Vol. 72/No. 26      June 30, 2008

Washington justifies its treatment of Guantánamo detainees by labeling them “enemy combatants.” On that basis the prisoners have been held indefinitely, and denied their right to trial by a jury of their peers and to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. working people are told these measures are necessary to prevent “terrorist” attacks.

It is with this same argument that the rulers have proceeded to implement measures chipping away workers’ rights—from more secret surveillance of “suspected terrorists,” to increased “security” controls at airports and other transportation centers, to snooping on people’s library visits and bank accounts. There is a growing use of “conspiracy” charges to arrest workers when there is no evidence, as in the case of the Cuban Five, Cuban revolutionaries who have been in U.S. jails for nearly 10 years, framed-up on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage, and in the case of Gerardo Hernández, conspiracy to commit murder.

Liberal opponents of these attacks blame the Bush administration. But the fact is many of these measures were signed into law by President William Clinton, including the Comprehensive Terrorism Protection Act, which denies the right of death-row prisoners to submit more than one habeas corpus petition for review of their cases; and the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, under which the U.S. government has held some two dozen people without bail on the basis of secret evidence.

The U.S. employers are preparing now for resistance to their deepening economic crisis on the part of working people. They want laws to already be in place as strikes, union organizing drives, and other efforts by workers to defend themselves spread.

While the court ruling allows challenges by many detained in Guantánamo to proceed to federal courts, it left intact the government’s authority to try detainees in military tribunals, where the judge and jury are military personnel appointed by the Pentagon and the prosecution may use secret evidence and hearsay.

The labor movement should demand the immediate closing of U.S. prisons at Guantánamo, and in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries around the world; the release of all those jailed there; the abolition of U.S. military tribunals; and the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
 
Related articles:
Guantánamo prisoners gain right to challenge detentions
Boston Socialist Workers candidate opposes 'Safe Homes' initiative  
 
 
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