[Marxism] A cop is a cop is a cop (was: Sen. Obama voices "respect" for Bell verdict, repeats suggestion of "excessive violence")

[Lüko Willms]

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:39:05 -0400, Ruthless Critic of All that Exists 
wrote:

> Cops are also workers. 

  well, they do get a salary or wage

> In fact, they are often unionized workers. 

  and have formed associations

> Same with prison guards, too. 

  true

> They are part of the working class. 

  No, the police in a capitalist state is opposed to the working class, 
at least as this body of armed men, even if individual cops may be 
sympathetic to the cause of working people. But the police force does 
not exist to produce value, or to distribute the produced surplus value, 
but to protect the rule of the ruling class (which means that the 
proletariat as ruling class does also have a police force). 

> Don't forget that many Bolsheviks  were recruited directly from *the
> soldiers of the the tsarist army!

  I relation to the class conflict there is a decisive difference 
between the police and the army. In the latter one can find workers in 
uniform, even where no conscription (draft) exists, like the USofA. The 
military is normally not used in internal class conflicts, but may 
appear as a tool of the nation as such in conflict with other nations, 
while the police are alway active on the internal front. 

  Which side are you on, you fearful critic of everything which treatens 
the existing order? 


Comradely yours, 
Lüko Willms
Frankfurt, Germany
--------------------------------
visit http://www.mlwerke.de Marx, Engels, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotzki in German