The People Will Bury the Fascists with Mass Struggle

Pentagon & Capitalist Rulers Allowed the Storming of the Capitol

Mandatory Credit: Photo by William Volcov/Shutterstock (9973296d) Protest against fascism and anti-Semitism on the Upper East Side on Manhattan Island in New York Anti-Semitism and Facism protest, New York, USA – 10 Nov 2018 Three protesters were arrested

The only thing more disgusting than the fascists who stormed the Capitol is the big business media endlessly replaying and publicizing their victory. Corporations and politicians are given airtime to claim their opposition but they have been and still are the main source of funding and support for the fascists. The fascists are celebrating the endless replay of them entering and holding the Capitol for four hours while they paraded around their racists Nazi signs and slogans. This has emboldened them to undertake further actions which they are again openly planning, this time with more focus on the seats of state governments.

Let’s be clear: this was allowed to happen not because a few Capitol police were sympathetic to the fascists (given a choice, the police will always side with the fascists). Evidence shows that the government and the Pentagon, at the highest levels, decided in advance to allow the scene at the Capitol to give the fascists a victory.

This violent assault was planned openly for weeks. They were allowed into D.C. and allowed to go to the Capitol. The Mayor had asked for troops and Trump and others were on the phone with the generals delaying. The Mayor certainly did not delay it. Even when a mere 340 National Guard troops were finally okayed, they stayed away from the Capitol until 5:15 PM.

Whether this was meant to be a dress rehearsal or more, it was not an insurrection with millions rising up for them. But it was certainly a step forward in the building of a fascist movement.

Fascism is not just a bad set of policies, it’s a bludgeon used to rescue capitalist profit.

Fascism is not just a bad policy cured by “good” politicians. It is a way to defend profits at a time when the capitalist system is in crisis. The German Nazi regime was a capitalist government dedicated to preventing workers’ power in the face of a depression. It was used to crush workers’ support of socialism.

In periods of relative stability, politicians take advantage of the low consciousness of workers to promote faith in capitalist democracy. But when deception fails, when they can no longer fool workers into believing that billionaires deserve private islands while millions of children starve, they will resort to open terrorism. This is what the history of fascism teaches us.

Independence from Democratic Party is urgent

It’s important to fight any setback, especially against the fascists. We must defend every right that we’ve won through struggle. The issue is how. We cannot depend on the Democratic party because they ultimately answer to their capitalist backers. They fund liberal and fascist politicians, one more than the other depending on which way the winds blow.

Even Biden admitted that Trump’s white supremacist shock troops were treated with kid gloves while Black Lives Matter protesters were met with brutal repression. But his answer is to call for “equal treatment before the law” as if Nazis and anti-racists were equal. Biden’s plan to “Unite America” is just another way of saying that he can work with the right-wing forces as long as they don’t give Wall Street the jitters.

Mass Mobilizations are more important than ever

The U.S. ‘left’ wasted four years waiting for the Democratic party until the tremendous Black Lives Matter protests broke out over the summer. As Workers Voice pointed out often, this was four years that Trump used to build his fascist movement. Anti-Trumpism was reduced to ridiculing the man himself, ignoring how effective Trump’s ploys were among many backwards workers. We urged mass street mobilizations to oust Trump. Even if he were replaced by Pence, the balance of power in the class struggle would have propelled the movement forward.

There’s no better time to hit the streets than now. Leave the parties of Wall Street and the Pentagon behind. The only force capable of defeating fascism is the collective power of working and oppressed people, united in motion. United, we can never be defeated.

Cameroonian 40 Hunger Strikes against ICE Continue

by A Scribe Called Quess?

Since March 3, some 40 African migrants, most Cameroonian, have been holding hunger strikes in an ICE concentration camp in Pine Prairie, LA. They’re protesting their extended detainment and inhumane treatment by ICE. The migrants paused their hunger strike when ICE agents said they would look into their cases. When this promise turned out to be a lie, the strike resumed. While some agents used deception to manipulate, others were more direct telling the men “for the 18 years I have worked for Department of Homeland Security, I’ve been trained to deport as many of you as possible,” threatening to deport them by October 7.

The migrants qualify for asylum under international law and have been incarcerated far longer than the law is supposed to allow. Still, Oakdale Immigration Court’s racist Judge Scott Laragy recently issued Final Orders of Removal to most of the men, resting his opinion on bogus “credibility” tactics, telling them that even if they appeal, he would still deny them asylum. Laragy has denied more than 85 percent of asylum cases that came before his court between 2014-2019, well above the national average of 63 percent. Since a large number of immigration judges are former ICE attorneys, it’s no wonder they uphold ICE’s mandates that support the ruling class. ICE uses racism to divide and conquer our working-class siblings nationally and internationally.

African migrants are twice as likely to receive deportations as their Latinx counterparts and are charged higher bonds due to their lack of family ties. But that lack of ties is a result of 400 years of racist U.S. foreign policy that barred immigration from Africa since the slave trade and even more so after the Haitian Revolution. This anti-Blackness permeates the practices of capitalist politicians of all races, so much so that the Mexican government is more likely to hand over African migrants to ICE than other immigrants. Meanwhile, African American politicians like Cedric Richmond, head of the Congressional Black Caucus, have failed to take adequate action by denouncing the modern-day slavery in Pine Prairie and demanding the release of all detainees immediately.

On August 14, the New Orleans Workers Group held a militant action in solidarity with the migrants and overwhelmed ICE officials with the power of the people. Only sustained direct action by the people to expose GEO Group, the $2.5 billion private company that runs the Pine Prairie ICE camp, will achieve the ultimate shut down of the camp and liberation of our working-class siblings. To support continued effort, email noworkersgroup@gmail.com and cameroon.american.council@gmail.com . We must fight until victory! Free Them All NOW!

Fight Trumps Fascism by Mass Mobilization; Democratic Party Not the Answer

President-elect Donald J. Trump shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden as he arrives for his inauguration on January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Photo by: Pat Benic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

by Sally Jane Black

“Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners. The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in [Congress].” – V.I. Lenin

In 2014, Ukraine announced it would not exclusively sell its natural gas to NATO countries but would also sell to Russia. For this, the Obama administration backed a coup that put a fascist government in power in the country. Six years later, the Ukrainian military is sporting swastikas, burning trade union offices, and passing anti-Jewish and anti-LGBTQ laws. Joe Biden, as Vice President, backed and celebrated the fascist takeover because the capitalists that funded the Democratic Party asked for it.

As workers face crisis, it is understandable to place hope in those who promise relief. And we organize to demand that relief. It is understandable to look at Trump’s never-ending assault on our lives and cling to any contender. Compared to the fascist, racist, sexual predator Donald Trump, even a racist, sexual predator like Joe Biden may seem to offer a sliver of hope.

We know that Trump is a fascist and dangerous. He has unleashed anti-worker, racist hatred and encouraged police repression. The question is will voting for Biden stop the growth of fascism? The same Biden who supported a coup against the elected Indigenous leader of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who supports Bolivia’s extreme right-wing oligarchy, which is carrying out mass killings, arrests and cuts to social programs amid a pandemic? Can we count on him to restrain these forces at home? Will Biden, former vice president to deporter-in-chief Obama offer relief to the most oppressed among us? Trump is an outgrowth of the years of promoting oil, chemical, and military profiteering by the Democratic Party along with Republicans. Trump is an executive of the capitalist class, not just an insane individual.

To promote the capitalist Democratic party rather than our own independent party is to ignore the policies they have carried out for decades on behalf of the ultra-rich including the slashing of social programs. Massive deadly unjust wars were carried out by “Democrats” along with the growth of racist mass incarceration, privatization of prisons, and the drug wars designed to fill prison profiteers’ pockets with the fruits of enslaved labor.

Must Trump go? Yes! But the tragedy of the last four years has been to put faith in the Democratic Party instead of forcing Trump out with massive street demonstrations. While pouring millions into the Democrat coffers, the unions have failed to mount one major anti-Trump demonstration while he strips workers of all safety and rights.

We defend the right to vote as we fight against attacks on all civil rights, union rights or threats to the environment. But we have seen that the Democrats are not the opposition party to the Republicans. Their role is not to resist fascism, but to maintain exploitation and help quash the mass movement by false promises. Biden has a history of embracing racist, homophobic, sexist, and anti-worker policies, supporting (and even drafting legislation for) everything from segregation to mass incarceration. In the midst of a pandemic, he has denounced universal healthcare, and in his time as vice president, he supported the rise of ICE. His vice presidency set the groundwork for the federal police forces we face today. He is not the answer to fascism; he has shown already that he supports it when it benefits the capitalist class at home and abroad.

Over 40 million people took to the streets to oppose police terror, and the Democrats picked a “top cop” as Biden’s vice president, who incarcerated thousands, put trans people in wrong-gendered prisons and denied them healthcare, and criminalized truancy in California schools. The Democrats serve the rich ruling class, who want to put down the uprisings and force workers to die for profits.

Change comes from the struggle, not from politicians. The uprisings represent change. The Democrats and Republicans represent the status quo (the dictatorship of the capitalists). We should fear four more years of Trump. But we should also fear Biden’s drive to World War III against China which would destroy us all.

Let the power of the people speak, let us vote with our feet and our bodies to force back not only Trump but the capitalist drive to war, destruction of the planet, and impoverishment of the people.

Biden’s role is not to save the people from Trump. It is to save the capitalists from the people’s anger at Trump. Organizing a working-class movement, creating a working-class party, and fighting for working class interests will win us far more, no matter who is in office.