Child abuse and capitalist political parties

Our attack on the SWP focused on how they decided to deal with the allegations not on the act of rape itself.

Agreed, but until there is some substance to the allegations of a cover up by the political establishment best if we stay well clear of the sleaze brigade.  For no section of the community is going to be squeaky clean on the issue of child abuse. The stats on the subject estimate a figure of below 5% in the general population as perpetrators, and I have no idea how that figure was arrived at.  Nonetheless, even if its 2.5 it means we are living in a very sick society. 

Capitalism is awful but one thing I wouldn't blame capitalism solely for is child abuse. Unfortunately there will always be child abusers, as well as capitalist paedophiles I am pretty sure there are one or two communist paedophiles out there.  Though I do think child abuse will be reduced in communism, however unfortunately it will never completely go away.

There are studies that show "specific developmental experiences" have a tendancy to distort a persons sexual awareness. In a nutshell it would seem that most child abusers where themselves abused. The issue then becomes, how to break that cycle of abuse.I wouldn't go so far as to say a socialist society could eliminate all such abuse, but a socialist society has to be based on voluntary, community involvement. Or to put it very simply, watching out for one another. So if a family was struggling for whatever reason, the community could and would make themselves available for support etc. Unlike today where we are essentialy encouraged to isolate ourselves and look to authorities to solve every problem and we all know such problem solving is limited due to the constraints of available financial resources.I would also say that at times it may be necessary to remove individuals from the community for the protection of the community.However that is my way of seeing a socialist society trying to tackle difficult and very unpleasant issues. We may find that the different socialist communities take a harsher approach and simply hang such offenders. Who knows what the future might hold.

There are shades of Marc Dutroux here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux#Allegations_of_cover-upCertainly, we now have more than prima facia evidence that Cyril Smith was a serial child rapist.  Avoiding charged words like 'network' and 'ring' it seems clear that he knew and was enabled by other politicians engaged in similar activities.  As per the allegations around Elm Guest House, it seems otehrs were invovled.Now, this does not mean there was a cover up.  Taking the occam's razor approach, we need to distinguish several different problems.[*]1) An inclination by police not to get caught up in political scandals, and perhaps a deferential approach to politicians.2) Politicians and officials not taking the offences seriopusly, and not triiggering or flagging them when they crossed their desks (this also relates to the so-callde missing files, I'm told by ex-civil servants that civil service records management isn't up to snuff, and orutinely destroys entire sections unless someone marks them as important or still active).3) Active collaboration or interference, either:i) through invovlement in the abuse themselves, or,ii) Through callous desire to protect their mates (or be owed a favour).If this story is true: Editor explains why he didn't publish Barbara Castle's paedophile dossier

Then we are beginning to have to start seriously thinking about the upper end on the scale of conspiracy.That said, i think our general approach remains unchanged.  We need to be wary of power, deference and control.  Child abuse is not a class issue, but cover ups and abuse of power are.[*] The Lib-Dems have been hard hit by all this, as David Steel has had to explain why he didn't take action.  They have also had their own version of the Comrade Delta scandal in the form of Mike Hancock and also Lord Rennard.  They are big enough not to implode over the issue.

Sorry about my last post perhaps being only slightly relevant to the main theme of this thread, as it concerns Saville and not politicians.My point is that if a media figure like John Lydon, who at that time in 1978 would have been on the fringe of the entertainment industry, was aware of certain rumours, then it is a certainty that those at the heart of the establishment in this country would also have been aware.