Contending Authorities Contest
Biden's Call for Unity 
January 20, 2021. New
York City protests on Inauguration Day demand defunding the police,
rent cancellation, and the abolition of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
It is evident that President Joe
Biden is having difficulty establishing his authority, especially over
the use of force, in conditions where conflicts continue to manifest
themselves among and between the Executive, the Military and the
States. For example, Texas filed a lawsuit to stop Biden's Executive
Order "pausing" deportations for 100 days. The Texas Governor and
Attorney General are the same ones who had filed a lawsuit that pitted
states against each other as part of the dispute over the election
results. A federal judge in Texas has ruled in favour of the lawsuit
and issued a national mandate to continue deportations. One
of the aims of Biden's Executive Order, in addition to trying to gain
support among activists, is to exercise control over state authorities,
as well as over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border
Patrol, both known to have backed Trump and carried out his many
illegal and inhumane actions at the border. Texas
also withdrew their National Guard troops from DC, as did New
Hampshire, Florida and Montana. This is a means for them to assert
their authority over those troops, which are a major armed force that
State Governors, not the Presidency, control. The
mobilization, by the Pentagon, of 20,000 National
Guardsmen to turn Washington, DC's Capitol into an armed camp prior to
the inauguration was itself likely a message for Biden,
telling
him to remain loyal to the military. These Guardsmen are federalized by
the president, with the consent of the state governors. While in DC
they are under the command of the Pentagon. About 7,000 National Guards
remained on duty until February 6 and 5,000 of those will remain until
mid-March. In a nod to the military, Biden chose an
Army General,
Lloyd Austin, who commanded troops in the wars against Iraq and
Afghanistan, as his Secretary of Defense. Given he had only been
retired for four years, instead of the legally required seven, he got a
special waiver from Congress to serve in a top civilian post. However,
it is highly unlikely his appointment will assist in uniting the
contending forces within the military and its bureaucracy whose
competition over procurement, deployment and authority are highly
contentious and acrimonious. It is also known that
the FBI asserted its authority, in
relation to the military, by vetting all the troops in DC, removing 12
under suspicion of being "extremists." The FBI is also conducting other
"investigations" along the same lines, including among congresspeople
said to be part of Trump's "insurrection." To its chagrin, in the
course of this process, it was revealed that its own agent is head of
the "Proud Boys" -- known as the racist, Hitlerite group that played a
main role in the January 6 rampage on the Capitol in Washington, DC. Of
most concern however, with FBI moving to more broadly assert its
authority, is whether elected officials, certain military and others,
will be targeted as all contend for power and authority in a
manner not deemed suitable to those who seek to exercise the monopoly
on the use of force, both at home and abroad. It
is a feature of the current situation that the various policing, state,
federal and military authorities are each vying for greater power. Far
from uniting behind Biden and accepting his authority over the monopoly
on the use of force, they are contributing to the "disunion" Biden
fears and speaks of. All of it confirms that the
existing constitutional order and its administrative state cannot solve
the problems of greatest concern to the people, such as equality, the
well-being of the environment, human rights, and war and peace. The old
arrangements based on property concerns cannot meet the modern demand
for equality, which includes a claim to equal political and social
status for all human beings and the recognition of rights by virtue of
being human. The ongoing resistance by the people shows it is their
fight for rights and a modern democracy that empowers the people, that
is unifying and providing a path forward. It is not
fortuitous that the FBI also co-authored the recent Bulletin which
defined "extremists" to be all those who take action "in furtherance of
political and/or social agendas, which are deemed to derive from
anti-government or anti-authority sentiment, including opposition to
perceived economic, social, or racial hierarchies; or perceived
government overreach, negligence, or illegitimacy." The
people's forces organizing resistance to injustice and demanding
equality, an end to police impunity and peace know they are far more
likely to be targets as a result of this definition of an extremist
than are state-inspired and organized far-right groups which,
experience shows, would not even get organized if it wasn't for state
support and backing. Vigilance is
required. 
January 20, 2021.
Inauguration Day protest in San Francisco, California.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 2 - February 7, 2021
Article Link:
Contending Authorities Contest
Biden's Call for Unity
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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