Readers of almanacs, unite!
Repression only leads to more resistance
By Deirdre Griswold
The "terrorism threat level" set by the
Department of Homeland Security had been cranked up to an
Orange Alert. Thousands of police ringed New York's midtown
area, searching everyone who came in. Black Hawk helicopters,
the same kind used to launch attacks on Somalia and Iraq,
hovered overhead while military jets flew over the city. Police
snipers were positioned on roofs.
Despite these unprecedented police and military measures,
however, upwards of a million people reportedly celebrated the
arrival of the new year in Times Square. A similar situation
was reported in Las Vegas and other cities where large
gatherings had been planned.
There is no doubt that this costly beefing up of the state's
repressive apparatus, which has soared in the last two years,
has a dual purpose. There is the stated one, of protecting the
population against "terrorism." And there is the unstated one,
the one dear to the hearts of right-wingers and corporate
elites, of creating a climate of intimidation and conformity
during a volatile period when the possibility is never far away
of an economic and financial catastrophe that could radicalize
a large section of the population.
But if the population is intimidated, ready to roll over and
play dead, it's not showing it.
Since 9/11, the largest anti-war gatherings since the 1970s
have occurred, and groups like the ANSWER Coalition have
broadened the struggle to denounce imperialist aggression
everywhere, from Palestine to the Philippines to Korea.
Immigrant workers have arisen as a new force in and outside
the labor movement. They are leading organizing drives, strikes
and struggles against the low wages that impoverish a growing
layer of the working class. Their potency can be seen in
President George W. Bush's sudden discovery that he has a
program to "legalize" immigrant workers.
Seniors are mobilizing against rent increases, utility
shutoffs, and the raiding of Social Security and Medicare.
Rancor against their role as an occupation force is growing
among the troops, and more young people are looking for ways to
get out of going to Iraq.
While more money is being taken from social services and
spent on policing the population, the struggle against police
brutality, especially in the oppressed Black and Latino/a
communities, continues to boil. Because of this struggle, the
NYPD has been ordered to pay $3 million to the parents of
Amadou Diallo to compensate for the wrongful killing of this
immigrant African worker.
"No justice, no peace!," the familiar slogan of the struggle
against police murders, is true on both a national and global
scale. Heightened repression can never bring about real
stability and security, as every military or fascist
dictatorship has found out sooner or later. And in the
meantime, the ruling class that is so afraid of yielding to any
social change that might undermine its profits is winding up
shooting itself in the foot.
Reaping the whirlwind
U.S. imperialism's repeated outrages against the oppressed
nations of the earth have so antagonized broad layers of the
world's population that the rulers of this country are now
paranoid about security, fearing a "terrorist" around every
corner. So they have urged their politicians to take such
extreme measures that the airlines are now in a panic as
flights are canceled and bookings fall, their potential
passengers just too weary with all the delays and indignities
of airport security lines.
Some of the most ingenious jokes going around the Internet
these days have to do with the paranoia of the government and
the right wing. When the FBI sent out a memo instructing its
agents to look for people with almanacs because they might be
terrorists--almanacs list the tallest buildings, the longest
bridges, etc.--the response was uproarious. Nor have almanac
sales dropped off.
Bush now has his advance people set up "designated
free-speech zones" when he puts in a public appearance
anywhere. People with pro-Bush signs are allowed up front where
the cameras are. Opponents are sent to the "free-speech zones,"
which can be blocks away. Some who refuse have been arrested.
(San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 4)
The U.S. capitalist government, which for so long has
presented itself to the world as the bringer of democracy and
human rights, must now account for its brutal behavior abroad
and its increasingly heavy-handed style at home. How can its
patrons, the billionaire class, admit that the enormous
problems wracking the world are the creation of their very own
irrational and uncontrollable profit system?
But, in a world with just one "superpower," there's no one
else to blame. "Terrorists with almanacs" just don't fill the
bill.
Reprinted from the Jan. 15, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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