May Day Marchers Blast Anti-Immigrant Detention Center

DILLEY, Texas — Over 500 anti-racists from all backgrounds, including PL’ers, marched to protest the horrendous conditions at the South Texas Family Residential Center here which houses immigrant women and children fleeing the dangerous conditions of drug-related violence brought to Central America by U.S. imperialism. The government ruling Honduras in collaboration with wealthy landowners has been cracking down on small farmers, murdering and disappearing those struggling for land rights.
Miguel Facussé, a biofuel boss and cocaine importer known by the U.S. State Department, works closely with the Honduran police and military which receive generous funding from U.S. bosses under the pretext of the “war on drugs.”
Racist Attack on Women and Youth
Most of these immigrants are women workers and youth. Roughly one million migrants have come from Honduras, one of the most dangerous places in the world outside active war zones. While they flee the sexist and racist terror of their home country, more sexism and racism awaits them here. Many stay in the facility only to be deported back to their deaths. The racist detention center is the largest in Texas and can hold up to 2,400 detainees. It is run by the profiteering Corrections Corporation of America, a private company.
We had planned to go to Dilley on May Day to bring our message of communism, anti-racism, class struggle and revolution to the other organizations that had planned the march. While there, we passed out flyers calling for communism to nearly everyone at the march and to those watching, and distributed 50 CHALLENGES. We explained that capitalist-created borders are the problem because they only serve the bosses’ need to exploit workers and keep us ideologically divided.
The protesters were mostly positive in their response. People were curious to find communist literature in a town with a racist detention center.
During the march our contingent was the most vocal. We led militant chants while flying our banner. We had passed by a prison built right next to the detention center. Pointing to both buildings we chanted, “Show us what fascism looks like, this is what fascism looks like!” Many people were on board with our chants. A whole group chanted with us, changing “Si Se Puede” (Yes we can!) and other meaningless lines. We shouted, “Las luchas obreras no tienen fronteras!” (“Workers have no borders!”) We kept the energy high the whole distance.
After the march, we returned to where we met our friends and presented a skit about racist police terror, how it affects the working class, and why we should fight back against all forms of racism. The skit portrayed police murders as efforts by the bosses’ state to keep us in fear in order to divide and weaken us. It also explained that inter-imperialist rivalries compel the bosses to intensify murders by racist cops and mass deportations domestically to discipline the working class into submission.
Near the end some comrades gave emotional testimonials about why they joined the Party, describing the horrors of capitalism in a very personal manner which moved our friends. The skit provoked many conversations about smashing capitalism. In closing we sang Bella Ciao and The Internationale.
This May Day was the most productive in a while. By reaching out to people in other cities as well as our own, we strengthened our forces and helped spread the message of multi-racial unity among the working class. By changing a dull and fruitless march to the tune of anti-racism and pro-communism we promoted a solution to capitalism’s woes. Having an overwhelmingly positive response to the presentation at our May Day celebration from our friends and an effective march has inspired us for the year ahead. From now until the next May Day we plan to work even harder in the fight for multi-racial unity, anti-racism, anti-sexism and communism.