From Lampedusa to Tapachula
August 28—This week, migrants from Haiti and Africa clashed with security forces in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. They blocked buses returning Central Americans to their countries of origin. They demanded transit visas to travel through Mexico to seek asylum in the US. The Mexican government, bowing to pressure from US President Trump, has drastically limited the number of transit visas it issues. It has deployed the Mexican National Guard to Chiapas.
The crisis is deepening and attacks on migrants and on those who act in solidarity with them are increasing. The struggle sharpens! Migrants and their allies are demanding their “rights.” They want an end to police harassment. They want the documents that will allow them to seek jobs and housing.
Communists reject the idea of bourgeois “rights.” This is an illusion the capitalists promote to hide the class struggle behind lofty slogans that they never meant to respect in practice.
The capitalists need national borders to guarantee their state power, and their profits. Communist revolution will tear down those borders and eliminate the need for documents of any kind.
We will all be comrades in the liberated zones of the planet as we fight to establish communism worldwide. Only communism can create a society where there is meaningful work, housing and other necessities of life for us all.
Africans on the border between Guatemala and Mexico?
The Mediterranean is now the deadliest border in the world. So refugees fleeing war, devastation and environmental disaster in Syria and in sub-Saharan Africa are seeking other escape routes.
Those who can are flying to Ecuador, which has relatively lenient visa policies. Then they attempt the long trek north through Central America to the Mexican border.
The two main embarkation points on the Mediterranean—Turkey and Libya—have cracked down on emigration. In Italy, the fascist Interior Minister Salvini forced the rescue ship Open Arms to wait off the coast of the island of Lampedusa for more than two weeks. People on the Open Arms were crowded into horrific conditions. Some, including people without lifejackets, jumped into the sea and tried to swim to shore.
When Spain sent a military ship to fetch the migrants, an Italian court ordered that they be allowed to come ashore. Now the Spanish government is threatening to fine the Open Arms almost a thousand Euros for “unauthorized” rescue operations.
More than 250 people across Europe have been arrested, charged or investigated for supporting migrants. Their “crimes” include providing food, shelter or transport for undocumented migrants and disrupting deportations.
The Open Arms left from the port of Barcelona, Spain, a city with a large migrant population. Our comrades in the area have an important role in organizing communist solidarity with those who are crossing the Mediterranean today.
Seeking asylum in Europe is difficult as well.
Ireland is the EU country with the most progressive policy. But asylum seekers spend years in special centers waiting for their applications to be processed. Under a system of “direct provision” they are given housing, medical care, and food, but have no independence. They cannot work or organize their own home lives.
In France, the ‘gilets noirs’ (Black Vests) movement has been organizing for more than a year. It includes over a thousand migrants of diverse nationalities and immigration status. Many are homeless or stay in migrant hostels. They are demanding documents which will allow them to work. Hundreds of ‘gilets noirs’ in Paris occupied the Pantheon mausoleum in July to protest their maltreatment by city and national authorities.
“Cast all medals into spearheads of revolution!”
Pia Klemp is the German captain of the rescue boat Iuvanta. Her crew has rescued thousands in the Mediterranean. She is being prosecuted in Italy for “aiding and abetting illegal immigration.” On the same day that the ‘gilets noirs’ occupied the pantheon, Klemp rejected a medal offered by the mayor of Paris for her “humanitarian” work.
Her statement on social media:
“At the same time your police [force] is stealing blankets from people that you force to live on the streets, while you raid protests and criminalize people that are standing up for rights of migrants and asylum seekers.
“I’m not a humanitarian. I am not there to ‘aid.’
“I stand with you [migrants] in solidarity. We do not need medals. We do not need authorities deciding who is a ‘hero’ and who is ‘illegal’.
“It is time we cast all medals into spearheads of revolution! Documents and housing for all! Freedom of movement and residence!”
ICWP says that it’s time to use those spearheads of revolution to fight for a communist world—where no one will need documents, and no one will be considered a foreigner. We invite Klemp and all Red Flag readers to join us!
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LOS ANGELES (USA), August 17—Resistance and working-class unity are growing against the fascist conditions on the border and immigration raids and deportations.
Liberals and reformists are demanding changes in laws and more benevolent enforcement of the borders. But many workers are open to communist ideas.
In a recent forum, we talked about the contradiction between reformism and the revolutionary communism we need. We strategized about strengthening our concentrations in the garment industry and among MTA workers. Several women workers talked about how they are starting to do this work.
We discussed how to involve students and soldiers in mobilizing for communism. We related experiences in mass protests in which we shared communist ideas, connected with old friends, and made new ones. We encouraged each other to strengthen our political ties with friends, family and co-workers.
Then we went to a nearby street corner con signs and a banner that said “Massacre in El Paso, Texas is a Sign of Fascist Capitalism! Fight for a Communist World Without Borders.” Several people we had invited to the forum and the protest were there waiting for us—more interested in taking action than in discussion. And on a corner with very little foot traffic, a woman came up to us, took a video of our signs to post on social media, and gave her name and number to be contacted for our next event.