One of the most shocking aspects of the Uhuru 3 trial has been the open admission by US authorities that truth can legally be classed as ‘disinformation’ if it harms US imperialist interests.

The case of the Uhuru 3 must be seen as part of a broader global counteroffensive against any form of opposition to Nato’s wars.

The Uhuru 3 are Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, leaders of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and its related social movements who have faced significant legal attack from the US imperialist state.

The APSP is a US-based Pan-Africanist group that has long identified itself with the struggle for a socialist transformation in Africa. Identifying with anti-imperialist currents around the world, its interpretation of such work at home is along black nationalist lines: to try to build independent economic, social and political institutions for black workers in the USA, to establish an independent homeland for Afro-descendent Americans (whom it considers African) on US territory.

The APSP seeks to join the struggle of US black workers for emancipation to the liberation struggle in Africa (which it considers to be a single nation) rather than to the liberation struggle of the rest of the US working class. Its programme also calls for reparations for the descendants of the African slave trade.

In early May 2023, 81-year-old Chairman Omali Yeshitela was shackled in handcuffs and leg irons and brought to court to face federal charges. Two white people working under the leadership of the APSP, Penny Hess (77) and Jesse Nevel (33), were also indicted.

Brutal repression and trumped-up charges

The Uhuru 3 were charged with being “unregistered foreign agents” under the malign influence of the Russian government. These charges were made nine months after coordinated and militarised FBI raids in several cities used flash-bang grenades, drones, armoured vehicles, automatic weapons and scores of flak-jacketed soldiers to seize computers, hard drives, phones and files from seven homes and offices of Uhuru Movement leaders.

The charge of “conspiracy” – for allegedly collaborating with the Russian government to disrupt US elections – has ignited widespread debate. Voices from across the political spectrum have expressed outrage and alarm at this blatant attempt to use lawfare to quash dissent in the USA, pointing out that the case sets a dangerous precedent regarding the right, supposedly guaranteed by their constitution, of US citizens to enjoy freedom of speech, assembly and association.

Prosecutors argued that the group’s activities were not protected by the constitution’s first amendment (which is supposed to protect free speech) since they were undertaken at the direction of a Russian operative. The defence argued that the government wanted to censor the group because its members had criticised US foreign policy in Ukraine.

Jurors acquitted the three activists of acting as agents of a foreign government but still found them guilty on the lesser charge of conspiring with the Russian government to sow discord and interfere in US elections. The case will now go to appeal, but the conviction carries a sentence of up to five years in federal prison if it is not overturned.

Despite its inconsistency, the verdict was significant in that it demonstrated that the first amendment remains a viable defence in US courts. The government cannot rely on juries to convict on such patently politicised attempts to stifle inconvenient speech.

According to Jennifer Jones, a member of the Uhuru group’s legal support committee, conspiracy laws are so broad and confusing that they can be used to penalise people who are not found guilty of any underlying offence. Since conspiracy convictions can still lead to prison or punishment even without a guilty conviction for the associated charge, the verdict will have come as a bittersweet victory to the defendants.

It is now abundantly clear that when covert repression tactics fail, western governments will use overt means against those who openly oppose and undermine their warmongering narratives.

The Uhuru 3’s defence argued that the charges were politically motivated and aimed at suppressing their long-standing activism in support of reparations and self-determination. This activity has been longstanding, however, and in our view presents no real threat to the exploiters, since it keeps many revolutionary-minded workers away from the rest of their class and acts as an obstacle to creating a united communist movement.

It is our view that the APSP’s real crime has been to give vocal support to Russia and China in their confrontations with US imperialism, including supporting Russia in its defence against the proxy war waged against it by US-led Nato imperialism in Ukraine. The ruling class evidently felt that targeting a niche group of black nationalists would allow the state to set a precedent with relatively little opposition, which could then be applied to other antiwar activists and organisations.

Imperialism in crisis transforms liberal democracy into fascist repression

The charges against the Uhuru 3 should not be viewed in isolation, but rather as part of a broader global counteroffensive against any form of opposition to the imperialist narrative that is becoming too obvious, powerful or inconvenient. Scott Ritter, Richard Medhurst, Kit Klarenburg, Craig Murray and a host of other independent journalists across the imperialist world have recently experienced the fascistic hand of the state, with arrests at airports and raids on their homes designed to undermine, intimidate and deter these voices of dissent.

British activists are also being criminalised for engaging in international solidarity. Palestine Action’s Shipley 4 activists recently celebrated their acquittal outside Bradford crown court. Despite a clear lack of public enthusiasm for such prosecutions, there is every expectation that the great British justice system will continue to pursue those who try to prevent the commission of war crimes through direct action, and a retrial in is planned for 2026.

Likewise the targeting of comrades from our own party here in Britain illustrates that it is no accident that the first to be treated this way are those who are trying to connect an anti-imperialist, revolutionary message with the mass of the working class.

The trial of the Uhuru 3 comes at a critical moment in the broader fight against US imperialism. As it seeks to prolong and escalate its wars in Ukraine and Palestine, and as it prepares to launch further wars in Korea and China, the US-led Nato powers are trying to silence oppositional voices by equating anti-imperialist organising with foreign subversion.

As sympathy grows at home for the plight of those facing imperialism’s proxy armies, and especially for those enduring the zionists’ genocidal assault in Gaza, carried out with the full backing of the imperialist nations, western states are increasingly unable to tolerate exposure of their role in, and motivations for, these wars.

The national security machineries in the USA, Britain and Germany in particular have shown repeatedly that they will make up any slander and introduce as many new laws as they feel are necessary to enable the silencing of those who are effective in challenging their activities abroad.

In pursuing the Uhuru 3, the US government wanted to establish certain legal precedents by criminalising the propagation of what it refers to as “disinformation”. Taking the word at face value, the average person might assume that ‘disinformation’ means telling lies – ie, spreading information that deliberately sets out to mislead for propaganda purposes.

In fact, the US government and judiciary have acknowledged that someone can be guilty of disinformation even if they are telling the truth! If the facts referred to by a speaker differ too widely from those which have been approved by the state, the US government has abrogated to itself the right to pursue them through the courts, where they will be judged not on the truth or accuracy of their words, but on their conformity to officially sanctioned “truths”.

And George Orwell told us it was the communists who would engage in ‘Newspeak’ and would police us for ‘thoughtcrimes’!

This is the ditch in which America’s much-lauded democracy has finally landed. In the ‘land of the free’, those telling unauthorised truths can now expect to be pursued through the courts. The ephemeral American dreams about free speech and individual liberties are rapidly descending into a fascist nightmare.

Democratic rights in western imperialist countries have always been a deceptive smokescreen, part of the pretence that we live in the civilised and free society for which all humanity yearns. In reality, the only freedom enjoyed by workers under the present system is their ‘free choice’ to live as ever-more exploited wage-slaves or to die in unexploited dignity in a ditch. We are ‘free’ to follow the diktat of the financiers’ state or to embrace life in a prison cell.

When the active and vocal pursuit of genuine freedom from the miseries of capitalist and imperialist exploitation begins to gain traction, when opposition to imperial intent resonates with large sections of the population to the point that they begin to lose faith in the status quo and to actively organise against it, then the true nature of the present system and its protectors is revealed.

As the global overproduction crisis deepens, necessitating ever more austerity at home and accelerating the war drive abroad, anti-imperialist opposition is bound to spread. And in such conditions of crisis and rebellion, the only possible answer of our rulers is a resort to fascistic measures of repression to try to silence the most vocal and intimidate all those who are tempted to join their rebellion.

Speaking the truth is becoming a crime. But then, according to the Metropolitan police: “Free speech has its limits”. (Watch from 5.04)

Republished from TheCommunists.org, with thanks!