Repression of dissent in America

It’s terrible now; it’s about to get worse

Recent experiences have reminded us that the quadrennial theater performance we call elections is designed more to suck us into thinking we have power to make change than to actually respond to the popular will. The presence of billions of dollars wielded by American autocrats, unleashed by the court’s Citizens United decision, should disabuse us of any idea that there is even a semblance of democracy in our political culture. It is a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie — and working people, as well as international victims of US aggression, are left to flounder powerlessly at the bottom.

Besides the laughable voting game, however, it strikes me that we have not paid enough attention to other elements of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. And that is the suppression of speech. I know, this is a gripe you hear from the far right. They have ginned up the complaint that they are getting cancelled because people, generally people with no power, have said they don’t want Nazi’s speaking on campus or they have decided to boycott some fascist. That is not cancelling. That is just protest. Cancelling is universities firing faculty who take a stand against genocide in Gaza, it is libraries firing workers who insist on sharing books, it is police departments arresting doctors for providing health care to women.

No, the speech I’m talking about is not really about speech, it about criminalizing anyone who speaks out against the official state line. Am I talking about Vladimir Putin? Not in these instances. These are attacks inside the good old U.S. of A. Right now, as always, the US is involved in multiple wars outside the borders of the US. These are dream wars for the Pentagon and the weapons manufacturers, because the US is able to kill and bully others without a single American soldier being in harm’s way. The proxy war in Ukraine and the ethnic cleansing genocide in Gaza, as well as preparing for war with China, are bottom line issues for the government and any dissent will be met with repression.

Here are a few examples:

· Linda Sun, while serving in the New York state government, was charged with “actually working to further the interests of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).” Did Ms. Sun engage in espionage, stealing government secrets? No. However, through her connections with China she received money. This does not mean she was paid to do something she didn’t believe in. Her “crimes?” Apparently Sun engaged in numerous political activities that the US government felt were in the interests of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the CCP, such as blocking representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level New York State officers; changing high-level New York State officers’ messaging regarding issues of importance to the PRC and the CCP; obtaining official New York State proclamations for PRC government representatives without proper authorization; attempting to facilitate a trip to the PRC by a high-level New York State politician; and arranging meetings for visiting delegations from the PRC government with New York government officials. Really? Arranging meetings with Chinese delegations with New York state officials is a crime?

· The case of the Uhuru 4 in Tampa Florida. The US indicted the chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party and three activists in the movement for “sowing discord, spreading pro-Russia propaganda ,and interfering in elections within the United States.” A Russian guy did make contact with the APSP and made a donation. But, just to be clear, the APSP and the Uhuru Movement were not ordered around by this man. That would be laughable. They had certainly come to a position strongly critical of the US role in the Russia-Ukraine war on their own. Is criticism of the war “pro-Russia propaganda?” Oh, and interfering with elections? The APSP has often run their own candidates in local elections in Florida and other places in the U.S. Did the Russian guy order them to do it? Is it “interfering with elections” to run your own candidate? Apparently it is, according to the US justice department.

· Then there is the case of RT, which stands for Russia Today. It is a media organization that is funded by the Russian government. It used to be found on cable TV and social media. This one is, in fact, putting out Russian news. The US government pressured cable and media companies to block RT. Personally, I think we could take it. I’m glad to see what they have to say. I think I’m smart enough to read and watch Russian media and make my own decision. But the US government has decided that it would be terrible for me to see this media. Sounds quite a lot like Putin politics. Of course the US has Voice of America all over the world and finances opposition newspapers and television in places like Venezuela, but let’s not even go there. Let’s see what the recent indictment of RT employees involves. Apparently these guys paid a US company to produce videos that were favorable to the Russian position to be put on Tik Tok and YouTube. The justice department suggested that these videos contained “hidden Russian government messaging.” This messaging apparently would “exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda.” Wait! Let’s read that again. “. . .our country’s free exchange of ideas to covertly further its own propaganda.” We are supposed to have a free exchange of ideas? But these ideas cannot come to the table? The US government declares that there was a “hidden hand of adversaries pulling strings of influence from behind the curtain,” but the justice department bravely declares that it “will not tolerate foreign efforts to illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division.” Discord like opposing US military aid to Ukraine? Further, they charge that “the covert operations by RT employees exploited our free and open press and targeted millions of Americans as unwitting victims of Russia’s psychological warfare.” Brainwashed! We’re being brainwashed!

Note, that these are all actions taken under the Democratic Party dominated justice department. The attacks on Palestinian solidarity, on Jewish activists critical of the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza and now Lebanon, have also accelerated under the current power elite. Last year, universities unleashed violent assaults, by police and nazis, on student and community encampments across the country and this year they have implemented new policies to suppress anti-genocide demonstrations. Harvard has punished students and faculty for being in the library with pro-Palestine stickers showing on their computers; students at Indiana University were referred for discipline for attending a candlelight vigil; at Pomona College students were immediately suspended after a brief building takeover.

And this kind of repression is happening worldwide. In London, the UK counterterrorism police raided the home of Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada. They were responding to social media posts critical of Israeli bombings and killings in Gaza. His devices were seized because the government felt they contributed to the “encouragement of terrorism.” In Germany, exiled poet Ghayath Almadhoun had a reading canceled in November because he’s Palestinian. At least 200 more artists have been silenced over Palestine in Germany since then.

All of this repression by the U.S. and state governments stands in contrast to the response to “foreign influence” committed by those the US government approves. The Israel Institute Visiting Faculty Program and Helen Diller Institute both use Israeli resources to place Israeli faculty in US universities.

The attacks on pro-Palestine stances in the US go beyond the rules at universities. The government’s “Antiterror Financing Bill,” which was favored by the Democrats last spring, would remove non-profit status from groups critical of Israel. Recently these Democrats have become worried because the Trump administration might even use the law against them. The updated bills, H.R.5996, Stop Taxpayer Funding of Hamas Act and H.R.9495, Stop Terror-Financing Act, are following the blueprint of the Republican’s Project 2025.

The right-wing Heritage Foundation recently rolled out “Project Esther,” which casts pro-Palestinian activists in the U.S. as members of a global conspiracy aligned with designated terrorist organizations. They state that as part of a so-called “Hamas Support Network,” these protesters receive “indispensable support of a vast network of activists and funders with a much more ambitious, insidious goal — the destruction of capitalism and democracy.” Their goal is to outlaw such organizations as the Arab Resource Organizing Committee and Jewish Voice for Peace. Project Esther is framed around the goal of fighting antisemitism, even taking its name from a Persian queen reputed to have saved Jewish subjects in a story in the Hebrew Bible. Yet it makes no mention of right-wing antisemitism, which is often grounded on direct racial stereotypes and overt hostility to Jewish people, and appears concerned instead with combatting “internal political pressure to compel the United States government to change its long-standing policy of support for Israel,” a policy change that the report’s authors deem antisemitic.

This is all bad news — whether it is the fascism-lite of the Democrats or the fascism-heavy of the Republicans. We are in an era of counterrevolution, of massive repression. Still our movement can build. We’ve been in difficult places before. We can learn from previous battles over free speech and strategies of resistance. The clumsy flailing of the authorities only reveals their weakness, their growing unpopularity and their untenable position trying to stay on top of world power. We have the responsibility to confront power and turn the tide of history.