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Articles From
 Immigration Full Citizenship Rights for all Immigrants |
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Don’t Beg, We Demand: Full Citizenship Rights
for All Immigrants! No to the Anti-Immigrant “Immigration Reform” On June 27, the United States Senate approved S. 744, the bipartisan bill touted as “comprehensive immigration reform” and a “path to citizenship” for the officially estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Yet the Senate bill is a vicious piece of anti-immigrant, police-state legislation which will not provide a means of achieving citizenship for the majority of undocumented immigrant working people. It would turn the Mexican border into a militarized war zone, institute a “guest worker” program amounting to indentured servitude, throw immigrant workers out of jobs, impose employment requirements leading to a national identification card, and make possible many millions more deportations than Obama has already carried out. Democrats and Republicans, representatives of capital, are enemies of immigrants and workers. They will not approve an immigration reform providing full and equal rights for the millions of workers who produce super-profits for the bosses. So long as capital rules, immigrants will be under attack. No to the Anti-Immigrant “Immigration Reform” (1 July 2013) Immigration “Reform”: The Big Swindle We Demand: Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants Obama’s “Bipartisan” Immigration Reform Is A Fraud Workers’ Struggle Has No Borders Phony plans for “immigration reform” are the talk of the town in Washington. Don’t be fooled by the hype. The “reform” they are preparing will not be one to benefit the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, but instead it will serve the interests of the capitalists who profit from their labor. In addition, it will involve ominous attacks on civil liberties and labor rights affecting everyone in the U.S. And it won’t just be because “reformers” are capitulating to the xenophobic, immigrant-bashing right-wingers. The liberal, supposedly “immigrant-friendly” Democrats have unleashed even more repression against the foreign-born than the conservative Republicans ever did. What is emerging is a “reform” that would tell the police where to find the undocumented, could well increase unemployment for immigrants, would lead to an expansion of government police control and at most, for a hefty price, would gain the status of indentured servants or being on probation. This is what the Democrats and “mainstream” immigrants’ rights groups want to cheer about. Not us Marxists. We demand full citizenship rights for all immigrants. A real fight for immigrants’ rights must be a fight against capital, which profits enormously from the present situation in which millions of workers have no legal rights, and which seeks to garner even greater profits by “legalizing” them. Obama’s “Bipartisan” Immigration Reform Is A Fraud (April 2013) No to “Secure Communities” in NY – Stop the ICE Dragnet! Protest Obama’s Mass Deportations of Immigrants The federal government of President Barack Obama has announced that it is overriding state objections to impose its “Secure Communities” mass deportation program on New York, Massachusetts and several other states starting on Tuesday, May 15. There should be a massive mobilization against this outrageous attack on immigrant working people. A protest has been announced for Monday, May 14, from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Federal Building in downtown Manhattan. We urge people to attend to show their outrage. But while demonstration organizers call for timid “immigration reform,” we oppose all cooperation with the migra immigration cops, and call for full citizenship rights for all immigrants. Protest Obama’s Mass Deportations of Immigrants (13 May 2012) Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! Deportation Elections 2012: For a Revolutionary Workers Party! May Day, the international workers day, since the massive marches in 2006 has become the day of struggle of immigrant workers as well. On May Day 2012, the American presidential election campaign is well underway. In the Republican primaries, each candidate tried to be more reactionary than the other. The virtual nominee, Mitt Romney, has called for immigrants to "self-deport." Democratic president Barack Obama, meanwhile, is trying to outdo the Republicans in imperialist war abroad and police-state repression "at home." Even as he appeals for the Hispanic vote by again promising to make immigration reform a priority after reelection, Obama has deported 400,000 immigrants a year, far more than his Republican predecessor ever did, earning him the title "Mr. Deportation." The Internationalist Group fights for full citizenship rights for all immigrants, to break with the capitalist parties and build a revolutionary workers party. Deportation Elections 2012: For a Revolutionary Workers Party! (May 2012) Shut the Detention Camps – Free the Detainees! Mobilize Workers, Immigrants to Stop the Deportations! Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants A “megamarch” for immigrants’ rights was held in Washington, D.C. on March 21 that brought out over 200,000 people, making it the largest immigrant demonstration since 2006. Pushing the theme “We March for America,” organizers handed out little American flags to participants. A parade of Democratic Congressmen spoke from the podium. Despite the flag-waving and hundreds of thousands demonstrators chanting (in English) Obama's campaign slogan “Yes we can,” the capitalist politicians are not going to do anything to legalize the more than 15 million undocumented immigrants in this mid-term election year. Even if they do eventually pass an immigration bill, it will only further victimize the super-exploited workers. The Internationalist Group put out a bi-lingual special issue of The Internationalist emphasizing that Democrats and Republicans are enemies of immigrants, and we need a revolutionary workers party Mobilize Workers, Immigrants to Stop the Deportations! (21 March 2010) Mobilize Workers Against Racist Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law! Democrats’ “Concept” of Immigration “Reform”: A Police State The passage of a spectacularly racist immigration law by the Arizona state senate on April 19, and its signing into law by the governor four days later, has provoked a wave of justified outrage. The new law (SB1070) authorizes police to stop people on the street to demand that they produce documents to prove their immigration status. This means blatant “racial profiling” by the cops: in Arizona, anyone who “looks Mexican” is now subject to arrest. Comparisons are made to the racial laws of Nazi Germany, South African apartheid pass laws and the fugitive slave acts in pre-Civil War United States. Many are calling on the federal government to annul the racist law. Yet the federal government under Barack Obama is the biggest jailer of immigrants. Under the present administration the number of deportations has sharply escalated. The Democrats’ talk of immigration reform is a cruel hoax. The centerpiece of the “conceptual framework on immigration” drawn up by New York senator Schumer is increased militarization of the border, more migra cops and a national ID card with biometric data: in short, a police state for all. The Internationalist Group calls on workers to mobilize against Arizona’s racist immigration law and for full citizenship rights for all immigrants. Mobilize Workers Against Racist Arizona Anti-Immigrant Law (1 May 2010) After Racist Arizona Law, Obama’s Border Patrol Kills Mexicans Blood on the Border Down with Democrats and Republicans, Capitalist Parties of War and Repression! Forge a Revolutionary Workers Party! Today in the United States, under the Democratic administration of Barack Obama, xenophobic and racist violence is escalating. The criminal agents of the Border Patrol have reached the point of killing in cold blood, before the eyes of hundreds of witnesses. On May 28, construction worker Anastasio Hernández Rojas was beaten to death by some 20 agents of the U.S. Border Patrol. Then on June 7 in Ciudad Juárez, across the river from El Paso, Border Patrol agents fired into a group of youths on the Mexican side of of the border, murdering 14-year-old Adrián Hernández with a shot to the head. These crimes are part of a policy of racist repression looking for scapegoats, typified by the legalization of xenophobia and police use of racial profiling in Arizona’s SB 1070 law. But while Obama criticized the law and demonstrators chanted, “Obama, listen, we are in the struggle,” his thugs are killing on the border. It is an illusion to think that the commander in chief of U.S. imperialism, or his counterpart and semi-colonial underling, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, will defend the workers. It is necessary to mobilize the power of the working class to defend immigrants. Blood on the Border (10 June 2010) Lynch Mob Murder on Long Island Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! Just before midnight Saturday, November 8, an Ecuadorian immigrant worker, Marcelo Lucero was brutally beaten and then stabbed to death by a lynch mob of drunken teenagers in Patchogue, Long Island. This is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of racist violence against immigrants on the island, and in Suffolk County in particular where the county executive has made immigrant-bashing his election trademark and police regularly harass Latino residents. It was the latest of a number of deadly anti-immigrant attacks taking place as the federal government intensifies deportation raids across the country. And it came only days after the election of Barack Obama, the first black president in the history of the United States. Various immigrant rights groups pretend that the Democratic president will provide immigrants with a “path to citizenship.” Yet both of the partner parties of American capitalism are in a frenzy to “control U.S. borders” and treat immigrants as the “enemy within” as they wage imperialist war from Afghanistan and Iraq to Latin America. It is up to the workers movement and all defenders of immigrant and minority rights to stop the lynchers and the racist rulers. Lynch Mob Murder on Long Island November 2008) Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants – Mobilize Union Power to Block the Raids New Haven: Break ICE Terror with Militant Class Struggle! On Monday, June 4, the New Haven Board of Aldermen passed a local ordinance to provide undocumented immigrants a city-issued photo ID card. Barely 36 hours later, the federal government responded by carrying out a first-ever immigration raid in the Connecticut city. The ICE Gestapo barged into homes, grabbing entire families, picked people off the streets without so much as a warrant, and terrorized the entire neighborhood, home to many immigrant workers. The New Haven raids were a brutal reminder from the feds that the issue is power. After years of futile lobbying for “immigration reform” from Democrats in Congress, many liberals and reformists have turned their sights to more modest local initiatives for “sanctuary cities” and the like. “Stop the Raids!” say demonstrators’ signs. Yes, but how? It will take mass mobilization of labor power. New Haven: Break ICE Terror with Militant Class Struggle (16 June 2007) Hundreds Protest NYU Republicans’ Racist “Illegal Immigrant” Hunt On February 22, College Republicans at New York University (NYU) staged a blatant racist provocation – a “game” of “catch the illegal immigrant.” This was only the latest chapter in a nationwide campaign by campus right-wingers. The grotesque stunt unleashed an outpouring of anger among NYU students and many others. More than 400 protesters turned out and kept up a steady din for three hours, chanting, picketing and drowning out the handful of racist vigilantes. The Internationalist Group carried signs calling for “Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants,” “Mobilize NYC Labor to Defend Immigrant Workers” and “Sweep Racist Vigilantes Off the Streets!” Hundreds Protest NYU Republicans’ Racist “Illegal Immigrant” Hunt (23 February 2007) |
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