Despite this appeal and a November 11 hearing attended by hundreds, the foot-dragging Justice Department waited until December 3 to dispatch two representatives to Florida, not to investigate, but to determine whether an investigation will be carried out. This is in face of testimony at the hearing about numerous cases of police harassment of Blacks on their way to or from polling places--racist remarks, instances of individuals being delayed or prevented from voting by officials who claimed no registration information existed, cases where translation and assistance was unavailable in Creole for Haitians, and areas where polling places were shut down while people were still standing in line. The NAACP says it has 486 separate reports of these and other problems faced by U.S.-born Blacks, Haitians, and other members of oppressed nationalities, mostly working people.

This double outrage--denial of voting rights and the lack of a serious response by the federal government--should be protested by the unions, civil rights organizations, and all working people.

Winning and extending the right to vote has been a hard-fought struggle by working people since the founding of the United States. Struggles in this century have included those by women's rights supporters and the battles of the civil rights movement. The fight for universal suffrage has strengthened the working class. It has undercut the ability of the propertied ruling class to exclude whole sections of the population from the right to be free citizens, able to vote and run for office and practice politics in their own right--both in the electoral arena and in broader society.

One conquest of the civil rights battles is the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which places the responsibility on the government to insure "no person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote...or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person's vote." The act prohibited any "practice or procedure" to be used "to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." It banned poll taxes, upheld the right of non-English speakers to be able to vote, and provided for stiff penalties for anyone who attempts to "intimidate, threaten, or coerce...any person for voting or attempting to vote."

The act gives the federal government broad powers, where examiners are present, to address violations of the act. Any allegations of problems with being able to vote, reported to an examiner within 48 hours, can be the basis for the attorney general to get a court order to allow any individual to recast their vote and require the vote be included in the total.

Millions of African-Americans have firsthand experience with racist practices in regards to voting. Not only the hundreds of examples in Florida, but the need to dispatch federal observers to nine other states are testimony to the ongoing denial of voting rights across the country. The abuses reported in Florida are standard operating procedure everywhere for Democratic and Republican politicians at every level of government.

Racism permeates every institution in the capitalist U.S.A., as will be the case until workers and farmers organize a revolutionary struggle to take power out of the hands of the wealthy ruling minority.

The violations of rights reported in Florida, and the federal government's lack of response to the NAACP's request for an investigation, are only part of the efforts to disenfranchise working people. In addition, a growing number of states deny all voting rights for people convicted of felony offenses--including those who have already served out their sentences--disenfranchising millions of workers and farmers. Some 4.2 million U.S. citizens cannot vote because of these laws. In Florida and Alabama, for example, 31 percent of all Black men are permanently barred from voting because of felony convictions on their records.

Joining in the call for a Justice Department investigation and prosecution of any individual found guilty of violating voting rights is crucial in defending democratic rights and hard-won gains. It will deal a blow to racist abuse and put working people in a stronger position to defend constitutional rights for all.
 
 
Related articles:
Bush will continue bipartisan antilabor course
NAACP demands probe of voting rights abuses
 
 
 
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