A rotten new bill

Earlier this fall the House of Representatives passed, by a ridiculous vote of 404-6, a thoroughly reactionary bill known as the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.” Introduced by California Democrat Jane Harman, HR 1955 would set up commissions called “Centers of Excellence” to study what “radicalizes” people and how to prevent it. The Senate has yet to produce its version of the legislation.

While HR 1955 is supposed to be directed against “terrorism,” its language is so vague and broad that civil liberties activists rightly note that these “Centers of Excellence” could be turned against any direct action and even against dissenting speech or writing on the Internet. HR 1955 is a preliminary step for more state repression.

To keep its threat in perspective, and to see how to fight it, it’s useful to recall the history of the House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC. Created in 1934, allegedly to fight the KKK and German Nazis, HUAC quickly became an instrument to investigate communists. When the Cold War peaked, from about 1948 to 1960, it had the weight of a modern Inquisition. If you were called before it, you could lose your job, be outlawed from your profession, and find your reputation ruined with neighbors and friends. If you stood strong and defied HUAC, you might do jail time for contempt of Congress.

By the early 1960s, young people by the thousands protested against HUAC when it started to investigate the anti-war movement. Its power was already beginning to wane. By the late 1960s, radicals looked forward to being called before HUAC. The more flamboyant protesters like Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman ridiculed the committee. People laughed at it. Everyone had contempt of HUAC.

It was not any change in laws that altered the threat of HUAC but a change in the level of struggle and of mass consciousness.

In a similar way today, HR 1955 threatens dissent not just because of its wording but because it signals the intention of the capitalist state to find ways to crack down on opponents. It is important to try to stop it in the Senate, but also to prepare a popular struggle against it, should it pass.

Imagine this scenario. A “Center of Excellence” (it’s hard to write that phrase without quotes) hearing is held to investigate why people become “radicalized.” Protesters are there with picket signs: “I was radicalized when my job was outsourced after 20 years on the production line.” “I became a radical when my home was repossessed.” “I turned left when I was ethnically cleansed from New Orleans.” “I found myself considering violence when I was sent to Iraq to kill civilians.”

It’s a rotten bill. But if it passes—don’t moan, organize.