Revolution #278, August 19, 2012
Statement Opposes Obama’s Repressive Assault
Revolution received “A Call To Stand Together To Oppose The Obama Administration’s Dangerous Assault On Fundamental Rights.” It is posted for signatures at opposerepressionndaa.net. The initial signatories follow the statement.
According to Raymond Lotta, who helped initiate this statement, “Its purpose is to call attention, and summon resistance, to a dangerous trajectory of repressive acts and laws and to reaffirm a core principle: We cannot allow any one group or person to be singled out and targeted.”
The immediate catalyst for the statement is the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) and the ruling of May 16 by Judge Katherine Forrest in U.S. District Court (NYSD) in response to the lawsuit Hedges et al. v Obama et al. The judge agreed with the plaintiffs (Hedges et al) that section 1021 of the NDAA, which allowed for indefinite detention, without charge or trial, of a vague category of people was unconstitutional—and she imposed a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the law. The ruling was a mainly positive one, but it also contains an erroneous and potentially harmful characterization of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP) and its Chairman, Bob Avakian. This has been protested in a legal brief. See “Brief Filed Objecting to Dangerous Mischaracterization of RCP, USA,” Revolution #275, July 22, 2012.
On August 7, a hearing was held by Judge Forrest to determine if the temporary injunction will become permanent. Lawyers for the plaintiffs (Hedges et al.) argued that the injunction should become permanent; lawyers for the defendants (Obama et al.) argued that the law should go into effect. Judge Forrest will now decide the matter. But even as she is deliberating, and it is not clear when her decision will come, the Obama administration has taken steps to appeal her May 16 ruling to the next federal appellate court. In short, the case is very much alive, and the harmful characterization is still in the court record.
All of this underscores the need for people to step up opposition to this highly repressive law and to have serious discussions with people about the dangers posed to Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party by the mischaracterization in the May 16 ruling. And the statement printed below needs to circulate widely and garner many more signatures.
For background on this case, see “Letter Points to Dangerous Mischaracterization in National Defense Authorization Act Ruling," Revolution #274, July 8, 2012. As for the RCP’s actual view on the struggle for revolutionary change, see “Some Crucial Points of Revolutionary Orientation —in Opposition to Infantile Posturing and Distortions of Revolution,” Revolution #55, July 30, 2006.
To sign the call go to opposerepressionndaa.net.
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