International Socialists

Shomi Yoon

What do capitalism, the system we live in, and crime have to do with one another? The media would like us to think that crime is committed by a few "bad apples." The media dutifully condemn crime but they also delight in crime stories, overwhelmingly focusing on "street crime," like theft, burglary, prostitution and drug dealing. But usually these criminals are powerless individuals pursuing crime to survive.

This differs from the criminal activities of the capitalist class, which aim to enhance the capitalist’s existing position of relative economic power, status and competitiveness. The law is a defence for the capitalist class to protect their interests. Capitalist crime has an impact on a wider number of people in a less transparent manner, like tax frauds on a scale of millions of dollars. Furthermore this class has the ability to influence the very definition of what crime is. For example, preventable death in workplaces is not considered murder.

Just as working class crime is an extension of the circumstances we are forced to live in, so capitalist crime is an extension of the effects of the system. An economy that is based on cutthroat competition, exploitation and alienation forces them to use any means necessary to secure an advantage over their competitors.

The legal system works to defend the existing capitalist society – an economy that necessarily produces a ruling capitalist class. In practice, this means that the criminalisation process is almost entirely directed at the very victims of this system. "Street crime" is most conspicuous because of the relative powerlessness of individual people, because they are most easily detected and controlled, and because of the class focus of the policing system.

Scum parties like ACT focus on crime because it presents a response, not merely to crime but to the whole social crisis of the period as part of a larger strategy of political, social and legal reform. In other words it gives the state an excuse to strengthen its repressive powers of "law and order." The focus on crime takes the bitterness, anger and alienation people feel towards the government and diverts the blame towards any marginalised group in society, whether it’s young offenders or solo mothers. What the focus on crime really does is that it refuses to look at the root of why crime exists in the first place.

Crime is generated by capitalism. A system based on inequality, greed and wealth is bound to create the conditions in which at least some people find they have to steal in order to get by. A system that cramps people in inadequate, overcrowded housing and encourages people at every turn to look out only for themselves is bound to push some into using violence against others.

What is the socialist alternative?
The socialist answer is simple – remove the conditions that create crime in the first place! This means dealing with the inequality, the false "scarcity" and the alienation generated by our present society.

In a real democracy people would have equal access to resources. Preventing crime and disorder would be in the interest of everyone. The mass of people would be able to control their own lives for the first time.

The rationale for the vast majority of crime would turn to dust. Small scale property crime only exists because capitalism denies huge numbers of people the ability to live a decent life. Shoplifting would become irrational when people have access to their needs.

Violence against women would be taken seriously for the first time. The privatised world of personal relationships in which so much of it takes place would be opened up and be of concern to everyone.

A solution would not come immediately, but the filth we live in today would progressively be thrown off as women and men struggle together against oppression of every kind. The alienation and sexual repression forced on us by capitalism could be overcome.

Above all, the source of crime in poverty and alienation could be properly tackled for the first time as economic problems are sorted out and the bulk of the population takes control of the running of our own lives and society.