The Barbarism of Capital Punishment

First of all, I think it should be stated that the death penalty is a barbaric act and very much part or the legacy of medieval torture. Even lethal injection a supposedly humane form of execution has proven to be barbaric. There have been instances where this method has taken half an hour to actually kill the person. So even this is a slow agonizing death. All the other forms are as bad as or worse than lethal injection.

I think that Robert Boyle, who commented above, is dead on when he spoke about the race and class bias of the death penalty. In capitalism, the state, which includes the cops, military, courts and prison, serves to defend the rule of the capitalist class against the working class and the oppressed.

American capitalism had the enslavement of blacks by whites built into it from it's inception. Racial oppression, namely black oppression, is the bedrock of American capitalism. Blacks and Latino's are disproportionately represented in the prison population and on death row. As the writer, former Black Panther and MOVE supporter pointed out in his book Live from Death row, the chance of a black person receiving the death penalty for killing a white person is much higher than a white person receiving the death penalty for killing a black person.

There are also plenty of cases of innocent people on death row. And it doesn't do a thing to reduce crime. The US has a much higher crime rate than Canada and West Europe and the former country has the death penalty and the latter countries don't.

There is also the fact that the criminals and the cops and other state apparatchiks are not necessarily separate entities. A third of the police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania have been implicated by the FBI for having ties with the mob. In the south of the US the cops have a history of working hand-in-hand with the Ku Klux Klan!

(This is in response to the following article http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/defending-the-undefendable/201106/the-death-penalty)

Reply to an Anti-Working Class Libertarian

Its interesting for all his allegations of unionized workers being "always violent" he can't even provide one concrete instance of it. Oh and how about the strike-breaking cops, security guards and private gun thugs? Think they aren't violent? Also, the notion that scabs are all kind and gentle I think is ludicrous. The scabs and gun thugs are the nucleus of the fascists movement and I wouldn't call the fascist regimes of Mussolini and Hitler "non-violent".

Also, comparing the term scab to n*$*$er or k&$e really goes a long way toward trivializing anti-semetism and racism. As I said the fascists (including Nazis and Klansmen) aren't exactly nice to Jews and black. Since this guy is a "Libertarian" I wonder what he has to say about Rand Paul thinking that restaurants should be allowed to exclude black people.

(This is a reply to the following article http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/defending-the-undefendable/201106/is-there-right-unionize)

Remeberance Day: Why Revolutionaries Don't Commemorate the Crimes of Imperialism

One day commemorated in capitalist Canada is Remembrance Day. Other imperialist powers have similar holidays. The US has Veterans Day and Memorial Day. A question that I think should be asked is what purpose these days serves. A revolutionary Marxist I would argue that such days serve no other purpose then to drum up national chauvinism and support for imperialist war.

As for wars Canada has been involved in, there is the War of 1812, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the War on Afghanistan and the War on Haiti. The US has been involved in the American Revolutionary War, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the War on Afghanistan, the two Persian Gulf Wars etc. (There are really too many to list for the US).

Britain ruled the world from the barrel of the gun all the way till World War II. They invaded people's in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia etc. France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Holland and the like have similar blood-soaked records. Britain and Holland fought in the Boer-War and the Napoleonic War. Britain, France and Germany both fought in both world wars. I want to apologize in advance if I don't get down to the point.

Well for World War I. It was an inter-imperialist war. Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey were all imperialist powers fighting for markets, resources sources of cheap labour, raw materials and spheres of influence. This being the case revolutionaries have no side. And revolutionaries at the time rightfully fought for turning the imperialist war into a civil war of the proletariat (working class) against the bourgeoisie (capitalist class). Revolutionaries OUGHT TO honour the soldiers who point their guns their generals and the capitalists though. This did in fact happen in Russia and made the October Russian Revolution successful.

As for World War 2 this was a similar situation. Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy were all imperialist powers and revolutionaries didn't side with any of them. Revolutionaries did take a side with the Soviet Union, a bureaucratically degenerated workers' state (a state based on collectivized property where capitalism had been overthrown but where political power had been monopolized by a privileged bureaucratic caste which rested atop the workers' state). The Soviet Red Army smashed the Nazi war machine (no thanks to Stalin and other bureaucrats though) and the they SHOULD be honoured.

As for the Korean War, Revolutionary had a side with the Soviet Union as well as China and North Korea (the latter two were bureaucratically deformed workers' states which is similar in definition to a bureaucratically deformed workers' state) against the Imperialist powers led by the U.S. and included Canada, and many countries from Western and Northern Europe.

As for the Vietnam War, North Vietnam was a bureaucratically deformed workers' state and the revolutionary working class had a side with it against US (and Australian) Imperialism. The Soldier to be honoured were the Viet Cong as well as the US draft dodgers and defectors like Mohammad Ali.

As for the two US led wars on Iraq and the US led war on Afghanistan, revolutionaries sided with Iraq and Afghanistan without giving any political support to the reactionary Taliban or the bloody capitalist regime of Saddam Hussein. The Balkan wars were similar Revolutionaries sided with Serbia against the imperialist without giving political support to the genocidal regime of Slovajo Milosevic (I hope I am spelling that right). The US led war on Bosnia would be quite similar.

As for the American Civil War, revolutionaries had a side with the Northern Union against the Southern Confederacy. Capitalism in the US had yet to cross over to reaction at this point. It wasn't until the notorious Compromise of 1877 that they crossed over to reaction. The capitalists in Europe crossed over to reaction in 1848.

In the same light the American Revolutionary War was supportable as it free American farmers and capitalists from the grip of the British colonial overlords. This was a political revolution. While the American Civil War along with the English Civil War, the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution were social revolutions.

As for the Mexican-American war, it was a reactionary war on the side of the US. I am embarrassed to admit that Marx and Engels initially supported the US. Fortunately, they later repudiated this stance. Marx and Engels initially thought that when European and American powers colonized people it lead to economic and social development in those colonies. They saw the blood spilled as a tragic necessity. They later realized that when the US or West European powers colonized people's, they didn't promote social and economic development but arrested it. Britain promoted the caste system in India and tribalism in central Africa. More recently, the US led forces enshrined Sharia law in Afghanistan and in Iraq they gave the mullahs the authority to strike down any law they saw as "un-Islamic".

As for the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic War, revolutionaries had no side. Revolutionaries did not have a side with either Britain or Holland in the Boer-War or with the US or Spain in the Spanish-American War.

Quotes of Staff persons‏

* Staff Person A
 
   . On Agent Provocateurs:
   "Sometimes the police need to take charge of protesters and it may appear like 

the cops are provoking them"
 
   . On Vancouver being a police state during the 2010 Olympics:
    "Its necessary and keeps us safe."
 
   . On abusive employers in small businesses:
   "Owning a business is hard and bosses are under pressure to get things done"
 
   . On police cracking down on the waterfront:
   "I'm glad. It should have been sooner".
 
   . On longshoremen:
   "They're mean and tough. If they're not that way to begin with they'll become 

mean and tough".
 
   . On those born wealthy:
    "People born to riches are all so humble and down to earth"
 
   . On Paris Hilton:
   "I'd like to be her friend. She's probably a really nice person."
 
* Staff Person B
 
   On unionized workers:
   "Its virtually impossible to fire them. You really ought to be able to fire 

them."

What Mental Health Housing Staff Push for When Unionized

* Staff in group homes were originally elected annually. Since they were unionized they saw to it that those elections were abolished. The staff now have absolute power.
* More power over residents.
* More discretionary powers.
* Harder for residents to go over top of staff.
* The "right" to utter death threats to, shout at, insult, or confiscate welfare cheques of residents without repercussion.

Why the Labour Bureaucracy and the Bourgeoisie want Staff In Mental Health Housing to be Unionized

* Keep a cap on potential labour militancy: 
   . Many of the residents are proletarian others were homeless and are or were 

unemployed. These group homes serve a an organic link between the anger of the 

ghetto masses and the militancy of the proletariat.
   . The staff instill unquestioning obedience in authority. One of the staff 

persons described themselves as a "den mother" (the family instills in youth 

unquestioning obedience in authority).
* The labour bureaucracy expands its dues base without organizing the

proletariat:
   . Less dependent on the proletariat for dues.
* Builds organic links between the labour bureaucracy and the bourgeois state.
* The labour bureaucracy shares the bourgeoisie's contempt for the disabled.
* The labour bureaucracy collaborates with the bourgeoisie and even organizes 

cops, security guards, prison guards etc. Organizing managers is a logical next 

step:
   . The staff in mental health housing have more in common with low level 

managers or foremen then proletarians or even semi-proletarians.
   . All the manual labour is performed by the residents. Workfare with a new name.

The Functions Of Staff In Mental Health Housing

* Dictate what you put in your food.
* Dictate when you can or can't lie on "communal couches".
* Spray residents with water who sleep at "wrong times".
* Dictate what clothes a person wears.
* Spashes residents with water who sleep at wrong times.
* Residents are encouraged to rat out fellow residents to staff if they have ANY 

concerns about fellow residents. 

* Dictate when you can be awake and asleep.
* Dictate when you can be in your room.
* Dictate what people can spend money on.
* Dictate where residents can sleep
* Dictate when people can watch TV.
* Confiscate disability and welfare cheques.
* Withhold welfare and disability cheques.
* Rat residents out to management (often involving immediate eviction, no notice)

(residents who are evicted from their group home can't set foot in the group unless

the staff person is present):
   . Doing drugs
   . Drinking alcohol within a block of a group home
   . Not handing over "excess earnings over to government" (on disability you can

only make $500 on the side)
   . Not taking one's medication
   . "Excess" sleep, TV or time in the house
 
* If a resident is evicted they can't enter the group home unless the staff person

is present. This is true even to get their stuff.
* A lot of the rules imposed on residents by staff are at the discretion of the 

staff.