The death penalty isn't good, regardless of what kind of system we have. It
wasn't good when kings were having people beheaded and it isn't good if
practiced in a socialist state. People shouldn't be killing other people, no
matter what reasons they give.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2021 1:07 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Abolish the death penalty, a tool of capitalist
oppression
As long as w have the legal system we now have, the death sentence is nothing
more than vindictive. A system that holds trials based on who can afford the
best legal supports, and a system thast turns justice into a game show, and a
system that favors wealth, this is not a system that any working class citizen
can support.
Carl Jarvis
On 1/29/21, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Abolish the death penalty, a tool of capitalist oppressionAs long as w have the legal system we now have, the death sentence is nothing
https://themilitant.com/2021/01/23/abolish-the-death-penalty-a-tool-of
-capitalist-oppression/ Statement by Joanne Kuniansky, Socialist
Workers Party candidate for New Jersey governor Jan. 20.
“An enormous machine for grinding people up,” is how Cuban
revolutionary Ramón Labañino described the capitalist “justice”
system. Labañino was one of the Cuban 5, framed up and imprisoned in
the U.S. for up to 16 years for acting to defend their revolution.
Nowhere can that be seen more clearly than in 13 federal executions
carried out over the last seven months, after a 17-year hiatus. The
two most recent were sanctified by a big majority of the black-robed
“justices” on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Jan. 13 execution of Lisa Montgomery — a woman diagnosed with
serious mental disorders and kept in solitary confinement since 2007 —
is just one example of the barbarity of the capitalist rulers.
They use the death penalty as a class weapon to terrorize and break
the spirits of workers and farmers. It has been used against
working-class militants who stand up to bosses in decades past, like
the Haymarket martyrs and Industrial Workers of the World militant Joe
Hill. It will be used again in the future as workers and farmers
defend ourselves and rebel against attacks by the bosses and their government.
Thousands more are sentenced to death by the dangerous speedup and
working conditions imposed by the bosses in search of higher profits
at factories, warehouses, construction sites and railroads across the
country. All working people have a stake in fighting for workers
control of production and safety on the job. And demanding an
immediate end to the rulers’ use of the death penalty and joining
actions to protest its use.
Alongside executions and the deadly violence cops mete out, the U.S.
rulers incarcerate a higher proportion of the population than any
other country in the world, overwhelmingly working class and
disproportionately Black. Prisons, rife with the abuse of inmates’
rights, are tools of ruling-class retribution. The capitalist ruling
families are only a small minority of the population. To maintain
their rule, they use a court system rigged against working people.
Onerous bail terms ensure thousands languish in jail for months, and
even years before trial. Prosecutors use threats of long prison
sentences to force workers to cop a plea bargain so only a tiny
fraction of those charged with a “crime” ever get to court. This is a
blow to the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The injustices and brutalities inherent to capitalist rule can be
checked for a time as a result of working people’s struggles. But the
foundation for sweeping them away can only be established when we
organize ourselves independently to fight in our millions to replace
the dictatorship of capital with a workers and farmers government, as
working people have done in revolutionary Cuba.
That’s the most powerful tool our class has to deepen the struggles
necessary to wipe out all exploitation and oppression.
The Socialist Workers Party demands: End the death penalty!
US gov’t pushes aside legal appeals, executes 2 inmates with
coronavirus Cory Johnson was pronounced dead after being executed Jan.
14, and Dustin John Higgs was killed two days later, at the federal
death-row prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Their executions mean the U.S.
government has put to death 13 federal… Front Page Articles Workers
need our own party, a labor party!
India farmers set protest and global solidarity actions Jan. 26
Abolish the death penalty, a tool of capitalist oppression Join
Socialist Workers Party campaign in 2021 elections Build solidarity
with NY produce strikers in ‘fight for our worth’!
US gov’t pushes aside legal appeals, executes 2 inmates with
coronavirus ‘Thought control’ sedition charges are threat to workers’
rights Feature Articles Working-class fight for power is central to
‘Jewish Question’
Also In This Issue
‘Stimulus’ fund for ‘Militant’ at $49,267, and growing!
Vote for union set at Amazon warehouse center in Alabama Protests
against joblessness, cop violence rock Tunisia UK gas workers strike
over pay cuts, work hours Liberals use Capitol ‘insurrection’ to
target political rights US has long history of rigged elections Books
of the Month Cuban Five ‘defended revolution against colossal
injustice’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
© Copyright 2021 The Militant - 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -
New York, NY 10018 - themilitant@xxxxxxx Cookies This site uses
cookies to improve your experience. Learn more.
Okay, thanks
--
George H. Smith “It is my firm conviction that man has nothing to
gain, emotionally or otherwise, by adhering to a falsehood, regardless
of how comfortable or sacred that falsehood may appear. Anyone who
claims, on the one hand, that he is concerned with human welfare, and
who demands, on the other hand, that man must suspend or renounce the
use of his reason, is contradicting himself. There can be no knowledge
of what is good for man apart from knowledge of reality and human
nature, and there is no manner in which this knowledge can be acquired
except through reason. To advocate irrationality is to advocate that
which is destructive to human life.” ― George H. Smith, Atheism: The
Case Against God