fighting back / 1
Capitalism versus democracy Repression is Capitalism’s biggest weapon against “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, writes Eric Ruder
In Chicago, it’s a violation of the law, for example, for two people to carry a banner or sound amplification device that wasn’t described in a permit application filed months ahead of time
32 ColdType | March 2012
T
he crack of the police baton, the whiff of tear gas and the spectacle of mass arrest became all too familiar in city after city this fall and
winter. This was the response of the authorities to the rise of the Occupy movement and its challenge to the wealth and political privileges of the 1 percent. Occupy’s tactics of choice were peaceful encampments and mass marches, supposedly guaranteed by the First Amendment right to free speech and peaceful assembly. But in a matter of weeks, city officials from coast to coast had sent out police in riot gear, with zip-tie handcuffs dangling from their military-issue body armor, to harass and arrest Occupy protesters, and drive them from the streets. Under the guise of concerns about “public health and safety,” mayor after mayor ordered police to tear down encampments – a curious justification after the years of cuts to public hospitals, heating subsidies and homeless shelters that have actually endangered “public health and safety” for millions of Americans. The total number of arrests of Occupy activists now stands at 6,475 and counting. The treatment of the Occupy movement by elected officials and law enforcement sends an unmistakable message: Sure, you have the right to free speech, but once you
try to use it, we will do all we can to stop you. Part of this assault has involved elected officials – most of them members of the Democratic Party, which claims to stand for the rights of working people – bending the laws to ensure they can crack down on demonstrators at will. In Chicago, where the NATO military alliance and G8 club of powerful governments is due to meet in a joint summit in May, Mayor Rahm Emanuel went the furthest – under the proposals he drove through the City Council, it’s a violation of the law, for example, for two people to carry a banner or sound amplification device that wasn’t described in a permit application filed months ahead of time. On New Year’s Eve, Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, giving him the power to detain US citizens indefinitely, without charges. This was a new milestone in the assault on civil liberties inaugurated by George W. Bush’s “war on terror,” but continued under the Democratic Obama administration. During this same period, the federal government disbursed more than $34 billion in grants to help transform local police departments into small armies, equipped with military-grade hardware. Under the guise of equipping themselves for “terror scenarios,” even sleepy towns like Fargo, N.D.,