The following statement was released May 30 by James Harris and Laura Garza, Socialist Workers Party candidates for president and vice-president of the United States.

We condemn the latest attacks on democratic rights by President William Clinton who said he will back nationwide curfews for youth under 17 and sign a bill institutionalizing discrimination against gays by banning "same-sex" marriages. The White House made these announcements shortly after a Supreme Court ruling pointed in a different direction.

The Supreme Court decision overturning an anti-gay amendment to the Colorado state constitution was a victory for working people and all defenders of civil liberties and democratic rights.

The Colorado provision would have legalized the exclusion of a layer of the population from enjoying full civil and human rights because of their sexual orientation by banning laws prohibiting discrimination against gays.

The ruling reflects the resistance by broad layers of the population to rolling back democratic rights, and shows the support that exists for ending discrimination against gays. Since its passage in 1992 tens of thousands demanded in actions across the country that the amendment be struck down. Clinton's recent statements show once again that working people can defend and extend our democratic rights only by organizing such actions in the streets, independent of the capitalist parties.

Barely two days after the high court decision, Clinton jumped on the bandwagon to sanction discrimination against gays when he agreed to sign the Republican-sponsored bill outlawing "same-sex" marriages. He didn't want to be left behind Robert Dole, one of the principal sponsors of the reactionary legislation. Clinton did the same by throwing his support behind dusk-to-dawn youth curfews the day after Dole pushed for such measures during a campaign stop in California. Those who still look at the Democratic fox as the "lesser evil" to the Republican wolf have fresh reasons to reconsider.

Clinton, Dole, Supreme Court Justice Scalia, and company attempt to whip up emotional energy against social norms and values that are changing in a historically progressive direction.

The scapegoating of gays and lesbians is one of the basic attacks on democratic rights fostered and promoted by rightist figures like Patrick Buchanan, Ross Perot, and increasingly by all capitalist politicians.

These mouthpieces of capital point to the "breakdown of the family" as one of the principal causes of poverty, crime, or homelessness. They try to blame gays, single women, "welfare cheats," immigrants, and other social layers for the effects of the social breakdown caused by capitalism. In fact, anti-gay propaganda and legislation is part of maintaining the oppression of women. The rulers' "pro-family" campaign aims to reinforce the idea that health care, child care, and other basic needs are the individual responsibility of each worker - not social questions that should be a right for all.

The attacks on the civil rights of homosexuals contained in the bill barring same-sex marriages, or laws like the Pentagon's ban on gays in the military, cut away at the democratic rights that workers have fought for and need today to defend their interests. The same is true for laws restricting young people at home after dusk.

They are made of the same cloth as the recent string of anti- democratic measures such as the "anti-crime," "anti-terrorist," and "sexual predator" laws that will be used disproportionately against working people. These measures try to paint teenagers as a potentially criminal class, turn workers who have served time behind bars into a pariah layer, and make those who look Arab suspect in the eyes of the entire population.

In the same way, the ideological campaign against gays is directed against the working class. Its aim is to make it harder for working people to unite across such barriers as race, sex, and national origin to fight against the capitalists and the disaster their system of exploitation has in store for humanity.

The working class is the only social class that can take the moral high ground in the world today and lead humanity out of the economic and social catastrophe that becomes clearer to millions every day.

Opposition to any restrictions on democratic rights, including the civil rights of gays and lesbians, is an essential banner in this battle.  
 
 
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