Walter Mosley - What Next: A memoir toward world peace

Walter Mosley is best known for his crime novels, many of which feature Easy Rawlins, an American black detective working in Los Angeles. But Mosley is less well known for his political work. What Next: A memoir toward world peace is an essay he wrote in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 in New York City. In it Mosley explores the reasons for the attacks and the dangers of a US led response. In doing so he interogates the racism, poverty, violence and class nature of the United States.

Reading What Next I was reminded about the radical politics of the era. September 11 happened in the midst of the merging and growing anti-capitalist movement, which then morphed into the anti-war protests. A strong sense of radical politics emerged within these movements that is very much reflected in Mosley's writing. He rights beautifully about how the Civil Liberties movement shaped contemporary America. But he is also painfully aware of the reality of US imperialism and how what is done to the rest of the world in the name of US power, impacts back on those who live in the US state, but are also victims. 

The "memoir" aspect of the title comes in part from Mosley's own memories of his father. He was a US soldier in World War Two, and Mosley remembers how when he asked his Dad if he was scared his father's answer shocked him. Mosley senior wasn't scared at first, because he thought the Germans only hated Americans, and as a black man, he had never been considered American. The Nazis however, didn't appreciate the sutbletiles of 20th century US racism and tried to shoot him. It was a defining moment for Mosley's father and thus for Walter.

As Mosley watched the burning Twin Towers, he say "in the column of smoke", the legacy of that system:

Every child wasting away under his mother's powerless gaze. Every Muslim burned by a Hindu. Every innocenet citizen blown up by a suicide bomber or crhsed by an onrushing, revenge-drunk tank. I know we are responsible because US dollars have found their way into, and out of, every battlefield, every hospital bed, and every pocket of every terrorist in the world. We - Black men and women in every stratum of American society - live in and are part of an eco-system of terror. We, descendents of human suffering, are living in a fine mansion at the edge of a precipice. And the ground is caving in under the weight of our wealth and privilege.

Much of this could be written about today not least in US imperialism's support for genocide in Gaza. But there is ambiguity in Mosley's assertion that everyone in the US is in someway responsible for it. He does understand that not all Americans, and certainly not all "people of color in this nation" are wealthy, successful or privileged. There are many who suffered in the US's rise to power: "Native Americans and Chinese Americas and millions of poor white Americans who suffered and died for the railroads and steel manufacturers in wars for land and economic control."

But it is, and was, unfair to right that "black men and women in every stratum" are living in a "fine mansion" in "wealth and privilege". Quite the opposite in fact. Mosley's polemic is contradictory. He understands that the poor, the oppressed and the exploited are victims, yet because they are part of "America" he portrays them as part of the machine. However, this sits at odds with his belief  that the enemy is the system itself, and that "we must redefine our notion of the The Enemy, taking into account the role and actions of our own political and economic systems".

The problem is of course, the word "we". US politicians are adept at claiming that they speak for all. In fact all imperialists are. They justify actions by claiming to speak in our name. It is why so many placarsd on anti-war protests read "Not in Our Name". Mosley echoes this: "Even if we condone military actions, we might at least claim some culpability". And Mosley turns this into a critique of the general mainstream political narrative: "If we commit these murders, then we are also The Enemy of Civilisation" he concludes. Here he deploys "we" to force the reader to question who they are within the logic of imperialism.

It is safe to say that Mosley was not writing for me. His polemic was written specifically "as an address to African America", as a discussion on how black American history relates to the War on Terror. That's not to say there isn't plenty here for everyone though, even two decades after that failed war began. Running through the book is the question of class. I was enthralled by the clarity of his prose when it came to understanding the differences between the poor and the rich: Those who labour, and those who don't. Mosley uses this theme repeatedly, linking the war abroad with the war on working class Americans.

In vilifying the capitalist shell of our foreign policies, the victims also vilify the American people. This makes sense. Don't we always malign our enemies?... But... we Americans don't necessarily believe in the pracitvies of our corporate structures. Many of us feel the plundering effects of big business in our own work lives, bank accounts, energy bills and certainly at the hospital. Today many Americans have lost vast quantities of cash betting on the hollow promise of the stock market. College funds nad retirement accounts have been depleted and lost while the captains of capital remain well-heeled and unaffected.

In fact it is very notable that Mosley's definition of class is a Marxist one, linking it to the individual's relation to the means of production, rather than sociological nonsense like ones accent. 

So Mosley's conclusions are revolutionary. His calls to action are very much shaped by the preoccupation of the 2000s anti-capitalist movement: concern about the media, questions about organisation, fears about state security bodies and perhaps some naive illusions in state democrarcy. The movement still obsesses about some of these these questions today, which is why the book feels so contemporary. 

But it also feels contemporary, because the problems that Mosley refers to in the aftermath of 9/11 have only got worse. The US has been involved in endless wars. Imperialist crisis is spreading. Economic slump and crashes have reoccured and the environment has only got worse. The movements against racism that form the core of much of his essay have, however, exploded: Black Lives Matter saw the biggest days of protest in World History. These built on the movement against war and capitalism that inspired Mosley. They continue today - not least in the Palestinian solidarity movement. In this sense Walter Mosley's book speaks to a new generation.

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