SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (USA), July 11— Over one hundred protesters quickly gathered to confront federal agents who were kidnapping workers on a licensed cannabis farm in Camarillo. Undeterred by tear gas, they yelled, filmed, and threw rocks at the hated “Migra.”
Almost three hundred workers were taken because they “looked Mexican.” One protester, a young college professor, was also taken. The fascist attack killed Jaime Alanís Garcia, a farmworker, who tragically fell from a greenhouse.
Since June 6, masked, militarized federal agents and bounty hunters have conducted a terror campaign. Their target: working-class communities in and around Los Angeles County. Trump makes no secret of wanting to punish “Democrat cities.”
On July 7, terrorists from nine federal agencies, many in military garb, with tanks and horses, invaded MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles. They “treated Los Angeles as a foreign country with insurgents to be defeated,” a reporter said. By then, few people were in the park.
The Nazi in charge, Gregory Bovino, developed the extremely brutal tactics against Kern County farmworkers in January. Trump officials lie that they are “targeting criminals.” Actually they viciously assault day laborers, gardeners, farm workers. Anyone who speaks Spanish or has brown skin. With or without papers, including US citizens. And anyone who opposes their Gestapo raids.
“Even some Trump voters are looking more favorably at immigrants now,” noted a friend.
Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, declared that “ICE officers and Border Patrol don’t need probable cause.” They can stop people “based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions.” A federal judge has temporarily blocked this policy. But few believe that the kidnappers will respect the decision. The Supreme Court will likely overturn it.
Racism is the cutting edge of fascism. But the whole working class is under attack. The Republican “Big Beautiful Bill” massively transfers money from programs for workers (like Medicaid) to the billionaires’ pockets. It will fund ten thousand more immigration cops. And more concentration camps.
The capitalists as a class need a passive, terrorized working class. They need to rob us to boost their profits and pay for expanding wars. They will try to force alienated young workers to fight in those wars.
Don’t be fooled by Democratic mayors in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston who claim to “stand up to ICE.” It was President Obama who gave Homan his first leadership role in “Homeland Security.” In 2015 Obama honored Homan with an award because (as the Washington Post put it), “Thomas Homan deports people. And he’s really good at it.”
Trump may want a civil war. But Democrats won’t give him one.
The war that will defeat fascism will be communist revolution.
“How will the International Communist Workers’ Party grow out of this?” asked a comrade.
We are talking with many friends. Some are scared and hiding, trying to protect their families’ future. Others are newly energized to fight back. We want to recruit all of them to become communist organizers in whatever ways they can.
The fascist assaults have had an impact. Streets are empty. Community events have been cancelled. Construction projects have been slowed. Crops rot in the fields.
But thousands, mainly young workers, are organizing creatively. Collecting money so street vendors can stay home. Delivering groceries. Patrolling their communities. Doing outreach. Reading Red Flag.
And, as in Camarillo, masses have come out to block the kidnappers. In South LA and the city of Bell. In the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, “people of all colors, Black, white and brown, came out to defend the community from the oppressors,” said a friend who was there.
Elsewhere in the US, Haitian workers poured into Brooklyn (NY) streets and drove ICE out. Working class neighbors have rebelled in Denver, Chicago, and more.
As a comrade told an immigrant worker who thanked her for protesting, “It’s the struggle of all of us.”
“The masses are showing the way,” said another comrade. “With communist ideas, we can win!”
Pamphlet: Fight for the Day When No Worker Will Be Called Foreigner here