A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #362 - International - United States: Organizing to Drive Out ICE (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Since early June, demonstrations have erupted in Los Angeles to protest 
mass arrests carried out by the US immigration agency. Faced with the 
government and the military deployed to quell the riots, our American 
comrades from the Black Rose/Rosa Negra organization published a 
statement, which we translate here. They also provide some suggestions 
for fighting state oppression that could be useful to us in France. Last 
weekend in Los Angeles, the provocative ICE raids[1]sparked violent 
protests, as community members mobilized to prevent the kidnapping and 
terror inflicted on their neighbors and loved ones. As the situation in 
Los Angeles appears to be worsening with Trump's mobilization of the 
National Guard and the spread of protests to other cities, our Bay Area 
chapter, working with members in Los Angeles and San Diego, has drafted 
this statement on what the situation currently demands.

White Supremacy at Work
The Trump administration has made the violent defense of white supremacy 
through mass deportations its number one priority. Last Thursday, Los 
Angeles residents stood up and opposed Trump's racist plans by 
mobilizing to block ICE raids. Families, neighbors, and coworkers 
resisted kidnappings in their communities and defied federal agents in 
ICE detention centers, setting a powerful example for all those who want 
to know how to resist the attacks of an increasingly authoritarian regime.

Several protests have erupted following ICE deportations and raids, such 
as this one in Times Square in New York City.
Swinxy/Wikimedia
The fact that California is a blue state (a Democratic state) and Los 
Angeles is a "sanctuary city" has not prevented the Los Angeles Police 
Department and its SWAT units[2]from supporting the raids and 
suppressing dissent. In fact, ICE could not operate in Los Angeles if 
local police and sheriffs were not there to suppress protesters and 
defend ICE property.

Democrats: Silent Accomplices
Today, instead of challenging Trump's military invasion of their city, 
Democratic Party officials are following their usual strategy of lying 
down and playing dead, calling for calm and declaring that their police 
forces can suppress protests without the help of the National Guard. 
Despite their lamentations and feigned protests against ICE's 
activities, local, regional, and national Democratic politicians have 
steadily stepped up efforts to suppress immigration and the widespread 
opposition to deportations. The use of military force is not the result 
of opposition from Democratic Party officials but rather the fact that 
they are paving the way for its proliferation through border repression, 
abusive housing policies, anti-worker laws, and police collaboration 
with the Department of Homeland Security.

Fundamentally, the power of both parties rests on a world of borders 
that sustain the violence of extraditions to indefinite detention and 
torture, the violence of declaring some people worthy of basic 
livelihoods and others not, and the violence of eradicating populations. 
From Los Angeles to Palestine, our fight is against the Empire, its 
agents, and the borders created to maintain its domination.

A world without borders is a world founded on community, solidarity, and 
human flourishing. Achieving such a world would require a social 
revolution that supplants the current power of government and capital. 
In the meantime, we must mobilize the combined strength of social 
movements and mass organizations in this fight. Only the grassroots 
power they wield can put a stop to the deportation machine.

In the short term, our power is most visible when we mobilize en masse 
to confront ICE activities in our communities. While Trump and MAGA 
forces[3]are eager for this confrontation-believing it will demonstrate 
the "chaos and disorder" of Democratic-run cities-the reality is that 
Trump's deportation campaign is extremely unpopular. Seeing the National 
Guard beat and gas people in order to remove the workers and families 
who are the foundation of our cities will likely cause more people, 
rather than fewer, to revolt.
Just as the burning of the Minneapolis 3rd Precinct during the 2020 
uprising generated massive solidarity and support, seeing oppressed 
people effectively defend themselves can generate immense sympathy, far 
more than patiently following the law and playing it safe. We must seize 
this opportunity to escalate and expand the confrontation to other 
cities by protesting outside ICE offices and detention centers and 
preparing neighborhood and workplace organizations capable of responding 
to raids when they occur.

Organizing to Better Counter Them
For those of us already part of organizations like unions, we have more 
power than we realize if we organize ourselves to mount a stronger and 
more coordinated response. For example, unions possess significant 
resources-money, experienced organizers, and people power-that could be 
harnessed to slow and stop the machine that threatens to crush us. If 
you've struggled to push your unions toward more militant action and 
doubt the potential of these structures, the arrest of SEIU California 
President David Huerta may inspire more opportunities for change from 
within than we've seen in decades. Let's not miss this opportunity to 
demand that our unions use our resources to end ICE.

To counter ICE's mass kidnappings of immigrants, our American anarchist 
comrades seek to foster mass unity and self-organization. BRRN
Simple steps can, over time, strengthen our ability to fight ICE and 
other "unprofessional" institutions through our unions, for example:

* Drafting and then organizing the adoption of concrete resolutions with 
our union executive committees;

* Organizing union-sponsored anti-ICE educational events with colleagues 
and union members;

* Printing pamphlets about your rights for your coworkers;

* Preemptively forcing our employers to protect us against ICE through 
petitions and workplace protests;

* Enforcing provisions in your collective agreement to protect you from 
workplace raids;

* Bringing your coworkers to the next off-site protest.

Tenant unions, student organizations, and activist groups can build on 
these same principles and tactics. Organizing grassroots assemblies that 
develop action plans for the defense of the entire community can help 
coordinate these efforts. Now is the time to deepen our understanding of 
how to act collectively and more militarily as groups of neighbors, 
workers, and students.

The Power Is in Our Hands
For the majority of us who are not yet part of any organization, now is 
the time to look for ways to connect with the people around us. We have 
more power in mass movements than in small or isolated ones. We must 
take this power seriously if our goal is not just to fight, but also to win.

We may not be able to erase borders from maps and dismantle the military 
power that enforces them tomorrow, the day after, or the day after, but 
we must strive to make that our goal today.

To defend ourselves against ICE now, we must act; To prevent them from 
entering our neighborhoods and workplaces, we must organize.

This statement was written by the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of 
Black Rose Rosa Negra (BRRN) and endorsed by the Boston and Durham 
chapters. It does not reflect the position of the Federation as a whole.

San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Black Rose/Rosa Negra

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[1]Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. federal immigration agency.

[2]Special Weapons and Tactics, the U.S. police intervention unit.

[3]Make America Great Again, Trump's campaign slogan that has become a 
term for the president's supporters.

[4]Service Employees International Union.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Etats-Unis-S-organiser-pour-chasser-l-ICE
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