Refugee, indigenous, or legalized—no one is safe from the crisis of capitalism. In just the first week since Klansman Donald Trump’s second inauguration, over 4,500 people have been arrested (Washington Times, 1/28). Amid a barrage of racist and sexist attacks—banning diversity programs—Trump issued more than twenty executive orders for mass deportations. But while Trump gives off Hitler vibes, it’s the worldwide crisis and decay of capitalist liberal democracy that set the stage for more open fascism.
The next four years will further expose the rot of U.S. imperialism, intensify fascism in the U.S. and Europe, and propel the world closer to a global bloodbath.. But instead of sinking into fear or despair or cynicism, the international working class must fight back! Take inspiration from the San Jose students walking out against deportations or from Los Angeles workers organizing on the job . Join Progressive Labor Party in building an international, multiracial movement to smash all borders and build a communist society.
Reign of fascist terror
As liberal democracy crumbles, both Democrats and Republicans are unleashing a ghastly wave of racist terror on migrant workers and youth. Wasting no time in expanding the Obama-Biden legacy of mass deportation and family separation, Trump vowed to “launch the largest deportation operation” in U.S. history. Just two days after the inauguration, 46 House Democrats joined Republicans to pass the Laken Riley Act, which allows the kkkops to jail and deport–with no “due process”--any undocumented migrant accused of shoplifting or other minor crimes. But the most violent criminals–the capitalist ruling class–remainremains at large to slaughter our class in endless wars (see box).
Following in the footsteps of Joe Biden, Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) thugs, the modern slave patrol, are busy disappearing our class sisters and brothers. Shockingly, 40 percent of those swept up for deportation are workers with legal work and residency documents (NY Times, 1/24). Birthright citizenship, which secured the children of enslaved parents as part of the 14th amendment in 1868, is also under siege. As always, the rulers’ assaults on Black workers are a blueprint for their plans to terrorize the rest of our class.
Trump also axed the glitchy CBP One mobile app, which migrant workers had tried to use to schedule appointments with border patrol agents. Places long deemed safe havens, including schools, hospitals, and churches, are now unprotected from ICE raids. And where Biden had deployed 2,500 soldiers to militarize the border with Mexico, Trump just added 1,500 more (BBC, 1/27).
Liberals built it, Trump expanded it
Fast-rising fascism under Trump rests on the lethal foundation built by liberal rulers for decades. Thomas Homan, his pick as the gestapo “border czar,” got his start terrorizing migrants under Deporter-in-Chief Barack Obama, whose administration built the freezing, squalid cages later used by Trump. In Trump’s first term, Homan was the architect of the “zero-tolerance” family separation policy that traumatized thousands of children. Now Trump has defunded efforts to reunite those children with their parents. The bosses’ cruelty knows no bounds!
By late last year, as Biden escalated brutal ICE policing and effectively ended asylum, border crossings fell below the levels in Trump’s first term.
Biden wound up deporting four million migrant workers and children, more than double Trump’s total (NYT, 1/22). In last fall’s election, in a cynical bid to hold on to power, Kamala Harris and the Democrats matched the Republicans’ racism in their campaign for “border security.”
Fascism needs scapegoats
Like the domestic capitalists behind Trump, the main wing of the U.S. ruling class–finance capital–is scapegoating migrants for capitalism’s failures, a hallmark of rising fascism. Fascism emerges as capitalism decays and forces the bosses to rule through a more open class dictatorship. It relies on more virulent and violent racism, nationalism, and sexism to control both the working class and the bosses’ own ranks.
Finance capital, the liberal imperialist bosses who direct the Democratic Party, tried to use identity politics to blunt class consciousness and counter communist influence. But as they see Trump outflanking them, they’re now echoing the president’s Make America White Again movement in scapegoating migrants for capitalism’s failures, a hallmark of fascism. While gutter racists like Trump spread open terror, liberal bosses remain the greater danger because they pacify workers and undermine fightback. These main wing rulers need anti-Trump workers to cling to the myth that the liberals are a “lesser evil.” But we see these racist, sexist warmongers for who they are–just evil.
Refugee families are the canaries in capitalism’s coal mine; the bosses’ attacks on these vulnerable workers and children foreshadow what’s coming for the rest of the working class. As the U.S. moves more swiftly toward open fascism, the tools used to track migrants today–including nearly $8 billion of ICE surveillance tech left for Trump by Biden (NY Times, 1/24)--will target communists, antiracists, and antisexists tomorrow. First they come for the migrants, then they come for everyone who resists. But the working class always fights back! Workers are already organizing their defenses against the latest Trump attacks.
No borders, no bosses
The capitalists’ laws protect capitalism, not workers. The bosses carve up the world to control labor and resources while keeping us divided. But we are one world and one class. Workers have no stake in the rulers’ racist national boundaries. We must unite under one flag, the red flag of communist revolution!Let’s form collectives in schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces to stop these racist deportations. The politicians are paving the road to fascism—they won’t save us. Only a united working class can fight back to keep us safe. Together we will build a new underground railroad to protect migrant workers. Together we will build a world that protects all of us. Join Progressive Labor Party and fight for the world we deserve. Smash racist deportations—working people have no nations!
Capitalism will never cease fire
After 15 months of phony condemnations, the U.S. ruling class has convinced Nazi Netanyahu and Hamas misleaders to accept a so-called “ceasefire”.
But under capitalism, there are no ceasefires. The bosses never stop competing with each other or terrorizing and murdering our class in the crossfire. In the days just before the Middle East deal went into effect, the Israel Defense Forces killed at least 200 workers and children in Gaza and wounded more than 264. Now the racist Zionist regime has shifted its wrath to the West Bank, where IDF raids have killed at least 10 people and wounded 40 more. Since the deal, more Palestinians have been arrested than those released (Aljazeera, 1/24). Both Trump and Biden have already greenlit Israel’s next mass-murdering attacks on Gaza.
To date, at least 46,000 people in Gaza have been slaughtered by U.S.-funded bombs. More than 2.3 million have been displaced (BBC, 1/16). Those returning are coming home to 40 million tons of toxic rubble and 245,000 destroyed houses, schools, and hospitals. Under the terms of Israel’s blockade, it could take 350 years to rebuild Gaza (AP News, 10/22/24).
Our class deserves better. The courageous workers and students of Palestine and the world will keep fighting back until the day we smash the capitalist profit system for all time.
