Why do we oppose the death penalty? Not for purely humanitarian reasons, not, because we are pacifists, not because we do not believe in taking life. We are prepared to fight for our liberation, including waging war.
Naturally, we do not believe in taking life unnecessarily. We believe in a penal system that stresses rehabilitation rather than punishment. And that is true in a socialist society as well as a capitalist society. We try to re-educate people in socialist society if they commit anti-social acts. We do not act out of vindictiveness.
But the main reason why we are against the death penalty in capitalist society is that the power of this terrorist act is in the hands of a racist system, a system that is bent on perpetuating the rule of the rich, in which poor people are deprived of equal justice under the law. That is why the overwhelming majority of people who are sentenced to death are poor and Black.
On the other hand, there are circumstances when the death penalty is entirely appropriate, when it is used to preserve the rule of the working people against outside threats or internal subversion. Cuba had General Ochoa put to death for narco-trafficking. That act was carried out to prevent Cuba from falling victim to theterrible scourge of drugs -not only a health threat but a security threat – and also to prevent the use of drug trafficking as a pretext for US intervention — in other words, to maintain the security of the society.
I am not sure that I would use the example of an especially deprived European-American to test the people’s commitment to the principle. I would try to educate the people as to the nature of the state, the depraved nature of the state, and the danger of allowing the weapon of the death sentence to remain in the hands of such a depraved entity.
