Reparations revived; was; Defacing Websites

Kelley Walker kelley at interpactinc.com
Fri Mar 30 09:11:50 PST 2001


At 11:35 AM 3/30/01 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Kelley Walker wrote:
>
>>anyway, i think calling it a "crime against humanity" is a cop out that
>>does implicate capitalism as much as i want.
>
>I could say that capitalism itself is a crime against humanity, which it
>is, but somehow slavery strikes me as several degrees more criminal. Maybe
>I'm just in the grip of liberty, equality, and Bentham.
>
>Doug

i was thinking that by focusing specifically on capitalism and by eschewing talk of a "crime against humanity" then we are actually foregrounding the bigger question of what exactly is wrong with capitalism. setting the stage, tilling the soil, so to speak.

tactically, i think it worth while to pound that one home-- the slavery has everything to do with capitalism. i'm thinking of the discussion of capitalism v/ socialism and the capacity for crimes against humanity. the very logic of captialism drives toward those kinds of crimes whereas this is not the case re socialism where the crimes had little to do with the inherent logic of socialism.

most people don't get that one -- and yeah, i know about the debates over this issue IN marxist circles over this issue.

kelley



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