tufekci observes that the current conditions in the nation are unique in its history. Today executive wealth is more concentrated than ever, and it has enabled the wealthy to wield political influence. At the same time, the nation has passed through a similar period before, Tufekci observes, from 1870 to 1900, when the concentration of industry enabled rapid technological change and stimulated the intensification of mass immigration from Europe and Asia. Mark Twain referred to it as the Gilded Age, a time of corruption, greed, and Robber Barons that accumulated wealth and power through unfair and unethical business practices. Tufekci writes that intense political violence erupted during the period, and that “the vast inequities of the era fueled political movements that targeted corporate titans, politicians, judges and others for violence.”
Because of the similarity between the Gilded Age and our own times, Tufekci believes that the United States could enter into another cycle of violence. He notes that the people have lost trust in the nation’s institutions, and a 2023 opinion poll indicated that an increasing number of people agree with the statement that “American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save the country.” And in the new wave of political violence that may come, it is likely that new technologies will be used, such as “artificial-intelligence-powered drones equipped with facial recognition cameras.”
In response to the potential threat of political violence, Tufekci believes that corporate executives, lacking the capacity to push for “broad public solutions,” will likely turn to beefing up security and retreating to a world of gated communities, high-tech surveillance, armed security entourages, and private jets. Contact between the extremely wealthy and the rest of us will occur less and less.
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On revolutionary terror
It is indeed the case that the corporate class in America has engaged in crimes against the people and the nation, and they do so with impunity, without the possibility of being punished for their true crimes. And some of them can be identified as particularly blameworthy.
The extrajudicial execution of individuals by revolutionary movements has precedent. In modern revolutionary movements against brutal regimes, assassinations of officials of the state that were known for their brutality were carried out, and collaborators with the regime also were killed. In fact, such assassinations of individuals—in retribution for their specific role—is what was originally meant by terrorism, as distinct from the post-1967 form of terrorism, involving the indiscriminate killing of civilians.
However, terrorism in its original sense was used on a very limited scale, even in situations in which the struggle took the form of a guerrilla war. The Communist International took an explicit position against terrorism, and it prohibited its member parties from practicing it. Fidel’s July 26 Movement in Cuba rejected the practice as immoral and unethical and as a dysfunctional political strategy that would turn many of the people against the movement. We today ought to be influenced by these important historical condemnations of extrajudicial assassinations of the wielders of power.
Those who suggest that clandestine assassins of the powerful are heroes who ought not to be punished are indulging in infantile talk, undermining the possibilities for the true attainment of political power by delegates of the people. We need a mature political reflection and critical analysis that outlines the necessary road for the taking of political power by the people, thereby providing the foundation for changes in policies. We must ask, what has the killing of Brian Thompson done to improve the people’s access to health care? If the tactic of revolutionary terror were to be used with regularity, how might it shape the attitude of the people toward movements for social change?
The killing of individuals in positions of power, even when blameworthy, is not the way. The revolutionary road consists of naming and analyzing the structures of domination and superexploitation. The revolutionary road involves the political education of movement members and the people, and being with and serving the people in solidarity, thereby building the respect and support of the people.
True revolutionaries are clear on their goal of taking political power on the basis of the backing of the people. Taking political power through non-violent means, although armed for self-defense. Taking political power as a mature political party or social movement with the capacity to defend the interests of the people, serving the nation and the just causes as a vanguard in power that leads the people in socialist construction.
All who hope for a renewed nation that fulfills its historic promise of democracy for all and who hope for a more just, democratic, and sustainable world order ought to loudly and clearly condemn the killing of Brian Thompson.
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