Vindictive Laws To Prevent Protests.

 

        Once again the Land of The Free, the good ol' US of A, sets the standard in draconian authoritarian laws. The State of Arizona leads the charge in attempting to prevent any form of protest from taking place. This latest piece of legislation, if enacted, could see you take part in a peaceful protest, some individual throws a rock, you are all complicit, and could have all your assets seized. It doesn't matter who threw the rock, one angry individual, an agent-provocateur, or a drunk, you are all still liable. It makes for intimidation of those wishing to enact their legal right to peaceful protest. By protesting an injustice, you could run the risk of being made homeless and penniless, by the vindictive action of the state. So the illusion of democracy capitalist style, grows ever thinner, the truth is there for all to see.

This from Counter Current News:  

        Imagine having all your assets seized because you planned a peaceful protest that disturbed the peace? That could be a reality under SB1142, which just passed the Arizona state senate.
        Under SB1142, Arizona’s racketeering laws are expanding to include rioting. This gives the state government the right to criminally prosecute and seize the assets of everyone who planned a protest that turned violent and everyone who participated.
         The bill also redefines what constitutes a rioter as any person who “uses force or violence or threatens to use force or violence, if such threat is accompanied by immediate power of execution, which EITHER disturbs the public peace OR RESULTS IN DAMAGE TO THE PROPERTY OF ANOTHER PERSON.”
         Read the full text of the bill at http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/53leg/1R/bills/SB1142S.htm
         The vote was 17-13. One of the 17 that voted for this, Sen. John Kavanagh, gave the following justification for this absurd, unconstitutional new law: “You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder. A lot of them are ideologues, some of them are anarchists. But this stuff is all planned… I should certainly hope that our law enforcement people have some undercover people there. Wouldn’t you rather stop a riot before it starts?”
         Who defines what is considered a ‘violent’ protest?
        Who determines what ‘disturbs the public peace’? Does profanity, shouting, or loud music constitute disturbing the peace?
       The opponents of a protest could just hire agitators to make protests violent, then the authorities could use this as an excuse to seize the assets of all the protesters.
        You are peacefully protesting and some guy starts throwing rocks at windows. Not only are you arrested on racketeering charges, but then the cops come and seize your house, car, and belongings? Good luck affording a lawyer to defend you in court!
        If this succeeds and is signed into law by the Governor of Arizona, you can bet a similar nationwide law will be on its way not long after…

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers, Remember Your History,--Kurt Gustav Wilckens.

      An anniversary we should celebrate, November 3 1886, saw the birth of Kurt Gustav Wilckens, warrior of the working class who dedicated his life to the struggle for freedom and justice for all people. Our history is written in the blood of such people, ordinary people who become giants. Our's is not the history of kings and empires, of greed for power, but a struggle for justice for all.
This from FlagBlackened:

     KURT GUSTAV WILCKENS was born 3 November 1886 at Bad Bramstedt in Schleswig-Holstein, close to the Danish border in Germany, one of the five sons of August Wilckens and Johanna Harms. Of average height with red hair and light blue eyes, he loved nature and hated cities. Starting work as a miner in Silesia, he emigrated at the age of 24 to the United States where he got work in the Arizona mines.
     In Arizona he became involved in the agitation of the revolutionary workers’ organisation, the Industrial Workers of the World (popularly known as the Wobblies). Wilckens took part in strikes and became an orator in the miners’ mass meetings, The IWW organised successfully among Mexicans and South Europeans, the lowest paid of the miners. As a result of the growing might of the miners in the Bisbee area, the local businessmen and scab miners organised into Loyalty Leagues. Early on 12 July 1916, 2000 Loyalty Leaguers commenced a round-up of miners. One miner shot dead a Loyalty leaguer in self-defence and was gunned down. There were robberies, vandalism, and beatings and abuse of women carried out by the Leaguers during the round-up. 1,186 men, including 104 Wobblies, among them Wilckens, were herded into cattle trucks and dumped across the border in the New Mexico desert. Wilckens, by now an anarchist as well as an IWW member, was interned in a camp for German prisoners. He escaped from there, was recaptured and deported to Germany in 1920 from where he departed to Argentina, arriving there in late September.---

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk