The Immigrant Caravan Controversy: The Aggression of the Fascists, the Capitulation of the Democrats, the Truth of the Matter, and the Stand of the Revolution

From a member of the Revolution Club

October 29, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

In the last week, Trump and the Republicans have really seized on the caravan of Honduran migrants, now marching through Mexico, to fire up their fascist base, ramping up the lies and xenophobia... an “onslaught,” and “invasion,” an “army” marching to “our border,” filled with MS-13 gang members and “unknown Middle Easterners,” etc... funded by Democrats like George Soros, or maybe Venezuela.

What’s the Democrats’ response to all this been? As a New York Times op-ed by David Leonhardt points out, basically to ignore it. He quotes congressional Democratic leaders Schumer and Pelosi: “The president is desperate to change the subject from health care to immigration....” They go on: “Democrats are focused like a laser on health care and will not be diverted.”

Leonhardt thinks this is a bad approach—not because the Democrats are shamefully allowing Trump to whip up a lynch-mob atmosphere and threatening to unleash the U.S. military against thousands of poor unarmed refugees—but because it plays into the Republicans’ hands by making the Democrats seem “squishy and insecure on immigration.” And he recommends the Democrats issue a statement like this: “This is a country of laws. We are not going to admit thousands of undocumented immigrants traveling in a caravan. We do not have open borders. But we are and have always been a country of compassion as well, and we are working with Mexican authorities to protect the safety of these men, women and children.”

In another New York Times op-ed, Frank Bruni writes, “[I]mages of [the migrants in the caravan] are more likely to help anti-immigration Republicans than their Democratic adversaries.” But here’s the question: What does it tell you about the Democrats, and the whole dynamic in effect right now, that images of desperate refugees are likely to “help the Republicans”?! Notice the language—why are the Republicans the ANTI-immigrant party and the Democrats are not, and cannot be, the PRO-immigrant party? Why is appearing soft on immigration such a concern for Democrat leaders, and the sage advice they are getting from their strategic thinkers is to reaffirm that “This is a country of laws”?

The answer is in what Bob Avakian lays out in the new Q&A clip posted here. There is a real and objective immigration/refugee crisis in the world caused by the workings of the capitalist-imperialist system, which the Republicans are seizing on (and exaggerating) to rally their base around a fascist resolution of the crisis—i.e., walling off and ethnically cleansing the country. And the Democrats have no proposal for how to deal with the crisis besides continuing with the “normal” workings of the same system that is the source of the crisis.

I mean, what are the Democrats gonna do? Call out the Republicans for the foreign policy that led to this situation? For the militarization of the border? For the inhumanity of the raids and deportations? For presiding over an economic system that requires massive investment in Third World countries, which plunders and devastates the economies and rips apart the social fabric? They can’t do that because they are just as GUILTY of all that! It is very telling that Trump just tweeted a speech from Obama to justify what he is doing!

And what are the Democrats gonna propose? Accepting all the immigrants? Oh no, we’re not for “open borders,” insists Beto O'Rourke and all the Democratic leaders. Of course they’re not, because the system they run—with such an extreme division between a few imperialist nations and the majority of oppressed and exploited nations—requires strong borders. And it requires the Border Patrol and migra to enforce that, or at least enforce it enough that the immigrants who do make it here have to live in a constant state of fear, so they can be more viciously exploited. Even the Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made clear that her use of the hashtag #AbolishICE “does not mean abolish deportation.”

The Democrats will not, and cannot, stop the fascist attacks on immigrants. But the revolutionaries can and must, as part of the fight to get rid of the capitalist-imperialist system that has created the conditions where so many are forced to migrate in first place. The revolutionary communists welcome our immigrant sisters and brothers. As the Points of Attention for the Revolution says, “We fight for a world without borders, and for equality among different peoples, cultures and languages.”

Listen to what Bob Avakian says in this must-watch Q&A clip and think about the reality of what is happening right now... the caravan of men, women, and children from Honduras escaping a made-in-the-USA nightmare, the despicable fascist attacks on them, and the complicity of the Democrats. And listen to how he says a revolutionary state power, aiming at the emancipation of humanity, would handle this.

From the Q&A sessions after the speech:
Why We Need An Actual Revolution And How We Can Really Make Revolution

The caravan of men, women, and children from Honduras escaping a made-in-the-USA nightmare, approach Zacapa, Guatemala. (Photo: AP)