Vol. 72/No. 35      September 8, 2008

We should emulate the example of working people in Iowa who immediately took to the streets in response to the Postville raid, protesting outside the Cattle Congress fairground where workers were first held and joining two marches in Waterloo and Postville. They demanded: free all those detained, stop the raids, legalization for all immigrant workers now!

The U.S. ruling class wants to intimidate workers, not cut off the flow of immigrant labor, which they desperately need to maintain their competitive edge against their imperialist rivals. Taking advantage of rising U.S. unemployment to scapegoat immigrants, they try to convince U.S.-born workers that “illegal aliens” are stealing “American” jobs.

That is a bald-faced lie. The massive May Day mobilizations for legalization of immigrant workers, and the fights for unionization and better working conditions led by these workers in garment shops, coal mines, and meatpacking plants strengthen the fighting space for all workers.

The attacks on immigrant workers: more raids, criminal charges on frame-up accusations of “identity theft,” and stepped-up police harassment and border detentions are an attack on the entire working class.

The raids and scapegoating go hand in hand with new measures to give the FBI, the U.S. armed forces, and local cop agencies a freer hand in spying on and disrupting unions, Black organizations, working-class political parties, and all those who refuse to go along with the injustices, indignities, and dehumanizing effects of capitalism.

The only way we can build strong, fighting unions is by refusing to allow the bosses to divide us and by rejecting the attempts to convince us that there are “American” jobs for “American workers.” There are just jobs, and workers need to stand together to fight for higher wages and better working conditions no matter what side of the border we happen to have been born on.
 
 
Related articles:
595 workers arrested in Mississippi ICE raid
Workers protest killing of immigrant by Maryland cop
3 face trial in killing of immigrant in Pennsylvania  
 
 
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