Tribuno del Pueblo Statement on the Texas killings and the Mississippi raids
PHOTO: TED QUANT
The militarization of the border, the recent Mississippi ICE raids, the shootings at a Wal Mart in El Paso, shootings in the streets of Dayton, Ohio, the shooting at the Gilroy, California Garlic Festival, the continuous attacks on women’s reproductive, and the Muslim population – all these attacks highlight the moment we are living in the United States of America. Racial division is on the rise. Our communities live in fear, confused and in grief. We find ourselves at a crossroad asking ourselves: What can we do to end this madness? What will it take to pass the desperately needed reforms, like gun control, immigration reform, the right to a living wage?
We are living in a swarm of lies and misinformation, such as labeling all Mexicans “rapists and murderers.” The corporate class in the United States aggressively uses racial division as part of their propaganda, to take control of the country, using TV, social media, newspapers, and elected officials to poison people’s minds to keep the working class of the United States divided and imprisoned by fear.
Examples include: the campaign against the poor, targeting people on welfare; the ongoing anti-immigrant / anti-Mexican campaigns, putting children in cages, the Mississippi raids, de-humanizing migrants seeking refuge; the misogynist campaign with 12 states passing laws against women’s rights. The capitalist-class has set the narrative in such a way as for the working-class to hate each other. Author Nelson Peery said, “the capitalist class would rather have a “race war” than a “class war” in the United States.
Now, should we blame the poor, the immigrants or the Mexicans for everything wrong happening in the country and the economy? Or should we ask ourselves, who is responsible for poverty wages, the high cost of living, unaffordable health insurance and prescription drugs, and exorbitant college education costs?
Trump’s rhetoric of bigotry and violence provides perfect cover for the capitalist / corporate class to confuse the working class. It promotes fear and insecurity. As a result, guns and assault weapons flood our streets, leading to 30,000 killings each year in the United States. And yet, they refuse to stand up to the National Rifle Association (NRA).
America, what is happening to us? Are we going to let the capitalist-class come between us and the future we deserve?
While we struggle to get the basic necessities of life, along with our fellow Mexicans and immigrants, the capitalist class in the United States gets richer. Mexicans, whites, blacks, Asians, workers, students, teachers, immigrants, women, men, elderly and children – we are all the working class of the United States and we are not each other’s enemy. The enemy is the capitalist class, represented by Trump and the 1 percent.
We cannot let the raids, the shootings, or the attacks against women pit us against each other. Let’s fight for the United States we want. The capitalist class is using Trump and his cronies against us. They will continue to pit worker against worker, black against white, Mexicans against white Americans, and old against young. It is all part of their strategy and they won’t stop. Don’t let Trump and his capitalists fool you!
The campaign of fear provides cover for the corporate class, so long as the working class falls into the trap of fear and lies. The working class will continue to fight each other and blame each other. Meanwhile, Trump and the 1 percent will live peacefully in their $12 million mansions.
Let’s not let our people who died in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton perish in vain. Don’t let the pain and suffering of the arrested in the Mississippi raids be in vain. Don’t let the attack on women’s rights go unanswered. Countrymen and women, this is the moment. The working class must organize politically. Fight like hell against the ideology of hate and fear. We are already seeing this unity happen with communities reaching out to help children separated from their families in Mississippi. We are seeing young Jews whose relatives survived the Holocaust block detention centers, shouting “Never again!”
Our country has crossed a point of no return. It is either worsening division, fascist repression and killings or we unite based on what we have in common: our basic humanity and needs as human beings.
Not one more killing!
Not one more person arrested in raids!
Not one more anti-women state law!
We can make it happen!
Don’t let the 1 percent dictate our future.
Let’s build together the kind of life you want for yourselves and all your children’s future.
Let’s keep the belief in basic decency and humanity alive.
From the editors of the Tribuno del Pueblo
