LOS ANGELES, 30 May--Over 3,100 signatures opposing Patriot Act II were delivered to Senator Barbara Boxer's office as MIM, RAIL and other members of the "Stop Patriot Act II Coalition" rallied outside. Patriot Act II (a.k.a. "The Domestic Security Enhancement Act") is a proposal from Attorney General John Ashcroft which would give the executive branch of the Federal Government "sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence gathering" (1) and curtail rights which the bourgeois authors of the Amerikan Constitution made part of the highest law of the land, exactly so that they could not be waived by corrupt and dishonest people in government in the name of momentary "security."(2)
RAIL brought a stack of signs bearing anti-Patriot Act slogans. Protestors gobbled these up, and a few came with signs of their own. Cars honked in support as protestors waved their signs and got signatures from the downtown lunchtime crowd. The proportion of passers-by who had not heard of Patriot Act II was higher than at anti-war rallies, so a new informational pamphlet by a RAIL comrade came in handy.(3)
A reporter from a pro-Korean-reunification website attended the rally, commenting that Patriot Act II would have a chilling effect on political debate in the United $tates. North Korea is part of George Bush's "Axis of Evil," she pointed out, so under the loose guidelines in Patriot Act II advocates of peaceful Korean reunification could be jailed as "terrorists."
A representative from Barbara Boxer's office who had earlier made an appointment to discuss the petition failed to appear.
MIM started collecting signatures against Patriot Act II in February, just after the draft proposal was posted on the internet. Several weeks later, MIM and RAIL joined Kabataang maka Bayan-USA (Pro-People Youth), Asians for Jericho & Mumia, Comite pro-Democracia en Mexico, and BAYAN Int’l.-USA in the "Stop Patriot Act II Coalition" to promote the petition and carry out civil liberties agitation from an internationalist perspective.
Notes:
1. http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=502&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0. A complete draft of the Justice Department's proposal can also be found there.
2. From our review of Gore Vidal's "Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" (http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bookstore/books/violence/vidal.html): "The politically naive say, 'if you have nothing to hide, why should you fear giving up your privacy (and other civil liberties).' What these people do not understand is that civil liberties protect against corrupt and dishonest people in government. It is not a question of hiding something. It's a matter of preventing government-sponsored terrorism. It is a matter of not trusting the government and giving it unaccountable power. This was at the core of the racist, white founding fathers' philosophy having suffered the oppression of a tyrannic government. And despite the slavery and genocide against the First Nations rampant at the time, MIM would say that that idea is still more advanced than what we hear today about the need to sacrifice freedom for safety. The founding fathers had a 'theory' of how to keep government under control of the people. We at MIM do not think that theory is exactly right, but we recognize and share concern for the question that drove that theory. Most of what we hear today on the subject is pure emotion driven by fascist agitators in the media and government."
3. For an archive of stories, flyers and pamphlets against "Patriot Act II" see http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/agitation/civlib/.