If a left were to emerge from such present activity as Black Lives Matter, Adjunct & public school teacher activity, etc, what sort of useful conversation would that Left encourage, both among its own activists and among wider circles.
Begin with what it would NOT encourage: It would not be concerned with "what is practical, or with "reaching people where they are." And the triggers for such discussion would be the demands or goals announced by various elements within that left. Some "practical" program of "reform" of the justice system (even as "radical" a reform as decriminalizing drugs, would not trigger much useful discussion.
Abolishing the Prison System would not interfere with some form of confinement of those a clear risk to the safety of others; it would involve eliminating the use of confinement as punishment. Punishment as such is unacceptable. Hence even in the case of psychopathic murderers (a rather small number) the places of confinement would have to be quite comfortable and freed of all coercion beyond the necessary confinement. Weapons are not necessary in such hypothetical institutions. Neither are guard towers, etc.
Above all, there can be no restriction of basic civil liberties (voting, speech, reading materials, conversation with others) for any reason. If any behavior (e.g., shop lifting) is to be prevented, it is the task of public officials and to work out methods that do not involve punishment. This requires a good deal of discussion -- but it certainly could be worked out. And to begin with, the discussion is the core need.
And so forth. Objections to abolishing the prison system are by definition barriers to discussion. The discussion rather involves the need for such abolition and methods of confronting the conditions such abolition would c reate.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Joseph Catron Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2015 5:20 PM To: LBO Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Prison system and the nonsense of public opinion
What light? She's heartened by an emerging awareness, "across a transpartisan spectrum," that locking people up for stupid crap like pot possession is pretty asinine from nearly every perspective, including most capitalist ones. That's a far cry from abolition. See what Ruth Wilson Gilmore, an actual abolitionist who cofounded the California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance, among other groups, has to say about this "tendency to cozy up to the right wing, as though a superficial overlap in viewpoint meant a unified structural analysis for action," yesterday:
http://www.socialjusticejournal.org/?p=2888
On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 6:00 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> A National Cry for Criminal Justice Reform
> by Katrina vanden Heuvel
> More Americans than ever, across a transpartisan spectrum, now understand
> that incarceration-as-usual isn't working.
>
> -------
>
> Even vanden Heuvel ses the light.
>
> I rather suspect that somewhat fewer than 98% of the population would now
> condemn my proposal for abolishing the prisons system.
>
> That was almost the only response on this list to my suggestion.
>
> Leftiists or those who want to claim the label simply have to forget aboaut
> "public opinion" at any given moment.
>
> The polls are accurate but still irrelevant.
>
> Almost the core task of leftists is to CHANGE public opinion; that is not
> done by worshipping it.
>
> Carrol
>
>
>
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