Tear down the Border Wall!
Full legalization for all current and future immigrants!
Halt unfair trade policies that force millions to migrate from their home countries!
Despite what the Democrats and some others say, we can’t vote, but hunger and the future of our families means we can’t keep silent either. So we march and shout out our demands. Many will continue to develop support networks and sanctuaries, and other forms of surviving. More than ever, we need to develop or strengthen ties with the rest of our class brothers, as they are also being affected by the economic crisis, losing their jobs, losing their homes, and educational opportunities for their children. We have much to offer the rest of the U.S. working class. We are fighters and we have learned how to survive. After all, we are the ones that brought back to the U.S. the first of May as the International Worker’s Day.
As we embark upon the May Day Events for this year of 2008 it is important to review where we have been, to know where we are going. Despite the marches of 2006—the largest ever seen in the United States—there has been no legalization plan such as occurred in 1986. Instead we witnessed large scale repression against immigrant communities, raids on worksites by ICE, the separation of entire families, racist and discriminatory proposals against immigrant renters, border patrols by vigilantes and paramilitary groups, the deportation of leaders, and many other manifestations of hate and anger. Furthermore, we have seen the defeat of even watered down legalization proposals.
Perhaps out of fear, the marches of 2007 were fewer and smaller. Some say that this shows that the movement is stuck or that people are afraid.
What can we expect for the marches of 2008 given that this is a Presidential election year? Despite the fact that the Democratic candidates Clinton and Obama currently are opposed to massive deportations, in reality they have offered little. With the Republican candidate McCain, we can expect even less. Do we need the same tired strategy of choosing the lesser of two evils?
It is not just the immigrant movement that is in a dilemma. Even the politicians that have historically blamed the immigrant are in this situation. Gov. Schwarzenegger of California, who in recent times was in favor of dispatching National Guard troops to the border, is now stating that it wasn’t the immigrant that caused the budget deficit after all. And why the sudden change of heart? Some capitalists and the politicians that represent them fear that if large scale raids take place in factories and agricultural fields, this will hurt their main political supporters, who depend on the cheap labor of immigrants.
The truth is that the capitalists are living a lie. They know that the immigrant worker is not the cause of the economic problems U.S. workers face today. But they fear that the rest of the working class of this country will find this out. Their purpose is to divide workers and have us fight each other, so that we don’t see that it is the capitalists who have taken over the government in their interests, against the rest of us, whether we are U.S. citizens or not.
We shouldn’t be fooled. The enemy is capable of anything. There is a sector of the ruling class that is prepared to introduce even more repressive, police state measures, including the deportation of up to 12 million persons, if necessary, just to stay in control. In the process they justify a police state that sweeps away rights for any American.
And so we take to the streets once again, because what we are fighting for is what every human being is struggling for—dignity, respect, the right to earn a living, and a future for our children. ¡Aquí estamos y no nos vamos! We are here and we’re not leaving!
