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Marilyn Mosby is an Agent of the State

The Burning Spear

June 5, 2015

 

Marilyn James Mosby is an American lawyer, currently the State’s Attorney for Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Marilyn Mosby is a militant 35-year-old tough-talking prosecutor who has dared to do something no other prosecutor has done since the rash of police murders has been pushed to public view by the resistance cascading over the U.S. since the August 9, 2014 police murder of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Mosby, an African woman, has captured the imagination and loyalty of thousands of African militants throughout the U.S. who have been moved to action against the police in an intensity unseen in the U.S. since the defeat of the Black Revolution of the 1960s.

Even before she indicted six policemen in the case of Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old African man murdered by Baltimore police in April 2015, Mosby had begun to demonstrate her political views.

Mosby protested the July 2013 acquittal of the white murderer of Trayvon Martin and later denounced St. Louis prosecutor Bob McCulloch for failing to indict Darren Wilson for murdering Mike Brown in Missouri.

Many police defenders, political pundits and prosecutors in the U.S. charge that Mosby has acted improperly by quickly indicting six Baltimore cops with an assortment of offenses, including murder.

Right on cue, many Africans have begun to circle the wagons around Mosby, charging her attackers with anti-African bias, which may be true.

Marilyn Mosby is an agent of the State

The real issue for us, however, one that must not be overlooked by the African People’s Socialist Party and any organization that is intent on overthrowing the national oppression and class exploitation of our people, is this: Mosby, the Baltimore prosecutor, is an arm of the State.

Whatever else she is, however nice she may be, regardless of her militant stance, Marilyn Mosby is custodian of an instrument of white colonial State power.

Moreover, lest we are confused, we must also state, emphatically, that the State is an instrument of coercion. It is the instrument through which the white capitalist-colonialist ruling class seeks to have a monopoly on violence—the violence that resulted in the police murder of Freddy Gray and occupies, destroys and controls entire countries and peoples for profit-making and maintaining political advantage.

The State is that power hovering over society required for peace and stability when society is split between those who have what they have through expropriating value from those who do not have because of this expropriation of value.

Why would a slave endure slavery without the use of extreme violence by the slave owner? Why would the colonized allow for their land and resources to be taken and enjoyed by countries and peoples hundreds and thousands of miles away without the use of armies, air forces and armed drones that can destroy their lives at will?

Obviously they wouldn’t. Neither would hungry people simply stand, Styrofoam cup in hand, begging in front of convenience stores filled with food without taking what they need to eat if not for the presence of the State in the form of the police and, in the case of uprisings, national guard troops.

The poverty and despair of our people in the U.S. and the world not voluntary

The condition of poverty and despair experienced by so many of our people within the U.S. and the world is not something that is voluntarily endured. The police, jail, court system and the grand jury are instruments of the State, so is the office of the district attorney currently occupied by Marilyn Mosby in Baltimore.

The question is not whether Marilyn Mosby is a nice or militant or “good” African person, as persons go. The fact is the State and the nature and task of the State do not change no matter the color or gender of its representatives. Rather than entering into a romance with Marilyn Mosby, (which is by definition a romance with the colonial State that is responsible for our condition and the police murders Africans are protesting throughout the U.S.) Africans must struggle to dismantle the colonial State, the main power that stands between our liberation and us.

Everyone genuinely interested in liberation must necessarily be interested in destroying the power of the colonial State over our lives. Everyone, however, is not aware of this. Everyone does not automatically come to understand the issue of the State.

This is why the role of the African People’s Socialist Party is so important. It is our task to extend the discussion of police murder of our people beyond the arena of Barack Hussein Obama and CNN reporters and pundits like Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon.

The African People’s Socialist Party is preparing to govern!

This is why the Party is necessary to lead the struggle for the destruction of the capitalist-colonialist State and the capture of revolutionary black working class State power. The Party must lead the African working class struggle to crush our class enemies and national oppressors and take the lead in restructuring society so it is not based on stealing the labor and resources of the African workers and the laboring masses of the world.

Not every organization, even militant sounding organizations, is interested in destroying the power of the capitalist colonialist State over our lives. Not every organization is preparing to capture revolutionary black working class State power.

Some people and organizations are willing to endure the Marilyn Mosbys, Barack Hussein Obamas and Mandela-Zumas because they are African and not white. While some of this is due to confusion caused by a strategy of white power to disguise and present itself in the face of the oppressed, some Africans are quite clear of the fact that this is neocolonialism.

Neocolonialism is a term coined by Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana.

Neocolonialism is white power in black, brown or yellow face. Neocolonialism became necessary when millions of colonized peoples worldwide became radicalized by the presence of white people exercising oppressive and brutal power over our lives and resources.

Neocolonialism was the result of the white colonizer being forced to resort to indirect rule by declaring some kind of freedom or independence while still maintaining economic control of the society and its resources.

This provides political cover for white power that can now absolve itself from responsibility for the conditions of existence of our people. Politically, neocolonialism finds expression within the petty bourgeoisie, the so-called middle class in our communities.

These are the people who are raised and sometimes bred to adopt the same interests and aspirations of the white rulers. They become self-alienated and are rewarded with a material stake in the continued existence in the oppressive social system.

They become mayors and police chiefs and prosecutors.

Neocolonial entities become extensions of the imperialist State. They are white power in disguise and when they are successful they confuse the people and have us fighting shadows instead of the real problem.

White power in black face will keep us protesting every injury to us for all eternity with no end in sight. Neocolonialism gives the impression of black self-government when, in fact, it is a deterrent to black self-governance.

We in the African People’s Socialist Party, however, are not content to continue protesting every outrage of the imperialist system that cannot help but outrage. We are preparing to govern.

Because we are preparing to govern it is essential to identify the primary, the main instrument of white power that stands between our current state of miserable, violent existence and our liberation—namely the State.

Death to the capitalist-colonialist State!

All power to the people!

 

One Comment

  • Stansfield Smith on Jul 30, 2016

    This article is at a pretty low level. Mosby is under attack by the right wing. I am sure the right-wing appreciates APSP and similar Afro groups who won’t defend Blacks under racist attack.Fortunately most people have a lesser degree of self-righteousness and a greater degree of solidarity.

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