This is just a short note to express my hope that all the celebrities and ordinary folks celebrating the two former members of pussy riot will recall that there are political prisoners rotting in US prisons as well. This is not to criticize TFMPR – I don't really understand the issues behind the split, but that aside, I take it that their primary moral responsibility is to stand up to abuses in Russia. On the other hand, while there is nothing at all wrong with cheering on these efforts from the safe Brooklyn sidelines, this is not the primary moral responsibility of someone in the US. For those who would like to learn more about US political prisoners, there are quite a few excellent resources Here
8 responses to “The politics always look clearer on the other side of the fence.”
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I am no expert (that’s putting it mildly) but it has been suggested that Putin encourages criticism to focus on Pussy Riot, to avoid hard questions about other matters. Making it look like there is a culture war both boosts his popularity at home and helps to take the focus off worse abuses. See ehre, for example:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/04/18/peter-pomerantsev/im-a-liberal-he-said-it-can-mean-anything/
So not only is there a danger of neglecting pressing issues at home, there are probably more pressing issues even in Russia.LikeLike
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Yeah, from the little I’ve read, I gather that is part of the split within the group – the others want to hold the focus on the broader issues they had before the imprisonment. I think it is too early to say whether these two will continue that broad focus. ANd I suspect Putin is wrong about this. It is much easier to stay out of the spotlight than to keep it carefully focused once one is in it.
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Thanks Mark. I added some of these titles to my “punishment and prison” bibliography which, should anyone be interested, is available as a pdf. doc. here: https://www.academia.edu/4844124/Punishment_and_Prison_bibliography
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In their Cobert interview they actually talked about American Prisons, whi ( http://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/check_out_pussy_riots_totally_charming_interview_with_stephen_colbert/ ).
Al jazeera has a story about this http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/2/4/pussy-riot-planstoextendactivismtouspoliticalprisoners.html . Key quote:
Now that the band is an icon for the struggle against human rights abuses in Putin’s Russia, the two women said it will also act for the rights of prisoners in the United States. Tolokonnikova and Alekhina said they plan to visit prisons and meet with nonprofit organizations to learn about the issue of solitary confinement in the U.S.
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Wow, Patrick, that is a great resource! Thanks for creating it, and thanks for the link.
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Thanks Geoff. I have a companion compilation on municipal and international criminal law as well: https://www.academia.edu/4843989/Criminal_Law_bibliography
There’s been a lot of material published recently on international criminal law, so I hope to update this bibliography anon.LikeLike
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Wow! That’s an amazing resource. Thanks so much.
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yeah, thanks very much for these Patrick. Very helpful to me as well.
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