Comrades,
I believe the following comments should also be extended to revisionists and
opportunists without exception.
Published Jan 12, 2011 3:48 PM
Jan. 10 — Twenty people were shot, and six of them died, while attending a
political rally for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8. The
authorities are now saying they have evidence that the shootings were an
attempted assassination of the Democratic Congresswoman, who is in critical
condition.
The shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, was captured on the spot by people
attending the rally in a supermarket parking lot and turned over to police. He
is reported to be a psychiatrically disabled person with a recent history of
fascination with right-wing rhetoric.
At this point, no evidence has surfaced in the media or from the authorities
that Loughner had accomplices in the massacre of so many people. However,
evidence of a conspiracy may turn up later. Let’s not forget: All information
is in the hands of the FBI and the Arizona authorities — the capitalist state.
But whether Loughner acted alone or with accomplices, this was a political act.
It was not another Columbine. Its target was a politician who had already been
verbally attacked and threatened by the far right. It must be seen in the
context of the poisonous anti-worker, anti-immigrant, sexist, racist,
anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-Obama offensive of the Republican
right, working through the Tea Party, that has allowed a neo-fascist movement,
even further to the right, to ride on its coattails.
Arizona has been the epicenter of this movement. Even the sheriff of Pima
County, Clarence Dupnik, said that Arizona had become “the capital for
prejudice and bigotry.” John McCain, the Arizona senator who ran for president
in 2008 with Sarah Palin, is a war hawk for the Pentagon, which practically
owns the state. However, McCain isn’t right-wing enough for Palin, who on her
website during the 2010 elections showed a map with Representative Giffords’
district behind the crosshairs of a rifle accompanied by the words, “Don’t
retreat, RELOAD!”
But this appeal to violent reaction is not just an Arizona phenomenon. Dozens
of states are planning to model their immigration laws on Arizona’s infamous SB
1070, signifying that powerful forces in the ruling class are getting behind
this anti-immigrant racism.
The right and far-right — and often the “middle,” too — have been using the
capitalist economic crisis to scapegoat immigrants, Muslims, unions — anyone
but the super-rich who have milked not only workers’ wages and benefits but
government social funds to keep their profits coming in despite the crisis.
The ultimate responsibility for this bloody act lies with the millionaires and
billionaires who have heavily financed the right in the recent period. Through
right-wing former Texas Congressman Dick Armey and his well-financed
foundation, FreedomWorks, the ultra-right organized racist attacks on town hall
meetings during the debate over the weak health care bill. They financed the
phony “grass roots” rallies which became the basis of the Tea Party. And the
corporations poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the last election to
promote Tea Party candidates and the right wing in general.
At a time of economic crisis and mass unemployment that has lasted for more
than three years, this kind of divisive, scapegoating politics serves the
interests of the entire ruling class, all the way up to the summits of finance
capital.
The FBI has now taken over custody of Loughner and the case. This is the same
FBI that has been lawlessly raiding the anti-war movement and persecuting
solidarity activists.
The FBI stood passively by when armed vigilantes, calling themselves the
Minuteman Project, formed what amounted to a fascist militia along the
Arizona-Mexico border and openly hunted down undocumented workers. The
capitalist state was totally complicit in this crass violation of bourgeois
legality. The response of the Obama administration was to send more U.S. troops
to the border to do what the Minutemen were doing. And on Jan. 6 a member of
the Border Patrol fatally shot an unarmed Mexican youth, 17-year-old Ramsés
Barrón Torres.
The FBI, Homeland Security and other government agencies spy on and monitor
groups and individuals all over the U.S. Reportedly, the killer mentioned the
American Renaissance Party, a known fascist group, on his MySpace page. This
together with his behavior and other signs, such as recommending Hitler’s “Mein
Kampf,” would have made him a suspect to be watched — if that’s what the
capitalist state was looking for. But they close their eyes to the activities
of ultra-right and fascist groups.
In connection with Loughner’s praise of “Mein Kampf,” it is worth noting that
Giffords was the first Jewish woman congressional representative from Arizona
and openly identified as Jewish during the election campaign.
The Obama administration has responded weakly to this massacre, trying to
reduce it to a nonpolitical event — in the same way that Washington stood by
while the semi-fascist Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County was
creating a police state for undocumented workers. While this resurgence of
reaction is pushed mostly by Republicans, it also feeds on the weakness of the
Democratic leaders, who have compromised and retreated on every issue, from
health care to Social Security to workers’ rights.
This atrocious act is a wake-up call. The people cannot rely on the capitalist
government to protect them from the ultra-right and the fascists. Progressive
organizations, community groups, unions and all fair-minded people need to
unite in a massive response to the hate and prejudice spewed forth every day by
the political establishment and the media. They can be turned back. Now is the
time.
Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution
of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this
notice is preserved.
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