May Day, International Workers’ Day, is a time to sum up our struggle for a new world. In this issue of the Tribuno del Pueblo, we focus on the immigration question and its importance to achieving working-class unity.
Aquí estamos y no nos vamos y si nos deportan nos regresamos (“We are here, and we’re not leaving, and if they deport us, we’ll come right back”) has become the rallying cry of a people who have had enough. Passing the anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner Bill (H.R.4437) in the House of Representatives in 2005 was the match that sparked a national movement for civil and human rights. Composed of undocumented immigrants, legal residents, and U.S.-born alike, it burst on the scene on May Day 2006.
As the editorial above makes clear, both U.S.-born and immigrants in the United States are part of one working class. If the capitalists have torn down borders for trade, then also workers need to do away with the borders that divide us. “We belong to no one country. We all have the same needs.”
Our cover and centerfold are dedicated to our migrant sisters and brothers from Central and South America and the Caribbean. Irineo Mujica’s photos capture better than words the cruelty, violence, and desperation these migrants encounter on their journey nor th.
“Why do they migrate?” many ask. We answer the question to arm readers so they can explain it to the people around them. Of course, it’s NAFTA and CAFTA, the trade agreements that opened Mexico and Central America to U.S. capital, undermining traditional agriculture and beginning the “Great Migration.”
We also bring you the voices of grass-root leaders fighting for the path to citizenship: Coordinadora 13, gathering the voices and letters of the children of the undocumented, they demand an immediate moratorium on deportations and maximum inclusion in legalization.
Monami Maulik, from DRUM, an organization of South Asian and Muslim immigrants in New York, tells us that, “Legalization, but not as a trade-off for the deportation of half our families… or the blood of more of our brothers and sisters at the border.”
One way or another, every article demonstrates the need for working- class unity. Citizenship for all undocumented workers is the next step to achieve that.
