NEW JERSEY, JUNE 21—The hundreds of people gathered outside of the Delaney Hall migrant prison on Father’s Day prove that the working class will never accept fascism without a fight. The ruling class uses racism, sexism, and nationalism to divide us but class consciousness and internationalism beat in the hearts of workers, regardless of the labels that the bosses put on us. Friends and members of Progressive Labor Party (PLP) were there to struggle with demonstrators to marry their working-class spirit with a revolutionary outlook. Only a communist revolution will see the end of ICE, Delaney Hall, and all fascists.
Delaney Hall is an infamous prison, run by the racist GEO Group, contracting for the fascist ICE goons, where detained migrants are treated brutally. Recently, detainees have started a strike, refusing to work and eat, in response to being served rotten food, denied medical care and family visitation.
Bosses’ misleaders quell workers’ energy
On Father’s Day, a group of labor unions organized an “Eyes on ICE” rally, to support the striking workers inside Delaney. The potential for a large, militant action was wasted by the timid and disorganized labor misleaders. The hundreds of protestors stood around for two hours listening to speeches, most of them uninspiring. The exceptions were the heartbreaking stories from families of detainees and the brave little girls who spoke of missing their dads on Father’s Day. Toward the end, there was also an excellent contribution by a young Black physics teacher from Newark who made the point that workers have to organize themselves and not count on politicians.
However, the passivity at the heart of the event was demonstrated clearly when a transport vehicle, carrying our migrant siblings to who-knows-where, was allowed to pass through the prison gate with barely a reaction from the mis-leadership. We attempted to inject some energy and fighting spirit into the crowd by chanting “Smash Racist Deportations, Working People Have no Nation!” and “Las Luchas Obreras No Tienen Fronteras!” in between speeches. The crowd appreciated it even as the leadership tried, and failed, to get us to stop. Finally, it was up to PLP members to organize a proper picket line after the speeches ended.
The experience reinforced important lessons in the struggle: One, building connections to our coworkers, classmates and students is key. Our contingent included friends and coworkers that we’ve been in the class struggle with for a long time and the trip to and from the demonstration was a great opportunity to talk politics. Two, liberal misleaders have the power and potential to lead our class to ruin. For all their talk about fighting fascism and the danger of the time we’re living in, their actions produced a passive and disorganized crowd. The working class deserves and will get better!
