walter daum wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Jan 2000 17:07:50 -0500 Wojtek Sokolowski said:
> >
> >Charles, I argued that the while the left's critique of the crimizal
> >justice system was justified in the past because that system was used to
> >suppress working class movement - that critiqu is NOT justified today,
> >because the crimnal justice system is not used in that capacity anymore.
>
> Not so. It was just used in New York City to suppress a possible transit
> workers' strike. Mayor Giuliani got a judge to issue an injunction fining
> the union a million dollars and each worker $25,000 for the first strike
> day, with the fines doubling each day, along with jail time -- not just
> for striking but for any act or utterance that suggested a strike or
> even used the word.
>
> At a mass meeting the workers nevertheless voted unanimously to strike, but (to
> make an interesting story short) their leadership decided to settle for a lot
> less than the members wanted and were willing to strike for. Giuliani had
> workers' demonstrations heavily patrolled by cops; and the day after
> the settlement, the subways were swarming with them, looking out for
> any hint of a workers' slowdown.
>
> The criminal justice system was used precisely to squelch working-class
> action. And it succeeded, at least for the moment. (There remains a campaign
> to reject the proposed contract ....)
>
> I'm sure there are other examples in other places. This just happened to
> be one I know about firsthand.
If I understand Wojtek's arguments in past posts correctly, he argues that the oppressions and exploitation that blacks suffer is due to *class* not racial oppression. Now he argues that the police power of the state is not being used for the repression of labor. I don't understand.
Even if his argument, as quoted above, were true, it would constitute merely an observation on the present state of the class struggle, which may be described as a war in which only one side (the capitalists) know they are at war. It is certainly true that as long as labor does not offer any effective resistance to capital the police power will not be used for active repression. There is every reason to simply assume, not argue, that whenever labor became threatening, "the crimizal justice system . . .[would again be used] to suppress working class movement." Wojtek treats a temporary state of the class war as though it were a permanent change in capitalism.
Carrol