[lbo-talk] UK threatens to storm Ecuadorean Embassy, kidnap Assange

[Bill Bartlett]

It is one thing to oppose capitalism, but in the context of a 
capitalist economic system, the capitalist political state is a 
necessity. And a police force is also a necessity in that context. 
The capitalist system is the law of the jungle, economically. The 
social conditions it creates require the state to maintain some 
semblance of order.  The rule of law is the best that can be hoped 
for in a class society, to oppose it on principle is to advocate 
arbitrary and capricious authority.

As for opposing laws against inciting violence and oppression against 
certain classes of people, I reject that also. Such incitement cannot 
be tolerated and those who incite hatred should be locked up.

Julian Assuange has not actually been accused of any crime anywhere 
that I am aware of. Likely the USA legal system would be able to 
concoct something, if they could get their hands on him. Which is why 
Assange is so desperate to avoid being anywhere near the jurisdiction 
of the USA legal system. A classic example of why the rule of law is 
a preferable form of legal system in a capitalist society. Not so 
long ago, when the rule of law still prevailed more or less in the 
USA, that state was a refuge for dissidents of all sorts.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas

At 4:11 PM -0500 17/8/12, Carrol Cox wrote:


>We debated the Pinochet case at the time & I was one of those who opposed
>his being sent to Spain; the basis of the argument was precisely the
>possibility of such a case as the present. Leftists should always oppose the
>police power of the bourgeois state. Regardless of the subject of that
>power. We should, for example, vigorously oppose Hate-'Crime' laws.
>
>Carrol
>
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