|
For Your Information Conception that "All Men Are Created Equal" Denies AccountabilityOn July 4, 1776, the U.S. Declaration of Independence was issued, with its now famous phrase, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The phrase has become well known in part because it is so often repeated by presidents. Importantly, however, it is known because inequality is so rampant in the United States and in relations between the United States and other countries. Taking the phrase in historical context at any time through the history of the United States since it was constituted, what is revealed is how the phrase about equality is used to promote U.S. exceptionalism. Today this most often takes the form of distinguishing the U.S. as exceptional and indispensable, to which all countries must defer. President Joe Biden, at his press conference after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 16, put it this way: "I made it clear to President Putin that we'll continue to raise issues of fundamental human rights because that's what we are, that's who we are. The idea is: 'We hold these truths self-evident that all men and women...' We haven't lived up to it completely, but we've always widened the arc of commitment and included more and more people." He also said, "We're uniquely a product of an idea. What's that idea? We don't derive our rights from the government; we possess them because we're born -- period. And we yield them to a government."
The U.S. conception of equality, however, is an idea, an aspiration. According to Biden's rendering, the problem with the Constitution is not that it deprives the people, the majority, of power, but that it needs to be more inclusive, bring more people under its rule and accepting of government dictate. In the press conference after meeting Putin, Biden added, "Human rights is going to always be on the table, I told him. It's not about just going after Russia when they violate human rights; it's about who we are. How could I be the President of the United States of America and not speak out against the violation of human rights?" Nothing could be more incoherent, absurd and disinforming. Not only is the U.S. the greatest violator of human rights both at home and abroad, but, most significantly, Biden and the U.S. repeatedly fail to take responsibility for the consequences of these violations. Everything is rendered as a variant of "we will do better in the future," as a commitment which has no materiality whatsoever. There is no accountability and no mechanism for accountability in the U.S. Constitution. African Americans have repeatedly brought forward the charge of genocide and are doing so again at an International Tribunal on U.S. Human Rights Violations to be held this year. Immigrants and refugees also speak to the brutality and attacks on human rights by the U.S., including many deaths at the border due to U.S. actions. In addition to long detention of large numbers of children, a violation of rights under U.S. and international law, a new report documents "forced feeding, forced hydration, and psychological coercion of individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) between 2013-2020." Many were women on hunger strike demanding their release and humane conditions for all those detained. The treatment clearly violated the health and human rights of those in detention. It is not uncommon to hear it said that when violations of rights take place, the Supreme Court will deliver justice. This denies that the Supreme Court is part of the executive and its constituted police powers. It most recently ruled in favour of child slavery in the suit against Nestlé and Cargill, two of the world's largest manufacturers of chocolate. The suit charged them for knowingly buying cocoa beans from farms in Africa that used child slave labour -- something these oligopolies likely organized and imposed. The suit said they "aided and abetted" the slavery, which is a crime against humanity. The group of six adults sought to bring a class action suit on their behalf and that of thousands of other children. The two giants denied any wrong-doing. The Court ruled that the law used, known as the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), which permits foreign citizens to sue in U.S. courts for human rights abuses, required a far higher level of proof to condemn U.S. companies operating outside the country. The court said that "mere corporate presence" and "general corporate activity" in the United States are not enough "to support a domestic application of the ATS." This means the child slaves have to provide proof that corporate officers in the U.S. actively plotted to aid and abet child slavery taking place outside the U.S. Biden made no comment and it was his administration, like Trump's before him, that was involved in pursuing the case for Nestlé and Cargill. The absence of constitutional mechanisms to hold the government accountable for the crimes the U.S. system perpetrates and condones is a main concern of the people across the United States this July 4. There are no mechanisms to hold authorities to account, whether it be for killer cops or killer drones or acts of mass incarceration or discrimination, acts of genocide and other crimes against humanity. Many U.S. treaties even impose conditions of impunity for its soldiers who commit not just military crimes but also acts like rape and murder against civilians in countries the U.S. occupies or where it has bases. In similar fashion, in the name of high ideals, elected officials and policing forces enjoy impunity at all levels. The U.S. rejects the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), set up as an arena to address crimes of countries the U.S. imperialists and its allies want tried, so long as it does not include themselves. There was an uproar among Congress people recently when House Representative Ilhan Omar on June 7, referring to U.S. crimes in both Palestine and Afghanistan, asked Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about U.S. accountability during a Foreign Affairs Committee meeting. She said, "I know you oppose the [International Criminal Court's] investigation in both Palestine and in Afghanistan. I haven't seen any evidence in either cases that domestic courts both can and will prosecute alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.... In both of these cases, if domestic courts can't or won't pursue justice, and we oppose the ICC, where do we think victims are supposed to go for justice? And what justice mechanisms do you support for them?" Blinken responded that both the U.S. and Israel already "have the means." "I believe that we have, whether it's the United States or Israel, we both have the mechanisms to make sure that there is accountability in any situations where there are concerns about the use of force and human rights, etc. I believe that both of our democracies have that capacity. And we've demonstrated it." The consciousness that words are cheap in the U.S. is very high. As Blinken spoke, the massive bombing and crimes of genocide were occurring against the Palestinians, while police racist killings continue in the U.S. and the lack of charges or accountability persist. There was an immediate effort to try and get Omar censored and removed from the Committee, simply for asking the question. Blinken clearly means the U.S. has demonstrated that it will use force with impunity and defend Israel doing the same and their "rules-based order" decides who is and is not human and worthy of protection. On this July 4, at a time the crimes the U.S. is committing are growing with every passing day, nobody is celebrating Old conceptions of equality as aspirations with no materiality, as cover-ups for the aim of the Constitution. That aim is to make sure the society is divided between those who rule and make all the decisions to their advantage and those who are disempowered and whose only duty is to obey the verdicts rendered from on high over which they exercise no control. With its structures of inequality and lack of accountability, now is the time to bring in modern definitions of democracy based on accountability, including a modern constitution which codifies what the people of the United States are fighting for today. A fundamental feature of a modern constitution would be the inclusion of means to hold governments accountable for any crimes, including those concerning aggressive wars and war crimes, genocide and the current practice of lynching by police. It would also provide means for the people to deliberate on issues of war and peace, the economic direction set for the country and an all-sided approach to issues related to security. A modern democracy suitable to the people must enshrine the people
themselves as the supreme source of power. They should be able to remove
governments that they consider to be responsible for wars and extreme
violence, whether at home or abroad. Part of the battle of democracy,
which is the battle over political supremacy, over who has power to
decide, is about war and peace and defining crimes and punishment. At
the heart of
the battle of democracy today is the battle over political supremacy,
over securing political power for the people.
Political deliberation and discussion are a critical part of the fight
to make the people indispensable, not disposable. (With files from the Ideological Studies Centre -- ISC)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
This statement is incoherent as one cannot possess or keep hold of a
right and also yield it to government. A human right belongs to the
holder as a human being and cannot be given,
received or forfeited in any way. It belongs to the holder by right and
that right means it exists in its affirmation, as a matter of a human
person making claims on society for what belongs
to them as a human being and member of that society. That is what a
right is. It consists as an expression of a concrete reality.