Vol. 81/No. 15 April 17, 2017
(lead article, Socialist Workers Party statement)
Build May Day protests! Join fight for Amnesty now!
The following statement was released April 5 by Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of New York.
Join me in building protests and strikes on May Day this year against deportations and immigration raids! Join me in demanding amnesty for all undocumented workers in this country!
President Barack Obama put more undocumented workers in jail for immigration “offenses” than any president in U.S. history. Stepping up the anti-immigrant demagogy, President Donald Trump is driving forward on the same course. The rulers the Democrats and Republicans serve seek to pit worker against worker, claiming undocumented workers take “American” jobs.
A worker at the Hunts Point Produce Market in New York put it well as I talked to him after the “Day Without Immigrants” strike here Feb. 16. When it comes to immigrant workers, “Obama was a wolf in sheep’s clothing and Trump is a wolf in wolf’s clothing.”
U.S. bosses need immigrant labor, and the semilegal status they’re pushed into, to create a superexploited layer of the working class and boost their profits. They work overtime to pit native-born workers against immigrants to push down the wages and working conditions of us all.
The fact is U.S. workers are less anti-immigrant, less racist than ever before. Millions of workers who have come here from Mexico, Central America, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere have now worked and lived side by side with native-born workers for decades.
“When your kids are such good friends at school, people are getting to know each other better,” a worker in Denison, Iowa, where packinghouses attracted immigrant workers in droves, told the New York Times March 28. “They’re trusting each other, wanting to be around each other.”
This means the capitalist rulers have a problem, and we’re in a stronger position than ever to unify the working class, to fight and win amnesty.
Obama and Trump both claim the focus is on deporting immigrants who are “criminals.” That’s why we say, “We are workers, not criminals.” And for that small number of undocumented workers with a “record” — just like some of our U.S.-born co-workers — we say “no double jeopardy.” Amnesty for all!
The only road to build a fighting union movement is for our unions to say to our brothers and sisters, “We don’t want to see your papers. We say, let’s fight together.”
The Socialist Workers Party urges you to help make the May Day protests as successful as possible. Talk with your co-workers. Can you go on a “Day Without Immigrants” strike at your workplace May 1? Can you organize or join protest actions in your area?
Unite the working class. Amnesty now! See you May 1.
Related articles:
Seattle protest hits attacks on immigrants, Jews, Muslims
May Day Protests Calendar
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