America—Most Barbaric Nation in the World?

Off With Their Heads! (By AForestFrolic)

Of course many would argue that the U.S. doesn’t come close to Ali Abdullah Saleh or Bashar al-Assad or Kim Jong-il, but compared to the rest of the wealthy industrialized nations of the north, no other country holds a candle to the U.S.

We are the only wealthy northern democracy that has and uses the death penalty and we just used it to execute a man who was probably innocent. Troy Davis was executed last night in Georgia, even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime and despite the fact that 7 of the 9 non-police witnesses have since retracted their testimony. Furthermore, one of the remaining two stalwarts was a suspect in the crime and would have had very good reason to lie on the stand.

The fact that a man was executed on such flimsy evidence and despite so many lingering questions about his guilt should make everyone skeptical about the true nature of the American justice system. It certainly is not a system in which everyone is innocent unless proven guilty, nor is it impartial, nor does it treat all Americans equally. Death rows are overwhelmingly populated by poor people while people of color are disproportionately arrested, convicted and imprisoned.

Of course this doesn’t explain why Troy Davis was executed even when there was more than reasonable doubt about his guilt.

In Davis’ case, there was an urgent need for him to be put to death because he was accused of committing the absolute most heinous crime imaginable in America: killing a cop.

When a cop is killed, someone must pay and doesn’t even matter who. The only thing that really matters is that someone must die. Of course it is ideal if that person is a poor person of color. It’s a lot easier to railroad an ordinary black man who lacks the wealth and connections to hire Johnny Cochran or some other high profile attorney.

One might argue that Davis’ execution was really just an extension of Jim Crow, as it took place in Georgia. However, Davis was granted a 1-7 day reprieve last night, hours before his execution time. The reprieve was for the United States Supreme Court to weigh in on his case. One would think that if the highest court in the land had any interest in justice, fairness or humanity, it would have granted a stay of execution and insisted on a retrial, particularly in light of the flimsy evidence used to convict him. Yet the Supreme Court not only said “off with his head,” but they did so within minutes, even though they had a week to weigh the evidence and circumstances of the case.

The federal government also has an interest in seeing cop killers executed, or at least creating the perception that a cop killer has been killed.

Cops are the shock troops of capital. It is their job to protect private property, particularly the private property of the wealthy, their factories, shops and estates. They are called upon to suppress civil unrest, student demonstrations, workers’ strikes. Imagine what would happen if a cop was killed in such circumstances and the perpetrators only earned a few years in prison? Imagine if thieves, pimps and gangsters got the notion that they could shoot their way out of bust while only risking a dime in the penitentiary?

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In the process of trying a capital case and then carrying out the execution, the state gets to create a bogeyman, a vile enemy of the people, and then demonstrate its compassion and defense of the public by wiping this villain off the face of the planet. The public, for its part, gets to participate vicariously, insisting on revenge for a crime that was not even perpetrated against them. Yet a crime against a cop is virtually a crime against the people, since the cop’s job is to protect the people, or so they mistakenly believe. Killing a cop becomes tantamount to killing the only parent of a small child or a mother deer.

Executions are also a sign of virility and strength. In third world dictatorships, they are used to terrorize the populace and keep them in line. In America, they are used to win elections by proving that one is tougher on crime than his opponent. Bill Clinton had a mentally retarded man executed prior to his election to demonstrate his manhood. Rick Perry delighted his followers last week when he proudly declared he felt no remorse or doubts about any of the record 234 men executed under his governorship. In fact, they lustfully applauded his record.

The Impending Violent Demise of Unions

In 1981, Reagan fired the striking PATCO air traffic controllers, imprisoning many. Spain had a similar response this year when their airport workers went on strike, forcing them back to work at gunpoint and imprisoning those who refused. While the justification in all these cases was that the strikes were a threat to public safety, national security or the smooth functioning of government, the real reason was always to secure profits. Now Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin says he’ll call up the National Guard if state employees fail to show up for work in response to his austerity budget proposal. (Imagine how dangerous it would be if Wisconsin teachers and government employees failed to come to work for even a day.)

Obviously, when politicians make such threats, they realize that they have already provoked us with something terrible and outrageous. Walker understands that he is about to make the people of Wisconsin pay for the greed of its bankers and CEOs and he also realizes that they are unlikely to accept it passively. And they shouldn’t. Threats like this should be immediately and aggressively opposed by all workers, and not just in Wisconsin. For those who say his threats are just posturing, think again: he says he has beefed up the National Guard in anticipation of civil unrest.

The Daily Censored sees Walker’s threat as a move toward fascism, comparing him to Mussolini and Pinochet. Similar references to fascism were published in The World Socialist Website, when Zapatero brought in the military and forced air traffic controllers back to work at gunpoint in December.

Cries of fascism are starting to seem reasonable with the Patriot Act and the rise of Brown Shirt tactics by Tea Baggers, militias, and anti-immigrant activists. However, Walker’s move is consistent with how capitalism has always operated, including in the freedom loving U.S.: whenever “nice” methods fail to keep wages low and regulations favorable to the ruling elite, then legal, police and military threats are used. It is easy for Americans to not see this, as state violence against workers has been relatively light over the past sixty years. However, neither violence nor arrests have been completely absent. I myself have been arrested for participating in labor actions. A.J. Duffy, outgoing head of UTLA, was arrested for protesting massive LAUSD layoffs. It should be pointed out that Duffy’s action came in the wake of a court injunction forcing all UTLA members to go to work or face $1,000 fines and the loss of their teaching credentials.

Throughout the history of the U.S., state violence against workers has been routine, with hundreds of workers slaughtered by the National Guard, local police, militias,  private cops and vigilante thugs. Nor was it uncommon for workers to be jailed, tortured or deported. Here are some of the examples of deadly assaults on workers that occurred just in the first one-third of the 20^th century (the 19^th century had plenty if its own):

• Pana, Illinois, 1904
• United Fruit in New Orleans, 1913
• Ludlow massacre, Colorado, 1914
• Everett massacre, Washington, 1916
• IWW organizer Frank Little was lynched, Butte Montana, 1917
• UMW organizer Ginger Goodwin was killed, 1918
• Centralia massacre, Washington, 1919
• Matewan massacre, West Virginia, 1920
• Coal Mine Wars, West Virginia, 1920-1921
• Herrin massacre, Illinois, 1922
• Columbine massacre, Colorado, 1927
• Marian North Carolina textile strikes, 1929
• Harlan, Kentucky, 1931, 1939
• Ford massacre, Dearborn, Michigan, 1932
• Progressive Mine Workers strike in Illinois, 1932-1937
• Minneapolis Teamsters Strike, 1933
• UAW strike in Toledo, Ohio 1934
• San Francisco General Strike, California, 1934
• 1934 also saw workers killed in Galveston, TX, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina and Pennsylvania
• 1935 saw workers massacred at both ends of California, in El Centro and Eureka; as well as La Grange, GA; Nottingham, PA; in addition to Detroit, Minneapolis, New Orleans and Houston.

Bottom line folks: the ruling elite has become as emboldened as they've ever been and are positioning themselves to completely crush labor. They see how weak the labor movement has become. They manufactured an anti-labor hysteria and the unions have done virtually nothing to oppose it. Now they're tightening the screws and daring us to fight back. We have no other choice. We must fight back or accept declining wages, benefits and working conditions, growing poverty and homelessness. From Los Angeles to Illinois to Wisconsin, and everywhere else, they will threaten us with arrest, fines and even violence.


Workers in the early 20th century risked imprisonment and death fighting for the labor protections and living standards that we enjoy today. They sacrificed and suffered to end child labor, shorten working hours, and win sick leave, vacations, pensions. 

Are we going to throw this all away or we going to fight back?