President Donald Trump’s racist immigration policy escalates a venerable ruling-class tradition of scapegoating and terrorizing immigrant workers. In addition to officially banning workers and refugees from six majority Muslim countries, the Trump administration has promised to increase deportations and detention of undocumented workers—an ambitious goal, given that Barack Obama’s administrations formally removed a record 3.1 million immigrants (Migration Policy Institute, 1/26).
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to double the number of people held in immigration concentration camps, to 80,000 a day. The asylum division of DHS has reported locating 20,000 beds for indefinite detention for asylum-seekers, a 500 percent increase over current capacity (MSNBC, 3/3). Meanwhile, 30,000 Haitian migrants are stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border, waiting to cross (UPI, 2/28).
The Clintons’ Terror Campaign
U.S. bosses have banned and persecuted migrants since the 1790s, when the rulers feared French immigrants influenced by the French Revolution. But today’s racist anti-immigrant hysteria descends from legislation created by the Bill Clinton administration in 1996. As Clinton starved thousands of children and tore citizen families apart through mass incarceration, he also expanded the grounds for jailing and deporting immigrant families (including permanent residents) for minor, nonviolent convictions. The law also made it much more difficult to gain asylum (Salon, 4/27/16). Beginning with the Clinton era, every president deported explosively more than his predecessor.
Smash racist deportations! Black immigrants are deported at five times their number in the undocumented population, and they are twice as likely to be detained for a criminal conviction (Time, 9/30/15).  This is the legacy Trump is advancing.
Ruling-Class Terrorists Divided
The U.S. rulers are divided over the best way to discipline their own class and the working class in a society headed inevitably toward a broader global war. Trump’s intensified anti-immigrant rhetoric has served to divide the working class and distract many workers from the capitalists’ wholesale thievery and exploitation.
But as Trump funds an expansion of the fascist Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) apparatus, the administration’s anti-immigrant racism poses a conflict for the U.S. war machine. To defeat their Russian and Chinese imperialist rivals (see Egypt editorial), the rulers needed a committed, patriotic military. When Trump initially ordered a blanket ban on refugees from seven largely Muslim countries, 100 former government officials signed a letter opposing it. Among the signers were Madeleine Albright and Susan Rice, both of whom played significant roles in murdering masses of workers in the Middle East during the Clinton and Barack Obama administrations. The finance capital wing of the ruling class is signaling the unreliable Trump to curb his blatant racism that hurts U.S. chances at building a reliable army.
Fight the Fear
Immigrant workers have a long history of fightback. The only response to Trump’s massive racist attack must be to organize. The only safety for undocumented workers can come from a united working class fighting the capitalist state. Many of the greatest leaders in the historical communist movement in the U.S. were immigrants, including Louis C. Fraina, Claudia Jones, Otto Huiswoud, and Claude McKay. The Progressive Labor Party will carry on the practice of fighting in the interest of the international working class. While competition and division are inherent to capitalists, the world’s working class is naturally collective. Forward to a world without borders!

After a three-year hiatus, the U.S. ruling class is pointing to resume a major military exercise with Egypt. Under the threat of growing industrial and military cooperation between Egypt and imperialist rivals Russia and China, the U.S. bosses are seeking a stronger alliance with the regional power to prop up their increasingly tenuous stronghold in the Middle East.
Bridging the Middle East and Africa, linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, Egypt is central to geopolitics in the region. Its Suez Canal and Sumed pipeline are strategic routes for the Persian Gulf and for natural gas shipments to Europe and North America. In 2013, 3.2 million barrels of oil a day passed through the Canal (Business Insider, 4/1/2015). “With its strategic situation, its cultural influence and a population double that of any other Arab country, Egypt has for three decades now been the linchpin of a precarious but enduring regional Pax Americana” (The Economist, 12/15/10).
Egypt is currently the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid after Israel (NPR 2/22). But like many junior partners in today’s sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry, the local ruling class seems to be up for grabs. Egypt and Russia have a “burgeoning military relationship” (Washington Times, 12/1/16), and the two nations recently signed off on a package of 17 intergovernmental agreements (Sputnik International, 3/5/17). Meanwhile, a Chinese company is investing $20 billion to fund the development of a new Egyptian capital 28 miles east of Cairo (CNN.com, 10/10/16).
Egypt’s Sisi: Criminal Thug, U.S. Ruling Class Role Model
The U.S. bosses are still trying to recover from their failed attempt to orchestrate the Arab Spring rebellions into a reliable pro-U.S. government in Egypt. In 2011, Barack Obama’s secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, helped oust president Egyptian Hosni Mubarak, disrupting a three-decade alliance and paving the way for the 2012 election of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. The Brotherhood was born in Egypt in the 1920s as a conservative transnational movement against the British occupation. It gained popularity by using religion to numb the starving workers of Egypt to the reality of their super-exploitation by capitalism.
In 2013, after the subsequent military coup and crackdown led by mass-murderer Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, the U.S. voiced support for the new regime even as it temporarily suspended arms sales to Egypt:  
A month after the military’s intervention—and in the lead-up to its massacre of Morsi supporters near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque—Secretary of State John Kerry even appeared to endorse the coup, saying that the army was “in effect … restoring democracy” and averting civil war (Atlantic, 8/9/15).
In 2015, Obama resumed the transfer of major weapons systems to Egypt, including F-16 fighter planes. “[G]rowing concern over the threat of militants in Sinai, many of whom have pledged loyalty to the Islamic State, as well as Egypt’s decision to buy weapons from Russia and France, led the Obama administration to reverse course” (New York Times, 2/26).
Sisi, whom Trump has called “a fantastic guy,” is best known for his ruthless anti-working-class campaign of repression, censorship, militarized arrests, and mass disappearances—a strategy that inspires Trump, the new assassin-in-chief. “For Trump as well as other senior Republican politicians, Sisi has become an exemplar of a solid ally, a soldier who is tough on terrorism and vehemently opposed to political Islam” (Washington Post, 9/20/16).
The Trump administration, facing widespread pushback against its racist, anti-Muslim immigration ban, may double down and curry favor with Sisi by designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Trump’s targeting of the Brotherhood is aimed to safeguard U.S. imperialism and its primary source of cheaply extracted oil, Saudi Arabia, where the parasitic royal family fears an Islamist challenge to its absolute authority.

The Bronx—“We cannot be quiet. We must fight fascism!”
These were the inspiring words of a Middle Eastern student at our teach-in at a City University of New York (CUNY) campus in the Bronx. More than 500 students and staff crowded into a big hall to better understand the world and make plans to fight back. We discussed organizing against racism, sexism, deportation, mass incarceration, and the ban on Muslim workers. We also got a glimpse of what an egalitarian society might look like as students from all around the world played key leadership roles in speaking, leading the workshops, and organizing the event. The divisiveness of identity politics took a back seat to building a united fightback led by the working class.
The teach-in was organized by a growing grassroots organization on campus. The keynote speakers were all students from countries on the racist Muslim ban list as well as undocumented students. The spirit of fightback was very evident as each speaker called on the participants to take a stand. “There is no one who can stop us!” was the rallying cry of one of the student speakers.
The workshops and discussion circles promoted the fighting spirit of the 1960s. There were no lectures or power points-just students and staff exchanging ideas and experiences on how to best fight back. A member of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) explained how racism is part of capitalism and that we won’t see its end until we end capitalism. The workshops were lively and engaging, and as each ended, there were resounding chants throughout the entire hall. In the anti-racism workshop, students exchanged anecdotes about how they have stood up to racism and many agreed to join the organization and get more involved.
PLP members and friends have been active in the campus struggles here, from challenging tuition hikes to fighting racist police brutality. We have fought to make each event a call for multi-racial unity and working class solidarity. Rather than see the teach-in as a place for “identity politics” where different groups see themselves as separate constituencies, we have held strong to the line that the Muslim ban, racist police killings, and attacks on immigrants are an attack on all of us. These attacks are systemic and not simply the policies of one President. The Progressive Labor Party’s communist ideas have received a positive response on campus, as Challenge distribution and discussion groups have increased.
This event was a step forward in the fight against racism and fascism, and for a better world. The organizers did not shy away from talking about fighting back. Hundreds showed they are ready to fight and are looking to both give and take political leadership. Despite the bosses’ intimidation and fear tactics, students who are the direct targets of Donald Trump’s racist policies showed courage and determination.
But there is much more to be done. Some high school students took the lead with a militant walkout a few days after the teach-in. On campus we must strengthen the sanctuary movement. A rapid response team can respond to any and all attacks on undocumented brothers and sisters. We rally on International Women’s Day to celebrate their leadership of the entire, united working class.
     As we participate in these struggles, we must train future leaders to fight against the whole capitalist system. Let’s step up our fightback on all our campuses and join the Progressive Labor Party in the fight for a better world!

NEW YORK CITY, March 1—A surprised college administrator shifted in his seat and fidgeted with his pen, surrounded at a table by several angry workers. This was an emergency meeting, called by a group of multiracial, immigrant and native-born anti-sexist staff and faculty at a local college, in defense of their woman coworker who was being terminated. Prior to the meeting, the workers had concluded this administrator was primarily responsible for years of sexist attacks on their coworker. The workers called the meeting and, at long last, they confronted him. Now, they sat in judgment.
Facing the administrator, a male worker delivered the charges. He concluded with the verdict and the sentence: “You’re guilty of sexism, and everything that’s happened to our coworker. We demand your resignation!” The boss refused to resign, and threatened the department that if he were to lose his job, the future funding of the department’s programs and staff would be “uncertain.”
This woman worker had endured years of harassment and sexist attacks. The attacks included routinely dealing with sexist comments made by the administrators’ friends, feeling like the bosses encouraged an atmosphere of a “boys’ club,” and more. She witnessed and was intimidated into supporting administrative corruption and was terminated at the same time that this particular administrator received a promotion and increase in pay—despite being removed from actual responsibilities due to incompetence.
This struggle created an opening for wider fightback on campus, a fightback that can and must be linked to the growing “sanctuary” movement supporting undocumented students, and growing restlessness among campus workers against their racist and sexist working conditions.
To Fight or Not to Fight
The workers’ demands for their coworkers’ immediate reinstatement, and for the termination of this sexist administrator, split workers in the department. Some workers followed the passive line of  “what can you do?”
In front of this woman worker, they argued that what’s done was done, and out of fear of losing funding, we need to “come together” and make each other look good so as not to hurt the department’s image. One worker cynically asserted that he’d rather have this administrator because “it could always be worse.”
Other workers argued that publicity (good or bad) does not determine the survival of a department; the needs of the college to save money do. One woman worker stated the whole concept of “justice” was that people who do bad things should face consequences. She was exasperated that, because of fears over their jobs, some were making a perceived choice to save themselves instead of taking a principled anti-sexist position and defending their coworker.
Ultimately, fear won out over militant anti-sexism. Despite passionate and loud opposition, a slight majority called to drop the demand for the administrator to resign. Agreement was eventually reached on drafting a letter of support on behalf of the department to the college president to save this workers’ job. This proposal was loudly endorsed by the more passive workers, who, as a group one week later, refused to sign it and apologized to their terminated woman coworker that the letter was “too extreme”—even though they helped write it!
Which Side Are You On?
The passive, cynical workers hide their fear of struggle behind anti- working class ideas like their “look out for no one but me” philosophy. In the dark night that has followed the collapse of the old communist movement, individualistic bosses’ ideas like these have saturated the international working class. In practice, these ideas amount to abandoning a woman worker they once considered a friend. In practice, these ideas destroy working class unity, and let sexist pigs like their administrator get off with a promotion and less work. As the struggle in this college department clarifies, individualism benefits no one but the capitalists.
On the other hand, international working-class unity is growing in this department. That the administrator was confronted at all, and “indicted” by the multiracial group of militant women and men workers, is a victory. This struggle has the potential to grow. The department was a different place after the meeting, with no more ambiguity about who stood where. In the weeks that followed, many casual work friendships began solidifying into bonds of solidarity.
Sharper Practice, Sharper Theory
Sharp political discussions have ensued since the termination, and the workers have all remained in close touch. One question of “what to do next” was followed by another question: “what result do we want to achieve?” If the workers pull off a great anti-sexist victory and won her reinstatement, and stopped there, they would still be left with the capitalist system that created the sexist working conditions in the first place. Not to mention they could still lose all of their jobs anyway. Some workers’ fears of budget cuts have a real material basis; the U.S. rulers are savagely attacking all public education programs across the country to pay for their imperialist war machine!
Communists want to achieve a different society altogether, where the working class runs the world under communism, free of borders, money, sexism, imperialism and racism. Most workers in the department would agree that a communist world is preferable to the current one. To get there, it will take building working-class consciousness, to see that an injury to one is an injury to all. Fighting against sexist and racist attacks on the job are more than just the best way to win jobs back, they are the “schools for communism” our class needs to break free from fear and passivity.
Communist Potential Grows
The workers in this department fight on. Current and former students have been contacted and are collectively editing a petition to be distributed demanding reinstatement. There are plans to propose a union resolution with the same demands, in addition to an official college investigation into departmental corruption.
Further connecting the fight against capitalism with the local struggles on campus, a plan was made to enlist friends in different campus groups to fight back as well, and struggling to involve this woman worker in a CHALLENGE study group. The struggle continues!