The 1966 Miranda ruling requires police to inform any person they detain of their right to remain silent and to consult a lawyer. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing an appeal of the overturning of a federal court's decision that a confession by Charles Dickerson to being a driver in a 1997 bank heist should be thrown out because the cops had not given him the Miranda warnings before interrogating him.

In their anticipation of future confrontations with labor, the government of the employers has been chipping away at democratic rights. Their target is first and foremost working people who stand up to the employers and their government. They hope to cripple and ultimately defeat any working-class leadership that arises out of future struggles.

The assault on Miranda rights is part of an array of moves carried out by the Clinton administration over the past decade that strengthen the repressive powers of the state. These include the stepped-up use of the death penalty, limits on appeal rights, putting more workers behind bars, and placing more cops on the streets.

The employing class is pressing to turn back the clock to the days when cops were able to snatch people off the streets and jail them for several days while they coerced them to obtain "voluntary" confessions. Many of their victims were Black workers with few resources to defend themselves in a legal system already rigged against them. The Miranda rights were won in the context of the massive civil rights battles of the 1950s and '60s.

The Clinton administration's unleashing of a SWAT-style assault by the immigration cops on a home in Miami was another calculated move to undermine these fundamental rights.

From miners fighting to defend health-care benefits to demonstrators demanding the U.S. Navy get out of Vieques, Puerto Rico--all have a stake in defending Miranda rights.  
 
 
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