Piven: Violence Is Okay if It's a 'Big Part of Your Strategy

In a way the least interesting part of this clip may be the part in the headline. Frances Fox Piven, of Cloward-Piven infamy (see James Simpson's analysis here), is talking about the Deacons of Defense and their role in the Civil Rights movement. She seems to be saying that the group was a proponent of violence rather than active defenders:

Two excerpts via NZPatriot:

"I have considerable respect for non-violence, but I don't treat it as inevitably a necessary rule. The reason I have respect for non-violence, is I think it helps to protect the protesters."

"Unless you have good reason for breaking the window, probably you shouldn't do that. Unless it's you know, a big part of your strategy."

Analysis via YourDaddy's Politics:

Had I not researched the Deacons a bit more and you read the rest of this article and watched Piven spew her hatred for America you would not have known these Deacons were armed militia that did not incite violence but defended against it.

The article referred to there is this one:

During a desegregation effort at the Jonesboro High School, the authorities brought up fire trucks and prepared to hose the black students attempting to enter the school. The Deacons pulled up and four men publicly loaded shotguns and then made it plain that the lead was for the firemen if they turned the hoses on. The firemen wisely beat a retreat.

This was a very significant event. This was a self-defense effort in the spirit of the American War for Independence. The government was attempting to exercise illegitimate power (enforcing an unbiblical law which by this time also violated federal law) and it was repulsed by the use of community force -- by the militia, if you will.

The Deacons were in the great tradition of American freedom -- liberty is not given by tyrants and thugs, it is wrested from their hands by force.