Once again, Donald Trump has expressed his racist and xenophobic hatred. The order to send thousands of troops from the National Guard to the southern border reinforces Trump’s declared war on Mexican and Central American immigrants. By doing so the U.S. President identifies immigrants as gang members and drug traffickers. He also threatens the working and youth masses inside the United States who are increasingly mobilizing against his government, as demonstrated by striking teachers throughout the country and by the hundreds of thousands of high-school students mobilized in defense of their lives.
In Mexico, we witnessed a show of “national unity” featuring Peña Nieto, most senators, and ALL the presidential candidates, who exchanged mutual praise for their “firm positions” claiming “respect for national sovereignty and Mexicans’ dignity.” It’s nauseating that those who crawl before the imperialist bosses (like Peña Nieto) auction off the oil and wealth of the country, allow the humiliation, criminalization and deportation of our countrymen in the US and plunge our working people into misery, are the same people who come to us declaring “Nothing, nor anyone, is above the dignity of Mexico.”
That is why it is surprising and disappointing to many workers, who have a hope of change with López Obrador, to see that their candidate declares “I support that President Peña Nieto has responded as he did.” Its worse yet to not propose to this grievance anything different from Peña Nieto Trump’s aggressions and threats must be confronted with the unity of workers and the people on both sides of the border using concrete measures, not through “unity” with the exploiters lackeys of the Empire on this side of the border, nor making chorus to his false speeches.
On the other side of the border, there are more than walls and troops. And it is not enough to respond to Trump’s threats by demonstrating “from our side peacefully and in white clothes” along the border as López Obrador is proposing.[1] On both sides, there are exploited and oppressed, among them 35 million Latinos and 40 million blacks within the U.S., also suffering racism and Trump’s atrocities, who would come to a call to join in a fraternal embrace of international struggle.
Some urgent, concrete measures to force Trump to stop the militarization of the border, the construction of the wall and to stop the ICE raids and deportations are:
- Suspend the payment of fraudulent foreign debt to US capitalists– who steal almost half of the GDP.
- Immediate end to NAFTA, which has been destroying Mexico for 24 years.
- Immediate end of the Plan Mexico or Merida initiative that led to the arming of the Mexican states and drug cartels and the disappearance and murder of thousands of social justice class. fighters.
- Freeze bank accounts and seize the multimillion-dollar profits and capital transfers of US corporations.
- Suspend all auctions of oil areas and cancel those acquired by US corporations.
- Confiscate all US maquiladoras in the Mexican territory, and not create (as proposed by AMLO) a Special Economic Zone, where transnationals will expand the super-exploitation of the Mexican and Central American labor force.
- Abolish the police and military persecution of our brothers in Mexican territory, migrant workers and -Central American refugees. Mexico must not be a regional cop under the command of the United States!
On both sides of the border there is a sharp political crisis of the establishment political parties of the corporations (Democrats, Republicans, PRI and PAN) and also there is an increase of rank and file mobilizations. Only with a clear internationalist perspective, calling both U.S. and Mexican workers to action we can have a real struggle in unity and solidarity. That can only be achieved by calling on the trade union centers and organizations of both countries to strengthen their solidarity ties and coordinate to fight capitalists and their governments in both countries.
Workers Socialist Current, CST, México,
Corriente Obrera, USA
Workers’ Voice/ La Voz de los Trabajadores, USA
México 07/04/2018
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Notes:
[1] http://www.oronoticias.com.mx/mensaje-pena-contra-trump-une-a-los-candidatos-presidenciales/
