From: "Dave Bedggood" <dr.bedggood-AT-auckland.ac.nz>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 13:23:12 +0000
Subject: Re: M-TH: Sex, Law, Rape, and the State


Yoshie, 
No, I don't think were anywhere near ready to replace the cops or the 
bourgeois courts in apprehending rape offenders. But you should bear 
in mind that calling the cops is one thing, having them arrive in 
time to defend you is another.  So all the more reason not to put your 
faith in cops etc, and start to build working class forms of social 
control now.
Dave.

> Marxists oppose moral hysteria regarding matters of sexuality and the
> police state that benefits from such hysteria. However, our opposition does
> not have to involve the trivialization of rape and its physical and
> psychological effects on the victimes/survivors of rape (which we see in
> the LM articles on the subject). In fact, the sort of argument advanced by
> LM makes it more difficult to resist the dominant ideology and practice in
> matters of sex, in that the only alternative to the state regulation and
> repression that LM allows is individual self-defense and the bourgeois
> sexual double standard within whose limits the LM notions of sexual
> liberties are confined. No wonder some conservatives like LM and its stand
> on "personal responsibility."
> 
> Critiques of the capitalist state have been an important part of Marxist
> politics. But in all honesty, if I were raped, I would call the police,
> since in Columbus, OH, USA (where I live), the kind of workers'
> self-defense organization, workers' court, etc. that Dave advocates have
> yet to come into existence.
> 
> We can and must support decriminalization of drugs, prostitution,
> homosexuality, etc. But we can't support decriminalization of rape, can we?
> 
> Yoshie
> 
> 
> 
> 
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