The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.8           March 1, 1999 
 
 
Protest Attack On `Miranda'  
All defenders of democratic rights should condemn the recent ruling by a federal circuit court in Virginia that cops can take the "voluntary" confession of an arrested person without informing the accused of their right to remain silent and consult an attorney. This assault on the "Miranda" rule is a probe by the U.S. capitalist rulers aimed first and foremost against working people who stand up to the bosses and their government.

It goes hand in hand with other recent moves to narrow democratic rights by the employing class, such as the proposal to establish a domestic military command under the pretext of fighting "terrorism." The Pentagon recently announced plans to spend $250 million on the National Guard's Rapid Assistance and Initial Detection System - so-called Raids teams - supposedly to respond to "terrorist attacks."

Other antidemocratic measures include expanding the scope of FBI spying operations with "roving wiretaps" that would allow snooping on any telephone near an alleged "terrorist" suspect. And growing numbers of workers are familiar with government intervention against their struggles, from picket line injunctions and back-to-work orders to probes by the FBI - the federal political police.

The big-business potentates anticipate big class battles ahead and are preparing the mechanisms they hope can severely cripple and ultimately defeat developing leadership that will arise out of those struggles. This assault on democratic rights is the domestic counterpart to Washington's war moves against Yugoslavia, Iraq, and other countries it dubs as "rogue" states and "terrorists' host countries."

Similar moves such as FBI disruption, provocations, and spying were initiated by the capitalist rulers leading up to World War II. During the 1930s a mass social movement was on the rise and the bosses were concerned that anticapitalist and anti-imperialist positions advanced by class-conscious fighters were winning a hearing among broad layers of working people. The drive toward war necessitated an assault on democratic rights in general, which included the U.S. military rounding up 120,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry, as well as cop frame-ups of communists and other working-class fighters. The rulers sought to isolate working-class militants who could provide leadership to a broader movement that might develop. This question is beginning to be posed for the bosses today. This is why the entire labor movement needs to oppose the federal challenge to the `Mirandá warning.

 
 
 
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