2012 NDAA: Fascism Obama-style
Attention oppressed nation citizens and anti-imperialists: the first “Black” president of the United $nakes, Barack Obama, has signed into law one of the most fascistic pieces of legislation ever in the history of this country: the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The NDAA has many statutes within it, but here’s the gist of the act: It allows the Pentagon/military of the U.$. to determine who is or could be a “terrorist” or an “enemy combatant.” It allows those so deemed to be detained in prison indefinitely without a trial and to be kept under its complete jurisdiction. It makes no difference whether the said persyn/group(s) are U.$. citizens or “firing” enemies, and the entire U.$. is now considered a field of combat.
With the enactment of the NDAA, military law and courts supersede the civilian judicial system over those persyns being held for violations under NDAA. So by defining the entire country as a field of combat, all the Pentagon has to do to exercise its organized force is to get the standing President to give his okay.
The reality is that the so-called “Supreme Law” of the land, the U.$. constitution, is null and void in these cases and all of its so-called “protections,” i.e. to no cruel and unusual punishment (torture, etc), due process, and so on, are denied. The implications of the NDAA are far-reaching for anti-imperialists involved in struggles for national liberation and independence of oppressed nations inside of U.$. borders and beyond.
There are a few key facts revolutionary nationalists and communists must keep in mind: 1) a united front against imperialism, led by the international proletariat, will be necessary to defeat the imperialists; 2) bourgeois electoral politics are a political sham; 3) there is no such thing in Amerika as “freedom of speech,” so watch what you say; 4) independent institutions of the oppressed are a must if we are to meet our needs; and 5) nothing short of a socialist revolution will solve the problems facing poor and oppressed nations.
Reminder: there are no rights, only power struggles!
MIM(Prisons) adds: There is a reason why we don’t call the U.$. a fascist country, even though fascism is enforced by U.$. imperialism in parts of the Third World and even against some sectors of the internal semi-colonies where the NDAA is nothing new or surprising. A key fact we might add to the list above of things to keep in mind is that the majority of Amerikans support the system that has awarded them so much privilege compared to most people in the world. This popular support and stability at home is why fascism has not yet been instituted inside U.$. borders. What laws like the NDAA indicate is that the imperialists are prepared to lead the way in a fascist direction.
Many throw the word “fascist” around thanks to Amerikan ahistorical thinking that uses “fascist” as an insult for anything it disagrees with. We uphold Dimitrov’s line that fascism is “the open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” It is not simply brutal repression, which is carried out by political powers of many sorts. For more on the scientific definition of fascism get MIM(Prisons)’s Fascism Study Pack available for $2.
