On June 30, in over 100 degree heat, our communities united in a massive demonstration against the unjust policies of the Trump administration. Specifically, we marched against the construction of concentration camps for immigrant families, the separation of children from their families and the murderous behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrols.
The demonstration was organized by a coalition of local working class organizations including the Congress of Day Laborers, Stand with Dignity, the Workers Center for Racial Justice and the New Orleans Peoples Assembly. Despite the extreme heat, over 3,000 people from New Orleans and the surrounding area rallied and marched behind this radical working class leadership.
This demonstration coincided with other massive marches in all major cities across the country against Trump’s inhumane attacks on immigrant and refugee communities. But unlike most of the other demonstrations, ours in New Orleans was not lead by any Democratic Party forces. There were no empty promises of reform or misguided calls to vote away our oppression. There were no two-faced politicians trying to put out the flame of the people’s rage.
Instead, the speakers at our demonstration were black and latinx workers and activists– day laborers, students, hospitality workers and those directly targeted by ICE. We in New Orleans recognize and made clear that ICE will be abolished and change will come only from the united and organized strength of revolutionary working class communities. Until then we workers must unite in solidarity to defend latinx families from Trump and his racist minions in ICE.