USA, April 22— “I’ve known Anthony for three years. He is my student and friend. And I hope to one day call him a comrade,” said a teacher.
“Anthony is the son of an immigrant family, like me. Within the last year our conversations have taken a more serious political turn. I’ve always stressed that we must be prepared to fight back, and that when there is unity there is power.”
Fascist Trump’s mass-deportation policy threatens the lives and wellbeing of thousands of immigrant workers. Trump’s fascist policies have struck fast, and they have hit home for Anthony.
Just weeks after Anthony participated in a walkout against deportations, his uncle, returning from a trip to El Salvador, was detained by ICE. He is now in an ICE facility in Adelanto, CA. That means a two-hour trip to visit him.
“Anthony’s uncle was the breadwinner in his family. I’m sure times are tough for him, and he’s now staying with grandparents since his parents live in El Salvador.”
“That could have been half of my friends when I was in high school—and half of South Los Angeles now,” said the teacher.
It’s outright brutal to treat workers this way. The capitalists super-exploit immigrant workers in all their industries, agriculture, manufacturing, hospitals, restaurants, and more. This allows them to extract higher surplus value—and thus higher profits—from immigrant labor.
Also, immigrants and their children are increasingly necessary for the bosses’ plans for imperialist war. They serve as soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen. The active-duty military currently contains more than 65,000 immigrants. Noncitizen immigrants account for 4 percent of all first-term military recruits. The figures are even higher for the children of immigrants and mixed-status families.
The rate of profit is declining worldwide for the capitalist and imperialist rulers. Therefore, the intensification of the rivalry among them has risen to levels not seen since World War II. So they must increase the level of super exploitation of the entire working class around the globe and prepare for World War III.
“The deportations will continue but they cannot deport all of us,” said an immigrant retired high school teacher. “They need us in their factories for war production and in their fields to guarantee food production. But, most important, they need us on the battlefields to fight in World War III to try to assure the dominance of one imperialist over the others.”
No matter what brutal and oppressive actions the rulers take against the working class, it is the solidarity of the working class that must fight back even in the face of fear or danger. Attacks on immigrants are already expanding to attacks on permanent residents and citizens, and there will be more.
But it’s not enough to fight back. We must fight to destroy this racist capitalist system and replace it with communism.
“This is why I became a communist,” said Anthony’s teacher. “Anthony and thousands more should also join the necessary fight for a communist revolution that will end all borders.”
An immigrant industrial worker put it like this: “As long as borders exist, the bosses and their law enforcement agencies will continue to carry out deportations. But if the deported workers bear in mind the need to destroy capitalism and fight to build a communist world without bosses and without borders, we will be closer to our goal. They will then bring these ideas to other workers around the world.”
We are building an international communist party without borders. We invite you to become a member.
Read our pamphlet:
“To End Racism: Mobilize the Masses for Communism” here