this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2024
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IWW and syndicalism

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

Really shows the degree to which cop unions ARE NOT labor unions.

[–] [email protected] 159 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Why is everyone surprised .... this what the police have always done against striking workers.

By design they are meant to maintain law and order ... not to serve and protect people ... the whole 'serve and protect' phrase was marketing campaign by the LAPD created by police propaganda in the 1960s and it didn't have any actual obligation for the police to serve or to protect people ... it was just a catchy phrase that made the police sound good when they in fact could do the opposite or nothing at all. But no matter how they treated people, they always throughout history have always consistently protected wealth, property and those with power.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

By design they are meant to maintain law and order

Not at all or qualified immunity, officer and prosecutorial discretion wouldn't exist.

... not to serve and protect people

Correct, they're asset protection for the highest earners.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If they truly were meant to uphold the law, they would be held to the highest standards of said law and prosecuted for the slightest deviation from it.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Why is everyone surprised …

Nice to have a bit of physical imagery to wave around when you're dealing with a liberal who insists police are these neutral non-partisan agents.

Not that it'll necessarily work, of course. I can already hear some pensioner with a Harris sticker insisting that "um, aktuly, its the union that's being violent and the police who are being civil and restrained". But for the younger and more clear-eyed, its a damning current indictment of a system you mostly just read about in history books.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

And journalist and Democrats still wonder why we fucking hate the police.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 days ago (6 children)

If there was ever any question about who the police truly protect, this should clarify it.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Am I the only one who is bothered by the fact that these police probably suffer as much as the people they are oppressing?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

We cannot have a tiny number of very rich elite without a very large number of working class serving the interests of those rich elite rather than their own.

Severity varies. Some are class traitors, some just need that paycheck.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Yes and that's what annoys me.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't think that's logically a possibility? Not unless the police also have a group of thugs that can assault them without consequence.

Being a lapdog of the capital class has its benefits. The police have some of the strongest unions in the nation and are way way overcompensated for their level of training and education.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Well I meant that they are closer to us than the oligarchy. Their wives work there. They pay more for shipping. That sort of thing.

[–] [email protected] 95 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Solidarity for Bezos and his yachts, can't have him suffer from these rabblerousers living paycheque to paycheque taking a stand - NYPD.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago

We’re the fucking taxpayers.

That's the joke of modern capitalist liberal democracy. It's not the people paying the rents who are in charge. It's the folks collecting.

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 3 days ago (6 children)

This is at it's core the police problem. They are class traitors.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They're not traitors .... they never had any loyalty to the population to begin with

They were created to 'maintain law and order' .... not some fanciful idea of protecting or serving people.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Police are working-class ergo they are class traitors.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

👆

Getting libs to develop class consciousness can feel like a Sisyphean task.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

maybe we just need minor reforms and more capitalism

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Real capitalism has never been tried!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

This isn't capitalism. Its cronyism!

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 days ago (2 children)

That's how solidarity works (Cops and private property)

Now its your turn

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago

but when it's the cop's union under scrutiny, they stand united.

because it's getting them off of a murder rap

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My favorite passages about how to win against the cops in a worker movement come from Farrell Dobbs Teamster Rebellion:

Under capitalism the main police function is to break strikes and to repress other forms of protest against the policies of the ruling class. Any civic usefulness other forms of police activity may have, like controlling traffic and summoning ambulances, is strictly incidental to the primary repressive function. Personal inclinations of individual cops do not alter this basic role of the police. All must comply with ruling-class dictates. As a result, police repression becomes one of the most naked forms through which capitalism subordinates human rights to the demands of private property. If the cops sometimes falter in their antisocial tasks, it is simply because they – like the guns they use – are subject to rust when not engaged in the deadly function for which they are primarily trained.

No police organization is exactly the same day in and day out. Two essential factors determine its character at a given moment: the social climate in which the cops have been operating and the turnover of personnel within the force. An unseasoned cop may tend to be somewhat considerate of others in the performance of duty, especially while class relations are relatively peaceful. Even in such calm times, however, the necessary accommodation must be made to capitalist demands, including readiness to shoot anyone who tampers with private property. Otherwise the aspiring cop, if he is not kicked out of the force, will have little chance of rising beyond a beat in the sticks. By gradually weeding out misfits along these general lines, a police department can keep itself abreast of requirements during a more or less stable period in class relations.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They do this.... unless it's their own union, Then they don't!

[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There’s nothing more perverse than a cop union.

Teen Vogue (I know, right?): Police Unions: What to Know and Why They Don’t Belong in the Labor Movement

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I've been very impressed with Teen Vogue's quality.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago (9 children)

This is why All Cops Are Bastards: their primary purpose is to protect private property, AKA the means of production.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Where's that campus cop with the pepper spray when you need him

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago

Remember when Police Officers watched a bunch of Children Die in Uvalde? LoL!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago

There's a Netflix documentary about the police. Very interesting and they are not on worker's side.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago

this the corniest shit I've ever fucking seen lmfao

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

As is the tradition.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The one time you don't like seeing unionized workers hand in hand

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Why are they all so fat? Seems like they need to re-up the physical fitness exams.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

They might be, but it's also winter and they are wearing big jackets and a bullet proof vest.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

will anyone think of the starving billionaires??

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