A Revolutionary Message
on October 12, 1997Revolutionary Worker #927, October 12, 1997
On October 12, 1997, the March of All Immigrants--sponsored by Coordinadora 96 and the Latino Workers Center--is being held in New York City--protesters will gather at Columbus Circle and march to the United Nations. Organizers have called this march to protest the wave of anti-immigrant legislation in the U.S.: "These xenophobic laws legitimate the increasing violence against our community. Our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world also face similar anti-immigrant measures. In unity with immigrants across the world, we want to reclaim human rights here and in every corner of the earth. Calling for "General Amnesty Now!" the protest will demand: stop police brutality; respect our labor rights; respect human rights; amnesty for all undocumented people; citizenship without bureaucracy; good education for our children; and an increase in the minimum wage.
The RW sends a warm greeting to people marching at the UN on October 12. The system is waging a war on the people. And there is an urgent need to step up our resistance against the terrible injustices coming down on Latino people and immigrants.
The people demand justice and dignity. But these are two things this system will never give us.
Instead, heartless and chauvinistic laws make it a "crime" to be an immigrant. Men-in-blue invade our communities and brutalize our people. In the name of a "war on drugs" thousands of us are arrested and locked up--while the CIA pumps drugs into our communities. Millions do not have work with dignity, decent health care, or a real education--but there are prisons all over the place. The border has been turned into a war zone. Legal immigrants are being denied welfare and food stamps. A wave of new anti-immigrant laws is threatening the legal status of millions. The real history and cultures of the Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Central Americans, and other Latino people are disrespected. Even the very languages of the people are officially denied.
And then the system turns around and blames the people.
***** All over this planet, people are living hell-on-earth because of the imperialist dog-eat-dog way of running society. They can say all they want that this is the "best of all possible worlds." But the masses of people will never get true liberation as long as we're in this "free market" nightmare.
...A Haitian woman flees a military regime created by the U.S.
...A Mexican peasant, thrown off his land by NAFTA, makes his way to El Norte.
...A man from El Salvador tries to escape death squads trained in America.
...a worker from China ends up in an INS concentration camp in the U.S. because capitalism has wrecked the once revolutionary economy of Maoist China.
The U.S. is an oppressor country that dominates poor countries all over the world. And many people are forced to come to the U.S. to try and survive because of the brutal workings of imperialism. Then the U.S. turns around and says it has the right to hound and deport immigrants without papers. As sanctuary activist Stacy Merkt said, "It's like setting a house on fire and then hunting down the people who escape."
It is not a crime for poor people to cross the border to feed their family. It is a crime for the U.S. to sic its Migra dogs on immigrants--turning the border into a militarized zone where anyone with brown skin is hunted down and brutalized.
An oppressor country like the U.S. has no right to "control" its borders. And any reason immigrants have for crossing the border is justified.
***** Five hundred years ago the Columbus invasion started the bloody extermination of the indigenous people. And the history of this country has been filled with genocide, racist pogroms, and misery for the masses of people ever since. Today the imperialists are trying to make their system more profitable and all their "solutions" are bringing misery to people, all over the world.
Many immigrants, feeling desperate, try to get citizenship--hoping this will guarantee some rights. But all kinds of obstacles are put in their way like "English Only" tests. And now, moves by the Republican Party seek historic changes in the U.S. Constitution so that citizenship is taken away from U.S.-born children whose parents are undocumented immigrants. We need to oppose all these anti-immigrant barriers, but at the same time we need to realize that citizenship cannot stop this war on the people.
The government tells lies to pit people against each other. They tell middle class people that immigrants--and homeless people, single mothers and Black youth--are ruining their "quality of life." They tell poor people born in the U.S. that "immigrants are taking away jobs." They say people who get welfare are parasites.
But who feeds who? The answer reveals yet another Amerikkkan imperialist hypocrisy.
The masses of working people grow food, sew clothes, wash dishes, clean offices, drive trucks, take care of children, build computer chips, hang drywall, and pick lettuce. But the real parasites who profit off our labor now want to demonize and criminalize and blame us for all the problems!
We do all the work. So why can't we run society? The people need a revolutionary solution. We need to bring down this system and take all the means to life out of the hands of the monopoly capitalist ruling class--so the common people can run society, in common, for the good of all.
Many people dream of such a day, when the people can really put things "right side up" and re-make society free of inequalities and injustices.
A world where Latinos, Black people, and other people of color have equal rights and are treated like human beings. A world where there is equality of languages. A world where women `hold up half the sky.' A world where the culture of oppressed peoples is appreciated and taught in schools. A world where the youth can hold their heads up high because they have a future. Even a world without borders.
Such dreams can become reality. But only through a real and powerful struggle against the system. This is how the people get real power and real change--not by trying to convince this bloodsucking capitalist setup to change its ways. As Mao said, "The masses are the makers of history."
Many people say you can't make a revolution in a country like this. They look at how a lot of middle class people swallow government lies and end up supporting attacks on the poor. They see sections of people who seem hopelessly filled with racist and backward ideas. Immigrants from poor countries see how people live here and think, "Many people have it so good here, they'll never rebel."
But the RCP has a strategy to unite all who can be united to defeat the enemy. We know that in a country like the U.S., the possibility for an all-out revolutionary struggle depends on a situation where the system is in deep crisis. So we need to build a revolutionary movement--a powerful united front under the leadership of proletarians, the ones who have nothing to lose but our chains.
The U.S. empire is like a giant monster with feet of clay. And through struggle it's possible to create a radically different line-up in society--one which is favorable to the people and ultimately favorable for revolution.
We need a powerful movement of resistance to stand up to all the attacks coming down on the people. The people need to turn our schools, workplaces and communities into strongholds of revolutionary resistance. We need to organize collective solutions to the problems we face and not be acting like this rotten system with all its conniving ways can do anything good for the people.
In the past few years, new fronts of struggle have opened up against the system--from the struggle in California against Prop 187, to the fight against attacks on affirmative action, to the struggle to Defend the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal, to the fight against police brutality. Now we must find the ways to raise our resistance to a higher level--and make it broader, more determined, and more diverse.
We need to link up our common struggles against the common enemy--turn fighters for one into fighters for all.
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
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