US gov’t pushes assault on rights, claims target is ‘domestic terror’
https://themilitant.com/2021/01/30/us-govt-pushes-assault-on-rights-claims-target-is-domestic-terror/
BY SETH GALINSKY
Vol. 85/No. 5
February 8, 2021
Washington used the FBI, the capitalist rulers’ political police, to spy
on and try to disrupt the Black liberation movement, including targeting
both Malcom X, right, and Martin Luther King Jr., left. Democrats claim
greater police powers are needed to counter “domestic terrorism.”
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Washington used the FBI, the capitalist rulers’ political police, to spy
on and try to disrupt the Black liberation movement, including targeting
both Malcom X, right, and Martin Luther King Jr., left. Democrats claim
greater police powers are needed to counter “domestic terrorism.”
The new Democratic Party administration of Joe Biden is spearheading an
assault on political rights, claiming that a few hundred conspiracy
theorists and wannabe paramilitaries, followed by some supporters of
Donald Trump, who entered the Capitol Jan. 6 represent a growing
proliferation of “domestic terrorists” that must be stopped.
To justify these moves, the FBI, liberal media, Democratic Party
politicians and middle-class radicals are united in smearing working
people who supported Trump as possible “terrorists.”
“Don’t dare call them protesters,” President Biden said of those who
went into the Capitol. “They were a riotous mob, insurrectionists,
domestic terrorists.”
Measures the administration and its backers are pushing include
stepped-up FBI spying, having people driven out of their jobs,
“deplatforming” them by closing their social media accounts, public
“shaming,” and getting individuals kicked out of their unions. Some
propose “deprogramming” Trump supporters.
One hundred twenty-five people so far have been charged with trespassing
or disorderly conduct for entering the Capitol. Prosecutors admit many
could face more serious charges. At least three have been charged with
“conspiracy” to interfere with the operation of the government.
Prosecutors say they’re planning to use charges of “sedition” as well.
These moves have nothing to do with combating what liberals and most of
the left say is a growing white supremacist movement or rising “fascist”
movement. Their fire is aimed at working people — the ones who Hillary
Clinton famously called the “deplorables” — and driving them out of
politics, starting with the more than 74 million who voted for Donald
Trump or the 80 million who didn’t vote at all.
Interviewed by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Jan. 12, Juliette Kayyem, an
assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security under Barack
Obama, called Trump “the operational leader” of a domestic terrorist
movement.
Trump’s been “deplatformed,” she said. “He can’t get onto social media.”
This “isolation” and “sort of shaming of Donald Trump” is aimed at the
“people who are supporting him,” she brazenly states, and at making sure
“he does not have a second act.”
Liberal journalists from Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Nikole
Hannah-Jones of the New York Times, and former “Today” show host Katie
Couric, as well as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called for
finding a way to “deprogram” Trump supporters.
Some anti-Trump activists are doing their own “investigations,”
including some allied with antifa, revealing personal information of
people they accuse of having been at the Capitol Jan. 6, in hopes
they’ll come under fire.
Many of the identifications by the self-appointed liberal sleuths have
turned out to be wrong, resulting in workers being harassed and
threatened anyway.
Harassment and firings
The Washington Post reported Jan. 16 that some of those targeted by such
“investigations” weren’t even in Washington. For example, retired
Chicago firefighter David Quintavalle was 700 miles away, getting ready
to celebrate his wife’s birthday, but the “sleuths” posted his address
and phone number on the internet. He received threatening phone calls as
well as people staking out his home.
Several workers who attended the large Jan. 6 rally outside the Capitol
have already been suspended or fired from their jobs. Long Island Rail
Road assistant conductor Steven Rosati was suspended without pay by the
MTA, which runs the passenger line. According to the New York Daily
News, there is a photo of him outside on the Capitol steps.
MTA chairman Pat Foye announced at a press conference that what Rosati
has said “on social media is outrageous, despicable and a sign he’s a
jackass.” He’s being victimized because of his political ideas, nothing
else. To class-conscious workers, that’s what’s outrageous and
dangerous. Whatever you may think of Rosati’s views, when witch hunts
get whipped up history shows they always end up targeting the working
class and its communist vanguard.
The national board of the SAG-AFTRA actors and “media artists” union
voted Jan. 19 to take steps to expel Trump from the union. Trump’s
membership dates back to his work on “The Apprentice” TV show and some
cameo appearances in films.
The idea that an entertainment industry union officialdom would try to
witch hunt one of its own members out of the union and destroy his right
to work is appalling. The members of these unions were among the most
visible targets of the anti-communist witch hunt in the 1950s.
Domestic Terrorism Act
Meanwhile, supporters of Biden and some Never-Trump Republicans just
introduced the “Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021” in the House
of Representatives and the Senate. If passed, it would authorize the
Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the FBI
to step up spying, use of undercover informers and other violations of
political rights if they say you’re suspected of “domestic terrorism.”
Some liberal Democrats and civil rights groups say they oppose the bill.
A letter sent to the Democratic and Republican leaders of both Houses of
Congress by Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and six other
representatives said they were in “strong opposition to the expansion of
the domestic national security and surveillance powers” proposed in the
bill.
But don’t mistake this position as opposition to the new attacks on
democratic rights. They say the existing laws “are more than sufficient”
to go after anyone the government deems a threat.
The Biden administration is moving rapidly to take advantage of the
hysteria being whipped up around “insurrection” and an “attempted coup”
to unleash its political police, using those “more than sufficient” tools.
The New York Times reported Jan. 21 that the government is already using
“more sophisticated investigative techniques.” One example: “A
confidential paid informant who has been working for the FBI for more
than a year.”
On Jan. 22, the White House announced it had ordered intelligence
agencies to conduct a “comprehensive threat assessment” of “domestic
violent extremism.”
Sound familiar? That was the rationale behind the Cointelpro operations
against Black liberation groups, the Socialist Workers Party, supporters
of independence for Puerto Rico, the American Indian Movement and others
in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. These attacks were beaten back by the
successful political campaign and lawsuit waged by the SWP and won in 1986.
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Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do
not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is
an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively,
fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields