Sometimes I hang out with Maoists. But like many in this group I am not a Maoist myself (uphold Deng!). This makes it kind of hard to ask them tough questions because I dont want to sound like an idiot or some kind of wrecker that causes trouble among the Maoists but I would like to ask some questions. One tough question is the question of child soldiers.

Moaists in the Philippines and in India have been accused of using child soldiers for quite some time. Maybe im wrong but among communists it seems kind of specific to Maoists. But I have never even one time heard a Maoist bring this up much less try to give rationalization or explanation.

Now I know better than to just trust HRW and take them at face value, so I always figured its at least possible that there is more going on here. Does anyone here have anything to say about communists, especially Maoists, and child soldiers? Have you heard a Maoist respond to this issue? Do you have any insight to the issue of child soldiers?

  • SovereignState
    7•2 years ago

    Comrades have made excellent points in this thread. I do not know but do not think the NPA or the Indian Maoists are using child soldiers.

    Something that must be considered regarding human rights accusations about “recruiting” child soldiers is the fact that oftentimes throughout history imperialist forces were killing anyone and everyone. When the Americans invaded the Philippines they gave the order to murder anyone over 13. “Human rights organizations” in the U.S., if they existed at the time, would point out examples of said 13 year olds fighting for their lives against an overwhelming and brutal force as “child soldiers”, all the while forgoing criticizing their own militaries for murdering children, armed or unarmed. A modern example is in Afghanistan, Libya, Palestine and Iraq. A common trope pointed to by Human Rights NGOs and soldiers’ orgs was that “terrorists” would give children grenades and the children would run into platoons of soldiers. There are two ways to look at this.

    • The terrorists are violating international law and abusing these childrens’ human rights by making them fight. Why don’t their standing armies only recruit military aged men? What savagery!
    • The “standing armies” of these nations don’t actually exist. Either they never existed, they’ve functionally been wiped out, or they are compradors fighting on behalf of the invaders. The invaders are murdering and raping everyone and anyone including children, blowing up schools and hospitals. This is asymmetrical warfare fought by starving and desperate people against an overwhelming force willing to forgo human rights in any suicidal bid in protecting their homes and nations. It’s not right, but war is hell, especially when you have no guns or military.

    The first line is pushed by media and NGOs. The second line is closer to the truth. Invaders often show no quarter even to children. The nations they are invading are often underdeveloped. Children are starving and scared. They, and possibly the adults around them, feel they have no option but to fight.

    This is not to excuse or attempt to argue in favor of using child soldiers, it is an attempt to understand why they may appear. There are very clear cut cases of terrorist groups like Kony’s “Liberation Army” recruiting child soldiers basically for shits and giggles, because children are easily malleable and controllable. There are also not-so-clear cut cases of desperate peoples resorting to desperate measures.