Vol. 74/No. 12      March 29, 2010

Millions have been laid off. Social services across the board, from mass transit to hospitals and schools, are being cut. Bosses are speeding up production lines to crank out more goods with fewer workers. This war at home is the other side of the wars being waged abroad, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.

The capitalists have no intention of deporting most of the 11 million undocumented workers in the United States. They depend on this massive pool of superexploited immigrant labor to compete against their imperialist rivals around the world and against China.

Instead, the mass firings of undocumented workers, the increased scrutiny of work documents, the depicting of immigrants as criminals, and the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border are aimed at heightening insecurity and fear among immigrants. The boss class wants to discourage their involvement in unionization efforts, as well as struggles against social injustice and other political fights. They want to drive a wedge between native- and foreign-born workers and between those with and without papers.

But immigrant workers and youth refuse to be victims. In 2006 millions took to the streets demanding legalization. “We are workers, not criminals!” they shouted.

Those actions marked the increased confidence, combativity, and politicization taking place in the working-class movement, which continues today. It is seen in the youth and workers who demonstrated March 10 in Chicago with signs that said, “Undocumented and unafraid.”

The anti-immigrant, anti-worker programs of the U.S. government are promoted by the Democratic and Republican parties alike. They make vague promises to workers who are foreign-born to “fix a broken system”; at the same time they appeal to U.S.-born workers to scapegoat immigrants for unemployment and deteriorating social conditions.

A central part of these immigration “reforms” is instituting a national “tamper-proof” ID card for all workers. This won’t be used just against immigrants. It will be used to blacklist any worker who stands up and says “enough!” The bosses are preparing for the broader working-class resistance they know is coming.

That is why there is only one immigration reform worth fighting for: full, immediate legalization for all, without restrictions, and an immediate end to deportations!

In the course of this fight and others to defend working-class interests, such as the fight for jobs, to protest police brutality, to defend women’s right to abortion, and to win unions, we will begin to act on the conviction that the revolutionary conquest of state power by a class-conscious and organized vanguard of the working class—millions strong—is necessary and possible in order to eliminate capitalism and build a world based on human solidarity, not profit.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. gov’t targets undocumented
550 farm workers fired after immigration audit  
 
 
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