Addendum to the Mr. Peel Story

It's notable that in Marx's story about Mr. Peel, the 'state' in the form of the local colonial authorities of the colony of Western Australia play an active role in the implementation of the capitalist mode of production, and do so for the economic benefit of the capitalist class. Consequently, as is noted within the general literature about the class role of the 'state', in capitalism the state is the right arm of the capitalist class in terms of actively advancing its economic interests as a class in its own right, which simultaneously means acting against the economic interests of the working class. This is, incidentally, a central theme of William Mitchell's and Thomas Fazi's book, Reclaiming the State, which is specifically a critique of the contemporary neoliberal version of the capitalist state.