The United States government, with a helpful hand from many in the mass media, is using the bombing that killed more than 100 people at the Oklahoma City federal building to test the waters for squeezing democratic rights and expanding the use of the death penalty.

Washington is the chief purveyor of terror around the globe - be it the Clinton administration's incineration of scores of people at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, two years ago, or the 1991 assault on Iraq, in which tens of thousands were slaughtered.

The ruling class in the United States, anticipating more working-class opposition to its headlong march toward war, economic devastation, and fascism, is girding up to use rougher methods against political opponents. A convenient scapegoat at the hands of Democratic and Republican politicians is people of Arab descent, those whose faith is Islam, and the governments of Iraq and Iran.

The bipartisan stampede to support the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 and other such measures - which would deal blows to hard-won democratic rights - must not go unanswered.

Expanded secret police powers will be aimed at the working class primarily. The opening paragraph of the lead editorial in the April 26 Los Angeles Times reminds us of the real record of the FBI, CIA, and other such government agencies. "For 38 years, the FBI waged a campaign of infiltration and harassment against- the Socialist Workers Party," the editors wrote. "The bureau staged burglaries, planted fake news stories and otherwise sought to discredit the party and its members, who, though pushing a radical political agenda, were engaging in peaceful and lawful political behavior.

"It is worth recalling this episode, along with the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Program, or Cointelpro, which was used not to gather evidence of criminality but to suppress lawful dissent by anti-Vietnam War protesters and civil rights leaders in the 1960s and 1970s."

It is indeed an episode worth recalling, and defenders of democratic rights can read about the fight against government spying and harassment in two books published by Pathfinder Press: FBI on Trial - The Victory in the Socialist Workers Party Suit Against Government Spying, and Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom. These two books are valuable weapons for working-class fighters today.

The government's proposals to expand powers for spies and snoops, legalize broader authority to deport "undesirables," and pry into and disrupt the lives of organizations and individuals are trial balloons. The labor movement has a big stake in organizing to protest these anti-democratic measures.

Since those accused in the Oklahoma bombing are home-grown right-wingers, capitalist politicians insist the political police need new powers to stem the threat from the right. But anti-democratic measures are always used a hundred times more against the organizations of the working class when it goes into struggle.

Trade unions, student organizations, and others should demand: Stop the anti-Arab, anti-Islamic crusade! Hands off democratic rights!  
 
 
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