Vol. 71/No. 43      November 19, 2007

The Real ID law will turn state licenses into a single federally approved ID card. It requires all states to adopt rigorous standards for receiving a driver’s license by the year 2013, including presentation of a birth certificate, Social Security card, and proof of legal residency. It would create a database of personal information available to the federal government and authorities in other states. The measure takes another step toward establishing a de facto national identity card.

Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security secretary, welcomed Spitzer’s move. Chertoff has long campaigned for a standardized state license, arguing that it gives cops “a critical new tool to prevent terrorism and to protect our homeland.”

But the Real ID’s ultimate target is not “terrorists.” It is working people, particularly those who resist the bosses’ attacks and speak out against government policies—from workers organizing unions, to Blacks combating discrimination, immigrants marching for legalization, and protesters against Washington’s wars abroad. As in other capitalist countries, a national ID card would make it easier for cops to track militant workers. It would help employers create blacklists of “troublemakers.”

Another part of the push toward a federalized driver’s license is the requirement in several states that people show a driver’s license or other government-issued photo ID in order to vote. Civil rights organizations have objected that such measures will tend to discriminate against residents of rural areas, Black workers, immigrants, and former prisoners—sections of the population that have less access to such documents.

Immigrant rights groups have rightly expressed concern that the Spitzer plan, which provides for a special driver’s license for those who cannot prove legal residency, will be used to finger immigrants without papers. Immigrant workers, regardless of their status, should have equal access to driver’s licenses.

The moves toward a national identity card are among the steps—carried out under the banner of “homeland security”— the U.S. ruling billionaires are using to prepare to meet worker and farmer resistance at home in coming years. These include the expansion of domestic police spying; the appeals to report “suspicious” packages in public places; the curtailment of habeas corpus and Fifth Amendment protections of the accused; and the creation of a domestic military command, the Northern Command. All these moves should be opposed as attacks on workers rights.
 
 
Related articles:
N.Y. state moves toward federal ID card system  
 
 
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