From overturning Roe
vs. Wade, to ‘rolling back the clock’ on civil rights, gay rights, and women’s
rights, and from supporting the type of unchecked executive authority which led
to the implementation of endless war abroad as well as secretive repression at
home to supporting legal arguments for executive-ordered torture, the views and
intentions of ‘Scalito’ are clear, regardless of the ‘ambiguous’ results of
this week’s senate confirmation hearings.
Alito’s rulings, regardless of his
claimed ‘open mind’, will undoubtedly be rooted in an ideology that will
convert legal doctrine into a support system for autocratic theocracy. His strong support for increased executive
authority will inevitably result in rendering the courts themselves irrelevant,
allowing an ideology of bigotry to survive while issuing a fatal blow to the
rule of law. Given this, it is clear
where Judge Alito’s priorities lie. It
is also clear that Alito’s appointment to the Supreme Court is meant to serve
an ‘activist’ right wing Christian authoritarian agenda, not the constitution,
the legal code, or the rights of the people of this country. .
Supreme Court Confirmation hearings
for Samuel Alito began Monday. Bush’s
initial nominee, Harriet Miers, was rejected by dissatisfied extremist social
and religious conservatives in the Republican legislative base.
Sure, we can call our senators and
ask them to really grill Alito in these hearings, but short of an extremely
unlikely Democratic filibuster the legislature is powerless. (A filibuster will not occur largely because
the Democrats are afraid to do so after this past summer’s wars over the
filibuster option, and if they do filibuster for this nominee, it allows them
less credibility for the next.) We
cannot place the world’s fate in the hands of the handful of white, male
senators currently on the senate judiciary committee.
We have learned to accept too much
and therefore must challenge those who believe in equality, liberty, and
justice, but who have fallen silent or been silenced to speak out against the
racist, sexist, homophobic, intolerant, immoral and illegal directionality in
which this administration and its allies are carrying us. And we are.
On Monday evening, World Can’t Wait organizers around the country
convened rallies and protests to raise public awareness and opposition. Many of these protests met with support from
other organizers, which is exactly what is needed: a growing and unified culture of dissent; a
dynamic popular agenda to which Bush will be forced to respond.
In San Francisco, organizers convened a
rally/press conference, which was eventually unified with several city
organizations’ protests. Collectively,
the rallies were covered by several press outlets. Organizers carried a World Can’t Wait banner,
and one San Francisco organizer reported that,
‘the people at
the rally welcomed it being there. It said, âNo Alito! Bush Must Go! Protest
the State of the Union January 31st!’
In
Texas, World Can’t Wait protesters gathered in front of the Houston
federal building. One of the organizers was interviewed at length
by a local radio station, which ran the whole interview.
Organizers said, ‘we were able to get out the fact that The World Can’t
Wait-Drive Out the Bush Regime is against this confirmation, but also
against this whole regime and that we are actively trying to drive Bush
out.’
In DC, ‘Several World Can’t Wait organizers attended and opposed
the âConfirm Alito’ rally outside of the Supreme Court yesterday before the
confirmation hearings began.’ They were
‘greeted by hundreds of anti-abortion activists revering the nomination’ as
well as extreme right wing groups such as ‘Concerned Women for America.’ Said one organizer, ‘the people present at
this rally were not just a few right wing extremists. These people represent the values of the Bush
regime that we are told to see compromise with.’
‘As Reverend
Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition started speaking at the rally before
the media, the World Can’t Wait organizers rushed in front of the cameras
chanting, ‘Bush and Alito will outlaw abortion and women will die! Bush step
down! Bush step down!’ said the organizer.
DC organizers
also addressed the promise that much of the left affords the Democratic members
of the Senate Judiciary Committee in their city. ‘Think about what it means that influential
Democrats are actually saying that we will have to give up on abortion if they
ever hope to get elected again. The Democrats pose no significant opposition to
the Bush regime not only on the question of abortion but also on such issues as
the war, which the significant portion of Democrats still support. The pendulum is not swinging back. Now think further about what it means that
these Democrats see a large, active supportive movement for Alito without any
opposition mobilizing in the streets.
Even if we could rely on the Democrats, what Democrat will support or
oppose anything if they do not see that it is what the people want through
passionate mass mobilization?’ WCW organizers in DC said in a written statement
on the issue.
In New York, protesters met with
blatantly illegal, irresponsible, and deliberately repressive police
suppression that resulted in the unlawful detention of two WCW organizers, and
the arrest of one member, who was then held for twenty-four hours before being
charged with a different crime than the one for which he was arrested. The officer who arrested the organizer never
presented any form of identification, and said, among other things, that he had
‘thousands of videos’ of NYC protests and rallies.
In Seattle,
WCW activists protested in front of the Federal Courthouse during
morning rush hour. They ‘held a banner reading “Bush: Step Down, and
Take Alito with You!” as well as a coat hanger with the words ‘NO
Alito!’ while distributing the flyers with the Call and State of the
Union protest plans. They ‘got honks and thumbs up from bus riders and
cars alike’ and had several conversations with people who supported the
overall message of the protests but were unsure what they could do.
Activists inSeattle will also protest to mark the beginning of the Jose
Padilla case on Friday morning from 7:30-9am wearing orange jumpsuits
and hoods to represent the detainees and disappeared.
In the past several weeks, members
of the Bush administration have been exposed as liars, spies, and crooks by way
of the main-stream press, the legislature, and the courts. We should utilize this opportunity to
ACTIVELY create a culture of resistance to this administration and all it
stands for.
In what promises to be a tumultuous
month: NSA spying just revealed, the Patriot Act up for renewal, the Padilla
case headed for the Supreme Court, and unforeseen challenges in our unjust war
on Iraq, any of the moves made in the name of the Bush agenda need to be
forcefully opposed.
All of these actions should build
momentum for the protests all across the country during January 31st‘s
State of the Union address, and in
PROGRAM WITH YOU!
For more on Alito, check out “Alito:The Masking of a Conservative or The Showboating of a Nazi?” by Allen Lang
The following is from revcom.us:
January 9, 2006: “Monday Bloody Monday”
The
World Can’t Wait called for “Bloody Monday” actions around the country
on January 9 to “oppose Alito’s rubber-stamp approval to the Supreme
Court.” The following report is about how revolutionary communists took
this up in the southeast ghetto section of Washington, D.C.
It’s
the first day of the hearings to confirm Alito as Supreme Court Justice
and while two sides square off in front of the Supreme Court, a few
miles away across the bridge in Southeast D.C. –an area that is
virtually all Black — you got a glimpse of the potential for massive
numbers of Black people, especially the youth, to fight for that better
future.
Several people go to a transit center in SE to
sell the Revolution newspaper and talk to people about the battle. We
post up hand-written signs — Abortion is Not Murder! Fetuses
Are Not Babies! Women Are Not Incubators! Drive Out the Bush Regime!
Join the Emancipators of Humanity! Women Hold up Half the Sky!
An
organizer at a bus stop: “Without the right to abortion, women are
slaves! This traditional morality that Alito and the Bush program
stands for means death for women. If women can’t decide fundamental
questions about their own lives, like when to have children, they are
reduced to slaves!”
Someone shouts back: “She shouldn’t have opened her legs!”
In
response to this another woman says: “I used to think that way — until
I needed an abortion. If I ain’t got say-so about this then I don’t
really got much say about a lot of things. It would be a terrible thing
if they can stop abortions.”
Then some youth gather,
from different schools and different neighborhoods. They greet each
other joyfully with hugs. They laugh loud, talk shit, clown around,
being seen. Ten cop cars are on the scene. The system has a future for
these youth: prison and punishment. And the Bush regime has added its
own “Christian Fascist” twist, which includes a strong element of
genocide.
But these youth have the potential to fight
for a different future, and to play a crucial role in changing the
whole direction of society ( right now.
One of the
organizers selling the Revolution shouts out to the youth about the
upcoming demonstrations against the Bush regime in D.C on January 31
and February 4. “Bush has to step down!”
One of the
youth, Danny, turns around. “Yeah! He need to! Yeah!” He takes a stack
of leaflets and with no discussion steps into the crosswalk, agitating.
At first the other youth ridicule Danny, and ask is he getting paid for
this. But Danny stands in a crowd of 30 or 40, debating and struggling
with them to take up the flyers and posters.
“Bush
let the people die in that flood in New Orleans. You saw it! All them
people calling for help! You heard âem! Bush killed them people down
there! Bush got to go!”
He runs out into the
intersection, and puts posters and flyers on the windshields of the
puzzled motorists stopped at the traffic light. Soon two or three other
youth join him. He tapes the posters up on the walls. Soon several
other youth go into the streets, handing out leaflets, and putting them
on the windshields of the cars stopped at the light.
The
cops pull up and try to disperse the crowd of 35 kids on the corner. A
chant goes up: “Fuck Bush!” Everyone is laughing and chanting: “Fuck
Bush!” Then it becomes a rhythmical chant “Fuck Bush!… Fuck Bush!”
Another part of the crowd starts up “Fuck the police!” and this chant
gets taken up enthusiastically for a few beats until it returns to
“Fuck Bush!…Fuck Bush!” The cops are off guard and irrelevant. The
cars are honking. The youth have turned it into a march and it’s really
powerful. They appear to be twice their number and they all head off
together and take the intersection, stopping both lines of cars, and
the chant turns into “Bush Step Down! Bush Step Down!”
They hold the signs over their heads and look at themselves in amazement. “Bush Step Down!”
They
march into the transit center station chanting with their posters held
high. People getting off work at first look startled — and then,
electrified. They take posters and flyers and exit the station holding
“Bush Step Down” posters over their heads and with wide smiles across
their faces.
The atmosphere was now electrified with
politics. And with the masses beginning to take matters into their own
hands. The actions of the youth had helped push the discussions that
had been going on all afternoon about abortion, communism, religion,
the liberation of women, the Bush regime and a dozen other things to a
whole new level of engagement. And in the flurry of the posters going
up and the spirited discussion, you could see and hear an inkling of a
different future.