“Indeed, none of us is calling for a repeal of a single provision in the USA Patriot Act,” declared ACLU president Nadine Strossen in a debate sponsored by the New York Bar Association earlier this year. “What we are calling for are amendments to particular provisions… which we maintain are completely consistent with the legitimate, indeed compelling security needs that the government has set forward and would also protect constitutional rights and civil liberties.”

The ACLU calls for urging members of Congress to “support corrections” to the Patriot Act. Last year, when some Democratic Party politicians asked the group to call for repealing the measure, Timothy Edgar, ACLU legislative counsel, responded, “That’s a crazy idea. There are some reasonable things in the Patriot Act.”

Many liberal opponents of Bush don’t mention how the bipartisan legislation passed in the Senate 99 to 1 and sailed through the House of Representatives 357 to 66.

Senator John Kerry joined the majority in the Senate to approve the act. He has said in his presidential election campaign that he backs it and has called for slight modifications in the measure. The Democratic presidential nominee said provisions in the act that permit government spying on libraries, and secret “sneak and peek” searches of people’s homes, “must be made smarter to better protect the freedom of law-abiding patriotic Americans while allowing our government to do everything necessary to track down terrorists.”

The Patriot Act allows police to carry out arbitrary searches and seizures in private homes and businesses, expands police powers to wiretap phones and personal e-mail, allows domestic CIA spying, and authorizes police to jail immigrants without charges as “terrorist suspects,” among other provisions. This law builds on the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and other similar bills signed into law by William Clinton. All these measures that have passed with broad bipartisan sponsorship and backing lay the groundwork for future assaults on trade unions and the broader working-class movement, as well as other opponents of government policies, in the event of a widespread labor radicalization.  
 
 
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