NEW YORK CITY—We can’t permit any racist actions! This thought was on my mind today, the day the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light for openly racist President Donald Trump’s fascist executive order to go into effect. The Supreme Court allowed the ban which prohibits persons from six mostly Arab, Muslim countries from entering the U.S., an attempt by the US government to further divide the working class along racial and nationalistic lines.
Some members of the Progressive Labor Party joined an emergency protest called by the NY Immigration Coalition. The protest began in Union Square as about 600 people chanted, “No Ban, No Wall” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” Several representatives of the Democratic Party spoke at the protest. These politicians put on a mask of being anti-racist while in reality, their political agenda differs only slightly from the Republicans who hold power in Congress, and support racist and sexist policies that serve the capitalist bosses.
After the speeches, we began the march to the headquarters of the union 32BJ where there was an immigration forum. As we marched we chanted in English and Spanish. I was in the front with my organization. At the union local, we encountered four racists in front of the police who held up signs saying “Syrians out.”
None of the “leaders” of the march said anything to confront the racists. As a communist in PLP, full of anger, I held my anti-racist sign in the faces of these KKK types and began to chant loudly. All the protesters joined in with loud chants until the police moved the fascist provocateurs to the opposite sidewalk. The anti-racist marchers applauded, gave thumbs up and fists in the air. It was very moving for me to be able to show on a small scale how a communist member of PLP can give leadership. I remembered a saying I learned in my youth, “Where a communist is born, difficulties die.”
This is what we communists must keep in mind as we prepare for the day that we are a Party of masses around the world ready to launch revolution for the seizure of workers’ power and the building of a communist society. Meanwhile these small actions show the difference between the message of communists, and reformists, who allow racists to spout their hateful rhetoric under the excuse of “Free Speech.”
At the end of the protest someone handed me a megaphone and I continued to chant energetically, joined by the other demonstrators until we entered the union hall for the forum. We must not be silent in the face of racist attacks on workers, nor be deceived by liberal misleaders who attack the working class at every opportunity, we must continue to fight for communism!