For Class-Struggle Defense!

https://iclfi.org/pubs/wvtv/2026-defense

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It’s really great to see all these groups here and I think it’s going to be really important to keep the momentum going.

So this rally is taking place in the lead up to the elections and all signs point towards Trump taking a real hit in the midterms. Now this might be bad news for him, right? But let me tell you, it won’t be any good for the rest of us. More Democrats in office won’t strengthen opposition to Trump. It would only make him more volatile, and unhinged, and desperate to crush his opponents, both perceived and real.

And that includes, above all, the far left and anti-ICE activists, like the Prairieland Defendants or the Minnesota 15, or the Spokane 3, who stood in the way of his stormtroopers.

Labor Must Fight Repression
and Defend Immigrants to Defend Itself

At all times it is necessary for the left to close up our ranks and to defend those targeted by state repression. It’s even more necessary now because the threat is so great. Every left group should be championing the cause to free the Prairieland Defendants and to stop the persecution of the Minnesota 15.

Right now, we must rally to strengthen our defensive networks at the very time when we will need it the most. Beating back Trump reaction in all its forms is a vital task.

One of the main fronts is the defense of immigrants. Ever since Trump took the White House, it’s been painfully evident that the working class has not been mobilized in this fight as a collective force. Yet, this is essential to beating back ICE.

It is through the mobilization of workers, who have its hands on the wheels of industries on transportation and services, and can disrupt business as usual that will be able to force back the hands of the ruling class. Minneapolis showed this potential and was the moment we got closest to that possibility where you had hundreds of thousands who took to the streets.

Fight the Labor Misleaders!

Workers were outraged, but the union leaders took the anger of the population and held it back, refusing to mobilize the unions as a collective force and instead linked the protests to the Democratic Party. And rather than waging a political fight against this treachery of the union misleaders, much of the left cheered them on and made excuses for them.

The consequences of this became evident over the course of this summer. And the Democrats pulled back entirely from protests and protests became smaller and ICE attacks and detentions went to record highs.

Now I hate to be a downer, but we have some lessons to absorb here. Minneapolis showed we need a class-struggle strategy that will fuse the defense of the working class and the unions with the defense of immigrants and a fight to stop ICE.

But to get this done means frontally challenging the leadership of the unions who subordinate the working class struggle to the capitalist rulers and their politicians. You see efforts to set the working class into struggle will fall flat if it is just based on moral appeals or done in alliance with liberal Democratic Party forces that are taking the hammers to workers and black people and brown people.

Democrats Won’t Save Us

So for example, this rally is taking place here in New York City where you have Zionist Zohran the darling of the DSA, and a so-called “socialist” mayor who is a hitman for the billionaires and ever since.

Ever since stepping in office, he has been pushing the privatization and demolition of public housing at the expense of black and brown and working-class residents. He has been openly standing with Zionist forces at the expense of Palestinian liberation. He hailed police commissioner Tisch for the NYPD’s reign of terror right after they provided security for ICE to kidnap Oscar Belgal with a bullet still lodged in his neck and then went on to arrest the protesters outside that hospital.

Mamdani has given the blessing for Eric Duprey’s killer to get out of jail after we got him convicted. He gave the killer of Win Rozario a paid holiday and just this week he arrested New York Alliance activists for defending Eudes Pierre who was brutally killed by the cops and then just allowed a retired cop to go free after killing Irvine, a New York City ConEd worker. Enough!

We cannot trust these politicians to protect us. Zoran and AOC can say “abolish ICE” all they want. The truth is that these are just words on paper for them to rope you in behind the Democratic Party Machine and, at the end of the day, they bat on the same side, the same team as Trump and want to save U.S. imperialism from decline not us.

Now the more the left can establish links to the working class, the more it can defend itself against Trump reaction and repression, but we can’t do this on the basis of liberalism or through pandering to the right wing who come up with all kinds of conspiracy theories to divide the working class and direct attention from the fact that the main enemy of the working class is this racist white ruling class who would rather see us divided into little pieces to prevent us from organizing a solid fight back against all their attacks.

For an Anti-Imperialist United Front!

And we must not forget, we must stand up for our brothers and sisters across the globe too where U.S. imperialism is wrecking havoc. Whether that is defense of Iran or defense of Cuba to stop the counter revolution or defense of victims of state repression from Xolani Khoza, an the EFF member facing terrorism charges in South Africa or French youth and other activists who were just brutally terrorized for fighting back against austerity and a bleak future.

The best thing we can do here is organize an anti-imperialist struggle against the biggest terrorists on this planet the real terrorists: U.S. imperialism. Our strategy is to build workers power we have to take the steps necessary now to build labor, black and brown power to stand a chance against what’s coming down.

The crucial need for events just like this is a good start for what will likely be an unfortunate necessity. We must continue to build solidarity, non-sectarian, united-front actions against state repression and oppression. This is an organizing event too. So let’s all talk after while we’re all here together about what’s needed next. What are the next steps?

With that:

• Drop the charges against the Minnesota 15!
• Free the Prairieland Defendants and all political prisoners!