If, Buddha-willing, we get another shot at this shit and get the chance to try and enact a dictatorship of the proletariat, what do comrades here think we should actually do regarding prison systems, e.g. for political enemies? What do we think of reeducation camps? How should they be organised?

  • Dryad [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Ethical prisons are impossible and imprisonment should be used only for the prevention of imminent articulable harm. If somebody makes a credible threat that they're going to bomb or shoot up a place, sure, lock them up. That's basically the only kind of circumstance where it would ever be acceptable.

    • StalinForTime [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      I guess it depends on what you mean by ethical. Almost every single conceivable case of imprisonment seems depraved, especially under capitalism. But if by ethical we mean that which leaves the vast majority of the working people better of, in terms of material consequences and conditions relevant to their quality of life, it seems that there are definitely arguments for imprisoning alot of fascists (or, to use the example of another extreme, really depraved serial murderers), as the imminent articulable harm seems sufficient reason to say it's political advisable, therefore ethical, to keep them away from other people and possible means of doing harm.

      Honestly one fear - even though it's inevitably a bit detached given that we're so far from actual power - is that we're being really naive about the actual kind of violence that would be necessary to ensure that we don't ourselves get undermined and crushed by counter-revolutionary reaction. Like what are all those ex-militarized fash cops gonna do? Grill? I doubt it.