Tenants unite vs. ICE
I had the privilege of holding a meeting with a dozen of my neighbors, mostly Seniors concerned about the possible appearance of ICE on our apartment building complex. We are located just off 125th Street in West Harlem, and there is a large NYC Housing Authority complex that surrounds us on two sides with a growing Latin community.
Recently there was a false alarm here when two female policewomen arrived and someone saw the words ICE on their jackets which, worn as they were, concealed the letters POLICE. But within minutes someone posted an alarm on our co-op blog and 10 people arrived, concerned that it was an actual intrusion.
ICE has seized several NYC school students and adults, and each week a travesty occurs at 26 Federal Plaza downtown when immigrants come for hearings on their status, are given new court dates for appearance, and then unhappily are handcuffed and forcibly removed by heavily armed and masked ICE agents. Every day, there are people that come to the court to collect contact information so the families of those taken can be contacted and legal services provided. Activists in the Professional Staff Congress, the City University union, and other groups do what they can in the face of rising fascist oppression.
In my neighborhood there is great concern about ICE. Members of Indivisible on the West Side and in Harlem have visited stores and restaurants with information on the rights of workers and employers to prevent ICE kidnapping of our fellow workers.
We have started to make plans in our co-op to ensure that there is a written protocol that trains our security on the differences between administrative and judicial warrants and to restrict ICE from trying to invade our buildings. Many of us are seniors and unable and/or unwilling to physically confront ICE, but our plan is to chant, video tape, blow on whistles, and give any immigrant workers without papers time to flee.
We plan to bring the issue of ICE and community response at a large annual meeting to be held in the next week and get a commitment from our co-op board and management to inform the community so it can respond. We also hope to join the efforts of others in the neighborhood if the federal government sends the National Guard to NYC, something that has already happened in Portland, Oregon, Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California.
The increasing violence of ICE agents and the enormous budget provided for them is symptomatic of a larger problem. As benefits won in years of struggle like SNAP food stamps, Medicaid, and Social Security come under attack, while the economy is showing signs of economic crisis beyond the usual, the dangers of rising fascism must bring out increasing numbers of workers and their allies onto the streets to challenge it.
Every week a group of us picket our busy intersection and ask drivers and passing neighbors to honk their horns in protest. Every Wednesday the cacophony of horns, drums and noise making by us demonstrates the dangers ahead. The working class needs to learn from the struggles today of the need to fight for revolutionary changes that puts the power in their hands and reorganizes humanity for a new society, a communist one.
We think the fact that over 200 CHALLENGES distributed each issue at each of two subway lines helps. That and struggle led by comrades and friends promise increasing resistance to capitalism.
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It’s communism!
In the letter from Harlem in the 11/12/2025 CHALLENGE, it quotes a Party member’s (partial) speech which said: “Call it socialism, call it communism - ... “. I feel that this is VERY wrong and confusing!!! One of the Party’s biggest contributions to the fight for communism is the realization that communism is NOT socialism, and that the road to communism does NOT go through socialism - whatever “socialism” is.
Especially with politicians calling themselves “Democratic Socialists” and other phony titles, we need to be VERY clear about what communism really is as well as what communism most definitely is NOT!!!
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