But that’s exactly what I meant. Cops are bad for the working class not because they are cops, or because they enforce state rule. They are bad for the population because their function, as part of the superstructure, is to maintain the base of society (production, distribution and classes) working as they are intended.
So cops in a colonial society are going to enforce colonial social relations. Cops in a slaver society will enforce slavery social relations. Cops in a capitalist society, which existed in a historical process of past colonial and slavery relations that then transited to capitalist class relations, will be racist and target those minorities, since they are now part of the lowest sections of the proletariat and subproletariat.
In a post-capitalist society, where workers are now in power, the superstructure will have a group of people who will enforce the new rules of the society and protect the workers’ interests. You can call them workers’ militia, people’s militia, workers’ gendarmerie, or any other name, but they will act in a similarly to what cops do today, but now considering the new base structure of society, their class character will be different.
Yeah, I presume that anarchist rejection of all forms of authority is what kicked off this thread. It is a very basic understanding that Marxists in general[1] and Marxist-Leninists in particular[2] do not reject authority as-such, which OC ought to have known, so she oughtn’t have been surprised.
But that’s exactly what I meant. Cops are bad for the working class not because they are cops, or because they enforce state rule. They are bad for the population because their function, as part of the superstructure, is to maintain the base of society (production, distribution and classes) working as they are intended.
So cops in a colonial society are going to enforce colonial social relations. Cops in a slaver society will enforce slavery social relations. Cops in a capitalist society, which existed in a historical process of past colonial and slavery relations that then transited to capitalist class relations, will be racist and target those minorities, since they are now part of the lowest sections of the proletariat and subproletariat.
In a post-capitalist society, where workers are now in power, the superstructure will have a group of people who will enforce the new rules of the society and protect the workers’ interests. You can call them workers’ militia, people’s militia, workers’ gendarmerie, or any other name, but they will act in a similarly to what cops do today, but now considering the new base structure of society, their class character will be different.
Then I guess we’re meaning more or less the same thing, just going about it differently.
I think it’s good to mention this otherwise we fall into the anti-authority argument that anarchists love to bring up.
Yeah, I presume that anarchist rejection of all forms of authority is what kicked off this thread. It is a very basic understanding that Marxists in general[1] and Marxist-Leninists in particular[2] do not reject authority as-such, which OC ought to have known, so she oughtn’t have been surprised.
Engels, 1872, On Authority ↩︎
Lenin, 1920, “Left-wing” communism, an infantile disorder ↩︎