from the CPUSA '08 Elections Blog
Thursday's US Supreme Court ruling that prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay navel base in Cuba have constitutional rights (habeas corpus rights) to challenge their confinement before a judge in US courts was a major defeat for the Bush administration. It was also a notable victory for those struggling to end these shameful torture practices - not to mention shut down these "chambers of horror" once and for all.
The narrowness of the vote (5-4), however, is a sober reminder of the tenuousness of democratic rights in the hands of this deeply divided court and underscores once again the crucial importance of the presidential elections. The next president will almost surely name a replacement for one or more retiring justices on the present court.
Furthermore, the most likely retirees are justices that have consistently challenged the legalities of the policies of the Bush administration, while the least likely are justices (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito) that have stridently supported them. In fact, all of the latter plan to be fixtures on the court for a long time to come.
If the math is simple, the dangers are frightening. One more conservative judge on the Supreme Court bench will lock in for an indefinite period a majority grouping on the court that will eagerly give legal sanction to authoritarian rule - fascist-like rule, I believe, is not too strong a word. No rights or legal precedents won in the course of centuries of unremitting struggle will be safe.
Here is another reason, and a big one at that, why the outcome of the presidential elections counts a lot. And yet, I am not convinced that millions of Americans have completely grasped this undeniable fact. Yes, the court's makeup is a concern for many, but is it a dire concern?
I don't think so. Does this bother me? Of course it does, but this is no time to panic. We have over 1500 days to make the case that who sits on the courts matters and that the next president's nominee(s) to the court will have far reaching consequences for our country's future.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
CPUSA demands justice for Cuban Five
from CPUSA.org
CPUSA statement on Appeals Court decision June 4 in the case of the Cuban Five.
The Communist Party USA rejects unequivocally the decision announced June 4 by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that puts off freedom for five Cuban men who as of September 12 will have served ten years of unjust imprisonment. They are Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, and Ramon Labanino.
Their supposed crime was to have taken non-violent actions in defense of their nation. For almost fifty years, thugs and criminals, encouraged by successive U.S.governments, have directed murder and mayhem against the Cuban people. Five men, courageous and principled, volunteered to watch over unseemly private groupings, gangs we say, to report their plotting to Cuban authorities.
The Communist Party condemns the U.S. government for its complicity with this terror campaign. We view that government – judges included – as party to continuing persecution of the Cuban Five. They have, in fact, put the Cuban revolution in the dock. The valor and idealism of our brothers who are in jail exemplify revolutionary ideals.
We take to heart Gerardo Hernandez’ words in response to this skewed decision: “This is the same system that has unjustly incarcerated Mumia for more than 20 years along with Leonard Peltier and the Puerto Rican political prisoners.” He asserts that, “We will endure as many years as necessary,” adding that, “As long as one of you is resisting, we will also resist until there is justice.” We resist too.
The Communist Party USA was gratified by Amnesty International’s denunciation of U.S. persecution of the Cuban Five contained within its annual report issued May 28. Our Party recalls the designation by a United Nations working group in 2005 of their detention as “arbitrary.”
We point to phrasing early in theAppeals Courtdecision demonstrating either bias or incompetence. We say the former. Judge William Pryor, writing for the Court, asserts that “Each Cuban agent was convicted of espionage charges...” In fact three were convicted of “conspiracy to commit espionage,” among other charges; none of espionage.
On another occasion, Leonard Weinglass, appeals attorney for Antonio Guerrero, indicated why this lapse is significant: “By using the charge of conspiracy the government is relieved of the requirement that the underlying crime be proven.”
Our Party will not rest until these five Cuban combatants against terrorism - defenders of the Cuban revolution - are freed. Additionally, the Communist Party USA pledges continuing dedication, with allies, toward bringing arch terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to justice.
CPUSA statement on Appeals Court decision June 4 in the case of the Cuban Five.The Communist Party USA rejects unequivocally the decision announced June 4 by a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that puts off freedom for five Cuban men who as of September 12 will have served ten years of unjust imprisonment. They are Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, and Ramon Labanino.
Their supposed crime was to have taken non-violent actions in defense of their nation. For almost fifty years, thugs and criminals, encouraged by successive U.S.governments, have directed murder and mayhem against the Cuban people. Five men, courageous and principled, volunteered to watch over unseemly private groupings, gangs we say, to report their plotting to Cuban authorities.
The Communist Party condemns the U.S. government for its complicity with this terror campaign. We view that government – judges included – as party to continuing persecution of the Cuban Five. They have, in fact, put the Cuban revolution in the dock. The valor and idealism of our brothers who are in jail exemplify revolutionary ideals.
We take to heart Gerardo Hernandez’ words in response to this skewed decision: “This is the same system that has unjustly incarcerated Mumia for more than 20 years along with Leonard Peltier and the Puerto Rican political prisoners.” He asserts that, “We will endure as many years as necessary,” adding that, “As long as one of you is resisting, we will also resist until there is justice.” We resist too.
The Communist Party USA was gratified by Amnesty International’s denunciation of U.S. persecution of the Cuban Five contained within its annual report issued May 28. Our Party recalls the designation by a United Nations working group in 2005 of their detention as “arbitrary.”
We point to phrasing early in theAppeals Courtdecision demonstrating either bias or incompetence. We say the former. Judge William Pryor, writing for the Court, asserts that “Each Cuban agent was convicted of espionage charges...” In fact three were convicted of “conspiracy to commit espionage,” among other charges; none of espionage.
On another occasion, Leonard Weinglass, appeals attorney for Antonio Guerrero, indicated why this lapse is significant: “By using the charge of conspiracy the government is relieved of the requirement that the underlying crime be proven.”
Our Party will not rest until these five Cuban combatants against terrorism - defenders of the Cuban revolution - are freed. Additionally, the Communist Party USA pledges continuing dedication, with allies, toward bringing arch terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to justice.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
UAW endorses Obama
From the Detroit Free Press
WASHINGTON – The United Auto Workers is endorsing Barack Obama for president.
WASHINGTON – The United Auto Workers is endorsing Barack Obama for president.
The union made its endorsement public today, with UAW President Ron Gettelfinger crediting Obama with winning “a historic primary campaign which activated and mobilized millions of voters.”
The endorsement followed a unanimous vote of the union’s International Executive Board.
Said Gettelfinger: “Obama has been a voice for dignity and justice for working people. … On every issue that counts, we can count on Barack Obama to stand with our members, our families and our communities. He has pledged to rebuild America’s manufacturing base and to assist the auto industry as we re-tool toward a cleaner, more modern transportation system.”
Friday, June 6, 2008
Stop the ICE raids now
from: PWW
Author: PWW Editorial Board
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/02/08 13:52
The headlines say it all: “900 nabbed in state on immigration charges,” “A raid on fairness,” “Immigration raids terrify kids, House is told.”
In the last two months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have swept nightclubs and a doughnut plant in Texas, a resort in Virginia, a wood-products plant in Idaho, a taqueria chain in the San Francisco Bay Area, chicken-processing plants in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and West Virginia — and a growing number of homes and apartment complexes around the country.
In what ICE calls the country’s biggest “criminal worksite enforcement operation,” on May 12 agents dragged nearly 400 immigrant workers into a Waterloo, Iowa, holding pen with an eerily symbolic name — the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds.
Some say undocumented immigrants bring their troubles on themselves. But immigrants and their supporters point out that unfair international trade agreements have devastated the livelihoods of workers and farmers around the world, driving millions to undertake desperate journeys in an effort to support their families.
The toll the raids take on families and especially on children was highlighted at a May 21 hearing by the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee. “The impact of these raids has been devastating,” elementary school principal Kathryn Gibney told the subcommittee. A year after a raid on a nearby San Rafael, Calif., apartment complex, she said, absenteeism and counseling needs in her school remain higher, and test scores lower. “They left behind them a trail of fear,” she said.
Gibney said recently federal agents stopped a father walking his daughter to another San Rafael elementary school. Because the agents and the father did not share a language, the second grader had to translate. The undocumented father was taken away.
Countless families have been torn apart when undocumented parents are deported, leaving behind their children born in the United States.
As the November election draws nearer, more and more people in our country are calling for profound changes in the Bush administration’s array of failed foreign and domestic policies. Its policy toward immigrants is one of the most blatant failures.
In the name of our common humanity, stop the ICE raids now!
Author: PWW Editorial Board
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/02/08 13:52
The headlines say it all: “900 nabbed in state on immigration charges,” “A raid on fairness,” “Immigration raids terrify kids, House is told.”
In the last two months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have swept nightclubs and a doughnut plant in Texas, a resort in Virginia, a wood-products plant in Idaho, a taqueria chain in the San Francisco Bay Area, chicken-processing plants in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee and West Virginia — and a growing number of homes and apartment complexes around the country.
In what ICE calls the country’s biggest “criminal worksite enforcement operation,” on May 12 agents dragged nearly 400 immigrant workers into a Waterloo, Iowa, holding pen with an eerily symbolic name — the National Cattle Congress fairgrounds.
Some say undocumented immigrants bring their troubles on themselves. But immigrants and their supporters point out that unfair international trade agreements have devastated the livelihoods of workers and farmers around the world, driving millions to undertake desperate journeys in an effort to support their families.
The toll the raids take on families and especially on children was highlighted at a May 21 hearing by the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee. “The impact of these raids has been devastating,” elementary school principal Kathryn Gibney told the subcommittee. A year after a raid on a nearby San Rafael, Calif., apartment complex, she said, absenteeism and counseling needs in her school remain higher, and test scores lower. “They left behind them a trail of fear,” she said.
Gibney said recently federal agents stopped a father walking his daughter to another San Rafael elementary school. Because the agents and the father did not share a language, the second grader had to translate. The undocumented father was taken away.
Countless families have been torn apart when undocumented parents are deported, leaving behind their children born in the United States.
As the November election draws nearer, more and more people in our country are calling for profound changes in the Bush administration’s array of failed foreign and domestic policies. Its policy toward immigrants is one of the most blatant failures.
In the name of our common humanity, stop the ICE raids now!
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