by Cristóbal Cavazos, published on Socialist Action, March 8, 2024
The unbelievable struggle that the Trump administration’s attack on undocumented immigrants workers has stoked, particularly among Mexican and Central American workers, some with close to the 30 years in the United States, has been as revolutionary as it has been necessary. It could be summed up in one phrase: Respect our Existence or Expect our Resistance.
The Trump Administration in the face of an increasingly weak US Imperialism with the astonishing economic growth of China and its expanding influence globally, seeks to unleash bald-face aggression abroad in the form of tariffs, annexations and military threats to maintain its declining imperialism internationally. Domestically, Trump’s “America” is getting rid of fetters like taxes and regulations for its corporations, threatening allies with tariffs, while as a weapon of mass distraction, seeks to fuel a war on immigrants. Again, as many other times in US history in the face of imperial decline, labor unrest and depressions, there is the time tested last resort, immigrant scapegoating: blame it all on the immigrant.
Trump, who seeks to unleash ICE terror on immigrant communities as a racist smoke screen aimed to stoke white nationalism and xenophobia as he aggressively comes to the aid of an ailing US Imperialism at home and abroad consistently losing market share abroad to China and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and South Africa along with Beijing). The US dollar is losing its dominance and a rising labor movement domestically is confronting economic warfare on the working class in the form of low wages, growing income inequality, etc. with growing labor strikes. The Neo-Fascism of Trump was not expecting an immigrant fight back.
This fight back has taken the form of marches, rapid response networks and mass protests of immigrant workers and their allies in Los Angeles, Chicago and beyond. This nascent movement has filled the streets with mass actions from the working class immigrant community indignant at the rhetoric and lies coming from the White House, which seeks to dehumanize immigrant essential workers, divide the working class among nationalist lines and rake ICE terror in the barrios. In Los Angeles protesters with the banner of ‘Respect our Existence or Expect our Resistance” flooded City Hall. They have shut down freeways, as student walkouts cripple schools. Mass ‘Angéliño’ protests have continued for weeks, and in the face of the threat of ICE raids, Nazi inspired immigrant registries and the Trump administration’s seeking the cooperation of the IRS Tax Bureau to identify and target the undocumented immigrant community, are not expected to cease but rather continue growing.
In Chicago, despite the wrath of the dead of winter and sub-freezing temperatures, protestors took the streets on January 20, Trump’s inauguration, rallying at Federal Plaza and marching, taking over the streets of Chicago’s Loop. Here grassroots immigrant rights organizations like Casa DuPage Workers Center with a contingent of over 100, converged with Pro-Palestinian Organizations and African American organizations like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression in a passionate expression of people power in the face of the fear and anxiety that Trump has sought to instill on the Brown and Black masses, who, along with the working class, form no part of Trump’s “America.” And though there were Democrats on stage like the left-liberals Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez of the 25th Ward, left Latino covers for an impotent, self imploding and discredited Democratic Party—what has been the main event and major thrust of this and other events is the impressive show of the masses themselves- the immigrant workers, Latino youth and their families at the events, who are decrying the entire racist, capitalist system. This includes the Democrats’ lies, inaction and deception for many years that they would carry out just and comprehensive immigration reform. The working class Mexicans – many whom have been the at the center of labor struggles for many years, have been a plurality of those who took to the streets in an act of defiance, strength and solidarity even as rumors of ICE raids on the city swirled. A march on Saturday January 25, was even more left wing and devoid of Democratic Party operatives altogether, rallying at the historic Water Tower and marching, taking the street of Chicago’s famed Michigan Ave with a heavy contingent of Latino protestors, Black and Palestinian activists
In addition, across the nation, there have been student strikes and economic boycotts, including a Day Without Immigrant national boycott on February 3 and even boycotts of corporations – major players in the Latino community – that support the Trump politically and financially: Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Nestlé, McDonalds, Goya and more. Corporate traitors who siphon the Latino community’s money and give it to Trump. The mass movement character of these actions has not been lost on many particularly in Chicagoland, from where the author writes. Democratic Party aligned groups like Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, ICIRR, and other similarly styled “Non Profit Industrial Complex” “immigrant rights” organizations, who take most of their funds from the government itself, Democratic Party aligned foundations and corporations, who lacking mass bases in spite of mass budgets, are but tails of the Democratic dog. Such organizations, staffed by middle class rainbow-capitalist types, void of a relevant, let alone revolutionary leadership with the working class masses, have been completely irrelevant in the protests as the militancy of the masses take center stage. Worker audacity, solidarity and unity in the face of ICE threats has paralyzed streets, paralyzed schools and shut down work places while challenging corporations with boycotts. Similarly, Democratic politicians have been, at least temporarily, swept into the dustbin of history. It should be known, the Democratic Party is widely hated by the Mexican working class in particular after decades of lies and inaction around just and comprehensive immigration reform, prioritizing wars abroad and corporate subordination at home, also with factors like the attacks on working class living standards through inflation and stagnant wages — hitting Latinos disproportionately. Even the genocide in Gaza is not lost on Latinos as many see the parallels of a racist, European-descended, settler colonialist structure seeking to subordinate native peoples (the majority of Mexicans have a majority Native American blood line) on native land.
However, the spirit of May 1, 2006, the closest the US has come to a general strike led by immigrant workers, in their majority Mexican, is very much alive in these protests. In Chicago May 1st along with March 10, 2006, was when immigrants came out by the hundreds of thousands on the streets and was a massive militant moment of passion, dignity and defiance in particularly, working collective history. Like on May 1st, 1885, it was immigrant workers, at the vanguard of the struggle for the entire working class. At that time, racist Representative James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin and oligarch of the Kimberly-Clark Corporate fortune, introduced HR4437 a bill that would seek the mass deportation of the 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US and even make it illegal for “aiders and abettors” like social workers, activists and clergy to stand in solidarity with undocumented immigrants. As a participant and organizer of the marches of 2006 and later 2007, the passion, power, unity and resistance saw millions demonstrating their capacity to paralyze society, bring the government and corporations to their knees and attain victory. That some specter is emerging to haunt Trump’s America today is undeniable.
As the protests and economic boycotts in the face of ICE attacks and Trump’s nationalistic rhetoric and lies spread, we must remember the mass protests and marches of 2006 and to a lesser extent 2007, heading into May Day, May 1st 2025. On this day, planning for a 5-day economic sabotage is underway in Chicago and cities across the US, organizing around a mass work stoppage on May 1st, followed by work stoppages from May 2-4, followed by general strike on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, a day in which if middle class gringos want guacamole, tacos and margaritas at local Mexican restaurants, they will be invited to make it themselves in lieu of immigrant workers. That’s right, five days of economic sabotage of the gringo economy of Trump and the entire ruling class, whose riches are created from the subjugation of immigrants while imbuing fear and paranoia via ICE to keep workers from breaking free. Concerted actions are also being planned for “Tax Day” April 15 when many will file extensions so as not to fund ICE and other repressive, Trump spending priorities with their income taxes. As well, many, like Casa DuPage Workers Center, will march in local parades on St. Patrick’s Day to celebrate the famous St. Patrick’s Battalion, a group of Irish soldiers who bravely “jumped ships” to fight on the “Mexican side” in the midst of the racist, neo-colonial invasion of Mexico by the US in 1846, to rob Mexico of what is today known as the “US Southwest.” This fact, the theft of more than half of Mexico by the US in the racist Mexican-American War, called “a dishonorable war” by Mark Twain, is not lost on Mexican workers today. A common sign at the marches and protests, will be, “No one is illegal on stolen land.”
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The movement informing May Day of 2006-2007 fueled by the calls Amnesty for All, No Human Being is Illegal and No To the Raids and Deportations, is coming alive again. Sadly, this movement was derailed and neutralized by the Democratic Party in the form of the Obama presidency, which usurped the movement and gave “jobs” to many of the movement’s organizers, sidelining them into the futile task of Democratic Party politics to this day. Obama with 3 million deportations would of course becoming the hated “Deporter in Chief.” As the 3 million deportations ensued there was largely no movement at all given illusions with the Democrats and the co-opting of the immigrant rights movement into the Party – a perfect scenario for the ruling class! Of course, in the immortal words of historian Howard Zinn, “the Democratic Party, is the graveyard of social movements.”
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Don’t Open the Door • Don’t Talk • Don’t Sign • Ask to Speak with a Lawyer – have largely thwarted ICE in Illinois and other states and must continue to expand along with the marches, protests and rapid response networks. Such grassroots actions have caused a chaos within ICE seeing executive officials being removed, fingers being pointed and complaints of under-funding of “la Migra” as ICE nationally is well under its targets of 1500 detainees a day for immigration raids. Meanwhile rapid response networks along with community “people’s” patrols, grassroots networks of thousands across the country have patrolled immigrant neighborhoods, interrupted raids, followed and harassed ICE and seek to chase ICE out of the barrio. The ruling class, particularly in agriculture, are also being rocked and sabotaged by immigrant workers deserting worksites completely and not returning vis-a-vis rumors of ICE activity in areas such as Wisconsin- Let’s see the bosses get rich without workers!
Such actions must continue as planning for May Day extends across the country. The Democratic Party, incapable of achieving just and comprehensive immigration reform, discredited, humiliated and more widely seen as a shill for US Imperialism than ever, only competent for empowering corporations, fueling genocide in Gaza and organizing wars to extend US Imperialism like in Ukraine abroad, must be left out of planning and from taking the stage. There is a call for respect for undocumented, immigrant workers, who have been essential workers for decades in the US working their asses off for low wages, injuries at work and many having perished disproportionately from COVID. And it is known that respect for rights won in the struggle are what counts. It is the immigrant worker who has made the economy spin in this “Land of Immigrants” and as it becoming increasingly clear in the growing struggle, immigrants can also make the economy fall, through the general strike. For, in the words of the great Zapata, “The Land Belongs to Those who Work It.” This year’s May Day will be the Day of the International Worker.