First Published: El Amanecer Rojo, No. 4, August 1973.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The arrest, beating, murder deportation, and the complete disregard of the basic democratic rights of tens of thousands of Latin American citizens in large urban centers that is presently occurring is another obvious example of how the machinery of government is used to serve the ruling class (the bourgeoisie). A brief outline of some of the events that are occurring and the history of deportation cycles will show how the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) acts to maintain a labor force in this country that best suits monopoly capitalist interests.
On Sunday evening, January 7, 1973, three young Mexican national minority workers were killed “when they jumped from cars being stopped at the San Onofre (Cal.) check station and ran into traffic.”[1] On the same evening 428 “illegal aliens” were also taken into custody there. Mass arrests in movie theaters, restaurants, factory gates, and subways is a common occurrence. 200 “suspects” were arrested after Catholic services one Sunday in May. In Los Angeles alone, over 10,000 were arrested during the month of June, and the goal is for over 200,000 before the end of the year. The horrors of how men, women and children are dragged out of busses, from laundramats, shopping centers and taken into custody if they cannot prove that they are American citizens are untold. Children and spouses often come home to find members of the family missing – and it may take weeks before they determine where their loved ones are.
But why does this occur? Because Spanish-speaking people are dangerous in the streets of America? Because the INS has gone berserk? Because these “aliens” are natural enemies of the people of this country? Of course not, on all counts. The only reason is because a tiny minority in this country, the ruling class, needs it that way.
Mexican workers have been killed every week for the last 60 years crossing the border. Beginning in 1915 due to the growing industrial and agricultural business in the United States of North America, large numbers of Mexican workers began to immmigrate to the USNA. The capitalists took advantage of the revolutionary situation in Mexico (i.e. the Mexican Revolution of 1910) with the resultant wage differential (difference in the higher wages paid in the USNA as compared to Mexico) and unemployment. To develop an overabundance of labor to break worker’s strikes, force wages down and force speed-up conditions. The attainment of this large “labor pool” enabled the capitalists to expand their industries as their markets expanded.
World War I resulted in a labor shortage in the USNA. Following the war a period of prosperity ensued. Thus provisions of the then recently enacted immigration laws relating to the head tax, contract labor laws and literacy requirements were waived for Mexican laborers by the Commissioner-General of Immigration.[2]
But this period of prosperity did not last long. The “Great Depression” of the 1930’s as an example of what Marx calls the “periodic crises of capitalism.” Since the USNA unemployment rate was tremendously high during the 1930’s the capitalists had no need for Mexican labor and thus, Mexican laborers were deported by the thousands. The state of the USNA passed the Deportation Act of March 4, 1929 and the May 4, 1929 law to deport these same workers.
World War II brought “prosperity” to the USNA. The Bracero Agreement of 1942 was passed to insure the influx of Mexican laborers into the USNA. After the war, thousands of soldiers returned, so the Mexican laborers were no longer needed by the Capitalists. “Zoot-suit race riots” in Los Angeles were used as an excuse for deporting thousands of Mexicans again.
The period from 1954 until fairly recently is a period in which the capitalists again have needed Mexican “cheap” labor. Armed with the Green Card Agreement, the greedy capitalists could bring Mexican workers to the USNA when needed and send them back when not.
But today the USNA capitalist class is facing another crisis: growing unemployment, overproduction, returning veterans, liberation struggles in the colonies, etc. Thus they are stepping up their fascist attacks on the working class. In 1970, 10,000 people were deported in a single week. This year, “Operation Cleanup” of the INS will deport well over 200,000 workers. But these workers will come only from urban centers because these “aliens” are still needed in rural areas (especially California) to break up agricultural unions and strikes.
Another method which has proved to be an effective device for exploiting the working class is that of establishing USNA capitalist owned factories in Mexico. A 12 mile “free-zone” for USNA capitalist expansion has been established in Mexico along the border (The Border Industry Program). Here the pay is 30 cents an hour. Over 400 factories have been established to date. Thus the USNA capitalists get super profits, alleviate the unemployment crisis somewhat, and use these factories as a threat against the USNA working class as a whole.
And what has been the position of the revisionist lapdogs of the USNA capitalists, the Communist Party of the United States and other groupings? The CPUSA is for the deportation of “illegals”. At a recent comference in Los Angeles the CPUSA came out in support of Cesar Chavez’s pro-deportation line. Chavez (head of the United Farm Workers Union) “has come out with open calls for deportation of ’illegals’ and support for the fascist Dixon Arnett Law, a law in California blaming unemployment on so-called ’illegals’.”[3] The UFWU sees the “green-card problem” as the most important problem hampering the organization of American workers.” (From the testimony of Jerry Cohen, legal counsel of UFW in the 1968 Western Hemisphere Immigration Hearings].
Using this excuse Chavez says that not only are the “green carders” hindering the organization of “American” workers in general, but most particularly, they are hindering the organization of farm workers. This position of the CPUSA is an attempt to divide the working class by blaming one sector of the class (the Mexican national minority workers) for the problems created by capitalism (unemployment, low wages, etc.).
The working class must not be confused by these lackies of USNA imperialism. The border between Mexico and the USNA is man-made and militarily maintained. We need not recognize such fiction. The Southwest was robbed from Mexico over 120 years ago. The border is illegal. The military occupation of this area has resulted in the impoverishment of the majority of its population. Our brothers and sisters live on both sides of this so called border. The USNA state apparatus serves the interests of the ruling class. (If you are interested in a short and clear presentation on how government is used by one class to oppress the others, read The State by V.I. Lenin – 15 cents)
The role of Communists and workers in the USNA is to unite and fight the real enemy of the working class, the USNA imperialists and their running dogs, the CPUSA. We have seen that the bad condition which the Mexican national minority workers in the USNA are a result of the exploitation of Mexico by the USNA imperialists. Therefore, the question of the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat must never be separated from the question of the liberation of the colonies and the neo-colonies. “The victory of the proletariat cannot be a lasting one unless the non-sovereign nations and colonies arc emancipated from the yoke of imperialism.”[4]
OPPOSE ALL LAWS RESTRICTING THE PROLETARIAT!!!
STOP FASCIST ATTACKS ON MEXICAN WORKERS!!!!!!
WORKERS AND OPPRESSED PEOPLES OF THE WORLD UNITE!!!
[1] San Diego Evening Tribune, January 9, 1973
[2] Samora, Julian, Los Mojados: The Wetback Story, Univ. of Notre Dame, Indiana, 1971, p. 38.
[3] “CPUSA’s Line Pro-deportation Laws,” People’s Tribune, Dec.-Jan., 1972-73, Vol. 4, No. 11, p. 15.
[4] “Marxism and the National Colonial Question,” Chapter 5 of Negro National Colonial Question, Communist League, 1972, p. 65.