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Vol. 81/No. 15      April 17, 2017

 

Seattle protest hits attacks on immigrants, Jews, Muslims

 
BY EDWIN FRUIT
SEATTLE — Several dozen protesters, including supporters of the Socialist Workers Party campaign of Mary Martin for mayor of Seattle, lined up across from Pier 91 at Elliott Bay here to protest the planned appearance of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly April 1.

Protesters spoke out against stepped-up raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, picking up immigrant workers for deportation. Speakers at the action denounced recent scapegoating and attacks on Jews and Muslims. Event organizers said Kelly canceled his visit when he heard about the protest.

Martin was one of the speakers at the rally. “I call for amnesty for all immigrants who live in the U.S. In addition I call on the unions to organize all the unorganized, including immigrant workers,” she said. “I have visited the mosques and synagogues that have been vandalized and threatened in the Seattle area and join them in denouncing such attacks.”

“This is a big issue for the working class as a whole. We must unify the working class so we can all fight together against the attacks of the bosses and their government today,” Martin said. “Through these experiences, we will break from the bosses’ two-party system and find the road to take political power ourselves.”

A number of people at the protest told Martin they liked what she had to say and thanked her for running for office.

“It’s not about me, or what I will do,” she told them. “It’s about how the working class gets transformed through its experiences, increasingly conscious of the class reality of this capitalist dog-eat-dog society, and confident to lead the vast majority to power — like they did in Cuba in 1959.”
 
 
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