With trump clearly taking up the fascist and racist cause, the liberals seem to think that they are the ones pushing inclusiveness and tolerance. Horseshit . The democrats have been no less imperialistic when they run the fucking country, and sometimes even more so. They are steeped in the racist tradition just like the republicans.
A Nation of Immigrants? Give Us a Break!
America: “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses, Yearning to Be Free”... So We Can Exploit the Shit Out of Them
February 6, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
As the Trump-Pence regime carries out a white supremacist, Christian fascist war on immigrants—now especially focused on Muslims, but definitely aiming their fire as well on immigrants from Mexico and all “outsiders”—those on the “other side of the aisle” among the U.S. rulers insist that this is a “nation of immigrants.” The bourgeois liberals of the Democratic Party claim that the “inclusive” message on the Statue of Liberty—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free”—is what has and should characterize America.
The “alternative facts” of the Trump-Pence fascists about immigrants are lies serving the blatant exercise of dictatorship by the U.S. capitalist-imperialists. But the “nation of immigrants” narrative of the liberal rulers is also a falsehood covering over the real nature and history of this system. Here are a few basic truths about immigrants and the U.S.:
Authored by Bob Avakian, and adopted by the Central Committee of the RCP
Do you know anyone else—any person or organization—that has managed to bring forth an actual PLAN for a radically different society, in all its dimensions, and a CONSTITUTION to codify all this? — A different world IS possible — Check out and order online the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America (Draft Proposal).
On Immigrants, Citizenship, and Asylum
The New Socialist Republic in North America will be a revolutionary society aiming for the final goal of a communist world, where human beings everywhere would be free of relations of exploitation and oppression and destructive antagonistic conflicts, and could be fit caretakers of the Earth. This new socialist society will handle the question of immigrants and borders in light of that goal.
From the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America
The following is an excerpt from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution.
H. Immigrants, Citizenship and Asylum.
...2. At the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, all those residing within the territory of this Republic—with the exception of those who played a leading role in opposing the revolution which brought about the establishment of this Republic, and/or who may have been found guilty of war crimes and/or other crimes against humanity—shall have been accorded citizenship in this Republic, with the rights and responsibilities of citizens, in accordance with this Constitution. And, from that time forward, all those born within the territory of the New Socialist Republic in North America, as well as all those, wherever they are born, who have at least one parent who is a citizen of this Republic, shall be citizens of this Republic.
3. The orientation of the New Socialist Republic in North America is to welcome immigrants from all over the world who have a sincere desire to contribute to the goals and objectives of this Republic, as set forth in this Constitution and in laws and policies which are established and enacted in accordance with this Constitution. From the time of the establishment of the New Socialist Republic in North America, anyone residing outside of the territory of this Republic who wishes to enter its territory, and any such person wishing to become a citizen, or a permanent resident, of this Republic, must follow the relevant laws and procedures which have been established on the basis of this Constitution. Anyone who applies for asylum in this Republic and, through the relevant procedures that have been established for this purpose, is found to have been persecuted, or to have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of having taken part in just struggles against imperialist and reactionary states or other reactionary forces, or on account of scientific, artistic, or other pursuits which have brought them into conflict with reactionary powers and institutions, shall be afforded asylum in the New Socialist Republic in North America, so long as they pledge to act in compliance with the Constitution of this Republic, and do act accordingly. Provided that they do not engage in any serious violation of the laws of this Republic, people granted asylum have the right to remain within the territory of this Republic for as long as they choose to do so, and shall be accorded the same rights as citizens, with the exception that, so long as they have not become citizens, they may not vote in elections or be elected or appointed to public office. They shall have the right, after a certain period, determined by law, to become citizens of this Republic, with the same rights and responsibilities as all other citizens. The citizenship process, as well as review of the asylum status of all those granted asylum, shall be carried out in accordance with the laws and procedures established for these purposes.
4. Anyone who is discovered to have entered the territory of this Republic without following the relevant laws and procedures, shall be detained and provided with a timely hearing, conducted by the government institution with the relevant responsibility, to determine the reasons for their presence within this Republic. In connection with this process, such persons may apply for asylum or seek residency on some other basis, and these requests will be considered in the light of the basic orientation and principles set forth here. If, however, evidence emerges which would indicate that the person, or persons, in question have entered the territory of this Republic not only by means that are in violation of its laws, but also with the intent to further violate the law in an effort to carry out sabotage or otherwise do harm to this Republic and its people, then criminal proceedings shall be instituted against such a person, or persons, in accordance with laws and legal procedures established on the basis of this Constitution.
» Along with the genocidal dispossession of Native Americans, the whole foundational wealth of this country was built on generations of “forced immigrants”—millions of Africans who were kidnapped, sold, and sent to the Americas, including to the British colonies that would become the United States. Numbers alone cannot capture the agony and suffering this meant for these human beings, but over two million kidnapped people died horribly just in the voyages from Africa. As works likeThe Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalismand others show, the coerced labor of the slaves—under threat of torture, rape, and wanton murder—did not just profit the Southern slave owners, but was crucial to the rising capitalist system in this country as a whole. Bob Avakian points to a central reality about this country when he says: “There would be no United States as we now know it today without slavery. That is a simple and basic truth.” (BAsics1:1)
» Different immigrant groups from oppressed countries have not only been bitterly exploited in the U.S., but also subjected to the extra oppression of white supremacy—treated as the “other” and discriminated against, and at times becoming targets of violent attacks by official law enforcement or racist mobs. The U.S. stole half of Mexico’s land through war and invasion in the 1800s to form what is now the current border. And the exploitation of immigrants from Mexico—forced to look for a livelihood north of the border because the economy of their country has been so fucked up by U.S. domination—has long been a critical part of the U.S. capitalist economy. While shunted into the most dangerous, back-breaking, low-paying work in the fields and factories, Mexican immigrants have also been scapegoated, hunted down, and deported en masse. Between 1954 and 1956, the U.S. government carried out a military-style campaign of round-ups and mass deportations of Mexicans living in this country. This “Operation Wetback”—after the openly racist term for Mexicans—deported 1.3 million Mexicans out of the U.S., tearing apart families and terrorizing and decimating entire communities. (See “American Crime: Case #78: “Operation Wetback”—1954-56.”) More recently, under President Obama, the U.S. deported a record-breaking total of more than 2.5 million immigrants, many to Mexico—leading many to call him “Deporter-in-Chief.”
» Another grouping of immigrants from an oppressed nation were about a quarter of a million Chinese who came to the U.S. in the mid- to late 1800s as indentured servants who had to work under near-slave conditions for years or even decades. Chinese people were the target of the first U.S. law banning immigration of a specific ethnic or national group (1882 Chinese Exclusion Act). This law and other official anti-Chinese moves unleashed a flood of racist vigilante violence, with mobs burning homes, looting shops, branding people with hot irons, and lynching.
» Successive waves of millions of immigrants from Europe—from Ireland, Germany, Poland, Italy, and elsewhere—came to the U.S. throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Part of the lure for many in the early 1800s was the promise of “free land,” which, of course, was not some unoccupied “free” territory but land stolen—through violent force and broken treaties—from the Native Americans who were the original inhabitants. The labor of these European immigrants was poured into the building up of capitalism in the U.S.—which developed into an imperialist colossus by the end of the 1800s. They were exploited under inhuman and dangerous conditions in the factories, sweatshops, mills, mines, and railroads. One notorious incident, among many, was the 1911 fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York City that killed 147 garment workers, mostly young immigrant Italian and Jewish women, trapped in a building with the doors locked from the outside. In countless instances, workers—many, if not most, of whom were immigrants—who rose up to do something about their conditions were mowed down by police, troops, and company goons. Just to name two: 30 strikers killed in the 1894 strike by Pullman railroad workers; and 19 killed, mostly women and children, at a camp of striking coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado, in 1914.
» Based on the supremacy of U.S. imperialism around the world, and the ability of the rulers to use some of the spoils from this global domination to buy social stability in their home base, there has been some movement for many among the various immigrant groups into the middle class and beyond. For European immigrants, this involved integration into “white America”—fitting themselves into the dominant white-supremacist relations in this country. And that meant distinguishing themselves from Black people, even if they had at first started at or near the bottom rungs of the working class. As for Mexicans and other non-whites, even those who have “made it” out of the most harshly exploited positions continue to face racist discrimination and oppression as a people in a society shot through with white supremacy.
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Whether they’re the fascists and more “traditional” right wingers, or the supposedly “inclusive” bourgeois democrats, the rulers of this capitalist-imperialist system fundamentally see the masses of immigrants as nothing but objects to be mercilessly exploited—and/or blamed as the cause of problems that the system itself has created and then hounded, persecuted, brutalized, and driven out. It’s not in the interests of the great majority of people to side with either of them.
There is actually a vision and plan for a radically different, and profoundly liberating, society—the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America,authored by Bob Avakian and adopted by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. This is a plan for a revolutionary socialist society—full of vibrant diversity, critical thinking, creativity, internationalism—that is moving toward communism, a world without one part of society ruling over others, without countries and borders, without all the oppressive relations and ideas that imprison humanity today. This new socialist society will handle the question of borders and immigration in light of that goal. Get into this radical step into the futurehere.
