The right to peaceably assemble

[boddhisatva <kbevans@xxxxxxxxx>]

                        To whom...,




        Since Comrade Zeynep was gracious enough to join us in time to tell
us what was really behind the Turkish Mayday horror, I have been ruminating
on the right of assembly.


        This right is continually impinged on by capitalist states for
obvious reasons.  i wonder if our comrades from many nations, and the
historians and various experts among us might talk about how the right to
assembly is dealt with by the bourgeois state, sanitized, and then shut down
by increments.  Europeans seem to have a far greater freedom to assemble, but
their institutions seem to be able to cope with this fairly well.  Places
like Peru and Turkey often surprise me by both disallowing and allowing large
demonstrations.  Are they trying to create riots and crises?



        The U.S. took a very quiet, but odious turn when a federal court
ruled that an anti-abortion group (not people I support) was guilty of
racketeering by organizing protests aimed at shutting down women's health
clinics.  Under our racketeering laws ALL the assets of the group were
seized.  After my initial glee at seeing these fascistic snake-handlers dealt
a blow, i realized that the same laws could easily be applied to unions
(indeed they were created in response to Mafia practices, among them using
"union" protests as extortion and intimidation) and other proletarian groups.




        These laws are clearly poised to crush organized disobedience.  Do
other countries have such laws?







        peace




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