Vol. 75/No. 41      November 14, 2011

The release by Washington state government officials of the names of 138,000 people who signed petitions to place a referendum on the ballot in 2009 is a blow to the constitutional protections of working people.

The expanding “disclosure” laws represent an assault on the rights of working people to participate in politics free from harassment of the government, cops, and other enemies. The charge is being led by liberal Democrats under the rubric of “transparency.”

This fight has a long history. The capitalist rulers in Alabama, and other southern states, used the same “transparency” arguments in the 1950s to publicize the names of supporters of the NAACP, opening them to cop and Klan attacks, in order to destroy the organization, as the tribute to Fred Shuttlesworth on page 7 explains.

This is part of broader attacks on our rights: Moves by state governments to enforce drug testing of working people seeking government assistance in the face of high and persistent unemployment. And the frame-up and conviction of two U.S. citizens of Somali descent on “conspiracy” and “terrorism” charges.

This issue also includes examples of police repression used to keep working people “in their place.” In Philadelphia, city cops arrested and brutally beat Lex Bumpess and hid his whereabouts from his family and friends. For defending their union, longshore workers in Longview, Wash., have been assaulted and arrested by the cops.

At the same time, from the Red River Valley in the Upper Midwest, to Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York, Washington state, and elsewhere, working people face relentless efforts to impose deep concessions and crush the unions and morale of workers through onerous lockouts. In each case these efforts to crush us have been met by resistance as we are left with no other choice but to fight.

These attacks on our rights and livelihoods by either the bosses, their government, or the two working closely in tandem, flow from the same source: the deepening crisis of the capitalist system and the propertied rulers’ drive to foist the burden of their crisis on the backs of working people.

These different facets of the struggle between capital and labor all need to be exposed for what they are and fought against as one and the same.
 
 
Related articles:
Disclosure ruling in Wash. undermines political rights
Florida judge temporarily halts drug testing for aid applicants
Minn.: Somalis convicted on FBI frame-up charges  
 
 
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