The government, Democrats and Republicans alike, is responsible for the attacks on immigrants. By targeting workers who originally hail from other countries, the employers and their government seek to divide working people and reinforce the second-class status of an entire section of our class.

Ultrarightist forces, such as the anti-immigrant thugs in Long Island calling themselves Sachem Quality of Life, seize on the reactionary arguments of the major capitalist politicians. They scapegoat immigrants, blaming them for unemployment, crime, the deterioration of living conditions, and other social problems. They feed on the insecurity among middle-class and some working-class layers that is bred by the capitalist social crisis.

Liberal opponents of the anti-immigrant campaign are unable to answer the demagogy of the rightists. These liberals often argue that immigrants pay taxes, that crime statistics have fallen, and so on. But such arguments simply accept the framework set by the rightists, and fall right into their trap.

Whether crime figures are up or down, the exact figures on how much money undocumented workers pay in taxes--these questions are not only subjects of endless debate, they have nothing to do with the stance the labor movement should take. That stance must start with a class point of view.

Immigrants are part of our class. They strengthen the entire working class, helping broaden the horizons of fellow workers and bringing their experiences in struggle from their countries of origin. The attempt by the bosses, government officials, and rightists to criminalize a section of the working class is aimed at pitting us against each other. It is similar to other attempts to justify attacks on the rights and livelihood of working people--from the cops who brutally crack down on residents of Black communities under the pretext of "fighting drugs," to those who oppose abortion rights and who blame women asserting the right to control their bodies for a "breakdown in moral values."

The common enemy of working people is the employers and their profit system. It's capitalism that generates unemployment and other fundamental problems facing workers and farmers. The unions need to reject any "America first" framework of defending jobs. Instead, what is needed is a fight to win jobs for all--and to organize all workers into the unions. The role immigrants are playing today in union-organizing fights, from meat packers in Boston and the Midwest to farm workers in Washington State, shows the potential power of the labor movement when it is united.

Taking up the interests of the entire working class is just as crucial in defending immigrants as it is in defending social security, democratic rights, and other hard-won gains of working people.

The ultrarightists on Long Island are a threat not only to immigrants but to our entire class. These Quality of Life thugs are one element of the rightist forces emerging in this period of increasing political polarization in the United States. They range from Patrick Buchanan's reactionary movement to the Detroit cops and their supporters who have mobilized to oppose the fight for justice for auto worker Dwight Turner, recently killed by cops. All these are deadly dangers to all working people, and must be opposed.