The New State Repression

Tarantula Distribution writes

Now available from Tarantula Publications:

THE NEW STATE REPRESSION

“Today’s political repression differs fundamentally from the repression practiced here and around the world in the past. The most basic difference is on the level of strategy [...] the general approach of the state, the outlook of the ruling class.

“In the past, the rulers and their security forces believed that the normal condition of society was stability and calm, while insurgency was thought to be a quirk, an oddity, a pathology. [...] The difference today is their belief that insurgency is not an occasional, erratic idiosyncrasy of people who are exploited or oppressed, but a constant occurrence—permanent insurgency, which calls for a strategy that doesn’t simply rely on a police force and a national guard and an army that can be called out in an emergency, but rather a strategy of permanent repression as the full-time task of the security forces.”

—Ken Lawrence

“Our rulers need repression because they know how brittle their legitimacy really is, and how weak their grip on power. This sense of vulnerability always provides the premise for their plans, the motive for repressive action. ‘The New State Repression’ shows us this, often from the state’s perspective and largely through the words of its own strategists.

“We cannot afford to underestimate the state. But we should not fool ourselves into believing in its omnipotence, either. Ken Lawrence has offered a guard against each type of error.”

—Kristian Williams

Ken Lawrence’s classic essay on strategies of counter-insurgency has now been reprinted with a new introduction by Kristian Williams (author, Our Enemies in Blue and American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination).

Three dollars postpaid, or ask your local bookseller to place an order.

(Pamphlet, June 2006, 24 pages with silver/blue cover.)

Order online (U.S. / postpaid copy) here.

Please contact Tarantula Publications for bulk distribution rates, or for information on our other titles:

Tarantula / 818 SW 3rd Ave. PMB 1237 / Portland, OR 97204

www.socialwar.net

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