On Chinese New Year, Jan. 28, hundreds of protesters organized by the Boston Mayday Committee rallied and marched from Chinatown Gate to Boston Common across from the Massachusetts State House in solidarity with immigrants, including many people from the Chinese and Latinx communities, in response to recent executive orders signed by President Trump.
On Jan. 27, Trump announced that “persecuted Christians” will be given priority over other refugees seeking to enter the United States, but banning nationals from 7 predominately Muslim countries—Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen—from entering the United States for 90 days, stopping the admission of refugees from Syria indefinitely, and stopping entry of all refugees for 120 days.
All of the targeted nations on Trump’s list are nations that are targets of U.S. imperialism. The hypocrisy of Trump’s declaration is that nothing is mentioned of nations, such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Turkey, or Qatar, all nations that actively sponsor ultra right-wing reactionary terrorists reaping destruction across the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Libya.
The march and rally were a call for a united resistance outside of the two party system. Several speakers, many of them immigrants from formerly-colonized nations or currently neo-colonized nations, took the Democratic Party and Republican Party to task as imperialist entities.
Liberation News was able to speak with Sergio Reyes, an activist who was persecuted by the military fascist dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who came to power in Chile in a CIA-backed coup on September 11, 1973. He stated, “All sectors of the population that are under attack need to organize a united people’s front. We need to understand that we are in the middle of a great inter-capitalist confrontation, the globalists represented by the Democratic Party and the protectionists/isolationists, by the Republicans. We cannot fight their war. We need to defend out interests. Also, it is critical to understand that U.S. fascists under Trump have subverted the classic concept of class solidarity, as he has the support of an important sector of the white working class. But, above all we must understand that we are in the presence of fascism. We cannot compare this brand of fascism with the Chilean one, although there are some similarities. This fascism has vast international consequences, with the potential of new capitalist wars. It is therefore extremely dangerous.”
In addition, former Green Party candidate for President, Jill Stein, had this to say about the burgeoning resistance to the Trump agenda, “No, we cannot go back to the Democratic Party. Remember, most people that voted for Trump were actually voting against Hillary Clinton, which means the legacy of the Democratic Party. Both corporate political parties have betrayed people. We need a new politics that’s of, by, and for the people. A politics that is not bought and paid for by predatory banks and fossil fuel giants and war profiteers. We need all of these fights and social movements, but to come together in the political struggle. That struggle has to be led by the immigrants, workers, the parties of resistance, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Green Party, the ISO, and others. We all need to be working together and making sure that these movements don’t get co-opted.”
Refugees, who were on their way to the United States when the order was signed, have been stopped and detained at airports, including many people with U.S. green cards, and students from targeted countries that are enrolled in U.S. universities.
On the night of Jan. 28, tens of thousands of people took mass direct action around that country against Trump’s anti-Muslim ban on refugees and immigrants. In Boston, lawyers worked into the late hours of the night and won a more reaching temporary stay against Trump’s executive order. The masses are showing their strength. Working class power is being demonstrated as taxi drivers in New York City went on strike lending their power to the growing struggle against Trump’s agenda.
On Jan. 25, President Trump announced executive orders aimed at targeting for deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants—many who are U.S. tax payers—ripping apart their families, moving to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities that protect undocumented immigrants, such as Boston, Somerville, Lawrence, Cambridge, and hundreds more sanctuary cities nationwide.
Trump took executive action “mandating the Secretary for Homeland Security to make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens.” Trump also pledged to start the building of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and to deny visas to countries that refuse to take back people the Trump regime and his supporters in Congress want to deport. Moreover, it turns out that Trump has lied about “getting Mexico to pay for the wall” and U.S. taxpayers will foot the bill for its construction.
As the days pass, Donald Trump continues to take actions that affect broad swaths of working people. His reactionary stances and actions to back it up are fueling a rebellious sentiment among the masses. People from all over the political spectrum are taking to the streets to defend oppressed and working people. It is the task of any serious revolutionary to make sharp analyses of the shifting political terrain, to stay in the streets with the people, and to steer the burgeoning resistance toward independent working class politics and away from the political mis-leaders in the Democratic Party.
