Justice Dept. Calls Sheriff Arpaio Racist

By Paul Teitelbaum
Tucson, Ariz.
Published Dec 23, 2011 8:43 PM

On Dec. 15, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report confirming the criminal practices of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his racist department. The report lists the findings of a Civil Rights investigation that began in June 2008 and concludes that the entire Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office violates not only Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act but several constitutional amendments and laws.

Specifically, the Justice Department said that Arpaio engaged in a “pattern of misconduct” in policies and practices that targeted and mistreated Latinos/as. Its tens of thousands of pages of evidence show his department’s rampant racial profiling of Latinos/as with unlawful stops, detentions and arrests and its use of “excessive force” and abuse of Latino/a prisoners.

These findings are not news to anyone who lives in Arizona or is familiar with Arpaio. Since becoming Maricopa County Sheriff in 1992, the sheriff has brutalized detainees at his jails and carried out an ever-increasing terror campaign against immigrants and the Latino/a community. He has been instrumental in stoking the flames of racism and anti-immigrant hostility in Arizona and in supporting the notorious anti-immigrant law SB 1070.

Arpaio has received ample airtime on television and radio to promote his brutal policies and practices. He has been elevated to celebrity status by the capitalist media, even having a short-lived television show on the Fox network in 2008. The A&E cable channel filmed one of his raids for a so-called “reality” TV show. A SWAT team with armored vehicles and a tank carried out the raid.

The beatings and deaths in Arpaio’s jails continue. On Dec. 17, 44-year-old Ernest “Marty” Atencio was brought into the Fourth Avenue jail. He was then beaten and tasered so badly that he is now “brain dead” and on life support at a Phoenix hospital.

In 1995, Scott Norberg was killed by Arpaio’s thugs 15 hours after his arrest. They beat him so badly that his larynx cracked. Although Maricopa County settled a civil suit with Norberg’s family, no action was taken against the guards who ended Norberg’s life.

Norberg’s attorney discovered that important records pertaining to this incident had been destroyed and that Arpaio had actually promoted the guards involved.

In 1996, detainees in the Tent City jail rebelled against their conditions. Temperatures inside the tents climbed to 145 degrees in the summer. Detainees were routinely denied access to adequate food and water. This abusive treatment led to the first Justice Department case against Arpaio, which was quietly settlled in 1998 when federal officials said that he had made the necessary improvements at the jails.

After the immigrant uprising on May Day 2006, the Department of Homeland Security instituted the 287(g) program, which allows local cops and sheriffs’ departments to enforce federal immigration law. Arpaio signed on to 287(g) and declared war on the Latino/a and immigrant community.

In the first year of 287(g), Arpaio was responsible for 25 percent of all deportations resulting from its enforcement nationwide. His highly publicized neighborhood dragnets for undocumented workers and his blatant racial profiling of Latinos/as have been allowed to escalate under the governorships of both Janet Napolitano and Jan Brewer. With the passage of reactionary law SB 1070, Arpaio acted with impunity.

The Justice Department did not just decide out of the blue to investigate Arpaio’s conduct. It is the same Justice Department that serves subpoenas to anti-war and solidarity activists, that indicts Arab Americans in FBI-manufactured “terrorism plots,” and that participates in planning the crackdown on the Occupy movement.

Jason Aragon is a Tucson videographer, activist and member of Migra Patrol, an organization that documents abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities and border patrols. He has been on the front lines of the struggle against Arpaio. Aragon has spent recent years researching Arpaio and filming for his documentary “Under Arpaio.”

When asked about why the Justice Department investigated Arpaio, Aragon told this writer, “The Justice Department did not decide to do this on its own. They acted in response to the groundswell of community actions and organizing against Arpaio. People risked their lives documenting Arpaio’s [immigration] sweeps and the conditions in his jails.” He explained that Barrio Defense Committees were formed throughout Maricopa County, and people were filming the immigration sweeps. He concluded, “The Justice Department was forced to act.”

This Civil Rights investigation, like its 1996 predecessor, contains no provisions for punishing Arpaio for his cruel and racist practices. Although Homeland Security has terminated the 287(g) program for Arpaio, the report itself contains only a set of recommendations for “reforms” that will correct the “deficiencies” highlighted in it.

Aragon stresses, “Arpaio is in violation of Civil Rights law. He is responsible for abuses and deaths in the jails. He should be indicted for everything that he has done. From the abuses in the jails to the political retaliation against his critics, all the way back to the implementation of Tent City. If the Department of Justice leaves Arpaio in power, it further proves that sheriffs and cops who violate people rights can act with impunity.”

Arpaio is a racist criminal. Even if he did not carry out the abuse and other mistreatment himself, he creates the climate for it and encourages it among his deputies and prison guards. He is responsible for much of the terror wrought upon Arizona’s Latino/a population. Arpaio helped to set the stage for the passage of the ultra-right law SB 1070 and draconian copycat laws like those enacted in Alabama and Georgia. All this has been made possible by the funding and power granted by the federal anti-immigrant 287(g) program.

Wall Street & The Anti-Immigrant Campaign

By Teresa Gutierrez
Published Nov 3, 2011 10:15 PM

On Oct. 18 the Obama administration announced that it had deported almost 400,000 undocumented immigrants during the 2011 fiscal year. “All told, this administration has deported nearly 1.2 million people, leaving a wake of devastation in Latino communities across the nation,” said the American Civil Liberties Union in a press release.

The Latino/a community has the largest group of immigrants in the U.S., but people from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean have been victimized as well by the anti-immigrant campaign sweeping the country. The massive deportations and the unprecedented detention of workers amount to a tsunami of injustice.

It is an attack on not only migrant workers but really against the entire working class. It is meant not only to terrorize one of the most exploited sectors of the working class, but also to sow division at a time when solidarity and unity among the working class is so decisive.

Make no mistake about it: The deportation and detention of workers is big business. It is hugely profitable for the capitalist class. That is why the immigration issue and the defense of immigrant workers has everything to do with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Recent articles in the progressive press and the production of a PBS documentary, “Lost in Detention,” reveal the depth of the injustice. Some of the information demonstrates the unholy alliance between the bloodsucking corporations and those in Washington who willingly take their marching orders from the CEOs.

In an article written for the Americas Program, Peter Cervantes-Gautschi shows that the two largest companies that build and operate U.S. prisons are very much involved in anti-immigrant legislation from Georgia to Arizona. (cipamericas.org) This comes as little surprise as corporate lobbying in Washington — involving obscene amounts of money — is one of the reasons why there is so much anger at Wall Street.

The two corporations that Cervantes-Gautschi notes are the Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group. These two corporations have already earned the wrath of progressive groups. Prison rights activists and the families of the incarcerated have for years targeted the CCA for its abuses as well as for profiting from the unjust imprisonment of so many in this country.

According to the Pew Center on the States, 1 in every 99 persons in the U.S. is behind bars. Because of institutionalized and pervasive racism, the rates are criminally higher for Black and Brown folks. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, so the unbridled drive to lock up immigrants is no shock.

The GEO Group is a worldwide corporation based in Florida. It is infamous for securing the contract in 2003 to run the Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp on the occupied soil of socialist Cuba. This detention center has been targeted by progressives for its use by the U.S. government to illegally and unjustly detain primarily Muslims under the ruse of “fighting terrorism.”

According to Cervantes-Gautschi, GEO and CCA spent a total of $6 million to lobby Congress in just one year. He points out that as workers marched for immigrant rights in record numbers in 2006, the scene was being set for a radical turn in immigration policy to primarily one of enforcement.

Cervantes-Gautschi notes that “Wall Street advisers publicly recommended buying stock in private prison companies like CCA and GEO,” and that “for every dollar spent on lobbying the government, GEO received a $662 return in contracts, a total of $996.7 million.” CCA received a total of $330.4 million.

The PBS Documentary, “Lost in Detention,” details how since 2008 “historic levels” of detentions and deportations have occurred, a fact that will forever mark the Obama administration.

The documentary shows how after a worker is picked up — by a Gestapo-like raid or by a terrifying police stop — and before he or she is deported, they are held in what amounts to human warehousing at these corporate-owned and run detention centers.

The imprisonment of migrant labor is the fastest-growing incarceration system in the country. There are over 250 immigrant detention centers now in the U.S. They are hell holes, exactly like the prisons that incarcerate primarily African-American and Latino/a people. They are mainly built in remote areas that are hard to get to and far from the families of the detained.

In detention, the undocumented workers risk beatings, death or rape. The documentary points out that many have no access to legal representation. Many beg for deportation just to get out of the hell hole.

The mass deportations and detentions affecting millions of workers and their families are why the immigrant rights struggle will inevitably connect in a massive and integral way with the Occupy Wall Street movement. These sectors will unite in a righteous anger against the rich ruling class that exploits us all. The seeds of that unity have already been planted.

Undocumented Youth Block Intersection

By Elisa Benitez-Hernandez
Charlotte, N.C.

Seven undocumented youths blocked traffic in front of Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 6. This civil disobedience was protesting the inaction of the Democratic Party, the harsh anti-immigrant agenda of the Republicans and Tea Party, and the outrageous out-of-state tuition imposed on undocumented students to attend community college.

The event started with a “coming-out” rally, with several youths sharing their stories and publicly announcing their undocumented status. Approximately 200 people, of all ages and backgrounds, gathered in support of their message and courageous actions. The rally proceeded to a march. Finally the youths sat in the middle of an intersection in uptown Charlotte, causing traffic to stall within minutes. At the top of their lungs they shouted, “Undocumented, unafraid! Undocumented, unashamed!”

Those arrested for civil disobedience include Alicia Torres, 25, of Carrboro, N.C.; Angelica Velazquillo, 25, of Charlotte; Manuel Vazquez, 21, of Raleigh, N.C.; Santiago Garcia, 20, of Asheville, N.C.; Cynthia Martinez, 20, of Sanford, N.C.; Martin Rodriguez, 20, of Hamptonville, N.C.; and Marco Saavedra, 21, of Cincinnati. However, the police also went on a rampage, arresting a total of 15 people that day. They included three more undocumented youths, two volunteer paramedics, a bystander and two Raleigh FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together) members.

Those who were undocumented were taken and immediately processed at a Mecklenburg County, N.C., jail. Their cases were in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and they awaited with uncertainty as to whether they would be released or deported. Fortunately, they were all released the next night and all deportation proceedings were dropped. “I even got my alien number — everything was set for me to go and why I didn’t go I don’t know,” said Garcia.

It was no coincidence that the date the youths held their action, Sept. 6, is also the kick-off date for the Democratic National Convention next year. The youths’ goal was for the Democratic Party to know they won’t stand by and be satisfied with empty words. NC DREAM Team ally Domenic Powell said, “This is what we have to do because these are young people whose lives are in limbo. If Democrats think we’re going to go with them, they need to remember they’re dealing with idealistic young people with nothing to lose.”

The arrested youths are frustrated that things have only gotten worse for them. They are now forced to pay out-of-state tuition and can only enroll in classes after all other U.S. residents have been enrolled.

Campaign Rachets Up Defense of Victor Toro

By Teresa Gutierrez
Published Aug 17, 2011 5:07 PM

The next phase of the campaign to stop the deportation of Victor Toro, a 69-year-old Chilean activist and revolutionary, is being launched.

Diana Crowder, coordinator of the campaign, stated that the Victor Toro Defense Committee has been meeting frequently to lay out new and exciting plans to re-energize the movement for Toro. Toro’s defense team has had a new boost with the addition of the City University of New York School of Law’s Immigrant Refugee Rights Clinic, which has taken on Toro’s case as legal representative.

Toro was arrested by U.S. border patrol agents on July 5, 2007, while on an Amtrak train in Rochester, N.Y. The Committee states that he was racially profiled, asked for papers and detained.

Toro and his spouse, Nieves Ayress, are both longtime freedom fighters. In Chile, Toro was instrumental in struggles for basic survival in his community, including the fight for water and housing. Ayress is a longtime activist for women’s and Indigenous rights.

They both organized and fought against the U.S.-backed dictator, Augusto Pinochet, in the 1970s, and were forced to leave Chile as a result of brutal torture and a wave of repression against the political movement. Tens of thousands of Chileans were massacred at the time.

But Ayress and Toro never gave up fighting for the rights of the workers and oppressed. They are founders of La Peña del Bronx and active organizers in the May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights. You will see both at demonstrations on every single struggle, whether it is against U.S. wars abroad or support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the Cuban Five and other political prisoners.

Toro and his family, along with his supporters and legal team, have carried out an aggressive legal and political challenge to demand political asylum. However, in March Judge Sarah Burr denied Toro’s request for asylum. He now faces possible deportation at any time.

This denial is a blow to the struggle for justice not only for Toro, but for all the undocumented and documented immigrants for whom he has fought so hard.

The evidence presented, along with Toro’s testimony, was of such magnitude that no objective judge could have denied the petition for asylum presented by the Chilean former political prisoner. The Defense Committee is demanding that Toro be allowed to remain in the U.S., since deportation back to Chile would uproot him from his family and community in the Bronx. In addition, he faces repression and even the danger of being killed if he is returned to Chile, as the repressive apparatus from the Pinochet era still looms there in the shadows.

Judge Burr concluded that Toro took too long in presenting his application for political asylum and that the political conditions in Chile have sufficiently changed so that Toro can return to Chile without problems. This conclusion completely ignores the testimony presented by Toro and his defense team.

Toro’s legal team had expressed concern that an accusation of terrorism by the prosecution, though unfounded, would not allow for the case to be judged justly and objectively. Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security had introduced the idea that Toro was linked to terrorism or was a terrorist himself. Burr’s decision shows that the Committee’s concerns were valid.

How can the denial of Toro’s political asylum request be justified — especially for a man whose political and social work represent the very essence of what political asylum should be for? How can they ignore the persecution and suffering felt by Toro during the military dictatorship of Pinochet, a dictatorship that was financed by the U.S.? How can the risk he faced as a target of Operation Condor — the infamous and bloody campaign of political repression in the 1970s devised by the U.S. for Latin America — be minimized?

How you can help

The Victor Toro Defense Committee is urging progressives, immigrant rights and labor activists, anti-war organizers and all people of conscience to demand no deportation of Victor Toro. Letters asking for support are being written to various members of Congress, especially the New York state representatives.

A postcard is being drafted by the Committee to send to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder as well as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. An online petition is also being worked on and will be ready to go soon.

Supporters can also help by getting union members, faith-based leaders, anti-war organizations and others to sign on to support Toro remaining in the U.S. Toro, Ayress, his lawyer and other members of the Committee are available for press interviews or to speak at events to help get the word out.

For a copy of the petition, brochure, or postcard or to get involved with the work, please visit www.may1.info or call 718-292-6137.

DREAM Students Win In Texas

By Gloria Rubac
Houston
Published Aug 4, 2011 7:48 PM

Texas DREAM students — advocates and activists for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — won a major victory on July 25 as Marlon Arboleda, a University of Houston student, turned himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities and came out with a deferred action on deportation. When Arboleda and his attorney emerged less than an hour later, shouts of joy filled the air.

The sidewalk in front of the Immigration Processing Center in north Houston was filled with young DREAM students and their supporters, who cheered upon hearing the good news. Earlier in July Arboleda’s brother, Mauro Arboleda, was detained by ICE agents as he left his home to tutor a student, despite having a valid driver’s license. Mauro eventually got deferred action on his deportation and was told his brother had to turn himself in to be considered for deferred action.

Mauro and Marlon Arboleda (top photo) came to the United States in 2004 to escape violence in Colombia. After being denied an asylum petition in 2007, the brothers lived a vulnerable life knowing that, at any time, they could be deported to a country they fear.

Mauro graduated in May from the University of Houston and plans to enter graduate school. An honor student, Marlon is a junior in mechanical engineering. Upon graduation, he plans to work with renewable energies and green technologies.

“This victory today raised awareness over the importance of passing the DREAM Act to ensure that good students such as the Arboleda brothers do not have to go through the same hardship. Students from Houston and across Texas were at the ICE office to support Marlon,” said Cesar Espinosa, director of Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en Lucha.

FIEL sponsored the action along with United We Dream, in association with Texas Dream Alliance, the National Hispanic Professional Organization, and dozens of local Houston activists.

Both of the Arboleda brothers thanked their supporters profusely and declared the struggle would continue until the DREAM Act is passed by Congress.

Immigrant Worker(s) v. Capitalist Titan(s)

By Teresa Gutierrez
Published Jul 24, 2011 11:25 PM

On June 2 hotel housekeepers who are members of UNITE HERE launched a coordinated eight-city speak-out “to break the silence on the dangers of their jobs.” The workers stated that they were “inspired by the courageous stand taken by the housekeepers in New York against some of the most powerful men in the world.” (www.unitehere.org, June 2)

They were referring to the case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who is accused of holding captive and sexually assaulting a housekeeper at New York’s Sofitel Hotel on May 14. DSK was the head of the International Monetary Fund at the time.

The union’s website says, “Nearly all hotel housekeepers are women. The majority are women of color and immigrants.” The workers point out in their union’s Hotel Workers Rising campaign that sexual harassment is a pervasive pattern in their work. Many workers have been subjected to indecent exposure and other types of assaults by hotel guests. (www.HotelWorkersRising.org)

As in all capitalist industries today, hotel workers are facing dangerous speed-ups, which lead to difficult working conditions and serious injuries. In most hotels, housekeepers must clean 15 or more rooms per day, often having to work off the clock and skip meals in order to finish. Chains such as Hyatt and Hilton are leading these speed-ups. Some of these hotels are being boycotted in places like Boston and San Francisco.

The union explains: “Most hotels have introduced new room amenities without reducing the number of rooms assigned to housekeepers each day. Luxury beds with heavier mattresses and linens, triple-sheeting, and extra pillows are increasingly common. Other add-ons like coffee pots, spa robes and large hard-to-clean mirrors make room cleaning more difficult and time-consuming.”

These conditions lead to an injury rate that is 40 percent higher for hotel workers than for other service sector workers, with sprains and strains being the most common injuries.

David vs. Goliath

Imagine the courage it took after hours of cleaning toilets for a housekeeper to accuse one of the world’s most powerful men — a potential president of France, a major European power, a man who could afford to pay $3,000 a night for the hotel room, a man whose sense of class privilege and entitlement was so great that he believed he owned the world and everyone in it.

One woman hotel worker, a housekeeper, a woman of color, an immigrant — in the midst of one of the most vicious anti-immigrant climates ever in this country — dared to stand up to the head of a global multibillion-dollar agency. She may have known nothing of his role as head of the IMF at the time, but her instincts must have told her he was on the other side of the class barrier.

It may not be known for decades — or it may never be known — if it was the overwhelming amount of incriminating evidence against Strauss-Kahn that forced law officials to debark DSK from his plane on his way home to France immediately after the housekeeper’s charges. Or whether it was interimperialist rivalry between the United States and France that led to his arrest. Or whether it was his enemies at home, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom DSK planned to challenge in next year’s presidential election.

But the evidence that DSK is a misogynist who believed he could do and say anything he wanted to women is beyond doubt. It does not matter if his spouse or his daughters stand behind him. The evidence is overwhelming that he views women as objects and commodities, to be used for his pleasure, at his will.

Blaming the victim

When DSK was arrested, many members of the public thought the case against him was strong. But suddenly the tables were turned. Once again, the victim of sexual harassment and rape was put on trial in a classic turn against female victims. Now it looks as if the charges could be dropped.

The National Organization for Women writes, “The mainstream media is trashing the ‘credibility’ of the housekeeper. They’re saying she lied on her immigration papers and has a boyfriend in jail — as if that means the rape charges should be dropped. Every day more than 600 women in this country are victims of rape or sexual assault. Routine victim-blaming and victim-shaming, like we are seeing in the case of these allegations against DSK, help facilitate this epidemic of sexual violence against women, and make it harder for women to report such crimes.” (youngfeministtaskforce.blogspot.com, July 11)

If one adds to this pervasive sexism the demonization and victimization of immigrants, then it’s clear that immigrants and women of color are being sent a message: Suffer in silence. Do not stand up to any injustice, no matter the severity.

The slander raised in the media against the housekeeper was leaked by none other than the prosecution’s office, indicating a decision made from high up that may mean: Hands off DSK. Let him loose.

The housekeeper is from Guinea, which is also the home country of Amadou Diallo, who was cruelly shot to death in a hail of 41 bullets by New York City police officers.

Even though Guinea has almost half of the world’s bauxite — which is what aluminum comes from — 70 percent of the population live on less than $1.25 a day.

Grinding poverty and contradictory social conditions led this hotel worker to come to the U.S. The media and law enforcement officials are saying that she embellished claims of abuse in order to gain asylum in the U.S., that she knows someone in prison, that she falsified tax returns, and so on. If any of this is true, her situation is about survival and not a test of her character.

Immigration experts stress that asylum claimants are asked to carry out a nearly impossible task to comply with requirements. Most asylum claims are denied.

However, none of this has anything to do with this case. Nothing at all.

Justice demanded

Some say that DSK was a more progressive thinker than some in the IMF and to the left of many. However, the IMF like any capitalist entity remains committed to the free flow of money and commodities. It remains committed to structural adjustment policies that fill banks’ coffers and restrict the free flow of humans as well as force an unprecedented wave of human migration.

The IMF has robbed and plundered Africa for decades. It owes the people of Guinea reparations. If it paid reparations, perhaps this housekeeper would not have been forced to migrate.

But rape is rape. Rape is forced sexual violence, and what happened in that hotel room on May 14 should not be removed from the realm of the reality of sexual violence. If DSK is guilty, he should pay for his crime.

Who will win this case? A powerful European man of extreme privilege or a West African hotel housekeeper?

Tabloids report on DSK dining at a New York Upper East Side restaurant where the bill was $700 for four people. They say he attended a concert in Tanglewood, Mass., and spent the night at a hotel where a suite can run to $2,000 a night on the July 15-17 weekend.

Yet, on July 17 several Black community leaders and organizations, along with women’s and immigrant rights’ groups, held a press conference and rally in Harlem called by State Sen. Bill Perkins to demand justice for the hotel worker. No U.S. press came, but the French press showed up and was not friendly.

If DSK is set loose, it will be an insult not only to the housekeeper but to all the people of Africa. It will send a message to women, immigrants and people of color that they should shut up and stay down.

At a time of reeling economic crisis, it will mean that the capitalist institutions that are forcing workers to pay for their crisis will feel emboldened and free to carry out their plunder. But the workers of the world — with women playing a fundamental role — will soon take center stage and victory will be ours.

For more information, see UNITE HERE’s hotel workers’ campaign at www.HotelWorkersRising.org.

Court upholds Arizona's Anti-Immigrant "Employer Sanction" Law

By Paul Teitelbaum
Tucson, Ariz.
Published Jun 2, 2011 9:33 PM

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled May 26 in favor of the Arizona law that forces all employers to check a government-run database to determine if a person is “authorized” to work. The law was signed in July 2007 by then Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and went into effect on Jan. 1, 2008. The misnamed “Employer Sanctions” bill is in reality an attack on workers since it criminalizes the fundamental right of a person to seek work.

The vast majority of humankind has no other way to survive than to sell his or her labor power for wages. We are forced, out of necessity, to do whatever it takes to find a boss who will purchase our labor power — someone who will pay us to work. For immigrant workers, this necessity may force them to make a dangerous journey of hundreds of miles or more, often involving a trek through unknown and harsh terrain. This vulnerable sector of workers, demonized and vilified by the corporate press, is forced by this law to show documents to a boss before being granted the right to work.

The boss takes the documents supplied by the worker and checks them against the federal government’s E-Verify database to see if the Social Security number matches an entry in the database. If the SSN isn’t in the database, the employer receives a “no-match” letter stating that the SSN could not be found.

The no-match letter does not present any real danger to the employer. In fact, the bosses use the threat of this E-Verify “no-match” letter and employer sanctions as another way to harass and intimidate immigrant workers, who may demand a decent wage or complain about intolerable working conditions.

If workers make up Social Security numbers for the sole purpose of getting a job, they are charged under Arizona’s Employer Sanctions law with identity theft, which is a felony. This shows how the law is really aimed at the workers.

The Employer Sanctions law is meaningless to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since the law’s inception in 2007 and the forced use of the E-Verify database, workplace raids by ICE have increased without regard to whether or not the targeted employer complied with E-Verify.

The result is heavily armed SWAT teams terrorizing workers with automatic weapons, rounding them up, placing them in chains and carting them off to detention centers. Families and communities are ripped apart. But the bosses are back in business the next day unscathed.

‘Burdensome’ discrimination

The database itself is considered flawed by many. It was judged unreliable in July 2006 by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. On Feb. 25, 2010, the Wall Street Journal noted that a study commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security showed that the database had an inaccuracy rate of about 54 percent. On May 7 the National Immigration Law Center issued a critique of E-Verify with quotes from employers bemoaning its poor reliability and accuracy.

Many businesses in Arizona oppose the Employer Sanctions law and see it as too burdensome. These bosses still want cheap sources of labor power. They prefer a “guest worker” program, in which workers are delivered by the state when needed and disposed of when no longer needed. Guest workers would have no rights, could not organize a union and would be at the complete mercy of the bosses.

By letting the Arizona law stand, the Supreme Court has given the green light to other states to follow suit. As with other racist, anti-immigrant laws like SB1070, they are hatched here in Arizona, and if successful, other states are ready to enact copycat legislation.

The capitalist courts don’t determine the final outcome, however. It is the determination of the people in the struggle that makes the difference. Although the Supreme Court may have ruled in favor of this law, we oppose it and will fight against it and all other racist, repressive anti-immigrant legislation that spews forth in Arizona, Georgia, Utah or anywhere else.
Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Boycott campaign gathers momentum

By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
Published May 27, 2011 11:55 AM

Immigrant rights activists in Georgia have stepped up their visibility campaign against discriminatory legislation, particularly HB 87, an Arizona copycat law that legalizes racial profiling.

Scheduled to take effect July 1, the law empowers local police throughout the state to arrest and detain anyone not carrying proof of legal residency. It also requires employers to use the federal E-Verify system before hiring a worker. HB 87 also criminalizes anyone transporting an undocumented person.

Several Georgia counties are already involved in the 287(g) program, which authorizes local law agencies to enforce immigration policies. Thousands of undocumented workers from around the world have been deported from Georgia in recent years for minor traffic offenses under this program.

Corrections Corporation of America operates several for-profit prisons in Georgia. It has been revealed that its lobbyists played a major role in writing Arizona’s SB 1070, and similar charges are being made about its influence on the Georgia legislation.

On May 7, Georgia Students for Public Higher Education conducted a banner drop focusing on another anti-immigrant piece of legislation at the commencement ceremonies of Georgia State University, held at the mammoth Georgia Dome. This act bars undocumented students from attending the top five schools in the university system, no matter their qualifications.

The next weekend a large rally was held in Gainesville, Ga., the home of several of the most anti-immigrant Georgia politicians, including Gov. Nathan Deal. It was organized by students at Gainesville State College and a number of community and faith-based groups from this rural county.

On May 15, banners opposing HB 87 were dropped during the Civil Rights baseball game played at Turner Field in Atlanta, where Grammy-winning musician Carlos Santana publicly denounced the legislation.

Hundreds of women and children marched in downtown Atlanta on May 22 to protest the implementation of HB 87. Organized by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the mothers’ protest is part of a series of public rallies and actions building to a day of “No work” on July 1.

A national campaign to boycott Georgia is gathering momentum, with the AFL-CIO announcing it will not schedule any conferences in the state as long as HB 87 is law.
Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

FBI Storms Into the Home of L.A. Chicano Activist

From:Committee to Stop FBI Repression

On May 17, 2011 at 5:00 AM the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided the home of Carlos Montes, a long time Chicano activist and active member of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. The SWAT Team smashed the front door and rushed in with automatic weapons as Carlos slept. The team of Sheriffs and FBI proceeded to ransack his house, taking his computer, cell phones and hundreds of documents, photos, diskettes and mementos of his current political activities in the pro-immigrant rights and Chicano civil rights movement. Also taken were hundreds of historical documents related to Carlos Montes’ involvement in the Chicano movement for the past 44 years.

Carlos was arrested on one charge dealing with a firearm code and released on bail the following morning. His first court appearance is set for June 16, 2011.

This attack on Carlos Montes is part of the campaign of FBI harassment taking place against the 23 peace and justice activists which has until now been centered in the Midwest. Carlos Montes’ name was listed on the subpoena left in the office of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee last September 24. When Carlos Montes was placed in the LA County Sheriff's car, an FBI agent approached and asked him questions about the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Carlos Montes has done nothing wrong. This is an attack on him and an attack on the Chicano movement for equality. Carlos has been involved and a committed leader in the immigrant rights, anti war, solidarity, and quality education movements his whole adult life.
Stop the Attacks on the Chicano and Immigrants Rights Movement!

We demand all charges be dropped against Carlos Montes. We call for the immediate return of all his property.

Please call and write US Attorney General Eric Holder (202) 353-1555 and demand Hands Off Carlos Montes and other activists.

Join the LA Committee Against FBI Repression on May 24, 2011, at 7 PM to hear first hand about this attack and discuss the FBI repression targeting political activists and movements. The program will take place at F Square Printing, 519 South Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

www.stopfbila.net
www.stopfbi.net

Stop Deportations! On May Day Demand Solidarity and Legalization!

By Teresa Gutierrez
Published Apr 27, 2011 7:46 PM

More than 1 million immigrants have been deported since President Barack Obama took office. One million! This is a tsunami of injustice.

This mass deportation of immigrants takes place amid a wave of anti-immigrant legislation sweeping the country. Many such bills have already been passed by state legislatures, most recently in Georgia. Many more are pending, as in Florida, making this the ultimate hour of “show me your papers” in the U.S.

But whatever the stage of the bills, the legislation has already achieved its goal of contributing to a racist, anti-immigrant climate. This witch-hunt is calculated to instill fear in immigrant communities, driving workers to go further underground or to self-deport, and to prevent immigrants from organizing for their rights.

Furthermore, the anti-immigrant climate is meant to break solidarity between workers born in this country and workers born elsewhere.

These attacks come in the context of the deepening economic crisis. What is the solution of the corporate bosses and their representatives in government to the crisis they created? It is to attack teachers, steal workers’ pensions, increase layoffs and foreclosures, and sabotage unions, including the fundamental right to collective bargaining.

To carry out this program, the bosses must foster divisions among the working class. The capitalist system counts on social peace as it dismantles workers’ rights to a job, health care, education and so on. Only solidarity and a fighting spirit can push their program back.

May Day 2011 is more important than ever. May Day was born as a day of righteous struggle, of revolutionary militancy, and that spirit must be revived again in the U.S.

Solidarity. A united, militant fightback. These are the only things that will stop the deportations as well as all the attacks against workers and the oppressed. Only by reviving the class struggle can we not only defend past gains but win new victories.

Washington, not local laws, behind deportations

Behind the 1 million deportations is a federal policy initiated by the Obama administration in 2008 called “Secure Communities.”

Writing a series of articles in Counterpunch last summer and fall, Stewart J. Lawrence commented that Obama’s Secure Communities may be more dangerous than the laws emanating from Arizona.

A half-year later the facts show this to be true.

Secure Communities was sold to the public as a program that would deport alleged criminals without documents.

The fact is that a million workers have been deported, many of them under the Secure Communities policy. This demonstrates that this program is meant to round up the undocumented under any pretext, demanding papers to prove their official immigration status and then consigning those without papers to the deportation process.

Legal experts, human rights and immigration activists have all denounced this as extreme racial profiling. Only people of color are stopped and asked for their papers.

Chicago activists point to the case of an immigrant who was stopped because a cop alleged that the Virgin Mary hanging on a string in his car blocked the driver’s vision. (Medill News Service, Northwestern University)

The 1 million people who have been deported are not criminals. They are workers — workers who were forced to come to this country because of U.S.-orchestrated economic and political policies, such as NAFTA and the kidnapping of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti.

Often, what police use to justify stopping workers are things people are doing simply to survive. For example, a woman in New York was stopped, and ultimately deported, for selling CDs, allegedly illegally.

However, even that small group of workers who might have committed a serious anti-social act must be defended. Otherwise, the movement would be going along with ruling-class attempts to divide “good” and “bad” workers, while the real criminals drop bombs in Libya or foreclose on homes.

The movement cannot go along with this divide-and-conquer attitude of the ruling class that wants the movement to take sides and agree to deport “those bad immigrants but not these.”

Lawrence pointed out that Secure Communities targets “low-level misdemeanor offenders, including people who may be guilty of little more than running a stop sign or driving with a broken taillight.” Many of these people are innocent. “But,” wrote Lawrence, “they are getting rounded up and processed for deportation just the same.”

The program began in North Carolina and Texas in October 2008. Now, about 500 jurisdictions in at least 25 states are working with the Department of Homeland Security to implement the program. Lawrence noted that is more than six times the number of jurisdictions working under the earlier immigration legislation, Section 287(g), which authorizes local police to act as Customs agents.

To add insult to injury, the Department of Homeland Security originally told state government officials that they could opt out of Secure Communities. This turned out not to be true.

In mid-April, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California called for an investigation of federal immigration officials who she said lied about whether states or counties had the right to opt out of Secure Communities. Opponents of the program say this deception probably prevented officials who do not want to go along with the program from filing lawsuits in time to prevent the collaboration.

According to a commentary by Bill King in the Feb. 16 Houston Chronicle, it costs about $23,500 per person to deport a worker. Imagine if that money were used for human needs instead of repression.

Jobs, legalization and health care for all would result in real secure communities.

Obama meets on immigration

On April 19 President Obama met with several elected officials as well as community and labor leaders. Participants included New York billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and the Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network. The meeting was about reviving the national discussion on “comprehensive immigration reform.”

The specific call for CIR has been dropped by many immigrant advocates, because much of the legislation in and out of Congress called CIR would actually do the opposite of what the progressive movement is demanding.

That’s why the right-wing, anti-immigrant forces have also called for CIR. Their CIR often includes guest worker programs and compulsory biometric identification systems that would hurt all workers. These bills grant legalization to almost no workers.

What much of the pro-immigrant movement continues to demand is immediate and genuine legalization for all. And it will not stop until legalization is won.

This wing of the movement condemns any and all guest worker programs and considers them a slap in the face not only to foreign-born workers, who are brought here with little or no rights, many in slave-like and abusive conditions, but to unions as well. Guest workers have been used in the past to break union campaigns.

AFL-CIO’s Trumka will be speaking at a May Day rally in Milwaukee organized by Voces de la Frontera and others. This is an important gesture of solidarity.

Trumka will be representing immigrants, especially the undocumented. In any further discussions with President Obama he must make sure that legalization is front and center.

Furthermore, a moratorium on deportations is long overdue.

The 2011 May Day rallies around the country must send a clear message of independent struggle.

May Day rallies must say to all those involved in the debate on immigration — to the bosses who want to place the burden of the economic crisis on workers’ backs; to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who conduct vicious, racist raids in immigrant communities; to all the right-wingers who are blaming the budget deficit on workers and their unions: Stop the war on the working class!

Wisconsin showed the way. Now we must take it further.

Only an end to all the attacks on workers will suffice — whether they are teachers or students, dishwashers or nurses, autoworkers or miners.

Until this war ends, we must not only continue to march and demonstrate but revive the militant spirit of the Haymarket struggle for the eight-hour day, from which May Day was born.

Immigrant youth declare: ’Undocumented, unafraid’

By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
Published Apr 14, 2011 11:07 PM

Hundreds of students from nearby Georgia State University, area high school youth, civil rights leaders and community members gathered in Hurt Park April 5 in Atlanta and listened attentively to the stories of eight young people from Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Illinois who proclaimed that they were coming out of the shadows to openly fight for their rights as human beings. All of them have grown up in the U.S., brought by their parents — seeking relief from conditions of extreme poverty in their home countries and a better life for their children — who have worked for years in this country.

The students wept as they described the fear that they or their parents would be deported — a fear that constantly rules their lives. They spoke about how well they did in school and their dreams of making a contribution to their community as a lawyer, a teacher, a social worker.

The youths talked about all their efforts to win passage of the DREAM Act, which failed to pass in Congress last year. That legislation would have offered tens of thousands of undocumented youth a path to citizenship. They all declared that they were not going to be silent as elected officials use them as political pawns to curry favor with right-wing forces. Before the TV cameras and police agencies, to the roar of approval from their supporters, they declared they were “undocumented and unafraid.” One of the goals of the action was to call upon the president of Georgia State University, Mark Becker, to refuse to comply with a Board of Regents’ ban on admitting qualified undocumented youth to study at the institution. Earlier this year, the governing body of Georgia’s public universities, colleges and technical schools capitulated to anti-immigrant pressure and barred undocumented students from the state’s top five public institutions of higher education, including GSU.

These students already have to pay out-of-state tuition, which is almost triple that paid by fellow high school graduates. They are also not eligible for the HOPE scholarship program. Georgia also denies a driver’s license to anyone who does not have papers. Just days before this action, upwards of 8,000 people packed the street in front of the Georgia Capitol to oppose an Arizona SB 1070-style racial profiling law that is pending final passage in the Assembly. Pressure against the anti-immigrant legislation has come from diverse forces, including business interests, religious groups, civil rights organizations and foreign trade leaders, warning that Georgia will become the target of a boycott.

Sit-in demands ‘education, not deportation’

After delivering a letter to Becker’s office, the protesters marched around the campus, chanting “Education, not deportation” and “Refuse the ban.” In a synchronized action, they placed huge banners, reading “We will no longer remain in the shadows” and “Will you take a stand?” in the middle of a highly trafficked street, leading to the State Capitol, and sat down. Cars came to a halt; the area was filled with chanting students, TV cameras, photographers and eventually police.

After more than an hour and a great deal of discussion among the several police forces, including campus and Capitol agencies, members of the Atlanta Police Department arrested seven young people to the boos and cries of “shame” from the crowd. Each of these seven youth face the possibility of being deported as a result of their arrest. Held in the Atlanta City Jail overnight on charges of obstructing traffic, they were all questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement about their citizenship but were not turned over to the federal agents. On the morning of April 6, they all were released on $2,000 bonds. Taking a page from the student actions of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, there are plans to commit similar acts of civil disobedience in other cities to focus attention on the injustice of immigration policies that criminalize workers, deny young people opportunity, separate families and promote racial profiling. For more information, go to www.thedreamiscoming.com

Women of Mexico in The Crossfire

By Teresa Gutierrez
Published Mar 25, 2011 7:28 PM

Women — mostly teenaged or very young — have been kidnapped, tortured, raped, mutilated and killed by the hundreds in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, sister city to El Paso, Texas.

According to several Mexican and international press accounts, human rights and women’s groups as well as the families and friends of the victims, more than 500 women — factory workers, store clerks and sex workers — have been murdered since 1993 in Ciudad Juárez.

At the end of 2010 and early this year, two women activists, well-known, beloved leaders in the movement in Juárez, were executed in cold blood.

One was Mariesela Escobedo Ortíz, murdered on Dec. 16. Her daughter, Rubi Marisol Escobedo, had been murdered two years ago, her body burned and thrown into a rubbish heap.

The other woman killed was Susana Chávez, an internationally recognized artist and human rights activist. Her body was found in January. She had been strangled, and one of her hands had been cut off.

For the past two years, Mariesela Escobedo Ortíz had worked tirelessly with Justicia para Nuestras Hijas (Justice for Our Daughters).

The month of her murder, she had begun a peaceful protest against the unfair sentence given the killer of her teenage daughter. Escobedo was gunned down in front of the state Capitol building, shot in cold blood as she ran in through the doors seeking help.

Susana Chávez was a member of Qué Regresen Nuestras Hijas a Casa (May Our Daughters Return Home) and author of “Song to a City in the Desert.” She had brought to life the slogan, “Not One More Death,” which has become a rallying cry throughout Mexico.

These two women are among thousands of examples of the deep, state-sponsored and U.S.-orchestrated repression and brutality sweeping Mexico.

There has been an international outcry against the murders. A movement has been launched in Mexico and abroad. Many documentaries as well as mainstream movies have been made about the crisis, including one by Jennifer López called “Bordertown.”

Several mainstream celebrities such as Jane Fonda have traveled to Ciudad Juárez to shed light on the crimes. Women’s groups from the U.S. and elsewhere have joined the appeal.

Yet the injustice continues unabated.

The women of Juárez are dark-skinned, mostly from the Indigenous communities of Mexico, overwhelmingly poor and working class. To the ruling classes on both sides of the border, these women are dispensable.

Moreover, the crimes fit into the current U.S./Mexican political context: They instill fear and terror as the capitalist state dismantles the rights of the working class for the benefit of imperialism.

Despite the repressive and brutal climate, mothers and fathers, friends and families — the entire community — have nonetheless protested and organized nonstop in Juárez to bring world attention to this horror.

Ciudad Juárez industry continues to boom

In December a New York Times article reported that “more than $42 billion in trade value moved through the ports” of Ciudad Juárez in 2009, “representing 15 percent of the total trade between the United States and Mexico. That number is estimated to be even higher in 2010.” It noted, “Since June 2009, more than 24,000 manufacturing jobs have been added in Juárez.”

The assembly line workers at these manufacturing sites — known as maquiladoras, most of which are owned by U.S. companies — make on average $1.60 to $2 an hour. The companies operate in tax-free zones and assemble products for export using imported materials.

The group Maquila Network Solidarity in Canada points out that “gunmen opened fire on buses carrying nightshift maquiladora workers to communities outside the city. When the mass killings of women [it is estimated that more than one-third of these women were working in maquiladoras] first surfaced over a decade ago, industry did little to protect workers, claiming it was not their responsibility because the attacks did not take place on their property. By the 1980s the maquila sector was booming, and after the passage of NAFTA in 1994 it gained even more momentum. Today some 3,000 maquilas operate throughout Mexico, generating a quarter of the country’s GDP.”

According to a Juárez-based university and research institution, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, 10,000 of Juárez’s 500,000 children under the age of 14 are now orphans. The institution states, “It is impossible to know the number of youngsters who have witnessed a killing or stood close to a corpse that’s still warm.”

A massacre is going on in Juárez. For the capitalist class it is business as usual.

The Mexican and U.S. governments must be held accountable for these atrocities. The criminals and those who protect them must be punished for these heinous, misogynist crimes.

In some ways, the silence of complicity and impunity by both the Mexican and U.S. governments is even more shocking and despicable than the crimes themselves.

When it comes to the U.S., the big-business-owned media and government only raise the issue of women’s oppression when it fits into their geopolitical designs, such as an excuse to justify intervention or war.

In Mexico, the illegitimate government of Felipe Calderón, who stole the presidential election in 2006, is inciting violence as a way to subdue the rising tide of struggle.

Repression, however, breeds resistance. The Mexican people have shown over and over that they are willing to fight to the end.
Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Activists Push Back Anti-Immigrant Car Grabs

By John Parker
Los Angeles
Published Mar 17, 2011 9:24 PM

The Southern California Immigration Coalition stepped up its campaign in Los Angeles last year to stop the growing number of car impounds against non-driving-under-the-influence unlicensed drivers at police checkpoints. The coalition says this policy targeted undocumented immigrants, who, through no fault of their own, were unable to obtain licenses.

In addition, SCIC stressed that these impound policies disproportionately target and more severely penalize residents in Black and Latino/a neighborhoods, where the vehicles are needed to get to work. Moreover, the impounded cars’ owners are forced to wait 30 days before they can pay at least $1,000 to get their vehicles back.

The SCIC’s campaign strategy targeted city-affiliated neighborhood councils and conducted protests during live checkpoints. SCIC members aimed to warn motorists and build awareness of the impound policy’s unfair nature. They succeeded in gaining abundant media coverage of their protests at impounded car sites. Two Los Angeles neighborhood councils voted to stop impounding.

SCIC’s efforts paid off sooner than expected. On March 11, just one week after a very successful protest at a Los Angeles Police Department checkpoint, Police Chief Charlie Beck said the city had revised its towing policy. The March 13 Los Angeles Times said, “Police would be required to try to contact the registered owner of a vehicle, which is stopped at a checkpoint. If the owner is licensed and can arrive in a reasonable amount of time, the car would not be impounded. If the owner is unlicensed, but a licensed driver is in the car, that person may be permitted to take it.”

Ron Gochez, a SCIC steering committee member, said, “People in our communities can sleep a little easier now with less fear about losing their vehicles. Because of the work the coalition has been doing on the streets putting pressure on the mayor and LAPD, this is a concrete victory for our communities.”

According to a Los Angeles Times’ study of checkpoint information from the California Office of Traffic Safety, during a three-month period in 2009, nearly 4,000 vehicles, or 55 percent, were impounded due to unlicensed drivers. Only 14 percent were impounded for driving under the influence or other reasons.

In Coachella in Riverside County, drivers are given 30 minutes to find a legal driver to avoid an impound. Mayor Eduardo Garcia told the Los Angeles Times the city’s impound policy was changed because “we saw an escalation of vehicles being towed and the hardship that it was creating for families.” He added that those affected were “not individuals who were DUI, or who had suspended licenses” or were being sought by the law, but the policy mostly targeted migrant workers in his community.

This is a real revenue booster for the state, as tens of thousands of cars were seized from 2007 to 2009. In one year alone, the state of California made $40 million in impound fees.

Many residents see the severely punitive impound policies as yet another way to make working and poor people pay for the economic crisis. By refusing to go after the rich or the oil companies to balance city budgets, which are broken by government war spending and bailouts, revenue-increasing schemes using law enforcement as a cover — whether from increasing fines for parking tickets or impounds — are instituted.

John Parker is a member of the Southern California Immigration Coalition and the chair of the Central Area Neighborhood Council, which was one of two city-affiliated councils to pass resolutions to stop car impounds at police checkpoints.
Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

North Carolina Says "NO!" to Anti-Immigrant Law

From: Fight Back! News

By Kosta Harlan |
February 2, 2011

Raleigh, NC - Over 80 people gathered here, Feb. 1, outside the North Carolina General Assembly to voice strong opposition to HB11. Undocumented students are already faced with the burden of paying out-of-state tuition. This bill, proposed by Rep. George Cleveland, would go further in barring undocumented students from having access to any community colleges and universities in the state. Because of North Carolina's new Republican-majority legislature, the bill is likely to pass.

But those who took part in the vigil and organized the rallies across the state are determined to stop the passage of HB11.

Protesters held signs that read, “Don't let HB11 get to debate,” and “We don't want another Arizona!” while several powerful speakers talked about their experiences being undocumented and struggling for their right to education. Rep. Paul Luebke of Durham also spoke and denounced the draft bill as “mean-spirited.”

The vigil in Raleigh was one five actions that took place across North Carolina. Other rallies took place in Asheville, Greenville, Greensboro and Charlotte. The vigils also honored the 51st anniversary of the historic 1960 Greensboro sit-ins, which helped lead the path to de-segregation in the 1960s.

The Raleigh vigil was organized by the Adelante Education Coalition, with the presence of the North Carolina DREAM Team and El Centro Hispano, among other progressive groups.

Mauricio Castro, with the North Carolina Latino Coalition, closed the rally by stating, “We have a lot of work to do, but we shall overcome. History is on our side, and the future is waiting for all of us.”

The vigil ended with chants of “Education not deportation!” and, "What do we want? Education! When do we want it? Now!"

Fred Goldstein "What is Fascism? How to Fight it?"

WWP Leader on Tucson: 'Don't Let The System Off the Hook!"

Published Jan 23, 2011 7:41 PM

Following is a somewhat condensed version of a talk by Workers World Party Secretariat member Teresa Gutierrez to a Jan. 14 WWP forum in New York.

In the wake of the events in Tucson, one of the running themes in the media all week was: “This is not the time to point fingers; this is the time to remember the fallen.” We say no. This is exactly the time to point fingers while remembering the victims.

And we point the finger not only at the racist, reactionary rhetoric of the right, not only at the Sarah Palins, Glenn Becks and the Tea Party, but at the entire capitalist system.

The bourgeoisie, the media and the government want to narrow the focus on this tragedy. The theory of a “lone assassin” or “a deranged killer” is in their interests; it keeps the system off the hook. This we must not allow.

We have to point out that the capitalist system cannot function without terror and violence at its command. It needs and counts on divisions and alienation in society so that it can be free to carry out its war against the workers and the oppressed.

From day one this country was built on such violence and terror: the horrific enslavement of African people, the robbery of Mexico, the genocide of Native people, the foreign domination of oppressed lands.

What else can we expect except tragedies like Tucson when the foundation of this country is built on aggression and putrid to its core? This is the “America” we are expected to rally around.

The International Action Center and Workers World Party were the first to call this a political assassination attempt. It was obvious that the extreme anti-immigrant, racist, anti-worker climate in Arizona led to Saturday’s events.
Deepening economic crisis behind tragedy

We did not need to know the mental stability of the suspected shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, because he was influenced by the rhetoric filling the air waves. It was the racist, anti-Obama, right-wing language; the militarization of the border; the ban on ethnic studies; the lying, deceitful rhetoric on health care; attacks on abortion; and so on that led to his actions.

As the sheriff of Pima Country, Clarence Dupnik, said: “Arizona has become the Mecca of hatred.” And while we do not characterize a political climate with an emotion, we agree that the reactionary climate was behind these events.

Dupnik is a life-long cop, a representative of the state, and he is motivated by a desire to preserve capitalist order. Since his comment, the right wing in Tucson has gone after him and is calling for his resignation.

We may never know who was whispering what to Jared Lee Loughner. That may be revealed in some scandalous exposé years from now. But we do know this: Mental hospitals are being shut down with no concern at all for the mentally ill. The sick are forced to sadly walk the streets alone and homeless because of cuts in health care.

Much has been revealed about Loughner’s state of mind. Reports indicate that he was psychologically severely ill. There is no evidence yet to show whether or not there was a fascist conspiracy to use him, but it is clear he was immersed in vile attitudes manipulated by the right.

Loughner had been rejected by the military, kicked out of school, had several encounters with police, was even arrested. He could have made any of these a target. But instead he went after an elected official.

If we lived in another kind of society, where genuine help was available for the ill, an organized community based on solidarity, not profit or individualism, would have stuck to him until it was assured he was being taken care of. Financial issues would not be obstacles to proper treatment.

But that is not the picture of capitalism at all. Capitalist society reeks with alienation and individualism. Every person, every family is on its own. This is fostered by every single racist, anti-worker, anti-poor institution from the courts to the education and health care systems.

Look at what is happening in the prisons around this country. It is state-sponsored terror and violence.

Two women — the Scott Sisters — were in a horrible jail for 16 years for allegedly taking $11! The prisoners of Ohio and Texas are tortured every single day. In a way that is a much worse crime than anything a lone person does.

And we cannot forget terrorist acts like the FBI killing of an Imam in Detroit, the ongoing police shootings of Black and Latino youth, the murder of a 17-year-old migrant on the border just a few days before the Tucson tragedy. All are examples of the violence that is a by-product of the capitalist system.

Above all, we know that behind the tragedy in Tucson is the deepening economic crisis. As the capitalist class goes after public workers, unions, immigrants and oppressed people, as it moves to make conditions here like those in oppressed countries around the world, it needs divisions, racism and reaction to carry out its brutal program.

Tucson was a political, fascist assassination attempt because it took place at ground zero of the right-wing climate; because the target was not random individuals but an elected official, a member of Congress who had been steadily singled out by the right wing.

Paul Teitelbaum, in his article in the Jan. 20 Workers World, lists all the attacks against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, including the infamous crosshairs that Sarah Palin put on Giffords’ district on her website.

Just a word on Giffords. She is no progressive. She supported the militarization of the border and was basically quiet on SB 1070 and the Arizona ban on ethnic studies. But the right wing hated her nonetheless.

We do not know if the fact that she was a Jewish woman contributed to why Loughner went after her. A lot has to do with how her opponent in the congressional race, Jesse Kelly, conducted his campaign. He invited supporters to join him at a gun range to fire an M-16 assault rifle; his election poster showed him cradling one with the words, “Send a warrior to Congress.” Some on the right attended Giffords’ events carrying arms.

In our statements, we pointed out that if the shooter had been a person of color, an immigrant or a Muslim, this would have immediately been characterized as a terrorist act.

The case is now in the hands of the FBI, the same ones who have not rounded up fascist right-wingers or Minutemen but have instead gone after anti-war activists. That is why a people’s investigation and a people’s response is the only alternative to the events in Tucson.

It is very likely that the Justice Department and its FBI will cover this all up. If the state proceeds with a nonpolitical interpretation of Saturday’s events and restricts the action to that of a lone deranged individual, this will be a signal to fascist elements: Keep doing what you are doing; you are safe. This will allow the fascist elements in society to grow. And this we cannot allow.

The memorial on Jan. 12 was a rally of social democratic forces and the more moderate wing of the ruling class. Not all of those there, of course, were social democrats; many were part of the capitalist establishment. But the event definitely strengthened the social democrats in the movement who are loyal to the capitalist parties.

President Obama’s initial statement after the shooting was rather weak and completely skirted the politics of the event. He appeared fearful, and rightly so, as he is the target of a racist and violent campaign himself.

Our party understands the contradiction that the Obama presidency poses for our movement. On the one hand are his thoroughly imperialist policies of war, bailing out the banks and so on. On the other hand, we deeply understand the national question in this country, and would defend Obama from any racist, right-wing attack in the context of solidarity with the Black community and against racism.

The moderate wing of the Democratic Party recovered itself on Jan. 12. What was a memorial to the victims also became a political event. It became an opportunity for mainstream forces among the ruling class and the Democratic Party to send a message to the right wing. It was very mild; it was very touchy-feely. But it was nonetheless a rebuke to the Palin-type ideology.

The event was opened by a Native person, a U.S. citizen who is half Mexican and proudly declared it. There was an immediate round of almost thunderous applause. For sure many Mexicans among the masses must have sighed a small sigh of relief. After all the racism and vilification of Mexicans in Arizona, it was a teensy-weensy blow against racism.

I am positive that many Mexicans wished that when a tribute was paid to the gay Mexicano who saved Gifford’s life and he took the mike, he would have said something, anything about the anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican climate raging in the area, anything against the senseless, brutal and cruel deaths of Mexican immigrants on the Arizona border. But he did not. Oh, well; I know many gay Latinos who will.

Workers & oppressed must push right wing back

The social democratic forces who rallied in Tucson cannot have the last word on these events. This is an issue for the working class; an event that revolutionary forces and class-conscious activists must take hold of. We cannot allow the liberal bourgeoisie, much less the far right of the ruling class, to set the agenda on this or any other such important development.

The working class and the oppressed must be the ones to push the right wing back. Arizona may be ground zero for the right, but it must also become ground zero for the fightback.

Who will benefit the most from the events in Tucson? Will it be the right wing? Will it be the Obama forces, who will only use the events to continue their war on the working class? Or will it be the progressive and revolutionary forces?

Can events in Arizona become the magnet for a broad working class May Day, where not just immigrants march in record numbers but other sectors of the working class join them in large numbers?

This is long overdue.

Our party is committed to finding ways to connect the struggles, to build the movement against the cuts and attacks on all workers, here and around the world, to illustrate that the capitalist system is the root of all the problems and must be destroyed if humanity is to prevail.

Whatever the political landscape in the coming period, the time is long overdue to wage a militant, righteous struggle against the dire economic crisis, which is at the heart of everything in this period.

So on to defeating the right and ending fascist terror! On to winning justice for the workers and oppressed of Arizona, for land stolen from Mexico! Down with the Tea Party and Sarah Palin! Enough with the Democrats and Republicans!

Down with U.S. imperialism!

Abolish capitalism and build socialism! Si se puede!
Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Palin Invokes Anti-Semitism to Deflect Blame for Arizona Murders

By Edward Yudelovich
Published Jan 23, 2011 7:36 PM

Twenty people were shot and six of them died while attending a political rally for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 8. Giffords, who was seriously wounded in the attack, was the first Jewish woman congressional representative from Arizona and openly identified as Jewish during the election campaign.

Sarah Palin, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for vice president in 2008 and spokesperson for the racist Tea Party movement, during the 2010 elections put a map on her website with Rep. Giffords’ district behind the crosshairs of a rifle, accompanied by the words, “Don’t retreat, RELOAD!”

Palin commented on the Arizona massacre on Jan. 12: “Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.” How dare Sarah Palin compare her situation to that of the Jewish victims of anti-Semitism, which included 6 million murdered by the Nazis, one-third of all world Jewry, during World War II.

According to Wikipedia: “Blood libel refers to a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Historically, these claims — alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration — have been a major theme in European persecution of Jews. The libels typically allege that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos for Passover.”

According to Jewish historian Walter Zeev Laqueur: “Altogether, there have been about 150 recorded cases of blood libel (not to mention thousands of rumors) that resulted in the arrest and killing of Jews throughout history. ... In almost every case, Jews were murdered, sometimes by a mob, sometimes following torture and a trial.”

In 1910 many Jews, including this writer’s family, fled to the U.S. from czarist Russia following anti-Jewish pogroms, similar to the night raids of the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S. An anti-Semitic flier in Kiev read: “Christians, take care of your children! It will be Jewish Passover on March 17.” In the 1920s the capitalist auto industrialist Henry Ford published a virtual encyclopedia of this type of anti-Semitic material in his series of books, “The International Jew.” For this effort, Adolf Hitler awarded him the Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1938.

Sarah Palin is not the clown portrayed by Tina Fey on “Saturday Night Live.” She rose to prominence to give the ultraright a new lease on life. Her political mentors in Alaska politics were Mark Chryson, a leader of the extremely right-wing Alaska Independence Party, and Steve Stoll, a John Birch Society activist. The AIP is so racist and right wing that it considers the U.S. Civil War an act of Northern aggression.

In her speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin quoted from the infamous anti-communist, anti-Semitic and anti-labor John Birch Society writer, Westbrook Pegler, who publicly advocated the assassinations of both Franklin Roosevelt and Robert F. Kennedy. With fake populism, Pegler had said, “We grow good people in our small towns with honesty and sincerity and dignity.” Palin most likely got this quote from her ally, Nazi and Klan sympathizer Pat Buchanan, who used it in his 1990 book, “Right from the Beginning.”

In 1939 a cartoon appeared in newspapers across the country showing the Statue of Liberty holding the sign “KEEP OUT.” It was an ironic comment on “Lady Liberty,” the New York harbor statue which supposedly welcomed immigrants to the U.S. That year a ship full of Jewish refugees was denied entry to the U.S. The Jewish passengers were sent back to Germany and Hitler’s death camps. The message of that cartoon has never been rescinded by the U.S. ruling class. Its targets include Latinos/as, especially in Arizona, Asian Americans and really anybody who does not fit Sarah Palin’s definition of “good people grown in our small towns.”

There is a historic antidote to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, sexism, anti-LGBT attacks and all forms of bigotry. In 1943, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, the only survivors of Warsaw’s Jewish community, which had once numbered 500,000, rose up in rebellion against the Nazis and held off the German army for an entire month. Their example is universal, inspiring and empowering to members of every oppressed community to assert their right to freedom and equality and to sweep into the dustbin of history each and every one of imperialism’s racist storm troopers.

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Fired Latino Chipotle Workers Protest, Eight Arrested

From: Fight Back! News

Minneapolis, MN - On Jan. 20, dozens of Latino immigrants who were among the hundreds fired from Chipotle Mexican Grill throughout Minnesota last month protested at a downtown Minneapolis Chipotle. At the protest the workers entered the store, while eight of the workers’ allies chained themselves together inside the store until they were arrested. The workers and their supporters are demanding justice from Chipotle.

Chipotle, a large multinational corporation that markets itself as a socially conscious Mexican food restaurant that sells “food with integrity,” abruptly fired hundreds of their Mexican and other Latino immigrant workers in Minnesota in December. At Chipotle restaurants across the state, they fired dozens of workers at a time, showing them the door without giving them a clear explanation for their firing.

Hearing rumblings of the firings, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAc) denounced the cruel pre-Christmas firings publicly, and the media quickly took notice. Since then the fired workers have continued to speak out. They've organized several protests to demand justice. Their campaign is being supported by SEIU Local 26, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (CTUL) and MIRAc.

The workers are demanding that they be properly compensated, including all back pay, vacation pay and compensation for years of service. They are demanding the truth from the company, which for weeks refused to make a public statement about the firings. Under pressure from the workers and repeated media questioning, Chipotle now admits in the press that the mass firings were a result of an I-9 Audit by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but they still haven’t communicated that clearly to the workers they fired.

I-9 audits are an anti-immigrant enforcement mechanism that have been dramatically ramped up by the Obama administration over the last two years, resulting in massive waves of unjust firings of immigrant workers around the country. Here in Minnesota, in addition to the hundreds of fired Chipotle workers, 1200 janitors were fired from ABM a year and a half ago and 100 immigrant workers in South Saint Paul who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union were fired recently from I-9 audits as well.

According to MIRAc member Brad Sigal, “The workers at Chipotle were fired because the Obama administration is ordering more and more of these anti-immigrant I-9 audits. The President can stop them today administratively - it doesn’t need a vote in Congress. If President Obama wants to show he supports immigrant rights like he claims, then not one more immigrant worker should be fired unjustly because of his administration’s policies.”

Woodlawn Cemetary Workers Rally To Fight Bosses' Threats

By Dee Knight
Bronx, N.Y.
Published Jan 20, 2011 9:45 PM

The 350,000 permanent inhabitants of Woodlawn Cemetery in the northwest Bronx were not disturbed by the militant crowd that rallied at the main gate during the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. But Woodlawn management was definitely disturbed, as they cowered behind the gate, protected by New York City police. The Jan. 17 rally was organized by Teamsters Local 808, representing the Woodlawn workers led by the Band of Brothers, who have conducted a three-year campaign against plantation-style racist abuse on the job.

The Brothers and their union are now fighting Woodlawn management’s threat to abolish almost two-thirds of the union jobs at the cemetery and replace them with a contractor who employs immigrant workers on “special visas.” Despite the intensified anti-immigrant frenzy fueled by right-wingers, Woodlawn management and other bosses prefer workers whom they can bully into thinking they have no rights and no recourse to sub-minimum-wage pay and miserable working conditions.

Enrique Coss, a leader of the Band of Brothers and union steward, told Workers World he felt “an overwhelming feeling of love at the amount of support we received.” He added, “Many standing with us know these issues affect all workers, not just the Woodlawn workers. We are lighting a torch for the sake of all workers and all union workers in a climate in which they want to bust unions and kill union contracts.”

Coss pointed out that newly elected Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg are bringing a long-predicted storm to the workers of New York. “The storm is in the shape of Cuomo and Bloomberg, who want to bust unions, freeze pensions and get rid of union workers,” Coss said. “Today we showed the Bronx and New York that this is only the beginning of a volcano that is slowly erupting in response to this storm.”

Teamster power

Teamster power was evident at the rally. “I noticed a large group of Teamsters there: Locals 831, 805, 814 and 804, as well as 808,” Coss observed. These locals cover warehouse workers, UPS drivers, MetroNorth railroad employees and others. Local 805 President Sandy Pope, a leader of Teamsters for a Democratic Union who is running for Teamsters general president, expressed strong support for Local 808 leader Chris Silvera.

Silvera said Woodlawn management talks about needing to save $750,000 per year, so they must either eliminate 23 of the 38 union jobs or impose a 35 percent pay cut. But management has not discussed eliminating some of the super-high top management salaries. Cutting just two of these, plus perks like chauffeured limos and other luxuries, would close the gap while helping to beautify the cemetery.

Silvera points out that Woodlawn is not just robbing 23 people of jobs, but the community and state itself, which would lose the wages circulating in the community and the tax money to pay for public services. Instead workers would be forced to become recipients of public services while their families would be severely hurt.

Silvera said: “This is the beginning of a struggle. We are going to make the president of this cemetery uncomfortable at his house. We’re going to take it to his house so his neighbors will know the crap that he is. This is a country that has in excess of 10 percent unemployment, and if you are telling me you want to kick me to the curb and bring a guy from 2,000 to 3,000 miles away to take my job, you got a war. The bosses are going to see an insurgency.”

Speaking of Cuomo, Silvera said, “He is anti-labor. He wants to throw 100,000 state workers off the payroll, but he doesn’t want to raise taxes on the rich — that’s wrong!

“There’s a lot wrong in this system,” Silvera continued. “This war is wrong. This war is sucking money out of the society that could go toward dealing with these budgetary problems that we face, or that they claim we face. ... We need to end the war and still tax the rich! We need to become part of a global struggle that supports people in Guatemala,” Silvera said. “NAFTA destroyed Mexico. CAFTA destroyed Central America. We are going to assault all of these trade bills. We are not going to stop here — Dr. King lives!”

Teresa Gutierrez, coordinator of the May 1 Coalition for Workers’ and Immigrants’ Rights, said that while we want jobs for all workers, including undocumented immigrants, we’re not for Brickman and Woodlawn management using the plight of workers in other countries to drag them here and use them to break unions or replace the jobs of workers here.

Strong union solidarity

Most notable in the outpouring of union solidarity was District Council 37 Local 374, workers at the world-famous New York Botanical Gardens. When these workers heard of the Band of Brothers’ struggle at nearby Woodlawn, steward Fredy Fret declared, “We’re the Band of Brothers, too.” Their banner showing unity between Local 808 and Local 374-DC37 was prominent at the rally and showed up on television reports on several channels. It was hoisted by Local 374 members wearing newly minted “Band of Brothers” sweatshirts.

Another notable delegation was workers from other cemeteries around New York City as well as Westchester County, which is just north of the Bronx. Enrique Coss commented that these workers “are going through the same issues and harsh treatments as we are. They all feel this is not just happening to us but to workers throughout the cemetery industry.”

There were also strong delegations from Transport Workers Union Local 100, including President John Samuelson, District 32BJ-Schools Division, and Service Employees union District 1199-Health Division. Also United Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers, as well as the Professional Staff Congress/American Federation of Teachers at City University of New York, UNITE-HERE and the New York State Nurses Association, with members from nearby Montefiore Hospital. There were also members of the solidarity committee with the Stella D’Oro bakery workers, who put up a protracted battle a year ago.

Community joins in

The New York Labor Chorus brightened the march and rally with labor songs. There was also a delegation of high school and college students from FIST (Fight Imperialism, Stand Together). Bronx high school students carried a sign that read: “The working class has a right to a job.” Many workers’ families were present. At one point Chris Silvera noted that “if our kids are to have a future where they can actually afford to live, we have to fight back now.”

Community groups included the South Bronx Community Congress, of which the Band of Brothers are members, the Freedom Party’s Bronx chapter, the Bronx Green Party, the Bail Out the People Movement, BAYAN-Alliance for Filipino Concerns, May 1 Coalition for Workers’ and Immigrants’ Rights, Picture the Homeless, the Million Worker March Movement and Workers World Party.

In addition to union representatives, speakers included a BAYAN leader who placed the Woodlawn workers’ struggle in the context of the international fight against imperialist exploitation. Brenda Stokely of the MWMM highlighted the importance of involving the broadest possible support from all unions in New York. She and Chris Silvera highlighted the fact that there are 1.4 million union workers in New York City and that they need to be mobilized.

Gavrielle Gemma of Bail Out the People Movement called for all to pledge that if management tries to bring in contractors, “they will not get through the gates — Teamsters work at Woodlawn!” BOPM’s Larry Holmes pointed out that if Woodlawn management is permitted to prevail, it will be a setback for all workers, while a victory at Woodlawn will stimulate many more victories to come for both organized and not-yet-organized workers of all nationalities.

Pastors Lydia Lebron of the Church of the Resurrection in the south Bronx and Doug Cunningham of the New Day United Methodist Church in the northwest Bronx both spoke on behalf of their congregations, whose many members were present. Both underscored the importance of this fight against racism. Cunningham highlighted Martin Luther King Jr.’s prophetic observation that over and over in history the side of the oppressed has been able to win against overwhelming odds because the power of justice and right is on our side. Bronx State Assemblyperson Jose Rivera also spoke, expressing strong solidarity with the Woodlawn workers.

Next steps were announced. Chris Silvera declared that plans are underway for another rally on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 21. He added that he and other union leaders are planning a major Labor-Community Forum at Hostos College on Jan. 29 to broaden this struggle and link it to a fightback against Cuomo’s and Bloomberg’s union-busting programs.