------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 20, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
WITH RESTRUCTURING OF GOV'T: BUSH TAKES AX TO POLITICAL, CIVIL RIGHTS ANSWER Coalition to Protest at FBI in D.C. By Deirdre Griswold Much discussion and debate is taking place inside the U.S. government, the Congress and the media about President George W. Bush's proposal to set up a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security that would centralize under its control many police and intelligence functions now distributed across other government bodies. This debate, however, is almost entirely confined to how to strengthen the repressive apparatus of the U.S. capitalist government. It is similar in some ways to the debates within ruling circles in other countries who have attempted to suppress serious social problems by expanding the authority of the state to spy on, intimidate, detain, arrest, imprison and even "disappear" people they deemed suspicious or a threat to the established order. Fortunately, there is another world outside the official or establishment view. Activists are planning a response to growing repression with a major demonstration at FBI headquarters in Washington on June 29. THOUSANDS OF DETENTIONS Since Sept. 11, and especially since the start of the Pentagon war in Afghanistan, the Bush administration has, by executive decree, imprisoned thousands of people in the U.S., most of them Muslims, and held them for indeterminate periods without a shred of due process. It has in effect torn up the Constitution--especially the Bill of Rights, which itself was added to the founding document of the United States only after a bitter struggle by people who today the Bush administration might well view as troublemakers. It has also flouted international law by kidnapping hundreds of people from Afghanistan and incarcerating them under appalling conditions at Guantanamo Naval Base, where they have yet to be interviewed by any non-U.S. government source. Criticism of all this from liberal capitalist organizations has been muted, even after the latest announcement by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft that a person held incommunicado in Chicago since May 8, known as Abdullah al-Muhajir, is a U.S.- born citizen originally named Jose Padilla. Picked up as he arrived on a flight from Pakistan, he has had no contact with attorneys, family and friends or the media for over a month. The public is expected to take on faith everything said about him by the Bush administration, who a month later, and in the midst of criticism of how they handled warnings of potential terrorist attacks before Sept. 11, are now trumpeting his arrest as having prevented a diabolical plot to, somewhere down the line, produce a "dirty bomb"--a conventional explosive device laced with radioactive components. We are expected to believe that the FBI and other federal agents briefing the media on this case are infallible investigators with no political agenda. Many, many people do not believe. As the Bush administration piles one assault on civil rights and civil liberties on top of another, those who see this as a dangerous effort to stifle dissent are preparing for action. ANSWER LAUNCHESCIVIL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN Workers World spoke with Brian Becker, a co-director of the International Action Center and a central organizer and spokesperson for the International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) coalition. Becker described how, on June 1, some 600 people attending an ANSWER conference in New York had decided to launch a "defend civil rights" campaign by organizing a large demonstration at the FBI and Justice Department headquarters in Washington. "We expect buses and car caravans will be coming from all over the East Coast on June 29," said Becker. "We've initiated the campaign because Bush and Ashcroft are trying to silence critics of their foreign and domestic policies. They want to stifle dissent by combining the tactics of J. Edgar Hoover's vicious reign at the FBI with a new kind of McCarthyism--a witch hunt against people who are targeted for their political and religious convictions. "June 1 was the first opportunity for organizers and activists who have participated as part of ANSWER since last September to come together and strategize to build on the momentum of our past actions. We adopted a six-month action plan, which will include a focus on mass actions in opposition to imperialist war and racism and in defense of civil rights." WHAT IS ANSWER'S TAKE ON THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND DEFENSE? Becker noted that "It was just days after the June 1 conference that the Bush administration announced a dramatic restructuring of so-called domestic security. This was a transparent attempt to opportunistically divert attention away from the growing congressional and media scrutiny of mistakes made by the FBI and CIA prior to Sept. 11." But, said Becker, "Bush's proposal should not be understood as simply a political ploy. It accelerates the tendency towards centralism and repression in the capitalist state apparatus. Just as the corporate capitalist economy centralizes, with greater and greater concentration of monopoly domination in the economic sphere, there is a corresponding centralism in the government apparatus and in the institutions of repression. "The consolidation of so many government agencies into one department is another substantial move taken by the Bush administration toward accruing semi-dictatorial authority for the executive branch of government. "Since Sept. 11 the administration has opportunistically secured for itself all powers available to the president during wartime. The difference today is that now Bush has declared that it is wartime all the time, and he and his team are preparing to consolidate as much power as possible without congressional or judicial review. That includes undermining the separation of powers, checks and balances, congressional oversight of the executive branch and the right to privacy from unfettered government spying on individuals and organizations." Is there historical precedent for this? "Richard Nixon tried a similar consolidation of executive power in the early 1970s, which at least partly explained the opposition that developed in Congress and even inside the government apparatus, leading to his resignation. Nixon's efforts were small in comparison to what Bush is attempting." But, he cautioned, "It would be an act of extreme folly on the part of the progressive movement to expect that opposition within the Congress or the larger political establishment will stop Bush's power grab. The significance of our demonstration on June 29 and the campaign to defend civil rights and civil liberties is that it aims to mobilize the grassroots of the unions; the Black, Latino, Arab and other communities of color; the lesbian, gay, bi and trans movement; the students and youth. This is who can stop Bush's war drive at home and abroad. "The ANSWER coalition, along with others, organized 100,000 people to demonstrate on April 20, less than nine months after the Sept. 11 attacks. It's remarkable evidence that we can build a mass people's movement in spite of the conservative political climate generated by the Bush administration after Sept. 11." More information on the ANSWER coalition's plans is available online at www.internationalanswer.org or by calling (212) 633-6646 in New York, (202) 332-5757 in Washington, (773) 583-7728 in Chicago, or (415) 821-6545 in San Francisco. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
