Leaflet handed out by the IWG at protests against deportations.

The fight against the brutal deportations of ICE, DHS, and the Border Patrol has begun! This assault on migrant workers is finally being contested on the streets of Los Angeles and elsewhere. For our fight to be effective, we need to know who our friends are and what the movement must lead to.

The racist, nativist turn comes now because of the worldwide crisis of profitability and the global march towards imperialist war. The capitalists are trying to prevent class combativity by fragmenting working class unity and terrorizing one segment of our class in the face of worsening working conditions, cuts in wages, and cuts in social spending. All this to allow workers to be marched into war as cannon fodder while enduring misery at home.

Make no mistake! This is not just a “Trump” affair. Truth of the matter is, the Democratic Party is happy about the kidnapping of migrant workers. The Laken Riley Act passed with votes from both sides, and Obama and Biden still hold the record for deportations. The Democrats are indistinguishable from Trump on their equally reactionary border and immigration policies, while Trump's over-the-top brashness helps the Democratic Party launder their image for the Midterm and Presidential elections. For migrant workers, whoever is in charge of the repressive state machinery matters little when they're getting imprisoned or deported. Our anger can't be redirected towards supporting the Democratic Party like it was after George Floyd. The class conscious worker’s fight is against all parties of the ruling class and against all divisions of the working class.

Assaults directed towards migrant workers are assaults against all workers. Workers everywhere must be prepared to defend themselves, their neighbors, and their coworkers against ICE’s raids. From neighborhood action committees and workplace struggles to mass protests, the struggle must be fought by the working class using its immense strength. Without the exploited labor of all workers, migrant and sedentary, the capitalist system would grind to a halt. Struggle in the workplace and in the streets, not at the ballot box! Strike the xenophobic capitalist system where it hurts them the hardest: their profits!

But more than just stopping the system from deporting our class brothers and sisters, we must overthrow it, seizing power for all workers to finally put an end to this nightmare of brutal state repression against the most vulnerable. Our fight is international, and workers, regardless of their status, must fight a principled struggle against the international ruling class, a class that divides and exploits our labor everywhere.

Only in a world in which capitalism has been overthrown will all workers live without the fear of their status condemning them to abuse, sexual harassment, wage theft, discrimination, or deportation. The working class as a whole must struggle together against the ruling class, going on the offense to smash the capitalist state everywhere. This comes with the need to create an international political organization that can provide the entire class a revolutionary direction in our upcoming fight.

The Internationalist Workers’ Group is the US affiliate of the Internationalist Communist Tendency, a revoutionary working-class political organization dedicated to building the future party of the working class & overthrowing capitalism for a world system of workers’ councils.