Do you think Are Prisons Obsolete? is still worth reading as a primer on prison abolition, or would you recommend another text?

why'd she bother, CPUSA was already half a heap of feds and they became social democrats anyway

Yeah I think she got out of her legal charges because she worked with the feds. Elaine Brown was dating a cia operative at the same time as all that too, iirc

Many of these so called "progressives", NATO "leftists", and other members of the 'Compatible Left' who claim to care about social justice, are nowhere to be seen when it's time to call out the empire's crimes, but somehow always first in line to help manufacture consent against a foreign enemy.

I think easiest comparison is that the energy is the same as "you must condemn Hamas"

We don't need to openly criticize the flaws of any nation which exists in a state that came to being as a reaction to colonialism and imperialism. If one wants Iran to be more free, more just, more equitable, more anything, the way that is accomplished is by ending US/NATO imperialism and removing global capitalism from tyranny over all people. The people in Iran will figure their societal challenges out on their own in whatever way works for where they are as soon as they aren't having to continually react to generationally constant aggression.

Until Angela Davis solves the endlessly more egregious and self-evident US prison industrial complex which she also profits off of and benefits from, pearl clutching about alleged Iranian issues is not critical support, because she hasn't actually done the support part. She has truly done nothing for Iran with her platform aside from condemn them and maybe give some milquetoast condemnations of US aggression.

I can only wonder how many of the prisoners in Iran she has allegedly supported were literal US assets doing espionage against Iran, aside from the ones who are just as likely to be entirely made up.

If one uses the typical talking points of the Pentagon but "from the left," they are being lazy and actually putting weight behind imperialism more than doing anything for the alleged Iranian prisoners (who will more likely die from sanctions or US bombs than the hand of the Iranian state).

In what way is this critical support? It's false equivalence intended to manipulate the dull witted into both-sidesing an extremely asymmetrical situation.

It could be considered third campism. "We don't support the USA or Iran, we support this other group that you'd have to be a total chud to not support." Davis has a platform, the og letter in the Guardian was signed on by a bunch of activists, academics, etc.,

To be clear, I don't advocate for campism either. This statement is in line with Davis's larger prison abolition mission. She's at the same time an expert on the subject and IMO worthy of some criticism. She's doing more than just posting.

Critical support is not an individual inclination, it is something that an org or party does within a coalition or united front. Since Davis is signing this letter along with several others who are all using a mass media platform to influence others, then it goes beyond some abstract individual support, its more than waving a sign at an empty government building on the weekend. Its coordinated, organized, and deploying real resources to achieve some goal.

But practically, without knowing more about Davis's work in this area, it appears to be a "thoughts and prayers" type gesture to political prisoners. It doesn't oppose imperialism, it doesn't aid anti imperialism, it doesn't even oppose the repressive elements in any real way. Maybe word will get to those prisoners and their families and supporters, that a group of prominent academics and activists are really hoping for justice. Maybe that accomplishes something, or maybe, im sure, this is part of some larger effort that will have more impact.

But third campism is a trap. It demobilizes movements and abstracts away from the contradictions that need to be organized around. Like campism is at least clustered around a side, often deeply contradictory, messy, but based in power and human need. Third campism is making ourselves feel good, avoiding contradictions, keeping our hands clean. I'm not saying that is what is happening, but it bears some hallmarks

I'm confused too. The only bad thing I can see here is interacting with the Guardian. Otherwise, as you said, it's critical support. Obviously, Iran does some really disgusting things that make the fight against Imperialism only harder by giving libs extra ammo to paint anti-Imperialists as criminals. I'm not a big fan of optics at all, but it's very effective in cases like this. Just think of the unveiled women pics from the Shah regime and how much of an impact they had.

And besides the optics stuff, there's also the fact that the abuse of women and minorities should always be condemned, no matter what. There's just no excuse for such a disgusting thing

The second part is just us state propaganda, Iran is far less repressive than the country I live in, it's likely far less repressive than the country you live in. Dose she use the same rethoric when supporting any political position? Yet she is singling out Iran for it's "political prisoners" when there is far less of them, than in any other coutry, and frankly, in this case, they deserve it. the letter was not "war bad", the letter was mostly framed as Iran bad. If anything the problem with Iran is the opposite, they value their freedoms too much to start rounding up traitors, even in the face of an existential threat.

Some people aren't actually critical of reactionary elements in anti-colonial countries. Pretty sure they see that as a plus, but I'm expected to take them seriously as Marxists and comrades all the same. How that's different from conservative socialism we clown on every time it comes up I'm trying to work out, but surely the theoretical fault is my own because obviously theocracies can do no wrong and questioning any element of them in any context whatsoever makes you a counter-revolutionary liberal Zionist. Real 🤡 shit.

Yes yes obviously we don't need to go out of our way to carry water for the US State department, however, we're SUPPOSED to be offering clearer analysis and better prescriptions for the world than liberals and reactionaries. That's an integral part of the Marxist project. The US State department tries to single out Iran for being a certified Bad Guy™ because of "Political Prisoners." Obviously, this is nonsense, because every state is going to seek to criminalize those who are seriously committed to it's destruction. Many states do the same or worse, including Western States. Many states that are considered staunch US allies are the most egregious! Pointing out the hypocrisy and dissolving the halo westerners have around imperialist countries would be theoretically and pragmatically consistent—but what's theoretical and pragmatic consistency worth to a zealot? Gotta line up and start spit shining boots with our tongues just so long as they're anti-imperialist I guess.

Davis' statement, though addressed to Iran's prisoners, links the consistency and design and purpose of prison architecture across the United States, Israel, and yes, Iran too. Reading the content of it, it seems kind of... Fine? Hell, this is the longest paragraph.

We see the same logic of domination when Israel uses “administrative detention” to hold Palestinian political prisoners for years without charge. We see it when Israeli authorities celebrate a new law that allows them to execute the Palestinian political prisoners they cannot dominate. We see it in the ICE detention centers where the US government imprisons our people in the pursuit of a political agenda of racist exclusion or detains our political activists for daring to speak against the US-backed Israeli genocide. We see it in the history of the US targeting freedom fighters, particularly Black, Indigenous, Puerto Rican and other anticolonial organizers, locking them away for decades to crush movements for national liberation and sovereignty. And we see the connections between these carceral systems sharing intelligence and governance techniques, such as when the USP Marion prison in Illinois became a blueprint for prisons built in Iran and Israel in the 1960s. Whether it is a border wall or a prison gate, the goal is the same: to silence people through fear, domination, and isolation.

It clearly condemns the imperialist machine and its methods, and the aggression of US and Israel. Go figure, prisons are the method by which modem states maintain their control. If you're opposed to prisons, you're going to necessarily be in opposition to nearly every modern state. From what I gather, I might describe Davis and Prison Abolitionists broadly as finding the carceral state and prison apparatus as the most important—or at least a co-equal—contradiction. One could critique that in a sound and principled way, but why do that when you can just tar and feather people you disagree with? Everyone knows THAT'S what a real leftist would do.

Except this isn't even about being technically correct, she is just uncritically regurgitating us state propaganda.

This is exactly what I mean when I use inbred as an insult. They only consume information from a single source, live an them with atrophied minds unable to think outside what is allowed by their very narrow intellectual genealogy.

You just posted a link to this OP. Did you mean to maybe post one of these?

https://www.anti-imperialists.com/statements/dc121068-bd7d-4408-8a5f-c23c8f70e4d1/

https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=nF2cTriHIq0

https://www.blackagendareport.com/guardian-letter-anti-imperialist-scholars-collective-responds

EDIT: I see now that the text of the link you posted really is to another post, but the formatting on the link is making it so clicking it just redirects back to this one.