Change.org | FBI Raids Can’t Stop Antiwar Activists from Organizing
by Charles Davis · February 04, 2011
The right to free speech is recognized by the First Amendment and given lip service by most U.S. politicians – whenever they’re not trying to ban rap music or bar people from saying mean things about them.
In practice, though, the right to voice one’s opin
ions is more tenuous than it is on paper; just ask Eugene Debs, who was imprisoned by the “progressive” Woodrow Wilson for speaking out against the draft during World War I, the “war to end all wars.”
And so it is today with those who organize opposition to another self-styled progressive’s attempts to make the world safe for democracy by way of heavy munitions and military occupations. Since September, the Obama administration has raided the homes and offices of a half-dozen prominent anti-war activists, issuing 23 people subpoenas to testify before a grand jury, all ostensibly as part of an FBI investigation into whether a group of pacifists and peaceniks provided “material support” for terrorist organizations.