Credit: Tokeito
By the League Basic Needs Electoral Committee
Resistance to the outrages of the times we live in cannot succeed without unity. And unity requires a vision of who we are and the beautiful world we have the power to create.
The reality is that the future belongs to us. But in order to see it, we have to look beyond the private property system – an economy controlled by for-profit corporations that deliberately imposes scarcity on the working class majority. The productivity of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in the right hands could create enough abundance to guarantee basic needs for everyone. We could build a just and equitable world, a cooperative society in which our people are fed and housed, where the planet is healthy and where cultural opportunities allow everyone to thrive. This is the real future that awaits us, if only we can forge the unity and political power necessary to defeat the billionaires.
Today, the billionaire class is attempting to impose a fascist dictatorship on the American people. Fascism is A.I. in the wrong hands – capitalist corporations. To protect private profit, fascism uses lies, suppression of dissent and false economic premises. But deception cannot be maintained forever and truth will inevitably surface. The mirage of economic prosperity under fascism will be exposed. The lie that mass deportations will improve lives of native-born workers will be disproven. The “waste, fraud and abuse” that is used to justify budget cuts will turn out to be essential services that people depend on to survive.
TWO VERSIONS OF THE FUTURE
Fascism relies on fear, division, hatred, despair and obedience. The hunting down of immigrants, the wholesale dismantling of DEI, the campaign against LGBTQ+ people, the transfer of funds from health care, education, housing and environment to billionaires – all are designed to convince us that our hopes and dreams are in vain, we deserve to be miserable and resistance is futile. Our mental health is suffering.
But this dystopia will not prevail. We the people have inside us the power to reject the nihilism of the fascist death cult. We repudiate the white supremacist, fascist narrative that working people, especially people of color, are “animals” fit only to be manipulated and exploited. We elevate the sanctity and potential of all human life. We embrace the prospect of abundance made possible by nature and the technological revolution. We see how reorganizing relations of production can make competition between any workers obsolete and unnecessary.
SOLIDARITY
Billionaires and their fascist political agents can only rule the massive American working class through division and brainwashing. An especially critical point of working-class unity is between the mainly Latino migrant workers and the African American workers. Because of the influence and power of white supremacy, both of them are especially under attack. The ruling class very carefully pits them against each other in a competition for jobs, housing, benefits and resources. It has deliberately moved migrants into neighborhoods that were historically African-American.
Lying propaganda paints migrants (primarily those from Latin America) as rapists, murderers, criminals and freeloaders. They say they don’t pay taxes, but then use the IRS forms they file to target them for deportation. They say they are violating the law, but then arrest them when they obey court orders to show up for hearings. Conversely, the ruling class ensures that the first words newly-arrived migrants learn are racial epithets attacking Blacks and Asian Americans.
Workers are resisting these tactics, especially in Chicago. “I visited the building that ICE raided,” said African American rapper Vic Mensa in a Facebook video. “In 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott literally sent these Venezuelans on a bus in the middle of f—ing winter. … Now two years later, the Texas National Guard is in Chicago to ‘capture’ the Venezuelans that they already had, because they sent them here. They are using this as an opportunity to attack Black people and Democratic cities in general. … I see a lot of you m—–f—–s are still drinking the Kool Aid of racial division. ‘Oh, it was just Venezuelan gang members. It’s us versus them.’ Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the Black victims of the Chicago ICE raids.”
In Los Angeles, the Harbor Area Peace Patrol organizes Latino, white and Asian volunteers to monitor the movement of federal vehicles. Gigi, one of the participants, says “ICE is using our port for a cover-up. They come into Terminal Island every morning and take off to go all over L.A. to kidnap people. We don’t work with police for obvious reasons. We document what goes on in marginal communities. At the end of the day, we protect us! Our group has a lot of different kinds of people: young and old, a lot of teachers, parents, some union members, lawyers, two pastors, Berners. We want the kidnapped returned. They are political prisoners who need to be returned to their families, to their lives. If we don’t stop this, it could be like Gaza if no one cares.”
CLASS UNITY
The powerful resistance being mounted to fascism is grounded in this working-class unity. No Kings demonstrations, smaller issue-focused rallies, mass teach-ins and rapid response networks are flourishing. Masked bounty hunters and ICE agents are being challenged at car washes and day-laborer sites. Japanese American groups have spoken out against the use of the Alien Enemies Act, which once targeted them. Union leaders have supported migrants and defended essential government services and free speech for students.
Class unity works. It worked when Black and white abolitionists created the Underground Railroad and made the Fugitive Slave Act unenforceable in the 1850s. Class unity is even more effective today, because now we can picture a society where worker no longer competes against worker. When we eliminate private ownership of the means of creating wealth, we create the opportunity to provide housing, health care, education and planetary well-being for all. Now is the time to make the age-old dream of the beloved community a reality.
Published on November 4, 2025
This article originated in Rally!
P.O. Box 408002 Chicago, IL 60640 rally@lrna.org
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