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Crime is any action that the ruling class considers unacceptable.[1] An act is a crime if it breaks the law.
Discussing prisoners in capitalist societies, Huey P. Newton divides them into "illegitimate capitalists," who accept capitalism but attempt to achieve capitalist ends through illegitimate means and are criminalized, and "political prisoners," who are criminalized for "reject[ing] the legitimacy of the assumptions upon which the society is based."[2]
Al Capone's sincere anti-communism provides an example of an "illegitimate capitalist" upholding capitalism:
Bolshevism is knocking at our gates. We can’t afford to let it in. We have got to organize ourselves against it, and put our shoulders together and hold fast. We must keep America whole and safe and unspoiled. We must keep the worker away from red literature and red ruses; we must see that his mind remains healthy.[3]
Explaining why a criminal like Capone would feel this way, R. Palme Dutt writes:
The earnestness of this appeal of a thief and gangster to maintain existing society "unspoiled" in face of the Communist menace might appear at first blush comic; but in fact it is purely reasonable. None have more sincere concern and zeal than thieves to maintain the institution of private property, without which their profession would come to an end, and they would find themselves faced with the unpleasant alternative of having to work for their living.[4]
References
- ↑ “Or again, speaking more plainly, the Marxian formula states "that the state is an organ of oppression of one class by another; that it sets up an order which legalizes and consolidates this oppression modifying the conflict of classes." Thus since the state is an organ of class domination, and crime necessarily, by the same definition, is the commission of an act against the interests of the ruling class, a criminal code would be a formulation of penalties imposed for such acts.”
Mary Stevenson Callcott (1935). Russian Justice: 'The Soviet Theory of Crime'. - ↑ Huey P. Newton (1970). Prison, Where is Thy Victory?.
- ↑ “Bolshevism is knocking at our gates. We can't afford to let it in. We've got to organize ourselves against it, and put our shoulders together and hold fast. We need funds to fight famine. [...] We must keep America whole, and safe, and unspoiled. If machines are going to take jobs away from the worker, then he will need to find something else to do. Perhaps he'll get back to the soil. But we must care for him during the period of change. We must keep him away from red literature, red ruses; we must see that his mind remains healthy.”
Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. (1931-08-27). "How Al Capone Would Run This Country" Liberty Magazine. - ↑ R. Palme Dutt (1935). Fascism and Social Revolution: 'Chapter IX: The Theory and Practice of Fascism; 2. Demagogy as a Science' (pp. 120-121). [PDF]