A monumental confession of failure
Ashcroft's wish list becomes law
By Deirdre Griswold
The so-called anti-terrorism laws passed overwhelmingly by
Republicans and Democrats in Congress will be put to the test
as the struggle against the present war unfolds.
The most reactionary, anti-worker, war-and-repression-loving
elements in U.S. politics must have felt they were handed a
golden opportunity when the World Trade Center and Pentagon
were attacked on Sept. 11. For years they have been trying to
turn the clock back to the days of the 1950s, when the "loss"
of China to a revolutionary national liberation struggle led by
Communists threw the U.S. ruling class into a panic. Sen.
Joseph McCarthy then unleashed a monstrous witch-hunt against
the progressive movement in this country that even targeted
liberals within the ruling class itself.
This swing to the right was blunted in the late 1950s,
however, by the rise of the civil rights movement. The African
American masses challenged the most repressive laws in this
country at the time: the segregation laws. Thousands of people
put their bodies on the line and broke those laws in order to
render them moot.
As the U.S. became involved in a war in Southeast Asia, a
youthful free-speech movement emerged in the 1960s. The
government's first reaction was to try and squelch it in the
same way as the McCarthy period--but to no avail. The Berkeley
free speech movement was but the beginning of a tumultuous
period in which those who knew they were being prepared to
fight and perhaps die on the other side of the world demanded
the right to read what they wanted, speak out, associate with
whom ever they chose, and organize against the war--instead of
obediently following the orders of the generals, bankers and
politicians.
The broad social struggles of that period finally led to
laws that put some restraints on the most blatant abuses by the
state. Some of it was window dressing, but nevertheless the
police and "intelligence" agencies have been complaining ever
since.
In the climate of fear after Sept. 11, repression against
immigrants began even before the new legislation had been
framed and passed. The present legislation, only slightly
modified by Congress, gives the political police their wish
list.
While it is supposedly aimed at terrorism, it follows the
agenda of Attorney General John Ashcroft and other racist
reactionaries who argue that the protections won by the
struggles of the 1960s and 1970s--protections against egregious
acts by the capitalist state--are too "permissive," hamper "law
enforcement" agencies, make it impossible for the state to
protect the people adequately from "terrorists."
This assumes, of course, that the state is in the business
of protecting the people's interests. This very formulation
conceals the class character of U.S. society and the capitalist
state, which has evolved over more than two centuries to
advance the interests of the property-owning classes--whether
they were landowners in George Washington's time, slave owners
before the Civil War, or today's global industrialists and
bankers.
The capitalist state got nearly 60,000 young men and women
killed in Vietnam by imprisoning those who refused to go fight
in that imperialist war. Some protection.
Provisions of 'Patriot Act'
The American Civil Liberties Union, in a letter of Oct. 23,
urged members of the Senate to reject the package of laws
dubbed the "USA Patriot Act" because it gives "enormous,
unwarranted power to the executive branch--which can be used
against U.S. citizens--unchecked by meaningful judicial
review."
The ACLU added that the laws give "the Attorney General and
federal law enforcement unnecessary and permanent new powers to
violate civil liberties that go far beyond the stated goal of
fighting international terrorism. These new and unchecked
powers could be used against American citizens who are not
under criminal investigation, immigrants who are here within
our borders legally, and also against those whose First
Amendment activities are deemed to be threats to national
security by the Attorney General."
The ACLU spelled out what the new provisions let the
government do.
They "permit the Attorney General to indefinitely
incarcerate or detain non-citizens based on mere
suspicion."
They allow the authorities to carry out telephone and
Internet surveillance with "minimal judicial supervision."
They "expand the ability of the government to conduct secret
searches."
They give "the Attorney General and the Secretary of State
the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist
organizations and block any non-citizen who belongs to them
from entering the country."
They let the CIA, supposedly an agency for gathering
intelligence outside this country, decide who in the U.S.
should be investigated.
They give the government access to people's financial,
medical, educational and other records without having to show
evidence of a crime.
And they "create a broad new definition of 'domestic
terrorism' that could sweep in people who engage in acts of
political protest and subject them to wiretapping and enhanced
penalties."
These are the kinds of broad and vague police powers that
the agencies of the capitalist government have wanted for a
long time.
Doomed to fail
There is no question that they will energize the movement to
defend civil liberties--especially freedom of speech,
association and dissent. These laws will become increasingly
unpopular as it is seen that they are but the legal framework
for a vicious imperialist war of conquest that will bring
untold suffering to people abroad and here at home.
Already there is a strong, grassroots movement against the
war and the unjust, exploitive world order of billionaires and
sweatshops identified as U.S. globalization. It cannot be
eradicated with repression.
When the civil rights movement emerged in the South, women
and men of all ages stood up against police clubs, dogs and
firehoses; the extra-legal terror of the Ku Klux Klan; and an
entrenched political and economic structure that was determined
to keep them as second-class citizens.
It took courage, determination and tireless organizing.
There were many martyrs and many, many heroes. But eventually
the movement got the reactionary laws overturned by organizing
the masses of people in protest and defiance.
The premise behind the present legislation is doomed to
fail. There will be no peace and security for this country
while police are running roughshod over civil liberties and the
military are enraging people all over the world with the mass
murder and destruction euphemistically known as "surgical
strikes" and "collateral damage." Even the troops themselves
will recoil in horror at being used as cannon fodder for the
"great game" of the billionaire corporations.
This legislation will be looked back on as yet another
eye-opening confession of monumental failure by an
out-of-control social system that promises the people democracy
and prosperity as it delivers capitalist recession, repression
and war.
Reprinted from the Nov. 15, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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