Unarmed civilians with their hands in the air are gunned down like dogs. Nine- year-old children are handcuffed and dragged to jail for pointing fingers and saying, “Bang – bang.” Police beat defenseless, homeless people to death for being homeless. Citizens photographing illegal police activities are beaten and hauled off to jail. Armored battlewagons with “Serve and Protect” painted on their sides patrol our streets. Masked men with battlefield arms, called SWAT Teams, lurk in the police stations of even small towns. Police chiefs, lawyers, State officials (who happen to be Black) are stopped, frisked and hauled off to jail on “suspicion.” Latinos are unlawfully stopped, frisked or jailed on suspicion of being “undocumented.”
Nazi Germany? No! It is America—Land that I love. It is the Beautiful, the land of patriot’s dreams. Stripped from the 4thAmendment, humiliated by cavity searches, she is slipping into the grasp of full-blown fascism.
It hasn’t happened to you? Have we so soon forgotten the lesson of Germany? “First they came for the Communists – but I wasn’t a Communist.” The time for resistance is before it happens to you, and time is short.
In preparation for battle the first task is an estimate of the situation. We are in a war and no war is won simply by fighting battles. Understanding and defeating the enemy’s strategy win wars. That strategy has been to control and exploit the American people by creating a “middle class,” about a quarter of the population, through labor unions, minimum wages, Social Security and home ownership. The majority of the workers were excluded. The double exploitation of the African Americans, the increased exploitation of domestic, agricultural and non–union labor more than made up the cost of bribing this “middle class.”
Greek philosophers wrote, “Nothing is permanent except change.” The introduction of electronic production with little or no human labor changed everything. With robotics, wealth and poverty polarized. Globalization of production began the end of bribery of the “middle class.” No longer politically or economically necessary, this pillar of social control was discarded.
A new class of workers with decreasing reliance on or relations with capitalist society confronts the ruling class. Dropping the benign mask of “Serve and Protect,” the police stand exposed as the ”the watchdogs of private property.” Militarized, divorced from society, striving to become a law unto themselves, their every brutal, illegal act shapes and concretizes an American fascist police state.
Thousands of Americans are aware of this danger. Even the liberal writers of the capitalist press are raising the warnings. A thousand scattered voices, politically and ideologically separated, mean nothing. We must confront each and every attack on what liberty we have left.
Most of all, we must see that electronics has fundamentally changed the world. There is no going back. The sad alternative is to re-live the blood soaked horror of the past century. We must visualize the world of peace and freedom that electronics makes possible and fight for that future.
Confronting the American police state
By 
Latest
The People’s Tribune opens its pages to voices of the movement for change. Our articles are written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Articles entitled “From the Editors” reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement for change. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff. The People’s Tribune is a 501C4 organization.
1 COMMENT
Comments are closed.
More and more there are people fleeing thier contry of origin to find a better life.future Political candidates label anyone in the region that is the southwest as corrupt. That we are all conspiring to help undocummented workers. If you said that about Harrriet tubman, now you would be considered a hero. Dont you think that we need to sure who are enemy is? In 100 years will the actions be recognized as heroic fight of fascism. Or would history bury us under fasisms boot. We all benefit for undocumented workers. History repeats its self, first they cane after the undocummented immigrats i was not one so i said or did nothing… Who do you think is next?