The Need to Recognize and Affirm Rights to Enforce Security
Promotion of foreign interference in elections is used to say the problems with elections have nothing to do with the dysfunctional institutions and outdated definitions of democracy whereby the minority rule over the majority and call it majority rule. On the contrary, it is said that elections must be protected from an external, foreign force the people have no control over. People are to direct their fire away from a political process that disempowers them and instead join the rulers in targeting China or Russia or Iran or some other country. This not only constitutes war preparations as part of the U.S. war machine but also involves resurrecting Cold War anti-communism. This refers to opposition from the state and others to the people’s organized resistance and even elected officials who are declared to be promoters of foreign inspired “fringe ideologies.”
Canada’s security measures follow in tandem with those in the United States. Alongside continuing to target what is branded as radical Islam and anti-Semitism, the U.S. government is now focusing on what are called conspiracy theorists while Justin Trudeau repeatedly speaks of fringe ideologies who merit exclusion from the cartel party system. By presenting current problems as a matter of extremes, the focus is in part a means to further criminalize resistance. On August 1, a report issued by the FBI’s Phoenix office added people who promote conspiracy theories to the list of potential terrorists. The FBI is not saying somebody has to be involved in a conspiracy. It is targeting ideological beliefs as the source of violent action.
The report says, “The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.” It also says the FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This sets the stage for government interference in demonstrations during the elections, in the name of “stopping extremists.” Keep in mind that since 2010, the U.S. federal government authorized the FBI to conduct intrusive inspections, including the use of informants and surveillance with only an allegation of potential violence, a far lower standard than the usual probable cause. The agency itself can make the allegations, meaning unlimited use of informants and surveillance of all kinds. Also keep in mind that Canada has followed in lock-step with the U.S. by permiting defamation and disruption of social media and similar practices.
In May, Michael C. McGarrity, Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, told the U.S. Congress that the FBI now “classifies domestic terrorism threats into four main categories: racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism,” the last being a term the FBI uses to classify both pro-choice and anti-abortion “extremists.” “Racially motivated” extremism includes what the FBI has termed “black identity extremism” and “white supremacy extremism.” In the U.S. being convicted as a terrorist carries the death penalty.
In the light of these developments, the words and actions of cartel parties, governments, monopoly-controlled media and some non-government organizations which accuse people of being racist, anti-immigrant and prone to violence in no way enhance the people’s security but instead jeopardize it. What the developments reveal is the need for peoples empowerment because the greatest loss of control the people experience is the denial of their right to participate in taking decisions that affect their lives. This is true even during an election. Elections are used to generate an atmosphere of hysteria, fear and loss of control by depriving people of the ability to think and discuss calmly about what is happening in Canada and internationally. Everyone is left at the mercy of secret decisions and agencies over which the people exercise no control.
This is why it is so important to take further actions which develop the independent politics of the working class. The resolution of society’s problems begins with the authorities recognizing the right of the people to participate in the decisions which affect them so that they can exercise control over their lives. Workers should not have to fight to be able to speak out about the matters which concern them and they should not be threatened with reprisals.
This article was published in:
Renewal Update No. 36, October 16, 2019
Article Link:
The Need to Recognize and Affirm Rights to Enforce Security
