The Socialist Workers campaign opposes the newly instituted policy of searches of personal belongings and interrogations by the police on New York subways and buses. This action by the Bloomberg administration, backed by all four Democratic mayoral candidates, will be used to rationalize further attempts to chip away at the constitutional protection from arbitrary search and seizure. The target is not primarily “terrorists” but working people.

The measure goes hand in hand with other steps designed to undermine the ability of workers and farmers to resist the bosses’ mounting assaults on living standards and job conditions.

These “homeland security” measures include: "

wider powers for the FBI and other political police to carry out wiretapping and other forms of spying and harassment; "

moves to institutionalize use of the federal armed forces at home, including the stationing of National Guard troops at train stations and other sites; "

probes to legitimize the use of “preventive” detention—with no charges—and secret courts; "

federal and state laws aimed at turning drivers’ licenses into a de facto national ID card; "

“no-fly” lists at airports; "

curtailment of habeas corpus and other constitutional rights of the accused.

The U.S. rulers are pushing for public acceptance of these anti-democratic measures in anticipation of resistance by workers and farmers to the increasingly devastating consequences of the capitalist economic crisis. The message is: Get used to the presence of National Guard troops with automatic weapons. Get used to the announcements about “reporting suspicious packages.” Get used to the increased presence of cops on the subways and the random bag checks. Get used to “mistakes” such as the July 24 storming of a tourist bus in Manhattan by heavily armed cops and the handcuffing of five British citizens, deemed “suspicious” because they were of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent, and had “bulging pockets.”

The main problem facing the bosses and the government that represents their interests is not al-Qaeda. It’s the working class. Because it’s our class the employers must take on to reverse the long-term decline of their profit rates. The only way to do that is to brutally squeeze more profits from the labor of working people by making us work harder and longer hours, driving down wages, and cutting benefits.

Washington’s wars and occupations abroad are an extension of the bosses’ assaults on working people at home. The Socialist Workers campaign calls for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of U.S., UN, and other imperialist armed forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Korea, Colombia, Haiti, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. We say: hands off Iran and north Korea. End Washington’s economic war on Cuba! U.S. hands off Venezuela!

Above all, the purpose of the “homeland security” campaign is to convince working people to subordinate our struggles—for improved wages and job conditions, for Black rights, for women’s equality—to appeals for “national unity” and to rally “Americans” behind the “fight against terrorism.” Liberal critics of the Bloomberg administration promote the argument of “protecting our security,” accusing their Republican opponents of not doing enough to safeguard “our city.”

But for working people there is no such “we.” The American government is not our government—it’s their government and their twin parties, the Democrats and Republicans. There are two New Yorks and two Americas: on one hand, that of the tiny handful of ruling billionaire families, and on the other, that of working people—the vast majority, who produce the wealth. Working people have no common interests with our exploiters. Our interests lie with fellow workers, farmers, and the oppressed worldwide.

What’s important is what working people learn as they engage in struggles against the employers and their government. By standing up and refusing to let up their struggles, those workers—from copper strikers in Arizona and Texas to construction workers fighting for a union in New York—set an example for all working people. Opposing the searches by New York cops is part of defending rights working people need to organize and act in the interests of our class.
 
 
Related article:
N.Y. cops start searching commuters’ bags  
 
 
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