Nine thousand men, women and children are walking north in a caravan from Honduras because capitalist crisis has forced them to leave their homes to survive. They hope to get to the US and apply for asylum. But the National Guard and police in Guatemala have stopped them—under orders of the Mexican and US bosses. This is our human family, struggling and desperate to survive capitalism’s crisis. Their struggle shows that no boss is the friend of the working class. We and they must learn from this that only communist revolution will get our class what we need.
The January 2021 caravan of thousands of migrants leaving Honduras has strengthened the WALL in its first phase: The National Guard on Mexico’s southern border with Mexico. The new US president won’t cancel this wall.
Two hundred million people migrated from one part of the world to another in 2019. Most of us who live in cities migrate from rural areas, seeking better living conditions. Some move to other countries.
It is not a question of the sovereignty of nations or homelands. The working class has no homeland. Nations and countries were formed by the exploiters, the slave masters of the labor force.
Many Mexicans are extremely anti-immigrant. On July 17, 2019, the Washington Post and Reforma reported the results of a survey of Mexicans that said that 51% approved having the armed forces fight migrants, 55% wanted them deported and 84% said they are a burden.
It is a painful and shameful nonsense: 20 million Mexicans are in another country and send remittances—money they have earned abroad. This makes up 2.3% of Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product.
End the borders! starting with becoming aware that they are artificial and rejecting everything that the rulers say about them. Supporting one or the other imperialist side will not liberate us. We must organize against wage slavery.
Every precarious, violent and exploitative situation the working class experiences contains within it a revolutionary potential.
But only the politics of a party can catalyze that potential and turn it into concrete reality. That is the task of communists. People struggling to come out of their horror must become fully aware that the historical change they represent is shaking the masses around the world.
The images of the thousands of migrants facing the wall of police who try to prevent human advance is extremely moving. This goes much deeper than borders and their usefulness to capitalism.
At some level, each migrant must know that wherever they go they will be accompanied by the rage of living in a world like this. Wherever they go, other possibilities arise that may at some point allow the working class to put an end to this constant and perpetual crisis. The International Communist Workers’ Party assumes this task as its own.
—Comrade in Mexico
Demonstration in Los Angeles, USA, in solidarity with migrants