The Police and Racism in France (and Undoutedly Elsewhere), Part Three: Police Unions as Pseudo-Unions

Police 1 Minute

John Clarke, former major organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, recently posted the following on Facebook:

A very interesting article but two things to point out. Firstly, we really shouldn’t accept that the bodies that represent the interests of those in the ranks of the police are unions in any meaningful sense. You have to be a worker to join a union and you leave the working class when you join a police force.
Secondly, the cops in France aren’t just asking for the ‘right’ to engage in racist murder with impunity. Their statement includes the proposition that. “Today, the police are engaged in combat because we are at war. Tomorrow, we’ll be in resistance and the government needs to be aware of that.” This is an expression of an extreme authoritarianism that wearies of the limitations of a system of representative government. The iron fist of the state is readying itself.
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I come from a working-class background. My lost paid job was a teacher, substituting for a number of years before obtaining a permanent position. I obtained my doctorate in 2009. I am an unapologetic critic of capitalism and the way in which various institutions and ideologies reinforce it.

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