Revolution #205, June 27, 2010
Arizona Freedom Summer—Be in Phoenix starting June 26!
We are all illegals! We don't gotta show no stinkin' papers!
On July 29 the new Jim Crow law recently passed in Arizona will go into effect. This law (SB 1070) requires police to demand proof of legal residency from any person they suspect could be an undocumented immigrant. It will set into place new legal norms that will by law establish racial profiling and a further repressive atmosphere against immigrants. It will mean a whole new leap in terror against immigrants and anyone with brown skin, where people taking their kids to school or going to the grocery store can expect to be stopped by the police, subjected to verbal abuse, or brutalized, even thrown in jail. And it will mean a leap in viciously enforcing, as well as strengthening the poisonous propaganda that people who are "undocumented" have no right to be here and no right to be treated as human beings.
The battle lines are being drawn. The reassertion of white supremacy and American chauvinism has sharpened up in Arizona and if allowed to set the terms there, will be further unleashed throughout the country. Since the passage of SB 1070, the Arizona legislature quickly followed up with a law outlawing the teaching of Ethnic Studies in Arizona schools, and all this has strengthened moves to challenge the 14th Amendment to the Constitution—the one that says everybody born in this country is entitled to citizenship and due process, the one that was supposed to give ex-slaves full rights as American citizens. In Arizona, racial profiling by police is already increasing and white racists are being unleashed—feeling free to yell at and threaten brown-skinned people on the street. And in the midst of this, Obama's answer is to send more National Guard troops to the border, where in the last month two people were killed by U.S. Border Patrol, including a 14-year-old on June 7. No more troops! Demilitarize the border! We don't have an immigration problem, what we have is a capitalism problem!
Arizona Freedom Summer is about radically changing this whole dynamic, defying this whole direction, and setting new terms. "The days when this system can just keep on doing what it does to people, here and all over the world… when people are not inspired and organized to stand up against these outrages and to build up the strength to put an end to this madness… those days must be GONE. And they CAN be." (from "The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have," A Message and A Call from the RCP, USA)
The passing of this fascist law has drawn forward widespread opposition across the country. Cities and organizations are boycotting Arizona, tens of thousands have marched in the streets of Phoenix and in other cities, undocumented college students have chained themselves to the capitol building, and there have been waves of high school walkouts in Phoenix and Tucson. This summer many people will be mobilizing and coming to Arizona from all over the country. There needs to be a broad and defiant resistance that refuses to comply with this law, and there need to be many thousands of people in the course of building this resistance finding out about the revolution we need and the leadership we have, coming to see that it is this system and the rulers of this country that are totally illegitimate and that another world is possible.
Come to Arizona as part of Arizona Freedom Summer. Be part of bringing the Message and Call to people who are looking for a way out but are being told every day it's not possible. Be part of the day of non-compliance when SB 1070 goes into effect on July 29. Help to bring forward the resistance that's needed as part of building the movement for revolution.
The way things are being polarized, people who do "have papers" or are citizens of the U.S. are supposed to stand aside while "those other" people, those "illegals" are targeted, rounded up in raids, terrorized and degraded. Imagine instead that there started to be people everywhere wearing stickers or buttons or T-shirts saying WE ARE ALL ILLEGALS! Imagine people of all nationalities—including a lot of white people—wearing this and acting in accordance with it, standing in solidarity with people coming under attack. Imagine artists coming up with new ways to express and display this defiance on posters and stickers: We are all illegals! We don't gotta show no stinkin' papers!
- Come to Arizona! Make plans to get to Phoenix beginning the weekend of June 26-27 to be part of taking out the campaign, "The Revolution We Need… The Leadership We Have," very broadly to the masses in Phoenix and Tucson and building resistance to the reactionary offensive.
- Help reach thousands of high school youth who will be coming out for the Vans Warped Tour on Tuesday, June 29, and help organize for an anti-4 of July celebration the next weekend.
- Come for the weekend, the whole week, or come for the summer and plan to stay until the first week of August.
- Mobilize others to come with you as part of building for a very powerful day of non-compliance when the law takes effect on July 29.
Revolution newspaper is sending a reporter right away to report on what's happening in Arizona and how the battle is taking shape.
- Donate and organize fundraising projects that many people can be part of to support the waging of this battle and sponsor sending the Revolution reporter to be in the midst of this battle. Send funds to:
Arizona Freedom Summer
c/o RCP Publications
P.O. Box 3486, Merchandise Mart
Chicago, IL 60654-0486
(Make check or money order payable to "RCP Publications.")
- Spread the Revolution reports and analysis coming out of Arizona, sending out articles, connecting others on Facebook, opening up what's happening in Arizona to the country and the world.
If you want to come to Arizona and for more information, e-mail arizonafreedomsummer@yahoo.com.
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