26.10.1995

Justice and the law

EVERY DAY somewhere in the world some group, party, nation or person calls for justice. Justice for the Serbs, justice for the Muslims, justice for OJ Simpson. Have you ever met anyone who is against justice?

The problem is that no one ever says what justice means. It is usually a slogan used in a political struggle. Normally it is a demand for the state or international powers to intervene. Sometimes it means revenge or financial compensation.

This does not mean that communists do not take sides in these struggles. We are opposed to the oppression of groups or individuals.

Engels made the point that for the bourgeoisie justice means equality before the law. In English law even this condition is not formally satisfied. The monarch and the peers of the realm have inbuilt privileges. In reality the rich or politically well connected are rarely subject to the full consequences of the law.

In nature there is no justice. Is it justice for the lamb to be eaten by the lion, or the lettuce by the slug? Justice is a social construction and takes its meaning in a historical context - determined by the values that the particular society has developed.

In particular the question of who is subject to justice is also important. In slave society the slave was not necessarily a member of society. In the early nineteenth century in the USA black workers were not full members. If anyone thinks such times have passed, consider the sixteen-year old maid in the United Arab Emirates who was sentenced to death for killing the man who was raping her.

In the metropolitan capitalist countries ‘illegal immigrants’ do not get the same treatment as ‘citizens’.

Pre-class society required compensation for an injury done to another group in the tribe. Communism looks not to rights, a concept closely linked to justice, but to needs - not just of the group, but of all individuals. Conflicts will not be settled by jurisprudence, but by the direct politics of the people.

In the immediate future the road to real universal human liberation demands that we do not look to the state to give us ‘justice’, but rely upon our own strength.

We must continue to demand greater social and political rights for all, while exposing the frequent violations of the legal process conducted by government and powerful sections of the capitalist class.

John Bayliss