Vol. 73/No. 42      November 2, 2009

The Patriot Act’s targets are not primarily “foreigners” or “terrorists,” but the working class. As the worldwide economic depression deepens, the bosses and their government will use such laws to confront working-class resistance in the coming class battles over our standard of living, conditions of work, and imperialist wars. Under the guise of fighting “terrorism,” they will more and more use wiretapping and other domestic surveillance to spy on working-class fighters and use anything they can, including “secret evidence,” to victimize us in the capitalist courts.

Since taking office Obama has extended the attacks on democratic rights that were being carried out by the Bush administration. This includes maintaining renditions—the sending of those suspected of “terrorism” to another country for detention and “interrogation”—and indefinite detention for many prisoners incarcerated at the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Obama has also established a program to recruit and train spies on college campuses.

The groundwork for much of this course was laid out under the Clinton administration. The 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act allowed immigration police to jail immigrants using secret evidence, and broadened government powers to use wiretaps and to hold an accused person in preventive detention without bail.

Repeal the Patriot Act and end all government wiretapping, spying, and harassment!
 
 
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