Marissa Alexander is finally free after five years of detention for an act of self-defense. In 2012 Alexander, who is African-American, was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Her “crime”? Firing a warning shot over the head of her estranged husband who was threatening to kill her. Alexander had given birth only nine days earlier in Jacksonville, Fla.
Alexander’s case gained national attention after George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2013. Zimmerman used Florida’s Stand Your Ground law to claim self-defense.
But when Alexander’s legal team argued she also had a Stand Your Ground claim of self-defense, the courts rejected her, exposing the “justice” system’s racist and anti-woman bias.
In response to this denial of justice, a historic grass-roots campaign rose up to Free Marissa Now! This militant movement mobilized mass support to reduce Alexander’s sentence, make her case part of burgeoning Black Lives Matter marches, and win justice for other scapegoated survivors.
The Forgotten Majority, a Florida prison advocacy group, recognized the struggle to free Marissa Alexander with a #SurivedAndPunished week of action that began Jan. 28, the day she was released. The week highlights survivors of domestic and sexual violence who have been criminalized, including Bresha Meadows in Ohio, Tondalao Hall in Oklahoma, Rasmea Odeh and Alisha Walker in Illinois, Ky Peterson in Georgia, and Ny Nourn and Kelly Savage in California.
In a press release celebrating Alexander’s freedom, the Free Marissa Now Movement stated: “The vast majority of people in women’s prisons, and many in men’s prisons, are survivors of domestic and sexual violence before they are incarcerated. There is a crucial pipeline between abuse and prison/detention centers that must be disrupted.” (tinyurl.com/hxg5b6x)
Using uniformed troops to round up, scapegoat, and send immigrants away, and maybe keeping them in detention camps ? What the fuck does that remind you of ?
Trump Regime Memo Proposed Using National Guard for Mass Roundup and Deportation of Immigrants
February 18, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Friday, February 17, the Associated Press reported on and made available a draft proposal from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for massive use of the National Guard as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to round up and deport masses of immigrants in this country. (Associated Press articles are published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, and more than 5,000 television and radio broadcasters.)
The leaked memo proposed that the DHS enter into agreements with the governors of 11 states (the four on the Mexico border and the seven states that border them) to authorize their National Guard forces “to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States.” The memo said, “Based on their training and experience, these men and women are particularly well-suited to assist in the enforcement of federal immigration law and augment border security operations...” (The DHS memo is available online here.)
Past presidents, including George W. Bush and Obama, have deployed hundreds of National Guard troops to shore up Border Patrol operations. But the DHS memo raised the specter of as many as 100,000 National Guard troops being mobilized, not just on the border but for mass roundups of immigrants beyond the border areas.
Spokespeople for the Trump/Pence regime condemned the Associated Press story, at first saying there was no such memo—and then claiming it was an early draft of the final memorandum. They said that the final DHS memo did not include a proposal to mobilize the National Guard for rounding up, detaining, and deporting immigrants. They gave no explanation for why the idea was rejected for the final version of the memorandum. And no Trump/Pence official ruled out the future use of the National Guard to round up immigrants.
A writer for the website The Daily Beast, Betsy Woodruff, reported that a former DHS official under Obama “suspects [the] memo was likely written by someone close to the Trump White House team, and who had detailed knowledge of the president’s planned immigration executive orders—potentially a member of the transition team who worked on DHS issues.” The name of General Kelly, chosen by Trump to head DHS, was on the leaked memo; Trump officials denied that Kelly had signed the draft proposal.
It has been widely assumed that in order for the Trump/Pence regime to carry out the mass immigrant roundups and deportations on the scale they have promised, they would require a huge increase in the number of ICE and Border Patrol agents—many more than the increase of 15,000 that Trump has already announced—and it would take years to hire and train a whole new army of stormtroopers. But what the DHS memo pointed to was the prospect of the regime calling up tens of thousands of National Guard troops to quickly boost the anti-immigrant forces.
Put yourself in the position of the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country at this moment. Feel your heart pounding as you think about hearing a knock at the door at 5 a.m. .., being stopped at a checkpoint as you drive to work and ordered to prove you are “legal”... suddenly being torn from your children, or watching your parents as they’re being dragged into an ICE van. Think about being held in a detention center/prison indefinitely, or sent back to a country that you left—because U.S. domination messed things up so much that it was impossible to make a living there, or because the resulting violence had put your life in danger.
This nightmare is Trump’s America. This we cannot allow. In the interests of humanity, the people must drive out this fascist regime.
A lot of people tend to buy into the entire "blame the immigrants for everything " program that the REAL criminals put into motion. Is it the immigrants' fault that jobs have left your country ? Is it their fault that "terrorism" is running wild ? Who is responsible for all of this shit ? Yes, it's trump, obama, clinton, and the class they represent. Not the poor families trying to find a better life elsewhere. The way I see it is , if western bombs can cross their borders, then they can cross "ours". If the corporations can go and exploit people in other lands, then the people have the right to seek a better offer somewhere else, including here, assholes. Fuck trump.
Trump’s ICE Raids Deliver the Message: All Undocumented Immigrants Are in His Sights
February 17, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In Phoenix, Arizona, Mexican-born Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, who was brought to the U.S. by her parents 22 years ago when she was 14, was arrested February 8 by ICE agents while she was checking in at the U.S. immigration office, which she had been doing routinely for years. Garcia de Rayos’s arrest—followed by immediate deportation—triggered resistance in Phoenix and outcries of anger across the U.S. and in Mexico. (Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP)
Arrest during an ICE raid in Los Angeles, February 7. (Photo: Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP)
In the past week, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) carried out immigration raids in at least 11 states, reportedly arresting 600 or more immigrants, and immediately deporting an unknown number. Word of these raids sent a shudder through the hearts of millions of immigrants; and through the hearts of millions more who don’t think like Trump’s “Americans” but think about their neighbors, their friends—about humanity instead. And while ICE and Homeland Security officials would have us believe that this past week was no more than a “ramped-up” version of “deportation-as-usual,” reports by immigrant rights activists and lawyers show that the targets of Trump’s ICE agents have broadened dramatically, to potentially include every undocumented immigrant in the country.
From day one of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump slandered Mexican immigrants, vowing to stop “rapists” and “drug dealers” “coming across our southern border”; “build a wall”; and drive out all the undocumented immigrants already here, whose presence he considers a direct challenge to his promise to make America white again. When Trump was elected, it sent shockwaves through immigrant communities, and left many people paralyzed with fear. Elementary school children in immigrant neighborhoods were discussing it on the playground, then coming home and asking their parents if they were going to have to leave the country. In Los Angeles, immigrants said that police came to their Sunday services to “assure” people that the local police were not going to act as ICE agents and they wouldn’t check the immigrants’ IDs. And Central American refugees who have been denied refugee status once again felt the imminent danger of being sent back to their deaths.
Executive Order Widens the Net for Deportations
Only days after Trump’s inaugural speech, when he proclaimed the fascist slogan “America First,” Trump signed the executive order, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” The order widens the criteria for “removal” (in other words, deportation) to potentially include all undocumented immigrants. The order states: “We cannot faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States if we exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.” The clear signal being sent to ICE agents and other law enforcement thugs is that any and all undocumented immigrants are fair game for arrest and deportation.
But the order is also saying that there aren’t any categories or groups among the undocumented that should be exempt from deportation. This no doubt includes the 750,000 or more undocumented immigrants who qualified for “deferred deportation,” or DACA, when Obama was president. This order also “empowers State and local law enforcement agencies across the country to perform the functions of an immigration officer ... to the maximum extent permitted by law.” In other words, it authorizes a huge number of additional “immigration officers” to be available when this fascist regime determines that it’s time for massive “search and deport” operations to be carried out.
Raids Across the U.S.
Blocking traffic during a protest of ICE raids throughout the U.S., Las Cruces, New Mexico, February 15. (Photo: Josh Bachman/The Las Cruces Sun-News via AP)
Soon after Trump’s executive order, ICE launched coordinated raids across the country. While ICE and Department of Homeland Security officials repeatedly denied that these raids were anything more than a “surge” in their regular deportation roundups, the reports that came from around the country said otherwise. In city after city immigrants were arrested based on criteria far broader than in the past—consistent with Trump’s new executive order.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Mexican-born Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, who was brought to the U.S. by her parents 22 years ago when she was 14, was arrested by ICE agents while she was checking in at the U.S. immigration office, which she had been doing routinely for years. Garcia de Rayos’s arrest—followed by immediate deportation—triggered resistance in Phoenix and outcries of anger across the U.S. and in Mexico.
Daniel Ramirez Medina was arrested by ICE agents and taken to a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, despite having a work permit granted to him after he signed up for DACA. That program had given Ramirez temporary legal status and permitted him to stay and work here. According to the New York Times, when Ramirez showed his permit, ICE agents said, “It doesn’t matter because you weren’t born in this country.” A lawyer with the Public Counsel who helped Ramirez file a lawsuit in this case said, “This is a clear violation of his rights.... There was a solemn promise from the executive branch that they would be protected. People have staked their lives and well-being on that promise.”
In El Paso, Texas, ICE agents entered the courthouse where, according to the Washington Post, a transgender undocumented immigrant—“brought there by a victim’s advocate from the Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, a shelter for victims of domestic abuse where she had been living”—was arrested immediately after being granted a protective order against the abusive partner she was living with. This was not just coincidence. The ICE agents had received a tip, apparently from the alleged abuser—and had gone to the courthouse to arrest and deport the victim if she showed up. Imagine the terrible choice that puts before undocumented women: risk repeated beatings, and possible death, at the hands of your abuser—or risk deportation if you seek some kind of legal assistance.
The Post also reported on an undocumented mother of four, a resident of the United States for 20 years, who “sought refuge in the basement of a church this week, rather than check in with authorities, for fear she too would be deported.”
After all of this, and after the repeated lies by officials from ICE and Homeland Security that there was nothing new or extraordinary about their week of terrifying immigrant roundups, Trump himself clarified the origin and purpose of these raids in a tweet: “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!”
The fact is that these raids were meant to deliver a message of terror: No matter the age you crossed the border, or how long you have lived in this country... no matter how hard you’ve worked, how much you’ve sacrificed to raise and support your family, and how much you’ve contributed to your community... and no matter how grave the danger you face if you are forced to return to your country, ravaged by U.S. imperialism... nothing can protect you from arrest and deportation under the new regime now in Washington.
In a February 13 piece in the WashingtonPost’s The Plum Line blog, Greg Sargent writes about Trump’s recent “Muslim ban” and the stepped-up deportation raids. Sargent notes how both were met with “extreme blowback,” or mass protest and resistance, and puts forward his thoughts on what that may mean for the future. The title of his piece contains a warning not to have illusions that these fascists may “grow a heart,” or back off: “Trump’s reign of fear may soon get a whole lot worse.” Sargent suggests that the week of deportation raids, as well as the Muslim ban, may be just the beginning: “These policies may merely be designed to lay the groundwork for something much more ambitious to come—it’s plausible that they may constitute a test run, an initial effort to gauge just how far the administration can go in limiting legal immigration and in expelling undocumented immigrants with longtime ties to U.S. communities.”
...demonization, persecution, and driving immigrants out of the U.S.—at least ones who don’t fit into their definition of “white” ... is central and essential to their hellish agenda to “Make America White Again.” For them, there is no turning back in the war on immigrants. They have whipped up mobs of people who believe they are “entitled” to going back—way back—to a nightmarish era of U.S. history, and worse. That requires the violent ethnic cleansing of America.
What people have done so far in response to Trump’s all-out war on immigrants has been very important and inspiring. The outpourings of tens of thousands of people at airports in response to Trump’s ban on Muslims from seven countries entering the U.S., along with the massive women’s marches the day after Trump’s inauguration, sent a message to the world that there was profound, widespread outrage. The direct action people took, for example, to attempt to prevent the deportation of Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos in Phoenix was righteous—and everyone revolted by the Trump/Pence fascist regime has to be prepared to take that kind of stand.
And as the new Call to Action from refusefascism.org says:
The Trump/Pence Regime is a Fascist Regime. Not insult or exaggeration, this is what it is. For the future of humanity and the planet, we, the people, must drive this regime out.
The war on immigrants has begun, with kkkops unquestioningly following orders to stop, arrest, and deport anyone who fits the profile. That is one of the many reasons that I feel that job is for the dimwitted and weak of mind. Critical thinking ? What's that ? Fuck trump and his fascist power tripping henchmen.
First Deportation Under Trump’s Fascist Order on Immigrants: “We're living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants"
Updated February 13, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
On Wednesday, February 8, 200 immigrant rights supporters rushed to the U.S. Immigration office in Phoenix, Arizona as word went out that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had just arrested a 36-year-old mother of two children and were going to deport her. Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, the immigrant who was arrested, has been living, working, and raising a family in this country since coming here with her parents when she was 14.
Donald Trump has issued three executive orders radically escalating the war on immigrants: the ban on Muslim immigrants and refugees from seven countries; one threatening sanctuary jurisdictions; and a third that orders government agencies “to deploy all lawful means to secure the Nation’s southern border, to prevent further illegal immigration into the United States.” In the context of a campaign filled with vicious lies and threats against immigrants, that opens the door to deportation of any and every undocumented immigrant in this country. In that light, Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado, Garcia de Rayos’ lawyer, described what this arrest represents: “We are living in a new era now, an era of war on immigrants.”
For hours the protesters blocked enforcement vans from leaving the U.S. Immigration office in Phoenix. A group sat down in front of the van Guadalupe was in, while one protester wrapped his arm around the axle inside the tire well. At 10 p.m., as people chanted “Power to the people, no one is illegal,” police arrested seven demonstrators. Sometime after that the van left, but no one was told, not even her family, whether Guadalupe was sent to a detention facility or taken to the border and deported. In fact, she was immediately deported. The fact that there was no legitimate purpose to single out Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos for arrest and deportation at this time sends an ominous message among immigrants that from now on, no one is safe. Her daughter, in tears, said: “To me this is an injustice. She has always worked to give us a good education.”
Guadalupe was arrested on Wednesday when she went to the immigration office to check in with ICE officials, the same way she had been doing, every six months, since 2009. In 2008 she was arrested in one of the work-site raids carried out by former Maricopa County Sheriff, the pig Joe Arpaio. Those raids have since been challenged in the courts as being unconstitutional. Garcia de Rayos entered a guilty plea for “identity theft” because she had been working with false papers. People in this country without papers, trying to feed themselves and their families, often must use phony IDs to get work. Despite her conviction, for eight years she had been allowed to live in Arizona, as long as she reported every six months to ICE. This time, in the wake of Trump’s order, Guadalupe was arrested and deported.
One young protester said, “Lupita was a victim of Arpaio’s raids, and now she’s a victim of Trump’s deportation machine.”
Sign of What’s to Come
Trump launched his presidential campaign by declaring he is an “America First,” anti-immigrant bigot. He has worked overtime to criminalize immigrants from Mexico, calling them “rapists,” “criminals,” and “drug dealers.” Trump has repeatedly made clear his intention to have everyone in this country without documents deported. And he has called for three million undocumented immigrants to be deported this year.
His new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, is just as rabid a xenophobic bigot as Trump. In his statement when sworn in, he made it clear that in his eyes, there is no place at all in this country for undocumented immigrants, and there will be no path to citizenship—regardless of how many years of brutal exploitation, degradation, and fear they have endured or the magnitude of the contributions they have made. He said, “We need a lawful system of immigration. One that serves the interests of the people of the United States... We admit a million people a year plus, lawfully, and we need to end this lawlessness that threatens the public safety, pulls down wages of working Americans.” Sessions wasted no time getting the deportation machine in gear—he met with law enforcement officials involved with immigration roundups even before he was approved by the Senate.
Obama earned himself the title “Deporter-in-Chief” from immigration activists after he topped the two million mark for deportations during his presidency—the highest number of deportations under any administration in the history of this country. Trump’s fascist regime now threatens to bring horror on top of horror. His executive order calls for a dramatic increase in Border Patrol agents and an increase in the number of immigrant detention centers. In order to fill their “quotas,” immigration agents are already targeting people for deportable “crimes” as minor as a traffic infraction—or the eight-year-old victimless “crime” committed by Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos who was only trying to get work to support herself and others.
Further, as we wrote about Trump’s executive order on immigrants:
Trump is not just targeting people with criminal convictions. Also in his sights are people who “have been charged with any criminal offense, where such charge has not been resolved” (emphasis added), and people who “In the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security,” and people engaged in “fraud or willful misrepresentation....” In other words, anyone who has committed the “crime” of being an immigrant working at some crap job in this country. Anyone picked up while they’re waiting for a bus or coming out of a subway station speaking Spanish. Anyone who some racist cop thinks looks “suspicious,” or maybe just “looks Latino,” and gets hauled to jail. Anyone languishing in a county jail month after month, never charged with anything. Anyone who overstayed a student visa, or made a minor mistake on a visa application. (From “Trump Criminalizes Millions of Immigrants and Threatens ‘Sanctuary Cities’”)
The coming to power of the Trump-Pence fascists has already struck fear in immigrant communities around the country: Men and women dreading the possibility of being arrested at work, their children left to come home to find out their parents have been taken away and deported. And children terrified that they will come home and find their parents have been taken away. These kinds of conversations are taking place among five-year-old children in elementary schools. A spokesperson for Puente Arizona, the immigrant rights group that rallied supporters to rush to the Phoenix immigration station, said he anticipates that other undocumented immigrants who have been released on supervision like Guadalupe will stop checking in with ICE and go into hiding.
The plans of this fascist regime are inhumane and criminal, and must be resisted. The response of those who stopped the ICE buses in Phoenix is righteous—and everyone revolted by the Trump-Pence fascist regime has to be prepared to join them.
Just because something is " illegal ", doesn't mean it's wrong. Where the fuck would we be if people weren't breaking the law in 1930s germany, 1960-70-80s South Africa, or amerikkka in 2017 ?
ICE Raids Round Up and Terrorize Immigrants Across the Country— This Fascist Offensive Must Be Resisted
February 13, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
In cities across the country, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—the armed enforcers of Trump’s anti-immigrant order—have begun rounding up and terrorizing immigrants on whole new levels. In response, different people and groups have been taking righteous stands. Here are some examples:
Shaun King, senior justice writer at the New York Daily News and a major voice on social media, sent out this retweet:
***
The United We Dream organization, an immigrants rights nonprofit based in DC, has put out a call #HereToStay Network where people sign on to a pledge saying: “I am ready to support immigrants at risk of deportation by the Trump regime. I pledge to physically show up for immigrants in my community when they need me...” Over 21,400 have signed up as of February 12.
***
An Indian-American writer and New York Times columnist, Anand Giridharadas, said in a series of tweets: “The raids have begun. There are reports of agents going door-to-door seeking people’s papers. This is not a test... Yes, we have a Fourth Amendment. But some of our most vulnerable neighbors, in this most frenzied moment, may not correctly assert rights. We are closer than we think to large numbers of Americans sheltering and hiding neighbors. I never dreamed I’d live in such an America. This is getting grave fast. Faxing to reps, giving to the ACLU, lobbying Nordstrom were first steps. But how does a free people resist ICE?”
The following is some background around the raids by Trump’s ICE gestapo:
Since Wednesday, February 8, ICE has been carrying out a surge of attacks on immigrants in at least the following: Los Angeles; New York City; Chicago; Atlanta; North Carolina; South Carolina; Austin and San Antonio, Texas; Florida; Kansas; and Washington, DC.
In Phoenix, a 36-year-old mother of two was arrested inside the U.S. immigration office after she had reported to them, just as she had been doing every six months for several years. Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos had lived in this country for 22 years, coming here with her parents when she was 14—only weeks after the cut-off date for those who qualified for deferred deportation that Obama put in place. In order to take her away, ICE agents had to force their way through 100 or more immigrant rights defenders who had mobilized immediately after word went out and blocked the van with their bodies. Seven protesters were arrested, and Guadalupe was driven directly from the Immigration office to the Mexican border and deported.
In the Los Angeles area, ICE arrested at least 160 immigrants. One Department of Homeland (DHS) official said about those arrested, “We’re talking about people who are threats to public safety...” and that the majority of those detained were serious criminals, including some who had been convicted of murder. But in fact many of the people targeted had simply been facing deportation orders but had no criminal background. And on top of that, ICE also arrested people who were simply in the same home who lacked documents. Close to 200 protesters responded rapidly to oppose the raids as word broke out. They blocked the driveway in downtown LA where ICE buses were trying to leave; and then they marched to and blocked the nearby entrance to the 101 Freeway.
In other parts of the country, similar stories have been told, exposing that what ICE is doing is not limited to “targeting criminals,” but is arresting anyone they get their hands on who is undocumented. A regional field director for CASA (Court Appointed Support Advocates) in Baltimore County, Maryland, said, “We’re not trying to sow hysteria here,... But it is fair to say we are seeing new tactics across the county.” One small group of people was stopped by ICE agents after they left a courthouse where they had gone to pay a driving ticket. And people reported being arrested after showing up for check-in meetings with the authorities, similar to what took place in Phoenix. In an area inside the DC Beltway, ICE targeted a community of garden apartments where more than 1,000 Latino immigrants live. Twice in one week, ICE staked out one of the apartment complexes and arrested men as they were leaving for work.
An immigration lawyer in Atlanta said she had heard reports of ICE agents going door-to-door in one largely Latino neighborhood asking people to present their papers. A video from Austin that circulated on social media appeared to show ICE agents arresting people in a shopping center parking lot. It was also reported that there were roadway checkpoints where ICE agents were targeting immigrants for random ID checks. After a week of DHS officials claiming that none of this was the result of Trump’s order, the fascist-in-chief sent out a tweet: “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!”
Amnesty International USA released a statement February 11 condemning the raids and calling for their suspension: “It is a violation of human rights to tear families apart through deportation,” Amnesty International executive director Margaret Huang said in a statement: “We call for an immediate pause in these raids and a suspension of this executive order in order to ensure that people’s human rights are protected.”
In a matter of days, these gangsters have struck terror in the hearts of millions and millions of people of this country who happen to be immigrants. The nightmare that so many people, children as well as parents have been living with for years is coming true. Families torn apart. Children not going to school for fear their parents will be taken away. Refugees from Central America whose claims have been denied now facing a far greater likelihood of being deported and being sent to their likely death.
This situation demands that people everywhere respond—to take a stand and act. These immigrants under vicious attack are our people—their humanity, and our own, are at stake. We have to stand shoulder to shoulder with them—NOW!
You are not being rebellious when you oppose equal rights for the disenfranchised. You are not a rebel when you talk shit about women, gays, or any oppressed nationality. You are not "cool" for being "anti-pc". In fact, you are part of the status quo, and you're a fucking asshole and moron. Stop these privileged shitheads.
Rebellious youth force UC Berkeley to cancel speech by white supremacist
Protest Feb. 1 on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, Calif.
Thousands of student, community and other activists shook up the University of California at Berkeley campus when they militantly protested an event featuring notorious ultraright mouthpiece, Milo Yiannopoulos, on Feb. 1. They succeeded.
The demonstrators’ determination “by any means necessary” to stop the editor of the white supremacist Breitbart tabloid from spreading his vile bigotry pushed the administration to cancel the meeting. Despite police repression, the activists scored a victory. Yiannopoulos was whisked off campus.
Mukund Rathi issued a call on Jan. 31 in The Daily Californian to UC Berkeley students and community members to protest the administration’s decision to allow Yiannopoulos to speak. University officials claimed it was a “free speech” issue. They refused to cancel the event despite strong opposition by students, alumni and community residents.
Rathi said: “The Berkeley Against Trump Coalition, previously … the J2O Coalition, invites all solidarity-minded students and other members of the campus community to protest with us against the far right agitator, Milo Yiannopoulos, on Feb. 1. We will … show our unwillingness to allow our campus to be used to spread [his] vile bigotry [now] when the forces of oppression are ascendant nationally.”
Hate speech is not “free speech”
Unfortunately, some liberals violence-baited the protests and criticized the alleged restrictions of “free speech” as an assault on “democracy.” But hate speech — whether racist, xenophobic, sexist or anti-LGBTQ — should not be tolerated anywhere.
Terri Kay, a Workers World Party activist in California, responded to the criticisms: “The action’s purpose was to stop hate speech, which terrorizes the most vulnerable in our communities. This successful action let the fascists know that they won’t be tolerated here. Unions like the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers and the United Electrical Workers in Connecticut have organized workers defense guards to defend their members and other community members threatened by the Nazis, the KKK and their ilk.
“The best defense is a strong offense,” stressed Kay. “The large crowd cheered when the barricades were taken down and the bonfire was lit. They cheered even louder when it was announced that the event was cancelled, which was why we were all there in the first place. Kudos to the antifa [anti-fascist] and anarchist forces who took the lead on this militant and righteous action.”
Yiannopoulos revealed
Milo Yiannopoulos, born into privilege, built a scam-ridden and scandalous empire in the world of social media and technology. He is notorious for his reactionary diatribes against Islam, immigrants, LGBTQ people, women and people of color. He assails Black Lives Matter activists. A misogynist, he promotes “rape culture.”
Describing himself as a “cultural libertarian” and “free speech fundamentalist,” he opposes social justice, “political correctness” and leftwing movements. (See Kristen Brown’s article in Fusion, Oct. 27, 2015)
A narcissist obsessed with self-aggrandizement and publicity, it’s no surprise that Yiannopoulos is an ardent Trump supporter. Laurie Penny calls him “one of the worst people I know,” and “a professional ‘alt-right’ provocateur,” who enjoys abusing women and people of color. She says, “Milo believes in almost nothing concrete — not even free speech,” as is “true of Trump, Ann Coulter, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.” (medium.com, July 21)
This bigot should be taken seriously and countered. Yiannopoulos’ Twitter account was deactivated permanently because he led a racist, misogynist Twitter attack on Black actor Leslie Jones, causing her to close her own account. Remorseless, Yiannopoulos bragged about it.
Neofascists like Yiannopoulos resemble the pro-Brexit and other European ultraright forces who scapegoat immigrants for capitalism’s failures. These far right hucksters pretend they present an antidote to the economic crisis, unemployment, low wages and austerity — as they whip up racism amd Islamophobia and push “law and order” — all aimed at the oppressed.
The militant protest by brave young activists in Berkeley stopped a neofascist from spewing his racist venom. Their action contributed to the building of international solidarity with workers and oppressed people.
It's not just the asshole in the white house, it's the entire imperialist system he represents, and before him, obama. It's time for it to go.
Trump ... the loose cannon on the imperialist deck Issued by: CPGB-ML Issued on: 03 February 2017
Capitalism is in crisis
Shocking his party, the US media and most of America’s ruling class, Donald Trump, business tycoon and media personality, secured the Republican party’s candidature, won the 2016 presidential election, and has now been inaugurated as ‘the leader of the free world’.
There is no doubt that Trump is racist, sexist and intolerant in the extreme, which, in part, explains why he was able to become president – a post only accessible to those who are willing to be complicit in the crimes of the US ruling class. What causes such outrage from the media, rival politicians, and his fellow billionaires is that he has no tact whilst implementing the policies that are the lifeblood of the imperialist US.
Moreover, while canvassing for election, Trump criticised the constant warmongering of the US, its membership of Nato, and its neoliberal trade deals. These criticisms are the real reason that so much of the establishment is now presenting him as an exceptionally dangerous and deranged anomaly; a miscarriage of democracy.
But the reality is that all previous presidents have followed policies that were just as racist and vile, and this turning of Trump into a stage villain is an attempt to disguise the ferocious nature of the system itself and to whitewash previous US regimes.
‘Land of the free’
The USA puts itself forward as a ‘democracy’; it calls itself the ‘land of the free’; it considers that it has the right to police the world and to label other countries as ‘undemocratic’ or lacking in freedom; it imposes sanctions and wages wars in the name of ‘human rights’. There is no corner of the world that the US does not consider to be within its jurisdiction, exempt from the Geneva Convention and UN treaties.
And yet the US state, along with its fellow imperialist vultures in Britain and elsewhere, is the worst violator of human rights in the world. By waging unjust wars for economic and geopolitical advantage, the US and its allies deny millions of people the most fundamental human right: the right to life.
Through its economic stranglehold over the oppressed world, imperialism is responsible for the extraordinary poverty that leads to the death of 13 million children a year from malnutrition-related diseases.
Even today, African Americans, along with the few native Americans who have managed to survive a series of massacres and holocausts, continue to be among the victims of the ‘free’ American republic. It was less than 50 years ago that US workers secured legal protection against racial or national discrimination, yet such discrimination has been thriving under the US’s first black president, Barack Obama.
One only has to look to the uprising in Ferguson, the water crisis in Flint, or the attacks on the Standing Rock protesters to see the contempt in which the US ruling class holds the American people.
‘Hope’ and ‘change’
Obama became president in 2009 after a campaign based on empty phrases such as ‘hope’ and ‘change’. Promising to pull the US out of its occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and to close Guantánamo bay, Obama oversaw, among many other atrocities, yet more bombing in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria, dropping at least 26,171 bombs in 2016 alone (three bombs per hour, every day, for the entire year).
Obama’s regime also built on the draconian laws implemented by his predecessors that allow the US to spy on, assassinate, detain, and deport workers, earning him the title ‘deporter in chief’ for expelling over 2.5 million migrants and refugees.
Obama’s flagship healthcare project, known as ‘Obamacare’, was in reality a ‘progressive’ smokescreen. The act allowed millions of people access to insurance, with the downside of much higher premiums, meaning patients still have to pay thousands of dollars for care. In effect, it has become another method of funnelling public money into private pockets, trapping the poorest workers in poverty.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democrat opponent in the election, offered no change from the status quo. A fierce war hawk, backed by Wall Street and the military-industrial complex, and running on a platform of ‘more of the same’, she failed to inspire trust in the millions thrown under the bus by successive US regimes.
While Hillary’s blood-soaked record in the service of imperialism had the backing of the majority of the ruling class, her absolute refusal to even think about addressing working-class interests sealed her fate. So desperate for a war against Russia are Hillary and her backers that they have whipped up a media frenzy claiming that ‘the Russians’ managed to rig the election.
The reactionary left
“The working-class activists who follow the opportunist trend are better defenders of the bourgeois than the bourgeois themselves.” - VI Lenin
Most people demonstrating against Trump are doing so for important and just reasons: in defence of their fellow human beings, and against prejudice and discrimination. However, the social-democratic left, which objectively serves the interests of imperialism, is hijacking and perverting the movement against Trump, turning it into a movement to support Hillary and other ‘acceptable’ imperialists.
The imperialists are working overtime to manipulate public outrage at Trump’s every act, and he is indeed a nasty piece of work, but it is clear that that is not the reason for their rage. Most ordinary decent people may care about racism, sexism and human rights, but these are not priorities for capitalism.
Many of those crying foul at Trump’s racist ‘muslim ban’ were happy for those same people to be bombed in their thousands on a daily basis in their countries of origin. The hypocrisy is staggering.
To effectively oppose Trump, the entire system that created and enabled him must be destroyed. This is the only way to secure any meaningful and lasting progress for ordinary people across the world.
The bourgeois answer to the capitalist crisis is to encourage workers to blame immigration for their problems, to step up wars of plunder abroad, and to fight any backlash with anti-terror laws, separatist and racist ideology, and a culture of working-class self-policing and informing.
While 8 billionaires have more wealth than the poorest half of humanity, there can be no justice and no peace in the world – regardless of which corporate puppet sits in the White House, or in 10 Downing Street.
Our urgent task is to build a strong anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist movement for socialism.
Marissa Alexander is finally free after five years of detention for an act of self-defense. In 2012 Alexander, who is African-American, was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Marissa Alexander is finally free after five years of detention for an act of self-defense. In 2012 Alexander, who is African-American, was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
In Phoenix, Arizona, Mexican-born Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, who was brought to the U.S. by her parents 22 years ago when she was 14, was arrested February 8 by ICE agents while she was checking in at the U.S. immigration office, which she had been doing routinely for years. Garcia de Rayos’s arrest—followed by immediate deportation—triggered resistance in Phoenix and outcries of anger across the U.S. and in Mexico. (Photo: Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic via AP)
