The recent retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and the fact that racist, fascist President Donald Trump will appoint the new Justice, have caused an enormous outcry from liberals and the media about the disaster to come. This is a dangerous illusion. All levels of government, including the Supreme Court, constitute the capitalist class’s means of controlling and oppressing the working class. The government also settles disputes between competing capitalists. But it is all the bosses’ government.
Class struggle, organized and led by the working class and its communist party, can and will change society, seizing power with a working class revolution. Only then will the government serve the working class.
Distraction from working class struggle
Looking to courts to solve our problems is based on the same illusion as voting. The famous decision, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954), which declared segregation in schools unconstitutional, is a famous example. Black workers showed enormous courage in signing up as complainants in the case. Yet, it was the policy of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund not to organize any mass campaign around this case. Workers were told to leave the fighting to the lawyers. The case was supposedly won, yet schools around the country are as segregated as ever.
Meanwhile, in 1953 the first bus boycott was organized in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Workers were beginning to organize the mass campaign that became the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956. In 1952, there was a boycott of gas stations in Mississippi that refused to provide restrooms for Black drivers. Mass working class organizing in this period and on into the even more militant fights of the 1960s defeated segregation, not a Supreme Court case.
Decisions are in the interest of some section of the ruling class
The main liberal wing of the ruling class had a strong political interest in ending legal segregation in the South. During the Brown case, the Justice Department wrote a supporting brief that argued that segregation had, “an adverse affect upon our relations with other countries. Racial discrimination furnishes grist for the communist propaganda mills, and it raises doubts even among friendly nations…” The same brief quoted the Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, pointing out that school segregation “jeopardizes the effective maintenance of our moral leadership of the free and democratic nations of the world.” (SCOTUSblog, The Global Impact of Brown v. Board of Education) The big business imperialists needed to defeat communism to maintain the world empire. So they used the Supreme Court, and the FBI, and even the army to crush the Southern, vulgar racists who were making U. S. imperialism look bad all around the world.
Decisions are based on bad ideas
Even when there is every appearance of a victory in a Supreme Court case, the essence is the promotion of bad ideas for the working class. In Brown, the court decision is based on the idea that segregation damages all black children and therefore can never be equal education. However, as anti-racists we understand that segregation hurts all children and all workers. The Progressive Labor Party fights for multiracial unity, which means living, working and learning in multiracial communities. The dangerous distortion of the Brown decision perpetuates racism. It even causes workers today to fight each other over how to desegregate schools (see CHALLENGE, 6/29).
Don’t be confused by the appearance of the Supreme Court. Keep our eye on the prize—communist revolution for workers power.

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, MD, June 23—Antiracists, including members of Progressive Labor Party, paid tribute to the struggle for justice for Archie Elliott III, murdered by the police here 25 years ago. Archie’s mother Dorothy Copp Elliott, who has been waging the decades-long struggle, raised the importance of multiracial unity. The night showed why all workers should unite to end police terror. An injury to one is an injury to all.  
Twenty-five people participated in this fundraiser for a scholarship in Archie’s memory. Two people received $2,500 each. The scholarship is for Black students who plan to attend an HBCU (Historically Black College or University). The committee needs more funds to keep Archie’s name alive. The fund symbolizes our commitment to continue the struggle to end racist police terror. Donations can be made at http://PayPal.me/DElliottScholarship.
Injustice system kills Archie, again
Archie, 24, was pulled over in 1993 while driving home from his construction job, searched, handcuffed behind his back, and placed in the front seat of a police cruiser. Two cops alleged that Archie pointed a gun at the cops. The police then shot him 22 times, 14 shots fatally hitting him.
The usual racist capitalist injustice system then kicked into high gear. The cops got off without any consequences. Appeals even reached the Supreme Court, which declined to hear his case. Recent efforts to re-open the case were also refused by the States Attorney Angela Alsobrooks, who is likely to be the next County Executive.
Black, Latin, white unite against racism
At the fundraiser, Dorothy noted that Wayne Cheney, the Prince George’s cop who killed Archie, murdered again a year and a half later. This time, he fatally shot a young white man, again with impunity and no discipline. This fact symbolizes the reality that racist police terror creates a culture that endangers the entire working class. It is in all workers’ class interest to to fight racism in all forms.

 
The principle criticism of Donald Trump by the main wing of the U.S. ruling class, as advanced by liberals flooding the pages of their chief mouthpiece, the New York Times, is that Trump is destroying the “world order of peace and prosperity” that the U.S. has led for the 70 years since the end of World War II. They indict Trump’s “systematic rejection of longstanding American values…that actually made America great,” a “benign empire, held together by…respect rather than force.” NYT, 6/19)

While the decline of U.S.-led world order is very much real, the “peace and prosperity” is all fake news. Those 70 years of “benign peace” include these U.S.-rulers’ military interventions:

• Syria (1949) — Pres. Truman instigated a coup overthrowing elected government because a U.S. corporate oil pipeline was being delayed; six weeks after the coup, the pipeline was approved.
• Korea (1950-1953) — U.S. invasion
• Laos (1953-1975) — U.S. bombing
• Iran (1953) — Pres. Eisenhower had CIA overthrow elected Mossadegh government and install Shah as dictator.
• Guatemala (1954) — U.S. instigated overthrow of a popularly elected government’s land reform, installing a military dictatorship murdering 100,000 workers and peasants.
• Lebanon (1958) — U.S. sends troops to intervene in election.
• Cuba (1961) — Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow Castro government; defeated.
• Guyana (1963-64) — CIA, AFL-CIO joined forces to overthrow Cheddi Jagan government.
• Vietnam (1965-1975) — U.S. invaded, bombed North and South Vietnam, killing three million; defeated.
• Domincan Republic (1965) — Pres. Johnson ordered invasion to install “friendly” gov’t.
• Cambodia (1967-1975) — Invade and bomb, part of war against Vietnam.
• Chile (1973) — CIA and Kissinger engineer coup to overthrow elected Allende government, install Pinochet dictatorship.
• Lebanon (1982-84) — Reagan sends troops; withdraws after bombing of U.S. embassy.
• Grenada (1983) — Reagan invades to overthrow elected government, install “friendly” one.
• Nicaragua (1985) — Reagan arms, finances Contras to attack elected government.
• Panama (1989-90) — Bush, Sr., orders invasion to install new government.
• Iraq Gulf War I (1990-91) — Bush, Sr.  deploys 500,000 troops to oppose Saddam Hussein in Kuwait.
• Iraq no-fly zone (1991-2003) — Food and medicine denial results in death of 500,000 children.
• Bosnia (1992-95) — Clinton’s bombings destroy much of infrastructure.
• Haiti (1994-95) — U.S. troops invade to install “friendly” government, insure U.S. corporate investments.
• Kosovo (1998-99) — Massive U.S. bombings.
• Afghanistan (2001, ongoing) — Longest U.S. war in history, Bush, Jr., and Obama deploy hundreds of thousands of troops, spread mass destruction.
• Iraq II (2003-2011) — Bush, Jr., and Obama hit fictional “weapons of mass destruction,” kill hundreds of thousands.
• Pakistan (2004-2018) — 10,000 drone airstrikes, kill thousands of civilians.
• Somalia (2007-2018) — Troops support U.S. side in civil war.
• Libya (2011) — Obama’s 11,200 air strikes support U.S. side in civil war.
• Iraq (2014-2017) — Obama/Trump’s 10,000 air strikes.
• Syria (2014 – 2018) — Obama-Trump’s 11,200 air strikes.
• Yemen (2015-2018) — U.S. arms Saudi-led invasion, erects naval blockade.
• Libya 2015-2019) — Arm one side in second Libyan civil war.

In 2007, Bush, Jr. established the U.S. Africa Command to direct U.S. troops in nine African countries.
From 1946 to 2000, the U.S. intervened in foreign elections in 81 countries, overtly and covertly — Italy, Japan, Philippines, and Lebanon, among others. (Carnegie-Mellon University researchers) One example: “U.S. played important role in Italy in 1948 in preventing a Communist Party victory [over the Christian Democrats]; “covertly delivered ‘bags of money’ to cover Christian Democrats’ expenses, sent experts to help run their elections” and threatened to end U.S. “aid” to Italy if communists were to win. They did the same in seven subsequent elections.
Such is the U.S. world order of peace. If working people want peace, we need to fight for it. For a world without imperialist violence, we need to build a communist-led world order.

President Donald Trump’s latest vicious attack on undocumented immigrants and their children has accelerated the rise of fascism amid U.S. imperialist decline.
Trump is supported by a mass, racist section of the working class that scapegoats and dehumanizes immigrant workers for the failures of the profit system—even as the bosses super-exploit immigrants for needed labor. But larger masses of workers around the world have recoiled in outrage and disgust at this state-sponsored child abuse, which has traumatized more than two thousand children. These workers are pushing back in support of their class sisters and brothers, and politicians are running for cover.
On June 20, in response to growing protests and defections from his own racist camp, the Terrorist-in-Chief signed an executive order to modify his “zero tolerance” policy to prosecute all “illegal” border-crossers—including seekers of asylum—and to kidnap and warehouse their children. Videos of teenagers in cages and audio recordings of toddlers crying inconsolably for their mothers recalled past concentration camps, from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Japanese internment hellholes during World War II to the Nazi death factories in Germany. Trump upheld this fascist tradition with a racist rant blaming Democrats for allowing “illegal” immigrants “to infest our country” (CNN, 6/19).
Monstrous treatment of Latin children
The capitalist bosses—Democrats and Republicans alike—have a monstrous history of victimizing children to terrorize and divide the working class. Over more than two centuries of slavery in the U.S., countless children were bought and sold away from their parents. Into the 1970s, more than one of three indigenous children were stolen from their families by government agencies and religious institutions (dailykos, 2/2/13).
With the U.S. Supreme Court upholding Trump’s racist anti-Muslim travel ban on June 26, the bosses have declared open season on immigrants—and proven once again that the U.S. Constitution isn’t worth the paper it is written on. To implement their legalized kidnappings, the Gestapo of the U.S. Border Patrol lied to parents who “were told their children were being taken for a bath” (Los Angeles Times, 6/16). Others, including at least one breastfeeding mother, had their children physically yanked from their arms (Hufffington Post, 6/22). In the dead of night, the Department of Homeland Security shipped two babies under a year old to an airport in Michigan (Detroit Free Press, 6/20).
Abuse in these concentration camps is rampant. An undocumented 14-year-old in McAllen, Texas, said he was “kept in handcuffs and then tied to a chair with a restraint placed over his face with holes so he could breathe.” Similar punishment was meted out to at least five other children, including one who said he was strapped naked to a chair for more than two days (CNN, 6/21).
On June 26, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reunite all separated families within 30 days, and those with children under five within 14 days. Given the administrative chaos and the fact that many parents have already been deported, the ruling’s impact is uncertain at best. Hundreds of children will likely be trapped in institutions across the country for indefinite periods, with little or no contact with their families. As the judge wrote: “[U]nder the current system, migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property” (New York Times, 6/27).
Under capitalism, workers are disposable
commodities.
Trump advances fascism
While Trump’s anti-immigrant gutter racism represents a clear step toward fascism, the foundation for his approach was laid by predecessors from both parties. In 1996, Bill Clinton backed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which authorized a border wall, beefed up the brutal Border Patrol, and allowed for the jailing of undocumented immigrants for up to two years before deportation.  In 2005, George W. Bush’s Operation Streamline further criminalized immigrants by making a second border crossing a potential felony.
Deporter-in-Chief Barack Obama forced over 3 million people out of the U.S. While Obama won liberals’ approval for backing the Dream Act, “he actually contributed to the criminalization of large groups of immigrants and so fed directly into Trump’s future rhetoric. He also drew on Bill Clinton’s ‘tough on crime’ policies in ways that linked the criminalization of people of color with the deportation of ‘criminal’ immigrants (also overwhelmingly people of color)…[and] helped foment white racial fears” (Nation, 4/25/17). Under Trump’s June 20 order, the government will set up new family-style concentration camps—Obama’s preferred solution. Another proposal would imprison up to 20,000 “unaccompanied alien children” on four military bases in Texas and Arkansas (NYT, 6/22).
Emboldened by a 90 percent approval rating among Republicans (NYT, 6/24), Trump remains defiant. He trumpets Big Lies about fictional immigrant criminality while calling for an end to “due process” and the elimination of judges to hear immigrants’ claims for asylum.
Splits in a declining empire
But Trump may be pushing the limits of what the main wing of the U.S. ruling class will tolerate, at least at this moment. While the finance capitalists care nothing about immigrants, they have deep concerns about the mulilateral alliances that prop up their teetering empire, from NATO to NAFTA—all in jeopardy under Trump’s “America First” agenda. The bosses also have growing qualms about the inept president’s ability to fend off rising imperialist rivals China and Russia.
Capitalism is in crisis worldwide, with the U.S.-led “liberal world order” in freefall. Nationalist rulers have seized power from Eastern Europe to Turkey to the Phillipines. Formerly stalwart U.S. allies like Germany, Italy, and Britain are in internal disarray. In the New York Times (6/18), in an opinion piece titled “Fall of the American Empire,” main-wing mouthpiece Paul Krugman bemoaned Trump’s latest anti-immigrant attacks and the decline of U.S. imperialism in equal measure:
Committing atrocities at the border, attacking the domestic rule of law, insulting democratic leaders while praising thugs, and breaking up trade agreements are all about ending American exceptionalism, turning our back on the ideals that made us different from other powerful nations….
We were the leader of the free world, a moral as well as financial and military force. But we’re throwing all that away.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military is seeing a rise in enlistments by Latin workers (Pew Research Center, 4/12/17)—a group of vital importance for the main-wing bosses’ plans for an eventual World War III. They must find a way to win millions of young people to fight and die for U.S. imperialism, the main point of Obama’s Dream Act. The rulers need racism, too, to divide and exploit our class—but Trump has made it too raw, too obvious, too ugly. The liberals’ pleas for “humanity” is really a call to sustain U.S. global supremacy.
International solidarity
Workers are rising to say: Enough is enough. Antiracists have demonstrated against deportations in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Houston, Paris, and London. Their solidarity represents a tremendous opportunity for the revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party.
For PLP and its international base, the global migration crisis underlines our struggle to build a world without racist borders. As capitalism implodes and fascism intensifies, so too will a working-class movement grow and spread throughout the world. We are united in the same fight: one working class, one Party, one undivided world under the red flag of communism. Smash deportations! Join PLP!