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New round of attacks on civil liberties

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.