I believe that due to the inherent contradictions of capitalism a revolution is inevitable, and necessary, but it's still not something that is easily palatable. Revolution is certainly romanticized, yet I still question every day whether or not I would be willing to die for my beliefs. My question to my fellow comrades is do you think non-violent form of revolution is possible, or will the state and reactionaries always crack down? I know that in the past those with power and prestige have been reluctant to give it up.
A state will never capitulate to a peaceful movement, because it simply has no reason to do so. A state will never capitulate to a violent movement, because admitting the legitimacy of some other group's use of violence damages the fundamental basis of statehood. However, states do sometimes capitulate to peaceful movements that have the same goals as violent movements, as this pacifies the violent movement without legitimizing their use of force. This can be seen with MLK and the Black Panthers, or Gandhi and Indian revolutionary movements.
I mean, sometimes they capitulate to violent movements. You know, when the movement has more guns and is pointing them at their face.
Hah, yeah. Violent movements can succeed, but success for them is replacing the state outright (and this is probably the origin story for any given state).
You don’t necessarily need more guns. You won’t ever have more guns. You need the masses. The masses are brilliant and will weaponize everything they touch.
In the Peruvian example, the guerrillas were able to start rolling blackouts as they moved towards Lima. Most of the guerrillas were poorly armed, and used liberated dynamite from mining operations as a primary weapon. They were vastly outgunned.
How did they do this? An epic gun battle at the power company? Commando raids? Nope. The technicians themselves were supporters!