People's Power Stops Bus Raids
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Solidaridad indígena ¿Qué tipo de cierra ferrocarril 12 socialismo? 12 Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unite! workers.org Vol. 62, No. 9 Feb. 27, 2020 $1 No ICE on Greyhound People’s power stops bus raids Statement from FIRE (Fight for without permission from Greyhound. Im/migrants and Refugees Everywhere) Greyhound's reversal, which comes one week after a leaked Border Patrol FIRE (Fight for Im/migrants and memo admitted the searches require Refugees Everywhere) is a multinational, Greyhound's approval, is a significant multigenerational and multigender orga- victory for the migrant rights movement. nization born from one of the most press- Buses are often the only means of inter- ing political challenges of our time: the city transit available to undocumented war against migrants. Based in the United migrants, due to the greater costs and States, this group seeks to bring together more stringent ID requirements of all sectors of society to concentrate our train and airplane travel. But we cannot energies on abolishing Immigration and become complacent: It remains to be Customs Enforcement, immediately put- seen if Greyhound will in fact carry out ting an end to all deportations and closing this new policy, and we can expect ICE/ all migrant detention centers. Border Patrol to attempt to continue the searches over Greyhound's objection. Friday evening, Feb. 21, Greyhound Without ongoing public scrutiny, Lines announced it would no longer Greyhound may allow the searches to con- Protesters marched through NYC's Port Authority Bus Terminal in WW PHOTO: BRENDA RYAN allow Border Patrol agents to carry tinue while publicly claiming to oppose a militant campaign against Greyhound, Oct. 25, 2019. out warrantless searches on its buses. them. For this reason a demonstration Border Patrol routinely searches inter- against the searches scheduled for Sunday, potential legal action by the Washington This is a crucial lesson to draw from the city buses, demanding to see ID and seek- Feb. 23, at the Port Authority Bus Station state attorney general. While important, campaign: Working and oppressed peo- ing to detain and deport undocumented in New York City proceeded as planned, these forces are only part of the story. ple have the power to win their demands migrants. Previously, Greyhound had even after Greyhound had announced it Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1700, through mass struggle and people's power. stood by, allowing this campaign of racist would no longer allow the searches. which represents Greyhound drivers, When we organize, educate and mobilize terror and falsely claiming it had no right How was this victory achieved? mechanics and other workers came out we are not struggling in vain— we can win. to refuse Border Patrol access to its buses. Mainstream media accounts highlight against Border Patrol searches in 2018. So let's not stop with Greyhound, but In fact, Border Patrol agents have no right pressure from the American Civil Liberties Mass demonstrations at bus stations push forward. The war against migrants to conduct a warrantless search of a bus Union, a lawsuit filed in California and around the country, organized by FIRE and continues to intensify. We must organize many other organizations, have educated for May Day 2020 and beyond to close the passengers on their rights and showed detention (concentration) camps, stop all that migrants and their supporters have deportations, abolish ICE and reunite all Trump war on migrants the strength to shut down Greyhound if children who have been stolen from their they choose. And finally, passengers across families. the country have fought back against the We must organize to open the border, hits sanctuary cities searches, successfully demanding Border win permanent residency for all migrants Patrol get off the bus. They have informed and refugees, and defeat the violent pol- By Teresa Gutierrez bully everyone in opposition to him, is their fellow passengers that they are not icies of U.S. imperialism that cause escalating his fight against local govern- required to show ID to Border Patrol, migration crises around the world. The No matter what else is happening, the ments, many of them led by Democratic which has no right to be there. Viral vid- campaign against Border Patrol searches Trump administration is not relinquish- Party officials, who have refused to allow eos of these encounters have raised pub- on Greyhound buses is a small step in a ing its war on migrants. their police or city agents to work with lic consciousness, educating working and much larger struggle, but it shows that Savoring his victory over an impeach- Immigration and Customs Enforcement. oppressed people about their power to victory is possible, if we are willing to ment that failed to oust him from office, The “specially trained” officers will fight back against racist terror. organize and fight for it. ☐ the 45th president is set to deploy an elite be sent to Chicago, New York, Newark, squad of Customs and Border Protection Atlanta, San Francisco, Los Angeles, agents in major cities throughout the Boston, New Orleans, Houston and country. The decision to deploy the Detroit beginning this month and through Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) is May. Their deployment, however, could Black History Month 3, 6-8 another sign that Trump is actually at war be extended. with migrants. These cities have huge numbers of peo- Prisoner’s hunger strike On Feb. 14 (Happy Valentine’s Day, ple of color. ICE agents, who act exactly like migrants), the New York Times reported SWAT teams, are a threat to all of them. Capitalism & Black labor that the Trump administration’s announce- A case in point is the shooting of a ment of this deployment is “part of a super- young man, Erick Diaz Cruz, in the face in Eric Garner and Palestine charged arrest operation” that will target Brooklyn, N.Y. On Feb. 7, ICE agents broke sanctuary cities in particular. into Cruz's mother's home to arrest Gasper #NotAgainSU Trump, salivating to frighten and Avendano-Hernández, who they thought Continued on page 4 Subscribe to Workers World Supreme Court vs. abortion rights 4 ☐ 4 weeks trial FREE ☐ 1 year subscription $36 ☐ Sign me up for the WWP Supporter Program: workers.org/donate Sanders and road to socialism 5 Name _______________________________________________________________ Editorial Email _______________________________ Phone _________________________ 10 Street _______________________________________________________________ Coronavirus in perspective City / State / Zip _______________________________________________________ Workers World Weekly Newspaper workers.org 147 W. 24th St., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10011 212.627.2994 Venezuela 8 Gaza 9 Korea 10 Page 2 Feb. 27, 2020 workers.org Real U.S. military budget exceeds $1 trillion By Manlio Dinucci to counter Chinese propaganda and disinformation.” this week In the context of “growing strategic competition,” the Published Feb. 18 in Il Manifesto in Dinucci’s “Art of War” U.S. government states: “The Budget prioritizes funding column, which examines Trump’s proposed military bud- for programs that would deliver warfighting advantages get. Translation by John Catalinotto. against China and Russia” and all other adversaries. To ◆ In the U.S. this end, President Trump announced that “to ensure ICE & Greyhound: People’s power stops bus raids ..1 The “Budget for the Future of America,” which the U.S. internal security and promote U.S. interests abroad, my government submitted, shows what the Trump adminis- Budget provides $740.5 billion for National Defense,” Trump war on migrants hits sanctuary cities .......1 tration’s priorities are in the federal budget for fiscal year while it provides only $94.5 billion for the Department of Anatomy of a hunger strike — Part 3 .............3 2021 (which begins Oct. 1). Health and Human Services. Legal abortion: Struggle heads to Supreme Court ...4 The military budget includes $69 billion for overseas war First of all, it reduces social spending. For example, it A revolutionary view of the Sanders campaign ..... 5 cuts the required budget for the Department of Health and operations, more than $19 billion for 10 warships, $15 bil- Human Services by 10 percent. Meanwhile, health author- lion for 115 F-35 fighters and other aircraft, and $11 billion The anti-war presidential candidate ..............5 ities themselves report that influenza alone has caused to strengthen land armaments. The Pentagon’s science and Capitalism and Black labor today ................6 about 10,000 deaths in the U.S. from October to February, technology programs require $14 billion for the develop- Malcolm X ¡Presente! ..........................7 ment of hypersonic and direct energy weapons, space sys- out of a population of 330 million. Students occupy, strike against white supremacy ...8 This news is kept quiet by the big media, which instead tems and 5G networks. are raising a global alarm over the 1,770 deaths due to the These are just a few items on a long shopping list (with Portland: New anti-war, anti-sanctions coalition ...9 coronavirus in China, a country with 1.4 billion inhabi- public money), which includes all the most advanced Bay area unions say: 'End U.S.-imposed sanctions'. 10 tants. One must suspect the real purpose behind the weapons systems, with colossal profits for Lockheed Antiwar conference builds unity, plans next steps.. 11 relentless media campaign, which sows terror on every- Martin and other weapons industries. thing Chinese. To justify the U.S. budget, its framers insist In addition to the Pentagon budget, a number of military ◆ Around the world expenditures are entered in the budgets of other depart- that the U.S. “faces challenges from resurgent rival nation Real U.S. military budget exceeds $1 trillion .......2 states, including Russia and China.” [For all quotes about ments. In fiscal year 2021, the Department of Energy will the budget, see tinyurl.com/qnfcuu6/.] receive $27 billion to maintain and modernize the nuclear Eric Garner to Palestine: A common struggle ......7 They charge China with “waging cyber-enabled eco- arsenal.