>One of my differences with the left opportunist line is over the role of
>the state. For some it is enough to be a marxist to oppose everything that
>your imperialist government may do. That is not the marxist theory of the
>state. A ruling class cannot hold state power without at times having to
>promote an agenda that appears to stand above classes, is ethical, and
>legal. Thus the law becomes a semi-autonomous terrain of struggle. Why will
>the US not sign up to the Rome Court on Crimes against Humanity??!!
Well, Chris can sign up as apparatchik to Louise Arbour's Kangaroo court if he wants to, but he shouldn't be invoking Marx's name for this shabby reactionary tactic. The operative part of the sentence
>A ruling class cannot hold state power without at times having to
>promote an agenda that appears to stand above classes, is ethical, and
>legal.
is "appears". Karl 'the state is the executive committee of the capitalist class' Marx did indeed argue that the ruling class has to promote an agenda that *appears* to stand above classes. The specific eg he had in mind was Louis Bonaparte, who made a show of restraining the right, before slaughtering the working class and its leaders. Hurrah for 'appearances'.
At to "ethical" and "legal" Chris should understand that it is precisely the form of 'ethics' and law, that human interests are fetishistically played back to us as alienated imperatives that stand above real people, and that this form entirely correlates to the subordination of man to the market.
What we ought to be doing with the war crimes court is not increasing its authority over the third world, but attacking it with every weapon at our disposal. Chris' reformism is all the more sad since there is not one shred of evidence that anything that the court will do will improve the lives of ordinary people.
After years of sucking up to the Soviet Union, the school yard weed is left without a bully to hide behind. Chris' replacement for the soviet tanks that were to institute Jerusalem, is Nato! -- Jim heartfield