Death Penalty, the Labor Party, & Political Responsibility (was Re: Breaking Butterflies & Poisoning Wells)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Tue Feb 8 17:36:50 PST 2000


Wojtek:

Yes, I understand where you are coming from. You don't hold the view that Max does, since your personal belief is against death penalty; you just think that taking up this cause doesn't help the working class at all, nor do most workers see the issue the way I do. Critics of the Free Mumia movement, especially your fellow Labor Party member Doug, have to either win people like you over to their side or reduce your camp to a minority. I don't know if either is possible, but unless Doug, etc. can do so, they are not in a position to criticize the Free Mumia movement, for sure.

In any case, I agree with you that this is a tremendously difficult cause, on which you can spend any amount of time _without making one bit of progress_ (I speak from experience here -- it's rather depressing trying to pass leaflets against death penalty and getting abusive remarks from passers-by, to be honest). So, you figure it's not only pointless but harmful to work on it, for it is likely to divert our energy from what can be achieved. You may be entirely in the right, as far as your assessment of the present is concerned. Still and all, I believe that the working class have to wake up and dismantle Lockdown America because it's not in our objective interest. Chalk it up to my mulish obstinacy, cultivated during the hours spent analyzing literature, no doubt.

Yoshie



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list