Workers, farmers, youth, and all defenders of civil liberties need to vigorously protest recent moves by Washington to undermine the democratic rights of opponents of U.S. policy toward Cuba and defend those threatened with fines, imprisonment, or firings for activities protected by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

These moves by the government are part of a broader effort by the U.S. rulers to limit the space for political activity by unionists, immigrants, and other working people and activists in social protests in the United States.

These probes to narrow the space for political action coincide with the government's efforts to use its bomb scare hoax around the TWA flight 800 crash to try to push through new "anti-terrorist" measures that curtail the democratic rights of all.

These measures are part and parcel of using the so-called war on drugs by the White House to attempt to enlarge the powers of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) cops and other federal agents to intrude in areas they have no business in.

The government's goal is to expand the use of political police agencies to curtail the constitutional rights of those who oppose Washington's policy toward Cuba, who fight measures denying immigrants access to health-care and education, and resist other anti-labor moves. The government aims to prevent these fighters from organizing to change these policies. These steps are part of the preparation by the capitalist class and its government for further assaults on the social wage, working conditions, and livelihood of working people. They are a deadly threat to the entire working-class movement.

Examples of these anti-democratic moves reported in this issue include harassing phone calls and visits by Treasury Department agents or other federal cops.

As the Socialist Workers Party resolution printed above succinctly points out, "The goal of the cops in these circumstances is not to get you to say something `damaging' -

it's just a bonus when that happens - but to establish and gain acceptance for their claimed right to engage in such interrogations. Their aim is to reinforce the lie that they are neutral - above all classes and the class struggle - rather than agents of the class enemy. In this way they thus seek to reinforce one of the most elementary forms of class collaboration: actions by individual workers based on the illusion that the cops are neutral in the struggle between workers and bosses."

Class-conscious workers need to understand and explain that working people and others are under no constitutional obligation to voluntarily collaborate with the FBI, Treasury Department, ATF or their finks. Knowing your rights and the reasons for exercising them is elementary for defending working-class fighters in the struggle against the bosses. That's why communists and other class-conscious workers need to take the time to educate and reeducate ourselves on these questions and discuss them with other workers, farmers, and young people.

Studying and selling books such as The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions, Workers Rights vs. the Secret Police, and other titles advertised in the center-spread of this issue is an integral part of such an effort.

All supporters of democratic rights must also make a priority to help in defending Roxbury Community College professor Tom Reeves and others whose jobs or constitutional rights are in jeopardy for engaging in activity to oppose and change government policy.  
 
 
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