Since Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have returned from volunteering in the New Sanctuary Caravan Project at the U.S.-Mexico border in January, we are upping our efforts to build an international immigration campaign. Our goal is to recruit more people to go to the border to provide direct aid and to win many volunteers and refugees to see that a world without borders is possible. Many ties were made between refugees and volunteers. We developed these bonds with the understanding that workers around the world are all in this together, that we all have the same enemy and must unite to fight racism whenever it raises its ugly head.
Friendships and commitments were made that went beyond our short stay at the border. Volunteers became sponsors for people with no ties to family or friends in the U.S. (having a U.S. citizen sponsor is a plus in seeking asylum). The migrants received pro bono immigration lawyers. The working class of Tijuana also rose to the occasion, sharing whatever they had–food, clothes, and sometimes a place to sleep or to shower.
Meanwhile, the fascist U.S. President Donald Trump and the “Socialist” Mexican President Obrador are working together to stem the flow of refugees. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have prevented journalists, organizers, and volunteers from crossing the border, questioning them and holding them in detention for hours. Two U.S. attorneys working with the Tijuana-based group Al Otro Lado were denied entry into Mexico (San Diego Tribune, 2/11). And nine members of the borderland faith-based organization, No More Deaths, were arrested for the “crime” of leaving jugs of water and cans of beans for migrants passing through the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, where more than 3,000 people have died making their way north on foot since 2000 (The Intercept, 1/17).
Volunteers in the Caravan Project learned many important lessons.  With no paid staff, no office space, and minimal resources–we were part of a 40-day campaign that attracted hundreds of volunteers, including local immigrant rights organizations and churches, who provided extensive assistance to thousands of refugees, including preparing asylum applications, food preparation and serving, transportation, childcare, health clinics, and other services needed by a community.
Caravan volunteers, who reported on their experiences at a National Writers’ Union forum, will report back at a local church in March and plan to speak on campuses and to community organizations. Our PLP club is organizing a study group on immigration and planning a fundraiser to help refugees, both at the border and when they settle in new homes. Understanding how imperialist states have historically created “borders” to justify ownership of resources, control the wages and movement of labor, and divide workers across borders by promoting “nationalism” and “racism” are all goals of the study group. We are also planning a dinner to build for the PLP May Day march on May 4. These activities are important elements toward building the ties and deepening understanding of how to bring about a communist society to smash all borders!
In short, the work at the border is a small school for communism. For cynics who claim that a society cannot function without money, the international village in Tijuana disproves that idea. The thousands of people fleeing Central America and the hundreds of volunteers coming to greet them are experiencing directly what it means to make decisions and allocate resources and human energy based on what the working class needs. The international solidarity and international friendships being forged show the potential of creating an egalitarian communist society to serve the needs of the all workers. While U.S. and Mexican bosses are united in attacking the refugees and immigrant workers, we propose an international Summer Project, for PLP members and friends to unite our class, the workers, on both sides of the US/Mexico border. One World, One Working Class, One Party! Join us.