Protesters Fighting ICE in Los Angeles
Courage in the Streets
Unity in Our Hearts
From the Editors of Rally-Agrupémonos
Voice of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America
The brave protesters fighting ICE in Los Angeles and around the country deserve our praise. These courageous Americans are showing us what real “patriotism” looks like standing up to defend our neighbors and communities when ICE raids tear families apart and military forces are deployed against the people. That is one crucial part of uniting working class people in the United States.
The other part is seeing that this brutal attack is really not a separate fight from all the other struggles we face. Along with sending cops and marines to control the streets, elites are also moving to control our minds. They want people to only fight for “their group,” whether that means immigrants, or just people of color, or only so-called white people. But as we stand up to ICE, we won’t forget about the low-income elders who eat dog food because they can’t afford groceries. Or homeless people who are swept from their tent communities with nowhere else to go.
California governor Gavin Newsom is suing President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for illegally taking over the state’s National Guard. But Newsom also is proposing cutting health care for undocumented immigrants and sweeps of homeless camps – just like Trump. Top Democratic and Republican leaders both put private property and profit before people’s needs and they work to keep the movement in defense of immigrants apart from the struggles of the rest of our class. Both parties constantly send their police to control us.
Trump is just launching the new level of repression first. Former defense secretary Mark Esper revealed on National Public Radio that Trump during his first presidency wanted the military to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters and that the president asked: “Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?”
Our Power is in Our Unity
The ICE raids in Los Angeles right before his June 14 military parade and 79th birthday celebration are steps toward preparing a fascist force that will eventually be turned against all of us. Today it is turned against immigrants seeking work and protesters against ICE raids. Tomorrow it will be others who demand their basic needs.
The Los Angeles resistance against ICE proves that people are waking up to the fascist danger. So do the No Kings Day protests planned for June 14. As the Program of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America points out: “Workers being displaced by the market are becoming a revolutionary class, because we have no stake in the system and cannot survive without confronting it.”
Our diversity is our strength. Our unity is our weapon. When we stand together – immigrants and citizens, Black and white, young and old – we become unstoppable. The future belongs to us, not them.
