January 5, 2020

SAINT LOUIS: Five comrades from FTP-STL’s security bureau spent Sunday afternoon hiking, climbing hills, and crossing creeks in rural Jefferson County, Missouri to initiate a monthly program where comrades are disciplined under the slogan, “Civilize the Mind, Make Savage The Body”. The meaning of this slogan is that as we politically educate ourselves and sharpen our minds to better solve the contradictions facing our city, we must also build up our physical capabilities to enable us to do more and more for the people, and for our comrades.

One comrade who grew up in the city and had never went on such an excursion before was initially apprehensive, but in the presence and fellowship of comrades, and after gentle-natured criticism, he eventually realized the importance of this program and explored, climbed, and leaped over creeks like a natural outdoorsman, expressing high interest in next month’s session. FTP-STL’s security bureau is also in the process of developing individual training regimens for each member tailored to their own particular physical conditions and needs, in the spirit of accessibility and the idea that each comrade must be able to defend themselves and others if need be. This is in line with our national principle of unity: “We are organizations dedicated to learning, practicing, and teaching both armed and unarmed self defense. We encourage FTP members to be familiar with defending themselves and others, the operation and handling of firearms and other weapons, along with hand-to-hand combat.”

It’s a common notion that hiking, trekking, tracking, camping, shooting, hand to hand combat and and other such skills are the province of the right. The Left is supposedly only adept at polemicizing and complaining, and is apparently more at home in a sterile academic environment, as opposed to the woods, or neighborhoods like those found North of Delmar in STL. Organizations like FTP-OK, FTP-STL, and others that develop these types of training regimens disprove these myths.

As we learn through practice and develop further, we will begin doing these sessions more frequently, and invite comrades from organizations that we are in solidarity with, whether they be other FTP branches or not, to participate with us, along with members of the basic masses that we seek to organize into People’s Councils starting in our base neighborhoods this year. We will also incorporate a political education segment into these sessions, working in close coordination with FTP-STL’s education bureau.

This country is rapidly changing, and reactionaries are sharpening their bodies and weapons. The Left must do the same, and it must rely not only on its own strength and its own weapons, but the masses, who must also be armed, trained, and organized. Likewise, revolutionaries must learn from, and be humbled by the masses.