Vol. 74/No. 16      April 26, 2010

The demand for legalization that workers will put at the center of these actions is not an “immigrant” issue, but a life-and-death question for the entire working class.

The boss class wants to make working people pay for the capitalist economic crisis. To shore up their profits, they are speeding up production lines and skimping on safety. The killing of 29 coal miners in West Virginia is one of many consequences of this drive for profit.

The capitalist government and its parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are also going after the social wage, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which workers won through decades of struggle. They are closing down hospitals, cutting back on mass transit, reducing library hours, and laying off teachers.

As conditions worsen, the unions are getting weaker. The labor officialdom tries to defend a narrowing layer of workers, rather than the millions exploited by capitalism. How can we stand up to the bosses and rebuild a union movement that will fight for the entire working class? How can we organize to take power out of the hands of the wealthy rulers and begin to organize society on the basis of international solidarity, not on protecting profit?

A key step is to not allow the bosses to divide us by pitting workers with papers against workers without. Joining the fight for legalizing undocumented immigrants strengthens the fight for jobs and health care, for job safety, against racist discrimination, and for immediately ending U.S. wars abroad.

The so-called immigration “reform” bills are a sham and a diversion from this fight. They offer the carrot of a rocky, pothole-filled “road to citizenship”—for some, but not for others—and the stick of increased militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and a national identity card. The capitalist class knows that as the economic crisis grinds on, there will be more resistance. They want to increase their ability to blacklist workers and others who speak out.

By marching year after year, immigrant workers have shown that they will not be intimidated or give up their struggle. That fight strengthens the entire working class.

Join the May 1 protests and demand: Stop the raids and deportations! Legalize all undocumented workers now!
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. protests demand rights for immigrants
Build for more demonstrations May 1!  
 
 
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