gentrification

[Carl Remick]

> Another example of a left fetish is death
> penalty.  Opposing it made a lot of sense for the Left in the 
> time of Sacco
> and Vanzetti - but today this issue is mostly a shibboleth, a 
> spirit of the
> past struggle Marx talks about in the "18th brummaire" - 
> which at best has
> a marginal significance for the working class, but at worst 
> alienates left
> activists from working class who see this position as being 
> 'soft on crime'
> (rememeber that crime disproportionally affects the poor and the
> minorities).

I see opposition to the death penalty as neither fetish nor shibboleth
but as a core value the left must affirm.  The idea that the left must
accept capital punishment to avoid alienating working-class activists
sounds suspiciously like Bill Clinton's willingness to execute a
retarded man simply to ingratiate himself with voters.  Whatever
happened to consciousness-raising?

Carl