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They support workers' movements in Warsaw and crush them in Washington.

They intend, in fact, to use the power of government to further consolidate wealth in the minority of our population, to redistribute income from the bottom to the top, to undermine the Bill of Rights, to re-introduce big brother to the American scene.

The Reagan administration has begun an aggressive campaign to dismantle and dissolve the civil rights protections written into law over the past 25 years.

The record is clear.

In just the first six months of the Reagan administration, the civil rights division of the department of justice filed five civil lawsuits on discrimination issues, as against 17 such suits in the first six months of the Carter administration, and an incredible 24 in Richard Nixon's first half-year in office.

Under Ronald Reagan, there were eight objections filed under the Voting Rights Act, as against 23 under the previous administration. Now the president has endorsed "a back door repeal" of the voting rights act's most critical safeguards.

Over a century ago, the 15th amendment guaranteed all citizens the right to vote.

But that guarantee was merely a paper promise. From 1870, when the 15th amendment was ratified, until 1965, when the voting rights act became law, the promise of free access to the ballot box remained unfilled.

The act was extended in 1970 for five years, and in 1975 for seven years more.