Con El Pueblo, Por Siempre: With The People, Always!
The mad fascist Trump has struck a spark which lit a prairie fire in Los Angeles. A scorching flame, in the form of an uprising which started, like all rebellions waged by Black and Brown people, in response to the dehumanizing, racist system of Amerika. Settler colonialism, stolen land built by stolen people, is the principal contradiction within Amerikan society and the kindling which gave way to the ignition of this uprising. Imperialism is the principal global contradiction and the reason immigrants are compelled to come to this country in the first place. Angelenos have chosen to display their courage in full force against the Amerikan settler gestapo known as ICE because the masses of working class and lumpen people of this city simply refuse to continue to be targeted for their ethnic background. Amerikan imperialism has destroyed the livelihoods of countless Mexican, Salvadorean, Nicaraguan, Honduran, Venezuelan, and other Latin American workers, forcing them to traverse thousands of dangerous miles to come to this country which hates and mistreats them. Enough.
What led to this uprising? The increased and frenzied activity of ICE throughout the County of Los Angeles was the immediate cause. ICE was ordered by the Trump regime to complete quotas for deportations to the sum of 3000 migrant workers DAILY. On Friday, June 6, ICE was seen kidnapping migrant workers and children off the street and from Home Depot stores, to be detained in federal buildings in Los Angeles, namely the Metropolitan Detention Center. Within this detention center, there have been reports of immigrants facing inhumane conditions including: being held within the basement of the buildings in overcrowded holding cells, denial of food and water, and inadequate care for vulnerable individuals. Angelenos have chosen to rise up and rebel for the simple reason that they have been left with no other choice. The masses have made it clear that they have had enough of the dehumanizing actions of the settler state. They have reaffirmed the most basic rule of human existence: It is right to rebel! It is on DSA and other socialist organizations to match the energy of the people and not fall into liberal counterinsurgency rhetoric and practices out of fear or desire for a false peace. You cannot lead from behind.
The 2020 uprising waged in outrage at the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis was co-opted by liberal politicians and NGO agents who flooded into the movement with their bullshit, lying to the masses, working to isolate militant leaders, peace policing, and refusing to thoroughly criticize the police and come to revolutionary conclusions. “Defund the Police” was transformed from a revolutionary demand to another cheap slogan to rein in the rage of the masses. As we gear up for another long, hot summer (and DSA convention), it is our responsibility to learn from the mistakes of the past, and struggle against liberalism, rightism, and reformism within the ranks of our organization. DSA must be a rebel organization, an organization directly in contradiction to the settler colonial regime, and a home for those who know that it is right to rebel. We cannot be a resume-building exercise, a defender of the careers of Democratic political staffers, and a source of free labor for Democratic politicians. That shit has been done for decades, and fascism continues to get worse and worse. Reformist and electoral methods have proven to be insufficient, and millions of people have lived butchered half lives as a result of the failures of these methods. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are helpless minority voices on a good day, and outright traitors to the revolutionary masses on a bad day. What power have they built? Their waffling, crocodile tears, and gibbering have not stopped a single weapon going to Israel. The refrain: “Israel has the right to exist and defend itself” repeated like a broken record sickens us and all right thinking revolutionaries. These phony politicians have no power, and we will not lie to the masses and claim that they do, or continue the fiction that they work for us. That is a lie, and the rebels in the streets vomit it up, as they should. We are not allergic to power, we are allergic to bullshit. Where does political power come from, anyway? It comes from the masses, in struggle. If you want to see power, look no further than the masses of Los Angeles. This is real mass politics.
Angelenos are not putting their lives on the line and taking time out of their day to struggle against these fascist provocations for no reason, nor to generate random chaos. Their actions are justified, political, and serve an ultimate goal: to free their brothers and sisters. Immigrant workers are exploited for the benefit of the Amerikan ruling class and petty bourgeoisie. Immigrant labor keeps food cheap and affordable for the masses of Amerikans. Immigrant labor builds and maintains houses for the fascist filth to sit in and insult them, applauding violence against the very hands that build their gilded castles made of trash. On top of this, immigrant workers face kidnappings, separation from their loved ones, and deportation with the possibility of being taken to concentration camps--such as the CECOT prison in El Salvador--in countries that are not even their homelands. It is no wonder the masses of Los Angeles have chosen the courageous act of standing up to the Amerikan gestapo and interrupting their plans in any way possible. The people of Los Angeles have learned through bitter experience that struggle against the pigs is a necessity to protect the communities of Los Angeles.
These deportations are a way for the ruling class (today the Trump regime) to attempt to appease their racist constituents, the white settler class of Amerika, the majority of whom wildly applaud violence when it is enacted against our people. One need only see the mindless cheers for the threats of Pig Hegseth to deploy active duty Marines to Los Angeles. This is not without precedent in Amerikan history. The Amerikan “labor movement” got its start as a racist, anti-Chinese, anti-Black, anti-immigrant clique of racists and xenophobes who sought to secure economic gains for themselves at the expense of others. It has developed and grown politically since then, but the continued raving of Teamster pig Sean O’Brien (SOB) and the eternal waffling of UAW president Shawn Fein shows that there is still much work to be done by Communists working on the labor front. Reason and attempting to appeal to the conscience of the conscienceless is the equivalent of slamming one’s head into a brick wall and expecting to leave unscathed. Sakai said it best - “More for me is not liberate humanity”. The demand to Abolish ICE is not possible without a totalizing change in the socio-economic and political system present in Amerika. Amerika, at the root, is ICE. Failure to realize this is capitulation to fascism.
Liberation stands in solidarity with the people of Los Angeles in their righteous efforts to free detained people, and halt the further deportations, harassment, and brutalization of our community members. We call for ICE, the federalized National Guard, and all gun thugs and pigs to abandon their torment and torture and leave Los Angeles immediately. The prairie fire blazing in Los Angeles is the response from Angelenos to the contradictions present in our capitalist settler-colonial system which utilizes violence against the people to maintain the old order. The masses know, deep in their souls, where power comes from. It is the duty of communists to organize the masses. To heed the call from the masses for real systematic change and to channel their energy into an organized, disciplined revolutionary force. With the people, always. With the pig, never.
We greet the fighting people of Los Angeles.
