the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 7, 2011
When faced with losing their ability to collectively bargain for Wisconsin public workers, union officials called a protest three weeks ago.
The protest still continues!
Workers and students occupied the Capitol rotunda for days and nights on end, refusing to leave even when ordered to by security. Workers from all over the state flocked to the capital for massive protests, especially on the weekends–60,000 one Saturday and 100,000 the next, in a city of only 50,000 residents!
Governor Walker and others try to characterize these as protests carried out by “outside agitators.” But overwhelmingly, these protestors ARE workers, especially public workers, including police and firefighters, teachers, students and their parents. Overwhelmingly, they come from Wisconsin–all over the state of Wisconsin. And if they are not, they tend to be other public workers from other states, offering their support–because they see the same attacks being prepared in their own states.
In the midst of this massive fight, who can the workers trust to support them?
The Democrats? No way. The Wisconsin legislators may have disappeared from the state–for a time–in order to halt a vote on the anti-union legislation; but in other states, like Ohio, Democratic Party legislators made sure to stick around, letting an anti-worker vote be taken–and passed.
The Democrats are using these issues as propaganda for their next election campaign, while doing nothing, really, to stop the attacks.
In states like California, Illinois and Maryland, with Democratic governors, it’s even more obvious–the Democrats themselves are the ones carrying out the attacks. Big city Democratic mayors do the same thing. Chicago’s new mayor, Obama’s former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, has already announced his list of attacks on city workers.
And in Wisconsin, the Democrats have emphasized that they already agree with the cuts Walker is demanding. They’ve been working behind the scenes to craft that kind of “compromise” with the Republicans. The only part they refuse to pass is the attack on collective bargaining and dues check-offs.
Of course Democrats want union leaders to hold on to collective bargaining, especially dues check off. Union members make up the ground troops in many Democratic election campaigns, and union dues help pay for those campaigns. Democrats are not going to shoot their election chances in the foot by allowing their supporters to disappear. But that’s very different from truly supporting workers under attack, which none of these Democrats has been willing to do.
What about the union officials? Wisconsin union officials have already said they will agree on cuts to workers’ wages and benefits; what they don’t want to lose is their ability to bargain for all the workers, that is to collect dues from them–directly from the workers’ paychecks. What is this but an admission that it’s all about their positions and their money?
Yes, workers should defend their unions when they are under attack. To lose the unions they have built would mean a step backward. But it can’t be the only thing to defend in this fight. The whole purpose of a union is to give workers the organized strength to defend themselves against attacks from their employers. What good is a union if it doesn’t do that?
No one knows today how this fight will turn out, or when it may end, whether next week, next month, or later. But the workers have already taken a first important step forward. They have seen that an injury to one is an injury to all. They’ve seen what forces they truly have, and what the possibilities are. And, if they can reflect on this fight and who they can–and can’t–trust and depend on as their allies, they’ll be that much more prepared for the next fight when it comes.
Mar 7, 2011
The federal government pays insurance companies like Blue Cross for Medicare in advance. The companies, in turn, invest the money in financial markets and make extra profits. Big profits–a total of 376 million dollars in 2007, the last year for which figures are available.
It even has a name–they call it “playing the Medicare float.”
Those millions come from taxpayers, that is, from us.
Mar 7, 2011
The oil companies are blaming turmoil in the Middle East for gas prices shooting up to close to $4 per gallon.
In fact, there is no shortage of crude oil, as increases in oil production in other countries make up for whatever oil production has been lost.
Instead, the oil companies are quietly creating gasoline shortages by slashing production at their oil refineries here in the U.S. A recent report by CNBC entitled, “Are U.S. Gasoline Refiners Holding Back as Gas Prices Rise?” uses statistics from the U.S. Energy Department to show that U.S. refiners are running at “extraordinarily low levels of operation.... The industry seems to be holding back on productive capacity....”
CNBC naively concludes, “It is hard to understand why more capacity is not being utilized to get more product to market.”
It’s not hard to understand at all: the oil companies reduce supply and demand higher prices.
Companies in other industries also use the excuse of higher fuel costs to raise their prices, as well. The airlines, for example, have all added huge fuel surcharges to ticket prices. On overseas flights, these surcharges amount to $400 on a ticket.
That doesn’t mean the airlines are actually paying higher fuel prices. The airlines often brag to their stockholders about how they insulate themselves from big fuel price increases by using hedges, that is, by signing contracts to buy fuel years in advance at a much lower fixed price.
So, higher fuel prices spell higher profits and wealth not just of the oil companies, but big stockholders in other companies, also.
Mar 7, 2011
During the early morning rush hour on Friday, March 4, freezing rain coated metro Detroit roads and freeways. Accidents closed parts of four of the five major freeways. And on I-75 entering downtown, a crash killed a 38-year-old man.
The streets were not salted until later.
This was not a case of surprise bad weather. This was a case of road departments calculating how much money they could save in their budgets–budgets severely cut back. Public services in States, counties, and cities have not been bailed out like the “too big to fail” banks and corporations were.
And yet the money needed to maintain the roads and other public services exists. Corporations are sitting on two trillion dollars, stored, untapped, unused–accumulations of taxpayer bailouts and endless tax breaks.
Meanwhile, the rest of society is starved for money to meet basic needs.
The man who died in the crash on an ice-covered, unmaintained Detroit road represents all those who will lose their lives because of underfunded basic services–murdered by those who enforce austerity on the population.
Mar 7, 2011
Rahm Emanuel was elected Chicago’s new mayor. He hadn’t even been installed when he announced that he would cut the pensions of existing city workers.
Emanuel also announced that he would cut 60 million dollars from garbage collection, removing a worker from the trucks and maybe privatizing collections.
Emanuel also aimed a number of attacks on Chicago’s teachers, including so-called merit pay for teachers, which lowers wages across the board, while principals reward their favorites. And he also came out for a severe attack on teachers’ right to strike. In other words, this prominent Democrat is carrying out the same type of attack as the Republican governors of Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana so much in the news.
Mar 7, 2011
The Los Angeles school board voted to end the contract of a charter school company, whose administrators were caught cheating on state tests.
Last year, the founder and then-director of Crescendo charter schools, John Allen, told the principals of the company’s six schools to let students use actual test questions to study for the tests. The principals followed the order, but some teachers informed the school board about the cheating. The state cancelled the schools’ 2010 test results.
But still, district officials recommended Crescendo’s contract for renewal, justifying it with Crescendo’s high scores on tests–including those scores that had been cancelled because of the cheating!
The school board ended up voting against renewing the contract–but only after the Los Angeles Times published an article about the cheating the day before the vote.
Overall, charter schools have done no better–or worse–on standardized tests than public schools; and every year there are endless stories about corruption at charter schools. But the L.A. school board continues to turn over more and more schools to charter companies.
The L.A. school board has an obvious agenda: to hand public education money over to private interests–that is, to businessmen parading as “educators.”
It’s nothing but an attack on our children.
Mar 7, 2011
The news media made a huge announcement about a big jump in jobs in February signaling an economic recovery. They played up the 192,000 new jobs created and the drop in the “official” unemployment rate to 8.9%.
It’s nonsense. Even at February’s rate of job growth, it would take until 2019 for the unemployment rate to fall to its level before the recession. And this hides the bitter reality of this “Great Recession”: the average unemployed worker has been out of work for 37 weeks.
Unemployment has been so bad for so long, the proportion of the population that is working has dropped like a rock, and is at its lowest level in 25 years. Millions of unemployed have become so discouraged about not finding a job, they have stopped looking for work. Millions of young people can’t find their first job.
Government officials don’t count these millions of people. The Wall Street Journal (March 5-6) estimates that if the government did count them, the jobless rate would have been 11.5% in February. That’s a big difference from the “official” unemployment rate of 8.9%.
The politicians may tell us everything is getting rosy, but anyone who lives in the real world knows better.
Mar 7, 2011
After Tunisia and Egypt, the protests against dictatorial regimes are spreading. In Libya, after more than two weeks of fighting and ferocious repression, Gaddafi’s power seems limited to a certain region. In a little more than two months, the revolt has affected almost all the countries of the Arab world, sparing for the moment–perhaps–Syria, Saudi Arabia and some emirates, but for how long? Even in Iraq, devastated by war and imperialist occupation, similar demonstrations to those in North Africa and Egypt have taken place.
From Morocco to Jordan, from Yemen to the sultanate of Oman, the populations fight autocratic powers, anachronistic monarchies, and corrupt dictators who accumulate wealth at the expense of the poor, whether native born or immigrant.
The revolts are spreading thanks to the similarity of the social and political situation, the crying inequalities, the stifling of freedom and the denial of democratic rights.
Behind the dictators are the imperialist powers who dominate the world economy, the big corporations who pillage their wealth and starve their populations. The economic crisis that they caused weighs particularly heavily on the poor of these countries. In all these countries, there are impossible increases in the price of bread, sugar and oil. The youth, increasingly skilled and educated, are unemployed. The poor peasants are deprived of land and turned into paupers. The local and international companies continue their exploitation of textile workers and miners. Imperialist “order” resting on local dictators can only sow ferment and popular revolts.
In the past, the Arab world has known revolts and deep upheavals. In the two decades following World War II, direct colonial domination was rejected and the regimes established by the European powers were brought down in several countries. These upheavals, in which the popular masses often participated, benefitted only a small layer of the national bourgeoisie, which sometimes merged with the state apparatus. Today, these layers are opposed to the working classes in revolt. Colonial domination no longer masks the national class antagonisms.
But there are many obstacles for those who aspire to more than surface change. The aspirations of the exploited for more liberty and more rights, even when confused, are different from the changes the bourgeoisie and the notables want. Getting jobs and eating enough requires upheavals that the privileged layers don’t want. But the more the movement hardens, the more conflicts are expressed, the more the working classes can learn. So long as there is a movement, there’s hope for a “springtime of the Arab people.” The exploited who hope for change must not be deceived by those who present themselves as alternatives to these hated regimes.
If, in the course of the movement, consciousness ripens so that the poorer classes find their common interests; if the working class of the Arab countries again finds the road of struggle; if some of the rebellious youth seek the causes of poverty and social inequality and thus discover the ideas of revolutionary communism, then all hopes are permitted.
Mar 7, 2011
Since February 14th, the population’s anger has burst out against al-Khalifa, the dictator of Bahrain. The monarchy of this little island in the Persian Gulf owed its prosperity to oil discovered in 1932. But after the Lebanese civil war of 1976, Bahrain became more of a financial and real estate center on the model of Dubai.
The U.S. Navy bases its Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. The Fifth Fleet patrols the waters around 20 countries of this explosive and vital region and keeps about 6,100 U.S. military personnel, Defense Department civilians, contractors and their families in Bahrain.
On February 20th, a denunciation of police torture against oppositionists appeared. Last summer, the government imprisoned 450 oppositionists, including human rights and religious activists who protested against torture. Twenty-five were given sentences, and some were even accused of trying to overthrow the government.
The fall of the dictators of Tunisia and Egypt obviously encouraged the population of Bahrain to try to get rid of this hated regime. The choice of the date February 14th wasn’t accidental. Nine years ago, following a referendum, the king established a constitutional monarchy. But it didn’t change much. The real power remained with the king despite putting in place a prime minister. An upper chamber whose members are appointed by the king can veto any law passed by the lower chamber.
The February 14th demonstration was repressed, with one demonstrator shot dead. The next day, the police killed a person attending the funeral of the demonstrator. The king hypocritically expressed his regrets on television, promising a commission of inquiry and giving each family $2,650. Thousands of people assembly on Pearl Square, in the center of the capital Manama. At 3 a.m. the police attacked the sleeping demonstrators, killing four more and wounding a hundred.
On February 18th, the army again attacked the population marching to Pearl Square after another funeral. But the crowd wasn’t impressed by the army tanks and vehicles. Up to now those in power have been forced to tolerate the occupation of Pearl Square. Demonstrators continue to demand the resignation of al-Khalifa, who has been in power since 1971, as well as the freeing of all political prisoners, the end of torture, the revision of laws on citizenship, freedom of the press and religion, access to jobs and non-discriminatory housing. Out of some 1.2 million Bahrainis, 70% are Shiite Muslims. The al-Khalifa dynasty, which has ruled for two centuries, is Sunni. The regime constantly discriminates against Shiites.
The dictatorship and its repression has led to the demonstrators questioning the right of this regime to exist. And this has U.S. officials very nervous. “As a longtime ally and home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Bahrain is an important partner and the department is closely watching developments there,” said a spokesperson for the U.S. military.
We bet!
Mar 7, 2011
In Tunisia, repeated demonstrations in the capital as well as in other cities and villages demanded and gained the resignation of Prime Minister Ghannouchi and other members of the administration put in place after the overthrow of the dictator Ben Ali. But all of them had been in power with Ben Ali, and obviously represented the hated old regime in the eyes of the Tunisian demonstrators and for a large part of the poor population.
The new interim president chose as the new Prime Minister el Sebsi. El Sebsi is not likely to lead a policy in the interests of the poor. He is a former minister who, from 1965 to 1969 under former President Bourguiba, was in charge of repression. In 1990 -1991 he presided over the Tunisian National Assembly under Ben Ali. When such men come to power, it’s proof why the mobilization must continue.
The demonstrations which led to the resignations of these officials came after the most important rally since the fall of Ben Ali. For three days, the demonstrators occupied the center of Tunis, although police repression left several dead and dozens wounded. Yet hundreds of thousands of demonstrators remained mobilized because, despite the fall of the dictator, the demands of the population are in no way satisfied.
There is no chance that the “commission for reforms” established by the interim president will find solutions to problems like those of the youth, the workers, and the unemployed of the mining basin of Gafsa, who for two years denounced the corruption of the authorities and their repression. Unemployment, the lack of job security and the high cost of living continue to weigh on millions of poor people. Blue-collar workers, poorly paid white-collar workers and educated youth without a job surely won’t be satisfied, and rightly so, by the promise of elections next July.
The bosses as well as many notables, those considered the Tunisian elite, are content with the fact that Ben Ali and some members of his clique no longer exercise power. They aspire to what they call a “smooth” transition under the leadership of professional politicians, whether or not these men collaborated with the old regime. But that isn’t going to satisfy the popular masses, who since December mobilized to get rid of the dictator. The people are demanding that their interests be taken into account and satisfied.
Mar 7, 2011
Gaddafi, the megalomaniac Libyan dictator, holds on to power. For how long, at what price in terms of human lives? No one can say. This obstinacy embarrasses the imperialist powers who are in the situation of the sorcerer’s apprentice, who called up a spirit he couldn’t control. Certainly, unlike other dictators Gaddafi wasn’t put into power by imperialism. But it has strongly supported him, politically and militarily.
We’re told today the U.S. government is asking what it can do to stop the Libyan population from being bombed or machine gunned by the dictator’s planes. But we mustn’t forget that these planes, bombs and bullets were furnished by the same big powers. France, for example, sold him Mirage jets made by Dassault. And the U.S. corporation Raytheon sold him major military supplies.
They tell us that the U.S. and the European Union are discussing the opportunity of a direct military intervention to speed up Gaddafi’s fall.
But–so they say–the situation is delicate. From Tunisia to Egypt and on through other Arab countries of the Middle East, the populations have risen up to get rid of dictators they suffered under for decades. Imperialism can no longer prevent the spark from setting the forest on fire, but is now trying to control it. Hence their current equivocations.
The deployment of foreign forces–for the moment only those of the U.S.–near the Libyan coast, is designed to “put pressure on Gaddafi,” rather than aid his overthrow by a direct intervention, according to Obama and his advisers.
Not so long ago the U.S. involvement escalated in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. is in a spiral it hasn’t managed to get out of. Will it enter into another spiral? It’s not what the big powers want to see. The economic interests of the corporations of the imperialist countries in Libya are not threatened at this time. The oil pumped there amounts to 2% of world production, so it’s marginal.
Beyond the immediate problems that the Libyan uprising raises for the big powers, the limited deployment for the moment of the U.S. naval fleet aims at another object. It’s a question of sending a signal to the politicians, but above all to deliver a warning to the population of these countries, to tell them that imperialism is there watching, keeping an eye on the transitions taking place in these regimes.
Mar 7, 2011
The California Democrats and Republicans are at it again. Governor Brown wants a vote in June to extend increased sales, vehicle and income taxes that hit working people and the poor the hardest. Republicans oppose the tax increases and just want more budget cuts that hit working people and the poor the hardest.
Behind all the fighting, both Republicans and Democrats agree. They both want us to pay for the crisis that was created by the banks and big business.
That’s bull.
Mar 7, 2011
The wages and standard of living we used to have were because workers of the 1930s and 1940s fought as a class. Millions of workers would strike in the same year for the same things. The power of millions raised us up. It lasted for years. But now it has been too many years since we fought by our millions. And so our enemies have advanced and taken our money for themselves.
But we are still millions. In our millions we produce the goods. In our millions we provide the services. In our millions we do the useful work of society. We the working class still have the power to raise ourselves back up. We only need to use it.
Mar 7, 2011
Rick Snyder, Michigan’s new Republican governor, wants to increase taxes on working people.
Retirees would pay income tax on their pensions–$900 a year more on a $20,000 pension. Low and medium-income homeowners would lose their Homestead Property Tax Credit, with seniors losing the biggest amount. Minimum wage workers would lose their Earned Income Tax Credit.
Altogether, Snyder’s plan would steal 1.86 billion dollars from working people through these increased taxes.
And what does Snyder want to use it for? What else? To give a 1.42-billion-dollar tax cut to business.
Snyder says it’s only fair!
It’s not fair at all–it’s the usual politicians’ trick of robbing working people and the poor to give to the wealthy!
And the robbery doesn’t stop there. Snyder would cut 1.2 billion dollars scheduled to go to public schools, cities and counties. In other words, there will be big cuts in the services they provide: road and bridge repairs; snow removal on roads and state routes; water and sewer maintenance; garbage removal; parks; public transport ... and on and on.
Public schools would lose $470 per pupil per year. Snyder’s own education commissioner is trying to force Detroit to close half its schools and to cram students into the remaining schools–with 60 students in every high school class. He says Detroit schools have a budget deficit. Yes, they do–one created by cuts year after year in the money the state owes to the schools, and added to by all the very profitable contracts that the state’s “emergency financial czar,” Robert Bobb, signed with businesses everywhere in the country–plus all the boomerang loans he made with some of the same banks that caused the mortgage crisis.
The state itself will cut back people working in its departments, meaning longer lines for us.
Finally, Snyder is demanding wage and benefit concessions from state workers and teachers, amounting to about $6,600 per employee. He is pushing the idea they are overpaid.
No, they aren’t! They are overworked and underpaid.
All this talk about “privileged” state workers is nothing but a pretext to steal services from every one of us, so the state can give more money to the corporations.
It’s the same game auto companies played four years ago–talking about “privileged” auto workers. Remember how they used that not only to attack auto workers, but, after them, everyone else!
Well this stupid blame game stops here! The only privileged people are the super-wealthy who own the corporations–and the millionaire politicians like Snyder who serve them.
State, city and county workers and teachers, joined by parents and students, have been demonstrating in Lansing. That’s a start. Every other worker in this state needs to support them and join them. We are all under attack. The massive demonstrations in Wisconsin show what strength we can have when we stand together.
Mar 7, 2011
Caterpillar just reported to the Securities & Exchange Commission that it paid 890 million dollars for Electro Motive Diesel (EMD) out of the ready cash it happened to have on hand. It said 286 million dollars or one third of that price was “goodwill” or the amount they paid over the fair value of the assets. It attributed a big part of that “goodwill” to the “acquired assembled workforce.” They talk of the workers as if they were buying slaves. Since they paid an extra 286 million to get access to EMD workers, they can afford to pay up in the coming contract!
Mar 7, 2011
Sometimes in our families we hear relatives say they are getting by on $10 an hour and they don’t see why other workers deserve more. Such is the power of the anti-union message in today’s media.
The point is that ALL workers deserve good pay and benefits! Of course we have to join together and become a big force to win it. But the more that one group is brought down–the harder it is for everyone to go up.
Mar 7, 2011
Illinois’ governor, Democrat Pat Quinn unveiled his budget for this year. It’s chock full of cuts that will impact poor and working people in Illinois.
Quinn’s budget calls for state workers to take 24 unpaid furlough days, a 9% pay cut, and to increase the amount they pay for healthcare. And state worker retirees will also see cuts in healthcare and prescription coverage.
The budget has massive attacks on social services. As Don Moss of the Illinois Human Services Coalition said, “There is no segment of human service needs that is left unscathed by the draconian cuts put forth by the governor.”
The budget includes a cut of 95 million dollars in support for school buses, hitting smaller towns throughout the state.
Quinn pretends it’s necessary to deal with the budget deficit. But there would be no deficit if Quinn weren’t giving gifts to the corporations–like the tax cut he gave last year to Ford for its Torrence Avenue plant.
Mar 7, 2011
In 1910, militants belonging to the Second International took up the proposition of the German Socialist leader, Clara Zetkin, in which one day in March is set aside to commemorate the international struggle of women to defend their rights and demands. This meant first of all to organize the fight of women for equality and the right to vote.
In 1920, the Communist International set March 8 as the date for this international day of struggle. On March 8, 1917, the workers of Petrograd had organized a demonstration demanding peace, bread and to bring the soldiers home. This demonstration actually began the Russian Revolution.
Since then, in the richest countries, women have conquered the same legal rights as men, but often, these rights are only on paper. Women with similar qualifications continue to be paid less than men. Women are hit harder by unemployment and underemployment. And women often do not have the right to get time off with pay when they have a child. So, the women’s struggle has continued.
In other parts of the world, women are forced to exhibit their oppression by covering themselves from head to toe. Other women are stoned to death or murdered, when they are accused of adultery. And young girls continue to be circumcised.
Everywhere, women are the victims of violence by men, starting with men from their own family. In the United States in 2005, 1,181 women were murdered by an intimate partner. That’s an average of three every single day.
So, the struggle to gain and respect the rights of all women continues, and March 8 remains the international day to mark that struggle, which goes on every single day.
Mar 7, 2011
The U.S. is “very open to a continuing presence (in Iraq) ...,” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stated at a recent congressional hearing. And about the same time, Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, the second highest U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters on a tour there, “We’re never going to get rid of the insurgency (in Afghanistan) in the next three years. We’re never going to finish off the criminal patronage networks.... But we can decrease them all. And we can control them.”
In other words, they intend to be in Afghanistan for three more years! And then, how many more years of war did he think it would take after that? He didn’t say.
In other words, top military men and political leaders are admitting that these wars are not going to be over quickly, as Obama hinted earlier. The bloody slaughter of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children will continue. The horrifying destruction of their homes, fields, roads, bridges and other infrastructure will continue–with no end in sight.
And there is a terrible, if less devastating cost of these wars here in the U.S. Thousands of young working class sons and daughters–and not-so-young mothers and fathers have already been killed. Tens of thousands of others have returned from these wars permanently disabled, physically and mentally. Trillions of dollars are being spent to finance these wars–lately about 700 million dollars a day! This money is being drained from social services and programs that are more badly needed now than ever before.
These wars are clearly against the interests of ordinary people in Iraq and Afghanistan and against the interests of ordinary people here, too. That’s why people over there keep on fighting and demanding the withdrawal of all foreign troops from their countries. That’s why working people here should demand an immediate end to these wars, too. We must make it clear to everyone that we stand with the people of these countries against this madness. We must demonstrate that we do not wish to be implicated in the bloody efforts of U.S. imperialism to continue its stranglehold over the peoples and resources of the entire world.
On Saturday, March 19, anti-war demonstrations are scheduled in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and many other cities. Working people should attend and make our voices heard.
Mar 7, 2011
On Friday, January 28, 2011, California Governor Jerry Brown officially proclaimed Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution–as if the constitution protects civil liberties. In fact, the story of Fred Korematsu shows the exact opposite.
Right after the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, the government carried out a witch hunt against people of Japanese descent, sending 120,000 people to internment camps. But Korematsu, a shipyard worker who had been born in this country, refused to go. He was arrested, convicted, placed on five year probation, and sent to an internment camp in Utah. Korematsu appealed his conviction and internment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1944, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court sided with the government, claiming that sweeping up entire populations, dumping them in internment camps–that is, concentration camps–was perfectly legal, as long as the government decided it was a period of “emergency and peril.”
So much for “civil rights and the Constitution!”
The Supreme Court eventually did throw out the government’s conviction of Korematsu ... although not until 1984, when the court ruled that the government had suppressed evidence in the original trial. But that was all. The highest court did not call into question the government’s authority to send masses of people to concentration camps or internment camps.
Having his conviction tossed out did not shut Korematsu up. After September 11, 2001, when the government carried out its witch hunt against people of Middle Eastern descent, Korematsu denounced it. He helped in their legal defense, filing court briefs citing his own case in several appeals to the Supreme Court.
Until his death in 2005, Korematsu did not stop denouncing these kinds of legally sanctioned witch hunts and persecutions–attacks that continue to this day, with the complete legal sanction of the courts.