• Mark Jasen he Criminal Justice and Public Order Act was developed following a whole serles of miscarriages of justice that undermined wide layers of people's faith in the courts, the police, and the legal system.
The government was forced to concede that they had falsely imprisoned the Guilford Four and the Birmingham Six after denying them the ment to appeal tor years. the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was suspended for wide wiut scale corruption after it was exposed for fitting up numerous victims, and numerous other miscarriages of justice were coming to light.
This then forced the government to commis. sion an inquiry into the whole system of criminal Justice.
It is ironic then, that the result of this inquiry was one or the most repressive pieces of legislation for years, the Criminal LISTICA ACT One aspect of the Act ettectIvey uncermines the "right to silence" and therefore fundamentally shifts the whole balance of the British Legal System.
Although the right still formally exists, refusing to answer questions can now be used in court as evidence of a persons guilt.
Rather than preventing future miscarriages of justice, the CJA will now make it much easier for the police and the courts to fit up innocent people.
It is auite clear that there Are numerolic other innocent people in Kritish as the ony ex. ceptional thing about the Birmingham six and the Guiltord tour were that the criminal justice system was exposed.
› Simon Deville OreFiday 16 DeTION. cember, Oluwashiji Lapite, a 34 year old Nigerian was to a local stopped by police for "acting suspiclously", twenty minutes later, he was dead. prosecution.
Police initially claimed that they found a package of "crack" cocaine in his pocket, although A campaign later their story had changed to claim that they saw him throwing it killing. reputation for violence, "Uniess ine aroltrary malpractice and corrup- and violent abuses of poSlice powers are stopped Only last November tne gun berween tne they were forced to pay black community and out £70,000 damages the police will reach taxi driver breaking point." amidst accusations of assault, false imprison- Get Active! ment and malicious The Shiji Officers have also been Lapite implicatea in botn aeal- Campaign is ing and planting drugs.
demanding the nasn ready been established sacking of the around this most recent two officers • Jonathan Davin The state: taws, the police, religious in- miners. stitutions, government. All these arose, in one form or another, thousands of years ago to organise soct ety.
The state institutions came into existence once agriculture had developed enough to support a class of people who didn't have to produce their own food. They could live on the labour of others.
In capitalist society the state benefits the tiny minority who own the banks, the factories and companies.
The state is not neuTrai it interenes (oten violently) in favour of the ruling group. It develops a complex apparatus to cies. support class rule - parliament, the courts, the intelligence ponice, neutral, but rather is an expression of class rule. If revolutionary socialists found themselves a majority in parliament, the bodies through which tne capitalst state intervenes, such as the poservice and so on. All lice and the army would these bodies were used intervene violently. in 1984-85 to attack the This happened in Chile when a left wing "Popular That is why we disagree Unity" president and govwith those who say that Cemment was elected. the state should simply A military coup overbe abolished. threw the government, In the transition to sokiling te president and cialism, some kina or thousands of militants, state body will still be and imposed a represnecessary, for as long as sive right wing governthe capitalist class ment. able to organise against state nepos to socialism. This would be smashed and 'replaced. controllea by tne produc- We would support all ers and would benefit the genuinely progressive rewhole of societv. forms under capitalism.
In contrast, the current For example we would capitalist state benefits defend welfare rights, onv asmanont. health care, education Some socialists argue and full employment, that we can transform and we would also supue exisune state into d port those fighting to dedemocratic workers fend these against the state, using parliament, interests of the ruling through PlecHions onto class. councils, and simply im- We would, however, plementing socialist poli- recognise that there are limits to how far we can There is not a neaceful take retorms unaer a road to socialism be- capitalist system which cause the state is not is organised on the basis of profit rather than human need. we would also recognise the futility of attempting to reform the coercive forces of the capilaisl stale.
Some socialists would descrde me ponce as "workers in uniform", for examole Militant Labour They argue that the police should be unionized, ane mat merr cemanos for better conditions should be supported.
waist we coule sub port the unionization of the police since it helps to undermine discipline The capitalist within the force thev be should not be regarded as part of the workers movement.
It is difficult to see how we could support de mands for better conditions for the forces of state Teoression. the very bodies that the state uses to fight back against those demanding reforms.
More police on the streets to harass working class communities?, more ponce on picket lines, perhaps?, longer truncheons? No way!