Dear Friend,   Monday, November 19, at 5:30PM, Boston University School of Law will host a screening the film "Doctors of the Darkside." A panel discussion on doctors' role in the US's torture programs will follow. The panel will feature BU Law alum, Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, a lawyer and Commander with the US military, as well as Kristine Huskey, Director of Physicians for Human Rights' anti-torture program and Boston University School of Public Health professors Dr. Michael Grodin and George Annas. Exploring the legal and medical dimensions of the use of torture and the war on terror, the panelists will discuss current efforts in the legislature to address doctors' complicity. Join us Monday, November 19, at 5:30PM in Room 1270 at the Boston University School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215. The event is free and open to the public. There is limited seating, so please arrive early. Refreshments will be provided. Tickets may be reserved with registration online. View the "Doctors of the Darkside" website for additional information. Hope to see you there, Samantha A. Peetros Communications Specialist Bill of Rights Defense Committee 8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060 www.bordc.org info@bordc.org Telephone: 413-582-0110 Fax: 413-582-0116

Chilling Free Speech- From The Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) And The Smedley Butler Brigade Of Veterans For Peace (VFP)- "Big Brother" Is Watching

Chilling Free Speech- From The Massachusetts American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) And The Smedley Butler Brigade Of Veterans For Peace (VFP)- "Big Brother" Is Watching

Markin comment:

Just in case anyone thought the National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) provisions for extensive detention, etc. were a fluke listen up-Big Brother is watching! Watching closely We are NOT paranoid.
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Meeting at ACLU offices regarding surveillance of peace groups
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From : Pat Scanlon
Subject : Meeting at ACLU offices regarding surveillance of peace groups
Reply To : Pat Scanlon
Wed, Mar 28, 2012 12:08 PM

Hi Smedleys,

Yesterday a small group of us met with Kade Crockford at the ACLU offices to review surveillance video tapes taken by the Boston police of area peace groups and Occupy Boston. The ACLU requested information on surveillance, including these tapes of four peace groups in the boston area, MFSO, Code Pink, UJP and VFP. There was one more related to a demonstration at the Israeli consolate. As it turned out a lot of what we saw had to do with OB. We (VFP) were there but several tapes were clearly of OB.

The videos were taken by a uniformed police officer at many events, marches and gatherings of peace groups and OB. There were many that we watched that had to do with Occupy Boston and marches originating from Dewey Square or having to do with OB. The arrests in October were extensively filmed. We suspect that just like the seventeen minutes missing from the Nixon Watergate tapes, there was editing going on prior to the ACLU receiving the tapes. Some seem to cut out, just at a crucial moment, ie. actual hands on arrests being made. Regardless, though interesting and at times quite boring the tapes signify a certain degree of surveillance by the BPD. What is important is what was the purpose and what were those tapes used for.

The person taking these tapes was very visible, was in uniform, was in plain sight, everyone there clearly saw him and knew he was filming for the police. My question is where there others taking photos or filming, maybe from the FBI or Home Land Security that were not so obvious. The big question, what is being done with these films? Were there still photos also being taken?

As many of you know, when I was in the service I was in Military Intelligence (I know the great Oxymoron). When I got back from Vietnam I was stationed at Fort Holabird, in Dundalk Maryland, Headquarters US Army Intelligence. For a year and a half I worked in what was known as records repository. This was a huge single floor building that contained the dossiers (files) that were Army investigations on individuals, groups, companies etc. The vast majority of the investigations we saw were of military personal. But there were a significant number of investigations of non-military individuals, groups and companies.

This was the Army investigating these individuals, groups and companies. That was supposed to be illegal for the Army to be spying on civilians, but there it was. Most reports were accompanied by 8 X 10 glossy photos. For example, on college campuses there would be a demonstration, there would be a picture of a group at the demonstration, each head had a number above it. On the back of the photo was the number and a dossier file number relating to that individual. Keep in mind these were college students protesting the war. There would be an investigation on each person identified and that information would be in a file. I could tell you many stories related to this but I won't bore you, I think one is enough, you get the picture.

If they were doing that then, what do you think the FBI, Home Land Security and who knows who else is doing now. It is not the video tapes taken by the BPD that concerns me, it is more what is being done with those tapes and or pictures, and why? It is not the uniformed BPD officer taking the videos that are of much concern, it is those we could not identify, taking photos or films that result in investigations of individuals supposingly exercising their constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

Did the BPD follow up and conduct investigations of individuals identified in those films and photos? If they did, for what reason? I think these are the questions that the ACLU are trying to uncover and expose. I would suspect that what they received from the BPD may be the tip of the iceberg.


They also filmed their tactical planning session prior to the raid at Dewey Square's second site. I don't think they intended to send this video, but they did. This is interesting because it shows the behind the scene planning for the raid in October.

If anyone connected with OB wants to pass this information along to maybe the legal team at OB, they might be interested in viewing these films as well.

They can contact Kade Crodkford at the ACLU offices at 617-482-3170.
Have a great day,

Pat

From The Pages Of "Workers Vanguard"-Greece: Defend Electric Power Unionists!-For A Workers Government Now!

Click on the headline to link to the International Communist League website.

Workers Vanguard No. 996
17 February 2012

Greece: Defend Electric Power Unionists!

The following February 4 protest letter was sent by the Komitee für soziale Verteidigung (Committee for Social Defense), which is associated with the Spartakist Workers Party of Germany, to Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos and to his Labor and Justice ministers.

The Komitee für soziale Verteidigung strongly protests the outrageous persecution of 15 trade unionists of the Greek public power company union, GENOP-DEH, including its president, Nikos Photopoulos. The unionists had occupied the offices of the state power company DEH, to stop the company printing letters cutting off the electricity supply to thousands of families who refuse to pay the new property tax and thousands more who can no longer pay their bills. Squads of riot police violently removed the unionists, who were then charged with trespass, “obstructing the functioning of a public institution” and “obstructing the forces of order.” For their courageous action in defense of working and poor families they now face possible jail terms of up to five years.

The Greek capitalist government’s agencies of repression are carrying out the dictates of the European Union, which is dominated by German imperialism. From its formation, the purpose of the European Union was to serve the interests of the imperialist powers and their junior partners in squeezing their own working classes and attacking their unions, and more effectively dominating the weakest countries like Greece. The multiethnic working class in Germany has also seen its wages, pensions and living standards driven down by the German capitalists’ drive to rule Europe.

Class-conscious workers in Germany applaud the actions of the victimized trade unionists. The KfsV will make this case known to workers here. In solidarity with our class brothers in Greece, we demand: Drop all charges against the Greek power worker unionists!

From The Pages Of "Workers Vanguard"-"No Illusions in Police “Reform”—For Workers Revolution!"-Poltical Lessons For Those In The Occupy Movement Who Are Looking For The Way Forward

Click on the headline to link to the International Communist League website.

Workers Vanguard No. 996
17 February 2012

Spartacist Speaker at Occupy Oakland Forum

No Illusions in Police “Reform”—For Workers Revolution!

OAKLAND—The city administration and Oakland Police Department (OPD), backed by the local bourgeois media, have been on a campaign of arrests, smears and intimidation against Occupy Oakland protesters. Following the arrest of 409 people at a January 28 protest, a dozen activists have been charged with a combination of felonies and misdemeanors. “Stay away” orders bar them from being within 300 yards of City Hall and Frank Ogawa Plaza (renamed Oscar Grant Plaza by protesters in remembrance of the young black worker killed by a BART transit cop in 2009).

At least one activist, a black man known as Truth, has been in jail since his arrest the night of the November 2 mass protest at the Oakland port. Marcel Johnson, a black homeless man better known as Khali who was part of the Occupy Oakland encampment, has been incarcerated since his arrest on December 16 and could face a life sentence under California’s draconian “three strikes” law. Free Truth, Khali and all Occupy protesters! Drop all the charges!

At a February 1 Occupy Oakland press conference, many of those arrested recounted the horrors they experienced after being trapped and rounded up by police the week before. Dozens were crammed into cells designed to hold five people at most. Several were held for 50 hours or more without charges. Many, including people with HIV, were denied their medication. Meanwhile, the media has joined Democratic mayor Jean Quan and the City Council in accusing protesters of “violence,” particularly targeting anarchists. In a menacing move, the San Francisco Chronicle posted on its Web site the names and addresses of several of those arrested on January 28. What really drove the Oakland city administration and local media crazy was that some protesters had burned an American flag they found inside City Hall. Several Occupy Oakland activists have since taken to carrying American flags at demonstrations in an effort to show their patriotic credentials.

A February 7 City Council meeting was convened to vote on a resolution allowing the use of any “lawful” means to prevent future shutdowns at the port and strengthening police enforcement powers against protesters overall. Representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union spoke against the resolution, pointing out that it would be aimed against the union. The resolution, which failed, had been introduced by Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who earlier denounced Occupy Oakland for engaging in “domestic terrorism.”

Addressing the City Council meeting, prominent Occupy Oakland activist Barucha Peller stated: “I know you guys used to be progressive. But right now you’re on the wrong side of history” (San Francisco Chronicle, 8 February). The idea that these capitalist politicians could ever represent anything but the interests of the bourgeoisie is a stark expression of how the populist notion of the “99 percent” promotes illusions in American bourgeois democracy and its representatives.

Under the guise of debating “tactics” for “our movement,” the reformist International Socialist Organization (ISO) treacherously denounced the few dozen protesters who went to City Hall late at night on January 28 after braving hours of police tear gas, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. Accusing them of “vandalism” and “stupid and inexcusable” actions, the ISO lectured that “this irresponsible and backward behavior handed city officials and the media a perfect weapon to smear the whole movement” (“The Backlash Against Occupy Oakland,” socialistworker.org, 6 February). In fact, the ISO is handing the bourgeois media and politicians more ammunition by echoing the violence-baiting dished out against protesters.

The brutality of the OPD has become so infamous that a federal judge is threatening to put the department under receivership. This stems from a nearly decade-old settlement of the case of the Oakland “Riders”—a gang of cops unleashed on the West Oakland ghetto. The repeated cop attacks against Occupy Oakland activists have brought increased attention to the OPD, which has been ordered to comply with various “reforms.”

When a Citizens Police Review Board meeting originally scheduled for February 9 was “indefinitely postponed,” Occupy Oakland organized its own “forum on police actions,” which was attended by up to 500 people. A video presentation powerfully showed the brutality meted out to protesters since late October, and many individuals spoke at the end of the forum about the violence they regularly face at the hands of the cops, whether as demonstrators or as residents of Oakland’s ghettos. But the political focus of the event, exemplified by the official speakers, including members of the review board, was how best to “reform” the OPD and bring it under “community control.” Police Chief Howard Jordan was even invited to a “Q&A” session (of course, he did not show). We print below the remarks of a Spartacist League comrade during the “public speaking section” at the end of the forum.

*   *   *

I am speaking for the Spartacist League; some of you may have seen our paper, Workers Vanguard. We are here to say that we defend Occupy Oakland protesters against police repression and demand that everyone who’s been arrested be released and that all charges be dropped. Plain and simple, the cops are the enemy. They’re part of the capitalist state, which exists to defend the interests and rule of the bourgeoisie against the workers and the oppressed. And no amount of civilian review boards, community control or federal oversight or takeover is going to change that. All these things are a sham, designed to whitewash the cops while giving the illusion of accountability. They’re designed to clean up their image so the cops can carry out their repression all the more effectively.

The cops that killed Oscar Grant and terrorize the ghettos are part of the same capitalist system that imprisons over two million people, most of them black and Latino, in this country and wages war abroad. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat in the White House. When Quan was running, you were sold a bill of goods that she was “progressive.” The same bill of goods was sold about Obama. In fact, Obama’s message to black people is racial oppression. His message to immigrants is deportation. His message to working people is union-busting. His message to the population is to shred our rights. And his message to the world is imperialist war. There’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the flag that was burned outside of City Hall. Well, the truth is, from Haiti to the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, that flag is dripping with the blood of millions of American imperialism’s victims.

Their styles might be different, but the Democrats and the Republicans are capitalist parties and they serve the same capitalist class, and you better remember that when the elections come around and they try to sell you the poison pill of “lesser evilism.” But the “99 percent” populism of Occupy disguises the class nature of the capitalist state and its parties. It is counterposed to the understanding that the fundamental class divide in society is between the working class and the capitalist class. What we need is a workers party to fight for a socialist revolution. What we need is a new ruling class, the workers.

From The Pages Of "Workers Vanguard"-"On Posse Comitatus Law"-Down With NDAA!

Click on the headline to link to the International Communist League website.

Workers Vanguard No. 996
17 February 2012

On Posse Comitatus Law

(Letter)

January 14, 2012

Editor, Workers Vanguard:

In discussing the erasure of democratic rights under the rubric of the “war on terror”, the lead article in WV 993, “Obama Ramps Up ‘War on Terror’ at Home”, states: “This is not to mention the direct violation [by the NDAA—National Defense Authorization Act] of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits military forces from engaging in domestic law enforcement.” Two problems with this: 1. It’s technically incorrect. The Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) prohibits use of military forces domestically except when approved by Congress or explicitly allowed in the U.S. constitution. Since the NDAA was passed by Congress, its implementation would not be in violation of the PCA. 2. As for the NDAA violating the spirit of the PCA, the PCA was a post-Reconstruction law of racist and reactionary intent, designed to prevent local Reconstruction governments from appealing to the Federal government for protection against the terror that overthrew the democratic gains of the Reconstruction period. It is not exactly something one should refer to as an historical standard of bourgeois-democratic rights, such as habeas corpus, which WV properly cited in the previous sentence. So why is this being cited in WV?

Comradely,
J.H.

WV replies:

It may indeed have been more precise for the article to state that President Obama’s signing of the NDAA further eroded—rather than “directly violated”—the Posse Comitatus Act. J.H.’s second objection, though, is historically inaccurate as there were no Reconstruction governments left to defend, which is not to deny that the Act served a reactionary purpose. J.H. misses the main point. Eliminating the formal restrictions on the military engaging in domestic law enforcement could only have dangerous consequences for the workers and oppressed. We want to defend such restrictions against any attempt to limit or repeal them.

The U.S. bourgeoisie has long upheld the formal separation of the military from domestic repressive duties as a benefit of bourgeois democracy as distinct from a military police-state dictatorship. The Posse Comitatus Act stands as a centerpiece of this distinction. We have no illusions that this or any other law will restrain the bourgeoisie from unleashing the military when it perceives a sufficient threat to its class rule. Over the years, the government has come up with many ways of restricting the Posse Comitatus Act or getting around it by militarizing police forces, providing them with armed personnel carriers, drones, etc. There have been quite a few amendments to the Act, including authorizing the president to call out the armed forces to restore order in cases of civil disturbance, to assist in the “war on drugs” and to aid enforcement of the racist immigration laws. We trust that J.H. agrees that these are not positive developments.

Posse Comitatus, meaning the “force of the county,” dates back to English common law. Carried over to North America, it authorized local sheriffs to compel members of the community to assist in making arrests and maintaining order. Federal posse comitatus originated with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which “commanded” all citizens to “aid and assist” U.S. marshals in the capture of escaped slaves. By the time the slavocracy was defeated in the Civil War, the state power was no longer in the business of catching slaves. For a brief and unique period in American history—Reconstruction—its job in the South was enforcing the newly won rights of black people. Since few white southerners could be pressed into defending these rights, this left federal troops to be the “posse.”

By 1877, the last of the Reconstruction governments had already been replaced by the white Southern “Redeemers,” in some cases following bloody massacres of recently freed blacks during which the second Grant administration refused to dispatch additional troops. By the time the remaining federal troops were withdrawn from the South in 1877, the Northern bourgeoisie had already aligned with the remnants of the slavocracy to force the freed slaves back onto the former plantations as brutally exploited tenants or sharecroppers. As KKK nightriders were terrorizing the South, the Posse Comitatus Act was enacted the following year to prevent the use of the military to protect black people and enforce their civil rights. The law codified what was already a ruling-class consensus. The Civil War and Reconstruction were the last progressive acts of the U.S. bourgeoisie, which would rapidly develop into an imperialist capitalist class, marking its emergence as such with the 1898 Spanish-American War.

The military could no longer play any progressive role. Continuing a military campaign against American Indians that followed the tail end of the Civil War, some of the troops withdrawn from the South following Reconstruction were dispatched to drive the Nez Percé from their home in Oregon. Others were sent to break the 1877 strike by thousands of rail workers—the first nationwide strike in this country. Federal troops have been repeatedly sent to put down strikes: from the 1894 Pullman strike by the newly formed American Railway Union to the 1899 miners strike in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to the seizure of railroads and coal mines ordered by Democratic president Truman in 1946 to break a strike by 400,000 coal miners. Just recently, the Coast Guard was deployed, along with other forces of the state, to escort a ship up the Columbia River to the Port of Longview, Washington, to prevent any interference from ILWU longshoremen in their battle against the EGT bosses (see article in this issue). In this, the military was true to its purpose as a core component of the capitalist state, which is to defend the class rule, interests and profits of the bourgeoisie, internationally and domestically.

When struggles for black rights emerged following World War II, they were met with brutal KKK and state terror. The liberal leaders of the civil rights movement, epitomized by Martin Luther King Jr. and tailed by reformist socialist organizations, called for federal troops to the South, sowing the deadly illusion that the imperialist army that was smashing workers and peasants in Vietnam would somehow defend fighters for black freedom at home. We are opposed to such calls on the armed forces of the capitalist state. In 1957, Eisenhower’s troops were sent to put down an upheaval of the Little Rock, Arkansas, black population, which was fighting to defend black students against racist mobs. The troops thus prevented the total rout of the retreating racists. From the 1943 racist riots in Detroit to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, federal troops were sent in only after blacks armed and mobilized to defend themselves. In 1967, the 82nd Airborne was brought in to suppress the Detroit ghetto explosion.

As Marxists, we assess laws such as the Posse Comitatus Act not by the motivations of their authors but by how they concretely impact class and social struggles. From the same vantage point, we judge what legal protections exist from how they serve the interests of the working class and the oppressed. Thus, while we recognize habeas corpus as an important democratic right in most periods, we support Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War as a necessary measure to put down forces acting in support of the secessionist South in a war over slavery. Similarly, many of the democratic protections embodied in the Bill of Rights emerged from the experience of winning independence from the British monarchy, subsequent social struggle and hostility to a centralized state power in a society divided between slave and free labor social systems.

These protections, including the right to bear arms and later formal restrictions on military police powers, are important gains for the working class, which must defend the rights won through struggle against the rulers’ inevitable attempts to restrict or reverse them.