MARYLAND, August 27— “La Lucha Obrera no Tiene Frontera” and “Racism Means We Have to Fight Back” rang out in Hyattsville, Maryland to protest raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Workers demanded solidarity with immigrants and formerly incarcerated persons in this sanctuary city.
   This rally was called at a forum on immigration the previous week where Progressive Labor Party and friends joined to plan a response against the rising deportations. Participants concluded that capitalism creates borders to divide and scare workers, when in fact no worker should be considered “illegal,” and no barriers to movement should exist since the working class is global by definition. Communists insist on smashing all borders, a goal that can only be achieved by waging a worldwide working-class revolution.
Workers embrace red ideas
We distributed over 200 flyers at the rally, with contact information for building a rapid response network to ICE raids in Hyattsville. Workers in the neighborhood received 40 copies of CHALLENGE newspaper; seven signed up for further contact.
Two workers related their struggles with ICE, and we pledged our solidarity with them. Two local residents spontaneously brought us Gatorade and snacks as a token of solidarity and appreciation for this antiracist demonstration. This shows that the working class is looking for leadership and fightback. It is up to communists to give that leadership.
ICE + PD: state terrorists collaborate
The protest was organized following a petition campaign in which PLP participated to demand an end to local police collaboration with ICE. CASA, an immigrant rights organization, documented nine instances over the preceding months in which local police called in ICE, despite assurances that they would not do so.
When the Assistant Chief of Police Hector Velez was confronted with the irrefutable facts, he denied them as impossible because such actions would have violated police policy. This shows how the bosses’ laws are abided to the extent that it serves them.
The police chief himself was forced to admit to one case, but claimed that the cop was acting in good faith; the cop was “confused” over the difference between a civil and a criminal ICE warrant. Such hypocrisy is standard police operating procedure! Meanwhile, it is too late for the people deported as a result of this cop’s “confusion.” The police here exposed themselves as the ruling-class agents that they are. They serve and protect the rulers—their banks, property, and interests.
Reform is about bosses’ infighting
The petition drive was highlighted by the vocal presence of petitioners at several political events, which ultimately forced the County Executive Angela Alsobrooks to issue an official statement confirming that the police were not to cooperate with ICE for noncriminal deportations. She further announced that the General Orders of the police department would be changed to include an explicit statement to that effect, and that the policy would be presented at roll call in all police districts.
The liberal politicians would like to play themselves as the good guys. This defiance to ICE is not about protecting working-class lives; it’s about their own infighting. While Trump’s deportation sweeps represent the isolationist America-first faction of the U.S. ruling class, the Democratic-led politicians and government represent the dominant finance imperialist wing of the U.S. ruling class. This main wing is spearheaded by the Rockefellers, JP Morgan, and ExxonMobil. While the main wing needs immigration and a multiracial army for world war, the subordinate wing’s interests are primarily national. These domestically oriented capitalists, spearheaded by the Koch and Mercer families, are contesting the main wing’s control. They have forged an opportunistic alliance with the unpredictable U.S. President Donald Trump and his white supremacist base. They are out to try to tear down the post-World War II liberal world order and multinational institutions like NATO. His domestic and foreign policy directives are tailored to benefit his wealthy, self-interested benefactors more than the long-term strategic interests of global U.S. imperialism.
Given that context, county executive Alsobrooks’s decision is part of a broader effort of the liberal rulers trying to inject their ideology into top-down reform movements.
This modest reform will not reverse the anti-immigrant attacks of U.S. capitalists on our brothers and sisters from around the world. The vicious ICE raids against this month’s Mississippi poultry workers alone demonstrate their determination to terrorize our class. In Maryland, we must maintain momentum in building a rapid response team to oppose ICE on the streets and in the courthouse, demand jobs for returning residents, and continue to work with our friends to support new immigrants arriving in the city and county.
These class struggles will serve as a training ground for a mass communist revolution that obliterates the bosses and their borders and unifies our class on a global scale.