-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Eric Beck Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 4:10 PM To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] lbo-talk Digest, Vol 1736, Issue 3
On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net>
wrote:
>
> Joanna wrote:
>
>>The current prison industrial complex regime
>
> We seem to be stuck with this term but there are real problems with it.
The hyphen is helpful here: "prison-industrial." They are still too separate things, fused under certain conditions but not the same thing. I think there are problems with it if you think every activity under capitalism is about money-making. Prisons clearly are not; in fact, they could be seen as a huge drain on profit-making.
I agree, & never use the phrse "prison-industrial complex" -- for the reasons you give. Some individual firms milk prisons, but that does not make profits a driving force behind the prison system.
What is vital politically is to see that the repressive machinery that for the most part is _now_ focused on Blacks, migrants, Arabs is built for what one might call 'grander" purposes -- to get US if we become too dangerous. That's why the fight against institutional racism has nothing to do with individual attitudes; it's a fight to create the working class as a fighting class -- to make it fit to fight.
Carrol