By Comrade Toussaint

July 31, 2020

SAINT LOUIS COUNTY: “Progressive” prosecutor Wesley Bell showed his true class allegience on Thursday when he refused to pursue charges against Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown in 2014. Bell is quoted as saying: “Although this case represents one of the most significant moments in St. Louis’ history, the question for this office was a simple one: Could we prove beyond a reasonable doubt that when Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown he committed murder or manslaughter under Missouri law?” Bell said at the news conference. “After an independent and in-depth review of the evidence, we cannot prove that he did.” In essence, Bell has demonstrated that he is firmly loyal to the oppressive order of things and opposes people’s justice for the murderers of working class Black people. This is no surprise, as the role of a prosecutor regardless of how “progressive” they appear is to uphold the well being and order of the ruling class that is ultimately responsible for the killings in the first place.

Bell’s victory is the direct result of the failure of previous Saint Louis County prosecutor Bob McCullough to successfully prosecute Wilson, and many grassroots reformist organizations that “rang the bell” for Bell a few years ago are now getting a hard lesson in the futility of attempting to manufacture change through the same systems that are responsible for the people’s suffering in the first place. There is already talk within the local activist community of “holding Bell accountable” through struggling against him at the polls – we ask when will enough be enough? We call for the rejection of reformist individualism and the summing up of engagement with the electoral process which has led to nothing but defeat, betrayal, and failure.

The masses, the working class and semi-working class, is who ultimately matters in the final analysis. Data compiled and released by the ruling class itself consistently shows that the masses of working class people do not engage in these electoral farces, because it has been consistently shown that there is no real fruit for the people at the polls. Black people have been able to vote countrywide since the passing of the Voting Rights Act, and several hundred Black elected officials at all levels of bourgeois government have been elected, including a President of the United States. We remember that it was under President Barack Obama that Mike Brown was murdered by Wilson in the first place. We also remember that it was under Obama that Libya was laid low for the benefit of capitalism-imperialism. As the people say, not all skinfolk are kinfolk, and the Black shills for Empire even less.

It is the duty of all who call themselves activists to severely criticize the electoral farce that produces Wesley Bells and Barack Obamas, steel themselves with the theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and avoid confusing the masses of people through continued participation in these anti-people charades. Communists warned of the dangers and eventual betrayal of Wesley Bell during the election, and now it has come to pass. Hopefully the hard lesson is learned and a repeat is avoided.