Responsibility

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Wed Jan 26 09:20:45 PST 2000


Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


>
> Unless we understand how corporate capitalism rules essentially without
> overt repression - we cannot effectively oppose it or even get our message
> to the people.

This is true. But it reminds me of Kenneth Burke's remarks on "essence." When someone says, "X is *essentially* true" they never mean, "X is true." If they did, they would not need the weasel word "essentially." Several points.

1) It is true, and not just essentially true, that capital in the U.S. tries so far as possible to rule without overt repression -- BY THE STATE.

2) The level of repression by non-state agencies has been *less* the last 30 years but has never disappeared -- and such repression has always been and continues to be supported by state power.

3) An essential part of capital's rule without overt represision is the weakening of labor's willingness and ability to fight through racism, and racism cannot continue without a good deal of overt state violence. That is, it requires state violence as part of the "smoke" of the ideological principle "where there's smoke there's fire." This is also, as Wojtek and Max have never been able to understand, the principle behind the use of capital punishment -- and why labor will never recover its former strength (electorally or otherwise) unless it makes opposition to the death penalty central to its struggles.

Carrol



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