Law is the mechanism highlighting the class antagonism and subsequently the class war that has been intensifying in recent months. It is in the realm of the law that signifies the dynamics favoured by the state and its relation with whom they deem worthy and therefore worth sacrificing and those who are worthless and merely worth killing.
The Law is the state’s most powerful, civilian, controlling mechanism. From this understanding we can understand the challenges which face the radical left, the emancipatory movement, which is here to represent the majority, a category which the majority are unaware that they are a part of, in as much as the majority are unaware of their complicity with the ruling ideology of the day, neo-liberal capitalism, even those in the radical Left are unaware that they are involved in such a movement.
This may sound ridiculous but what is intended by this statement is to suggest that we are so ingrained within the contours of neo-liberal agenda that when we opposes the neo-liberal agenda we are actually reinforcing or legitimising it through our very opposition...
This statement needs elaboration however it will be left open-ended, although I will say that the Left needs to invoke a sense of radical social measures which, through its disregard for the contours of neo-liberalism, undermines the spectacle that has managed to distort the hierarchy of reality. That is to say, if one is able to live outside the contours of ‘acceptable’ social reality i.e. capitalist dogmatism, then an authentic left would be able to exist.
Is this not the true task of the Left today, to undermine the very structures which we bravely and admirably are fighting against?
It is for this reason that an analysis of UK Law will be critiqued in order to understand that; to stand and fight an enemy within the mechanisms that your enemy has created will only end in failure, or rather we may win some battles, but we will not win the war, to do so we need to stand our ground and draw the enemy towards a battle ground where capitalism is powerless through our very abstraction and mechanisms created through our abstraction.
Recent legislation that has been either enhanced or implemented under the Con-Dem regime give insight into the way the government favours and protects the wealthy and condemns the lower echelons for being just that, this is done through an uneven system which smothers the circumstances of all classes from birth.
Here are some examples of Law and its use to separate justice from the poor to the rich:
Recent legislation to abandon Legal aid for couples who wish to divorce will/has been axed in favour of ‘four way conciliations’ in governments attempts to keep couples together as it is much cheaper than having Legal aid to protect couples from domestic violence or forced marriage. Such legislation dissuades victims of abuse to seek help as they will have to stick with their abusive partner until they are able to unequivocally prove that they are abused. It is clear in this instance that those who can afford it will not need legal aid and therefore will be able to get a divorce as soon as they want, thus condemning abusive relationships to continue due to a lack of financial capital!
Although Cameron announced back in November that he would slack the intellectual property laws for start up internet companies, this did in no way go far enough. Intellectual property on all products; from pharmaceutical patenting, such as the patenting of AIDS drugs which creates scenarios of victims of AIDS unable to afford the drug treatments due to them having to pay the price of the intellectual property if they want to live. Yes there should be quality assurance on products particularly drug companies, but only when we abandon intellectual property rights will we live in a society which functions for the common good, and not for the wallets of domineering ‘individuals’.
Super-injunctions are another prime example of the Law which is there to protect its citizens. It is in fact a play tool for the rich and wealthy to stop arbitrary information being flung around, in order to save a ‘celebrity’ figure from his wife finding out about his affair, to the likes of Fred Goodwin being called a banker. If we all had the money to go to the Supreme Court to file cases against name calling or to stop rumours spreading, this would be a laughable practice. Such actions are merely the goings on of the rich and famous. Super injunctions are the pathetic instance where the Law is there purely as a servant of the rich. Any instance such as this is an attack on the poor as this is a mockery of the Legal system which is functioning for one class only.
Migratory Laws is the most explicit out of all the above examples of when a Law favours, it is also created just for the wealthy. The Con-Dem government has stated that rich migrants have tax exemptions if they leave £5 million in UK banks. This goes some way toward explaining the social apartheid that has been emerging over the past two decades with the likes of gated communities. What about all those migrants living in impoverished conditions in asylum houses, the equivalent of prisons, and the terrible treatment of migrants in this country who are subjugated to if they have little money. All states need migrants in particular poor ones to fill the jobs that many are not willing to do. On top of this all states have an obligation to accommodate migrants. In this world we live on a constant precipice, not knowing where nature will strike next, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, all these events have the ability to displace whole populations and it is our responsibility to produce provisions when such scenarios occur.
It is plain to see the ways in which Legal frameworks favour the richer groups in society at the detriment of the poor. The message the Left should take from this is to devise circumstances and ways we can undermine such power structures through abstracting the very laws which serve the rich. How to do this is not so clear, but if it can be done; a truly authentic left would exist, external to the contours of neo-liberal capitalism.
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