New York City, August 9— On the weekend fascist Trump ordered massive roundup-deportation of immigrants, a multiracial congregation in Harlem and members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) met to develop a plan with the goal of building solidarity with our class sisters and brothers under attack by the bosses fascist criminalization of migrant workers. For the last two years PLP comrades and our friends in the church work have been organizing as part the New Sanctuary coalition in response to these racist attacks. Through our efforts we’ve been able to use the church as a conduit for class consciousness, as we welcome workers seeking refuge, to show that the working class is on their side and that they do not have to live in fear.
Only workers can protect and serve our class
The decision to turn this church into a sanctuary was positive step forward in our work because we were able to win Black,white, and Latin workers to the idea that we should unite, with fellow workers who are undocumented to fight racist deportations. In these turbulent times we hope to our advance the following goals; gain the confidence of the working class and transform the character of this struggle, in order to win workers to the understanding that there is only one sanctuary for workers: communism.
    After Trump  announced that he would deploy ICE, or the modern day Gestapo, the working class in New York City immediately rose to the occasion. Workers were reportedly forming networks that would send out alerts if anyone in ICE was spotted. In Harlem and Sunset Park workers botched ICE’s attempts. Recently our church has followed sui boldly marking our organization with an S for sanctuary. We were also able to organize workers involved in our food support and outreach services –largely to Latin to lead the struggle. Several of us have listed ourselves as “on call” whenever an immigrant seeks help in the church.  We developed a working  group and a rapid response protocol for when an emergency presents itself. We agreed that in such a circumstance one of us will immediately go to the church and meet with our sister/brother. Then we will call all the possible respondents to get them “on the case.” Once help is secured we will organize temporary shelter and sustenance for our new friends.
      In addition to our response plan, we’re becoming more pro-active in politiczing our work, by raising the level of discussion around immigration with our base. This stuggle gave us the opportunity to impress upon workers that these mass migrations are no coincidence, and that their root causes are the genocidal conditions around the world stem from imperialism. Some weeks ago the NYT published an op ed piece from a Guatemalan mother: “Food No Longer Grows Here; I Must Send My Sons North to Survive!”The depredations of capitalist-caused climate emergency have brought deadly drought to significant territories in Central America.One young member of our church recently spent a year in a Guatemalan village serving in maternal/child health.  She has agreed that our church board reach out to the church she was active in there to establish regular communication.  Last night eleven of us in out Party Study-Action group began to draft a letter to the parish our member had been active in.
Fight fascism, gain workers confidence
     Among our goals is to learn much more about conditions “on the ground” there and to begin to understand in more depth how U.S. imperialist domination is causing genocidal conditions in Central America and beyond. We hope not only to learn but to act: organizing  more generally stateside against U.S. support for local fascist murder and to fight for the socio-economic aid that can begin to save lives  and to reverse the stream of immigration-for-survival.
Most of all we want to show workers that we should not only fight Trump’s brash open fascism, but we should not depend on the leadership of the liberals or Ocasio Cortez types, who only advocate for nicer and safer concentration camps but are not against ending the miserable exploitation that workers face daily under this system. Our actions and the actions of workers to protect fellow workers against these attacks speak louder, and show that when the working class is under attack we’re the first to move to defend and serve each other.Finally, we must strive to grow our base through this work, in order to build the international workers’ revolution, that is the only strategic hope for seven billion of us to begin to live and thrive on the ruins of the genocidal capitalist world!