January 12, 2003
Local Governments Fight Back
Ashland, Oregon, has become one of the latest cities to fight back against the tyranny of a federal government under the control of corporate special interests. According to the Mail Tribune, a group calling itself the Ashland Patriots has drawn up a resolution that would limit how city employees can participate in the actions mandated by the Patriot Act.According to the Mail Tribune, the measure "would limit city employees’ activities in connection with surveillance, wiretapping, Internet snooping, unwarranted searches and detentions without due process."
This is a development to watch. Since the federal government has been hijacked and taken beyond the reach of the people, local governments are becoming the only hope for restoration of democracy in the US.
According to the article, "Twenty-three other communities nationwide have passed similar laws since Congress in 2001 approved the anti-terrorism Patriot Act."
In effect city governments are creating civil rights islands within a nation that has overturned the civil rights protections of its own constitution.
This could be how the alignments will fall into place during the struggles against the global tyranny of a corporate elite. Not only will we hear about insurgency in the third world, we will see the local communities in the US rise up against the corporate masters. In fact, as Chomsky pointed out long ago, the US is assuming the third world model at home as well as abroad. The whole world is becoming the third world, with a small rich sector who live in extreme opulence and a massive population that has to struggle for the basics of life.