We demand that the U.S. government immediately release the hundreds of prisoners locked up under brutal conditions at its naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Our campaign opposes Washington’s plans to conduct drumhead trials against some of these prisoners, denying them the most elementary rights. Such moves, carried out in the name of the “war on terrorism,” will be used to attack the rights of working people.

The Supreme Court ruling in the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan helps further the U.S. capitalist rulers’ so-called war on terror. It asks the White House to adjust its procedures for military trials and urges closer collaboration with Congress to provide legislative sanction for such attacks on basic rights. In this way the court decision legitimizes the use of military tribunals as star-chamber proceedings. It does not question the government’s authority to maintain its Guantánamo prison camp and hold prisoners there indefinitely as “enemy combatants.”

Nearly 500 people have been imprisoned there for more than four years, isolated from the outside world, most without charges. Washington already has on its hands the deaths of three prisoners who, under these inhuman conditions, committed suicide last month.

From the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq to the Guantánamo concentration camp, the purpose of Washington’s “long war” against “terror” is to defend the interests of the tiny billionaire class that rules the United States. The U.S. capitalists seek to beat down obstacles to their profit-driven quest for control of markets, resources, and territory around the world.

Their offensive abroad is an extension of their attacks at home on the wages, job conditions, and rights workers and farmers need to defend their livelihoods.

In preparation for anticipated resistance to these assaults, the U.S. rulers are taking steps to curtail workers’ rights under the banner of “homeland defense.” This includes stepped-up domestic use of the military, most recently the National Guard deployment to the border with Mexico to back up la migra and to New Orleans to “fight crime.” It includes immigration bill provisions that lay the groundwork for a national ID card for all U.S. residents. It includes further centralization of domestic spying against those protesting government policies. Likewise, military courts, secret trials, and “preventive” detentions that deny basic democratic protections are ultimately aimed against working people.

The Socialist Workers Party campaign calls on working people to oppose military tribunals. We demand that Washington immediately release all those jailed at Guantánamo, close the prison camp, and withdraw completely from Guantánamo, which is Cuban territory occupied against the will of that sovereign nation.
 
 
Related articles:
High court ruling aids ‘war on terror’
Legitimizes military trials, U.S. prison at Guantánamo
Protesters in Miami: FBI framed ‘Liberty City 7’  
 
 
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