New round of attacks on civil liberties
By
Larry Hales
Published Aug 3, 2005 11:22 PM
On Friday, July 29, with the weekend looming, the
U.S. Senate passed a bill to reauthorize the U.S. Patriot Act. The House of
Representatives had passed its version earlier in the month. Some provisions of
the dangerous and sweeping act were set to expire this year.
All but two
of the provisions were renewed indefinitely. The two not permanently authorized
are the ones that have garnered the most attention.
One provision calls
for roving wiretaps, which allow authorities to eavesdrop as peo ple switch
phones. Another provision gives authorities the right to search library and
store records regarding media that customers may have purchased or borrowed.
Legislation that was passed in June would require that police get
traditional search warrants before checking library or bookstore records. That
legislation is attached to the budget for fiscal year 2006, but the Bush
administration has vowed to veto it.
The House’s version of the
Patriot Act renewal, like the Senate’s, makes permanent 14 of the 16
provisions under the act. It gives a 10-year extension on the two not made
permanent; this version passed by a vote of 257 to 171. The Senate version gives
a four-year extension to the same provisions, and it passed
unanimously.
The Patriot Act is similar to the 1996 Antiterrorism Act,
which has many times been declared unconstitutional. While it had been drafted
earlier, the Patriot Act was not signed into law until October 2001, soon after
9/11, and it passed the House with only 66 votes against it. There was only one
“no” vote in the Senate.
The Patriot Act could have had great
difficulty passing, but was rushed through taking advantage of the shock of the
9/11 attacks. While many people were reeling, the Bush administration charged
full-speed ahead, meeting hardly any resistance in Congress.
The bill
greatly restricts civil liberties. Its repressive provisions give the government
power to arbitrarily detain people for up to six months, to get access to
medical records and to step up surveillance on individuals deemed to have
questionable affiliations.
The Patriot Act—along with the REAL ID
Act, which was signed into law on May 11—especially targets immigrants,
greatly limiting their ability to move freely about the country.
Some
Democrats in Congress opposed various provisions of the Patriot Act, saying they
were too sweeping and intrusive. However, the entire law should be abolished, as
well as the REAL ID Act, the Anti Terrorism Act, and the new Gang Prevention
Act. All are aimed at strengthening the state at the expense of the workers and
poor while inequality and economic instability keep growing.
It’s
not realistic to expect that any real battle against the Patriot Act will come
from the halls of Congress. Both parties have already shown their willingness to
go along with the Bush administration, continually voting more money for the
brutal wars being waged overseas. The battle over the Patriot Act must be waged
in the streets by the anti-war movement, immigrant rights organizations,
anti-racists and all progressives, radicals and revolutionaries.
The
danger is that, as opposition grows against the designs of the ruling class, the
Patriot Act will be expanded. As the anti-war mobilizations for this fall gear
up, the repressive, racist acts that have been signed into law must also be
addressed. The current reactionary regime is ratcheting up its attacks against
immigrants, workers and the poor, and more attacks are promised as the failing
ruling class venture in the Middle East becomes ever more difficult for
them.
Recently, with the attacks in London, the Western imperialist
nations have intensified their propaganda about a “war on terror,”
but the true war on terror is against the class that wages war for profit,
denies the people health care, housing and education, and commits wholesale
slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan while sanctioning the occupation of Palestine
and Haiti.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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