Vol. 71/No. 12      March 26, 2007

These are workers, not criminals!

These demands must become the rallying cry of organized labor and all working people. A fight around them, combined with the call for immediate and unconditional legalization of undocumented workers, is essential to unite working people in the United States to effectively confront the bosses’ unceasing attacks on wages, job safety, social security, and trade union rights. This is necessary for revitalizing the U.S. labor movement, which continues to weaken.

It’s no accident that the government is targeting the plants where large numbers of workers went on strike last May Day to demand legalization of all immigrants. Last year's mass proletarian actions politicized the working class, as millions walked out nationwide to place political demands on the government. The bosses, and the White House and Congress that do their bidding, are working overtime to reverse what the workers achieved. They are picking off many worker militants and throwing them in jail or deporting them to intimidate the entire working class, while maintaining the unceasing flow of labor through the U.S.-Mexico border necessary for fattening the employers’ wallets.

As the news reports from New Bedford and Cactus, Texas, in this issue alone show, however, many immigrant and other workers are not cowed. They are looking for ways to fight back, and turning for defense to the unions and coworkers. This bolsters the confidence and prospects for increasing unity in action of the working class and its allies in mutual defense.

This is the time to build the March 17 rally in New Bedford and other such mobilizations to demand: End the raids and deportations! Legalize all immigrants now! Free all the workers arrested in the Swift and other factory raids and drop all charges against them!
 
Related articles:
New Bedford factory raid sparks outrage, protests
Immigration cops grab 360 at leather plant;
March 17 rally to back arrested workers
First worker of those arrested at Swift convicted of ‘identity theft’
Workers in Cactus, Texas, respond to ‘migra’ raids
‘Guest’ workers at U.S. farms superexploited
Chicago protest: No to raids and deportations!
‘Militant’ well received by Texas meat packers  
 
 
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