What Every Radical Should Know About State Repression Quotes

“In the conflicts between capital and labour, the army has often intervened against labour - never against capital. In court the defense of the poor is nothing short of impossible, because of the cost of any judicial action; in effect, a worker can neither bring a case nor defend one. The overwhelming majority of crimes are directly caused by poverty and come into the category of attacks on property. The overwhelming majority of prison inmates are from the poor.”
― Victor Serge, What Every Radical Should Know About State Repression: A Guide for Activists

“Repression is effective when it acts along the lines of historical development; it is impotent in the last reckoning when it goes against the grain of historical development.”
― Victor Serge, What Every Radical Should Know About State Repression: A Guide for Activists

“Police provocation is above all the weapon - or the curse - of decomposing regimes. Conscious of their impotence to prevent what is going on, the police incite initiatives which they then repress. Provocation is also a spontaneous, elementary action, resulting from the demoralization of a police force at their wits' end, overtaken by events, which cannot perform a task infinitely above its capacities, and nonetheless wants to justify the expenditures of its masters.”
― Victor Serge, What Every Radical Should Know About State Repression: A Guide for Activists