Have workers ever organized against crime?

[Questionable]

It seems like protection against crime usually falls under the domain of extremist right-wing groups who promise "law and order" to citizens, which of course means beating up any minorities who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, have workers ever teamed up to protect each other on the basis of workers' solidarity? It seems like a good alternative to simply putting your faith in the police, but I suppose there'd be a certain level of consciousness required in order to prevent it from becoming another fascist manhunt.

I'm aware that crime is a result an inevitable product of capitalism, but that's not to say that workers should stand by and not defend each other from those who wish to harm them for non-political reasons.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Two instances come to mind. First in the Paris commune workers organized brigades to combat to beat up looters who wanted to take advantage of the riots to steal food.

The second probably doesn't really count. Republican Action Against Drugs is a grassroots Irish Republican organization that violently punishes drug dealers. I guess they sort of count. They do seem to have a high level of support for their actions considering the advances the Irish Republican Movement has made in recent years, and recently the mother of a teenager who was kneecapped said that she thanked the RAAD since the boy probably would have died from overdose if not for their action. Plus when one of their operatives was shot in Dublin there was a good level of attendance to his funeral proving that they have a strong base of support

I suppose that counts, though you'll have to excuse my liberalism when I say that I am personally disgusted with the Anti-Drug turn they've made. Sure it might make them popular in those corners, but surely there are more productive things that can be done with guns than shooting lumpen.

[Questionable]

Two instances come to mind. First in the Paris commune workers organized brigades to combat to beat up looters who wanted to take advantage of the riots to steal food.

The second probably doesn't really count. Republican Action Against Drugs is a grassroots Irish Republican organization that violently punishes drug dealers. I guess they sort of count. They do seem to have a high level of support for their actions considering the advances the Irish Republican Movement has made in recent years, and recently the mother of a teenager who was kneecapped said that she thanked the RAAD since the boy probably would have died from overdose if not for their action. Plus when one of their operatives was shot in Dublin there was a good level of attendance to his funeral proving that they have a strong base of support

I suppose that counts, though you'll have to excuse my liberalism when I say that I am personally disgusted with the Anti-Drug turn they've made. Sure it might make them popular in those corners, but surely there are more productive things that can be done with guns than shooting lumpen.

I feel you when you call for more productive things, but goddamn, I can't help but support a group like that because I'm so sick of hearing the horror stories about criminal organizations brutally massacring innocents who even look at them the wrong way.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

I feel you when you call for more productive things, but goddamn, I can't help but support a group like that because I'm so sick of hearing the horror stories about criminal organizations brutally massacring innocents who even look at them the wrong way.

Yea that's why I self-criticized for liberalism. The RAAD is pretty good at protecting the community where the police fail just like the Black Panthers were. And it's important to note that the Provisional IRA have totally reversed their position and are now operating as a criminal gang in service to Sind Fein. Recently they executed 20 teenagers, and since the Loyalist IRA has a tendency of murdering dissidents I imagine it was for political reasons, since we can't question the judgement of great comrade Gerry Adams.

So yea, I guess I support them to an extent since the Irish people need to be defended from the police and Gerry Adam's band of raving sociopaths, but I admit that the liberal in me is hesitant.

[Yet_Another_Boring_Marxist]

Oh and plus the dissidents released a statement declaring they were socialists, so I guess that counts for something

[Crabbensmasher]

Fascists have more of an obsession with civil order and obedience. Whereas worker movements in general are more decentralized and/or grassroots if that makes any sense.
I don't know if this would be a good example, but just picture what it would be like in Maoist China. If people wanted change, they would go into the street and react, sometimes violently. If they wanted to stamp out crimes, they would take it into their own hands instead of letting the proper authorities, judicial systems, courts etc. do their job. Unfortunately, a lot of times, these mobs would become little more than criminals themselves.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Do you know about Carlo Tresca?

He was just one guy, but he was a leading Italian anarchist and syndicalist in the USA. He was very outspoken against the Mafia, which he realized had infiltrated the American labor movement. For this he was later assassinated by the Mafia, probably at the hands of one Carmine Galante, a Genovese crime family associate acting on orders from Vito Genovese, who turn ordered the murder as a favor to Benito Mussolini. (Galante was a suspect in over eighty seperate murders that authorities knew about.)

But yeah, like I said, just one guy, he was cool though. One of those left-wing figures that multiple governments hated.

[Rafiq]

Italian communists (in italy) uses to fight the Sicilian mafia.