Loyalty oaths are an unconstitutional attack on political rights. They have always been used to target the labor movement. The reinstitution of such a measure in Pennsylvania today is not some archaic throwback to the past. It is part of the efforts by the wealthy rulers—under the banner of “homeland security”—to gain acceptance for stepped-up FBI spying and harassment, government interference in union affairs, and other attacks on working people who resist the bosses’ offensive or oppose government policies.

Such reactionary measures were first instituted in the late 1930s as the U.S. rulers launched an antilabor offensive at home and prepared to enter the second world imperialist war. The Roosevelt administration established the first loyalty program, with a government board investigating organizations labeled “disloyal” or “subversive.” The 1939 Hatch Act, which continues in effect, prohibits federal employment of members of any political organization that “advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government.”

Loyalty oaths were institutionalized by the Truman administration as part of the post-World War II antilabor drive—especially through the Taft-Hartley “Slave Labor” Act of 1947—that was the domestic counterpart of the Cold War abroad.

The bosses used loyalty programs, the Attorney General’s list of “subversive” organizations, and other such witch-hunting measures to try to isolate union militants and housebreak the labor movement. An example was the case of James Kutcher, a legless World War II veteran fired in 1948 from his job as a clerk for the Veterans Administration for “disloyalty,” because of his membership in the Socialist Workers Party. Kutcher won his job back after an eight-year fight that won broad support among unions, veterans organizations, and civil liberties groups.

Today the U.S. government—in the name of “fighting terrorism”—is taking steps in anticipation of the coming working-class resistance to the economic crisis and bosses’ assaults. These steps range from stepped-up FBI spying and disruption operations to “security” controls at airports and office buildings, the curtailment of the rights of the accused, targeting of foreign-born residents, and probes to establish a national identity card. They are aimed at reversing what the ruling class had to retreat on in the 1960s and ’70s under the pressure of the struggle for Black freedom and the movement against the Vietnam War. Join with supporters of the SWP campaign in Pennsylvania in opposing the loyalty oath! Taking on this witch-hunting measure will strike a blow for political rights and the interests of working people.
 
 
Related articles:
Pittsburgh SWP campaign opposes candidate loyalty oath
Socialists in Seattle fight for election rights  
 
 
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