A
Call To Stand
Together To
Oppose The
Obama
Administration’s
Dangerous
Assault On
Fundamental
Rights
The
administration
of Barack Obama,
which had
promised to put
an end to
torture and
other outrages
committed by the
Bush
Administration,
is in fact
putting into
place a
dangerous system
of repression
and control.
This is a
serious assault
on fundamental
rights, and it
must be answered
not with silence
and complicity
but with
heightened
awareness and
more determined
opposition.
The
record of the
Obama
Administration
is a chilling
one. President
Obama has
preserved Bush’s
rendition
program, which
relies upon
torture, and has
extended the
Patriot Act. His
Administration
has adopted a
quasi-official
assassination
policy, complete
with secret
“kill lists”
reviewed by the
President, which
Attorney General
Holder has
brazenly
asserted meets
Constitutional
standards of due
process. In the
2010 case of
Holder v HLP
[Humanitarian
Law Project],
the Obama
administration
successfully
argued before
the courts that
the “crime” of
“material
support” to
“terrorists” be
broadened to
include merely
speaking with
and advising
(even on some
legal matters)
any group
designated by
the government
as terrorist.
The ruling has
already been
applied to
pro-Palestinian
activists and
endangers many
others,
including
prominent public
intellectuals,
as well as
groups upholding
or advocating
fundamental
social change.
The
most recent
expansion of
dangerous and
illegitimate
government
authority is the
2012 National
Defense
Authorization
Act (NDAA). This
law grants to
any U.S.
president the
power to detain
any person,
including U.S.
citizens,
indefinitely and
without charge
or trial, for
the alleged
crime of
associating with
a broad and
vague category
of people, which
could include
people who have
nothing to do
with the 9/11
attacks or with
terrorism in
general.
The
pattern is
disturbingly
clear: not just
a continuation
but a further
leap in the
draconian
measures taken
by the Bush
administration—under
the pretext of
the open-ended,
so-called War on
Terror—to
detain, torture,
and
assassinate…not
just a
continuation but
a further leap
in measures to
restrict and
criminalize
dissent and
opposition to
the status quo.
This
must not go
unanswered—nor
be allowed to
continue to grow
increasingly
worse. In
opposing these
repressive
moves, it is
imperative that
people not allow
anyone, or any
one group, to be
singled out or
targeted for
repression. In
this regard, the
lawsuit Hedges
et al. v Obama
et al. that is
challenging
ominous
provisions of
the NDAA is
quite salient.
On May 16, a
federal district
court ruled in
favor of the
plaintiffs and
issued a
temporary
injunction
blocking the
government from
implementing
Section 1021 of
this law. But
insinuated into
this mainly
positive ruling
is a reference
to the
Revolutionary
Communist Party,
USA and its
Chairman Bob
Avakian which is
an erroneous and
potentially
harmful
characterization
that could be
used as a
pretext to
criminalize what
is
constitutionally
protected
freedom of
speech and
association and
potentially
sweep the RCP
and its Chairman
into a category
of organizations
identified by
the government
as terrorist.
Those
of us signing
this statement
cannot speak for
the RCP and
indeed have
various levels
of familiarity
with and a
variety of views
on its
philosophical
and political
principles and
objectives. But
we do not
countenance—and
recognize as
very
dangerous—the
designation by
the
powers-that-be
of groups as
politically
“acceptable” and
“unacceptable.”
History teaches,
by negative and
positive
example, that we
must stand
against attempts
to divide
progressive,
radical, and
revolutionary
forces along any
such lines.
In
this there are
very important
lessons to be
drawn from the
self-critical
summation by
Pastor Martin
Niemoeller of
his experience
when confronted
with the
heightening
repression
carried out by
the Nazi regime
in Germany
during the
1930s:
“First
they came for
the communists,
and I didn’t
speak out
because I wasn’t
a communist.
Then
they came for
the trade
unionists, and I
didn’t speak out
because I wasn’t
a trade
unionist.
Then
they came for
the Jews, and I
didn’t speak out
because I wasn’t
a Jew.
Then
they came for
the Catholics,
and I didn’t
speak out
because I was a
Protestant.
Then
they came for
me, and by that
time no one was
left to speak
out for me.”
The
signatories of
this statement
call on people
to step forward
and stand
together to
oppose the
assault on
dissent and the
moves to
restrict and
criminalize
oppositional
speech,
association, and
political
activity, which
are being
carried out by
the Obama
Administration
and which
continue and
expand dangerous
precedents and
mechanisms which
can also be
utilized by any
future
Administration.
