two police in an MRAP deployed against citizens protesting in Ferguson

New River Workers Power condemns the anti-democratic efforts of Christiansburg Town Council to restrict working peoples’ rights to picket against our opponents – who stand to gain the most through this attack on our rights. Just like their neighboring Blacksburg Town Council, Christiansburg officials are joining a state and nationwide effort to curtail the democratic rights of working people to more effectively struggle against our adversaries.

It’s not a coincidence we see these local measures advocated which piggybacks off efforts led by the racist Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring to further expand surveillance and repression under the guise of “safety” while using the alt right as boogeymen to justify it. We don’t take the alt-right lightly, they are a threat to working people everywhere and we should prepare to defend our communities against fascists, but not by further empowering the state and its efforts – which are fundamentally at odds with the interests of working people. The state’s only means of “addressing” the issue of a growing fascist movement is more mass incarceration while working against the needs of the people who face poverty wages, increased costs of living, and growing economic precarity.

We must recognize this measure by the Christiansburg Town Council as part of a broader effort by officials to increase the capacity of the state and its municipalities to more effectively contain the growing unrest of the people. These efforts to restrict working peoples rights to assemble and struggle together for justice are in tandem with local municipalities accepting military equipment issued by the Department of Defense through the federal 1033 program – which local police and sheriff departments received, among other things, armored combat vehicles known as MRAPs. We must ask ourselves who these measures and equipment will be used against?

Along with accepting military equipment, and passing ordinances to restrict working peoples rights to struggle, our local municipalities also collaborate with the Department of Homeland Security to spy and report on the political activity of citizens via Joint Terrorism Task Force liasons provided by local police departments. It’s well documented these JTTF liasons in our communities have been spying and reporting on not terrorism, but on the everyday actions of politically-active citizens. To get an idea of the amount of mundane activity being reported on here in Virginia just review the leaked Virginia Fusion Center report “2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment”.

We call on all local working people to stand with us and demand Christiansburg Town Council vote down this attack on an integral part of democracy! Together we can push back against the growing tide of fascism and the police state. We must have faith in ourselves and our own capacity to solve these problems which laws and the state can never fix, but only complicate.

DEFEND OUR FREEDOMS!

SAY NO TO THE POLICE STATE AND FASCISTS!