http://themilitant.com/2018/8221/822153.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 21 May 28, 2018
Long history of rulers’ attacks on Fifth Amendment rights
TERRY EVANS
The attack on Fifth Amendment rights is aimed at hard-won constitutional
protections workers and the union movement need. The labor upsurge that
swept the United States after the Second World War was an enormous
problem for the U.S. rulers. Their response was a witch hunt aimed at
labor and the radical movement.
Some 378 teachers in New York alone were thrown out of their jobs when
school officials used the fact that they had invoked their Fifth
Amendment rights upon being dragged before government witch-hunting
committees and the Board of Education and asked to name names. Among
those dismissed was Samuel Wallach, who had been president of the
Teachers Union.
Top union officials joined the assault on workers’ rights. In 1957 the
AFL-CIO Executive Committee made the criminal decision that any union
official who invoked his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment
should automatically lose his post.
Bosses continue to try to attack this right. Illinois high school
teacher John Dryden was docked a day’s pay and issued a warning in 2013
after he told his students about their Fifth Amendment rights when they
had to answer a mandatory personal survey about drug, tobacco and
alcohol use.
Related articles:
Liberals attack on ‘taking the Fifth’ threat to workers’ rights
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
