A revealing statement in a mainstream tabloid about the Gaza War and the role of the police in Europe
By Michael Pröbsting, RCIT, 29 October 2023, www.thecommunists.net
The “Kronen Zeitung” – on of the two tabloids in Austria with the widest circulation – published a highly revealing article on 29 October. * The content itself is – unfortunately – not different from many other articles in the European mainstream media which we are forced to endure in these days of Israeli mass murder against the Palestinian people.
The author advocates a cynical “solidarity with Israel” and vilifies the mass protests against the Zionist war as “anti-semitic”. In particular, he is indignant about the alleged passivity of the police and its failure to suppress such anti-war protests. So far, so bad. All this is not particularly remarkable in these days of madness where the European media wage an unholy war of hysterical slander against the oppressed people in Palestine.
Nevertheless, the author confirms – of course, against his intention – a Marxist truth. At the end of his article, he attacks the police in Vienna for failing to protect an Israeli flag (which was ripped off from a building). “The police were not present. The police headquarter and the interior ministry said that they protect people and not empty building. They are wrong. The police protects the authority of the state.“
These words from an arch-reactionary supporter of the Zionist state and the capitalist order are highly revealing. He is right. The role of the police in capitalism “is not to protect people but to protect authority of the state.“
Without being aware of it, the author confirms a long-established truth of Marxism! Right, Mr. Nowak, in capitalism the role of the police is certainly not to protect the people – despite the fact that it is their taxes which finance wages and pensions of the police! In capitalism, the role of the police is rather to “to protect authority of the state“ which means nothing but to protect the power of the elite at the top of the state.
Marx, and after him Lenin, repeatedly emphasized that the state is “an instrument of the ruling class for the exploitation of the oppressed class.” That is why the police can never serve the interests of the popular masses and the oppressed, but rather those of the ruling class.
The shameful role of the police, which is currently banning numerous solidarity actions with the Palestinian people in Europe, underlines this Marxist truth once again. Thank you, Mr. Nowak, for reminding us of that!
* Rainer Nowak: „Allahu Akbar“ auf dem Wiener Stephansplatz, https://www.krone.at/3150729