The Patriot Act is Not New

Will the Patriot Act or parts of it be used against labor or most any worker movement, such as the quest for a minimum wage increase, Occupy or the women’s movement? The answer will probably be yes for if you look back at history you will see government used the Alien and Sedition Laws of 1798, which jeopardized the freedom of speech, press and assembly, and was a long step toward Totalitarianism. And then there was U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, appointed by Woodrow Wilson, who recruited J. Edgar Hoover as his special assistant in 1917 to enforce the Espionage Act of 1917, especially the Sedition Act of 1918 engaged in the Palmer Raids. These Acts were used to launch a campaign against the so-called radicals, such as the IWW (Wobblies) labor movement, which was at the time the most feared labor group. The oligarchies wanted them destroyed and they were, to a point. The next Act the government used against its people went after labor, women’s rights and civil rights was the McCarran Act. This Act was passed by 31 Republicans and 26 Democrats on Sept. 22, 1950. President Truman vetoed the Act, but the House overruled him and made the Act, picketing a federal court house a felony if the intention was to obstruct. Sections of the McCarran Act were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993 as a violation of the First Amendment. But the U.S. Military still uses the full Act. All of these Acts were to keep the wage slaves from having the power to rise up their voices for a better life for themselves and their families. These Acts take away the peaceful tools they need, such as freedom of speech, press and the right to assemble. Now, we have the Patriot Act that allows for warrantless wiretapping, Drones flying overhead and we know the FBI and the CIA are infiltrating into labor groups and Occupy movements and these informers are building cases against the members. We are very close, in fact, much closer to Totalitarianism than most people realize. We had better wake up and study the history of our country and the capitalist system. If you want to understand how to counteract this trend just read their playbooks: Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. By the way all of the anti-labor Acts have been supported by Democrats, even today. You should ask yourself, Why?