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U.S. Wars, Police Violence and Incarcerations By Bonnie Weinstein Socialist Viewpoint January/February 2015 http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/ <http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/> The whole world is in turmoil suffering the capitalist descent into barbarism. Working people are just beginning to realize that we are all in the same sinking boat. Across the globe, we are facing the economic reality of austerity for us, and untold accumulation of wealth for the ruling elite. Democratic rights are being decimated. Police brutality and murder are rampant. And while the military, police and the corporations can kill, mutilate and rob with impunity; the poor are locked up for the crime of being impoverished. We are reaching a tipping point both in our climate crisis of capitalist pollution and environmental destruction and our overwhelming social crisis of unending war, poverty and criminalization of the poor. What workers do not yet realize is that we have the power to change all of this. Workers have the power There is a great divide between those with well-paying jobs, such as those working in the abundantly-funded military industrial complex, building bombs, etc., and the vast majority of the rest of us. Not that the divide can’t be closed. But there needs to be a huge rise in consciousness. Workers need to realize that by working together democratically and in our own common interests, we can make the world a better place and, in fact, we are the only hope to make that happen! The purpose of oppression The huge U.S. military and incarceration complexes are indelibly linked. Their intent is to make capitalism appear all-powerful and make workers think, not only that we are weak and defenseless, but that workers of different races, religions, and sexual orientations—even occupations—are somehow our natural enemies. They want us to fight amongst ourselves for crumbs. U.S. capitalism’s war for profits on the workers of nations across the globe—which is what U.S. wars are all about—is the very same war of police murder, brutality and mass incarceration of workers at home. The warlords are one in the same. Capitalism’s wars and police violence are designed to inhibit workers’ solidarity—especially here in “the belly of the beast.” The capitalists will do anything and everything in their power to blur the connection between capitalist, imperialist wars and the enforced poverty of the masses through austerity measures, police violence and incarceration here at home. In effect, capitalism is forcing workers to pay for our own military bombardment and incarceration. And, we are being forced to supply the hard labor to build the weapons used to murder and oppress us, and to pave the road to their murderous descent into barbarism. The capitalist class knows full well that the only force that can take this despotic power from them and change the world for the better is the unified force of the working class. We can stop building weapons of violence, mass destruction and oppression and build the things we need for life, instead. This will happen only when we come to the fundamental, conscious, realization that we can only reach our fullest potential as a humane society through peace, love, equality and cooperation. The current capitalist alternative—war, bigotry and competition—only leads to barbarism. That’s why we have to oppose war and police violence as one and the same thing—capitalism’s method of getting us to blame and fight each other instead of them. The chaos and descent into barbarism can sometimes be blinding; yet the solution is simple—end capitalism and build a socialist democracy worldwide under the control of the working class and in defense of all life on Earth! The only solution is world socialist revolution! _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
