The
president helped end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that locked
LGBT military service members in the closet. During his 2012 campaign,
he reduced deportations of undocumented youth who came to the U.S. as
children. But, with few other exceptions, his actions have served the
wealthy elite and expanded the attacks on working people pushed by G. W.
Bush.
Immigration: the Iron Curtain Border
Obama
has deported more immigrants than predecessor Bush. “We put more boots
on the ground on the southern border than at any time in our history,”
boasts his official website.
His “reform” proposal includes more
border militarization — to be implemented before a supposed path to
citizenship opens up for undocumented immigrants. That path is
barricaded with high fines and fees, and years of waiting, with social
services denied in the meantime.
His mandatory electronic
employment verification system, E-Verify, would require all U.S. workers
to prove authorization to work. In other words, it is a national ID
system.
Low-income “guest
workers,” would be deported after 60 days of unemployment, virtually
guaranteeing most would be too fearful and desperate to risk their jobs
by speaking up for their rights or engaging in union organizing.
Persecuting whistleblowers and activists
Obama
has prosecuted more government whistleblowers than any other president —
and the list is growing as he ramps up his war on dissent. His
take-no-prisoners stance has fallen on Jeremy Hammond, facing up to 10
years for hacking into the website of security contractor Stratfor and
giving the lowdown to the WikiLeaks website. Journalist Barrett Brown
faces up to 105 years for reporting on exposures on private intelligence
firms by the hacker group Anonymous. Environmental activist Tim
DeCristopher served 21 months for civil disobedience that saved 22,000
acres of wilderness from illegal sale. See this issue’s article on
Pfc. Manning and Edward Snowden for details.
Pre-emptive
strikes against “troublemakers” are common. In May 2012, nine arrests
were made of activists preparing for anti-NATO demonstrations in
Chicago. Most were baseless, while four involved cases of entrapment by
undercover cops who urged the use of incendiary devices.
Civil
rights and people’s attorney Lynne Stewart was convicted of “material
support to terrorism” for the high crime of passing a press release to
the media for a client. Her original sentence of 28 months was extended
to 10 years — at age 72 — at the urging of administration officials. Now
the Federal Bureau of Prisons has denied her petition for compassionate
release for treatment of an advancing cancer. For a link to her
petition see
www.lynnestewart.org, and see the FS article
Release Lynne Stewart for words from her.
Two
Somali women who sent aid back home were similarly accused of giving
“material support to terrorism,” and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
The group they worked with was designated a terrorist organization by
Obama’s regime after the fact.
Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Black radical
journalist falsely convicted of murder after a racist trial in 1982, has
consistently been denied justice in state and federal courts. Obama’s
Attorney General, Eric Holder, has upheld this legalized lynching by
refusing to intervene or urge the release of Mumia for his long unjust
imprisonment, much of it in solitary confinement.
Sign the petition here.
Read More Here
About
100 prison workers at South Dakota’s federal prison camp in Yankton are
still showing up to work during the government shutdown, even though
their pay is being denied. But in a "Say, what?!" outrage, the inmates they are supervising are still being compensated for the jobs they do onsite.
