June 13, 2003
Pride Day Greetings from the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women
Act Up for Civil Liberties!
Resist Macho Militarism at Home and Abroad
Just weeks ago, George W. Bush, sporting a snappy paratrooper jumpsuit ensemble, strutted his stuff down the runway of an aircraft carrier. Camera bulbs flashed as he announced "victory" over Iraq.
It is now clear, however, that the war is far from over — and that Bush's war on terror has unleashed an assault on the right to privacy and freedom of association here at home.
Just as the public increasingly endorses gay and lesbian equality, Bush and Congress are turning up the volume on "you're-with-us-or-against-us" jingoism and using it to dismantle cherished civil liberties and rights.
Thirty-four years after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, McCarthyism and spying on one's neighbors are making a comeback. The rights of political and sexual minorities, immigrants, women and youth are under attack. It's time to fight back before we lose everything we've won.
Rightwing fanaticism in the Capital
As queers we've faced off against scary people in Washington D.C. before. What's different today is how openly and brazenly the government promotes religious fundamentalism, monopoly capitalism and macho militarism.
Attorney General John Ashcroft sermonizes against abortion rights and affirmative action, leads daily Bible classes on the job, and tried to ban Justice Department employees from holding their annual Gay Pride event. He also permits pension-stealing crooks from Enron to go free while overseeing drug raids on folks dispensing state-sanctioned medical marijuana. While governor of Pennsylvania, Homeland Security czar Tom Ridge signed a bill banning same-sex marriages and was praised by the conservative Commonwealth Foundation as "the most pro-business reformer in state history."
And now, President Bush is poised to sign a bill criminalizing safe abortion procedures and shredding Roe v. Wade.
Funding imperialism with stolen tax dollars
The money to pay for the rightwing's colonial wars and corporate bailouts has to come from "somewhere" — and that somewhere is social services. In 2003 alone, the Department of Defense will gobble up $396 billion tax dollars. The price of just one Stealth bomber — $2.1 billion — would cover the annual cost of all essential domestic HIV prevention activities. Gay seniors face the erosion of social security and sky-high prescription drug costs. Massive blows to education, homeless services, and environmental protections are jeopardizing the futures of queer youth. Welfare policies now promote "abstinence until marriage" programs that discriminate against non-traditional families.
For those who think electing a Democrat next year will stop these atrocities, don't forget it was Bill Clinton who first gave us Don't Ask, Don't Tell, welfare "reform," and sent bombers over Belgrade and Baghdad.
Cultural straightjacket
In promoting their boot camp ethic, Bush and Co. have launched a culture war in which lesbians, gays, bis and transgendered folk are easy and frequent targets. Artists and entertainers who dare to dissent, even the mainstream Dixie Chicks, are subjected to witchhunts orchestrated by CD-smashing hatemongers from Fox News and Clear Channel. Congress recently passed the controversial "Rave Act," targeting youth and circuit parties. And the glorification of warrior violence emboldens bashers like those who murdered transgender Latina teenager Gwen Araujo in Newark, Calif.
Criminalizing dissent
The fight to keep the government out of our bedrooms, bars and meeting halls goes hand in hand with stopping the phony war on terror.
First, they came for Arab and Muslim immigrants. Next came the Patriot Act, and its proposed evil twin, the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 which authorizes G-men to search without warrants, snoop through e-mails and tap phones.
Now, our own city streets are beginning to look like Baghdad. Officers decked out in military garb and weapons greet every demonstration. In Oakland on April 7, cops used rubber bullets and concussion grenades on unionists and antiwar activists, including many queers, who were protesting military shipments to Iraq. The scenario was repeated June 2 at Seattle's "No Big Brother" rally, called to expose a national meeting of the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit, a private association of spies and police chiefs who engage in domestic surveillance. At this rate next year's Pride paraders will be met with tanks!
Civil rights — use 'em or lose 'em
The good news is that grassroots groups around the country are organizing against militarization at home and abroad. From Out Against the War in San Francisco, to the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network, to Operation Homeland Resistance in New York, lavender hellraisers are fighting back. Momentum is also building to defend conscientious objector Stephen Funk, a young, gay Filipino American Marine reservist who is being charged with de-sertion for his refusal to join the carnage in Iraq.
And we are not alone. Along with Black and Latino victims of racial profiling, feminists, unionists facing harassment on the picketline, and antiwar and globalization protesters — we are the majority! Together we can organize to establish elected Civilian Review Boards to control cops, and demand that local governments refuse to implement the police state tactics of the Patriot Act.
Ultimately, it is within our power to replace this profit-driven, warrior culture with a socialist society based on sharing wealth so that everyone has access to medical care, housing, education, employment and pensions. Such a society is not a dream but a necessity. And since U.S. capitalism has failed miserably to meet these basic needs, it is our constitutional right and moral obligation to advocate a revolutionary change in the system — regardless of what the fanatics in Washington, D.C. say. A new world is possible if we fight for it!