NYC, December 1 – Trump was elected in large part, on the promise of carrying out mass deportations of migrant workers and their families, refugees seeking some safety from terrorists, civil wars, climate disasters, drug cartels and more. Basically, seeking higher ground from the perils of imperialist rivalries. While Obama and Biden have carried out their own mass deportations, and Biden and Harris sealed the border and told refugees, “Don’t come here,” Trump’s “America First” campaign of open racism and xenophobia won the votes of more than 75 million people, a big goose-step on the road to fascism straight out of Hitler’s playbook.
This affects us all directly, from high school teachers and students, college students and professors, workers on almost every job. Every Progressive Labor Party collective must prepare to confront mass deportations and the use of the military with international solidarity, boldness, and bravery in the face of fascist terror. This is “how the steel is tempered.”
Small Fascist Trump to out-goosestep Obama’s deportation plan?
Trump appointed Tom Homan as "border czar" and Stephen Miller as his deputy chief of staff. These two were the architects of Trump’s previous family separation policy, which involved tearing children away from their families at the border. This time, they are promising to cancel the temporary protected status for millions of immigrants from Haiti and Afghanistan, and use the National Guard to carry out mass arrests of immigrants, confining them in military camps as part of an "historic deportation operation." Although he once proposed ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects young people brought to the United States, Trump—both a Small Fascist and a big hypocrite—claims he is open to working with Democrats to preserve the law, even as he threatens to overturn birthright citizenship. This would mean that children of immigrant or migrant workers born in the U.S. would no longer automatically receive citizenship (AP News, 12/9).
Recently my union, the National Writers Union (NWU), set up a committee to respond to these threats, based on what we were able to do during Trump’s first term. Back then journalists covering the border crisis in Mexico had their devices seized and copied before being allowed to return to the U.S. NWU organized an International Committee and sent members directly into the fight. At the time we were in UAW Region 9A, and this became an issue among its 45,000 members. The UAW leadership tried to get in front of this and decided to subsidize travel for any member who wanted to go to the border to help in the crisis.
Labor united against anti-immigrant racism
We worked closely with New Sanctuary City and participated in escorting workers to their asylum hearings, helping to fill out asylum applications, and took part in mass rallies to close the immigrant detention centers and stop deportations. When Trump threatened to target sanctuary cities, NWU convened a meeting of representatives from ten unions, including RWDSU, LiUNA, 32BJ, PSC, NYSNA, 1199 and others to develop a labor rapid response to any mass roundups in NYC. We are going to try to renew and expand this work to Los Angeles, Tucson, and Springfield, Ohio, raising the issue within other local unions and Central Labor Councils.
Some Party collectives are already immersed in mass organizations doing this kind of work. We can all learn from them. Every Party collective must develop a plan, a way to respond to the coming crisis. The workers are not going to roll over and play dead for Trump, he is in for a fight. The more we are involved in this struggle, leading with our revolutionary politics, the more we can build PLP and become more of a force in the class struggle. All hands on deck!
