Minneapolis, MN – Speaking to Fight Back! Jan. 2, Steff Yorek, the political secretary of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, condemned President Obama’s signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (the NDAA), which includes provisions that allow for indefinite military detention without trial.
Yorek also urged activists to join local protests against the NDAA signing.
“The U.S. government has adopted a host of repressive measures, including the Patriot Act, ‘material support for terrorism’ laws, and now the NDAA, all of which take way our rights and limit our freedom to organize and speak out. We need to do everything possible to push back against political repression.”
Yorek added, “The 1% who rule this country are facing a growing wave of resistance and rebellion at home and abroad. So they are responding by building a growing apparatus of repression that includes laws like the NDAA provisions for military detention.”
Yorek is one of the 24 anti-war and international solidarity organizers, including veteran Chicano activist Carlos Montes, who was hit by FBI and grand jury repression. Yorek’s home was among those raided by the FBI on Sept. 24, 2010.
Email this Article
Living in a Society of Fear
The NDAA only goes to further stifle our Constitutional Rights without the approval of the Americans, just as the Patriot Act was adopted WITHOUT public approval or vote just weeks after the events of 9/11. A mere 3 criminal charges of terrorism a year are attributed to this act, which is mainly used for no-knock raids leading to drug-related arrests without proper cause for search and seizure. The laws are simply a means to spy on our own citizens and to detain and torture dissidents without trial or a right to council. You can read much more about living in this Orwellian society of fear and see my visual response to these measures on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-society-of-fear-ten...
Add your comment